Book picks similar to
Classics in Lesbian Studies by Esther D. Rothblum


lesbian-specific-fiction
lgbt
lgbtq
pride-center-books

In Plain Sight


R.E. Gauthier - 2017
    Losing loved ones made her an automated survivor living life with anger as her driving force until one day she finds herself leading an important taskforce formed to solve a series of gruesome murders. This case forces her to face a reality in her life she hasn't known before: loneliness. Separating herself from family and working relentlessly is not working for her anymore. Challenges she faces with this case are like no other: not much evidence, few clues, and no witnesses. She questions whether she has what it takes to solve these murders before the murderer can strike again. That's when her dreams begin to change everything; they may be able to help her find the clues if she can listen to them. When she goes in search for a woman who may well have seen the killer, she begins to have feelings she had long since locked behind her walls. These feelings are too strong to ignore and they threaten to topple those walls, leaving Kelsey without their protection. Can she cope without hiding from the REAL Kelsey MacGregor? Can she still solve this case, while shutting down emotions, that bubble up at every turn? OR will SSA MacGregor learn to accept who and what she is and stop a serial murderer from killing again? Follow FBI Senior Special Agent Kelsey MacGregor on her journey of self-discovery as she scrambles to stop the killing and finds the woman who will change her life forever.

Perfect Perry (Rainbow Heights Book 1)


Carla Ryan - 2018
    But when she meets Zinnia Paradiso, beautiful artist and free spirit, her definition of perfection isn’t so perfect anymore.

Listing Date


Lily Craig - 2018
    Move back to her hometown of Toronto, Canada after years working in the U.S. tech scene. Start a new job as a C-level executive at one of the world’s best fertility apps. Get pregnant on her own and raise her kids happily ever after. Easy. Except when Skye arrives home, she discovers Toronto’s real estate market is more difficult to navigate than she thought. Penny has always wanted to own her own business, so she took a leap of faith. Now she’s a realtor struggling to launch her fledgling firm. When Skye walks into an open house Penny’s running, Penny sees her chance to soar and takes it. How hard could it be to find the perfect home for someone as impressively organized as Skye? When Penny’s sunny optimism meets Skye’s hyper-logical life plan, the two women find that life is often what happens between the lines of your to-do list.

The Boy With the Thorn in His Side


Keith Fleming - 2000
    Here, on a locked adolescent psychiatric ward, Keith meets the bewitching Laura. The two teens begin a passionate love affair--only to be separated and placed in different hospitals.By turns lyrical, funny, and poignant, and always informed by touching candor, The Boy with the Thorn in His Side is full of fascinating characters and unexpected twists-at once an odyssey into the extremes of the American 1970s, a universal tale of star-crossed teenage love, and an account of a deeply sensitive young person's struggle to find his place in the world. It marks the debut of a poised and compelling writer.Keith Fleming had been a pretty ordinary Midwestern kid--Little League, Boy Scouts--but the year he turns twelve, his family is torn apart by divorce when he learns that his mother and his Uncle Ed are both gay. By the time Keith is fifteen he has become disfigured by severe acne and is so wild that his father and stepmother place him in a draconian adolescent mental institution. Here he meets Laura, a pretty Mexican girl with whom he begins a passionate love affair.Keith's mother finally demands his release after a series of hospitalizations and sends him off to live with his uncle, Edmund White, in New York. Keith is soon transformed by his young uncle: He is sent to a dermatologist, to Barneys "Boy's Town" for new clothes, and to prep school. He receives a broad cultural education from Uncle Ed at home--all this despite Ed's being poor as well as completely caught up in the beehive of social and sexual activity of 1970s gay Manhattan. In the tradition of This Boy's Life and Girl, Interrupted, The Boy with a Thorn in His Side is a beautifully rendered saga of a deeply sensitive and alienated teen struggling to find his place in the world-and at the same time a very modern tale of teenage love and a young person's touching and complicated bond with an unlikely hero.

All We Lack


Sandra Moran - 2015
    Maggie is a funeral director from Indiana who lives a double life. Bug is a ten-year-old boy in the Pennsylvania foster care system who is sent to live with an aunt he doesn't know. Jimmy is a former paramedic and prescription drug addict on his way to meet a woman he met online who thinks he's a successful doctor. Helen is a Chicago insurance investigator who is leaving her marriage in search of the woman she wants to be. Four strangers, all traveling to Boston in search of better lives, are tied together in ways they don't even realize. Each are trying to fill the void of what's missing in their lives. Sometimes it takes a tragedy to overcome all that we lack.

Stress Treatment


Olivia Ruin - 2013
    When she comes down with blinding headaches, she reluctantly takes time away from work to go and see the doctor. Dr. Burnett is a gorgeous young blonde woman, and she comes to a decision very quickly. Stacy has stress headaches, and needs some rest and physical pleasure to distract her from the pain. Luckily, this is the good doctor's specialty, and she gives Stacy a treatment right there in the office!

