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Samantha 🌈📚 @sammyreads.bsky.social · 01/09/2025

my august reading wrap up (all sapphic books) 💗 #booksky

books mentioned:
👑 The Faithless by C.L. Clark
✏️ Learning Curves by Rachel Lacey
🌓 The Sun and the Moon by Rebekah Faubion
🔮 Human Rites by Juno Dawson
🍂 A Hexcellent Chance to Fall in Love by Ann Rose
💫 With Stars in Her Eyes by Andie Burke
🐺 The Last Soul Among Wolves by Melissa Caruso
🦋 When They Burned the Butterfly by Wen-Yi Lee
🌲 Fate’s Bane by C.L. Clark

Samantha 🌈📚 @sammyreads.bsky.social · 21/07/2025

I just finished House of Monstrous Women by Daphne Fama and I'm obsessed. It's Filipino gothic folk horror in all it's creepy glory (and it's sapphic!!) Out August 12th! #booksky

Front cover of House of Monstrous Women by Daphne Fama

Text reads:

Rating: 4.75 stars

To set the scene: It's 1986, the Philippines is in the midst of political upheaval. Desperate to escape her oppressive life, to make amends with her distant brother, and to reconnect with her first love, Josephine is lured to a maze-like mansion on a remote island to play a dangerous game of tagu-tagu (a game similar to hide and seek).

This is Filipino gothic folk horror and the setting is deliciously atmospheric. Beware of creepy bugs, a haunted mansion that feels like it's alive, and silent and ever-present house servants that are always watching you.

It's a story of desperation and I found myself surprisingly sympathetic to every character, which is a tell-tale sign of good writing because each character at some point falls victim to their worst instincts. And at the heart of all the horror is a tender sapphic love story.

I was hooked from the first page. At first by the informative history, then by the unraveling of the complex relationship dynamics, and finally by the chaos and suspense of the hunt.

Thank you to Berkley for providing me with an advance copy of this book!

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Samantha 🌈📚 @sammyreads.bsky.social · 18/06/2025

finished Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil by V.E. Schwab (my first 5 ⭐️ read in two months) the tagline has been toxic lesbian vampire and whew 😮‍💨 is that accurate anddd for better or worse i would for sure be exactly like Lottie so…much to think about

front cover of Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil by V.E. Schwab

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Samantha 🌈📚 @sammyreads.bsky.social · 14/06/2025

my local indie romance store hosted protest sign making with all the materials you could want, i love the SD book community 💗 #booksky #nokings

Two signs: One says, “Going to a protest? Need to make a sign? We’ve got you!” with details of the event; the second is a picture of Mean Girls the movie and says, “Get in losers, we’re going protesting!”

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Samantha 🌈📚 @sammyreads.bsky.social · 07/06/2025

oh oh i loved this so much if you’re looking for an existential read that may leave you slightly confused about the nature of time but so confident in the power of love (sapphic of course) #booksky

front cover of Cosmic Love at the Multiverse Hair Salon

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Samantha 🌈📚 @sammyreads.bsky.social · 01/06/2025

i’m so obsessed with everything Emily Austin writes

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Samantha 🌈📚 @sammyreads.bsky.social · 01/06/2025

sapphic pride stack 🫶🏽 happy pride month y’all #booksky

hand holding rainbow stack of books

books mentioned:
❤️ Plain Bad Heroines by Emily M. Danforth
🧡 The Priory of the Orange Tree by Samantha Shannon
💛 Her Majesty’s Royal Coven by Juno Dawson
💚 Not For the Faint of Heart by Lex Croucher
💙 The End Crowns All by Bea Fitzgerald
💜 Ink Blood Sister Scribe by Emma Törzs
🩷 We Could Be Rats by Emily Austin

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Samantha 🌈📚 @sammyreads.bsky.social · 29/05/2025

i hate when a book is just shy of 500 pages,,, you couldn’t have written 9 more pages so that storygraph would log it in the 500+ category 😭

