100 books like Whitewater Rendezvous

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. 

I love Yolanda Wallace, and I love tennis, so this one was an easy pick up for me. My son is an avid tennis player, which makes me a tennis mom. I know the ups and downs of tennis players, and I personally find it the most mentally grueling sport of them all since you are out there on your own with no one to help pick you up when you’re down. I think the setting is rife with angst, and Yolanda Wallace is such a beautifully descriptive writer. She never misses an opportunity to paint a real picture with her words. 

I have to admit I am not a fan of soccer. I know this means a lot of folks will vote to remove my sapphic author card for saying so publicly, but I only do so to drive home the point of how rare it is for me to get caught up in a soccer story. I really only agreed to blurb this book because I’ve known Jane for a long time and I wanted to help her with her debut novel, but once I got started, I couldn’t put it down. The characters are rich and dynamic, and the story is so much more than the standard competition narrative. I don’t want to give it away, but this one really got me on a deeper level than I expected. 

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.

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 now and 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.

This book is a delight from start to finish.

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.

Purposefully Accidental is also by one of my favourite authors.

Sometimes that strand of history between a couple can be a relatively petty grudge, and this is what I love about Purposefully Accidental. G Benson, isn’t afraid to have her characters be very human and flawed and a bit bloody minded at times. You get a lovely sense of these two not being able to leave each other alone, even when they’re annoying. 

This epic romance brilliantly juggles a whole load of tropes – celebrity, doctors, fake romance. I think this one of her strengths – coming out with something unique by considering many aspects in a very convincing way. (Dead Lez Walking is an example – gore, comedy, and romance combined in a way I thought impossible before reading that book).

She mixes giggle-inducing scenes then breaks your heart the next moment in a wonderfully immersive story. Sigh.

Levig’s characters in Embracing the Dawn leap from the page. They’re fully realized, three-dimensional women with interesting backstories. It’s an unusual pairing, but that doesn’t decrease the swoon-worthy component any.

I’ve heard readers are fascinated with either E.J. or Jinx, myself no exception. Like in my last recommendation, I adore when a character can’t help herself from showing up time and time again, and this romance provides. 

Levig supplements her love interests with intriguing and complex side characters who are just as loveable as the main characters. Levig doesn’t shy away from difficult subjects, and how E.J. and Jinx support and strengthen each other makes their romance even more swoon worthy.

You’ll be ordering the second book in the series before you’re done with the first.

Like the novels in my first 3 picks, this one is part of a series. Nea Fox, the protagonist, is a private eye working out of London. The story contains a series of intricate puzzles with exotic characters and engaging relationships. Think of the Fu Manchu novels if they had been written by Patricia Highsmith. In this one, Nea investigates an alleged haunting and reveals a great deal of monkey business. And if it’s action you like, this may be the most exciting lesbian mystery of all.   

This book needs to come with a health warning – will make you laugh so hard you’re in danger of pulling a muscle. The humor, usually provided by the two elderly ladies one of the main characters, Jorie, lives with, really is side-splitting. But alongside their hilarity, the romance between Jorie, an out lesbian, and the random woman, Lena, she shares a car ride with when snow cancels their flight is delightful. Mainly because, for once with a ‘late coming out’ story, Lena very quickly accepts her new sexuality, and it’s Jorie who struggles with what it means to be the first woman that Lena’s attracted to.