This week’s category of the Sapphic Book Bingo features sapphic books set in a school or academia.
For this square of your main bingo card, read a sapphic book that takes place in an academic setting, such as a high school, college, university, or research environment. The main characters will usually be teachers, professors, or students, but they could also be librarians, researchers, administrators, teaching assistants, lab technicians, janitors, cafeteria workers, or other campus/school staff.
15 sapphic books set in a school or academia
Below, you’ll find 15 recommended sapphic books set in a school or academia.
Chemistry Lessons by Jae
Kylie and Regan have been best friends since kindergarten, supporting each other through thick and thin.
While everyone thinks they would be perfect for each other, they insist there’s no chemistry between them—and Regan should know since she’s a chemistry teacher.
To prove it, they agree to a little chemistry experiment: they’ll go on three dates with each other. So what if their gazes start to linger and accidental touches no longer feel platonic?
They chalk it up to the romantic atmosphere—until a friendly good night kiss turns passionate.
Can their friendship go back to the way it was before? Do they even want it to? Or will they risk losing what they have for a chance at love?
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Take Two by T.B. Markinson & Miranda MacLeod
Gina Mitchells has a problem. The assistant professor is in charge of her college’s Pride festival committee, and the celebrity grand marshal they’d painstakingly recruited has just blown up the internet with a major scandal. Messing up the festival could ruin her chance to be approved for tenure. There’s exactly one famous person Gina knows who could save the day as a last-minute replacement.
The problem? The woman is Gina’s ex-girlfriend, and to say the relationship did not end well is an understatement.
Sophia Rossi has starred in so many squeaky-clean holiday romances since moving to Hollywood that everyone calls her the Queen of Christmas. An important new contract has her filming in a quaint New England town, but there’s a catch. It’s Sophia’s hometown, and surviving a month with her meddling, relationship-obsessed mother and sisters might be too much for Sophia’s sanity to bear.
When Gina reappears in Sophia’s life with a proposition, Sophia has one of her own. It’s a match made in heaven, if only they can get over their past heartbreak long enough to convince everyone they’ve rekindled their old spark. But can this fake relationship lead them to a second chance at love?
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Learning Curves by Rachel Lacey
For Audrey Lind, working with clay still evokes memories of her favorite professor. The woman’s zeal for art history ignited Audrey’s own academic career—and her tweed blazers and British accent kindled her first female crush. After fate brings Audrey back to Northshire University to teach, she’s thrilled to be working alongside her former mentor, but the grumpy woman she encounters upon her return is nothing like the dynamo she remembers.
Divorce and a stalling career have turned Dr. Michelle Thompson bitter and guarded. When Audrey swoops in to teach the Women in Art class Michelle’s been pitching for years, she longs to hate her. But her young rival is too kind, too enthusiastic, too irresistible. And her passion for life slowly reawakens Michelle’s own.
Wary of age gaps and workplace politics, they suppress their smoldering attraction—until one wine-filled night at the pottery wheel puts their romantic truce to the test. Will they keep things on the tenure track or risk it all for love?
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The Rules of Forever by Nan Campbell
Public school teacher Cara Talarico is determined to pay off her student loans by the time she turns thirty-five and has sworn off everything fun to make it happen—including dating. Attending her high school reunion definitely ranks in the not-fun category. The last thing she expects is to reconnect with Lauren Havemayer, her unrequited crush from ten years ago.
Having just returned from Europe, Lauren barely remembers Cara from their school days but can’t deny the sparks flying between them now. It’s too bad Lauren is abstaining from romance—love has caused her nothing but pain and she doesn’t trust herself or anyone else.
They embark on a cautious friendship with benefits—no feelings allowed. But with their chemistry off the charts no matter how much they try to fight it, feelings are being felt. They both agreed to the rules at the start, but keeping them is more complicated than it seems.
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Safely Home by Lyn Denison
There’s a stranger in town. Carolyn Winter is cool, in control and content with her single life. She’s certainly not looking for a relationship. Been there, done that, not pleasant. She has all she needs at the moment. A new job and a new home. And when someone, an attractive someone, is catapulted into her life, and keeps reappearing, she tells herself nothing can happen. It’s far too complicated. Isn‘t it?
A prodigal sister returns. Tess Wainwright has never been in love. She knows she’s run away from everything. The only worthy thing she’s done is raise Bronte, and the nine-year-old deserves more than life has dealt her. Now it’s time for Tess to finish getting her life in order, find some normality, reunite with her older sister, and hopefully make a better life for herself and Bronte.
