For this week’s Sapphic Book Bingo category, read a sapphic book that mentions the main character having their period.
Especially in romance novels, menstruation is hardly ever mentioned. No one ever seems to have their period or PMS, so this is definitely a true Book Unicorn category.
15 recommended sapphic books in which the main character has their period
Here are my book recommendations for the “period” category:
Paper Love by Jae
Susanne Wolff isn’t thrilled when her mother sends her all the way across the country to Freiburg to save her uncle’s stationery store from bankruptcy. Freiburg is too provincial for her taste, and besides, pen and paper are outdated anyway.
Anja Lamm, Paper Love’s only full-time employee, takes an instant dislike to the arrogant, digital-loving snob who’s supposed to be her temporary boss.
But thanks to a meddling cat, a business trip to a stationery fair, and an armada of origami boats, Anja soon starts to see beneath Susanne’s aloof exterior, and Susanne discovers how sexy pens and notebooks can be—at least when Anja handles them.
As the end of Susanne’s three-month stay approaches, will she stick to her plan to leave, or will she open her heart to more than just paper love?
Available at:
Amazon (KU)
The Number 94 Project by Cheyenne Blue
When handywoman Jorgie’s uncle leaves her an old house in Melbourne, it’s a dream come true. Sure, 94 Gaylord Street is falling apart, and she has to deal with her uncle Bruce’s eccentric friends thanks to his unusual Will.
But that’s okay. She’ll fire up her power tools and turn the dilapidated terrace house into a desirable inner-city pad. Then she’ll sell up and head home to the country.
Jorgie hasn’t counted on falling for cute neighbour Marta, who’s found her heart-home among the tight queer-community of Gaylord Street. Between mugs of too-strong tea and Jorgie’s lack of a working shower, the two forge a surprising connection.
But what happens when the renovation’s complete? Can Jorgie really just toss aside her tool belt and saunter away?
Available at:
Perks of Office by Liz Rain
After high-powered politician Bridget O’Keefe sweeps into the uninspiring life of Australian electorate officer Emma Ives, nothing is the same again.
Hapless, hopeless Emma is smacked with an instant crush on the polished woman who’s her new boss…her hot, untouchable, straight boss. Yes, she knows she’s an idiot because unrequited lust at work is a terrible idea. Even so, she can dream.
One long night changes everything. A political scandal leads to a fall from grace and Emma suddenly finds herself the one Bridget turns to for comfort. There’s a lot for Emma to wrap her mind around, even as her body loves wrapping itself around Bridget’s curves.
Is it just a meaningless night of passion, nothing more? Because there’s absolutely no way ambitious, beautiful Bridget wants anything more from Emma. Is there?
Available at:
The Woman in 3B by Eliza Lentzski
The challenge was supposed to be simple. Spill a drink on an airline passenger and be one square closer to winning the company’s secret bingo card game. Twenty-five different challenges, at various levels of difficulty, had to be accomplished within a month’s time. After nearly eight years of being a flight attendant, Alice Kaminski had spilled drinks on plenty of passengers, mostly on accident and during rough air. She didn’t particularly like the idea of the bingo card, but she had massive student debt; the financial incentives were enough to make her momentarily forget the questionable ethics of it all. The challenge was supposed to be simple—that is, until Alice saw her intended target—the beautiful woman seated in 3B. And after that, nothing was simple ever again.
Available at:
Bleeding For Eurydice by J. X. Sleator
Wendi Tsang never expected to worry about anything other than trying to survive her classload, her job, and the unwelcome advances of bros and jerks. One night, however, she was pushed too far. A moment of reckless desperation put Dacie in her apartment. The petite, well-proportioned being from another world promised her easy relief from her strife; a way to get revenge on the ones responsible. Should she trust her? Or is she going to lead her down an evil path from which there is no return?
Available at:
Stone Memory by Aimée
Clifton, present time. Kate O’Carroll has just moved to take up a new position at Bristol University. She’s found a lovely house that comes complete with its own library – a big bonus for an avid reader. Her new life seems to be starting auspiciously when she slips on the pavement and ends up at the local A&E. Adrienne Sargent, the surgeon on call, immediately feels a connection to her patient, but of course, there’s no reason they should meet again outside the hospital.
Clifton, 1900. Dorcas Fairstead, a parson’s daughter, is starting a teaching career at one of the pioneering colleges for women. Not much older than her students, she is finding her feet, making friends and writing a journal for the first time in her life. At a conference, she and her friends meet Elizabeth Sutcliff, a young doctor working at one of the first women’s hospitals in London.
There must be something in the air, for although none of these women is actively looking for love, life has other ideas. As past and present intersect, are they ready to follow their desires?
