ebooks

Sapphic Led Families

June 7, 2023 By Anne Hagan

Saturday evening I had an online chat with Erin that started out being about the ultimate demise of Women and Words which I realized when I was looking for some inspiration for a sapphic literature blog topic that hadn’t been overdone. Our conversation veered off course as they sometimes do and ended up being about our children.

Sapphic Led Families Erin and her wife are moving their kids with them as they travel the world, schooling them with some lessons and lots of experiences as they go. You can read about the family and their travels on their blog, Wha From Home. Erin says their boys are working on some blog posts of their own for the family travel blog. I can’t wait to read those.

We also talked about the special needs and schooling of the three year old girl in the legal custody of my wife and I since her birth, and the general educational needs and issues with those of the three foster children ages 4, 8, and 13, that have been in our care long term (between two and four years).

Our chat gave me pause…and a blog topic; books about sapphic led families with children. There’s some non-fiction out there. Much of it is well rated, but a few years old or more. Fiction featuring sapphic’s with children is becoming a little more common, especially in the romance genre.

I’ve featured lots of kids in my books, including some kiddos who are the biological or adopted children of sapphic characters because my personal life revolves around family and children. I’d love to put more kids in the books, but I primarily write murder mysteries, so… Let’s just say, having foster kids and dealing with the multiple trauma’s they’ve endured, doesn’t make me want to write books about children in serious harms way.

Today, I’m focusing on books that are non-fiction because I think it’s important that we all see what sapphic led families face and how they cope. Don’t worry! It’s not all doom and gloom.

Memoirs of the Happy Lesbian Housewife by Lorraine Howell. Lorrain has actually written a two book series. Both books are quite funny and insightful. At this writing, this is the second book according to Amazon and their series numbering. It was actually the first book Lorraine published. She released it in 2014. The book she numbers as ‘2’ was published in 2022.

Available for $2.99 from Amazon and other major retailers.

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She Looks Just Like You: A Memoir of (Nonbiological Lesbian) Motherhood by Amie Klempnaur Miller, published in 2010 by Penguin Random House.

After ten years of talking about children, two years of trying (and failing) to conceive, and one shot of donor sperm for her partner, Amie Miller was about to become a mother. Or something like that.

Some themes are dated here…some are decidedly not. This is available for $15.99 from Amazon and some other major retailers.

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A Secret I Can’t Tell: The First Generation of Children from Openly Gay and Lesbian Homes by Joe Gantz

In 1977 a law was passed in Florida banning discrimination in housing, employment, and public accommodation based on sexuality. This law was an important step towards respecting gay and lesbian civil rights. However, immediately after it was passed, a group called Save Our Children vowed to overturn the law. This group stirred up so much fear regarding the idea of a gay role model, such as a teacher, interacting with children that the gay-rights ordinance was repealed.

In 1979 Joe Gantz decided to show more realistic and positive gay role models than the distorted images promoted by the campaign, by finding families raising children in openly gay homes and asking them to tell their story. A Secret I Can’t Tell follows five families raising children in homes where one or both parents were not hiding their homosexuality.

This book was first published in 1983. It was republished in 2022 by Joe Gantz with an update from many of the children 40 years later.

Anne’s Note: This book offers valuable insight into the past because now, in 2023, LGBT rights are regressing again across the US, and most notably in Florida where even speaking the word ‘gay’ is outlawed in elementary schools.

This is available for $9.99 from Amazon and other major retailers.

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Zak’s Safari: A Story About Donor-Conceived Kids of Two-Mom Families by Christy Tyner, illustrated by Ciaee Ching.

When the rain foils Zak’s plan for a safari adventure, he invites the reader on a very special tour of his family instead. Zak shows us how his parents met, fell in love, and wanted more than anything to have a baby—so they decided to make one.

Recommended for children ages 4 to 8.

This is available for $2.99 from Amazon or free to read in Kindle Unlimited.

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Pride and Joy: A guide for lesbian, gay, bisexual and trans parents by Sarah Hagger-Holt and Rachel Hagger-Holt

Pride and Joy is full of stories, advice, and real-life experience from LGBT parents and their children. Sometimes funny, sometimes moving, sometimes surprising, every story sheds new light on what it’s like for LGBT people raising children in the UK and Ireland today. (Published in 2017 ).

