Jae

Sapphic Slow-burn romances

Sapphic books with an unusual first date (Book Unicorn #5)

sapphic books unusual first date

This week’s Sapphic Book Bingo category features sapphic books in which the main character goes on an unusual first date.

What makes it an unusual first date is totally up to you. It could be an unusual date activity, the setting could be unusual, or something unexpected could happen. So there’s a lot of room for interpretation, but you’ll find some suggestions below.

 

15 sapphic books with an unusual first date

Below, you’ll find 15 recommended books in which the main characters go on an unusual first date.

 

Wrong Number, Right Woman by Jae

A single text message can change everything!

Flirting has never been Denny’s strong suit, but so what if she’s too shy to ask women out? She’s content with her simple life, working as a cashier and helping her sister raise her niece.

But then she gets a wrong-number text message from a stranger named Eliza, asking her of all people for dating advice!

Eliza is Denny’s total opposite: witty, outgoing—and straight. Despite their differences, the accidental text sparks an unlikely friendship. Soon, Eliza—self-proclaimed queen of disastrous first dates—would rather banter back and forth with Denny than to keep trying her luck at online dating.

When they meet in person, there’s an instant connection. But what Eliza is feeling can’t be attraction, right? It doesn’t mean a thing that she’s starting to wish the guys she dates would be more like Denny. Or does it?

Can the wrong number lead to the right woman after all?

Available at:

Ylva Publishing

Amazon

Apple Books

Audible

 

The Proposal by T.B. Markinson

Marley Royce has just two goals for her seventy-two-hour stay in London: land a career-making business deal and finally meet the woman of her dreams face to face.

Fate has something else in mind.

The mega conglomerate Marley works for wants to acquire the venerable but struggling Braithwaite Books. The centuries-old shop is owned by Cleo Braithwaite, a woman with a fierce and frightening reputation. Cleo turns out to be nothing like the rumors but refuses to sit still long enough to be dazzled by the meticulous spreadsheets and slides Marley has prepared to seal the deal. Instead of making her proposal, Marley soon finds herself on an impromptu walking tour of London with the charming Cleo.

Even though Marley has a dinner date that night with the woman she’s been chatting with online and was convinced was her soulmate, she can’t ignore the feelings her bewitching guide stirs up inside as they explore the historic city on foot. What’s more, the longer she’s with Cleo, the more Marley begins to question the business deal she’s been sent to make.

Should Marley stick with the plan, or is a single life-changing day with Cleo worth blowing up the future Marley was so certain she wanted?

Available at:

Amazon

Audible

 

The Missing Piece by Kat Jackson

Order. Purpose. Predictability.

Dr. Renee Lawler organizes her life around those principles, and rarely does she stray from them. After all, they’ve brought her this far in life, where she enjoys her role as English department chair at a small but reputable New England university. She isn’t known for being lenient or a pushover; Renee very much appreciates that her academic reputation instills sparks of fear in students’ hearts.

Whether there’s room in her own heart for anything more than literature and bossing people around—truthfully, Renee hasn’t allowed herself time to discover that possibility. While she doesn’t love being described as “problematically independent,” she takes pride in how much she’s accomplished on her own.

Everything in Renee’s life is perfectly in order until one fall weekend, when her world collides with possibility and the past, setting off a tidal wave of changes even she couldn’t have predicted.

Available at:

Bella Books

Amazon

 

Taking a Chance on Love by Catherine Maiorisi

Officer Quincy Adams is a hero. She pulled eleven people from burning cars and risked her own life to save the twelfth—a woman trapped in a car that could explode at any moment. But the event begins to trigger flashbacks to another time. Another tragedy. Trying to avoid the depression that she’s certain is just around the corner, Quincy heads to the local lesbian bar in search of light and life.

Lindy James is a loner. She’s only at the bar to celebrate her best friend’s birthday. But something about the bedraggled woman, whose image is breaking news on the TV, touches her heart and she agrees to drive the stranger home.

But Quincy doesn’t want to be alone and Lindy agrees to stay as long as Quincy doesn’t expect sex or ask personal questions. One night turns into three intimate but sexless nights. Then Monday morning Quincy asks Lindy for a date. And Lindy flees.

