We love a good love story and so we are happy to bring you our Top 10 Lesbian Romances – your ultimate guide to finding a great story to satisfy any romantic.
Sheena’s Picks
1 Fated Love by Radclyffe
Theme: Medical Romance (Doctors who fall in love)
What’s it about
What do you do when your carefully planned life takes a wrong turn into hell? When Quinn Maguire, a dashing young trauma surgeon, unaccountably accepts a position as an ER physician, her new boss, Honor Blake, suspects that Quinn is hiding a dark secret. While the two declare an uneasy truce in an effort to work together, both struggle with mutual, and unexpected, attraction. Honor, however, has more than one reason to resist her growing feelings for the attractive newcomer—not the least of which is that her heart belongs to the woman whose wedding ring she wears. Amidst the chaos and drama of a busy emergency room, Quinn and Honor must contend not only with the fragile nature of life, but also with the mysteries of the heart and the irresistible forces of fate.
Tara’s Note: If you’re looking for a good medical romance, you can’t go wrong with Radclyffe. It might be hard to choose just one, but when push comes to shove, Fated Love comes out on top every time. This is one of the first lesbian romances I’ve lever read, and it’s still one of the very best.
Sheena’s Note: What Tara said. We totally agreed on Fated love – and while it is not a new one it is one of the best lesbian romances out there.
Get Fated Love on Amazon
[tweetthis]Fated Love by Radclyffe made this Top 10 list [/tweetthis]
2 Substitute For Love by Karin Kallmaker
Publisher: Bella Books
Theme: Forbidden Love (An Impossible Love)
What it’s about
Like most women in dead-end relationships, Holly Markham was used to finding substitutes for love. Like chocolate. Fun times with good friends. Throwing herself into her work as a mathematician. But throwing herself into the arms of a leather-clad stranger was never on her list. Even when she does exactly that, she’s stunned when the other woman tells her there can be no repeats, no contact, never again.
Reyna Putnam has lived by the rules of her politically ambitious father for years. Increasingly anguished by the work she does at his behest, trysts with women like Holly are all that keep her sane. She tries to banish the memory of Holly as she has so many other women because nothing has changed. She’s trapped in a cage not of her own making.
Holly has no intention of living in the shadows, and sets out to uncover the secrets of her own past hoping they will lead her back to the mysterious Reyna and some kind of future.
Sheena’s Note: This book is just sooooo good. It has everything you could want. Drama, passion and an unbelievably tough choice.
Get Substitute For Love On Amazon
[tweetthis]Substitue For Love by Karin Kallmaker made this Top 10 list [/tweetthis]
3 Tricky Wisdom by Camryn Eyde
Theme: Enemies To Lovers Romance (They hate each other, until they don’t)
What it’s about
Darcy Wright is a closeted lesbian who has been infatuated with her best friend, Taylor, since junior high. Leaving her small northeast Minnesota town for Harvard in a quest to become a doctor, she moves in with med-student Olivia Boyd, a neurotic, anal, gigantic pain in the backside. The first year of juggling medical school is gruelling, but it’s nothing compared to living with Olivia.
Coming out to her friends and family with an anti-climactic flop, Darcy uses her newly publicised sexuality to try and win Taylor’s affections through an ill-hatched scheme that crosses uncomfortable lines. The result is as unexpected to Darcy as Darcy’s affinity for medicine is to Olivia.
The first year of medical school is a nerve-wracking encounter in medicine, learning lessons the hard way, and finding what her heart desires.
Tara’s Note: Another favourite of Sheena’s last year, Tricky Wisdom is a great enemies-to-lovers romance. As she says in her review, how often do you see a lighthearted story that manages huge character growth?
Sheena’s Note: This is one of the best books I read last year. Truly. And Eyde has an amazing ability to turn a mean character into someone you love.