Available from Amazon and other major retailers for $9.99

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Radical Relations: Lesbian Mothers, Gay Fathers, and Their Children in the United States since World War II by Daniel Winunwe Rivers, published by the University of North Carolina Press in 2013.

This isn’t the oldest book here, but it’s the most extensive history of lesbian and gay families in the US as the author traces LGBTQ family history back into the 1950s, after the end of the second World War, up until publication.

It’s available from Amazon and other online retailers for $9.99

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Have a book you’d like to share, especially one that’s more current than many of these? Let us know.

10 Perfect Pride Month Sapphic Reads

May 31, 2023 By Anne Hagan

Pride month will be with us beginning tomorrow in most countries where Pride events can be openly celebrated. In the spirit of Pride, I’ve picked ten fiction books, some out of a promotion, several out of my ‘To Be Read’ (TBR) pile, I’m looking forward to reading in the next month or so. Most are romance, and most have positive themes.

Some of the books are indie and are running in said promotion where I personally have a book listed this month. Some are from publishers large and small. Most have been recommended to me (even above the promotion) as ‘must read’ stories of sapphic love and pride.

Fluid Bonding: A Sapphic Paranormal Romance was published in August of 2022 by indie author Sienna Eggler – If you know me, you know mysteries are my first love. This was suggested because it has those intrigue elements I like to see in romance too. Bonus points for having one of the leads be non-binary and neurodivergent.

$4.99 at Amazon and other major retailers.

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Hugs and Quiches was published back in 2020 by indie author/tiny press author Candace Harper. I’m a fan of cooking competition television shows and more than a few people know this. I’m not super talented in the kitchen myself, but my family doesn’t starve either. I live my high end culinary dreams vicariously through such shows. Two people that know this have both recommended this book. It sounds like a great second chance romance for at least one of the main characters, and a thawing the ice queen trope for the other one. Yum!

Also $4.99 at Amazon and other major retailers.

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Flipped: A Once Upon a Fangirl Book – Another book I missed back in 2020 when Caitlin Ryan self-published it caught my eye in that promo that starts tomorrow. During the pandemic I got hooked on home renovation shows that now vie for my precious few hours of aimless TV time a week alongside those cooking shows/competitions I mentioned. The model on this cover? To me, she looks a little like a longer haired, slightly younger Alison Victoria of ‘Windy City Rehab.’ That’s who I’ll be picturing the whole time I read this story about a travel agent and a ‘lesbian couple’ that remodel homes.

Currently $.99 at Amazon and available via Kindle Unlimited.

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Sips of Her (Coffee Shops of Love Book 2) – A 2021 Sapphic romance by indie author Karmen Lee. Karmen is known for the diversity of her romances in both the multicultural aspects of them and in the sexualities/genders of her pairings. This one intrigues me because it offers both the cuteness of a romcom and some steam.

Currently $2.99 at Amazon and available via Kindle Unlimited.

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Deus Ex Mechanic

I admit to starting this book by Ryann Fletcher when it came out in 2020…right before covid sent my wife home to work for months and my foster kids home to be homeschooled for months. I put it down ‘temporarily’ and lost track of it. It’s been waiting for me in my Kindle ever since. I’ll be starting it over gladly, and now there are four more books in the series to check out too.

At this writing this is $.99 at Amazon and at other major online retailers.

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Swipe Right for Love This very recent release by Cyan LeBlanc (of fanfic fame) through her own small press, Posies and Peacocks, is quite the modern take on dating via apps. The format of the book is also very modern as each chapter is a date and, until it all works out in the end, it sounds like we’ll only get the viewpoint of one main character. I can’t wait to see how Cyan handles that!

Currently $3.99 at Amazon and available via Kindle Unlimited.

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We finish with four books from large publishing houses, all well rated, and all with either intricate plots or tough themes that resolve well for the sapphics involved. No killing off your lesbians in these stories!

