Last year was an incredible year for Sapphic Literature so we are sharing 10 Best of the Best Sapphic Books from 2022. TLR’s best of the best category consists of books that received at least two reviewer favourite badges, so you know they will be awesome.
1 Schuss by E.J. Noyes
Publisher: Bella Books
Available as an audiobook: Yes, narrated by Abby Craden
Audiobook Publisher: Audible Studios
Read our full review here
Synopsis
Stacey Evans wants only one thing: to be the best alpine ski racer she can be. Everything else—like her sweet and ultra-supportive best friend, and hot-but-vapid girlfriend—is just a bonus. Fresh from a medal at her first Olympics, Stacey knows she can only get better and is firmly focused on the future, and totally not thinking about how she’s kind of a little in love with that sweet, ultra-supportive best friend…
Gemma Archer has had a crush on Stacey from the moment she first saw her, but being her best friend is so amazing that she’s almost managed to push that crush aside. Almost. But even if Gemma finds the courage to tell Stacey how she really feels, there’s a mountain of obstacles to overcome—like the fact that Gemma’s stepmom is Stacey’s coach (awkward) and Gemma will be going away to college in a few months. And most importantly…what if admitting how she feels ruins the best friendship she’s ever had?
Schuss brings back two beloved supporting characters from E. J. Noyes’ bestselling, award-winning novel Gold.
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2 Honey in the Marrow by Emily Waters
Publisher: Ylva Publishing
Read our full review here
Synopsis
An enemies-to-friends-to-lovers lesbian romance about finding heart, hope, and second chances you never thought you’d have.
Stella Carter is a former criminal prosecutor and new widow facing down middle age alone in Los Angeles. Without being a prestigious lawyer and someone’s wife, she’s not sure who she is anymore or where her life is headed.
When she invites her niece to move in with her, Stella accidentally reconnects with her former colleague, LAPD Captain Elizabeth Murphy. The woman is beautiful but cold; someone she was always at odds with on the job.
Surprisingly, Stella finds herself leaning on her niece and Elizabeth more and more to navigate her loss. But as time goes on, Stella can’t keep seeing Elizabeth and pretending she’s not attracted to her. Besides, there’s absolutely no way Elizabeth feels the same way. Is there?
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3 Embracing the Moon by Jeannie Levig
Publisher: Bold Strokes Books
Read our full review here
Synopsis
Gwen Jamison has been attracted to her best friend Taylor for years but has kept her feelings masked as friendship. Left behind by her mother at age nine, then by her first love eight years later, she’s vowed never to trust her heart to anyone. It’s easier to have casual relationships than risk falling in love.
Taylor Matthews has no interest in a relationship. The one and only time she lost herself in love it cost her four years of her life. Never again. In the three decades since, she’s turned her life around, built a successful career, established solid friendships, and had plenty of women, sex, and fun. No complications, no entanglements, no regrets—until Gwen.
Just as Gwen and Taylor are exploring the new love they’ve found, the present and past collide, threatening the future they long to share.
An Embracing the Dawn Romance.
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4 The Delicate Things We Make by Milena McKay
Publisher: Indie Author
Available as an audiobook: Yes, narrated by Abby Craden
Audiobook Publisher: Tantor Audio
Read our full review here
Synopsis
Hitting rock bottom in the concrete jungle of Manhattan, investigative journalist Jamie Walker lands the assignment of a lifetime: find the most elusive artist of a generation, who has enthralled the art and fashion world for over a decade.
This assignment is supposed to finally be Jamie’s ticket to journalistic fame and fortune. The quest, however, proves to be difficult, as—so far—nobody has managed to discover who the legendary DeVor really is.
As Jamie delves deeper into the mysteries surrounding the enigmatic artist, trying to salvage her stagnant career, she risks getting in over her head and losing her heart in the process.
Contains mature themes.
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5 Truth and Measure & Above All Things by Roslyn Sinclair
Publisher: Ylva Publishing
Available as an audiobook: Yes, narrated by Abby Craden
Audiobook Publisher: Tantor Audio
Read our full review here
Synopsis
What happens when the world’s fiercest fashion editor learns she’s pregnant—and her distracting assistant is the only one she can turn to? This wildly popular age-gap lesbian romance mixes humor and chaos with self-discovery.
Jules Moretti is newly single, an aspiring writer, and the hyper-competent assistant to the most powerful woman in fashion. It’s a tough job, but her ice queen boss won’t settle for less than perfection.
Vivian Carlisle helms the internationally revered fashion publication Du Jour. She might be smack in the middle of a messy divorce, but you have to make sacrifices to be the best. That’s what she tells herself, anyway.
When the unthinkable happens, Vivian’s regimented world is turned upside-down. Her life is about power, success, and dominance—not a baby!
This single, shocking moment throws boss and assistant together into an intimacy neither could have imagined. With their lives in chaos, every day brings a new challenge bigger than the last. But everything will work out…just so long as they don’t do anything totally ridiculous.
Like fall in love.