Available at:
Crash Dance by Elle Armstrong
What happens when the worst day of your life turns into the best? Retired dancer Gabriella De Luca’s day falls apart when her service car badly injures a young woman. Guilt, paired with a curious pull toward the attractive stranger, leads Gabriella to visit her in hospital, where an unexpected friendship begins.
Bailey Williams finds out that when your whole world crashes, a new dance can begin. Seriously injured and needing rehabilitation, Bailey is surprised when Gabriella offers her home for recuperation. As Bailey’s injuries gradually heal, she starts to fall for the compelling Gabriella. As Gabriella’s feelings for Bailey deepen, she has to decide if she can ever trust a younger woman again.
A problem at Gabriella’s dance studio threatens their burgeoning relationship and a new enemy could bring it all crashing down. Will Gabriella and Bailey waltz off into the sunset or quickstep apart?
Available at:
No Strings by Gerri Hill
One mistake leads to a year of exile…
Used to the busy playground of Winter Park, police chief Reese Daniels is shipped off to sleepy Lake City, Colorado. She takes the job of sheriff seriously, but makes it clear to one and all: this year is just a blip in her life. When it’s done, she’s gone.
Forest Ranger M. Z. Morgan has lived in Lake City long enough to be considered a local. The pace, the quiet and the many friends make life there well worth the lack of dating material. A girlfriend would still be nice, and the new sheriff is easy on the eyes. It’s entirely natural for Morgan and Reese to be friendly, but Reese’s repeated reminders that she’s not sticking around make it impossible for anything more between them.
That is, until they strike a no strings bargain. Some guaranteed exchange of heat as the long winter sets in seems just what they need to pass the time. So what if it’s the best sex they’ve ever had? It’s still only temporary. They won’t mistake sex for more, even if it only gets better—month after month. After month.
No Strings—it seemed like a good idea at the time.
Available at:
The Art of Growing by Jacqueline Ramsden
Sloane Abbott likes her quiet life. She owns a landscaping business, she tends her plants, lives alone, and secretly crushes on her favorite nonbinary garden center employee, Polly. Between anxiety and modesty, Sloane’s never planning on telling Polly she likes them. She’ll just be admiring from afar while she deals with her demanding family and fulfills her sister’s order.
Polly Stanwick loves people. She has the best time working at Blooms, talking to customers, hanging out with the kids, and generally being a ray of sunshine. When they hear their regular, Sloane Abbott, is having a rough day, they naturally sweep in to help.
What neither of them is expecting is for Polly’s colleague to suggest her as a fake date for Sloane’s weekend with her family. For Sloane, it’s the only way to avoid the heteronormative life her parents will push on her, so despite her misgivings, she agrees. It’s only one weekend, right?
Fooling the Abbotts into thinking she and Polly are a couple is easy, but for Sloane, handling her own feelings is harder. Holding hands and sharing a bed doesn’t make things any easier—nor does Polly being there for her in all the ways she ever wished somebody would.
Sometimes the hardest thing to face is our own potential to grow.
Available at:
Love, Nature by Jenn Matthews
Being a good mother is all Toni Holland has wished for since Bonnie was diagnosed with cerebral palsy at three years old. But now that Bonnie is fourteen and wants to be more independent, Toni’s having trouble letting go.
Eco-warrior and nurse Stella McDonald has only had flings since she and her ex broke up a decade ago. But their grown-up kids don’t want to go on holiday with their mums anymore and she’s feeling somewhat lost. Good job she has Wild Club, the eco-friendly group she runs once a week, to keep her occupied.
When Toni arrives at Wild Kids with a moody teen in tow and little knowledge about taking care of the planet, she’s the tall, dark stranger Stella didn’t realise she’d been longing for. A mishap with a broken tent brings them physically, as well as emotionally, closer. But Toni is eighteen years Stella’s junior and apparently straight as a die. Should Stella kiss any romance with Toni a firm goodbye? Or is Toni truly attracted to her?
Available at:
Miracles by Serena J. Bishop
After three years together, Aurora and Leela have settled into a cozy life. The only complaint is their lack of quality time together. When the opportunity arises for a trip to paradise, they can’t turn it down. A week of romance among Hawaii’s natural wonders is exactly what they need to reconnect. When they return home, their relationship is the strongest and most stress-free it’s ever been.
Then Aurora learns she’s pregnant.
There was no infidelity. There was no assault. There’s no logical explanation for the conception, but the pregnancy is undeniable. And it feels right to Aurora.
Aurora and Leela debate whether a scientific or spiritual reason is the cause, but the mystery takes a backseat as maternal instincts take over. Aurora’s connection ranges from the ordinary to psychic, but her experiences are nothing compared to Leela’s. A new, primal voice from within directs her to do whatever is necessary to protect their child.