The Fiancée Farce – Avon published, Lammy Award winning author Alexandria Bellfleur is no stranger to sapphic book lovers, or to anyone who reads romance. This April release gives those book lovers what they love; a fake relationship book about book lovers. I can’t wait to dig into this.

$10.99 at Amazon and most other major retailers.

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Forget Me Not Have you seen the Adam Sandler romcom movie, 50 First Dates, which was based on a true story? If you haven’t, watch it. I’ll wait. After that, lets read Alyson Derrick’s solo debut together and get the deeply emotional side of the same sort of story, but sapphic. Bonus points here from me for setting the story in small town western PA, near where I grew up and an area know well.

This was published in April by Simon and Schuster. It’s available for $10.99 from Amazon and most other retailers.

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The Luis Ortega Survival Club Author Sonora Reyes (The Lesbiana’s Guide to Catholic School) is back with another teen and young adult hit, this one published last week by Balzer and Bray. Trigger warning: It deals with rape as is made very clear in the blurb.

I’ll be reading it. I can’t wait to see how Sonora portrayed these young women supporting each other and standing up for themselves.

It’s available on Amazon and other major retailers from Harper-Collins for $11.99.

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Last, but by no means least is, 6 Times We Almost Kissed and One Time We Did. This book by Tess Sharpe came out in January. Hachette has it on sale at this writing for $3.99. From the blurb, which sounds so sweet, I’d label it teen/young adult on the cusp of new adult.

Available at most majo

There you have the books on my Pride month reading list…that I know about so far. What’s on your list?

~Anne

Sapphic Books from AA & PI Authors to Check Out

May 9, 2023 By Anne Hagan

May is Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) Heritage Month celebrating the achievements and contributions of Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders in the United States.

Here at MyQueerSapphFic, we want to celebrate diversity and achievement the way we always do; with books! Anne had a great time selecting these. Some she’s read and loved. Others, she’s added to her to be read pile and they will be read…as soon as she’s done researching pesky backstory for a work in progress.

Anne apologizes in advance if the authors of any of her picks have returned to their roots. Some of these authors are lifelong Americans, born here to parents from other countries. Some immigrated to the US. Without further ado, a few gems from a diverse group of AAPI sapphic authors:

Fiona and Jane by Jean Chen Ho (Taiwanese American) – Published by Viking

Best friends since second grade, Fiona Lin and Jane Shen explore the lonely freeways and seedy bars of Los Angeles together through their teenage years, surviving unfulfilling romantic encounters, and carrying with them the scars of their families’ tumultuous pasts. Fiona was always destined to leave, her effortless beauty burnished by fierce ambition—qualities that Jane admired and feared in equal measure. When Fiona moves to New York and cares for a sick friend through a breakup with an opportunistic boyfriend, Jane remains in California and grieves her estranged father’s sudden death, in the process alienating an overzealous girlfriend. Strained by distance and unintended betrayals, the women float in and out of each other’s lives, their friendship both a beacon of home and a reminder of all they’ve lost.

In stories told in alternating voices, Jean Chen Ho’s debut collection peels back the layers of female friendship—the intensity, resentment, and boundless love—to probe the beating hearts of young women coming to terms with themselves, and each other, in light of the insecurities and shame that holds them back.

Spanning countries and selves, Fiona and Jane is an intimate portrait of a friendship, a deep dive into the universal perplexities of being young and alive, and a bracingly honest account of two Asian women who dare to stake a claim on joy in a changing, contemporary America.

I’ll be the One by Lyla Lee (Korean American) – Published by Katherine Tegan Books (Harper-Collins Children’s)

Skye Shin has heard it all. Fat girls shouldn’t dance. Wear bright colors. Shouldn’t call attention to themselves. But Skye dreams of joining the glittering world of K-Pop, and to do that, she’s about to break all the rules that society, the media, and even her own mother, have set for girls like her.

She’ll challenge thousands of other performers in an internationally televised competition looking for the next K-pop star, and she’ll do it better than anyone else.

When Skye nails her audition, she’s immediately swept into a whirlwind of countless practices, shocking performances, and the drama that comes with reality TV. What she doesn’t count on are the highly fat-phobic beauty standards of the Korean pop entertainment industry, her sudden media fame and scrutiny, or the sparks that soon fly with her fellow competitor, Henry Cho.

