Book picks similar to
The First Love by Erinne Bates


lesbian-romance
sapphic
lesbian
romance

The Fake Game


Kim Hartfield - 2020
    It’s a dream job... and a certain colleague is the cherry on top. Marie is kind and supportive, as well as drop-dead gorgeous, and Tabby’s heart does a little dance whenever she’s around.Given half a chance, Marie could fall for her smart, witty coworker - but Tabby is straight, so they can only be friends. When the two run into the last jerk Tabby dated, Marie pretends to be her girlfriend as revenge. It's just a silly game to put the ex in his place... until he gets hired at their company.Now Tabby and Marie can fess up to the truth - or double down and fake a whole relationship. Choosing to continue is a dangerous game. But what if the prize could be greater than either of them imagine?

Good Composition


Lily Seabrooke - 2020
    An unsatisfying job, a relationship gone south, she’s heading nowhere fast—until she sends one little text to an old best friend, estranged with time.But bringing Aubrey back into her life changes everything for Erin, as the last things holding her relationship together fall apart. With nothing left to lose, what’s stopping her from leaving home, crossing the country and staying with Aubrey instead?In the middle of struggles with her self-image, with health and with work trying to start a new life starting from scratch, she finds herself falling into something unfamiliar—she never thought she might be a lesbian, but before long, her best friend starts to feel like maybe more than a friend.Good Composition is a 50k-word low-angst friends-to-lovers romance. Content warning for an emotionally abusive relationship, hospitalization, an eating disorder, open-door sex scenes and Britney—just Britney. Pick it up for a lighthearted, fluffy and easy read that feels like a shippy fanfiction or a teenage romantic daydream!

Read Between the Lines


Rachel Lacey - 2021
    And ever since she took over her mother’s beloved Manhattan bookstore, they’ve become her home too. The only thing missing is her own real-life romance like the ones she loves to read about, and Rosie has an idea of who she might like to sweep her off her feet. She’s struck up a flirty online friendship with lesbian romance author Brie, and what could be more romantic than falling in love with her favorite author?Jane Breslin works hard to keep her professional and personal lives neatly separated. By day, she works for the family property development business. By night, she puts her steamier side on paper under her pen name: Brie. Jane hasn’t had much luck with her own love life, but her online connection with a loyal reader makes Jane wonder if she could be the one.When Rosie learns that her bookstore’s lease has been terminated by Jane’s family’s business, romance moves to the back burner. Even though they’re at odds, there’s no denying the sparks that fly every time they’re together. When their online identities are revealed, will Jane be able to write her way to a happy ending, or is Rosie’s heart a closed book?

Homespun


Magnolia Robbins - 2020
    That she would never be a part of her family’s legacy. But when her posh, cozy world went up in flames, she was forced to return to her small hometown of Bardstown, Kentucky, and face a bitter truth. That she was stuck there, working in the family business, whether she liked it or not.And it wasn’t that bad. Until Charlotte realized that her boss was Marlow Miller.Marlow and Charlotte are exact opposites in every imaginable way, yet Charlotte can’t seem to get enough of the sexy-southern-as-you-could-get-woman. But the problem is, Marlow doesn’t want anything to do with her. Everyone in Bardstown knew that the Millers and the Livingstons had been at war for decades, and for good reason. And if her parents found out she was falling hard and fast for a Miller woman, her life might actually be over. And Marlow’s would be, too. This enemies to lovers, rich girl/poor girl novel is a modern twist of Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet.

Bliss


Fiona Zedde - 2005
    It's a world Bliss wanders through with blinders on, all the while craving more. And she finds it in the most unlikely of places.Embarking on a series of carnal adventures with a notorious bad girl as her guide, Bliss opens herself to every new experience and every taboo. In abandoned warehouses, private fetish clubs, even her own office, Bliss is skating on the thin ice of desire--until her world comes crashing in.Now, broken and wanting, Bliss decides to spend a summer in her birthplace, Jamaica, where she hopes to reconcile with her estranged father and rediscover herself. There, in a land of lush ripeness, of heat, warm breezes, easy smiles, and the family she left behind, Bliss will discover what she didn't know was missing. It's a journey that will awaken every one of her senses and take her to the edge of known pleasure and far beyond it, to a love that is as sexy as it gets, as real as can be, and more surprising than she can imagine--a place of total bliss.

Create a Life to Love


Erin Zak - 2019
    She has her past, but she doesn’t think about it. Ever.All that changes when she finds the child she gave up for adoption standing on the doorstep. Now sixteen years old, Beth Weber is resourceful, a blossoming artist, and a spitting image of her birth mom. To say Jackie is stunned is the understatement of the year.When Jackie meets Beth’s adoptive mom, Susan, they’re immediately attracted to each other, but there’s no way Jackie is getting involved with a married woman, especially Beth’s mom. But when Susan and Beth need a place to stay and end up back on Jackie’s doorstep, their lives change forever.Will these three women who share a past and face an uncertain future be able to forge a life of love together?Cover Artist: Melody PondGenres: Contemporary / Romance

Tangle


Em Stevens - 2017
    She had a career, a long term girlfriend, and the hair she’s been growing out since she was a young girl. But a betrayal sends her reeling into an existential crisis and, needing fast and ferocious change, she decides to cut it all out. Tess Upton is good at her job. It isn’t just that she’s an expert stylist. She’s also a dedicated listener, experienced at hearing her client's desires and gently guiding them toward the needed shifts in their lives. She’s not comfortable, however, with talking about her own needs-- and she’s deathly afraid of change. When Kensi asks Tess to cut off all her hair, it isn’t just a hair cut. It’s a fresh start for both of them. But when their pasts keep tangling with the present, can they still hope for a future together? **From the Amazon Best-Selling author of "Critical Hit"**

