For this week’s Sapphic Book Bingo, read a sapphic book that mentions another sapphic book or a sapphic book that is mentioned in another sapphic book.
For example, Hannah, the main character of my new romance Just a Touch Away, is an avid reader and is seen reading Write for Her by Kim Hartfield. You could read either Just a Touch Away or Write for Her for this category.
The book needs to be either mentioned by title or described so clearly that it’s easy to guess which one it is.
15 recommended sapphic books that mention another sapphic book
Here are my book recommendations for the “book mentions” category:
Just a Touch Away by Jae
Hannah reads Write for Her by Kim Hartfield and Damage Control by Jae.
Hannah Martin has an unusual job: she’s a professional cuddler. While she has a big heart for her clients, she hasn’t found someone special to snuggle up to in her personal life.
Winter Sullivan isn’t looking for love. She’s an aloof workaholic who’s built walls of ice around herself. She would rather drive toothpicks under her fingernails than cuddle, and she certainly doesn’t want to share her space with anyone.
When Winter’s estranged father dies, he leaves her one last surprise: she and Hannah, a perfect stranger, will inherit a building together. But there’s a catch: first, they have to live together for ninety-two days.
Winter is determined to dislike her rival, but soon finds Hannah isn’t what she expected at all. Thanks to a hilarious doormat war, a cuddle dare from Winter’s half sister, and a kiss in the most unusual of places, the frosty fortress around her heart begins to melt.
Will she be able to accept that love might be just a touch away?
Available at:
The Date by T.B. Markinson
In chapter 22, Fingersmith by Sarah Waters is mentioned.
Brittny Parker, an American graduate student, is moving to London with her lovable Boston Terrier, Cooper, in time for the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee and the 2012 Olympics. Could life get any better? How about adding a super sexy woman next door? The problem is her snooty neighbor is not a dog person. In fact, she despises Cooper from the moment he knocks her over and sends her groceries spilling all over the ground.
Prin Jones is a native-born Londoner whose most successful relationship is with Francesca, her Persian cat. With a bakery to run and an unpleasant ex-girlfriend to dodge, the last thing Prin needs in her life is an obnoxious American and her poorly trained dog. But it becomes almost impossible not to run into Brit at every turn.
When Francesca and Cooper decide to become balcony friends, and Prin’s twin sister takes on the role of enthusiastic matchmaker, Brit and Prin decide to give each other a second chance. All they need is one date to see if there might be something more between them.
It should be easy, right? But somehow everything keeps going hilariously and disastrously wrong.
Can two women from different worlds meet in the middle to become more than neighbors?
Available at:
A Quiet Life by Sienna Waters
This Is How You Lose The Time War by Amal El-Mohtar & Max Gladstone is mentioned.
When a heart attack nearly kills her, lawyer Holland Goldmann secludes herself in the country. All she wants is a quiet life. Until a stray dog sets her on a collision course with a beautiful young vet.
Emory Carter is fresh out of vet school and desperate to save her dead father’s veterinary practice. But when she ends up getting sued, it looks like her dreams are shattered.
When ice queen lawyer meets ambitious young vet sparks start to fly. But it’s all so wrong. Holland is too old and broken for this, and Emory is too busy failing at life. And yet the two just can’t keep their hands off each other. Right up until tragedy strikes.
Opposites can attract, but can they build a life together? When lives are quite literally on the line sometimes the only thing you can do is believe in true love. Which might be a problem if you’re a cold-hearted lawyer…
Available at:
The Beginning of Everything by Cara Malone
The characters read The Price of Salt by Patricia Highsmith, Patience and Sarah by Isabel Miller and Rubyfruit Jungle by Rita Mae Brown
A closeted secretary in 1960s Chicago. A fearless activist in San Francisco. A love so powerful it can change the world.
Betty wants what everyone wants – happiness, security, and a quiet, good life. She’s determined to make that happen on her own, despite her mother’s fears that she’ll turn into a spinster if she doesn’t settle down and find a husband soon.
Joan wants an important life – one where she gets to love who she wants to love, do what she enjoys, and will leave the world a better place when she’s gone. But what she is – a lesbian in San Francisco at the beginning of the LGBT+ civil rights movement – is criminal.
When Betty comes to California for vacation, it’s love at first sight across a crowded bar in the Tenderloin district. She’s mesmerized by Joan and drawn to the homophile movement, but does she have the courage to come out for love and join the fight for equality?
