The 10 Best Contemporary Lesbian Romance Novels, Ranked
Best lesbian romance novels? This list is gonna be cutthroat. There’s a lot of good sapphic literature out there, dating all the way back to Ancient Greek isle of Lesbos. Sappho guide my hands, help me to pick out the best lesbian romance novels of all time.
The Stars and the Blackness Between Them
Part romance and part coming of age novel, The Stars and the Blackness Between Them by Junauda Petrus is the story of two young Caribbean women, who are drawn together in love in an unfamiliar land. After coming to America from Trinidad, sixteen year old Audre feels out of her depth at a Minneapolis high school. Luckily she’s got Maude, another Trinidadian who recently moved to America, there to help her to adjust. The pair help ground each other in the roots of a culture that they feared that they would have to leave behind, and their love leads them on a spiritual quest to find their place in the vast universe.
The Gravity Between Us
Before we get into the grandiose, beautiful, tragic, haunting, literary, yearning tales, let’s start with something a little bit on the sweeter side. The Gravity Between Us is the story of the young Hollywood starlet Kendall who who has skyrocketed to newfound fame. While her life is filled with glitz and glamour that most other people can only dream of, Kendall longs for the normal. In this case, the normal is her childhood best friend Payton. Trouble is, Payton has been slowly, surely falling for Kendall ever since they were kids. Can she measure up to Kendall’s new life of luxury, or has her best friend launched out of her league?
Honey Girl
Honey Girl is a romance novel for overachievers everywhere. Straight A student just got her PHD in astronomy at the ripe young age of 28. To celebrate her success, the normally strait-laced academic decides to go a little wild in Vegas. So wild, in fact, that she wakes up the next day with a new wife whose name she doesn’t know. Rather than return to her life of research, she decides to cut loose and take her new wife for an extended vacation in the Big Apple. It’s a dream for a while, but what happens when the reality Grace left behind comes knocking at her door?
The Burning Kingdoms Trilogy
Beginning with The Jasmine Throne, the Burning Kingdoms Trilogy by Tasha Suri is a fantasy series inspired by Indian mythology. It’s about a young princess named Malini who is imprisoned in an ancient temple by her tyrant brother in order for him to establish his iron grip on an empire. Joke’s on him, because while at the temple Malini comes across a former maidservant named Priya who has hidden magical powers. The pair decide to team up to topple a kingdom, and fall in love in the process. If they aren’t gonna help you depose an emperor, is it even love?
Blue Is The Warmest Color
Blue Is The Warmest Color was a male gaze-y mess of a film. The graphic novel on which it’s based makes up for it all. Julie Maroh’s tale of doomed teenage love centers around a French high schooler named Clementine, who becomes smitten with the charismatic, azure haired Emma. The pair embark on a whirlwind romance that burns bright with all the fire and folly of youth. Reading those gorgeous graphic novel is like watching a watercolor car crash. It’s just as pretty as it is painful to watch, but you just can’t turn away. All love ends in grief, after all.
Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe
While Fried Green Tomatoes isn’t solely a romance novel, one would be a fool deny that the fires of sapphic romance burn deep within its subplots. Fannie Flagg’s novel tells the story of Evelyn Couch, a deeply depressed housewife who forms a fast friendship with the elderly Ninny Threadgood. Ninny tells Evelyn the story of Idge Threadgood and her very best “gal pal” Ruth, who lived and loved in a small Alabama town decades before. While Ruth and Idge are never explicitly stated to be lesbians, for a novel written in the 80’s, it’s pretty damn apparent. Romance in Fried Green Tomatoes is kinda like the sun. Sometimes you forget that it’s there, even though it sheds light and warmth everywhere; and without it, everyone and everything in this novel would cease to be.
Under The Udala Trees
Under The Udala Trees by Chinelo Okparanta is a coming of age story for both a girl and the country she lives in. Born in the newly founded nation of Nigeria of the 1960s, Ijeoma is still a child when her country is ravaged by civil war. She has to flee from her home for safety, and on the road meets another young girl with whom she falls in love. This is no fluffy romance novel. This is a sweeping, tender and terrifying novel about forbidden love in a time of great violence.
Tipping The Velvet
Yes, Tipping The Velvet‘s title is a euphemism for exactly what you think. Set in the 1890’s Sarah Waters’ novel centered around an oyster girl named Nan who becomes infatuated with a male impersonator nightclub performer named Kitty Butler. After scoring seats to Kitty’s performance, the starstruck Nan is finally able to meet her idol. The pair strike up a working relationship, eventually starring in a double act together in of England’s most famous music halls. Meanwhile behind closed doors, their relationship deepens to something far more intimate.
Annie On My Mind
Finally, a tale of lesbian love that doesn’t end in tragedy. Nancy Garden’s Annie On My Mind is the story of the teenaged Liza Winthrop, who, as the title suggests, can’t get her friend Annie out of her head. What started as just a friendship slowly blooms into something deeper as the pair come of age. Their parents aren’t happy. Their school isn’t happy. The town they live in isn’t happy. Annie and Nancy don’t give a flying f*ck.
Desert of the Heart
Jane Rule’s Desert of the Heart features one of my all time favorite settings – the wide, high deserts of Nevada. It’s in the desert that the recently divorced English professor Evelyn finds and falls in love for the free spirited artist and out lesbian Ann Child. While Evelyn wrestles with her feelings, Ann coaxes them out with all the sweetness of a desert sunset.
(Featured Image: The Samuel Goldwyn Company)
Have a tip we should know? tips@themarysue.com
