This week’s Sapphic Book Bingo category features books with sapphic characters who is hiding a secret.
It needs to be an important secret that affects the plot in some way. Maybe the character is keeping their true identity secret, hiding something from their past, or concealing something that could change their relationship with the other main character. Whatever the secret is, it should have a real impact on the story rather than being just a minor detail that’s revealed along the way.
15 books with sapphic characters who are hiding a secret
Below, you’ll find 15 recommended books with sapphic characters who are hiding a secret.
Under a Falling Star by Jae
Falling stars are supposed to be a lucky sign, but not for Austen. Her new job as an admin in an international games company isn’t off to a good start. Her first assignment—decorating the Christmas tree in the lobby—results in a trip to the ER, when Dee, the company’s second-in-command, gets hit by the star-shaped tree topper.
Dee blames her instant attraction to Austen on her head wound, not the magic of the falling star. She’s determined not to act on it, especially since Austen has no idea that Dee is practically her boss.
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I Could Never Hate You by Cara Ramsey
Ellen Long knows that she likes girls but she also knows that won’t fly in her homophobic small town. So she keeps her feelings for her best friend, Janae Ruiz, under lock and key. But inevitably, that day finally came when she gave in and kissed Janae in a kiss unlike anything she’d ever experienced before, until three cheerleaders walked in on them.
Janae Ruiz fought her feelings for her best friend Ellen Long from the time they met. Her family, her religious upbringing, and the town they lived in all screamed that loving Ellen would be wrong. But in one moment, she found love, regret, and lost her best friend. When those cheerleaders walked in, Janae threw Ellen to the wolves to protect herself. Now, she sings like a woman possessed, still in love with the girl she threw under the bus to protect herself and absolutely certain that Ellen wouldn’t ever even speak to her again.
But years later, when Ellen Long is a photojournalist for a new music publication, she’s assigned to cover Janae’s band on tour. Can a past of homophobia, pain, and betrayal be forgiven for a future of love? Can Janae’s bandmates get these two women to let down their walls and at least forgive each other? Can they, perhaps, even mend what was once broken?
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Reservations by Donna Jay
When a mysterious stranger rescues Rose Collins from the date from hell, she’s intrigued despite her scepticism about fate. The last thing this curvy office manager expects is for her alluring saviour to reappear with a job offer.
Alex Carpenter can’t stop thinking about the confident woman she rescued. Her dream of opening an exclusive women’s retreat with fantasy-themed suites finally feels within reach – if only she can convince Rose to join her business venture. But what started as professional admiration is quickly complicated by undeniable chemistry.
Rose never imagined her next career move would involve managing a hotel where every room tells a different story, each more provocative than the last. Worse, her new boss seems more interested in her organisational skills than exploring their sizzling attraction.
As they work in close quarters, maintaining professional boundaries becomes increasingly impossible.
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Endurance by Elaine Burnes
What if you were stranded. On a spaceship. Four light years from Earth. With a hundred tourists. And you are the captain. Then things start to go wrong. Welcome aboard the Endurance. It’ll be the trip of a lifetime.
For five years, Captain Lyn Randall of the Endurance has ferried tourists around the solar system for Omara Tours. Now, as she takes in the rings of Saturn for the last time, she’s looking forward to indulging in simpler pleasures like flying antique airplanes over her childhood home in Montana.
The routine tour becomes anything but when a mysterious phenomenon flings Endurance and two other ships into the Rigil Kentaurus system, four light years from Earth. Stranded, with no way to get back.
Lyn’s first duty is to rescue survivors from the other ships before she faces the most daunting task of her life, much less her career. She has to control her fears and grief to lead an untested crew and panicked guests on a quest for a new home planet or risk a return to their solar system that could kill them all. Unfortunately, Lyn’s past with a clandestine military mission gone wrong doesn’t sit well with some guests and crew members, and they don’t quite trust her.
Diana Squires, rescued from another stranded vessel, grudgingly reveals her identity as the daughter of scientists who researched traversable wormholes. To complicate everything, Lyn develops an affection for Diana, something at odds with her responsibilities as captain and her unhealed grief over her own lost loved ones.
Feelings aside, suspicions aside, her own doubts about her ability to lead aside, Lyn has to fight to protect her passengers, her ship, and her heart.
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The Music Room by Eline Evans
A violinist with lots of success but a messy private life.
