Books about coming out later in life (Sapphic Reading Challenge #18)

This week’s Sapphic Reading Challenge post is all about characters who come out later in life. For the purpuse of this reading challenge, let’s define “later in life” as a character who’s in her 30s, 40s, 50s, and beyond.

Pick a book in which the protagonist comes out as LGBTQIA, either because it took them longer to figure out they aren’t straight or because they were struggling to come out to friends and family.

Character is a teacher or professor (Sapphic Reading Challenge #17)

This week’s Sapphic Reading Challenge post features books in which the main character is a teacher or a professor.

I know some readers stay away from teacher romances because they assume these books always include a teacher/student romance, but that’s not the case with the books I picked for this category. In almost all of the books recommended, the romance is between the teacher and a colleague or someone who’s not involved with her professional life at all. If the romance is between the teacher or professor and one of her students, the author handled it in a way that avoids crossing ethical boundaries as much as possible. 

Grumpy & sunshine romance (Sapphic Reading Challenge #16)

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.

“One-night stand to forever” romance novels (Sapphic Reading Challenge #9)

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.

Character is a book lover (Sapphic Reading Challenge #8)

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.

Character with a disability or mental illness (Sapphic Reading Challenge #7)

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.