Best Books To Read In 2022 On The Lesbian Theme

The genre of lesbian literature has been on the scene since 1928 when The Well of Loneliness, the first novel of this genre was published. However, as we are in the third decade of the 21st Century, countless books have been written, and the frown against Sapphic or queer fiction has gradually disappeared.

Today, one of the most celebrated themes is the struggles of the LGBTQ community, and book lovers embrace them as most of them are truly realistic and believable. 

Which Are The Best Lesbian-Themed Books To Read In 2022?

While we have crossed the middle of November 2022, hundreds of books are already out this year, written on the theme of lesbianism. That means, definitely you have a lot to explore.

So, here in this article, you are going to discover a selected list of books on Sapphic themes that are truly worth your read. Besides, these books are included in the list since they are highly rated by the common readers, and have approached the theme uniquely. 

Top 10 Lesbian Books To Read In 2022 – Never Miss!

So, let’s see some of the books you should give read if you are enthusiastic about sapphire literature. 

#1 Nothing Sung and Nothing Spoken

Author: Nita Tyndall 

Publishing date: 18 October 2022

Nita Tyndall’s novel Nothing Sung and Nothing Spoken is set in pre-World War II Germany in the 1930s. Even if it appears as a queer YA (young adults or adolescents) historical fiction, it has been reviewed by adult readers as soon as it was released.

The novel comes under the genres of historical fiction, young adult fiction, and lesbian literature.

The book overall provides an alluring depiction of the horrors of war along with the romantic relationship charlie (Charlotte Kraus), the protagonist shares with her best friend Geli (Angelika Haas), the daughter of a senior Nazi party officer. 

The exact setting of the novel is 1938 summer in Berlin when WWII is about to break. The characters of the novel including both Charlie and Geli are unaware of the situation, and they are shown to be so close with each other that they used to visit the underground club, spending time dancing to contraband American jazz and swing music.

The entire novel goes further with the struggles of Charlie as a protester of the Nazi government as she breaks the rules of the Nazi party. 

Leading a life under suppression in Nazi Germany, Charlie and her friends realize they could find true acceptance, companionship, and freedom by being part of the Swingjugend movement.

The novel later shows the conflict within Charlie on behalf of being in strong resistance against Hitler’s power risking her own life, her family, her friends, and the girl she is deeply in love with.

Overall, Nita Tyndall’s heartbreaking YA fiction shares the need for equality, awareness of gender diversity, and positive feelings even amidst the horrors of war.

The novel also revolves around strong female characters and appears to be realistic since it portrays issues that are commonly faced by mankind like emotions, relationships, and identities while depicting stronger familial bonds.

#2 Above All Things 

Author: Roslyn Sinclair

Publishing date: May 4, 2022

This age-gap lesbian romance is the second and final book published in the Carlisle Series which is also called the Carlisle Saga. the plot relies on desire, discovery, and the rewards of opening one’s self up to love.

Here we can find two lovers Vivian and Jules who have deep feelings for each other despite belonging to the same sex. The lowers find it challenging to lead their smooth relationship balancing work, family, and pregnancy of Vivien. 

In Above All Things, Jules Moretti is an aspiring writer while Vivien Carlisle is the iconic fashion editor. In the previous book Truth and Measure, Vivien’s tragic married life and divorce are mentioned and we can see she is craving power, success, and dominance in her life, but not being with a child. 

Unlike other lesbian romances, Above All Things gives rather focuses on how two sapphic lovers live and stay in their relationships after discovering their mutual feelings, despite the challenges like Vivien’s fierce and grim nature, the oppression from Jule’s family, both of their challenges regarding their career, familial duties and the like.

In spite of these obstacles, the depiction of how the two lovers balance everything and move forward is truly remarkable.

#3 The One Woman 

Author: Laura May

Published on: August 16, 2022

The One Woman portrays the life of Julie a graphic designer who can manipulate what the eye can’t see. Her relationship with Mark doesn’t go well, making her life colorless.

Sooner, she gets attracted to the talented, driven, and gorgeous, Ann, and she discovers the feeling is mutual after they bump into each other in Barcelona for the second time. The conflict begins when Julie finds it difficult to choose between Mark and Ann. 