I Love You, Lola Bloom


Rosy Dee - 2020
    That is, until a chance encounter at a local book club sparks an unexpected connection with the beautiful Ruby Wilson - aka renowned lesfic author, Lola Bloom.Maddison can’t believe her luck when Ruby asks her to design her new book cover, and as they spend more time together, Maddison sees a glimmer of hope for her dispirited love life.However, her hopes are soon dashed, and to top it all off, her past makes an unwelcome reappearance which threatens to make her world come crashing down.Will Maddison get her long-awaited happily ever after? Or will she admit defeat and purchase her one-way ticket to Singledom?Debut author Rosy Dee brings you a slow-burn romantic comedy with all the feels and an extra sprinkling of hearts for good measure.

A Heart to Call Home


Jeannie Levig - 2018
    Her mother’s mental illness and the memory of the night that haunts her from so long ago won’t release her. When the one woman with the power to set her free shows up, Dakota is drawn to her, but she is a painful reminder of everything Dakota has been trying desperately to escape. When Jessie Weldon returns to her hometown after thirty years of avoiding it, she knows she has demons to face and a conflicted past to resolve, but she has no idea love awaits her. Can she give her heart to Dakota with the tragic past that lies between them?Cover Artist: Tammy SedickGenres: Contemporary / Romance

Irresistible


Marian Snowe - 2018
    Too bad she can’t sort out her own love life. It’s been years since Mila set foot in Cloudy Harbor, her hometown. After her first love took off without a word, Mila followed suit and moved away. But now, years later, Mila’s sister wants to get married at their childhood home, and Mila is forced to face her own loneliness. To her surprise, she finds that sleepy Cloudy Harbor has changed almost as much as she has—and that change is embodied by Rickie, the sexy, rebellious master chef at the new modern cuisine restaurant. With her dashing good looks and her culinary wizardry, Rickie charms Mila in a way she never imagined possible. But when a missing piece from Mila’s past blows into town, she realizes that she isn’t sure of anything anymore, and her delicious romance with Rickie is put to the test. Is history bound to repeat itself?

The Practitioner


Ronica Black - 2017
    An anxiety disorder, loss of her business, and homelessness have been difficult to overcome. But Johnnie has come through the other side to find success as an artist. Now, however, she’s lost her creative drive and she’s struggling to produce.Elaine Taylor has an interesting job. She’s a “creative practitioner,” known to awaken her client’s creative side by using many different approaches, including a sensual or sexual approach. Most of her clients are male and she likes it that way. Women are the last thing she wants in her life, having lost the most important woman she’s ever known, her wife.Fearing she’ll lose all she’s worked so hard for, Johnnie takes her friend’s advice and calls a lone number on a business card, steps into Elaine’s office, and shakes up both their worlds forever.

Alone


E.J. Noyes - 2019
    No faces. No voices. No way to leave.Since Celeste has never really worried about being alone, the generous paycheck she’ll receive for her participation in the solitary psychological experiment seems like easy money.When she finds an injured hiker in the woods bordering her living compound, her strictly governed world is thrown into disarray. But even as she struggles with the morality of breaking the rules of the experiment, Celeste can’t deny her growing attraction to the kind and enigmatic Olivia Soldano. Still, how much can you really trust a stranger? And how much can you trust yourself when you know all the faces you’ve seen and voices you’ve heard for the past three years have only been your imagination?But what’s real? Celeste’s reality may lie somewhere between the absolute truth and a carefully constructed deception.Genre: RomanceEditor: Cath WalkerCover Designer: Judith Fellows

Jolt


Kris Bryant - 2014
    Of course she was flat on her back and looking up and backward at the gorgeous singer, but that didn’t stop her body and heart from bursting into a kaleidoscope of want, need, and lust. Scared at the intensity of her feelings, Bethany does everything she can to avoid Ali at Camp Jacomo, the camp designed specifically for children of lesbian and gay families where Bethany volunteers every summer. The camp director convinces the hottest singer at the moment, Ali Hart, to spend a week teaching the children music to everybody’s delight except Bethany’s. On her last day at camp, Ali approaches Bethany with an offer of friendship, but they both know it’s the prelude to something bolder. Should Bethany take the risk? Does she really believe she can balance her quiet private life with Ali’s outspoken one?

Duct Tape and a Tarp: A Dubious Adventure


Kelli Jae Baeli - 2018
    Sometimes it’s a sprinkle, and sometimes it’s a deluge. This is the wetter one.Drew Keen is not a people-person. No surprise, she’s lived in the Northwoods for the last decade, living simply and working freelance photography jobs for National Geographic. Finally, the loneliness persuades her to attend her college reunion, intent on reconnecting with the one that got away.Amber Richards has gone to every class reunion, hoping to see Drew, who fell off the grid after their graduation led to an inevitable breakup. She didn't expect Drew to be there this year either.She also didn't expect to spend her reunion time with an old flame, running away from her in the Northwoods.

Fallen Elements


Heather McVea - 2015
    Ryan Myers’ life is on the fast track with a new career, a supportive group of friends, and an easy going relationship. Then an unexpected death, a diary that leaves more questions than answers, and a few family secrets turn her life upside down. Will Ryan be able to brave the elements and find the joy she has been searching for?