Get ready to add books to your TBR pile!
As the year comes to a close, we have one burning question for book lovers everywhere: What were your top 5 sapphic reads of 2025?
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 2025.
Here are Kimberly J.M. Wilson’s top sapphic reads of 2025:
1. Maybe Some Other Time by Hildred Billings
Most readers know Hildy for her smoking hot BDSM books, but this isn’t one of those. Maybe Some Other Time is a delightful, creative, and engaging book about a 1950s housewife who time-travels to the present and embraces her new life. HB does an excellent job of interspersing Thelma’s old world with her new world in such a way that it speaks to what sapphic women in the “olden times” endured to ensure their survival and the costs they were willing to pay for it, juxtaposed against the freedoms that women now have to be who they truly are.
2. The Piano in the Tree by Jo Havens
This book is well written and thoroughly researched, and it taught me more about pianos than I ever thought I wanted to learn. I’m a sucker for a metaphor, and while this book sits atop the romance mantle, it is also literary. More sapphic authors should take note of how to balance both.
3. The Woman from the Waves by Roslyn Sinclair
An extremely well written book about two women who have been confined by their respective societies/upbringings, discover they don’t have to be defined by what other people want them to be. It is unique from Roslyn’s earlier books because she went outside her comfort zone, created two original, memorable MCs, and wrote a literary-minded book. She has taken Hans Christian Andersen’s The Little Mermaid to the sea, held its outdated understanding of women underwater, ripped its flailing pages from its spine, and rewritten an epic tale about what it means to be human, quite simply: love. (I hope this doesn’t drive down sales, Roslyn.) On a personal note, I must confess (pun intended) that as a former nun-in-training, I was impressed by how well she examined Madeleine’s struggles with her faith and sexuality. It resonated deeply with me.
4. milktooth by Jaime Burnet
I usually despise first-person narrative storytelling unless it’s non-fiction. That said, Jaime won me over with this book, which employs a light, humorous touch on a dark subject matter: domestic abuse. I found it interesting how she juxtaposed the mental and physical abuse Sorcha experienced as a child with the mental abuse she suffers at the hands of her partner, drawing a direct parallel of cyclical acceptance of abuse. Also, the way she interweaves dry humor into a dark subject is interesting. At no point is the story overdramatized or overwrought, which could have been easily done by a less gifted storyteller. Additionally, I enjoyed the sections on Scotland, having grown up around Scots and having visited that beautiful country.
5. Whistleblower by Jen Lyon
It’s actually the entire Senator’s Wife trilogy, but I didn’t want to use three picks. There are no third-act breakups, graphic sex scenes, or ridiculous grand gestures, just engaging MCs and well-written, excellent storytelling. Catherine and Alex’s relationship reflects the ups/downs and societal expectations that many lesbian couples face. Yes, the overarching plot of the story, getting out of a hideous marriage to that Senator bastard, is less than usual, but other themes play essential roles, too. Catherine’s troubled relationship with her parents was very reflective of the experiences of many in the gay community, and I thought it was one of the series’ stronger plotlines.