This novel is the debut of Laura May, and analyzing her style and narration, they qualify what we expect in a typical book of this genre.

The plot relies on the life of the two central characters and the reader will get the exact notion of both Julie and Ann’s thoughts, and emotions.

As a whole, the book clearly shows the feeling of helplessness in being with someone you don’t mean to be with and managing the vulnerable, painful, and uncomfortable moments in life.

At the same time, The One Woman is also about loyalty and devotion and packed with emotional and spicy scenes as well. 

#4 Count Your Lucky Stars 

Author: Alexandria Bellefleur

Published on: February 2022

Count Your Lucky Stars by Alexandria Bellefleur is the third book in the Stars Series, the first to were Written in the Stars and Hang the Moon in chronological order.

The setting of this novel is Seattle, and it’s all about the romance between Margit Cooper and Olivia Grant, both are in their early 20s.

The dynamic lives of these two main characters are interesting to the readers as they both seem very developed and unique having content with their different personalities and concepts. 

The whole novel comes with many funny moments and unexpected, but silly happenings that are truly relatable.

Throughout the book, you can see these small errors like miscommunications keep happening and it is interesting to see how the characters have to pay for these moments so hugely.

These instances are amusing, entertaining, and truly realistic as they can happen to anyone in their day-to-day life. 

There is also a lot of condensed spice in the novel, and two of the chapters completely cover intimate moments. Except this, it is entirely a romantic comedy that anyone can find genuinely entertaining. 

#5 Delilah Green Doesn’t Care

Author: Ashley Herring Blake

Published on: February 2022

Delilah Green Doesn’t Care is the first book in the series Bright Falls, which is a clever and streamy sapphic romantic comedy written about taking chances in life and accepting love.

The protagonist Dalilah Green is a photographer who has been away from her home town Bright falls for five years. She doesn’t want to go back to Bright Fall ever since only the memories of her lonely childhood await her there.

Her life as a child in her hometown is truly disastrous since she was more like a burden to her step-family. Her life which is filled with no strings attached hookups get overturned after she reluctantly revisits Bright falls to photograph her stepsister Astrid’s wedding. 

Since Astrid offers a five-figured check to Delilah, she agrees to have a brief visit to Bright falls. Even so, she gets interested in Claire Sutherland, one of Astrid’s close friends.

Despite her tries to avoid Dalialah, Claire is helpless to ignore her charms and falls deeply in love. The plot further shows both Dalilah and Claire trying to stop Austrid make the biggest mistake in her life of marrying the horrible man.

Reading this romantic comedy, Dalailah’s character will create the best impression in the readers’ minds since she is tender-hearted, at the same time rough-edged, sarcastic, and frank in the way she speaks.

Meanwhile, Claire is a single mother who faces many challenges while nurturing her child. Throughout the plot, there are many moments in which Claire’s kind heart and willingness to stand up for her family and friends have been clearly mentioned.

As the novel continues, it is narrated on behalf of both of these main characters plainly signifying their unique perspectives. 

#6 A Scatter of Light

Written by: Malinda Lo

Published on: 4 October 2022

A Scatter of Light is a young adult novel that is written in the conflict of legalizing gay and lesbian marriage by award-winning author Malinda Lo.  the protagonist of the novel is Aria Tang West, and the plot leads us to her journey of discovering her sexuality. The novel is all about self-discovery coming of age, art, and messy relationships. 

In the novel, Aria West plans to spend the summer holidays before college with her friends partying. But instead, she was sent to her grandmother Joan,  by her parents since Aria’s graduation party had gone wrong as a boy posted her topless photos online.

Her grandmother is an artist, and a painter who is famous in California. The novel further shows Aria finding joy in California living with her grandmother where instead of boredom, she discovers the joy and the summer becomes unforgettable for her.  

#7 Mistakes Were Made

Written by: Meryl Wilsner

Published on: 11 October 2022

Meryl Wilsner’s Mistakes Were Made is all about female friendship, bisexual disasters, and much more, which are depicted along with a fascinating storyline.

You can call it a hot and heavy rom-com of a college senior, Cassie Klein who unwittingly throws in with her best friend’s mother, Erin Bennet. 

It all happens when Cassie visits an off-campus bar to avoid her school’s family weekend and accidentally meets Erin who wanted to join the same event at school to get closer to her daughter who is also Cassie’s best friend. 

