8 Sexy, Funny, Hopeful Lesbian and Sapphic Books to Read This Summer

Dr. Lesbian recommends 📚

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It’s officially summer, which means it’s the best time of year to lay outside and read in the sunshine. (Unless you live somewhere where it’s too hot to be outside in summer, in which case I hope you’re reading in the AC or in/near a body of water.) If you’re anything like me, you might keep a running list of books to read in the future and are always on the hunt for new recommendations. The following is a list of books I’d suggest you read this summer. Some came out in the last year or so, others are a few years old. Many of these fall into the romance category, while several are harder to categorize.

If you’re looking for even more to read, check out the other books I’ve discussed in this newsletter, including City of Laughter, How Far the Light Reaches, Cleat Cute, Delilah Green Doesn’t Care, Girls Can Kiss Now, The Fifth Wound, With Teeth, The Ex-Girlfriend of My Ex- Girlfriend is My Girlfriend, Mrs. S, We Do What We Do in the Dark, The Memory Librarian, and A Place of Our Own, all of which I’d also recommend. Happy reading!

At Her Service by Amy Spalding

The second book in her “Out In Hollywood” series, Amy Spalding’s At Her Service depicts a main character who might feel like a personal attack if you’re also a lesbian who wears Doc Martens, Wildfang shirts, and struggles with self-esteem. The novel follows Max, an assistant at the same talent agency as Nina from For Her Consideration. (Nina also makes several appearances in the book.) 

Max wants to level up in her career and find a girlfriend, but she’s finding it hard to muster up the courage to achieve either goal. When her influencer roommate ropes her into trying a new self-actualization app and posts her progress online, the results are surprisingly positive – until they're not. Max doesn’t just want any girlfriend, she wants Sadie, the beautiful and kindhearted bartender at her local haunt, and her newfound internet fame may not be helpful in that department. 

At Her Service tells a classic 20-something lesbian story, hitting all the familiar coming-of-age tropes and delivering a heartwarming message about self-determination. If you’re looking for a protagonist who’s prone to self-sabotaging and must learn some hard lessons on her way to finding love and belonging, this book is for you.

Fly With Me by Andie Burke 

Andie Burke’s Fly With Me is a lesbian romance not about flailing 20-somethings, but about grown-ass adults. To be sure, there is still a fair amount of flailing here, but it’s the kind of flailing you do when you have a steady job and really good health insurance. Olive is an ER nurse with a fear of flying. While on her first-ever flight to run a marathon in her brother’s honor, she saves someone in the throes of a medical emergency. Beautiful and businesslike copilot Stella offers to give Olive a ride to the race when their flight gets stranded, and a connection blooms. 

Stella is hoping to get a promotion and fight her way through the boys club at her airline, and Olive just wants her family off her back. When Olive’s life-saving feat goes viral, Stella offers a fake dating proposal that could benefit them both. As happens in these situations, real feelings quickly develop and the two women must decide if they’re brave enough to take the leap. Both Olive and Stella have stressful situations with their respective families, and they deal with this stress in wildly different ways. Their more self-destructive tendencies might be relatable for some readers, and it’s heartening to see these two women accept each other, flaws and all.

Greta & Valdin by Rebecca K Reilly 

I wasn’t keeping track, but I think I laughed out loud about ten times while reading Rebecca K Reilly’s debut novel Greta & Valdin. Set in Auckland, New Zealand, the book follows siblings Greta and Valdin, queer 20-somethings from a messy but loving Maori-Russian family, the Vladisavljevics. Greta is a charming and intelligent grad student who’s been unlucky in love thus far. Valdin, her big brother, dropped out of his Ph.D program and now hosts a travel show, a surprising career choice considering his anxious and oftentimes awkward personality. 

While Greta tries to work out her love life and get over an unhealthy crush, Valdin is still brokenhearted over his ex Xabi, who is significantly older than him and also his uncle’s husband’s brother. The family is loud, complicated, and chaotic, but they all love each other, and Greta and Valdin will no doubt be okay. Reilly’s writing is incisive and hilarious, and the characters are all so unique – and yes, a bit odd – that it’s a delight to be invited into their world. Check this one out if you’re looking for a boisterous family affair, and plenty of chuckles.

In At the Deep End by Kate Davies

The premise of Kate Davies’ In at the Deep End may sound familiar. Julia is a twenty-something who works at a meaningless job and has unintentionally embarked on a life of celibacy. When she figures out women are the people she should be having sex with, not men, things start to shift. But that’s also when her life begins to get tricky, and when the book takes a surprising turn.

Julia meets Sam, a sultry, confident artist who she feels an immediate attraction to. Things go well, at first, until Sam’s behavior becomes more and more offputting and Julia’s first foray into polyamory – not to mention her first lesbian relationship –  is far from ideal. As far as bumbling, well-intentioned yet somewhat disastrous protagonists go, Julia is easy to root for, and the book takes a compelling look at a queer awakening that isn’t all sunshine and roses. Yet there’s much that is hopeful and redemptive here, and Davies helpfully reminds us that growth doesn’t always progress in a straight line.