A genius but troubled sister caught up on the far left.
A girlfriend who’s not the strait-laced government secretary she appears to be.
A sapphic love story about courage, sisterhood, deceit and redemption.
Copenhagen, 1973. Violinist Elinor has only ever known success. As a virtuoso, her job at the Royal Symphony is a breeze, and she goes casually from girlfriend to gorgeous girlfriend. The only trouble, which Elinor tries her best to forget, is the ghost of her tragic childhood and the distance of her sister, Helene, who has been pulled into the world of far-left revolutionaries.
When Elinor is chosen to play at the ball for the Queen’s ascension, her triumph seems complete. The performance is a great success, and at the palace, Elinor meets Annemarie, the secretary to the Prime Minister. Annemarie, strait-laced and brilliant but with her own tragic past, is unlike any woman Elinor has known before. For the first time in her life, Elinor falls hard.
Meanwhile, Helene drifts closer to violent extremism. Desperate to hold on to her, Elinor agrees to help her sister even if it means deceiving the government worker Annemarie. Elinor’s balancing act between her two worlds becomes ever more difficult. When Helene is betrayed by her fellow revolutionaries, Elinor is forced to make a terrible choice. A choice which reveals that neither Helene nor Annemarie are what they seem.
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Her Shadow so Dark and Lovely by Elsie Hawthorne
A cursed scribe. A nightmare Librarian. Giving her heart could cost her everything.
For years I have dedicated myself to the Library, staying hidden and unremarkable. As a lowly scribe, I can escape the weight of my family’s disappointment. My failure to manifest my family’s magical lineage might have destroyed my life in the high court, but in the Library, I can reclaim my own fate. When I find a book on my desk, I don’t think twice before opening it. I should have.
It changes everything. I wake with no voice, no memory, a dark curse mark spreading across my skin and the haunting attention of a Librarian. Entirely captivating, Sila is a high-handed, overbearing nightmare, the sort of creature I should avoid at all costs. But when my past comes for me? She saves my life and takes me into her shadows.
Because I am neither hidden, nor unremarkable. The Library has its own plans for me, the high court another, and Sila? She might be the only thing that can save me.
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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 to complete. Everything is going to plan until she discovers the beautiful winged girl caged underground. Her decision to rescue Evie and to escort her home, 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’ll need each other. Aurora is powerful but she’s also emotionally scarred. It will be up to Evie to save Aurora from herself and to fight for them, before it is too late.
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Her Daffodil Queen by Heather Salter-Purves
They sacrificed the wrong girl.
When Ceryse’s name is drawn for the Daffodil Crown, her family celebrates the wealth and honor it will bring. But Ceryse knows the truth the village hides—no crowned girl ever returns. They’re sacrifices, offered to appease ancient gods in blood rituals that keep their world in balance. What the gods don’t expect is for their sacrifice to fight back. Dragged into the Welsh underworld, Ceryse finds herself face-to-face with Morghan, the lonely ruler who has dispensed justice from her Onyx throne for over a century. Morghan should complete the ritual, but this fierce mortal girl awakens something she thought lost forever. As Ceryse discovers the seductive power flowing through her bloodline and Morghan dares to hope for connection after decades of solitude, their growing bond threatens the delicate balance between realms. The gods demand their sacrifice. But some girls are worth defying heaven and hell for.
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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.
Follow Addison Warren as she begins to unravel different layers of Crisa Grayson. Something Tragic is a coming of age, LGBT novel about self-discovery and finding love.
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Veil of Silence by K’Anne Meinel
Five years ago, Lieutenant Marsha Gagliano disappeared when her helicopter crashed in Afghanistan. Her wife held out hope for her return, but with no word from the army after all that time, she begins to realize she may have to move on without her.
At the embassy in Kabul, a burqa-clad woman arrives at the gate with two young children in tow. The black-haired, brown-eyed woman looks like an Afghan native, but her American accent belies this. She identifies herself as Lieutenant Marsha Gagliano, all the while keeping a close eye out behind her as though at any moment, someone might jump out and snatch her back.
Questions arise regarding her disappearance and reappearance and the army is suspicious. The children are obviously hers. Has she consorted with the enemy? How will her wife react to these children? Will she be able to accept children she had no part in conceiving?
What is this woman hiding beneath her chador? What secrets lie behind her veil of silence?
