Here are 100 books that The Romance Recipe fans have personally recommended if you like
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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.
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.
For cynical twenty-three-year-old August, moving to New York City is supposed to prove her right: that things like magic and cinematic love stories don't exist, and the only smart way to go through life is alone. She can't imagine how waiting tables at a 24-hour pancake diner and moving in with too many weird roommates could possibly change that. And there's certainly no chance of her subway commute being anything more than a daily trudge through boredom and electrical failures.
But then, there's this gorgeous girl on the train.
Jane. Dazzling, charming, mysterious, impossible Jane. Jane with her rough edges…
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 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.
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.
Perfect for fans of Alison Cochrun and Ashley Herring Blake, this sapphic retelling of It’s a Wonderful Life will make the yuletide gay.
After years of putting aside her dreams of travel and adventure, Bailey George is ready to leave Lanford Falls and her responsibilities behind on a long-awaited vacation to New York City. But when the volunteer who took over her leadership position for the town's Winter Wonderfest has a medical emergency, Bailey finds herself stuck in Lanford Falls. She gets roped into reassuming her old role, not wanting to let the town or her friends and family down.…
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.
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.
From award-winning author Rachel Lacey comes a playful romance about a Manhattan bookstore owner and a reclusive author who love to hate―and hate to love―each other.
Books are Rosie Taft’s life. And ever since she took over her mother’s beloved Manhattan bookstore, they’ve become her home too. The only thing missing is her own real-life romance like the ones she loves to read about, and Rosie has an idea of who she might like to sweep her off her feet. She’s struck up a flirty online friendship with lesbian romance author Brie, and what could be more romantic than falling…
I started in publishing at the Advocate magazine, twenty years ago in its heyday, then moved to Alyson Books, who first published Emma Donoghue among many others, offering a place for queer writers showcasing queer stories to find their audience. Afterwards, I became involved with Gertrude literary journal, a beloved, 25-year-old non-profit, LGBTQA journal that has now evolved to The Gertrude Conference. All the while, I read, wrote, and supported queer stories, like these gems!
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.
A sweeping memoir, a raw and intimate chronicle of a young activist torn between conflicting personal longings and political goals. When We Were Outlaws offers a rare view of the life of a radical lesbian during the early cultural struggle for gay rights, Women’s Liberation, and the New Left of the 1970s.
Brash and ambitious, activist Jeanne Córdova is living with one woman and falling in love with another, but her passionate beliefs tell her that her first duty is to the revolution” to change the world and end discrimination against gays and lesbians. Trying to compartmentalize her sexual life,…
I’m a Pushcart-nominated writer of (mostly) young adult and adult horror and suspense. I primarily write about the fear of isolated and sparsely populated places, which makes sense: I grew up in the rural hinterlands of northeast Pennsylvania, steeped in dark cornfields, eerie quiet, and weird characters. I now live in the Philadelphia area with my husband and rescue dog in a creaky, century-old house, giving myself agita about the creepy crawlspace in the basement. I’m the author of two novels: A Misfortune of Lake Monsters (YA horror, July 2024) and The Trajectory of Dreams (adult psychological suspense, 2013).
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…
From the New York Times bestselling author of My Dearest Darkest comes another incredible sapphic horror. When four best friends with a hunger for human flesh attend a music festival in the desert they discover a murderous plot to expose and vilify the girls and everyone like them. This summer is going to get gory.
Five years ago, the melting of arctic permafrost released a pathogen of unknown origin into the atmosphere, causing a small percentage of people to undergo a transformation that became known as the Hollowing. Those impacted slowly became intolerant to normal food and were only able…
I knew in my early teens that I wasn’t straight, but back then, the thought of coming out was too scary. I waited until I was twenty-three to do so, and it was still scary even being ten years older! So I can relate to stories of women of all ages discovering their less-than-straight sexuality. It’s rarely easy, no matter how many years you’ve lived already. It still requires good support from the people who love you, and one thing in common in all of the books I’ve recommended is that family, or often found family, plays a crucial role in the newly-out woman feeling comfortable being themselves.
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.
The intimacy of a cabin at Lake Tahoe provides the combustible circumstances that bring Diana Holland and Lane Christianson together in this passionate novel of first discovery.
Candid in its eroticism, intensely romantic, remarkably beautiful, CURIOUS WINE is a love story that will remain in your memory.
At heart, I’m still just a girl. I don’t think I’ll ever grow out of wanting to experience the excitement of first kisses, first loves, and of coming out, when everything was new and exciting, and the world was full of promise. That’s why we return to YA even as adults. To feel the butterflies of a first crush, the fluttering of first love, and the agony of first loss. Those transformative books, the ones that change the trajectory of our lives, are usually young adult novels. I wrote The Space Betweento give readers a story to fall in love with and take with them the rest of their lives.
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 thebook.
'Piercing the shadows of the naked stage was a single shaft of rosy limelight, and in the centre of this was a girl: the most marvellous girl - I knew it at once! - that I had ever seen.'
A saucy, sensuous and multi-layered historical romance set in the 'roaring' 1890s, Tipping the Velvet follows the glittering career of Nan King on her journey from Whitstable oyster-girl to music-hall star to cross-dressing rentboy to East End 'tom'.
As the author of several sapphic sports romances, I find sports world rife with passion, complexities, and inherent conflict. I’ve had the privilege of working with several professional athletes and Olympians, and I’m always drawn to their drive. Sports, especially high-level sports, function as a pressure cooker to reveal our real personalities for better or for worse. There’s something appealing about studying people who push their minds and bodies to the brink in pursuit of something bigger than themselves. I think in some small way that connects with who as I am a writer and my own drive to always improve.
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.
As the go-to therapist at Elite Therapy, Dr. Hayley Sims is the best in her field. It’s exactly why she’s just been assigned her most challenging patient yet, hockey player Elizabeth Stone. Not because Stone’s injury is complicated, but because she is intense to work with and needs someone to keep her in check. When Hayley’s personal life starts unraveling and she realizes she might be developing feelings for her patient, she’s torn between finishing her assignment and walking away to protect herself. Can Hayley get Stone back on the ice in one piece while keeping her heart from breaking?
As the author of several sapphic sports romances, I find sports world rife with passion, complexities, and inherent conflict. I’ve had the privilege of working with several professional athletes and Olympians, and I’m always drawn to their drive. Sports, especially high-level sports, function as a pressure cooker to reveal our real personalities for better or for worse. There’s something appealing about studying people who push their minds and bodies to the brink in pursuit of something bigger than themselves. I think in some small way that connects with who as I am a writer and my own drive to always improve.
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.
Gia Malone wants one thing and one thing only: to be the best surfer in the world. Her biggest obstacle is the annoyingly perky Elle Britton. Not only is Elle number one in the rankings, she’s also a fan favorite. But there’s a lot about Elle that Gia never noticed, like her surprising sense of humor and picture-perfect mouth.
Elle Britton is tired. After tournaments, fan meet-ups, and nonstop media requests, all she wants in the world is a little peace and quiet. But with Gia Malone closing in on her ranking, she has to surf her best. When the…
