This week’s Sapphic Book Bingo category features sapphic slow-burn romance novels!
“Sloth burn” is a tongue-in-cheek term for a very slow slow-burn romance in which the romance between the main characters develops at such an excruciatingly slow pace that it makes a sloth look speedy in comparison! I heard the term for the first time when I was working on my latest duology, Enemies by Nature and Shifting Nature, in which it takes the characters two entire novels to turn from enemies into lovers!
15 sapphic sloth-burn romance novels
Below, you’ll find 15 sapphic sloth-burn romance novels:
Damage Control by Jae
An actress practically since birth, Grace Durand has finally made it in Hollywood. When a photo of her in a seeming compromising situation with another woman is plastered all over the tabloids, she fears for her career as a lead in romantic movies.
Desperate for a publicist who’ll convince America that she’s straight, Grace hires Lauren Pearce, one of Hollywood’s leading PR agents, not knowing that she’s a lesbian.
Lauren has dealt with PR nightmares for years, so doing damage control for one more rich, spoiled client shouldn’t be a problem—or so she thinks. But the more time she spends with Grace, the more she realizes how different she is from her television persona.
Getting involved with her client is not in her game plan, especially since it would confirm the rumors and ruin Grace’s career, but the attraction between them is growing as they run the gauntlet of the paparazzi together.
Available at:
Ylva Publishing
Amazon
Apple Books
Audible
The Love Project by TB Markinson & Miranda MacLeod
Joni Fisher is facing economic ruin. The once successful advice column she runs with her mother is on the brink of cancellation, and it’ll take a miracle to turn things around. Joni’s last-ditch effort to save her job and preserve her mother’s legacy is The Love Project, a web series she’s developing to bring the Help Me Henrietta franchise alive for a new generation. All she needs is a willing victim…er, star.
Hope Alvarez dreams of falling in love, but she’s always suspected she’s different. Physical attraction is a foreign language to her. After her only prospect for a meaningful relationship falls through, Hope has to face the fact that she’s completely hopeless when it comes to love. Can her favorite advice columnist, Henrietta, save her from a lonely future?
As the series gets underway, fans swoon for the lovable yet unlucky Hope, and they’re not the only ones. Joni is smitten, too. But she’s been down that road before, vowing never again to fall for a straight woman who will keep her forever in the friend zone. Except, what if she’s been reading the situation all wrong? Helping Hope make sense of her identity might save Joni’s job, but will it also bring her love?
Available at:
Amazon
Audible
The Blank White Page by Ali Spooner
Tatum Chastain, Corporate Officer of Chastain International, her family’s real estate empire, accepts the challenge her father, Charles, has set forth. Charles has tasked Tatum and her brother, Charlie, to survive in the wilderness for six months to prove their skills in taking over the family business once he retires. Charles fails to realize that Tatum would fall in love with the southeastern Alaska cabin he has chosen for her to test her resilience and creativity. Tatum prepares for life in the bush, and shortly after she arrives, Poe, a beautiful raven, becomes her companion and guardian. When River Foster, a designated hunter for her village, crosses Tatum’s path, she finds a different kind of love awaits her.
Available at:
Affinity Rainbow Publications
Amazon
Apple Books
Audible
Only Mostly Dead by Alli Temple
No one tells you how much paperwork there is after you die.
I expected to wake up on a cloud where angels played harps and fed me grapes. Instead, I’m a ghost stuck in suburban Toronto. The only one who can see me is an unemployed grim reaper who’d rather play video games.
Turns out the business of dying is a train wreck. But if there was ever a girl boss who could get it back on track, it’s me. All I need is a little help from my new undead roommate, whether they want to be involved or not.
Nothing at Afterlife Incorporated moves quickly and if I don’t find a way out soon there won’t be anything left of me to cross over. They say death can be easy, but being only mostly dead sucks.
Available at:
Amazon
Apple Books
Audible
Meeting Millie by Clare Ashton
Oxford – celebrated city of dreaming spires and class warfare – is an ambition come true for lesbian, geeky, upper-middle-class Charlotte and straight, charismatic, working-class Millie.
Against the odds, theirs is an instant, best friendship. Forever.
Exuberant Millie is a breath of fresh air for polite Charlotte and a force of nature within the university’s hallowed walls. And they are going to be the best lawyers of their year and change the world.
But their world changes instead when things go queerly sideways, and they haven’t seen each other since.
