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As the year comes to a close, we have one burning question for book lovers everywhere: What were your top 5 sapphic reads of 2024?
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 2024.
Here are Melody Wiklund’s top sapphic reads of 2024:
1. Land of Milk and Honey by C Pam Zhang
This book has a near-future setting that is grim and realistic, but also is filled with lush imagery, particularly lots of vivid descriptions of food. I didn’t know it also had a sapphic subplot going in, but I was happily surprised by it. The two main female characters were very complex and imperfect, and I loved how their relationship developed. It is not really a romance though, and doesn’t have a very happy ending, so it’s best to know that going in.
2. Love, Yumi by Hildred Billings
It’s a romance but also a coming of age story for two young idols in the world of Jpop. It’s a bit angsty and dark in places, but has one of the best slow burn sapphic romances at its core that I’ve ever read, a friends to lovers plotline that really makes you work for every inch of romantic development. I especially loved the main character Chiharu, who’s closeted in a very public setting, where the consequences of her coming out could ruin her career–and who starts the book by writing a blog that is indeed her coming out. She’s very bold, kind of butch, and a great protagonist to follow.
3. Bad Beat by L. M. Bennett
The couple in this book has a very heated rivalry at the start, so heated that everyone around them has noticed it (and begun to make inferences on why exactly they are so obsessed with each other). They’re a pair of professional gamblers, both of whom love the game and play aggressively and expertly. I loved their dynamic, and I also loved the descriptions of the games played in the book; I don’t know much about poker but Bennett makes it clear what’s going on and keeps you invested.
4. Touchwood by Karin Kallmaker
This is the oldest book in my top 5, and I think pretty well known, but I had never read it until now. It’s a May-December romance with two realistically drawn characters; I love an age gap romance where the older character isn’t some millionaire or super powerful figure but is simply a bookstore owner. It makes the trope feel very grounded and leads to an exploration of what a relationship with a large age gap would really be like. Overall it’s a very mellow book and I loved seeing the romance develop but also just seeing the two characters live their lives and overcome realistic difficulties.
5. The Lowest Healer and the Highest Mage by Hiyodori
This is book one (apart from a prequel) in the Clem and Wist series, which I am now in the middle of reading. It features an odd pair, once friends and lovers until a betrayal some years ago, now meeting again in a high stakes situation. There’s great worldbuilding, and great sparring (verbal and sometimes more physical) between the two main characters. And you’re really driven forward by a need to find out why the betrayal happened in the past, and whether these two can ever get over it and become friends (and more than friends) again.