Truth and Measure is the first part of a two-book series. This slow-burn office romance is a steamy story of fashion, passion, and the power of the unexpected.
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6 The Tell Tale by Clare Ashton
Publisher: Breezy Tree Press
Available as an audiobook: Yes, narrated by Lucy Rayner
Audiobook Publisher: Tantor Audio
Read our full review here
Synopsis
Snow, secrets, an icy lady of the manor, a vile villain, open fires and hidden love.
A frosty December and Bethan Griffiths has returned home to unwrap secrets. It’s the 1970s and she is back in the village of Foel in the Welsh hills to raise her daughter. They arrive to the open arms of her family and the community, but not all is what it seems and Beth isn’t home for the reason she pretends either.
Vicious notes start appearing that reveal harsh truths about the village inhabitants, stirring up ancient past, old loves and the dead. Not even local dignitary, the elegant and aloof Lady Melling who hides in her manor house, is safe from the accusations.
But when Beth receives her notes, they aren’t what she expected. Is she being toyed with like the other villagers, or is she being guided to a long-sought truth?
The Tell Tale has been watching and waiting, because there’s something queer about the village of Foel.
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7 A Whisper of Solace by Milena McKay
Publisher: Indie Author
Available as an audiobook: Yes, narrated by Abby Craden
Audiobook Publisher: Tantor Audio
Read our full review here
Synopsis
What makes an Ice Queen?
Neve Blackthorne, head of one of the most successful Studios in Hollywood, is the one to rule them all. Powerful, beautiful, and aloof, she’s ruthless, yet irresistible. Above all, she has an unquenchable survival instinct.
Surely a fleeting entanglement with one Audrey Avens, a bright, young, rising star in her company, won’t bring down the Wicked Queen of Tinseltown. Or will it?
Neve’s public persona has no chink in the untouchable armor, but when the lights go out and the cameras stop rolling, what becomes of an Ice Queen whose heart is ruled by love and fear?
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8 The Headmistress by Milena McKay
Publisher: Indie Author
Available as an audiobook: Yes, narrated by Abby Craden
Audiobook Publisher: Tantor Audio
Read our full review here
Synopsis
A chance encounter. An unforgettable night.
And back home, trouble is brewing on the remote island of Three Dragons, where nothing feels like it used to. Alone and lonely, Sam Threadneedle wishes upon a star, hoping for change. But when said change comes, it’s with a roar and not a whimper.
Torn between loyalty and lust, Sam is forced to re-evaluate everything.
Can she and the Home of Dragons withstand the storm that is Magdalene Nox, or will any and all crumble?
Not everything is as it seems, and as she slowly unravels the mysteries behind the centuries-old walls, Sam realizes that home is much more than oak and stone.
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9 In the Long Run by Haley Cass
Publisher: Indie Author
Available as an audiobook: Yes, narrated by Anastasia Watley
Audiobook Publisher: Tantor Audio
Read our full review here
Synopsis
Free-spirited and easygoing Taylor Vandenberg left her hometown of Faircombe, Tennessee as soon as she could, and in the twenty-five years since, she has rarely looked back. She wouldn’t change anything about how her life has turned out – having traveled to nearly every country, never staying anywhere long enough to feel stifled. Very few things can hold her attention back in Faircombe: her sister/best friend, her precocious niece, and perhaps the prospect of riling up Brooke Watson.
Brooke has known Taylor for her entire life, given that her best friend is Taylor’s younger brother. And a lifelong knowledge of Taylor means that Brooke knows she’s trouble: irresponsible, takes nothing seriously, and is irritatingly attractive. Unlike Taylor, Brooke loves their town so much that she’s spent her adult life dedicated to making sure it doesn’t get swept away like many of the other declining small cities of the American South. Faircombe means the world to her, and she’s willing to do just about anything to make sure it flourishes.
Even if it means working with Taylor, whose path seems to continuously be crossing with Brooke’s everywhere she turns…
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10 The Awkward Truth by Lee Winter
Publisher: Ylva Publishing
Available as an audiobook: Yes, narrated by Angela Dawe
Audiobook Publisher: Ylva Publishing
Read our full review here
Synopsis
This funny opposites-attract lesbian romance digs up the awkward truth about what really matters in life.
Ambitious ice queen and corporate lawyer Felicity Simmons has spent her life focused on one thing: scuttling up the career ladder. She’s achingly close to taking charge of a media empire for her boss when she’s sent to investigate a South Bronx charity that helps homeless people’s pets.
Has the charity made off with her boss’s generous donation? And who on earth is that gorgeous soft-butch veterinarian who looks as if she could toss a Shetland pony over one shoulder? Not that Felicity has any interest in some opinionated Amazon or her adorable fleabag of a dog.
Felicity is quite sure she will not be distracted, thank you very much. She has a minor mystery to solve, a mentor to impress, and her life’s dream to fulfil. Even if a distraction might be exactly what she needs.
The Awkward Truth takes place during the last half of Lee Winter’s The Brutal Truth but can easily be read as a standalone story.
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