Can they keep the cause of the pregnancy and the psychic connection to their child a secret? Can they come to terms with the uniqueness of their child and the circumstances around her conception? And can they accept the grandest miracle of them all?
Available at:
Something Between Us by Krystina Rivers
In the waning days of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell, Quinn Prescott and Kirby Davis met during military training. Despite different backgrounds, services, and plans, they fell hard and fast. However, it wasn’t long before distance and the pressures of serving in silence drove them apart.
Ten years later, Kirby literally runs into Quinn at Chicago Pride. Even in a city of three million, she continues to see Quinn everywhere. She can’t seem to ignore the pounding in her chest that isn’t always the frustration that Quinn broke her heart. Despite her best efforts to convince herself otherwise, there might still be something between them.
Quinn knows she made the biggest mistake of her life when she chose her career over Kirby, and she’s desperate to turn their chance meetings into a second chance for romance.
Available at:
Strictly Need to Know by MB Austin
When covert operator Maji Rios returns to her sleepy Long Island refuge after years of being anyone the Army needs her to be, all she wants is a quiet summer. Saving a gorgeous stranger from Russian mobsters on her first night home was not in her plans. Nor was waking up with her the next day, inside the notorious Benedetti family’s estate, already on the clock for her next mission.
One brush with danger can’t scare Rose diStephano away from her last weeks with her favorite cousin, Angelo Benedetti. How hard could tagging along to Maji’s martial arts camp be? Even if it means pretending that Maji is Angelo’s girlfriend, rather than the woman she is falling in love with.
Maji will do whatever she must to complete her mission. Infiltrate enemy territory? Check. Protect civilians from blowback? Check. Keep Rose from getting too close? Ouch.
Available at:
Pas de deux by E. J. Noyes
Caitlyn Lloyd has the world at her feet. Or more accurately—under her horse’s hooves. With the 2016 Rio Olympics just around the corner, nothing is going to derail her long-held dream of winning a medal or two in Olympic dressage. Not even the reappearance of a childhood so-not-a-friend throwing her perfectly balanced life into disarray.
Addie Gardner’s career is at its peak, and accepting a last-minute fill-in position as the veterinarian for the US Olympic Dressage Team was a no-brainer. The fact that her old crush from Pony Club is on the team is just a bonus. Not a distraction at all. And it might just offer the chance to be friends with the girl who wouldn’t even give her the time of day twenty years ago.
But Caitlyn and Addie have very different memories of their time together at Pony Club and their first meeting as adults is less like a reconnection and more like a butting of heads. With the Olympics looming, they’ll need to set aside their history and learn to work together. And maybe Caitlyn and Addie will realize childhood memories aren’t always accurate, and that they have more in common than they would ever have thought. Maybe. Just maybe.
Available at:
Everything She Needs by Cynthia Dane & Hildred Billings
TARA STAUDENMAIER
College student Tara Staudenmaier will do anything for her family. When medical debt looms, she doesn’t hesitate to do whatever it takes.
Even if it means putting herself – and her inexperience in love – up on the auction block.
She only asks that nobody discover her biggest secret. The reason she’s gone gray at twenty and now has something to offer a would-be suitor looking for a month-long affair.
ASTRID EVANS
Two years after the death of her husband, Astrid is used to the jokes and jeers from the peerage. Everyone knows she’s a trophy wife who received the inheritance of a lifetime.
But it didn’t come without a price. Traumatized by her former experiences, Astrid now spends her nights subjecting herself to the same events that once changed her life.
That’s how she discovers Tara, a young and naïve woman who will be chewed up by the same system that stole Astrid’s own youth.
THE ONLY KEY… IS HYPOCRISY
When Tara arrives at Evans Manor for a month of companionship, Astrid rejects their mutual attraction, if only to sleep better at night.
Soon, she can’t sleep at all.
The electric chemistry between Astrid and Tara is unlike anything to hit the quiet country manor. While Tara explores what it means to fall in love and indulge in her lifelong fantasies, Astrid confronts the nightmares that have turned her into the ice-cold queen of her fortress.
Everything she needs is within grasp – yet she denies it.
Until she can’t anymore, and all hell breaks loose.
Available at:
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Readers: Leave a comment and let us know what book you are reading for the “sapphic book that mentions a main character having their period” category!
Just finished rereading Turbulence by E.J. Noyes.
“Turbulence” by EJ Noyes, a re-read of numerous times.
I leave one title for those who take on this challenge in 2023 for their own enjoyment.
Finding Faith by Kim Pritekel