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8 Lesbian Love Stories to Add to Your TBR

LGBT novels and stories have made great headway in the last decade and it’s important because representation is everything! We look to books and movies to see versions of ourselves and literature is an area that in the past has failed greatly in this area with only a handful of LGBT books released every year.

Thankfully that is changing, and as we celebrate Pride Month today we’re putting the spotlight on the best lesbian love stories to add to your TBR!

We hope you like our suggestions, and feel free to add your own in the comments too.

The Secret Diaries of Anne Lister

We’ve included this first on the list as there’s a good chance you’re currently watching the adaptation on HBO/BBC. Anne’s diaries were considered so raunchy they were almost burned. We’re certainly glad they survived.

Anne, or Gentleman Jack as she was known, was considered to be the first modern lesbian, and even took part in the first same sex ‘marriage’. Her diaries are considered to be the Dead Sea Scrolls of lesbianism. Here you can read about Anne’s life, in her own words.

The Secret Diaries of Anne Lister

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Tipping the Velvet

Sarah Waters is the authority when it comes to writing lesbian fiction, and the best of these in my opinion is the historical fiction, Tipping the Velvet.

Tipping the Velvet was a groundbreaking novel upon its release and chronicles the picaresque adventures and romantic misadventures of Nan King, a one-time oyster girl from a provincial seaside town, through the gay and lesbian world of late Victorian England.

Tipping the Velvet

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The Price of Salt

Patricia Highsmith already had literary acclaim when she released The Price of Salt, but due to the controversial subject matter, released it under the pseudonym Claire Morgan.

The novel is now credited as being the first lesbian story with a happy ending. Much more than that, The Price is Salt is a fantastic novel!

The Price of Salt

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The Miseducation of Cameron Post

Bringing this reading list right up to the present time is the Miseducation of Cameron Post, the story of a young girl battling, grief, her own guilt, and a very conservative aunt to fulfil her true destiny.

The Miseducation of Cameron Post

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Kissing the Witch

Emma Donoghue is best known for her thriller ‘Room’, but here she reimagines some old stories with a collection of thirteen fairytale rewrites where Cinderella ditches the prince and runs off with the Fairy Godmother and Beauty discovers that under the mask the Beast’s face is not so different from her own.

Kissing the Witch

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Rubyfruit Jungle

Rubyfruit Jungle was the debut coming of age novel from Rita Mae Brown, an important voice in this genre. Despite forty years passing since its release it remains a transformative work, and a  lesson in being true to yourself.

Rubyfruit Jungle

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The Salt Roads

Set in 1804, the Salt Roads brings together several themes, lesbian love, slavery, and pilgrimage from the Island of Saint Domingue (modern day Haiti) to the fields of sugar plantation, this unapologetically sensual novel is a must for your TBR.

The Salt Roads

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South of Sunshine

This coming of age novel of acceptance and discovery is a must for those looking for a good lesbian love story, as two young girls from Tennessee come together in friendship, and then love, before fate threatens to blow their entire world apart.

South of Sunshine

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We hope you find some good suggestions there and we’ll be back with more recommendations lists soon. If you want to ensure you never miss any of these, subscribe now.



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