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Samantha 🌈📚 @sammyreads.bsky.social · 28/05/2025

a stack of sapphic book mail was waiting for me when i got home today 🥰 ✏️ Learning Curves by Rachel Lacey (contemporary romance - out September 2nd) 🔥 House of Dusk by Deva Fagan (fantasy - out August 26th) 🌊 The Woman from the Waves by Roslyn Sinclair (fantasy - out June 5th)

A hand holding three books:

Learning Curves by Rachel Lacey (out September 2nd)
House of Dusk by Deva Fagan (out August 26th)
The Woman from the Waves by Roslyn Sinclair (out June 5th)

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Samantha 🌈📚 @sammyreads.bsky.social · 23/05/2025

current read: The Starving Saints by Caitlin Starling a sapphic medieval horror fever dream of a book and i’m totally hooked so far #booksky

A hand holding The Starving Saints by Caitlin Starling with promo letter and character art (tw: blood and gore)

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Samantha 🌈📚 @sammyreads.bsky.social · 14/05/2025

Review of A Treachery of Swans by A.B. Poranek, a sapphic Swan Lake Reimagining out June 24th (4.5/5⭐️) #SimonTeenInfluencer #ATreacheryOfSwans #booksky

Hand holding A Treachery of Swans by A.B. Poranek in front of a book shelf.

A moody sapphic Swan Lake reimagining.

This is the story of Odile, a trickster, a sorcier, a self-proclaimed villain, as she sets in motion a plan to bring magic back to the kingdom. In order to do so, she must take the place of Marie d’Odette, the sweet ingénue, the light to Odile's darkness.

The setting is atmospheric and theatric. I loved that the chapters were formatted as if the whole novel was a play script, each chapter beginning with its scene number and location heading. It added to the dramatics of it all.

I also loved that within the intensity, the teenagers in the story were allowed to be teenagers, making mistakes, goofing around, discovering themselves.

If I could change anything, it would be to have more moments between Odile and Marie in the first 50% of the book as their relationship as foils to each other is the heart of the book.

Arc gifted by Simon Teen <3

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Samantha 🌈📚 @sammyreads.bsky.social · 12/05/2025

it’s the worst!! the one i was reading was tracking to be a 4.5 but got downgraded to the 3s 😔

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Samantha 🌈📚 @sammyreads.bsky.social · 11/05/2025

when a book is soo good for a majority of the story but they fumble the ending and ruin everything rip

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Samantha 🌈📚 @sammyreads.bsky.social · 08/05/2025

needed a palette cleanser and picked up an arc of Nobody in Particular by Sophie Gonzalez (a ya sapphic royals romance) and i’m obsessed alllll the sapphic yearning and angst of forbidden love you could want out on June 3rd! #booksky

Two girls embracing on the front cover of Nobody in Particular by Sophie Gonzales

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Samantha 🌈📚 @sammyreads.bsky.social · 01/05/2025

i didn’t mind frontier but yeah idolfire just didn’t do it for me i feel like no one earned their ending and i felt always on the precipice of feeling something but it never went there 😭

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Samantha 🌈📚 @sammyreads.bsky.social · 01/05/2025

my april reading wrap-up (all sapphic books of course 😇) some highs (Harrow was confusing and amazing) and lows (Idolfire had sooo much potential rip) #booksky

Storygraph April stays with books and star ratings

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Samantha 🌈📚 @sammyreads.bsky.social · 27/04/2025

well it will have to because i am broke now 😂 there was a book crawl at 14 of my city’s local indie bookstores and i bought at least one thing from each place sooo

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Samantha 🌈📚 @sammyreads.bsky.social · 27/04/2025

my book haul from today is so excessive i am officially on a book buying ban

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Samantha 🌈📚 @sammyreads.bsky.social · 26/04/2025

sometimes you need a sapphic gothic horror monster romance novella you can read in under two hours #booksky

Front cover of But Not Too Bold by Hache Pueyo. Trigger warning for spiders

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Reposted by Samantha 🌈📚

kamilah cole @wordsiren.bsky.social · 24/04/2025

Happy Lesbian Visibility Week to my two visible lesbians, Signey Soto and Elara Vincent, from the Divine Traitors duology! bookshop.org/contributors...

