Here are 100 books that Chasing Dreams fans have personally recommended if you like
Chasing Dreams.
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I am a contemporary romance writer, mom, queer, dog-lover, and coffee enthusiast. I have a deep love of the genre, particularly sparkly and swoony, sapphic romcoms, with a borderline obsession with happily-ever-afters. Knowing I will always have a happy ending while smiling through pages gives me the comforting hug I sometimes need. My goal is to spread queer joy in my writing and provide a safe, celebratory, and affirming space for my readers to escape reality.
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.
A clever and steamy queer romantic comedy about taking chances and accepting love—with all its complications—from the author of Astrid Parker Doesn't Fail.
Delilah Green swore she would never go back to Bright Falls—nothing is there for her but memories of a lonely childhood where she was little more than a burden to her cold and distant stepfamily. Her life is in New York, with her photography career finally gaining steam and her bed never empty. Sure, it’s a different woman every night, but that’s just fine with her.
When Delilah’s estranged stepsister, Astrid, pressures her into photographing her wedding…
I’ve been writing lesbian and sapphic stories for a couple of decades now, and over time, I’ve gravitated to stories that have something else going on as well as pure romance. Romance doesn’t evolve in a vacuum, and the setting, scenario, and supporting characters can all help shape the main characters’ romance. I love these fun-filled books that also carry a deeper side, whether it’s a subplot or the main story. That’s what I love to write and read, and I hope you enjoy these recommendations as much as I do.
I love the fake romance trope! Characters pretending to be in a relationship for convoluted reasons get me picking the book up every time. This one is a cracker! Top neurosurgeon Samantha Thomson needs a wife like nowand advertises to find one. The ad is answered by Hayden Pérez, an ER nurse in the same hospital. Trouble is, Hayden dislikes the rude and aloof Sam and is only doing this for the generous payment for a year of her time.
Watching Sam and Hayden banter and snark around each other is delicious fun. As their relationship develops, the women start to understand and support each other through their individual problems in a very positive way. Readers who love a longer read will adore this one: the word count clocks in at 122,000.
Top neurosurgeon Samantha Thomson needs to get married fast and is tightlipped as to why. And with over $200,000 on offer to tie the knot, no questions asked, cash-strapped ER nurse Hayden Pérez isn’t about to demand answers. The deal is only for a year of marriage, but Hayden’s going into it knowing it will be a nightmare. Sam is complicated, rude, kind of cold, and someone Hayden barely tolerates at work, let alone wants to marry. The hardest part is that Hayden has to convince everyone around them that they’re madly in love and that racing down the aisle…
I’ve been writing lesbian and sapphic stories for a couple of decades now, and over time, I’ve gravitated to stories that have something else going on as well as pure romance. Romance doesn’t evolve in a vacuum, and the setting, scenario, and supporting characters can all help shape the main characters’ romance. I love these fun-filled books that also carry a deeper side, whether it’s a subplot or the main story. That’s what I love to write and read, and I hope you enjoy these recommendations as much as I do.
Unemployed lawyer, Nick, gets offered the chance to make quick bucks in the car repo business. With her repo partner, Frankie, she sets off across North Carolina on a series of zany (and dangerous) jobs to recover the cars. The jobs get more and more bizarre, the characters they meet are loveable and eccentric, and, despite not liking each other much in the beginning, along the way Nick and Frankie fall for each other.
Mixed in with the humour (and there are a lot of zingy one-liners, banter, and snort-coffee moments) are racial and small-town issues that give depth to an otherwise light-hearted story.
If you like novels with big heart, larger-than-life characters (including the cat, Carol Jenkins), an action movie feel at times and a banter-filled developing romance at others, this book will delight you.
Welcome to the National Recovery Bureau, where your assets are as sacred as God’s holy word.
Vera “Nick” Nicholson is an overtaxed and underpaid attorney wasting away on the bottom rung of the gilded ladder at Turner, Witherspoon, Anders, and Tyler in Winston-Salem, NC. When a high-priced luxury car belonging to one of the firm’s top clients goes missing, Nick gets saddled with the unenviable job of recovering the vehicle―and its mysterious contents―without involving the cops. Enter Fast Eddie and his quirky band of misfits at The National Recovery Bureau, a repo agency located in a sleepy town called K-Vegas.…
I’ve been writing lesbian and sapphic stories for a couple of decades now, and over time, I’ve gravitated to stories that have something else going on as well as pure romance. Romance doesn’t evolve in a vacuum, and the setting, scenario, and supporting characters can all help shape the main characters’ romance. I love these fun-filled books that also carry a deeper side, whether it’s a subplot or the main story. That’s what I love to write and read, and I hope you enjoy these recommendations as much as I do.
This book puts together two very likeable main characters: Emily, an architect with a very rigid outlook on life, and Skye, who’s a freewheeling bike courier. Throw in some great chemistry, an Aussie setting, solid secondary characters, and overlay it all with KJ’s witty banter and amazingly lyrical sentences that seem to come from nowhere but just fit the narrative so perfectly, and you get Change of Plans, a perfect light-hearted romance.
