This week’s category in the Sapphic Book Bingo is a fan-favorite trope: sapphic childhood friends-to-lovers romances!
The two main characters have grown up together and were maybe even best friends as children before falling in love as adults.
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15 sapphic childhood friends-to-lovers romances
Below, you’ll find a list of 15 recommended sapphic childhood friends-to-lovers romances:
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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Courtship by Anna Pulley
Reaux Briggs is no stranger to cruising; each night a different woman warms her bed. She doesn’t exactly mind it, as intimacy is something she gave up on long ago. But when her hot nights land her in hotter water and she’s ousted as drummer by her metal band, Reaux thinks things couldn’t possibly get worse. Then she walks onto the deck of a long-awaited holiday cruise only to run face-first into the woman who broke her heart.
Catherine “Fitz” Fitzgerald is an up-and-coming divorce lawyer too busy trying to make partner to care about her love life, or anything approximating one. But thanks to an antiquated norm at her family’s firm, Fitz needs to find a partner in order to get promoted. As if her mother setting her up on horrible blind dates wasn’t bad enough, Fitz also has to contend with being in forced proximity to Reaux, her high school sweetheart and the girl she’s never really been able to get out of her head.
Increasingly pulled together by feelings they can’t quite ignore—not to mention a tropical hurricane that threatens the lives of everyone aboard the ship—Reaux and Fitz must learn to navigate the emotional and literal storms swirling about them. Will they be able to mend their past hurts and reach safe harbors, or has their ship sailed once and for all?
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A Dare to Remember by TB Markinson & Miranda MacLeod
Fifteen years ago, a game of Truth or Dare ended in a kiss that would forever change two women’s lives. Can they open up their hearts after years of hurt?
After years away, Clara Chandler finds herself back in her Vermont hometown, nursing wounds from a shattered life in New York City. But her return comes with a bitter surprise: the inn her family once owned is on the verge of being sold to the one person she never wanted to see again.
Once an outcast, Lucy has transformed her life and is ready to reclaim her family’s legacy by purchasing the inn that slipped through their fingers generations ago. But Clara’s return throws an unexpected curveball as the woman has no intention of letting Lucy win.
When outside forces intervene to threaten them both, Clara must swallow her pride and partner up with her former high school rival to save the inn. In the process, Clara discovers that Lucy is no longer the rebellious girl she once knew, but an intriguing—and sexy—woman whose presence has Clara tied up in knots.
With each passing day, the simmering tension between them ignites a passion neither can deny. But to move forward, Clara and Lucy must both confront the hurt and fear that has held them back.
In this heartfelt tale of redemption and desire, Clara and Lucy will learn that sometimes the greatest risks lead to the sweetest rewards. Will they find the courage to embrace their feelings and turn a second chance into a lifelong romance?
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Sleigh Bells Ring by Alyson Root
For Nicole Robinson, Christmas means returning to the family home in Hebden Bridge with her sister Beth and their brother Liam, who has lived with permanent delays since a childhood accident. Though Beth and Nicole have grown up and moved away, every December the Robinson kids reunite for a month of family and festive traditions.
One tradition, however, has always stood out: the mysterious source of the sleigh bells they’ve heard every Christmas for as long as they can remember. The magic of it all keeps them searching year after year, convinced the answer is just one clever plan—or perhaps something more magical—away.
And while the Robinson household is brimming with holiday cheer, Nicole’s love life is anything but merry. Every year, like clockwork, she finds herself single by Christmas—dumped by one girlfriend after another who can’t handle the intense month-long family tradition. This year is no different, and Beth has even made her an Advent calendar to track her sister’s inevitable seasonal breakups. But a familiar face from the Robinsons’ past begs to ask if maybe, just maybe, Nicole’s luck is about to change.
Niamh, a childhood friend of Liam’s and the only one who stayed by his side after the accident, has returned to Hebden Bridge. A decade away has turned her into a stunning Irish woman with raven hair and sparkling green eyes, and as the scent of hot chocolate fills the air, she stirs something warm and unexpected in Nicole.
Can Niamh fit into the Robinson family’s quirky Christmas traditions, or will this holiday romance end like all the others? As sleigh bells ring and festive cheer fills the air, Nicole just might discover that the real meaning of Christmas isn’t in the mystery of the bells, but in the magic of love.
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Darcy Comes Home by Jen Silver
After twenty-five years Darcy and Angie meet again and from the faintly flickering embers of their forbidden teenage love, a flame erupts. Family complications arise including a reluctant engagement, secret surrogacy, and a persistent ex-wife.
