20 Sapphic Books To Read in 2026
- Jan 1
- 13 min read
As 2025 comes to a close, it's time to take a look at what sapphic books are being released in 2026. From cosy sapphic rom-coms to epic WLW fantasy and dark historical fiction, here are 20 of our most anticipated sapphic books coming out in 2026.
Note: some release dates of these books may be pushed back and covers may change.
Andrea Tang
YA Fantasy Thriller
10 February 2026
Two teens are pitted against each other in a magical duel for revenge, but they’ll have to fight their growing attraction first, in this YA fantasy thriller from the author of These Deadly Prophecies.
Eighteen-year-old Samantha Chan wants only one revenge for her brother’s death in an illegal magical duel. Ever since that terrible day, she’s been quietly working with legitimate dueling champion Lysander Rook and biding her time until she can take down her brother’s Mateus Blackwood.
Tamsin Blackwood is trapped. She wants to make a name for herself in the magical dueling circuit, but she can’t get away from the legacy of her father - and coach - Mateus Blackwood. When she receives a challenge from the undefeated Lysander and his assistant Sam, she jumps at the chance to earn enough fame and glory to finally escape her father’s influence.
Jessie Sylva
Cosy Fantasy Rom-Com
20 January 2026
How to Lose a Goblin in Ten Days is a comfort read fantasy romance between a halfling and a goblin: imagine a classic opposites-attract romcom taking place in those cosy scenes in the hobbits' Shire from The Lord of the Rings. Expect magical forests, interfering wizards, lots of home cooking, and maybe even a kiss at the Harvest dance...
When a halfling, Pansy, and a goblin, Ren, each think they've inherited the same cottage, they make a bargain: they'll live in the house together and whoever is driven out first forfeits their ownership. Amidst forced proximity and cultural misunderstandings, the two begin to fall in love.
But when the cottage - and their communities - are threatened by a common enemy, the duo must learn to trust each other, and convince goblins and halflings to band together to oust the tall intruder.
Grace Curtis
Fantasy Mystery & Myth
18 June 2026
Be careful what you pray for... Cod became an archaeologist to chase the ghost of her hero, Aleya Ana-Ulai. History may have written Aleya off as a myth, but Cod is determined to prove she existed, even if it means sifting through relics for the rest of her life.
Then a message arrives summoning her home. Cod's former teacher has found something monumental: the ruins of an enchanted city, slumbering beneath the soil.
This could be the breakthrough they've always dreamed of. But with war brewing, rival powers circling, and ancient magics stirring underfoot, their discovery soon becomes far more trouble than it's worth. Even Cod starts to wonder if some things are better left buried...
Bori Cser
YA Fantasy Romance
02 July 2026
Del has two rules: Stay away from royalty. Don’t fall in love.
The first - because Del is secretly a runaway princess. After the death of her sister at the hand of her boyfriend, Del flees her family, home and all the responsibilities that come with being the queendom’s new heir. With a magically constructed mirrorwoven face, Del is now unrecognisable, and disappears to the faraway opaline lagoon-city of Salato.
The second rule – because the enchantment hiding Del’s identity can only be unravelled by true love’s kiss. But that’s just fine. Del’s had enough of love anyway.
When Del breaks Rule One and becomes court bard to the newly widowed First of Salato, she is resolved to keep her head down. But Clara is naïve and trusts too easily, and soon Del finds herself having to guide Clara through the shoals of court life, somehow without revealing her own secret.
India-Rose Bower
Dystopian Fantasy Horror
22 January 2026
Sara and her family must keep moving. Every few months, they’re discovered, and they have to pack up and get out quick. For the twins, it’s all they’ve ever known, for Danny, Noah and Ma, it’s a reminder of all they’ve lost. For Sara, it’s just another day.
In yet another abandoned house, one they surround with Pagan wards - the only thing that protects them - Sara and her family think they might be safe, for a while at least. And then they find a strange girl in the garden. Parsley can’t remember where she came from or how she got here.
The family sees only a threat, but Sara sees hope. But outside, they are waiting. The eldritch creatures. The ones they call Witches. The ones who already stole everything. And now, just days after the Parsley arrives, they steal something even more valuable: Noah.
