This post is part of Femslash Revolution’s I
Am Femslash series, sharing voices of F/F creators from all walks
of life. The views represented within are those of the author only.
Hi! I’m Shira, and like many of you, I grew up frustrated at the lack of happy romances between women in most genres of literature. Come to find out, though, that these books do exist–they’re just hard to find because marginalization keeps them on the fringes of publishing, in independent presses and self-publishing (although things are getting better with books like The Abyss Surrounds Us and Of Fire and Stars coming from mainstream houses.)
I’ve done my best to try to signal boost the f/f books I’ve enjoyed recently, and that’s what I’m going to do in today’s post. This time, I’ll focus on books that don’t seem to be on the radar of sapphic Tumblr. We make it out of these books alive and paired up. Please check all reviews for TW’s.
Warming Trend by Karin Kallmaker - a suspense novel set in the world of glacier science. An academic scandal broke Ani’s heart and drove her away from Alaska and her partner, all the way to Florida. The plot involves putting everything right again with a cast of at least four lesbians. Here’s a link to my review.
For Sizakele by Yvonne Fly Onakeme Etaghene - love triangle between three Black women. The main character, a bi college student named Taylor, is Nigerian-American and bonds with a new friend from Cameroon over their shared Africanness. Meanwhile, her relationship with her established girlfriend frays at the edges. My review.
A Wartime Love by Shiralyn Lee - well-researched, PG-rated novel about two women falling in love during Germany’s attack on the UK in WII. They survive the bombings and spend their lives together. My review, which contains the line “I’m sure there are a bazillion ‘what we endured’ books like this, but this one has HAPPY LESBIANS so it’s special and different.”
Carolyn for Christmas by Lucy Carey - they were friends as youngsters but a misunderstanding drove them apart. Now they’re competing over who gets to sing the Christmas solo in church. PG-rated and set in Ireland; here’s my review.
Poppy Jenkins by Clare Ashton - set in a contemporary Welsh village, this one reminds me of what canonically f/f Anne of Green Gables would look like. The heroine is an out lesbian beloved by her neighbors; the love interest, who left town years ago and is back now, rubs them the wrong way. This one has been getting a lot of attention in the published f/f fiction world but apart from @fuckyeahlesbianliterature I don’t usually see people bring it up on Tumblr so I figured I’d signal boost.
And of course, no post on underappreciated f/f novels by me would be complete without a mention of Heather Rose Jones’s Alpennia books. When you watch costume dramas based on Jane Austen books or historical events, do some of you yearn for the girls to kiss each other and to pursue academic and business interests and even magic? Check out Daughter of Mystery, The Mystic Marriage, and Mother of Souls (links are to my reviews.) Set in early 19th century central Europe, each book adds new lesbians, bi women, and ace women, many of whom are friends with each other or form lifelong romantic partnerships. The books are chock full of political intrigue and personal drama.
If none of these appeal to you, there are plenty of other books like them out there. One good way to find them is to check the finalists (and winners) of the Golden Crown Literary Society each year. If high prices get in the way, consider finding your local library’s ‘suggest item’ page and requesting them, or contacting the author or publishing house to ask if they might be willing to send you a review copy of the eBook (and then, of course, please review it!)
About Shira:
Shira Glassman is a bi violinist (biolinist?…) living in north central Florida. She is best known for her Mangoverse series, fluffy fairy tales centered on queer Jewish women; some of these novels have shortlisted in the Golden Crown Literary Society Awards and the Bi Book Awards. The most recent of these is The Olive Conspiracy, in which the series’ lesbian queen MC must save her country from agricultural sabotage that may or may not have been the work of the straight foreign princess she crushed on as a teenager. Shira has also written a number of short stories.