They both drink with each other and had an amazing one-night stand. But they realize who they were together with last night only the next morning when Cassie’s friend introduces her best friend to her mother.

But, even after they realize the truth they both get along with each other and start sneaking around. 

#8 Our Wives Under the Sea

Author: Julia Armfioed 

Published on: 3 March 2022

It’s a queer gothic pseudo-horror novel by Julia Armfield that let you explore the love and loss of a lesbian relationship. Although it is a debut novel it truly becomes a masterpiece due to its narration, plot, and many other elements that have been shared within it.

The book is explicitly queer and of dual narrative which shows the perspectives of a married lesbian couple, Miri and Leah from the UK. The novel is not about finding partners of the same sex but leading a life together in the dark, gothic surrounding.

The queer couple is living together somewhere in the UK in their house near the ocean. Leah is a marine biologist and she escaped from a life-threatening mission in the deep ocean which turns out to be a disaster.

Although Miri is relaxed since she thinks she got her wife back, Leah is entirely changed after experiencing horrific moments while she was on her mission.

We see Leah is strange, becomes obsessed with water, and rarely speaks to Miri. To make things worse, Leah starts to bleed every morning specifically from her gums and the pores in her skin and Miri gets used to it and prepares tissues to help her wipe it all. 

The mysteries that happened underwater when Leah was on the expedition are portrayed in Leah’s narration. The words written from Leah’s perspective are like the gaps in Miri’s narration getting filled since Miri is unaware of the things that happened to Leah when she was away on her mission.

As the plot proceeds, we see the helpless Miri who realizes their happiness thereafter their marriage is gone and she is losing Leah, her love, maybe forever. 

#9 Yerba Buena: A Novel

Written By: Nina LaCour

Published on: 22 February 2022

Yerba Buena: A Novel, is the first adult title written by the popular young adult author Nina LaCour, who has won both the best-selling and the PRINTZ awards for her works.

It is a funny romantic comedy that portrays a  love story of our time in which both queer lovers explore their dynamic life in the world.

The leading characters in the novel are  Sara and Emily, who find themselves and each other in a typical city portrayed in almost the majority of Nina’s works. 

Both Emilie and Sara are shaped by adolescent trauma and this coming-of-age love story brings in their love for each other and their attempts to balance their emotions.

About the storyline, Sara is leading her life as a bartender and it has been a decade since she had run away from her home. Sara is wounded by her past bitter experience with her family and a childhood sweetheart.

Now, she lets no one get closer to her since the previous tragedy does not let her believe in people again. While, Emilie is working in Yerba Buena, a restaurant in the other part of the city in a part-time job arranging flowers.

However, she is in a romantic relationship with the married owner of the restaurant. Both Sara and Emile cross paths at Yerba Buena, and the twist happens. 

#10 If I Don’t Ask

Author: E.J. Noyes

Published on: 26 July 2022

This novel is the fourth book of the Ask, Tell series which revolves around Lieutenant Colonel and a successful army doctor Rebecca Keane, and Captain Sabien Fleischer, her boss.

Rebecca is portrayed as a reserved character who holds a strict Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell policy, and also she hides her sexuality.

But, when Sabine joins the team, Rebecca discovers her feelings towards Sabine though she suppresses them for the sake of both of their careers. 

As the plot moves forwards, we witness a struggling Rebecca who for years resigns herself to years of suppressing her thoughts about Sabine, the woman she loves, until when Sabine retires from her job.

However, the feelings of the duo ignite when both of them got to work with each other in the army bases in Afghanistan and the United States.

The novel leads us to the battles within Rebecca in hiding her love since it means standing against the unbreakable army rules that can endanger the career and hearts of both Sabine and herself. 

The Bottom Line 

This era is of wide acceptance and admiration of the sapphire trend in literature and movies. Right now, the support which the rainbow flag bearers have been receiving all around the world is at its peak like never before. 

Meanwhile, queer literature has been something common and people started to move toward it more liberally. As a result, what we got is a talented set of writers who can alluringly represent the sapphic life.

With them, we can hope this branch of literature always stays bloomed with versatile books that constantly keep book lovers stunned and enthusiastic.