Villagers in Professor Darcy Belsfield’s childhood home of Sycamore Haven remember her being sent away to a Christian conversion camp in Canada when her father discovered her making love to her school friend, Angie.
Angie has never married but she does have a past and some unenthusiastic plans for the future. Will the differences in their lives doom the chance of Darcy and Angie discovering if they can build a future together?
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Love, Hate & Earthquakes by Jessica Rush
Charlie is determined to make her senior year at Port Charlotte High School, the year where she becomes top of the class in Maths, wins the 400-metre sprint at the school’s athletics, and finally knock Paisley off the first-tier pedestal, where she stands proud and maybe just a bit too smugly. Paisley likes being number one, but she also wants to make Charlie see that there is more to the world than winning.
Tension rises between the girls, and to make things more complicated, the earth around them seems to like not staying still. Earthquakes have started again, causing Charlie to fight through anxiety attacks and to grow feelings that she has never felt before.
Can Paisley show Charlie that winning isn’t everything? Can Charlie learn to love herself and realise it’s okay to be different from everyone around her? Will the earthquakes continue to grow just like the feelings Charlie realises she has towards someone she thought she hated, and make everything she thought she knew crash down around her?
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The Hex Next Door by Lou Wilham
For the Crow Witch, Icarus “Rus” Ashthorne, Moondale seemed the perfect hiding place. But like they always say, you can’t go home again, and Rus finds out quickly that nothing is how she remembered, while at the same time very little has changed. Then she comes face to face with the only woman she’s ever loved, Az Elwood, and… well, things get messier than she thought they ever could.
The Elwoods are a staple of Moondale, respected, feared, powerful, and Azure Elwood was always happy with her place amongst them. Happy to play the part of the good little witch, until Rus Ashthorne. Eleven years ago, Rus got on a bus and left Azure behind, but she’s back, with two little girls trailing her like ducklings, and enough unspoken things between them to drown the town.
Now witch hunters are knocking at their proverbial door, the council of magic is being a real pain in the ass, and Rus wonders how much magic it’ll take to protect the people she loves from herself and the danger following her.
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My So Called Bloody Life by Mia Kazi
When Yashica suddenly realised she had feelings for one of her closest friends and blurts them out to her, she was totally unprepared for the storm of hate her classmates unleashed upon her and the backlash from her Asian family. Gradually she realises who her real friends are and rebuilds her relationship with her family and tries to find a way to make peace with herself and her sexuality. Yashica throws herself into her love of cricket and finally is allowed to gain some success and acceptance. Perhaps one day she could even like herself enough to believe that someone else might like her too.
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The Memories of Marlie Rose by Morgan Lee Miller
Would you want to forget the only woman you’ve ever loved? Marlie Rose does.
Everyone thinks Broadway legend Marlie Rose has it all: a fabulous career spanning over five decades, all the major awards, and a lifetime in the spotlight. Only Marlie knows the heavy weight of her memories. When a new, experimental procedure promises to relieve trauma and heartbreak by erasing unwanted memories, Marlie signs up, desperate to let go of her tumultuous childhood, grief, and broken heart.
As Marlie recalls her memories and decides which ones to keep and which to erase, she unexpectedly reunites with Eleanor Olson, the woman she’s been in love with for forty-seven years. As her heartbreak fades and her heart races anew for Eleanor, Marlie discovers their love isn’t as dead as she thought it was, and she starts regretting the procedure.
Eleanor might be the only person who can help her restore her memories, but remembering might break her heart all over again.
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All You Want for the Holidays by Quinton Li
Perrin Pavlou is finally accepted into the Sunlit Creative Space residency program after applying for every round to date. With promises of a luxury villa in a sunny beach town, artistic strangers to find companionship in, and a week to work on her photo collection dedicated to the residency’s experience, she is ready to embrace her long-desired dream.
Until she finds out that her ex-best friend is the only resident she’ll be spending the rest of the week and Christmas with.
Inari Kan wants to start doing things for themself. Their people-pleasing tendencies and high-masking lifestyle means they’re longing for a holiday to just relax, write, and be themself.
But how are they supposed to do that when they’re spending almost every moment of their days with their high-school crush?
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Fool for Love by Rachael Sommers
After her father’s death, property developer Chloe Roberts has only one goal: to renovate and sell the old family house as quickly as possible so she never has to return home ever again. The last thing she expects is to run into Amy Edwards, the first woman she ever loved.
Dairy farmer Amy is deeply shaken by Chloe’s sudden reappearance. Burnt bridges from bad teenage decisions still fill her with regret. What if she reaches out, though? Just a little? Can some bridges ever be saved?