But look a bit deeper and there’s insight into mental health, commentary on social housing, and a background of big megacorps overriding environmental and cultural issues for profit.
Emily Fitzsimmons, award-winning architect, creates meticulous plans for every aspect of her life, which is understandable considering her difficult childhood. After all, prudence keeps her safe. Lately, though, too many of those comforting plans are disintegrating and Emily is forced to function spontaneously which has spiked her anxiety so much, she’s put her therapist on speed-dial.
Skye Reynolds, bike courier entrepreneur, knows all about exploding plans. That’s literally how she lost her job when her company blew up a 40,000-year-old world heritage site. But Skye is not someone who asks for help to reassemble her life blueprints, which is lucky…
I’m a full-time writer, part-time editor, and avid reader of romances between queer women. I’ve just published my twenty-third novel, and I’m still amazed and humbled at getting to live my dream: writing sapphic romances for a living. Discovering sapphic books was a life-saver for me since I grew up in a tiny little village, with no openly LGBT+ people around, and I love knowing that my books are now doing the same for my readers.
Breaking Character is a lesbian celebrity romance, but it’s also so much more than that. The main character, icy British actress Elizabeth, is in the closet for fear of risking her career. When she meets her younger colleague Summer, she starts letting someone close for the first time—and the result is a romance that is sizzling and sweet at the same time.
If you like age-gap romances with a fake relationship and well-written characters, this is a great introduction to Lee Winter’s books.
Life has become a farcical mess for icy British A-lister Elizabeth Thornton. America’s most-hated villain stars in a top-rated TV medical drama that she hates. Now, she’s been romantically linked to her perky, new co-star, Summer, due to the young woman’s clumsiness. As a closeted actress, that’s the last thing Elizabeth needs. If she could just get her dream movie role, life would be so much better. The only problem is that the eccentric French film-maker offering it insists on meeting her “girlfriend”, Summer, first.Summer Hayes is devastated when her co-star shuns her for accidentally sparking rumors they’re lovers. Now…
In my day job I’m a professor in a hard science and, unsurprisingly, a lesbian. I love sapphic fiction, especially speculative sapphic fiction, but it can be hard to find as the books are seldom labeled as such. Because I write in this genre I’ve been able to ferret out a lot of them, and have made it a mini mission to read as many as possible. I’m particularly drawn to those that get science right (bad science to a science professor is like nails on a chalk board), and those that have at least a little bit of kissing.
Finally, a sapphic space book with a humanly complex protagonist. Alana Quick lives in poverty, barely making ends meet as a spaceship mechanic. Her chronic illness takes whatever money she can come by, for her meds. She finally takes life by the wolf-paws (read the book, you’ll get it) and stows away on a ship, determined to find a better life. Of course then chaos ensues, there’s a hot captain to fall in love with (yes, fight authority, Alana. It makes it that much more fun when you two eventually kiss), and Alana must continually navigate her disease, save her sister, and negotiate for a position on the spaceship Tangled Axon.
Alana Quick is the best damned sky surgeon in Heliodor City, but repairing
starship engines barely pays the bills. When the desperate crew of a cargo
vessel stops by her shipyard looking for her spiritually-advanced sister Nova,
Alana stows away. Maybe her boldness will land her a long-term gig on the crew.
But the Tangled Axon proves to be more than star-watching and plasma
coils. The chief engineer thinks he's a wolf. The pilot fades in and out of
existence. The captain is all blond hair, boots, and ego... and Alana can't keep
her eyes off her. But there's little…
My illiterate grandparents taught me to love learning. A librarian who shared books and food with a ragged, hungry kid cemented my love of books. My fifth-grade teacher in a ghetto school took unpaid time to encourage my writing. My mother taught me to never give up my dreams. Dogs taught me the meaning of unconditional affection and loyalty. And nowadays, when I lose faith in myself, it is my wife’s love and belief in me that keeps me going. Love, in its many forms, has shaped my life.
I liked the protagonist, Kate Delafield, immediately for her straightforward manner. Within very few pages, Katherine painted a picture of the neighborhood and the bar where a murder occurred in its back parking lot, yet she never caused the story to drag. Katherine pulled me in with her succinct description of the murder scene. It was as if I stood beside Kate Delafield.
As the detectives entered the bar, I felt lesbian history reverberating down through the years. As a lesbian, I identified with Kate Delafield and with the milieu within which she had to live and do her job as a police detective. I also understood the hostility of the bar patrons—all lesbians—toward the police. Without preaching, Katherine described the larger conflict inherent in the situation.
This book was so well-written that I “felt” the emotions of the characters; the sadness that a young life had been destroyed way…
Dory Quillin, nineteen-years old, her white-blonde hair ruffled by the gentle breezes of a June evening, lies dead in the parking lot of a lesbian bar. Her bewildered silver-blue eyes stare beseechingly into the mind and soul of the woman who kneels beside her: LAPD homicide detective Kate Delafield.