But Skye has her sights on becoming the world’s first plus-sized K-pop star, and that means winning the competition—without losing herself.

Last Night at the Telegraph Club by Malinda Lo (Chinese American) – Published by Dutton Books for

Winner of the National Book Award
A New York Times Bestseller

“The queer romance we’ve been waiting for.”—Ms. Magazine

Seventeen-year-old Lily Hu can’t remember exactly when the feeling took root—that desire to look, to move closer, to touch. Whenever it started growing, it definitely bloomed the moment she and Kathleen Miller walked under the flashing neon sign of a lesbian bar called the Telegraph Club. Suddenly everything seemed possible.

But America in 1954 is not a safe place for two girls to fall in love, especially not in Chinatown. Red-Scare paranoia threatens everyone, including Chinese Americans like Lily. With deportation looming over her father—despite his hard-won citizenship—Lily and Kath risk everything to let their love see the light of day.

Long Live the Tribe of Fatherless Girls: A Memoir by T. Kira Madden (AAPI Author) – Bloomsbury Publishing

Acclaimed literary essayist T Kira Madden’s raw and redemptive debut memoir is about coming of age and reckoning with desire as a queer, biracial teenager amidst the fierce contradictions of Boca Raton, Florida, a place where she found cult-like privilege, shocking racial disparities, rampant white-collar crime, and powerfully destructive standards of beauty hiding in plain sight.

As a child, Madden lived a life of extravagance, from her exclusive private school to her equestrian trophies and designer shoe-brand name. But under the surface was a wild instability. The only child of parents continually battling drug and alcohol addictions, Madden confronted her environment alone. Facing a culture of assault and objectification, she found lifelines in the desperately loving friendships of fatherless girls.

With unflinching honesty and lyrical prose, spanning from 1960s Hawai’i to the present-day struggle of a young woman mourning the loss of a father while unearthing truths that reframe her reality, Long Live the Tribe of Fatherless Girls is equal parts eulogy and love letter. It’s a story about trauma and forgiveness, about families of blood and affinity, both lost and found, unmade and rebuilt, crooked and beautiful.

Ma and Me by PutSata Reang (Cambodian American) – Published by MCD

Winner of the 2023 Pacific Northwest Book Award.
Finalist for the 2023 Lesbian Memoir/Biography Lambda Literary Award

When Putsata Reang was eleven months old, her family fled war-torn Cambodia, spending twenty-three days on an overcrowded navy vessel before finding sanctuary at an American naval base in the Philippines. Holding what appeared to be a lifeless baby in her arms, Ma resisted the captain’s orders to throw her bundle overboard. Instead, on landing, Ma rushed her baby into the arms of American military nurses and doctors, who saved the child’s life. “I had hope, just a little, you were still alive,” Ma would tell Put in an oft-repeated story that became family legend.

Over the years, Put lived to please Ma and make her proud, hustling to repay her life debt by becoming the consummate good Cambodian daughter, working steadfastly by Ma’s side in the berry fields each summer and eventually building a successful career as an award-winning journalist. But Put’s adoration and efforts are no match for Ma’s expectations. When she comes out to Ma in her twenties, it’s just a phase. When she fails to bring home a Khmer boyfriend, it’s because she’s not trying hard enough. When, at the age of forty, Put tells Ma she is finally getting married―to a woman―it breaks their bond in two.

In her startling memoir, Reang explores the long legacy of inherited trauma and the crushing weight of cultural and filial duty. With rare clarity and lyric wisdom, Ma and Me is a stunning, deeply moving memoir about love, debt, and duty.

Marriage of a Thousand Lies by SJ Sin (Sri Lankin American – Tamil diaspora) – Published by Soho Press

Lucky and her husband, Krishna, are gay. They present an illusion of marital bliss to their conservative Sri Lankan–American families, while each dates on the side. It’s not ideal, but for Lucky, it seems to be working. She goes out dancing, she drinks a bit, she makes ends meet by doing digital art on commission. But when Lucky’s grandmother has a nasty fall, Lucky returns to her childhood home and unexpectedly reconnects with her former best friend and first lover, Nisha, who is preparing for her own arranged wedding with a man she’s never met.

