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 Leslie’s top sapphic reads of 2025:
1. Rosewater by Liv Little
It is very gritty for a romance novel. The MC is a woman, Elsie, who is black and lives in the UK. She came from a tough childhood due to being queer and a budding poet. Elsie’s parents did not support these life choices and her goal is to be published and make money from her poetry. Best friend, Juliet, supports . This is a friends to lovers story that takes one on an emotional ride.
2. Tangled Threads by C.W. Elliot
An ice queen lawyer, Lenore Graves, lets a first year associate, Sol Ruiz, get under her skin. Lenore is a top trial lawyer in New York City who due to circumstances in the firm is currently overseeing the new associates. She hands the group boxes of discovery for one of her most important cases. No one in years has found the key to catching the defendants. Sol is insolent but a sharp lawyer who finds the key to the prosecution of this criminal corporation. The love story intertwines with the continuing pursuit by Sol of the evidence needed for trial. I like the back story as well as the relationship development between Sol and Lenore as Sol slowly breaks the ice queen facade Lenore so desperately clings to.There are two additional books in this story.
3. When It All Comes Undone by C.W. Elliot
A continuation of the relationship development between Sol and Lenore and the further development of trial preparation and the trial of Vanguard, the villainous corporation. It is suspenseful and contains more involvement of Lenore’s child, Ben. Again, like the previous book, I love the legal story as well as the strengthening of the love relationship and the starting of a sense of family.
4. In Moments Like This by Robin Clairvaux
I love this book because one of the MCs is nonbinary and because of the way the author handles the issues of gender dysphoria and attempted suicide. This is an enemies to lovers story. Maddox works for a small recreation facility that is under consideration for purchase by a larger company. Denise is the daughter of the owner of the larger company. The story evolves as Denise struggles with her past marriage and mental breakdown while fighting her interest in Maddox. Maddox is comfortable in their gender identity – three years ago they “explored” the nonbinary gender identity for themselves.
5. The Secret Crush Book Club by Karmen Lee
Slow burn romance between a librarian, Zoey, and a nurse, Dani, in small town Georgia. Peach Tree, GA is the setting for several books about the Williams’ sisters, all of whom are wlw. Peach Tree is idyllic – no racism or homophobia exists here by the author’s intention. (I heard an interview with Karmen Lee. The author and her characters are black.)