Of course the universe has never been Tess’s friend and it looks like it’s running true to form. Her sister, an army nurse, is deployed to Afghanistan, but she assures Tess her friends will help her settle back into life in her home town. Liv, Mac and Dee are doing just that and Tess starts to think, universe aside, for once she’s made the right decision. Then that same universe has a change of heart, quite literally, and sets two lonely women on a collision course.
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Love In Stasis by Vi E. Geary
Everyone can agree that college can be a drag sometimes. Studying for finals, work study positions to help pay for tuition, not to mention the dreaded group project. Sophia Briggs has all of that, plus living with her ex-girlfriend in their shared dorm room to deal with. The worst part is that she’s still painfully in love with her. Luz Marcellus is athletic, caring, and attentive. That makes it all the more painful when Sophia walks in on her with another woman.
Well, Madeline Moore isn’t having any of it. She and Sophia have been best friends since forever, so she decides to step in and give Luz a piece of her mind! The problem is, now that Sophia and Luz have broken up, Madeline starts to notice how toned Luz is. The way her bixie cut hangs just slightly in front of her face. The way her voice gets a half-step lower whenever they’re around each other. Then again, why does she care? Madeline has been straight all her life, and there’s no way that would change now, right?
But will any of these worries matter when the dark undertones of Scribe University crash through the barriers of what this group of friends thought the real world was? How could stressful tests and complicated love lives ever prepare them to properly handle kidnappings, assaults, and murders on the campus that they once thought of as home? The simple answer is—they don’t. Especially not when Luz is the prime suspect and the clock is ticking down on the time that’s left to prove her innocence.
The most important lesson is one they’ll have to learn outside the classroom. When you feel like the world has stopped and nothing makes sense anymore, the only way you can ever get through it… is together.
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Something Tragic by Jessica Yeh
When they met, it was not of their own accord. In fact, they never would have crossed paths if it wasn’t for the school project. They were juniors. Addison was the quiet, new girl. Having to move in with her uncles after the fire was one of the most difficult things she had ever endured. Tragic, really. Life always seemed to turn out that way for Addison.
When Addison first started at Parkville High, she knew exactly who Crisa Grayson was, even if Crisa didn’t know her. Crisa was the focus of hallway gossip, infamous for her wild parties and golden hair. On the surface, she seemed like the typical high school cliché. She was bubbly, fun-loving and sometimes even larger-than-life. But appearances can be deceiving, and Addison never expected to interact with the enigma, let alone fall in love with her.
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Loser of the Year by Carrie Byrd
Mattie Belman’s life has gone from dismal to desperate. After the loss of her acting career, her marriage, and her usual optimism, she’s back home teaching high school theater. Maybe it’ll be a fresh start. St. Rita’s arrogant soccer coach Jillian Reed sees Mattie’s musical as an outrageous distraction for her champion players.
When Jillian declares war, Mattie is far too stubborn to back down. But as Mattie discovers there might be more to Jillian than spectacle, fire, and ego, she gets dangerously close to her iron-willed colleague. Can she avoid temptation? Or will the growing flame in Jillian’s dark eyes ignite them both?
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Ignis by KJ
Felicity Davis, principal of Rawson Girls Grammar School, is a passionate educator, an inspirational leader, some say even an ice queen, although she’s not sure about that last one. But one thing Felicity knows is that she is perfectly happy with her life. That is until the trauma, the darkness of her past, comes crashing into her present, revealing a deeply buried secret, and placing Felicity and those she loves in incredible danger. Inspector Tal Diamandis takes on the case, attempting to extinguish the flames of Felicity’s past before they consume her. Matters become complicated as Felicity and Tal realise their mutual spark of attraction but when they finally connect the shocking links, the explosive conclusion will leave everyone reeling.
Can Felicity play with fire or will the fire become an inferno?
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In the Roses of Pieria by Anna Burke
When Clara Eden is offered a job as an archivist working for eccentric estate owner Agatha Montague, she thinks her prayers have been answered. Soon, she finds herself sucked into her research world, captivated by a romantic correspondence thousands of years old. But as her feelings for her employer’s assistant, Fiadh, deepen, so does her suspicion that something about Agatha Montague isn’t right. Unfortunately for Clara, it is far too late to run by the time her suspicions are confirmed.