As the connection between the two women is rekindled, Lucky tries to save Nisha from entering a marriage based on a lie. But does Nisha really want to be saved? And after a decade’s worth of lying, can Lucky break free of her own circumstances and build a new life? Is she willing to walk away from all that she values about her parents and community to live in a new truth? As Lucky—an outsider no matter what choices she makes—is pushed to the breaking point, Marriage of a Thousand Lies offers a vivid exploration of a life lived at a complex intersection of race, sexuality, and nationality. The result is a profoundly American debut novel shot through with humor and loss, a story of love, family, and the truths that define us all.

Soft Science by Franny Choi (Asian American) – Alice James Books (A non-profit poetry press)

A Book Riot Must-Read Poetry Collection

Soft Science explores queer, Asian American femininity. A series of Turing Test-inspired poems grounds its exploration of questions not just of identity, but of consciousness—how to be tender and feeling and still survive a violent world filled with artificial intelligence and automation. We are dropped straight into the tangled intersections of technology, violence, erasure, agency, gender, and loneliness.

“…these beautiful, fractal-like poems are meditations on identity and autonomy and offer consciousness-expanding forays into topics like violence and gender, love and isolation.” –NYLON

This Time Will Be Different by Misa Sugiura (Japanese American) – Published by Harper Teen

Katsuyamas never quit—but seventeen-year-old CJ doesn’t even know where to start. She’s never lived up to her mom’s type A ambition, and she’s perfectly happy just helping her aunt, Hannah, at their family’s flower shop.

She doesn’t buy into Hannah’s romantic ideas about flowers and their hidden meanings, but when it comes to arranging the perfect bouquet, CJ discovers a knack she never knew she had. A skill she might even be proud of.

Then her mom decides to sell the shop—to the family who swindled CJ’s grandparents when thousands of Japanese Americans were sent to internment camps during WWII. Soon a rift threatens to splinter CJ’s family, friends, and their entire Northern California community; and for the first time, CJ has found something she wants to fight for.

When Tara Met Farah by Tara Pammi (Indian American) – Indie Author

Horny food vlogger meets grumpy math genius in this emotional, sexy, new-adultish contemporary romance and have to decide if love is worth all the vulnerabilities it demands.

Sunshine Girl needs math lessons…

Nineteen-year-old Tara Muvvala didn’t mean to lead a double life. But her bone-deep aversion to math + a soul-deep desire to please her mother = her failing math grade + exploding food vlog ‘this masala life’. Enter her mother’s research intern and resident math genius Farah Ahmed. Tara makes a deal with Farah – help her pass the math course and she’ll welcome Farah into the local Bollywood Drama & Dance Society.

Grumpy girl gets life lessons…

After losing her mom to a heart attack, dumping her small-minded boyfriend (she’s bisexual, not confused) and reluctantly moving to the US to be near her dad – all in the span of eighteen months, twenty-three-year-old Farah has hit the full quota on LIFE. Two things keep her going – her internship with a brilliant statistics professor and the possibility of meeting her dancing idol through the Bollywood Drama & Dance Society. That is, if her new hot-mess housemate will let her.

Soon Tara and Farah are bonding over chicken biryani, dancing to Bollywood Beats at midnight and kissing against all the odds. And maybe beginning to realize that while life’s even more complicated than math, love is the one variable that changes everything!

Will Tara and Farah realize that together they have the recipe for a Happily Ever After?

Top 10 Sapphic eBooks for 2023…So Far

May 2, 2023 By Anne Hagan

Can you believe 1/3rd of 2023 is already gone?

We can’t either!

We revamped this website in August of 2022 to better showcase the books we all love so much. The new design gives readers a way to look at everything we’ve featured week to week and the ability to sort those books by category and author. On the front end, a reader can also sort by overall popularity on the site. On the backend where only Erin and I can see, we can look at things month by month and see what’s been popular.

Here then are the top 10 sapphic themed eBooks on this site for 2023…so far. They’re a bit of a mix, surprisingly, as romance novels dominate the overall listings. For fun, we’ve included a bonus top 5 all-time (since August of 2022) list too.