Get Tricky Wisdom on Amazon
4 Courting The Countess by Jenny Frame
Theme: Taming The Beast (A butch who refuses to fall in love can’t resist these feminine wiles)
What it’s about
Professor of Archeology Henrietta “Harry” Knight becomes Countess of Axedale upon her father’s death and takes a sabbatical from Cambridge University to begin refurbishing the long-neglected and run-down Axedale Hall. The child of a loveless marriage, witness to her father’s infidelities and her mother’s pain, Harry has no intention of ever falling in love.
Annie Brannigan is a survivor, remaining positive through hardships. As an agency housekeeper, she moves from post to post with her daughter Riley, taking care of people who have everything she will never have. Annie’s greatest wish is to find her happy ever after, but she fears this dream will never come true.
Can love restore the countess’s heart and the crumbling Axedale Hall, or will the foundations of love turn to dust at the first challenge?
Sheena’s Note: This audiobook is awesome. It is the perfect romance.
Get Courting The Countess by Jenny Frame on Amazon
5 Lost In The Starlight by Kiki Archer
Theme: Celebrity
What it’s about
A-list singing superstar, Honey Diamond, has it all – the albums, the talent shows, the upcoming Hollywood film. But it’s her gentle light, endearingly shining through all the glitz and glam, that warms the hearts of so many. A shy girl, who’s only ever known fame, born into a world that’s not true to life. Will Honey ever experience the love she so knowingly sings about? Will the vindictive online gossip sites ever leave her alone?
Lost In The Starlight is the latest heartfelt romance from best-selling, award-winning author, Kiki Archer, peppered with her trademark laugh-out-loud humour and warming observations about falling in love.
Sheena’s Note: A beautifully written, sweet and wonderful romance. One of my absolute faves.
Get Lost In The Starlight on Amazon
Tara’s Picks
6 By Mutual Consent, Tracey Richardson
Theme: Rich Girl/Poor Girl Romance (Bridging the money divide)
What it’s about
Dr. Joss McNab needs a wife. As if juggling surgery and being an instructor isn’t enough, she’s recently taken on a more demanding administrative role at the medical school that was named after her legendary father. To make things worse, she’s now required to attend a growing number of galas, fundraisers and conventions. Wouldn’t having a wife—a wife of convenience—help ease the burden that’s threatening to overtake her world?
Sarah Young’s heart belongs to painting. Much as she’d like to dismiss Joss’s ridiculous proposal, the art world isn’t paying well and she’s running short on cash. Playing a trophy wife a few hours a week would cover her bills and still leave plenty of time to devote to her artwork.
The deal is struck. But will the convenient pairing turn into disaster or prove to be a stroke of genius? With feelings deepening and attraction undeniable, can two women who have agreed to settle discover that they could actually have it all?
Tara’s Note: What’s not to love about a lesbian relationship of convenience story, especially when it’s also a rich girl/poor girl story where the poor girl comes from money? Tracey Richardson’s latest release is a sweet, sexy story that’s beautifully written and has the right balance of angst and desire. It’s well worth a read.
Sheena’s Note: I love Richardson’s writing style. And I love that you won’t get the same character journeys twice. This is a fascinating read on a lot of levels. For instance, Richardson dealt with the awkward money relationship between them quite well and I appreciated the resolution. We also agreed on this one – it is a wonderful read. So complex and charming.
Get By Mutual Consent on Amazon
7 All the Little Moments by G. Benson
Theme: Single Parent Romance (Mommy finds someone to love)
What it’s about
A successful anesthetist, Anna is focused on herself, her career, and her girlfriend. Everything changes abruptly when her brother’s and sister-in-law’s deaths devastate her and her family. Left responsible for her young niece and nephew, Anna finds herself dumped and alone in Melbourne, a city she doesn’t even like. She tries to navigate the shock of looking after two children battling with their grief while managing her own.
Filled with self-doubt, Anna feels as if she’s making a mess of the entire thing, especially when she collides with a long-legged stranger. Anna barely has time to brush her teeth in the morning, let alone to date a woman—least of all one who has no idea about the two kids under her care.