Thrown together by a devastating accident, but kept apart by fears from the past—will Quincy and Lindy take a chance on love?

Available at:

Bella Books

Amazon

Apple Books

 

A Perfect Fifth by Jaycie Morrison

Two divides perfectly into four, not five.

Zara Keller is a survivor turned piano phenomenon living for a big dream. When she’s invited to spend the weekend with four long-time friends outside of London, she has little use for luxurious Fullerhill Manor—but Lady Jillian Stansfield might be a different story.

The obligations thrust on Jillian Stansfield as Lady of the Manor center on home and family. Even her best friends expect her to put aside the desire for a meaningful life and carry on her legacy through marriage and children. Will the arrival of a fifth person be enough to tip the balance of their “gang of four” in her favor?

Zara challenges Jillian to pursue grander plans and stirs something new and profound, compelling Jillian to be true to herself and make the hardest decisions of her life. But when tragedy strikes, saving Jillian may cost Zara the goal of a position at the Royal College of Music, and the chance at love.

Available at:

Bold Strokes Books

Amazon

Apple Books

 

Free Fall at Angel Creek by Julie Tizard

Hundreds of people on Flight 402 vanish in an instant.

When the airplane carrying her sister is reported missing, then later found a smoking wreck, Detective Dee Rawlings never had the chance to finally reconcile after years of estrangement. She’s desperate to find out why the plane crashed, but Dr. River Dawson, the exacting and relentless aircraft accident investigator, believes Dee’s good intentions are interfering with her case and wants her gone. All that changes when Dee discovers critical evidence that doesn’t add up.

Dee and River must find a way to work together to solve the mystery of what happened to Flight 402, all while keeping their inconvenient and unprofessional attraction in check. Their search for answers at Angel Creek will risk their lives and maybe even their hearts.

Available at:

Bold Strokes Books

Amazon

Apple Books

 

Petrichor Blooms by Mindi Briar

Danya Xiang would rather dig potatoes than wield a blaster. Raised as a member of the Greenjacket rebel organization, she’s content to stay away from military glory and spend her days in food production—until her soldier twin, Nox, is injured right before a mission. Nox begs Danya to take her place, hoping to use their secret telepathic link to spy through Danya’s eyes.

Available at:

Amazon

Apple Books

 

Transistor: Hearts of Heroes 2 by Molly J. Bragg

When Naomi Woodward’s doctor recommended her for a clinical trial, it seemed like the answer to her prayers. She was finally able to get her gender confirmation surgery and the surgery was a resounding success. She finally looked and felt like the woman she always knew she was.

Her new face and new body finally helped her work up the nerve to ask out Anika, the beautiful nurse that lived across the hall. To her delight Anika said yes, but when they are attacked during their date, Naomi quickly discovers that the experimental procedure she went through had some unexpected side effects, and that when Anika told her things with her family were complicated, she really should have listened.

Now, armed with superpowers she barely understands, a snarky artificial intelligence in her head, and allies that include a Superhero, a Dragon, and the literal Devil, she has to keep Anika safe from the archangel who’s out to kill her while they work desperately to prevent a second civil war in heaven.

Available at:

Desert Palm Press

Amazon

 

Sister Matthew and Sister Rose: Novices in Love by Carol Anne Douglas

Maureen Collins, recently named Sister Matthew in the novitiate at St. Euphrosnye’s convent in Western Maryland in 1962, doubts the existence of God. She entered the convent for several reasons: she thinks being surrounded by believers might help her believe; she knows she’s attracted to women and wants to avoid pressure to date men and marry; and she feels guilty about something that happened when she was in high school.

She quickly falls in love with Rose Clancy, now Sister Rose, another novice who also is attracted to women. Rose is more religious, but she reciprocates Sister Matthew’s feelings. She grew up with an alcoholic mother and found a refuge among the nuns who taught her.

As the two move through postulancy and the novitiate, they encounter many challenges from the strict rules to memories of their respective pasts. The memory of an old murder intrudes in the present.

Available at:

Amazon

Apple Books

 

May I Call You Mistress? by Ruby Scott

If the woman that filled your teenage sexual fantasies walks back into your life seventeen years later, more beautiful and bolder than you thought possible, would you be able to resist?

