For this week’s Sapphic Book Bingo square, read a sapphic book with more than 400 pages. There aren’t that many sapphic books that are 400+ pages long, which is why this is a Book Unicorn category.
If you know the word count, which is more accurate than page numbers, pick a book with more than 130,000 words. If you choose an audiobook, pick one that is at least 13 hours long.
What is the Book Unicorn?
A quick reminder: The Book Unicorn bingo card is an additional bingo card that you can tackle in addition to the regular bingo card or by itself. The goal is to read one book for each of the 12 squares of the Book Unicorn card. Each square represents a harder-to-find theme.
I’ll post book suggestions for one Book Unicorn category each month.
Download your Book Unicorn bingo card
If you haven’t done so already, download your Book Unicorn bingo card here. The PDF is clickable, so you can fill in the titles of the books you read on your computer, or you can print it out and fill it in by hand.
15 sapphic books with more than 400 pages
Here are my recommendations for sapphic books with 400+ pages:
Hidden Truths by Jae
Everyone on the Hamilton ranch seems to be harboring a secret: Luke has been living as a husband and father for the past seventeen years, telling no one but her wife that she’s not the man she appears to be. Nora hides her past as a prostitute, while their daughter Amy is trying to keep her attraction to women secret.
Into this tricky situation arrives Rika Aaldenberg, a mail-order bride who traveled to Oregon to marry the family’s foreman. She, too, has her own secret: she’s not the woman who wrote the letters.
At first, Amy isn’t happy about having to show the newcomer around, but soon, Rika earns her respect…and maybe even her heart.
When hidden truths are revealed, will their family fall apart, or will love keep them together?
Available at:
Jericho by Ann McMan
Librarian Syd Murphy flees the carnage of a failed marriage by accepting an eighteen-month position in Jericho, a small town in the Appalachian Mountains of Virginia. Her plans to hide out and heal her wounds fall by the wayside as she gets drawn into the daily lives of the quirky locals.
When Syd gets a flat tire and is rescued by the town physician, Maddie Stevenson, the two women form a fast friendship—but almost immediately begin struggling with a mutual attraction. And, if that’s not enough, Syd is straight and going through a divorce—and Maddie somehow forgets to mention her sexual orientation to her new best friend. Almost everyone who crosses their paths believes it’s only a matter of time until they figure it out, but sometimes, it takes a while to see the obvious. Together, Syd and Maddie learn that life and love can have as many twists and turns as a winding mountain road.
Available at:
Symphony in Blue by MJ Duncan
It was just supposed to be a working weekend in Maui and not anything remotely life-altering, but all that changes the moment Gwen Harrison holds a hotel elevator for Dana Ryan. Beautiful and charming, Dana is a breath of fresh air that Gwen is helpless to resist—something she dearly regrets when their whirlwind weekend is over and reality sets back in. The course of true love is notorious for being anything but smooth, but the truths and consequences of an inauspicious beginning such as theirs are enough to put that old adage to the ultimate test.
Available at:
V.A.M.P.: Serena & Katerina by Kimberly A. Todd
Is it possible to find a second chance at love?
Being rich, powerful, and thirty years old for eternity has its perks. Being a heartbroken, 800-year-old lesbian vampire, not so much.
Serena Vanderen is chairman and CEO of V.A.M.P. Global. Advertiser by day; scientist, murderer, and cleanup artist for her pharmaceutical client by night.
Since her girlfriend was killed thirty years ago, Serena has been going through the motions of running her advertising agency while grieving and trying to armor her heart against any more pain. But when Katerina Davenport attends her company gala, everything changes.
Can this captivating, gorgeous, sexy redhead help Serena find love again? Will she reignite Serena’s long-dormant sexual desires? Will Katerina be able to accept that she is falling in love with a vampire? What dark secrets does the agency conceal that challenges their love—and Katerina’s safety?
Serena & Katerina is the first book of the V.A.M.P. series, beginning the erotic romance that follows the lives of the title characters and transcends time.
Available at:
Hotel Queens by Lee Winter
Ice meets fire in this opposites-attract lesbian romance, as layered, sassy, and smart as its characters.
Over one long night at a bar in Las Vegas, two powerful hotel executives meet, flirt, and challenge each other—having no clue they’re rivals after the same dream deal.
Brilliant ice queen Amelia Duxton is a hotel vice president who thrives on control, truth, and efficiency. She’s in no mood for love or the mess it brings. All she wants is to buy the coveted Mayfair Palace—a massive deal that could finally help her land the CEO job in her family’s hotel empire.
Fiery Kai Fisher is charming and chaotic and renowned for closing ambitious deals. Her sights are set on snatching the Mayfair Palace out from under the nose of her hated arch rivals, the Duxton family.
But when secrets emerge and everything starts to fall apart, how can either of the warring women win—especially when they’ve just met their match?