What began as a glance across a room turns into a hopeful, playful and heartwarming courtship across three time zones and four decades in The Beginning of Everything, a standalone historical romance by Cara Malone.
Available at:
Up on the Roof by A.L. Brooks
Lena is reading the story of Drew and Annie, which is Something in the Wine by Jae. Lena also lends a copy of All The Little Moments by G Benson to Megan.
Book-loving Lena likes order, cleanliness, peace, and quiet. When Megan, a loud and clumsy young woman, moves into the flat below hers, chaos ensues, and Lena’s already-high anxiety rockets. It gets even worse when a devastating storm leaves Lena needing a place to live.
Against her better judgment, Megan offers her a spare room, and they both know it’s a terrible idea. After all, they’ve clashed from the first moment they met. It can surely only end in disaster.
As time passes, Lena and Megan realize that, underneath their differences, there’s an inexplicable pull between them that seems hard to resist. Can they learn to deal with their clashing personalities and let the attraction blossom? Or will what divides them be too much to overcome?
Available at:
The Tell Tale by Clare Ashton
Sophie has a copy of The Well of Loneliness by Radclyffe on her bookshelf.
A small town, enduring love, a web of secrets.
The Tell Tale has been watching and waiting, because there’s something queer about the village of Foel.
Beth Griffiths has returned home to raise her daughter in the Welsh hills. They arrive to the open arms of the community, but not all is what it seems and Beth isn’t home for the reason she pretends either.
Vicious notes start appearing that reveal harsh truths about the village inhabitants, stirring up ancient past and old loves. Not even local dignitary, the elegant and aloof Lady Melling, is safe from the accusations.
But when Beth receives her notes, they aren’t what she expected. Is she being toyed with like the other villagers, or is she being guided to a long-sought truth?
Available at:
Comet’s First Christmas by Delilah Night
Claudia recommends Once & Future by Amy Rose Capetta & Cori McCarthy to Blitzen.
A bad Santa is turning believers faster than melting snow. Can the mystery be solved in time for Christmas?
I’ve dreamed of this day for years, and now it’s reality. I’ve been called up for the Big Show. Official Pole phone and email, Naughty-or-Nice login, and upgraded I.D. with my new job title—Comet. In three weeks, I’ll be part of the team flying Santa around the world.In an instant my life goes from peaceful, if boring, to a blizzard of last-minute flight preparations, route planning, and anxiety-triggering stress.
The moment I meet my P.A., Jillian, her beautiful smile and sparkling blue eyes are an oasis of calm. But I’ve barely got enough time to wonder if her plump lips taste as sugarplum sweet as they look.
Disturbing news has popped up on Santa’s radar.Someone is turning Santa’s most fervent believers into non-believers overnight. If we can’t find and stop this hacker, there won’t be enough reindeer cutout cookies and hot chocolate in the world to restore balance to Santa’s Naughty-or-Nice list in time for Christmas Eve.
Note to reader: What sweet Christmas romance would be complete without reindeer, The Nutcracker, ice skating at Rockefeller Center, and New York pizza?
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Lost & Found: A Mystic Meteor Tale by Elle Hyden
Rea is reading Uprising by Fletcher DeLancey.
Two lost souls are on a collision course. One searching for a life partner while the other mourns the loss of hers.
Selina is at a crossroads. No job, no home to call her own, and no partner. She has to turn her life around, but in which direction? Returning to her Native American roots, she seeks mystical aid from the spirit world, to find the life she hungers for.
Rea has been able to find a measure of solace after her wife’s death but longs for the crack in her heart to heal. Sighting a falling star, she sends her wish out into the universe, where it’s heard by the most unlikely allies.
Selina and Rea’s paths crossed many times in the past, but they’d never connected. Now they are being inescapably drawn together by fate, desire, and a touch of the mystical. Will love and trust prevail over loss and fear, so they can have their shot at being found forever?
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Finding Family by Jamey Moody
Desi recommends The Adventurers by Bryce Oakley to Erin.
Erin Evans is hoping the fourth time’s the charm in her quest to have a baby. At forty-one she’s out of time and doing this on her own. She knows the odds of finding her happily-ever-after are slim, but she wants to be a mother more than anything.