Signey and Elara sitting on Zephyra's back at nightfall, as drawn by joleanart

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Samantha 🌈📚 @sammyreads.bsky.social · 13/04/2025

i'm not going to lie, it's pretty bold to write and publish an AU of your own characters so i have no choice but to respect it anyone nostalgic for more Sutton and Charlotte, Midnight Rain is a sweet second chance romance set in a universe where they did not reconcile at the end of Those Who Wait 🙊

The front cover of Midnight Rain a Those Who Wait story by Haley Cass

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Samantha 🌈📚 @sammyreads.bsky.social · 11/04/2025

it's late but I just finished My Darling Dreadful Thing by Johanna van Veen and I'm just so smitten with it, if you're in the mood for sapphic romantic gothic horror #booksky i've never been the same after watching The Haunting of Bly Manor in 2020 and this filled that void in my heart

Front cover of My Darling Dreadful Thing by Johanna van Veen

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Samantha 🌈📚 @sammyreads.bsky.social · 06/04/2025

my reading update is that i finished harrow the ninth last night and it was so very good i think my brain is still digesting everything

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Samantha 🌈📚 @sammyreads.bsky.social · 02/04/2025

#bookmail and it’s a heartwarming sapphic ya romance about working through religious trauma and discovering yourself featuring multiracial mcs AND it’s a debut from the queen of audio book narration Natalie Naudus #booksky

A hand holding Gay the Pray Away by Natalie Naudus and a sticker which says “Stay Gay”

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Samantha 🌈📚 @sammyreads.bsky.social · 01/04/2025

oh wow high praise i’m interested to see how it all comes together!!

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Samantha 🌈📚 @sammyreads.bsky.social · 01/04/2025

harrow is decidedly 10x more confusing than gideon 💀 but not in a bad way?? at least not yet hahaah

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Samantha 🌈📚 @sammyreads.bsky.social · 01/04/2025

i somehow thought i would be immune to confusion reading Harrow the Ninth but alas… I have absolutely no idea what is going on

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Samantha 🌈📚 @sammyreads.bsky.social · 31/03/2025

My March reading wrap-up (all sapphic books) 😇 Such a good month and dare I say I found a new favorite sci-fi series (the Kindom trilogy by Bethany Jacobs) #booksky

Monthly reading wrap-up

books mentioned:
👑 How to Find a Princess by Alyssa Cole
🐀 We Could Be Rats by Emily Austin
🧝🏿‍♀️ Cursebound by Saara El-Arifi
🪐 These Burning Stars by Bethany Jacobs
🪽 Fable for the End of the World Ava Reid
🩰 Reverence by Milena McKay
💀 Gideon the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir
🧑🏼‍🍳 Love & Other Disasters by Anita Kelly
💫 On Vicious Worlds by Bethany Jacobs
💋 Mistakes Were Made by Meryl Wilsner

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Samantha 🌈📚 @sammyreads.bsky.social · 30/03/2025

i hadn’t had a five star read since december 2024 and all of the sudden this month i had four 🥰

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Samantha 🌈📚 @sammyreads.bsky.social · 27/03/2025

exciting book mail!! as an asian-american lesbian from the bay area i feel like this book was made for me, can’t wait to get into it 😊 Love in Focus by Lyla Lee out May 27th!

A hand holding Love in Focus by Lyla Lee in front of a bookshelf

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Samantha 🌈📚 @sammyreads.bsky.social · 22/03/2025

book mail from @jamiepacton.bsky.social 🫶🏽 and it’s going on my trans rights readathon tbr!! a childhood friends to lovers romantic fantasy!! #booksky #trr25

A hand holding Home Grown Magic by Jamie Pacton and Rebecca Podos and character art of the two main characters

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Samantha 🌈📚 @sammyreads.bsky.social · 18/03/2025

this is what i’ve heard, so i will try to embrace it 🫡

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Samantha 🌈📚 @sammyreads.bsky.social · 18/03/2025

starting Gideon the Ninth, everyone wish me luck 🫡

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Samantha 🌈📚 @sammyreads.bsky.social · 12/03/2025

one of the many reasons i pretty much exclusively read sapphic books is that my tbr is endless to the point that it’s overwhelming, if i tried to put anything else on there i’d have a mental breakdown idk how y’all just choose your next read from infinite possibilities