Available at:
Aurora’s Angel by Emily Noon
Joined in a battle for survival, a broken-winged angel and a shapeshifter huntress with a bloody past form a bond that will change their world.
Alone since her father’s murder, Aurora has spent years hunting his killers. Battle-weary she’s ready to start over where no one knows who or what she is, she just has one last mission. Everything is going to plan until she discovers the beautiful winged girl caged underground. Her decision to rescue Evie and to help her get home safely, despite avians being infamous for selling out shifters like Aurora to cutters and black-market flesh dealers, will put her on a perilous path.
As the women travel together their attraction grows but Aurora is guarding her lonely heart almost as much as her dangerous secrets and Evie is struggling to accept how important Aurora has become to her.
With their enemies conspiring to kill them, they may be each other’s only hope. Aurora is powerful but she’s also emotionally scarred. It will be up to Evie to save her from herself and to fight for them, or innocent people will die along with the guilty ones and Aurora will disappear from Evie’s life forever.
Available at:
Valkyrie by Meg Ludwa
“Why are you doing this?”
“Doing what?”
“Helping these people. Non-citizens. You don’t owe them anything. You had a life back in the Dome you could’ve escaped back to, been protected by your uncle. Why do any of this?”
“None of this would’ve happened if it wasn’t for my mother, right? I can’t just walk away from it, can I?”
Life is a paradise for the privileged on Odin Prime. Dr. Shea Tristan, a loyal Statesman and Chancellor’s niece, learns firsthand how broken the state is when she falls into the hands of Shadow- the station’s most dangerous criminal organization. A disgraced Valkyrie named Victoria Hammond and an emerging threat among the station’s most vulnerable force Shea to confront her mother’s shameful past. Shea will question everything she knows about herself, her notorious family, and the state that once protected her.
Available at:
Standby Counsel (A Monica Spade Novel) by Alexi Venice
Monica Spade insists she isn’t a trial lawyer, much less one who represents dangerous criminals. Despite her protests, Judge O’Brien orders Monica to serve as standby counsel for a young woman accused of repeatedly stabbing her boyfriend.
Setting aside her abject fear, Monica drags herself to the jail to meet her new client, Stela Reiter. A demure Romanian, Stela looks more like a meek librarian than a person capable of overpowering and stabbing a young man to death. Stela is coy and secretive during their interview.
Meanwhile, Monica’s girlfriend, Shelby St. Claire, is keeping secrets of her own, forcing Monica to question the foundation of their relationship. Monica digs into the backgrounds of both women.
Monica uncovers sexual innuendo and layers of international intrigue. Stuck between an unrelenting judge and a killer in a pink cardigan, Monica pursues the truth in court while fighting to keep Shelby and herself out of harm’s way.
Available at:
Invisible, as Music by Caren J. Werlinger
Henrietta Cochran has spent nearly forty years dealing with the effects of the polio she contracted in 1945. Her braces and crutches restrict her, define her, but they also give her independence. Almost. She hates that she has become increasingly reliant on a series of live-in companions to help her. For some reason, the companions never seem to want to stay very long. So Henrietta retreats further and further into her art, where her physical limitations don’t matter.
Into her life sails Meryn Fleming: out, outspoken, and fiercely political. She’s young, enthusiastically diving into her first job as a history professor at the local college. When she falls, almost literally, into Henrietta’s path, she seems like a godsend.
Little does Henrietta know that this young woman is about to upend her carefully structured existence. Ryn challenges everything, barging right through the walls Henrietta has built to keep others at a distance.
To Ryn, Henrietta is an enigma: prickly and easily insulted at the slightest suggestion that she can’t do things for herself; a brilliant artist capable of producing the most beautiful paintings; and sometimes, when Henrietta doesn’t realize she’s letting her guard down, a tender and sensitive woman.
With Meryn’s youthful optimism pitted against Henrietta’s jaded acceptance of the world as it is, life will never be the same for either of them.
Available at:
Mosaic by Susan X Meagher
When you’re a single lesbian who’d prefer to be partnered, it pays to keep your eyes peeled—even at work.
Kelsey Maliar blew into Summer Hayes’ shop on a frosty cold morning, and within a few minutes things had warmed up significantly. By the end of the week they were having a great first date, followed by another, and still another.
Everything seemed perfect, something neither of them had a lot of experience with. But they were both ready to put in the work this time, having learned that the end result was well worth the effort.
Nearly every couple reaches a few forks in the road when they’re starting out, but things sailed along very smoothly—until they didn’t.
What do you do when a woman who’s remarkably close to perfect struggles with an issue that wouldn’t bother the vast majority of people—but is a hot-button for you? Is it a positive grown experience to work through an emotional challenge together? Or is self-protection the wise choice?
They’ve both tried to understand the path to love, but the manual’s really hard to comprehend. If they can stick to their resolve, they should be able to hurdle this roadblock. But can they?
