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 Natasha’s top sapphic reads of 2025:
1. The Apple Diary by Gerri Hill
The Apple Diary features a story-within-a-story structure, in which Madilyn reads her great-grandmother’s diary and explores her life. I find it profoundly neat that members of the same two families fall in love with each other just like their ancestors did almost a century earlier. It reads both like a legacy of sapphic attraction, and a second chance to redeem a tragic love story – especially given the striking resemblance between Madilyn’s and Dylan’s relationship to the one shared by their elders. The setting of an apple orchard also accentuates the sentimental atmosphere, and overall the plot is perfectly heartwarming.
2. Afterlove by Tanya Byrne
The emotional anguish that Ash endures during the aftermath of her death is overwhelmingly heart-wrenching: how she watches herself fade from the world, how she witnesses her own family mourning her, and most of all, her immediate separation from Poppy. But this story doesn’t portray death in the usual way of being the end of a character’s existence. Instead, it uses death as a setting, and imagines a realm in which even the deceased can still nurture the same total love for their significant other as they did when they were alive. And while the ending isn’t a typical “happy ever after” because Ash’s eternal fate is open to interpretation, the story does end on an optimistic note.
3. Painted Moon by Karin Kallmaker
This book does a superb job at depicting the greatest depths that authentic romantic love can achieve. It’s indescribably moving how Leah mourned her partner of fifteen years for twenty-five months after Sharla drowned – to the point of completely giving up painting. That kind of perfect, all-consuming love and devotion to a soulmate is a theme I rarely encounter in contemporary romance fiction plots. I also adore how Jackie lovingly makes space for Sharla’s memory in her new relationship with Leah – even to the point of finding and visiting Sharla’s grave on Leah’s behalf – and never gets truly jealous of Leah’s deceased partner. It was definitely a worthwhile listen with a happy ending.
4. Far From The World We Know by Harper Bliss
I don’t usually look for plots featuring physical abuse and psychological trauma, but the way the author depicts Laura’s pain and guilt feels so real and believable that even a reader/listener who has never had to endure a similar experience can still effortlessly empathize with her – and understand her confusing behaviours earlier in the plot. It left me feeling happy for Laura that she finally met someone who properly loved her – in contrast to her unaccepting parents and her abusive former wife. The story ends in a happy marriage between Laura and Tess, and the couple even went on to start a family. Definitely satisfying.
5. Learning Curves by Rachel Lacey
This book is hands-down hilarious! For one thing, the hot-for-teacher trope that Audrey embodies feels exquisitely honest and candid – its exactly the emotional arc you would expect for someone who conceals a socially unacceptable crush. For another, Dr. Thompson, who is characteristically uptight and guarded at all times around her colleagues, loses all self-control and always ends up embarrassing herself when around Audrey – or even when fantasizing about her. The narration just couldn’t stop making me chuckle!
There’s also the added bonus of an academic setting – and as a very academically-inclined student, I found that this backdrop added to the thrill.
Listen to the audiobook version on Audible and hear it for yourself!