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It Happened One Semester by Aurora Rey
After years of hard work, Hudson Greene is keen to launch her tenure-track career at the illustrious Coteau College. But her first day takes an unexpected turn when she walks into new faculty orientation and discovers that Callie Shaw—her unforgettable one-night stand from the local Pride festival—is also the dean of advising.
Callie loves guiding students through the chaos of academia, even if it means dealing with clueless professors. She goes with the flow, and her covert Shit Professors Say social media account provides an outlet for chronicling faculty missteps. Dating one, though? Definitely not on her syllabus.
Mutual attraction proves hard to resist, and technically there’s no rule against faculty-staff relationships. But between campus politics and Callie’s secret, policy might be the least of their problems. Can Hudson and Callie navigate office hours and off-the-clock romance, or will their shot at love turn into an epic fail?
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How NOT To Kiss A Prince by B Wheeler
When Em’s best friend Carla is cursed to become a hag for all eternity, Em helps her hunt for the perfect prince to kiss her and break the spell. But soon the girls will move to different colleges and Em is running out of chances to tell Carla how she really feels. Something is getting broken at the fairytale ball – Carla’s curse or Em’s heart.
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Two Lives, One Heart by Barbara Lynn Murphy
When techie Josie Molina is volunteered by her boss to visit an elementary school to discuss careers in Technology, she reluctantly agrees. Her reluctance vanishes when she meets and befriends teacher Trish McCann. Josie, an unapologetic lesbian, tries to ignore her attraction to Trish because getting involved with a straight woman is always a bad idea. For her part, Trish realizes that what she thought she knew about her sexuality is all wrong, and she allows herself to give in to her attraction to Josie. Once Trish is sure of her feelings, she knows she must break the news to her mother, Marilyn. In doing so, she learns of a long-buried family secret involving her grandmother Anna and her decades-long affair with her best friend Mary.
Anna O’Brien is a typical 1920s housewife with a husband and two small children. When she meets her new neighbor Mary Monahan, her world is turned upside down when they fall deeply in love. In a time when such a relationship was considered both taboo and immoral, Anna struggles to keep her family intact as she navigates her overpowering feelings for Mary.
This story traverses both past and present to depict the lives of Anna and Trish as they discover their true, authentic selves.
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Does Love Always Win? by Diane Billas
Sam “Shorty” Daniels has a plan for her senior year, but her romantic life being a hot mess was not part of the agenda. Shorty quickly discovers she’s not attracted to her newest boyfriend and fellow marching band member Zack, despite her many hours of daydreaming of what it would be like to date him. Their previous flirting had been so intense that those feelings have to come back again, right?
When Shorty’s asked to show the snarky new girl around high school, Shorty’s instantly intrigued by Kristy’s wit, and they bond over their love of writing. They quickly become inseparable, and Shorty has a breakthrough moment realizing why none of her other relationships worked out.
Just as Shorty is about to break up with Zack, her bitter ex-boyfriend Bryan threatens to out her to the entire school and Shorty’s conservative parents. Will Shorty be able to overcome Bryan’s ridiculous blackmail scheme and get her dream girl?
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Take Her On by Emily Wright
Maya’s final year at university is off to a rocky start.
Between pining for her straight best friend, trying to revitalise her football team after another year of defeat, and dealing with her own family problems, she’s already overwhelmed.
When her arch rival, Jamie Mellor, joins the football squad, it threatens to push her over the edge. Not only is it the last chance to prove her worth as captain, Maya must now find a way to play alongside this annoying loud mouth without losing her mind every five minutes.
Jamie is in desperate need of a fresh start after all the drama at her last university. She wants to keep her head down, focus on football, and listen to her eighties music. Yet it’s immediately clear Maya is going to make life difficult for her—both on and off the pitch. Luckily, Jamie finds riling up her new team captain seriously entertaining.
As the championship draws near and feelings intensify, tensions rise and secrets threaten to unravel. The two rivals must overcome their differences and find a way to win together, but are the games strictly on the field? Or have Maya and Jamie finally met their match?
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Leave a comment
What sapphic book will you be reading for the “sapphic books set in a school or academia” category? Let us know in the comments!
4 Responses
Here are a few others that I considered reading for this category.
The Long Way Home by Rachel Spangler
The Love Factor by Quinn Ivins
Nobody in Particular by Sophie Gonzales
She Gets the Girl by Rachael Lippincott and Alyson Derrick
Quinn Ivins is great–Something’s Different would also be a good one for this category.
Chemistry by Rachael Sommers is also a good one–the MCs are coworkers at a high school.
The Headmistress by Milena McKay