Available at:
Kicker’s Journey by Lois Cloarec Hart
In 1899 two women from very different backgrounds are about to embark on a journey together – one that will take them from the Old World to the New, from the 19th century into the 20th, and from the comfort and familiarity of England to the rigours of Western Canada, where challenges await at every turn.
The journey begins simply for Kicker Stuart when she leaves her home village to take employment as hostler and farrier at Grindleshire Academy for Young Ladies. But when Kicker falls in love with a teacher, Madelyn Bristow, it radically alters the course of her tranquil life.
Together, the lovers flee the brutality of Madelyn’s father and the prejudices of upper crust England in search of freedom to live, and love, as they choose. A journey as much of the heart and soul as of the body, it will find the lovers struggling against the expectations of gender, the oppression of class, and even, at times, each other.
What they find at the end of their journey is not a new Eden, but a land of hope and opportunity that offers them the chance to live out their most cherished dream – a life together.
Available at:
Those Who Wait by Haley Cass
Sutton Spencer’s ideas for her life were fairly simple: finish graduate school and fall in love. It would be a lot simpler if she could pinpoint exactly what she should do when she graduates in less than a year. Oh, and if she could figure out how to talk to a woman without feeling like a total mess, that would be great too.
Charlotte Thompson is very much the opposite. She’s always had clear steps outlining her path to success with no time or inclination for romance. Her burgeoning career in politics means everything to her and she’s not willing to compromise it for something as insignificant as love. Fleeting, casual, and discreet worked perfectly fine.
When they meet through a dating app, it’s immediately clear that they aren’t suited for anything more than friendship. Right?
Available at:
Callie’s Secret by T.J. Jones
Callie Fisher is young, beautiful, and falling in love with her best friend. No one knows she’s gay, and her mother would take her back to the shrink if she knew about the visions. Callie dreams of a dark night, gunshots in a city street, and a tall, beautiful black woman. Is this woman Callie’s future, or is it Jennifer, the bubbly redhead that’s always been there for her?
As she tries to understand her visions and searches for love, Callie is pulled deeper into the dark future of her dreams. She discovers there are others like her, a group of women trying to make the future a better place. But Callie has learned the hard way that changing the future can be a dangerous business. There are always unintended consequences, and sometimes people die!
Available at:
The Wicked and the Willing by Lianyu Tan
An orphan with a shameful secret must choose whom to love: her vampire mistress or the woman trying to save her life. A provocative tale of seduction, violence, and despair from dark lesbian romance author Lianyu Tan.
1927, colonial Singapore
Monsters don’t scare Gean Choo. And there are monsters aplenty among the Europeans on sultry Singapore island, all of them running away from something—or someone.
When she starts her new job as a lady’s companion, she can’t imagine falling for the impassioned, demanding mistress of Ambrosia Hall, nor the gruff, brooding woman who serves as her lady’s majordomo.
The latter holds her heart; the former, her body, blood, and loyalty.
Both want her.
Both need her.
And one of them will die for her.
Available at:
Tropical Storm by Melissa Good
Dar Roberts, corporate raider for a multi-national tech company, is cold, practical, and merciless. She does her job with razor-sharp accuracy. Friends are a luxury she cannot allow herself, and love is something she knows she’ll never attain.
Kerry Stuart left Michigan for Florida in an attempt to get away from her domineering politician father and the constraints of the overly conservative life her family forced upon her. After college she worked her way into supervision at a small tech company, only to have it taken over by Dar Roberts’ organization. Her association with Dar begins in disbelief, hatred, and disappointment, but when Dar unexpectedly hires Kerry as her work assistant, the dynamics of their relationship change. Over time, a bond begins to form.
But can Dar overcome years of habit and conditioning to open herself up to the uncertainty of love? And will Kerry escape from the clutches of her powerful father in order to live a better life?
Available at:
Leave a comment
Leave a comment and let us know what book you are reading for the “sapphic books with more than 400 pages” category!
Some excellent books in this list. I’ve read many of them. I’ve only written one that exceeds 400 pages, my sapphic legal thriller ‘Steel City Confidential.’
Epic fantasy is the genre that most often lends itself to lengthy books. Our sapphic fantasy writers need to chime in with their page counts!
Ooo! I love long reads and I’ve read most of these. Love a book you can really sink your teeth into.
My sapphic sci-fi romance comes in at 461 pages – “The Blood We Spill” — and if you like a bit of 1930s elegance, jazz and star-gazing, my historical romance, “Once in Berlin,” fits the unicorn category too at 210,000 words. Happy reading!
How about Goldie Award winner Everything by Carole Wolf at 482 pages? Great sex, drugs, and rock n roll epic of a book.
Sounds like a good fit!
Love this idea! I read a few of these and one this year, so I can stamp that square! Thanks for the extra suggestions. I plan on looking into them.
You’re very welcome!