This week’s Sapphic Reading Challenge post features f/f romances in which a grumpy character falls for a character with a sunny, upbeat personality.
There’s a bit of an overlap with ice-queen romances at times, so you might want to check out the ice-queen romance recommendations to see if any of these would fit the grumpy & sunshine category too.
This week’s Sapphic Reading Challenge features romance novels in which the characters never intended to become involved in a long-term relationship with each other. The romance starts with a one-night stand, a fling, or a friends-with-benefits arrangement.
This week’s Sapphic Reading Challenge features characters who love books.
Most of them work with books for a living. They are writers, librarians, book editors, cover designers, audiobook narrators, bookstore owners/employees, comic book artists, literary agents, translators, book bloggers, reviewers, or avid readers.
Category #7 of the Sapphic Reading Challenge features another group of people that is definitely underrepresented in WLW & lesbian fiction: characters who have a disability.
It can be a book about a character with a physical disability, a chronic illness, or a mental disorder. When you pick the book you’re going to read, don’t forget that some disabilities are invisible or less apparent, for example, chronic pain, fibromyalgia, migraines, and mental illnesses.
This week’s Sapphic Reading Challenge category features a trope that seems to be quite popular in women-loving women romance. I call it the “only one bed” trope. It includes two characters who are not (yet) a couple having to share the only available bed.
Usually, that leads to hilarious situations: one character clinging to the edge of the bed so she won’t give away her attraction, or they wake up in the middle of the night, cuddled up to each other. And sometimes, a whole lot more than cuddling happens.
The third category of the Sapphic Reading Challenge is a theme that I see a lot, especially in WLW & lesbian romance: books in which the protagonist returns to her hometown after years away.
Maybe it’s the fact that many queer people have to leave their hometown to be able to be their authentic selves and then have to face their past sooner or later—families that might not have reacted too well to their coming out or a first crush they left behind.
Happy New Year and welcome to the Sapphic Reading Challenge 2021!
The Sapphic Reading Challenge is a fun, year-long event for readers of women-loving women fiction. It runs from January 1 to December 31, 2021. You can join any time you want. You can earn badges and win ebooks and signed paperbacks at the end of the year. The real prize, however, is discovering new favorite books and authors all year long!
This week’s F/F Fiction Crossword Puzzle features WLW & lesbian opposites-attract romance novels—a romance in which the two main characters have very different personalities. So, here’s the WLW & lesbian opposites-attract romance puzzle: You can either download the crossword grid by right-clicking on the picture below or download the PDF with the crossword grid and the clues. You don’t necessarily need a printer to play. You don’t need to send in the filled-out puzzle; all you need to do is email me the solution phrase. Here are the clues for the WLW & lesbian opposites-attract romance puzzle: Just …
This week’s F/F Fiction Crossword Puzzle features WLW & lesbian rich girl/poor girl romance novels—a romance in which one of the two main characters is wealthy, while the other has significantly less money.
This week’s F/F Fiction Crossword Puzzle features WLW & lesbian books with first responders. These characters arrive first on the scene of an emergency. Some are paramedics or EMTs; some are police officers or firefighters, and there’s also a lifeguard.