Martha Miller’s TOP 5 Sapphic Books of 2023

The cops blow it off, another Black transgender woman who surprised a customer with what was under the dress—bad luck she was pushed out of the car and then hit by another vehicle.

But Micky Knight witnessed it, crossing the street at the right—or wrong—time, only yards away from what didn’t look at all like an accident to her. The woman was dressed more like a librarian than a sex worker. It’s not her case, she was just walking home from a local bar. No ID was found on the victim, and the only clue is an appointment card with cryptic initials, CJ at CC. Micky has a good idea what they mean—Cordelia James at CrescentCare, a local health clinic that sees many transgender clients. Cordelia, a doctor and her ex. Micky doesn’t want to get involved, but there will be no justice if she doesn’t. As she investigates, she uncovers a family in turmoil and ugly secrets—ones people will kill for.

Over the decades, she never stopped thinking about her high school sweetheart.

What if instead of meeting someone new, you reconnected with someone from your past?

Gloria Robinson still farms in South Carolina.

Living in Washington D.C., Anna May Walker floats through life disconnected from the South.

After decades apart, will the old sparks be enough to restart a fire between them?

A heartbreakingly gorgeous novel based on the true story of two girls who fall secretly, deeply, and dangerously in love at boarding school in 19th century York, from the bestselling author of Room and The Wonder.

Drawing on years of investigation and Anne Lister’s five-million-word secret journal, Learned by Heart is the long-buried love story of Eliza Raine, an orphan heiress banished from India to England at age six, and Anne Lister, a brilliant, troublesome tomboy, who meet at the Manor School for young ladies in York in 1805 when they are both fourteen.

You never forget your first love.

When the domestic terrorist cell Emma Schmidt has infiltrated summons her to an abandoned warehouse for a loyalty test, Emma immediately recognizes the battered woman. Emma must act fast to protect her cover and save the woman, Jimena Aguilar. Will this lead them back to the closeness they once shared, or have the years in between hardened their hearts to love?

Competitive barrel racer Lacey Bishop has worked her way from homelessness and poverty to needing only a few points to qualify for the National Rodeo Finals when her only horse suffers a career-ending injury.

Without the money to buy a new horse, Lacey has no choice but to trust an offer from Double R Ranch to lease one of their best barrel-racing horses.

Horse trainer Wil Rivers is working hard to get her family’s ranch profitable again after the coronavirus pandemic shut them down for more than a year. Her best chance to save the ranch from foreclosure is a half-million-dollar-plus offer to buy the mare she’s promised to the bewitching Lacey Bishop.