Rather than receiving a request for this, the concept of awesome female friendships in romance came up while Sarah and I were talking about god knows what. But it spawned an idea of doing a Rec League on romances or books with strong romantic elements that have strong, healthy female friendships.
I know, personally, I’ll grade a book lower if the heroine is the only “good” woman in the book and the rest of the women introduced only serve as competition for the hero’s love. I totally hate the bitchy, over-sexualized female character who will stop at nothing to throw the heroine under the bus.
So instead, we want to celebrate those caring and supportive female casts that show up in romance because it’s always nice reading about women supporting other women.
Amanda: For me, I loved Tessa Bailey’s Broke & Beautiful series. The first book, Chase Me ( A | BN | K | G | AB | Scribd ), introduces the three heroines of the series. They’re all roommates and they’re totally sweet. It’s also nice seeing how close the three of them get throughout the series’ books. The three heroes are also friends, if that sparks your interest as well
Sarah: Call of Crows series, starting with The Unleashing ( A | BN | K | G | AB | Au ), and the Wallflower Quartet, starting with Secrets of a Summer Night ( A | BN | K | G | AB | Au | Scribd )!
Carrie: Bet Me by Jennifer Crusie – and actually all of her book feature female friendships heavily.
Pride and Prejudice ( A | BN | K | G | AB | Au ) – Lizzie and Jane, Lizzie and Charlotte
Redheadedgirl: Emma ( A | K | G | AB | Au ) – Emma and Harriet. It’s the evolution of how Emma learns how to friend that I adore.
Carrie: War for the Oaks ( A | BN | K | G | AB ), of course. Eddi and Carla FTW.
These are only a few recommendations off the top of our heads, but what would you recommend? Any awesome and empowering female friendships on your bookshelf?
Another mention for Penny Reid. She’s wonderful at female friendships, across all of her books and all of her series.
Room for Improvement by Stacey Ballis – more chick lit than romance although there is an understated romance with a satisfying hfn. The female friendships are front and center and I really liked that the heroine had conflict with her BFFs and they worked through it.
Julie James – the first FBI/DA book (and probably others)
Alyssa Cole – 3rd book in the Off the Grid series. Friendship is really important in the whole series but female friendships aren’t front and center until the last book (which isn’t stand alone but the whole series is great).
Sarina Bowen’s Ivy Years NA series has good friendships, especially The Year we Fell Down and Shameless Hour.
Her Every Wish, by Courtney Milan. I love how Daisy is strong and self-reliant, but also close with her dearest friend who has had a dramatic change in circumstances. They understand and support each other throught he first book of the Worth series and this novella. It was both beautiful and believable.
Nalini Singh both her Archangel and psy/Changling series – great female friends or learning building strong friendships (the psy)
I’m really digging the friendships in Sarah Morgan’s new NY series. I love the unconditional support and the great dialog.
Lisa Kleypas’s The Hathaways series is also great for female and sister friendships. And the male friendships that form throughout the series are interesting as well.
I second Julie Garwood’s The Secret. I also enjoyed the female friendships that formed in her books Ransom and Prince Charming.
Also agree with Julia Quinn’s Brigdertons books, especially Kate and her stepsister and stepmother in The Viscount Who Loved Me. And Penelope and Eloise in Romancing Mr. Bridgerton.
Nora Roberts trilogies are usually great for female friendships. I remember the first ones I read were the Daring/Holding/Finding A Dream trilogy. And that quickly lead to a Nora binge.
Jennifer Crusie also has fun female friendships. But I think the one I remember most is the tight-knit three generations of females in Faking It.
The friendship between Sayuri and Mameha in “Memoirs of a Geisha”.
Also, not the book, but the movie “The Jane Austen Book Club”. Bernadette brings a distraught, frustrated Prudie into the fold and starts the book club as an antidote to the stress and disappointments of life. We get to see Jocelyn and Alegra help Sylvia through her divorce and rediscover herself as an individual, not half of a couple. This leaves Sylvia in a much better place as a spouse and parent, because she knows who she is and learns to care for herself. Jane Austen is practically a character herself, doling out advice, comfort, and leading each one to ask herself “What Would Jane Do?”.
I read the book, but found the movie to be MUCH better.
In addition to Anne Gracie’s Bride books, she earlier wrote the Perfect series, which revolved around four sisters. The sisters are extremely supportive, and the hero of the first book is hilarious.
For tv try The Middleman, there is romance but female friendship is super important, ditto Jessica Jones.
Also really loving the friendship between Rosa and Amy on Brooklyn 99 (baby sitters club references for the win!)
For web comics Gunnerkrigg court and Dumbing of Age both focus in very strongly on female friendships (Dorothy and Joyce are incredible and adorable).
Farrah Rochon Mapelsville series: strong women, strong friendship. One of my fav comfort reads!
I second the recommendation for the Tiffany Aching series by Terry Pratchett. One of the later books deals very well with tropes of women as rivals in love, witches, authority and women’s work. The other discworld books about the witches are great about female friendship, too.
In terms of women sticking together and woman friendships of all kinds I recommend Judith Merkle-Riley’s books. Everything from women sticking together in hard times, to mentor-mentee, sisterhood etc. Fair share of villainesses, too, but they are not there to make the heroine look good by comparison but because they have their own not gender specific morally ambiguous/wrong agenda.
Uprooted by Naomi Novik! The friendship between Agnieszka and Kasia could have easily turned into jealousy-driven antagonism when awkward Agnieska is selected by the mysterious “Dragon” instead of the talented and beautiful Kasia, as everyone in their village anticipated. But it doesn’t! Instead they each make incredible sacrifices for each other.
Kate Elliot’s Spiritwalker series, starting with Cold Magic. There’s a side plot with romance, but the primary relationship that drives the story is the friendship between the girls Cat and Bee, cousins who were raised as sisters.
This one takes awhile to develop, but in Anne Bishop’s The Others series, Meg, Ruthie, and Merri Lee become good friends. It does a good job of showing how important, balancing, and grounding having close friendships can be.