#sapphicromancesummer

• A Dark and Hollow Star-Ashley Shuttleworth

• A Cruel and Fated Light-Ashley Shuttleworth

• I Kissed Shara Wheeler-Casey McQuiston

• One Last Stop-Casey McQuiston

• Cinderella is Dead-Kalynn Bayron

Join me for Sapphic Romance Summer where we:

Read sapphic books

Watch sapphic shows and movies

Try to have sapphic experiences in a very broad sense (romantic experiences, finding community, self expression etc.)

One Last Stop by Casey McQuiston - a love letter to found family and queer community. August moves to New York with a cynical mindset and no plans of falling in love, but that’s changes when she meets Jane, a gorgeous butch on the train, who also just happens to be stuck in time from the 1970’s.

I loved the cast of characters and the focus on queer spaces both past and present. The one thing that hindered my enjoyment of the book was that a large part of the story takes place on a train and yo girl has ocd… They were eating, making out and having sex on this train and I could not stop thinking about how dirty and disgusting theirs surroundings were and how much I wanted them to wash their hands which ruined the romantic vibes a little, but that’s just a personal issue. 4,5⭐️

Girl Dinner by Olivie Blake - The House is the most exclusive sorority on campus and Nina is determined to become a member. Dr. Sloane works for the university and is struggling to find her way in life as a new mother, so maybe becoming academic liaison for the House will give her the stability and community she needs? As Nina and Sloane decend into the sisterhood they have to question what it means to be a ”good woman” and what they’re willing to pay in order to have it all.

This book made me fall into a rabbithole of researching sororities and holy hell I understand why Olivie Blake was inspired to write a horror book based on that culture. The thing about Blake is that she’s an academic who looooooves to yap, and I understand that some people find her writing tedious and boring but I eat it up every single time. Yes Olivie, I also love to ponder. Some say go girl give us nothing and I say go girl give me another existential crisis. Not for everyone and maybe not as focused on the sapphic romance part as I was promised, but I enjoyed! 4⭐️

Saturn Returning by Kim Narby - This book explores a very messy, codependent and confusing queer friendship/romance between the three characters Trace, Jordan and Sylvia. We get both the story of how they met in collage and the story of when Trace, now engaged to Sylvia, reveals that she’s in love with Jordan.

It’s a nice character exploration and I liked the topic of how queer relationships often can straddle the line between platonic, romantic or something else entirely. My complaints are that the backstories of the characters sometimes were very similar and blended together in my mind. Some topics in the story could’ve also been explored more. In the end I did feel like I understood two of the characters quite well but I was still a bit confused about the third one and felt like she didn’t get to take up her due space which was disappointing. 3,25⭐️

A Grim and Sunken Vow by Ashley Shuttleworth - the third book in the Hollow Star Saga which I would describe as a blend between DnD and The Mortal Instruments, oh and also every single main character is queer.

Lady’s Knight by Amie Kaufman and Megan Spooner - in the Tournament of Dragonslayers knights compete for the hand of a lady Isobel, but this lady is not so keen on marrying anyone. In the nearby village the blacksmith’s daughter Gwen dreams of becoming a knight, so she and Isobel cooks up a scheme were Gwen will disguise herself as a knight, try to win the tournament and save Isobel from marriage. Ridiculously funny, cozy in a way that reminds me of old Barbie movies and chronicles the thrilling but scary experience of falling in love with a girl when you didn’t even know liking girls was an option. And there’s dragons! I love a dragon. And also challenging the patriarchy. We don’t like the men here. 4⭐️

The Safekeep by Yael van der Wouden - takes place in the Netherlands post World War II, and follows a woman living alone in her late mother’s house as well as what happens when her brother’s girlfriend comes to stay with her. You will never guess what happens next. The romance in this book is so beautiful and complex, and the story tackles many heavy subjects like homophobia, grief, complex family relationships and the legacy of World War II in the Netherlands. This is one of my favorite books of the year so far. I absolutely devoured the last third when all of the pieces clicked together and I can’t wait to read it again and annotate it. Highly recommend! 5⭐️