100 books like The Romance Recipe

I’ve heard people say this book is “magical,” and that description is spot on.

I cannot get over how cute this book was! A sprinkle of magic, found family, finding yourself, and amazing descriptions of the city. This book gave me so many sparkly feels. I begged for the two characters to get together and rooted for the MC from page one. The plot was phenomenally creative, genuinely like nothing I had ever read within contemporary romance.

I finished this book faster than any other book of the year. 

I loved Delilah!

Salty, spicy, funny, and totally relatable, the main character, Delilah, became the most memorable character of the year for me. The story was funny, touching, and very, very (did I mention very) sexy. It dove into family dynamic complexities and explored what being an outsider is like.

I laughed out loud multiple times, rooted for the MC even when she was making terrible decisions, and wanted to read it again the moment it ended. Super fun read and so hard to put down.

This book was like drinking a hot chocolate with marshmallows on a cold winter day.

I swoon over sweet stories and second-chance romances. And, any time you take an original story (especially a Christmas-ish story) and add in a drag queen instead of an angel, it becomes magic, right?

I’m also a huge sucker for dogs being in a book. The writing was cute and snappy, the feel-good story I was craving, and I left this book with a spring in my step.

This book had everything a book lover loves…a story about a bookstore seller, a romance author, and enough secrets to keep you on your toes. I rarely read sapphic romance novels about secret identities, and I kept wondering when the truth was going to come out about one of the characters.

This book was also a light and easy read, and even though it dabbled in a few tough subjects, it felt warm, sparkly, and cozy the entire time.

This is a story about a personal trainer charged with helping a hockey star get back on the ice. While the focus is very much on the relationship rather than the hockey, I just adored the way Kris Bryant captures the ways an athlete puts so much of herself on the line both physically and emotionally. I love the way Kris writes this “all in” sort of character who charges after what she wants, both in and out of the arena. I think she captured the kind of personality we are all drawn to in people who have the drive to reach the pinnacle of their pursuits.

Just after high school graduation, during the summer in which their adult lives begin, three girls who now require human flesh to survive (thanks, pandemic!) hit a music festival. But don’t worry; the world has found a way to satisfy their dietary requirements without anyone getting hurt…until someone at the festival starts dosing ghouls with an appetite stimulant, that is.

This book is a fun and campy mystery that gives me queer post-Mean Girls meets Scooby vibes and a fair amount of gore. Even though the book is light-hearted with a very sweet romance (hey, even horror fans like me get schmoopy now and then), it speaks to the heart of guilt and the trauma of recovery from substance use disorders (if cannibalism can be a stand-in for drugs and alcohol)—particularly when you’ve done something under the influence that has hurt or killed others, and that’s what made it so… show more.

Melissa Brayden is one of the gold standards for sapphic romance authors. I have never once been disappointed when I’ve picked up one of her books, and this one is no exception. I love sports books that focus on lesser-known sports, and surfing definitely falls into that category, but Brayden gets bonus points for also picking a sport with the sexiness built right in. Swimsuits, beaches, wet women, it’s not hard to find the appeal, and of course you also get the trademark Melissa Brayden snappy dialog and relatable characters. 

This one was made into a long-short documentary (38 minutes) called Jeanne Cordova: Butches, Lies & Feminism that won the Grand Jury Prize at Outfest 2017 for Best Documentary Short, now I’d love to see this as a biopic feature! 

Let’s watch Jeanne Cordova come to life—her old school get-er-done butch energy out there in the 1970s fighting for lesbian rights, starting the West Coast Lesbian Conference in 1971 and the first National Lesbian Conference in 1973. Imagine the drama bringing people together and setting the platform for lesbian rights when many were fired if outed.

Maybe Fortune Feimster could play a role!? Oh yes, yes she could.

If you identify anywhere on the LGBTIQ2+ scale and haven’t heard of Sarah Waters, you’ve likely been living under a rock.

Her debut novel, Tipping the Velvet, is probably better known as the three-part BBC series, but the book is what truly makes the characters come to life. From naïve, small town, oyster-girl in Kent to the life of the London Stage, Waters takes you through Victorian-era England via the point of view of beloved heroine Nan Astley.

If you’re looking for a sexy, sensuous, and downright gritty novel about what life was truly like for a ‘tom’ growing up and coming out in the nineteenth century, this is the book.

The first sapphic book I ever read, over 30 years ago, still holds a special place in my heart. The two women stumble into their attraction for each other in a way that is believable and tender, and they take a journey together that is still relevant to our times. While one woman, Lane, had previously thought a same-sex relationship could be a real possibility for her, the other, Diana, had literally no idea until she meets Lane and is swept off her feet by her feelings. Simply a lovely story that I’ve re-read many times.