A semi-flirtatious conversation with a tall, fit, dark-haired woman in the waiting room of her fertility clinic gives Erin pause, which she attributes to hormones until she comes out of her procedure to find the alluring Desi Shaw still waiting.
What Desi does next surprises them both…
Available at:
Kissing Practice by Jordan Meadows
Ms. Wheeler gives Nicki a copy of Annie on My Mind by Nancy Garden and Connie gives her a copy of Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Café by Fannie Flagg.
The year is 1987, it’s Nicki’s sixteenth birthday party and she’s having a great time with her best friends, hanging out in a hot tub and listening to the radio while snow falls all around. When a playful practice kiss with one friend, Connie, suddenly turns into more and Nicki likes it—really likes it—she starts down a path of self-discovery.
Will she have to keep this a secret from everyone? Does Connie feel the same way or is this really just practice for her? How should Nicki navigate the winter formal and Christmas with a new…girlfriend?
In this coming of age lesbian romance, Nicki finds support, hurt, and ultimately a new sense of self in more ways than one.
Content warning: While Kissing Practice is overall a positive and uplifting book, there is some homophobia (as is only realistic in middle America in the 80s), and a coming out results in the loss of a friendship.
Available at:
Seeing by Heart by K.A. Moll
Finn names Rubyfruit Jungle by Rita Mae Brown as the best book ever.
Places can be vessels for happy memories as well as sad ones. For Kora Garver, Horseback Inn is one of those places. Inherited from her great aunt, she spends her time caring for its guests and horses. Truth be known, it’s the thing that’s kept her going, helped her to push through her darkness. But her darkness has darkened to the point that she can no longer see the light. Once a beautiful woman, at forty, she sees herself as scarred and undesirable. Miserable and alone, ashamed of who she’s been and what she’s done, retraumatized every time she closes her eyes, she’s decided to end her life.
At seventeen, Finn Warner lost what most take for granted, her sight. But she didn’t let that hold her back. She graduated from medical school at the top of her class. She finished her residency in psychiatry. She established a lucrative private practice. At forty-three, most of her dreams have been fulfilled—with one exception—that she has no one with whom to share her life. In a world where attraction often begins with sight, she’s come to accept that, in all likelihood, she’ll never have an intimate partner. But she has a rewarding career, good friends, and a great dog. That’s enough. The handsome woman counts her blessings each night and recognizes that she has more than most.
When a blinding snowstorm leaves Finn in a snowdrift, she’ll stay at Horseback Inn, her favorite place to visit as a kid. While there, she’ll be reunited with Kora, the girl she held for hours when she was fourteen years old; the girl she’s never stopped thinking about; one of only a handful of girls that she’s ever held that close. When Kora takes a tumble, she’ll have the opportunity to get even closer. But she’s not sure that Kora is a lesbian. And if that’s not enough, Kora’s loaded down with baggage, more than any person should have to carry. After passion ignites, Kora will push her away. Snowbound, during the final countdown to suicide, two women, as different as night and day, are given a chance at love. But to seize it, they must navigate a difficult path through the darkness.
Available at:
Something Between Us by Krystina Rivers
Quinn is reading Curious Wine by Katherine V. Forrest.
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. Although she lives in a city of three million, she continues to see Quinn everywhere, and she can’t seem to ignore the pounding in her chest that isn’t always frustration no matter how much she tells herself it is.
Quinn knows she made the biggest mistake of her life when she chose her career over Kirby. She’s desperate to make amends, and perhaps even turn their chance meetings into a second chance for romance.
Kirby’s definitely not giving Quinn a second chance. But how long can she ignore the truth that there’s something between them?
Available at:
Maverick by Max Ellendale
Lauren is reading Islands of Mercy by Rose Tremain. Maverick asks her if she has read The Price of Salt by Patricia Highsmith.
Renowned doctor Lauren Lewis purchases an old Victorian home after the loss of her former residence and channels her energy into restoring the new property.
When a wandering antique restorer shows up to take on the job, together, they uncover the secrets the house harbored for a century. With the turn of the seasons, their souls awaken like blooming lilacs in the spring, guiding them toward an adventure of their own.
Available at:
Tapping into Love by Monica McCallan
Sierra left a first edition copy of The Price of Salt by Patricia Highsmith in Lucy’s house.