2023 Lambda Literary Awards Sapphic Fiction and Non-Fiction Finalists 10. The Sapphic Lammy Award Finalists – 50 eBooks in multiple fiction and non-fiction categories we culled from the Lambda Literary Award Finalists announced in March. Winners will be announced in June. (So, we’re one listing in and you’ve already got 50 books to browse. Sorry. Not sorry!)

9. Stabscotch The 3rd book in the San Francisco Mystery Series by Alexi Venice. This story introduces the enigma that is Roxy MacNeil.

8. Unlikely Match – A contemporary, opposites attract, age gap romance by Alexa Wood.

6. Tie! A Game of Hearts and Heists – A steamy lesbian fantasy romance by Ruby Roe with enemies to lovers, a heist, found family, a secret royal, and only one bed.

6. Tie! Mistress of Desire – Erotica/Erotic romance by Ruby Scott

Okay, is anyone noticing anything here? A pattern, maybe? Authors named Alex(something) and Ruby…hmmm.

We digress!

5. The Love we Make – Is anyone shocked that a contemporary romance by Harper Bliss made this list? Anyone…? This one is full of ‘found family.’

4. Stolen Match – See…we told you there’s a pattern! Another contemporary romance by Alexa Woods. This one actually came later in the series and to our site. Readers like this series.

3. Dote on them – The second contemporary romance in the ‘Herding Love’ series by Emily Alter. Polyamory? Not quite, but ‘found family’ definitely. And there’s another pattern!

We’re going to have to figure out a way to include tropes in the romance categories besides making you have to type in keywords.

2. Claiming Fawn – An omegaverse dragon shifter fantasy romance by Winter Thorn.

Queen Vs Queen 1. Queen Vs. Queen – Disclaimer, I (Anne) am one of the authors. This is an anthology of three contemporary romance novellas where ice queen meets ice queen. Ice queens are extremely popular with sapphic romance readers!

Intrigued by any of those? We were, especially since there’s some variety there. We decided to dig a little deeper and find the top 5 of all time (since we started tracking in August of 2022). They are:

5. Everything she Needs – A contemporary age gap, ice queen romance from Cynthia Dane and Hildred Billings.

4. Avery Awakened – A contemporary age gap, straight to gay, romance by Chloe Peterson

3. Calling the Shots – A sports romance (hockey) by Kelly Farmer

2. Meet Cute – A collection of romance first meeting scenes put together by the amazing Jae from many authors. It’s free!

1. If I were a Weapon – If you’ve read Skye Kilaen’s work, this sci-fi novel with romance making the top of the list won’t surprise you. If you haven’t read this, why not? (Psst: I don’t usually read sci-fi, but I loved this! ~ Anne)

There you have it. Interestingly, there are some books that are really close to those five on the all time list. The top 20 average three views difference from book to book. Were going to have another look at it all in early September to see what’s what.

Happy reading!

~ Anne

eBook Giveaway Winners

March 1, 2023 By Anne Hagan

eBook Giveaway Winners

Erin and I would like to thank everyone who entered our February eBook Giveaway. Your support means a lot to us and it means the world to the sapphic fiction authors who write the books we all love and advertise them with us.

Without further ado, the winners are:

Grand Prize – 15 eBooks – Nikka – n———3@y—o.com

1st Prize – 10 eBooks – Marthita – s——r@a-l.com

2nd Prize – 5 eBooks – Susy – w———–y@o—–k.com

3rd Prize – 3 eBooks – Allem – a——-9@g—l.com

4th Prize – 1 eBook – Maggie – w—-u@y—o.com

All winners have been notified by email by Anne Hagan. If you think one of these is you, and you have not received an email from Anne, please check your spam/junk mail folder.

Winners will select their books from all the books you can see here. There are 177 books to choose from, in a variety of genres, from both indie and traditionally published authors. This list grows every week with books advertised with MyQueerSapphFic.

Didn’t win? Please consider checking out some of the books we’ve featured, and/or the authors who have worked with us.

Congratulations everyone, and happy reading!

Anne