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Come By Me by Kate Hershberger
An extended vacation in New Orleans leads to a month’s long tryst with an attractive neighbor…
After 15 years, Sophie Baxter is ready to move on. Her bestselling Karen Cooper books have brought her a lot of success and a comfortable life, but she knows it’s time for the series to come to an end. Her publisher is asking for one final book and the first novel is about to become a movie. While she’s never been comfortable with the idea of having her work becoming a movie, she has been promised that she will have a say in the creative process. She thinks she should be able to get through making the movie, no problem. That is until she meets the studio head.
Jazz Duvall just got a great promotion. Ten years of working for one of the best woman producers in Hollywood, she’s been put in charge of a studio that will oversee the movie adaptation of a novel that Hollywood has been after for years. She’s excited to prove herself as an executive producer and studio head. She can’t believe her eyes when she walks into a production meeting and sees her summer fling sitting in the conference room.
Despite their attraction to one another, Sophie and Jazz agree to keep things professional while they work together. The more they work together, the closer they become. And the closer they become, the harder it is to ignore their attraction to each other.
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After the Story by Kit Stone
Can love bloom when trust is fragile?
TV journalist Mattie Elliott lives for the rush of a breaking story—until she becomes one. Scarred by injury and sudden fame, she retreats to England’s south-west coast in search of peace.
Chief inspector Nell Abraham values calm, control, and solitude. The last thing she needs is a headstrong reporter prying into her world or stirring something she thought she’d buried long ago.
But a suspicious fire forces them together, and as attraction deepens, secrets and old wounds resurface.
Can two guarded hearts learn to trust again, or will fear keep the two women from a love that could change everything?
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The Sea by Madeline Konrad
I do remember the old story.
You know the one. The Queen, last of her line, in the frozen reaches of the East.
The betrayal.
For thousands of years, the stars have been fixed in place, separating the sea above from the sea below.
Sister Elegy remembers when the star, Ailta, fell to earth decades ago. Back then, things appeared so simple. It was Elegy’s duty as Ailta’s chosen guardian to ward her path to the tomb of the Queen. For it was foretold that a star would bring the Queen back to life, and usher in the glory of Her renewed reign.
But along the journey, both Ailta and Elegy learned things are not so plain as they appear.
Together, they faced the dangers of the road, the weight of Sister Elegy’s regrets, the all too real shadows of her past, all while silently grappling with the uncertain purpose of their destination…
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The Biokin Chronicles Omnibus by Spencer Rose
A girl with secret powers. A pilot with a hidden agenda. A galaxy that won’t wait.
Sixteen-year-old Addison Nora is finally leaving her home planet for a once-in-a-lifetime pilgrimage across the stars. But her journey takes an unexpected turn when she helps a creature aboard the Evo Corporation space station and awakens strange new powers she doesn’t understand.
Addi is suddenly thrust into a universe of secrets, sabotage, and buried truths. And Mila Riley, the daring pilot escorting her? She’s got secrets of her own. With danger closing in from all sides, Addi must figure out who to trust before Mila’s choices get them both killed.
What they uncover could change the course of the galaxy — if it doesn’t destroy them first.
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Culinary Chaos by Adrian J. Smith
Angelica Shields wasn’t made for reality television. But she does know how to manage hotels and bring them from rags to riches. Which is the only reason she agreed to not only produce but star in this new show. It’s a risk, but it’s one that she’s already sacrificed for, so she will make sure Hotel Bombshell succeeds. And she absolutely will not fall in love with her straight, married co-star.
As a last minute addition to Hotel Bombshell, celebrity chef Hope Lawrence already feels like she only got the job because of her husband. Pairing her up with the ever-in-control and demanding Angelica Shields as a co-host is anything but a match made in heaven. Hope just wants Angelica to like her, or maybe just tolerate her.
As filming begins and the restaurants Hope’s in charge of fixing become more chaotic by the episode, her life is thrown into a chaos of its own. Because she’s attracted to a woman—to Angelica—the iciest woman of them all. And watching her melt layer by layer is the exact pick-me-up that Hope needs.
But the question remains, will their new reality show be a hit or flop?
Or will their lives fall apart just as their show takes off?
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What sapphic book will you be reading for the “sapphic characters who are hiding a secret” category? Let us know in the comments!