Mistakes Were Made by Meryl Wilsner 

Meryl Wilsner’s Cleat Cute was a hit when it came out last year – it’s even being adapted into a series by Sue Bird and Megan Rapinoe – and for good reason. If you liked Cleat Cute but haven’t read any of Wilsner’s other books, or are just looking for something sexy and fun for the summer, you’ve got to check out Mistakes Were Made. 

It’s a known fact that lesbians and sapphics have a thing for older women – MILFs, if you want to be crass about it – but there aren’t too many stories about these kind of “age gap” relationships where any sort of future for the couple feels possible. That is, I think, what makes Mistakes Were Made unique in the broader lesbian romance universe. 

The book follows Cassie, a college senior preparing to embark on her career as an engineer. The other piece of the puzzle is Erin, a newly divorced 38-year-old visiting her freshman daughter for parent’s weekend. Cassie and Erin have a bar hookup and don’t expect to see each other again – until they meet the next morning when Erin takes her daughter and roommate (who happens to be Cassie) out to breakfast. 

What follows are plenty of sizzling hot moments and secret hookups, but also a whole lot of complicated feelings and awkward dynamics. Smut aside, where Wilsner really excels is in creating a taboo relationship that feels, to the extent that it can in a romance novel, somewhat logical. It doesn’t seem likely that the relationship will work out at the start of the book, but Wilsner crafts the story in such a way that nothing ever seems too far-fetched, despite its saucy, attention-grabbing premise. Come for the sex, stay for the feels.

Never Anyone But You by Rupert Thompson

I don’t think I’ve ever recommended a lesbian book written by a man in this newsletter, but Rupert Thompson’s Never Anyone But You offers a tale that’s just too good to pass up. The book tells the true story of Suzanne Malherbe and Lucie Schwob, who meet as girls in a French town in the early 1900s. They fall in love at once, and the secret of their relationship becomes easier to keep when a twist of fate makes them step-sisters.

They travel around Paris in the 1920s, befriending famous figures like Dalí and Hemingway and making avant-garde art of their own. During this time they change their names to Marcel Moore and Claude Cahun, taking up with the surrealist movement of the era. In the late 30s, they move to Jersey and begin an idyllic island life which is upended by the arrival of the Nazis. Marcel and Claude find they have a place in the resistance, and at this point, their story becomes almost too incredible to believe. 

This is the kind of story that needs to be told – it would be a terrible shame if Marcel and Claude’s amazing escapades were lost to the annals of history. Thompson, it should be noted, does an admirable job of telling it, bringing these women and their extraordinary circumstances to life with thoughtful clarity. Pick this one up for a fascinating piece of lesbian history.

Wild Things by Laura Kay

Have you ever dreamed of moving out of the city and living in a commune with your friends? If so, Wild Things might be the book for you. An expertly crafted rom-com and coming-of-age story, Laura Kay’s novel will have you grinning, even as our protagonist cringes her way through life. Eleanor is another twenty-something working a dead-end job, hoping against hope that something interesting will happen to her. Anxious and timid, nothing ever does, so she decides to embark on a year of yeses, if you will, which means a year of doing at least one “wild” thing per month. One of these wild things is moving out of London and to the countryside with her three best friends. There’s Jamie, a charming dreamer with a big personality, Ray, Eleanor’s best friend and longtime crush, and Will, their token straight friend who’s getting over a broken heart. 

Despite some bumps along the road, the move turns out to be a great decision for all of them. What to do about the Ray situation remains at the forefront of Eleanor’s mind, and living in close quarters with her doesn’t exactly make things easier. But once again, this is a book about figuring out what you want your life to look like as an adult, and though Kay leaves us in a certain amount of suspense, you know there’s no way this will end in tragedy.

Yerba Buena by Nina LaCour

Nina LaCour’s Yerba Buena isn’t so much a love story as it is a story about two people finding their way in the world, both together and apart. LaCour’s first novel for adults – you may know her as the author of the critically acclaimed YA book We Are Okay – Yerba Buena is nonetheless a coming-of-age story about two women who still have a lot to figure out. 

Sara Foster ran away from home at age sixteen, making her way to Los Angeles where she now works as a renowned bartender. Emilie Dubois keeps almost getting a degree in various subjects, unable to commit or decide what she wants to do with her life. When she gets a job arranging flowers at a local restaurant, her affair with the owner doesn’t exactly clarify things for her. 

Sara and Emilie eventually cross paths and make a connection, but circumstances aren’t in their favor. What follows is an exploration of growing up, growing into yourself, and discovering your path in life. If you like slow-burns, realism mixed with a heavy dose of yearning, and the battle between reckoning with existential angst and finding true love, Yerba Buena is for you.