With Summer around the corner, it’s time to start choosing those holiday reads! May has been a busy month for lesbian fiction so we have eight new recommended releases plus our usual last year and lesbian classics recommendations. Enjoy!
Recommended new releases:
Traditional romance:
‘Falling’ by Kris Bryant
Shaylie Beck is a real state broker on a flight home that goes terribly wrong. When the plane crashes, she is one of the eleven passengers lucky to be alive. In the support group for survivors, she meets Piper Cole, a yoga teacher who lost both her fiancée and her best friend on that flight. As Shaylie and Piper’s connection deepens, Shaylie is faced with the decision of telling Piper what she saw before the crash and risking losing her forever…
Overall, a very good slow-burn romance about falling apart and falling in love. 4 stars.
Psychological romance:
‘Alone’ by EJ Noyes
Celeste Thorne is taking part in a scientific experiment that involves solitary confinement for four years with a final prize of half a million dollars. More than three years into the study, she finds a woman lurking in the border of her compound. Olivia Soldano is beautiful, caring and enigmatic but her sole presence in the house breaks the rules of the experiment and ultimately, can Celeste trust her?
‘Alone’ is a work of contrasts: dark but also optimistic, intense though gentle, unsettling but, at the same time, hopeful. Another excellent novel by E.J. Noyes. 5 stars.
Romance / Adventure:
‘In the Palm’ by Elna Holst
This novella is about a woman who wakes up on an island in the middle of nowhere. She has no idea how she arrived or even what her name is, but she does know she needs to cut her hand off if she is going to survive. Loosely based on Daniel Defoe’s Robinson Crusoe, In the Palm gives a lesbian twist to the stranded-on-a-desert-island trope.
All in all, this is well written and an entertaining story. 4 stars.
Crime:
‘Cash and the Sorority Girl’ by Ashley Bartlett
This is the third book of the ‘Cash Braddock’ series who follows the adventures of a drug dealer. In this book, Cash is confronted with her moral bounds when someone is drugging and assaulting women at college parties.
Bartlett writes really well. Dialogue is not easy to write but Bartlett crushes it and is able to make a morally grey character extremely likeable. 4.5 stars.
Fantasy:
‘A Bird of Sorrow’ by Shea Godfrey
This is book three of the lesbian fantasy series of Arravan, a mythical country where Princess Jessa and her lover Darrius Durand live and fight wars and spells.
Godfrey is an underrated and very talented writer. She has an excellent imagination and it really showed in this book. 4 stars.
Young Adult:
‘In the Silences’ by Rachel Gold
This book covers about three years in two teenager’s lives. Kaz is struggling with their gender while Aisha has to deal with systematic racism after moving to a town that is mostly white. These two teenagers click and become best friends instantly. Kaz knows they are falling for Aisha hard, but can Aisha accept how Kaz sees their own gender? And with racism affecting Aisha’s schooling, will she be around long enough for Kaz to find out?
Gold writes books that are important. In this book, Gold takes on race, gender, and sexuality. She knows how to leave an impact on you while getting your mind working. 4 stars.
Recommended debut books:
Mystery:
‘Secrets in a Small Town‘ by Nicole Stiling
Town manager Savannah Castillo has a stalker who is threatening her life. Deputy Chief Mackenzie Blake helps with the investigation and offers herself as a live-in bodyguard. Both women clash a lot but as an attraction is born, will Mackenzie be able to keep Savannah safe?
Overall, this was a good, entertaining read. It has a few bumps, but it is a very readable and enjoyable debut. 4 stars.
Romance:
‘New Ink on Life‘ by Jennie Davids
Cassie Whiteaker is a tattoo artist who has survived breast cancer and is reluctantly hired by tattoo shop owner MJ Flores to create a good marketing plan to save the shop. As both women get to know one another, MJ discovers that Cassie is a great artist and Cassie is able to see through MJ’s ice-king attitude.
This is a book about letting go of the fears and finding your personal strength. 4 stars.
Last year’s book that you should read:
‘Three reasons to say yes’ by Jaime Clevenger
‘Three reasons to say yes’ is a slow-burn romance with some family and inner conflict on the side, set in the idyllic island of Hawaii. The plot is tightly woven with attention to detail. It has a perfect balance between angst and joy, conflict and harmony. All the intimate scenes are convincing and sizzling with a little twist that is not usually dealt with in lesfic. 5 stars.
Classic lesfic book of the month:
‘The Price of Salt’ by Patricia Highsmith
Originally published in 1952, ‘The Price of Salt’ describes the romantic relationship between Therese Belivet, a stage designer with a department-store day job and Carol Aird, a housewife in the process of divorcing. As they set out across the United States, they are pursued by a private investigator who eventually blackmails Carol into a choice between her daughter and her lover.