Forgotten Memories


Kat Smith - 2019
     Investigative reporter Claire Weatherly assigned to write the in-depth article on Elise and Forest Ridge faces her own challenges. Her mother, a resident at Forest Ridge, is about to participate in a new clinical trial. As the interview gets underway, Claire’s partner, Detective Megan Wolfe, is injured in the line of duty. Elise rushes Claire to the hospital where she finds another woman has already arrived at Megan’s bedside. As Elise and Claire navigate the professional and personal challenges in their lives will they be able to forget the painful memories of their failed relationships and move forward to find love again?

Unmarked Treasure: Poems


Cyril Wong - 2004
    The poet wonders at his own existence and struggles between actual living and the desire to die."Cyril Wong continues to explore the nuances of relationships, in language that is lyrical, beautifully crafted, and erotically charged. There are several fine love poems that reach out to embrace a common humanity. Wong swims into the undercurrents of family tensions, hidden desires, and the meaning of a self... as well as questioning our understanding of both life and death."- Rebecca Edwards, author of Scar Country and Holiday Coast Medusa"Reading Cyril Wong is always to encounter risk, the painful suturing of art and life, trials of faith and baptisms of fire. I have only the deepest respect for someone who has razed the walls between the private and the public, and in doing so, carved more space for all of us."- Alfian Sa'at, author of One Fierce Hour and A History of Amnesia

Legacy of Love


Marianne K. Martin - 1997
    "What do you want from me?" she whispered.Suzanne pressed up into Sage's embrace, her body making demands on the skillful hands, commanding pleasure from the exciting mouth. "I need you to love me...as long as you possibly can".What was it about Sage Bristo that drew women to her? Maybe it was the tall, toned body and androgynous good looks. Perhaps they liked her confidence -- her movements and manner so sure and decisive. Or was it the air of mystery, the temptation of a challenge to unravel?Sage couldn't explain the attraction, but she had certainly benefited from it, at least physically. As her reputation as a Don Juana grew, so did her black book of admiring women. Women who wanted to spoil her, to own her, to please her. Women who would do anything for her. But never the woman she needed the most -- the one woman who could lead her through the realm of desire, to the thing she desires most...

Stud


Sa'id Salaam - 2012
    Hanging with her drug dealing older brother, she was more partial to boxing and basketball than ballet and Barbies.Following in the footsteps of her brother, she eventually inherited the block's hustling cocaine trade. That meant thinking like a man. Most men like guns, grenades and girls—Dre was no exception.With childhood friend Ramel by her side, Dre takes New York by storm. She's gunning for the number one spot and will stop at nothing to get it.

After the Fire


Jane Rule - 1989
    Canadian-Japanese Karen, who has left her lesbian lover of eight years, befriends Red, a young woman with an unknown background who cleans houses for three others--acrid Milly, divorced by her husband after a 20-year marriage; Henrietta, whose husband is institutionalized in Vancouver; and Miss James, an eccentric, elderly spinster. Birth, illness and death follow one another, uniting the five independent and incisively drawn protagonists. "All that time I was trying to teach you how to live alone and really take care of yourself, I was teaching myself, too," Henrietta tells Red. The resulting warmth is not saccharine but realistic, as Rule illuminates the vagaries and pain of abandonment and loss, and the fragile joy of new bonds.

Glitter Every Day: 365 Quotes from Women I Love


Andy Cohen - 2021
    

A Fem's Playground


Shatika Turner - 2013
    After her father’s, mother’s, and lover’s selfishness prevented them from giving her what her heart desired, she said “The Hell w/them!” Patience began doing her own thing and that was breaking the hearts of many.... Will her hoeish ways cause her playground to crumble?A Fem's Playground is jaw dropping, heartbreaking, and drama filled. Are you ready to Play?

Warmer


Blythe Stone - 2018
    One sleeping bag and a storm that leaves them without power will set into motion a few events that have been waiting to occur.

Full of Grace: A Monday's Child Romance


Sienna Waters - 2019
    Why would a dancer provoke the wrath of an anonymous letter writer? And when her director hires ex-soldier Sam Weaver to be Alena's bodyguard, the dancer is furious. Having her privacy invaded and her independence ripped away mean that Alena hates Sam at first sight.Sam's reeling from a job gone wrong, an incident that means she's practically unemployable in the security field. A contract with Alena could be enough to prop up Sam's failing reputation. The only problem? Alena doesn't want her there and refuses to follow her instructions, meaning she's a risk that Sam might not be able to afford to take.Alena and Sam might be stuck with each other, but that doesn't mean they have to like each other. Unfortunately, the heart doesn't always listen to the head. And as danger races closer the two must decide just exactly what chances they're prepared to take.Love has to be about compromise, but what if you've never had to compromise before? Career-oriented Alena and controlling Sam are the last people in the world willing to change themselves for love. There's no reason they should be together and every reason they should stay apart, but can Alena and Sam end up in each others' arms anyway?Full of Grace is the second in the Monday's Child series of lesbian romance novels, and features a HEA ending. Monday's Child books can be read independently and in any order.