Ten years on and Charlotte returns to where it all began. She has a new job at a prestigious law firm and Oxford is as beautiful as ever. She’s a safe distance from her overbearing barrister mother Nicola and three office floors from her snappy college mentor, Olivia.
Then Millie bounds around the corner wanting to be friends again and it’s as if the last decade never happened. Will it be different the second time around? Can they be friends again? Or will love and attraction change things?
Available at:
Amazon
Audible
Remember Me by Del Robertson
Sarah Lindley followed her brother into the untamed Wild West in search of adventure. She found it – in the form of a woman unlike any she’d ever met before.
Buckshot Bailey Bowen thought she had settled down as a ranch hand. That was until a chance encounter with a feisty, Irish redhead turned her world upside down.
Sarah and Bailey meet again in San Antonio in an old, crumbling mission. As the infamous thirteen-day siege rages about them, they fall hopelessly in love. Surrounded by enemy forces, their future looks uncertain. Will they – and their love – survive against such insurmountable odds?
The cry “Remember The Alamo” has long echoed throughout history. Now, the women that were at the Battle of The Alamo ask you to Remember Me.
Available at:
Affinity Rainbow Publications
Amazon
Apple Books
Lighthouse Keeper by Eliza Lentzski
In 1874, in the quaint coastal town of Provincetown, Massachusetts, the ocean’s waves echo with tales of lost love. Lizzy Darby, a resilient young woman with a heart marked by past sorrows, seeks refuge in the familiarity of her parents’ general store. Scarred by the loss of her first love to the unpredictable sea, Lizzy strives to find solace in the routine of her daily life.
Joana Maria Pascoal is a spirited immigrant from the Azores Islands. In her quest for a brighter future for her family, Joana adopts the guise of a man to secure a lucrative position as the town’s lighthouse keeper. As Lizzy and Joana’s lives become intertwined, an undeniable connection forms, one that transcends the boundaries imposed by their society.
Haunted by the wreckage of her past romance, Lizzy grapples with the fear of opening her heart again. Joana, trapped by a disguise that shields her from prejudice but endangers her livelihood, battles the urge to succumb to a forbidden love. Her dual identity hangs in the balance, a secret that, if exposed, could shatter the financial support crucial for her family’s survival.
Clandestine meetings, stolen moments, and the heart’s yearnings collide with the harsh realities of a world bound by tradition and familial expectations. Will the secrets that Lizzy and Joana harbor tear them apart, or can their burgeoning relationship overcome the circumstances that threaten a promising new love?
Available at:
Amazon
Speak EZ by Elle E. Ire
On New Year’s Eve, in 1923, someone walked into Michelle “Mickey” McFadden’s queer speakeasy hidden beneath the Big City Little Theater and shot her and her dog, EZ, dead. Or . . . sort of, mostly, kind of dead, maybe? Because instead of crossing over, they become trapped within the bar’s cinderblock walls. And though EZ eventually manages to wriggle his way free, Mickey remains, her spirit frozen in time.
In 2022, employees of the Big City Little Theater begin encountering a stray dog sneaking in and around the premises. When Ciara, the theater’s bookkeeper, saves the dog from being hit by a truck, she begins to suspect there’s something odd about the mysterious canine and makes it her mission to catch him and either return him to his owners or keep him as her own.
That is until Ciara and her friends happen upon the sealed-up speakeasy in the theater’s subbasement —and find the dog inside. But how did he get in there when the door was locked? And why are there bullet holes in the otherwise beautifully preserved bar? Their discovery launches them on the investigation of a lifetime, complete with an ancient murder to solve, strange occurrences to explain, and a missing person to find.
When Mickey’s spirit, which has been trapped in the mysterious in-between for the past hundred years, begins to find her way out, she and Ciara finally come face-to-face. And it’s more than the speakeasy’s old wiring that makes sparks fly. Ciara’s falling hard for Mickey and Mickey for her. Can they solve the murder and figure out how EZ returned to the world of the living before the clock strikes midnight on the next New Year’s Eve?
Because if they don’t, they’re pretty certain Mickey’s time will finally be up—this time for good.
Available at:
Bywater Books
Amazon
Apple Books
Audible
Disconnected by Annette Mori
Vanna has always felt like something was off with her parents, leaving her feeling oddly disconnected. She decides to move across the country and establish a new and independent life after college. On the way to her new position in Flagstaff, Arizona, Vanna meets out and proud Trey, who loves to flirt.
Trey has never forgotten the beautiful young woman she met briefly and is determined to ensure their paths cross again.