Just when Anna finally starts to feel as if she’s getting some control of the situation, the biggest fight begins and Anna really has to step up once and for all.
Tara’s Note: It might be hard to tell from the blurb, but I promise that All the Little Moments is a romance, and a beautiful one at that. I’ve seen romances with single parents before, but never one like this, and I love everything about it.
Get All The Little Moments on Amazon
8 Kiss the Girl by Melissa Brayden
Theme: Age Gap Romance (More than a couple of years)
What it’s about
Twenty-eight-year-old Brooklyn Campbell is having a bad day. A speeding ticket, a towed car, and a broken heel are all working against her laid-back vibe. To top it all off, her birth mother, whom she’s never met, has requested contact. The only bright spot is an impromptu date with a beautiful and mysterious brunette.
Jessica Lennox is what you would call a high-powered executive. She’s the head of a multimillion-dollar advertising firm in New York City, and it didn’t happen by accident. But when the blonde head turner from the wine bistro turns out to be her number one competitor, her life gets infinitely more complex.
Is New York big enough for both Brooklyn and Jessica? Maybe it’s just time they experienced it together…
Tara’s Note: I love all of Melissa Brayden’s books, but this is easily my favourite. It features a couple with an age gap who are business competitors, the best flirting, and possibly the best kissing in all of lesbian romance. This book lives on my re-reads list.
Sheena’s Note: This is an utterly adorable audiobook to listen to.
Get Kiss The Girl on Amazon
9 Confucius Jane by Katie Lynch
Theme: New Adult Romance (18-24 just too old for Young Adult)
What it’s about
On leave from college, Jane Morrow has a new job, helping out in her uncle’s fortune cookie factory, and a new roommate—her precocious 11-year-old cousin. Though surrounded by her loving family and their close-knit Chinatown community, Jane feels like a colossal failure. Writing fortunes is a kind of poetry, but Jane is penning words of wisdom for strangers while wondering if she will ever have the guts to move on with her life.
When Jane meets medical student Sutton St. James at her local noodle shop, sparks fly. Sutton stands at a career crossroads: surgical residency or stem cell research overseas? The first is what her father, former Surgeon General and “America’s doctor,” has planned for her, but the latter might help find a cure for her mother’s debilitating MS. Neither would make either of them comfortable with their daughter’s sexuality. Sutton’s only certainty is that she has no time for a relationship—yet neither she nor Jane can deny the chemistry between them.
Jane opens a whole new view of family to Sutton, a powerful counter to Sutton’s cold, sterile upbringing. Sutton inspires Jane to be more ambitious and to dream again—and challenges her to have faith in herself. But can Sutton and Jane overcome a scandalous secret that threatens to keep them apart?
Tara’s Note: Confucius Jane is a delightful new adult romance, and I can almost guarantee you’ve never read anything like it before. As the story warms your heart, it will also make you want to order some Chinese food.
Get Confucius Jane on Amazon
10 Snow Falls by Gerri Hill
Theme: Recluse Romance (A hermit is forced to interact with someone else and falls in love)
What it’s about
Jennifer Kincaid, on her way to a writer’s workshop in the Colorado mountain town of Lake City, gets lost and is stranded by an avalanche.
Catherine Ryan-Barrett, running from the fame and fortune of her family name, wants nothing more to spend the winter alone and sequestered in her high mountain cabin. She is not prepared for a party crasher.
After spending two months together, they form an unlikely friendship that deepens even further. But after the spring thaw, Jen returns to her life in Santa Fe—and to the man who wants to marry her. All she knows of the woman who rescued her is her name… Ryan.
Tara: I love a good rich, recluse falling in love story, and Gerri Hill delivers with Snow Falls. With winter still going strong in the northern hemisphere where I live, now’s the perfect time to check out this story about two women who are snowed in together.
Get Snow Falls on Amazon
These are just some of our favourite lesbian romances. Want to let us know your favourites? Come talk to us on Twitter at The Lesbian Review on Twitter (Sheena) and Tara on Twitter