It's time to stop running. It's time to leave the safety of the wards, and try to find Noah in the witches' lair. It's just that no-one has ever done that and come out alive...
Allison Saft
YA Fantasy Romance
04 August 2026
Every 100 years, a small group of chess players are invited to enter the glittering world of Faerie to compete for the honour of playing the King of the Otherworld himself. Whoever defeats him is granted one wish.
Nineteen-year-old Shea Fury intends to be the first to win - it's the only way to win back her sister, who was taken by the king years before. But standing in her way is her longtime rival and faerie princess, Ciara.
As the tournament progresses and players start to drop dead at their boards, the two are forced together in an unlikely alliance, if they are to outwit the forces of fae magic and survive until the very last move...
Maria Ingrande Mora
YA Epic Fantasy Romance
12 February 2026
Josephine Haven is about to find out exactly where she fits into the march of Progress. Her outbursts are infamous at the House of Industry, the school for children who can wield radiance, an electricity-like magic. She’s tried to follow the rules, but her fiery nature is at odds with the core tenet of the House: Never form attachments. If she is meant to feel nothing, why are her emotions so volatile?
No one is surprised when, upon graduation, Josephine is banished from the city to a remote Mission. In Frostbrook, she must work under standoffish Julian, the former golden boy of the House of Industry who seems determined to watch her fail. And then there’s Ezra, the flirtatious stranger who’s a little too curious about how the Mission operates.
But there are bigger problems than Julian and Ezra’s secrets.
Alexis Hall
Science Fiction Horror
10 March 2026
Earth is a ruin, and the scattered remnants of humanity scavenge what they can from the stars under the watchful auspices of a grab-bag of collectives, corporations, and churches which are all that remains of what we once called society. Having long exhausted any conventional sources of energy, life in the solar system is now sustained by a volatile, hallucinogenic substance called spermaceti, which is harvested from the brains of vast cetacean-like Leviathans that swim the atmospheric currents of Jupiter.
Finding herself with no money and little to occupy her groundside, the narrator (“I”) takes a commission aboard the hunter-barque Pequod as it sets out in pursuit of precious spermaceti. Once aboard, however, she finds herself pulled inexorably into the orbit of the barque’s captain, a charismatic but fanatically driven woman who the narrator names only as “A”.
As the Pequod plunges ever deeper into the turbulent, monster-haunted atmosphere of the gas giant, the narrator begins to lose herself in the eerie word of Leviathan-hunting and the captain’s increasingly insistent delusions; the only thing that might keep her grounded is the bond she develops with Q, a woman from the wreck of Old Earth whose skin is marked with holographic light and who remembers things otherwise lost.
Camille Chong
YA Urban Fantasy Romance
11 June 2026
Set in an alternate futuristic world, where descendants of ancient magical clans don secret identities and do battle on the streets of Singapore, Camille Chong's debut YA novel Love, Gods and Sinners is an action-packed enemies-to-lovers urban fantasy with a sizzling rivals-to-lovers romance at its heart.
Harper and Tia are roommates, and interns at the same tech company. They clash, they fight, they flirt. And, under cover of night, the two of them adopt secret identities and head out on missions across the city for their respective magical clans. Tia is the beautiful descendant of the Moon Goddess, and Harper is secretly Raven, the leader-in-waiting of the feared and villainous Foxes.
When each is tasked by their clan to kill the other, a deceitful game of cat-and-mouse begins. And Harper and Tia will start to understand that the concepts of right and wrong can be just as complicated - and dangerous - as falling in love.
Rebecca Thorne
Cosy Science Fiction
22 July 2026
Torian Razner finally bought a starship, and contrary to Amelia’s assessment, it was not “a meteoric sign of stupidity.” Sure, the alien starship may have been abandoned for a century, and it may be covered in moss now... but it’s Torian’s ticket to freedom, regardless of what her ex... ah, captain… said.
Except Torian’s first flight reveals a surprise passenger: the moss is actually an organic computer with a snarky attitude and serious abandonment issues. The target of its loathing? The immortal alien who built it (and then parked the starship, with Moss inside, and forgot about it). The same alien who just found Torian and accused her of “stealing” the ship.
It’s entirely possible that Amelia was right about this meteoric stupidity.