As the childhood friends grow closer, old feelings start to resurface. Should those old, aching wounds be left in the past, along with all the mistakes they might only repeat? Or should the women again risk their hearts trying to conquer the distance between them—one last time?
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The Summer I Fell in Love by Reba Bale
Phoebe
The first summer I have my freedom from the religious cult I was raised in, my grandmother sends me to a summer camp for teens. There I learned to swim, how to dress like a ‘normal’ girl, how to wear lipstick, and most importantly, I fell in love. But like all summer romances, ours had to end. Until we find ourselves back at the place where it all began…
Luna
I never forgot the girl I fell in love with at camp, but we were only teens then. We both grew up and moved on. Nostalgia makes me agree to volunteer at the same summer camp where I spent so many happy days. But when I see Phoebe again, I realize fate may have had a hand in our coming back together.
She says that she just wants to be friends this time around, so I make it my mission to wear her down and remind her how much fun it is to let loose and have some fun. We live in different states and have very different lives, but I’m determined to make this work.
They fell in love at first sight, and second sight too. Can they find forever?
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One I Knew by Rita Potter
Hollywood darling Mallory St. Cloud has it all: An Emmy, Grammy, and now an Oscar. She’s forty, feted, fabulous…and empty. On a whim, she leaves LA for Maplecrest, Pennsylvania, the hometown she fled when she was eighteen.
Dependable Andi Grainger, owner of Maplecrest’s successful handy business Chicks with Tool Belts, is startled to see her famous former best friend back in town.
Soon, it’s as if their friendship never ended. Mallory discovers the connection she’s been missing in her shallow social circle. But Andi has to deal with the fact her straight, gorgeous, unattainable friend, the subject of Andi’s hopeless teenage crush, is right in front of her again.
Except…Mallory’s not quite so straight anymore. And there’s a whole lot of pain beneath the surface they’ve been tiptoeing around. Is it time to be honest with each other at long last?
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Take Two by Stephanie Shea
Being in love is Whitney Dimaano’s favorite past time. Though lately, she can’t seem to get it right. She’s tried—she is trying—but it just hasn’t…clicked, and maybe her time would be better spent focusing on all the things that are actually good in her life. The gym she all but built with her own two hands, the new-found bond with her brother and sister, her friends… Anything but chasing the ghost of how it felt with the woman who left her behind.
Award-winning documentarian Andy Vahn dreamed of being an extraordinary filmmaker. Her recipe for success is a fusion of meticulous planning, diligence, and never letting anything stand in her way. Not even love. When a trip to convince a misanthropic celebrity chef to appear in her docuseries leads her home, Andy knows it won’t be easy. Least of all because she hasn’t been back in six years. Hasn’t seen Whitney in six years. Still, it’s true what they say. You never forget your first.
Maybe Andy’s return is the closure Whitney needs. But what if all it does is reaffirm Andy’s deepest fear?
She should never have left.
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Might As Well Be An Ocean by Kellan McKnight
Mara Davies learned early to keep her heart on ice. Abandoned by her mother, she raised herself while her father drowned his grief in alcohol. Everything changed when she met Fayth Havens, the one person who truly sees her and accepts everything that makes Mara different: her overstimulated mind, wandering thoughts, even her comfort in a pair of worn-out Family Guy pajamas, holes in the ass and all.
Now approaching their thirties, Mara and Fayth are best friends, though unspoken desires simmer just beneath the surface. When they strike a “friends with benefits” pact, Mara risks everything for a connection that burns hotter than she ever expected.
A twist of fate—and a piece of cake—lead to a fake engagement, forcing Mara and Fayth into an intimate tangle of buried truths. As misunderstandings threaten to pull them apart, Mara feels the distance between them might as well be an ocean. Can she open her heart to the love she’s convinced herself isn’t meant for her?
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Leave a comment
What sapphic book will you read for the “sapphic childhood friends-to-lovers” category? Let us know in the comments!
9 Responses
The Summer of Our Discontent by Robin Alexander.
Take Two by Stephanie Shea
I put Whenever You’re Ready by Rachel Runya Katz in this category.
Count your Lucky Stars by Alexandria Bellefleur
One I knew by Rita Potter
I love a return to hometown story, which is usually the place where the childhood friends meet back up in the books that I have read.
How Sweet It Is by Melissa Brayden would work for this category as well.
A Dare to Remember by TB Markinson & Miranda MacLeod
I just finished Kate Christie’s Girls of Summer series, and it counts as a childhood-to-lovers story, especially book 2: Game Time. But since the series follows the same couple, I think any/most would work.
Happy Birthday! 😊