Photographer Abby Mason comes to her friends rescue, stepping in at the last minute to cover a product shoot, but when she meets the client, the stunning redhead, Victoria Fraser, Abby’s world changes forever.

When the power of fantasy consumes reality, Abby has only one question, “May I Call You Mistress?”

The most intoxicating moments in life are ones we earn. But how hard would you work for one of those moments?

Available at:

Amazon

Apple Books

 

Must Love Silence by Lucy Bexley

Reese Walker doesn’t like people. What she likes is silence and being left alone. The thing she loves most about recording audiobooks is that she doesn’t have to leave her Chicago apartment to do it. And she hasn’t for nearly a year. But with an unavoidable bill going to collections that puts her sister’s treatment at risk, she has no choice but to take a job that pushes her out of her comfort zone.

After a disastrous blow to her career, Arden Abbott needs a comeback. Step one: a successful book launch, including an audiobook. She doesn’t trust anyone else to oversee every aspect of the project. It has to be flawless. Arden knows she’s ready to resume the life she had before her dreams fell apart, all she has to do is prove it to everyone around her.

When Reese and Arden meet, sparks fly and then they combust. Will Reese crack under the constant pressure from Arden? Can she possibly read a sex scene with the woman who wrote it interrupting to correct her pronunciation of words she is saying 100% correctly? Or can they step outside their comfort zones long enough to meet in the middle…

Available at:

Amazon

Audible

 

Sigrid & Elyn: A Tale from Norvegr by Edale Lane

Sigrid the Valiant is legendary throughout the kingdoms of Norvegr for her heroic deeds, but her love has yet to find a home. Now, racing on the heels of her father’s murder, a neighboring kingdom’s raids signal an all-out conflict.

Elyn is a young shieldmaiden with a score to settle, fighting her own insecurities along with enemies who threaten her homeland, but she suspects a more menacing danger lurks on the horizon.

When the two clash on opposite sides of their shield walls, sparks fly from both their swords and passions. But when they talk, the fierce women discover an antagonist’s plot has pitted their kingdoms against each other.

Can Sigrid and Elyn move past their suspicions and differences to forge a binding love and foil the villain’s scheme, or will the enemy’s assassins end their search for the truth?

Available at:

Amazon

  

Cure for Insomnia by Laina Villeneuve

According to her family, Karla Hernandez spends far too many hours working in the lab. A dedicated research scientist, she has contributed to a drug that could vastly improve the quality of life in diabetic patients. Her quality of life, however, could use some help.

She thought she would sleep better when she finished grad school or her post-doc, but launching a cutting-edge clinical trial isn’t helping. So when her eleven-year-old niece approaches her about participating in a school science project about insomnia, Karla agrees. Finding a girlfriend was not the conclusion she had anticipated, but Karla is not one to deviate from protocol—especially not when the judge at the science fair has some ideas about helping to cure her insomnia.

All research requires troubleshooting, but Karla isn’t prepared for the complications that threaten to shut down more than her love life. Does she need to find a new project or dig in deeper to her professional work? Or will putting faith in her niece’s research project be the key to her ever elusive sleep?

Available at:

Bella Books

Amazon

Apple Books

 

Whispering Wildwood by Emma Sterner-Radley

Korinne Woodsorrow is trapped. Not only at her parents lumbermill but also in a village where she’s shunned. Worse than that, she’s stuck sacrificing the life she wants for the person she loves.

Next to the lumbermill looms the deadly Whispering Wildwood, with its magical creatures and mystical plants. The wildwood is not to be spoken of and not to be entered.

Yet, when disaster strikes, Korinne has to take her brother–who is all muscles and heart but not much brain–with her into the wildwood on a death-defying quest. Guided by a dashing rogue of a pirate and hunted by mysterious monsters, this quest soon goes deeper into a world of fairytales, danger, and wonder.

Korinne quickly has to figure out who and what to trust. As well as her new future, her sexuality, and of course – what happens if a quest changes into something completely different while you’re on it?

Available at:

Amazon

Audible

 

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Leave a comment and let us know what book you’ll be reading for the “sapphic book with an unusual first date” category!

 

The Romance Bet by Jae

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