Amie Kaufman & Meagan Spooner
YA Historical Fantasy Romance
04 June 2026
Saddle up your dragons, the ladies are going on tour! The sapphic love story continues in the sequel to joyful medieval romp LADY’S KNIGHT from NYT bestselling duo, Amie Kaufman and Megan Spooner. Perfect for fans of Gwen and Art are Not in Love and My Lady Jane.
Dearest reader… let me catch you up. Gwen, our lady knight. Isobelle, our knight’s lady. They fight monsters, and they’re in love.
Well, they fought one monster, once. And while they are in love, they haven’t discussed that fact with each other, and neither wants to be the first to bring it up. This is going to be fine.
This story includes: Seaside mysteries. Brooding redemption arcs. A cursed town. A sea monster. Medieval tourist attractions. An evil sorceress. A crumbling dark tower. Moonlit magical rituals. (Ignore all the tentacles, everything is definitely fine…)
Susan J. Morris
Historical Supernatural Mystery
12 March 2026
Six days before Samhain - the night when the veil between worlds is thinnest - Samantha Harker, daughter of Dracula’s killer, and Dr. Helena Moriarty, daughter of the famed criminal mastermind, are thrown into their next the mysterious disappearance of two Society field agents in Ireland. Only this time, the Royal Society is sending Jakob Van Helsing to keep an eye on them.
Sam and Hel may have solved the Paris case, but that doesn’t mean the Society trusts them. Sam has the power to slip into the minds of monsters, and Van Helsing has sworn to kill her at the first sign of corruption. And if Hel can’t prove her father’s existence, she’ll soon go down for his crimes.
Their investigation takes them from the crumbling ruins of Ireland’s untamed wilds to the occult societies of the rich and powerful. The connection between the Sam and Hel is electric, but as they fall deeper into each other’s orbit, their secrets only multiply. For Hel, it’s the sins she committed when she was her father’s pawn. For Sam, it’s a plague of death omens, mysterious black feathers, and a siren song no one else can hear. And then comes a chilling revelation that is poised to shatter The agents who disappeared were each haunted by a ghost. And so, it seems, is Sam.
Madeline Gray
Contemporary Lit-Fic
29 January 2026
At the age of twelve, Nell has accepted that hers will likely be a friendless existence. She's not interested in boys or makeup or competing to see who can eat the least - so fitting in at her all-girls' school feels impossible.
But then, a new girl arrives at school. Eve has short hair like a boy's, a wicked sense of humour and an unshakable confidence that she will find her place in the world. And the moment they meet, Nell begins to rethink the whole friendless existence thing.
As they grow into themselves, Nell and Eve will love each other and hurt each other - through the chlorine-scented savagery of adolescence; long, drunken nights in share houses and gay bars; the highs and lows of parenthood.
And always, despite unspoken feelings and sexual confusion, they will choose each other. Again, and again. As friends, as lovers, as family.
Sumiko Arai
Yuri Manga
15 January 2026
Volume three of Sumino Arai's green uri manga - The Guy She Was Interested in Wan't A Guy At All - is finally out!
With Aya’s encouragement and inspiration from a music festival they attend together, Mitsuki begins to pursue her passion for music in earnest!
But when a certain video of her singing goes viral on social media, Mitsuki ends up becoming somewhat of a celebrity at school - and her newfound fame brings difficulties for both her and Aya...
Makana Yamamoto
Cyberpunk Heist Sci-Fi
19 February 2026
It's been three years since the Atlas heist. Malia, aka the Obake, the greatest hacker of all time, was set for life. But being set for life turns out to be pretty boring.
But when her new hobby of rigging underground fights lands her in trouble with one of the most dangerous gangs on Kepler Space Station, she's offered a deal: take down the corrupt politician interfering with the gang's business, or it's the end of the road for Malia.
Hastily assembling her own crew, it should be easy after the impossible heist of Atlas Industries. But this time the person she's working for is just as bad as the person she's taking down, and there are darker things lurking in the shadows.
Things tied to Malia's past. Things that could decide her future.
Yah Yah Scholfield
Gothic Horror
29 January 2026
When Judith Rice fled her childhood home, she thought she’d severed her abusive mother’s hold on her. She didn’t have a plan or destination, just a desperate need to escape. Drawn to the forests of southern Georgia, Jude finds shelter in a house as haunted by its violent history as she is by her own.
