Heyo! I’d really like to read a romance book, can be explicit doesn’t have to be about lesbians. The thing is- I’ve been searching in the LGBT books subreddit, my local bookstore, second hand shops- all bullsh*t.
It’s always some “forbidden romance”, religion bashing or some matriarch distopia in where the feminists have to fight back- I’m so sick of it. I am sick of this entire LGBT sh*t. I’m a lesbian I just want to read a NORMAL romance book where the two people falling in love just HAPPEN to be lesbians. Like one of these Jane Austin books! Why does it always have to be political???
I am aware this sounds a bit rough, but you have to understand that I am in my twenties and my local bookstore DOES have a LGBT section- but that’s exactly the problem. First- it is painted in bright rainbow colours and secondly- well, it’s it’s own section (1 shelf). I went to amsterdam for holidays some time ago and guess what- they had the LGBT books in the Romance section (or whatever genre it was). Just mixed in with the other books.
I don’t want to go into the rainbow section anymore. It’s embarrassing. I don’t want people to know who I love? That’s none of their business. Also the shelf mostly caters to 13-year olds not for adults.
by anoodlewithbrain
17 Comments
I’ve heard good things about Our Wives Under the Sea. I haven’t read it so I’m not sure if it has political undertones but it sounded like a good scary love story that was about lesbians.
i havent read it but i hear camilla which is pre dracula is about lesbian vampires I dont read much lgbtq+ literature because of what you have said but i would consider camilla as it is a classic.
There’s a subtle lesbian romance in _Legends and Lattes_ that I quite enjoyed.
Fingersmith by Sarah Waters
If you’re into sci-fi look into a Memory Called Empire.
I enjoyed The Fling by Rebekah Weatherspoon. Not a forbidden romance, more like the main character is exploring her sexuality and ends up falling in love.
I liked Delilah Green Doesn’t Care. Super cute romance about two women.
Say I Boo by Morgan Spellman has a lesbian MC
This is how you lose the time war is not a “normal” romance but it’s beautiful.
*For Her Consideration* by Amy Spalding
*Kiss Her Once for Me* by Alison Cochrun
*How to Excavate a Heart* by Jake Maia Arlow
*Written in the Stars* by Alexandria Bellefleur
*Bright Falls Series* by Ashley Herring Blake
*One Last Stop* by Casey McQuiston
These are all sapphic romances (combo of lesbian/bi/pan women) that I feel like would be easily shelved amongst romance and romcom books featuring heterosexual pairings as they have no overt politics or religious themes. Definitely all feel like “two people fall in love and just happen to be both women.”
A Restless Truth by Freya Marske, if you like a bit of fantasy with your romance. It’s the second in a series, but I don’t think it matters that much. The first book focused on the protagonist’s brother and is also very good, but no lesbians, though it’s also queer romance.
out now: queer we go again! (anthology) is quite good and has some great lesbian stories
Tipping the Velvet
Priory of the Orange Tree
“Beatriz y los cuerpos celestes”, by spanish writer Lucía Etxebarría. The story of a girl who lives psychological abuse throughout her childhood and teenage years. She finds herself in a identity crisis and remembers her experiences and relationships up to that point.
Big Swiss by Jen Beagin
The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet has a lesbian romance later on, but it’s very much not the focus. It’s mostly sci-fi slice-of-life-ish
Jane rule went there in the 1980’s. go Canada! I know of two novels by her that set my mind more open than it might otherwise have been because they did showcase that radical notion that lesbians are people and their relationships are “just” relationships like anyone else’s: this is not for you, and desert of the heart.