Get ready to add books to your TBR pile!
As the end of the year draws near, we have one question we want to ask book lovers the world over. What were your top 5 sapphic reads of 2023?
Luckily our readers like to share! We look forward to passing along these recommendations to you daily into the new year.
It’s not too late to submit your own top reads and get in on the fun. Click here for the form. Our only rules are that authors may not submit their own books and your list needs to be new-to-you books that were read (not necessarily published) in 2023.
Here are Maisha’s top sapphic reads of 2023:
1. The Space Between Worlds by Micaiah Johnson
Survival and thriving are powerful skills employed by a young woman who travels between planets in her multiverse. Somehow she manages to find love too. So well written.
2. Blood of the Pack by Jenny Frame
Book Three of the Wolfgang County Series is my guilty pleasure. I reread it often after putting it down several times in the beginning. It’s such an interesting way to approach the main character’s healing from sexual trauma through the ebbs & flows of empowerment. It’s a messy HEA tale with so much primal, nature-centered epic adventure details. It’s so corny it’s good. Nice to have complex characters and dominant aggressive eye-candy. Somehow Frame candy-coated blood thirsty werewolf life and still retained their fierceness.
3. Every Dark Desire by Fiona Zedde
This book was hard for me because blood and violence and sex and love are all interwoven. These characters are needy and dangerous villains. Villains need love too. It’s just as poignant as the Gilda Stories by Jewel Gomez, but much more gut-wrenching. Immortality erodes conscience and I’m still rooting for their victory. I love how Zedde shows the hard aspects of poverty as an issue for the undead. Vampirism is so romanticized in pop media. This version is not easy. Strong characters make this an amazing book.
4. Pink by KD Williamson
I’m a big fan of Between the Lines, so I’m even more impressed by the healing exploration of the main character in this book. The trials and transitions of Shawn and her intimate others is important opportunity for the reflection of single folks. It’s well-written, engaging, sometimes funny, and still sexy. It’s realism and optimism for today’s sexy single.
5. Waltzing on the Danube by Miranda MacLeod
Cheers to the free spirits, the awkward, the exacting. I enjoyed Eleanor & Janine and all their hijinks. I relate to the wild and the wound-tight aspects of the characters. Loving expands our strengths and allows acceptance of our challenges. This book is a hilarious trip to witness. I like that the characters are mature, set in their way, but still have room to grow.