Thousands of miles from home, Vanna finds out more about herself, but not her feeling of being disconnected from her parents. Will Vanna ever form the connection she desperately seeks? Does Trey’s determination work out?
Available at:
Affinity Rainbow Publications
Amazon
Apple Books
Audible
Thunder by Barbara Winkes
She wants her, but she has a job to do.
Get it done, and get out of town. Kelli Jameson is tasked with finding a missing teen accused of a crime he’s never been held accountable for. Neither the town’s authorities nor the residents are forthcoming with information.
She finds a reluctant ally in teacher Merin Burke, but Merin has secrets of her own. Attraction flares between them, but giving in to it would come at a cost.
Will they make it through the storm that’s about to break lose?
Available at:
Amazon
Unexpected Entanglements by Angela K. Crandall
Vela’s life has always been relatively mundane. Working at the pharmacy wasn’t exactly her dream come true, but it paid the bills. And Brant… she’s lucky to have such a doting husband who supports her views and sexuality. When Vela goes out for a night on the town with her best friend, she isn’t looking for any prospects, mysteries, or intertanglings. It’s supposed to be a fun girls’ night with no strings and no dilemmas —until she awakens with a stranger in her bed.
Available at:
Amazon
In Bloom by Kat Jackson
Nicole Callahan is certain she has endured the worst heartbreak possible, and she’s in no hurry to dive back into the tumultuous waters of love. She insists that she’s absolutely fine being alone, but a part of her still wonders…
To Avery Pullman, owner of a flower shop filled with thorns less prickly than her exes, the idea of love is just a disaster waiting to happen. She sees no reason to invite pain in, especially when she’s still tending to fresh wounds on her heart.
Neither expects—nor wants—the tiny spark that ignites the moment their eyes lock. If they get too close to it, they might each have to face an uncomfortable truth—that they’ve never really known true love before. And that might be more terrifying than any heartbreak.
Available at:
Bella Books
Amazon
Apple Books
46 by Lynn Ames
It’s November 3, 2020, and Emma McMasters has just been elected the 46th president of the United States. She’s facing a divided Congress and nation, allies that no longer trust America, enemies that have been emboldened, and the legacy of destruction left by the last administration. She must rebuild and reestablish trust in government, in the media, and in the electoral system, all the while carrying the mantle of first female president, and along with it, the hopes and dreams of millions of women and little girls who need her to prove that a woman can get the job done.
Palmer Estes has devoted her life and her career to the military, rising to become the highest-ranking female officer in the US Army. An enigmatic, battle-tested hero, she’s the perfect choice to brief the new president on one last, urgent, highly sensitive mission before she retires.
Two strong women, both driven to serve the country they love, neither prepared for the sparks that fly between them.
Available at:
Amazon
Apple Books
Audible
Holiday Hostage by Rita Potter
Life for Chicago’s rebellious rich girl Cassidy Kavanaugh isn’t as perfect as everyone thinks. She’s miserable and can’t work out why, given all her privilege.
While Christmas shopping for her pseudo-girlfriend at the trendy Graffiti Chic, her whole world changes in a split second.
Meeting an intriguing woman amid the colorful graffiti art is just the start. Then she’s caught up in a terrifying botched robbery with the stranger.
As police close in, tempers fray, and chaos reigns, Cassidy is forced to face who she really is, deep down. And what she stands for.
But can love ever come from such an adrenalin-charged meeting? Or is it just an illusion spun from high stakes and danger?
Available at:
Amazon
Audible
A Calculated Risk by Cari Hunter
Detective Jo Shaw has it all worked out. She’s good at her job, she has loads of mates, and she likes being single. She doesn’t need complications, but an emergency call to the stabbing of a young woman brings plenty of those. Jo has to risk her career to save the woman’s life, and a bad night gets worse when the trauma surgeon turns out to be Isla Munro, Jo’s only real love, who walked out on her fifteen years ago and never came back.
With the victim’s children missing and the husband the prime suspect, Jo’s investigation is stonewalled by a community living in fear. As one dead end leads to another, she and Isla are forced to put their differences aside and work together. But the case is far more dangerous than Jo realizes, and her determination to sort the truth from the lies may put her own life on the line.
Available at:
Bold Strokes Books
Amazon
Apple Books
Audible
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What book will you be reading for the “sapphic sloth-burn romance” category? Let us know in the comments!
Problematic Summer Romance by Ali Hazelwood