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Samantha 🌈📚 @sammyreads.bsky.social · 12/03/2025

5⭐️ read alert 🚨🚨🚨 If you’re looking for an epic sci-fi space opera set in a gender expansive world filled with delicious female villainy and rage and love and righteousness with political intrigue and rebellion against colonialism READ THIS (And of course it has sapphic characters) #booksky

Front cover of These Burning Stars by Bethany Jacobs

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Samantha 🌈📚 @sammyreads.bsky.social · 06/03/2025

A moment of appreciation for the Goldsboro editions of Faebound & Cursebound by Saara El-Arifi (can’t wait to see how the third cover will fit) I just finished Cursebound and had a good time (4.25⭐️/5) read if you like: 🖤 Black queer romantasy 🖤 fast-paced adventure 🖤 animal companions #booksky

Front covers of Faebound and Cursebound by Saara El-Arifi on a grey background

Hand displaying sprayed edges of Faebound and Cursebound by Saara El-Arifi on a grey background

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Samantha 🌈📚 @sammyreads.bsky.social · 01/03/2025

the third one in the series is my fave!!

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Samantha 🌈📚 @sammyreads.bsky.social · 28/02/2025

I thought I would get to one more book but alas February had other plans for me so I’m calling it a wrap. Here are the sapphic books I read this month! #booksky

February reading wrap-up and ratings

books mentioned:
🌷 The Unlikely Pursuit of Mary Bennet by Lindz McLeod
👑 Crueler Mercies by Maren Chase
✨ A Master of Djin by P. Djèlí Clark
🏎️ A Big Ship at the Edge of the Universe by Alex White
🪐 A Bad Deal for the Whole Galaxy by Alex White
🛸 The Worst of All Possible Worlds by Alex White
🏖️ My Best Friend’s Honeymoon by Meryl Wilsner
🤳🏿 Once Ghosted, Twice Shy by Alyssa Cole
🗽 The City We Became by N.K. Jemisin
🐉 This Ends in Embers by Kamilah Cole

Storygraph stats, including number of books read, genres, and my 2025 reading goal

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Samantha 🌈📚 @sammyreads.bsky.social · 28/02/2025

Currently reading How To Find a Princess by Alyssa Cole and this genuinely made me laugh out loud #booksky

Text from How To Find a Princess by Alyssa Cole

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Samantha 🌈📚 @sammyreads.bsky.social · 27/02/2025

Publisher mail of the highly anticipated 3rd installment of the Tea & Tomes series! #booksky read if you like: ☕️ cozy fantasy 💖 a healthy established sapphic couple 🦅 pet griffins ⚔️ low stakes adventures

A hand holding Tea You At The Alter by Rebecca Thorne

Inside endpaper featuring two women riding a griffin

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Samantha 🌈📚 @sammyreads.bsky.social · 26/02/2025

my favorite pair of socks ripped so as you can imagine i'm quite devastated

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Samantha 🌈📚 @sammyreads.bsky.social · 25/02/2025

am i supposed to know what this means??

a screenshot of a spotify daylist titled “heroic creepypasta tuesday early morning”

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Samantha 🌈📚 @sammyreads.bsky.social · 21/02/2025

sharing a bookshelf with my wife (who is an even more avid reader than i am) means i have no clue what’s on my physical tbr what’s mine? what’s hers? what are her books that i now claim as mine? what are her books that i’m vaguely interested in but am not yet committing to my tbr??

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Samantha 🌈📚 @sammyreads.bsky.social · 21/02/2025

it is very sweet and the funny thing is you will probably finish it in 5 minutes it’s so teeny tiny

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Samantha 🌈📚 @sammyreads.bsky.social · 20/02/2025

I should read novellas more often, this was so cute and is the size of my palm 🥹 If you’re looking for a sapphic second chance romance novella rec, here ya go 🫶🏽 #booksky

A hand holding a book titled Once Ghosted, Twice Shy by Alyssa Cole

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