Jude embraces the eccentricities of the dilapidated house, soothing its ghosts and haints, honoring its blood-soaked land. And over the next thirteen years, Jude blossoms from her bitter beginnings into a wisewoman, a healer.
But her hard-won peace is threatened when an enigmatic woman shows up on her doorstep. The woman is beautiful but unsettling, captivating but uncanny. Ensnared by her desire for this stranger, Jude is caught off guard by brutal urges suddenly simmering beneath her skin. As the woman stirs up memories of her escape years ago, Jude must confront the calls of violence rooted in her bloodline.
Cherry Zong
Dark Fantasy Retelling
12 February 2026
For lovers of Through the Woods, Blackwater, and Squad, comes a dark, sapphic retelling of a classic tale.
Red, a fiercely loyal hunter, has dedicated her life to protecting her witch Grand Mother. Monsters have been roaming the forest that they call home, bringing forth a mysterious illness that has devastated the land and chased every living soul away. Until Red stumbles upon an injured wolf-girl named Sil.
Red is cautiously optimistic to befriend someone new, but the more their relationship deepens, the more she begins to uncover the sinister truths behind everything she’s ever known. Red must make the difficult decision of who to defend, before catastrophe consumes them all. This graphic novel that's an apocalyptic fantasy meets queer love story turns the classic Little Red Riding Hood fairytale on its head.
Lavanya Lakshminarayan
Adult Foodie Sci-Fi
12 March 2026
It has been three months since Saraswati Kaveri and Serenity Ko won Interstellar MegaChef with their groundbreaking new food simulation, Feast.
But victory is only the beginning. Saras is busy promoting their invention as the public face of Feast, while Ko keeps fighting battles to steer its development at XP Inc. And then there’s the kiss. They’ve decided to just be friends for now, at least until the sim’s impending launch, but the memory of that heady night hangs over them.
And sometimes it seems the whole galaxy is lined up against them. Saraswati’s secret past is coming under scrutiny, while old rivals are running smear campaigns against her. The cookery world is divided over Feast, proclaiming it a bold new invention and a betrayal of the chef’s art by turns.
And others see Feast’s darker potential - not as an experience, but as a weapon...
Lex Croucher
YA Historical Fiction/Romance
13 August 2026
It should have been happily ever after. But now, Camelot’s famous couples have fallen apart. Newly crowned King Gabriel is having panic attacks in cupboards in between council meetings.
He can't tell Arthur just how not okay he is - so he's set him free, to find love with someone who can get through the day without breaking down. Bridget has lost her spark for sparring, forfeiting again and again in the lists. When she’s invited to join Gabriel's round table, she hopes it’ll be the change she needs.
But trying to navigate the post-happily-ever-after reality of a relationship with Gwen, when Bridget no longer feels like the dashing knight Gwen fell in love with, feels impossible. With the kingdom still reeling from an attempted uprising, and rumoured sightings of the holy grail, the questing beast and the green knight happening across the country, the gang depart on a PR tour destined for disaster. Can Gabriel be the king his country deserves? Can Bridget get her jousting groove back? And will they find their way back to the courtly love that once seemed fated?
Ashley Herring Blake
Adult Romance
30 February 2026
April Evans' life is in shambles. Her tattoo shop has just closed, she has no money and her love life? Non-existent - ever since her ex-fiancée left her for a younger woman three years ago. When she's asked to teach a summer art class at the town's new resort, April jumps at the opportunity. She's sure that this is the silver lining she needs... until she meets her cabinmate: Daphne Love, the woman who stole her ex. And even worse, it's clear Daphne has no idea who April is.
Daphne Love is cursed in, well, love. She thought she'd found the unconditional love she craved in her ex-girlfriend, but now she's single again and utterly broken-hearted. When her friend hooks her up with a summer gig as an art instructor at a swanky resort, Daphne feels optimistic for once. If only she had a roommate who didn't seem to hate her on sight.
But slowly, barriers begin to fall, and an inexplicable allure keeps drawing April and Daphne closer, leaving them to wonder if the perfect picture they're looking for can only be painted with each other.
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