Lucy Parsons wants absolutely nothing to do with the Westmoore family or the maple syrup they produce. When Sierra Westmoore blows back into town after her father’s death and tries to rent a room at Lucy’s family’s bed-and-breakfast, The Maple Inn, Lucy kicks her out on the spot. It doesn’t matter that Sierra hasn’t set foot in Maple Run in fifteen years—the Westmoores are not allowed.
But small towns don’t leave a lot of room to hide, and Sierra and her brother, Drake, have set their sights on improving the town’s opinion of them now that their father is gone.
Lucy doesn’t believe any Westmoore could have good intentions, and although she may have to play nice with Sierra, it doesn’t mean she’s going to like it.
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Under the Sitka Sky by Violet Morley
Backwards to Oregon is one of Skyler’s favorite sapphic books.
Cam Porter is a charter pilot living a quiet life in the small island town of Sitka, Alaska. She’s spent most of her adult life avoiding any kind of affection and has put off romantic relationships. Her small but mighty family circle includes her exuberant dog Goose who gets her through the days between doing what she loves most, flying.
Skyler Callaghan had to leave Sitka while she was still attending high school. Despite the time and distance, a childhood crush on her best friend’s older sister never went away—a little fact she almost forgot about until an unplanned trip back home reminds her.
When the two women find themselves stranded in the Alaskan wilderness, it isn’t exactly the setting Skyler always dreamt of when she pictured nights with Cam. She tries to put her feelings aside for the sake of her sanity and survival but she feels herself being drawn even closer to Cam. As things start to shift between them, Cam has to decide if she can learn to trust and let go.
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More sapphic books that mention another sapphic book
Since this is a category for which books are hard to find, I thought I would point out a few more sapphic books that mention another sapphic book:
- Write Your Own Script by A.L. Brooks: Tamsyn is reading a historical romance by Jae that is Backwards to Oregon.
- Next of Kin by Jae: Del has a copy of Passion’s Bright Fury by Radclyffe on her bookshelf (the book with the glass chess pieces on the cover), and Kade gives Del a copy of Hunter’s Way by Gerri Hill for her birthday (the book with the yellow crime-scene tape on the cover).
- Something in the Wine by Jae: Drew has copies of None So Blind by LJ Maas, Tropical Storm by Melissa Good, and Backwards to Oregon by Jae on her bookshelf.
- Falling Hard by Jae: Jordan and Emma are both fans of Without a Front by Fletcher DeLancey.
- Perfect Rhythm by Jae: Leo has copies of Tipping the Velvet by Sarah Waters and Stoner McTavish by Sarah Dreher Stoner on her bookshelf.
- Fusion by Diana Kane mentions Fingersmith by Sarah Waters.
- Exception to the Rule by Cindy Rizzo: Angie loaned Tracy a copy of Curious Wine by Katherine V. Forrest and gets her a copy of Happy Endings Are All Alike by Sandra Scoppettone.
- Snow Falls by Sage Donnell mentions Under a Falling Star by Jae.
- The Valentine’s Gift by Sage Donnell mentions The Brutal Truth by Lee Winter.
- When I Was Your Girlfriend by Nikki Harmon mentions the book The Color Purple by Alice Walker.
- Go Around by E.J. Noyes mentions Alone by E.J. Noyes.
- Paris Rules by Jaime Maddox mentions a character reading Tipping the Velvet by Sarah Waters.
- Goldenrod by Ann McMan: Someone purchases Tipping the Velvet by Sarah Waters at the library book sale.
- Choosing Grace by Regina Jamison mentions Desert of the Heart by Jane Rule.
- Poppy Jenkins by Clare Ashton mentions The Well of Loneliness by Radclyffe Hall
- Invisible, as Music by Caren J. Werlinger mentions The Well of Loneliness by Radclyffe Hall.
- The Wicked and the Willing by Lianyu Tan: Gean Choo opens an older edition of In a Glass Darkly by Sheridan Le Fanu, which includes Carmilla.
- Unbridled by D. Jackson Leigh: Another book of D. Jackson Leigh’s, Riding Passion, is mentioned.
Leave a comment
Readers: Leave a comment and let us know what book you are reading for the “sapphic book that mentions another sapphic book” category!
Authors: If your book mentions another sapphic book, please send me an email and I’ll add you to the list.
In the book Finding Faith by Kim Pritekel one of the MC has a box full of books and one title is mentioned as Zero Ward (that seems to be a novel written by Kim Pritekel)