The investigation is far from a simple matter. Kate uncovers shocking facts about the brief life of the murdered young lesbian. She finds her road to the killer obstructed by Dory’s uncooperative, judgmental parents, the waning interest of her own partner, and most frustrating of all, the open hostility of women…
Halfway through my first novel, I realized that I was writing in a genre that had received little critical study and had almost no visibility. To find my way around the genre—and my place within it—I began reading heavily and before I knew it, I had read well over 200 lesbian mystery novels and devoured almost every serious review and critical study The dozen books I have written over the last decade reflect this study. In them, I hope I have succeeded in expanding the genre in some small way and adding to the menu of a hungry and discerning LGBTQ audience.
Nikki Baker is the first African-American writer of lesbian mysteries and her character Virginia Kelly—who works as a financial analyst in Chicago—is the first African-American lesbian sleuth. This makes it important, but what makes the book outstanding is the writing, especially the voice of the protagonist. The plots are slick and entertaining, but it is Virginia’s internal musings and interpersonal relationships that make this—and the other 3 books in the series—a clear 5-star winner.
When businesswoman Virginia Kelly meets her old college chum Bev Johnson for drinks late one night, Bev confides that her lover, Kelsey, is seeing another woman. Ginny had picked up that gossip months ago, but she is shocked when the next morning's papers report that Kelsey was found murdered behind the very bar where Ginny and Bev had met. Worried that her friend could be implicated, Ginny decides to track down Kelsey's killer and contacts a lawyer, Susan Coogan. Susan takes an immediate, intense liking to Ginny, complicating Ginny's relationship with her live-in lover. Meanwhile Ginny's inquiries heat up when…
My family is a marvelously mixed bunch: lesbian, gay, and straight relatives; Jewish and Latin relatives; relatives along a spectrum of economic situations, abilities, and political views. The policy work that I do connects me with social justice advocates from across NYC’s multiple ethnic, racial, religious, and LGBTQ communities. The wildly disparate voices that surround me illuminate both the power of communal ties and the dangers of narrow identity labeling. A central quest behind my work, my reading, and my writing has thus always been to balance and respect everything at once: the cultural structures that sustain us; the individual quirks that challenge and complicate those structures; and the universalities that cross all cultural borders.
Flora Calhoun—sixteen-year-old, self-appointed sleuth—is hot on the trail of a series of brutal attacks on young women. Ostracized by the in-crowd at her school for her unruly tongue (and for the secrets she uncovers about everyone)—reprimanded by those who love her for putting herself (and them) in constant danger—she ploughs determinedly ahead into increasingly dark and perilous territory. You’re Nextis a quintessential YA book—full of the angst, the parental problems, and the acute social commentary of its snarky young protagonist. But does it dwell on the fact that Flora is bisexual? Not for a moment. It seems that in the world of contemporary YA literature we have finally reached the point at which that aspect of Flora’s life is no biggie. Amen.
When a girl with a troubled history of finding dead bodies investigates the murder of her ex, she uncovers a plot to put herself---and everyone she loves---on the list of who's next.
Flora Calhoun has a reputation for sticking her nose where it doesn't belong. After stumbling upon a classmate's body years ago, the trauma of that discovery and the police's failure to find the killer has haunted her ever since. One night, she gets a midnight text from Ava McQueen, the beautiful girl who had ignited Flora's heart last summer, then never spoke to her again.
In my day job I’m a professor in a hard science and, unsurprisingly, a lesbian. I love sapphic fiction, especially speculative sapphic fiction, but it can be hard to find as the books are seldom labeled as such. Because I write in this genre I’ve been able to ferret out a lot of them, and have made it a mini mission to read as many as possible. I’m particularly drawn to those that get science right (bad science to a science professor is like nails on a chalk board), and those that have at least a little bit of kissing.
For a more romance-driven option, Safety Protocols for Human Holidays is a sweet winter holiday-themed novella, wherein Raskli, an alien security officer, is asked to check in on human Jen, who is exhibiting odd behavior. Jen is the only human on the ship and is depressed, and it is up to Raskli and the rest of the ragtag crew to sort out how to cheer her up. Perhaps a holiday! But what human holiday to pick?
This book is straight-up joyful fluff. Yes, it’s in space, and yes, the pairing is sapphic, but it’s also a cute human/alien romance. No stress on this read, and no heavy thinking. Just, well, kissing. And antics. And Christmas.
Someone has to fix their broken human. Raskli's not sure why it has to be her.
As a security officer on an interspecies ship, Growlan Raskli's experienced in heading off species-specific aberrant behaviors in order to keep the peace. But when her captain asks her to find out what's bothering their sole human crew member, Raskli's out of her depths. She hardly knows anything about humans and she's not a psych doctor.
Something's definitely upset Human Jen, something to do with human holidays. The more time Raskli spends studying humans and interacting with the intriguing Human Jen, the more personal…
