It’s Rec League time! Thank you to Aubrey for sending this one in:
Do you have recs for a feel-good contemporary with a bi/pansexual female main character? Bonus points if she discovers her full sexuality as an adult!
I’ve seen books with trauma, bisexual men or supporting characters, bisexuality as a one-line mention, or it’s YA. Or the bisexual character is “just confused” or “experimenting.”
Do good adult romance books with a bisexual woman exist? Or is this a unicorn?
Amanda: Rosaline Palmer Takes the Cake shoots to the top of this list.
Sarah: I love the idea of feel good contemporary with bi/pan characters – mellow bi/pan romance!
Amanda: Doesn’t Alexandria Bellefleur have one in the series?
Kiki: Elle is bisexual in the first book! The title is escaping me.
Tara: All three books in Alexandria Bellefleur’s series have bi/pan characters.
Amanda: And I think Xeni (Xeni by Rebekah Weatherspoon) is also bisexual
Sneezy: Take a Hint, Dani Brown by Talia Hibbert has a bisexual heroine!!!
I don’t think the book says when Dani realized it though.
Tara For other f/f romances with a bi lead where being bi is part of the plot and/or they discover it, I can recommend a bunch. For now I’ll keep it to Just Three Words by Melissa Brayden ( A | BN | K | AB ), Flinging It by G. Benson (CW for cheating) ( A | BN | K | AB ), Fire on the Ice by Tamsen Parker (bonus points for poly rep) and The London of Us by Clare Lydon ( A | BN | K | AB ).
Shana: Damn, you all suggested all of my favorites. Excellent teamwork! This bi girl is going back to bed.
Which books would you also recommend? Tell us in the comments!
Untouchable by Talia Hibbert has a bi heroine.
I’m pretty sure one of the heroines of Satisfaction Guaranteed by Karelia Stetz-Waters is pansexual, can’t remember if the actual term is used or not.
Wasn’t there a Rec League a few years back for bi heroines or MFF-menage romances? Anyway, I can only think of a couple of books that fit the request: It’s pretty rough, with a lot of triggers (so read the blurb carefully), but Jill Sorensen’s MC romance RIDING DIRTY features a heroine who has her first experience with another woman in an M/F/F-menage. In Kate Canterbary’s THE BELLE AND THE BEARD, both MCs (male & female) are bi–but this is referred to rather than seen on page.
(As an aside: I read a lot of dark romance and in many of them there’s an almost de rigueur scene where the virginal heroine has some sort of encounter with a more experienced woman, usually while the hero looks on (and sometimes participates), but this is rarely presented as anything more than experimentation or even just entertainment for the hero. I can’t recall a dark romance where the heroine felt she had discovered an unexplored side of herself after such an encounter.)
“Speakeasy” by Sarina Bowen!
The later Anita Blake books, she adds a woman to their group. However, she says it’s only done for the men, not for her. It’s weird. Also, the books really spend all of their time on negotiating poly relationships and not much on story, and seem to get some parts of BDSM wrong. I’m going to say this is an ANTI-recommendation but they will pop on some poly/pan lists.
Chloe, the heroine in Jackie Lau’s “Ice Cream Lover” is bisexual. There is a brief mention of Chloe talking to her mom about it when Chloe was a pre-teen. The relationship in the book is m/f.
@DiscoDollyDeb If so maybe someone can link it? I can’t find one.
Rosaline Palmer and Dani Brown are good but check the CWs. The Written in the Stars series is perfect for this: mellow, interesting, few CWs. I wonder if there are others like those?
Future post idea! “Tara’s best bi/pan romances”??
Ashley Herring Blake’s recent release “Delilah Green Doesn’t Care” (the one with the illustrated cover with a curvy pinup in glasses and the tattooed photographer that we’ve been drooling over) has a bi heroine, although she came out in her teens.
I just finished reading it and recommend it (so much sexual tension) with a minor caveat. [BTW, I AM TOTALLY GOING TO MESS UP THE SPOILER TAGS SO HERE IS YOUR FIRST WARNING] I am starting to give side-eye to contemporaries wherein
“characters are struggling with their childhood abandonment issues and NO ONE in their life mentions therapy after they’ve blown up their lives/relationships due to that unprocessed trauma.”
Xeni by Rebekah Weatherspoon (both the FMC and MMC are bi). I know they talk about their previous partners and coming out, but it’s been a while since I read it so I don’t remember when she knew.
You may find more on-page bi or pan relationships in erotic romances or erotica. The one[s] that comes first to mind is Tiffany Reisz’s Original Sinners series, where the main characters and a bunch of the secondary ones are bi, both referred to and with on-page sex with all genders.
On the contemporary side, Courtney Milan’s Hold Me (part of her Cyclone series) features a bi or pan hero (sorry, it’s been a while since I read it and can’t recall how he defines himself) and a trans woman heroine.
I’m amazed that Anita Blake has enough time to do her day job with what is it now? Fifty lovers? And only sleeping with women to please the men? Not ok. On a serious there are other serious consent issues with the series, particularly when Anita takes the free will of a shifter and the auto erotic asphyxiation scene in Affliction (book 22 do I need a cw here?). So yeah, I second the anti rec.
Small Changes by Roan Parrish? Can’t remember it being high angst but it’s been a while since I read it
Love the timing! I’ve been requesting queer books at the library in a small stand against “don’t say gay.” The Written in the Stars trio is great. Perfect on Paper is YA but great.
It sounds like bisexuality in romance can be made into a fetish (not ok) and/or hard to find. Love the roundup idea! Best Bi (Romance) Books!
August in “One Last Stop” by Casey McQuiston is bisexual – she already knows at the start of the book.
A big issue I find with bi heroine books is that she tends to discover her bisexuality via attraction to a woman while she’s partnered with a man. Cheating (emotionally and/or physically) is such a damaging stereotype of bisexuals and contributes to biphobia in monosexuals, such as lesbians who refuse to date bi women, or hetero women who won’t date bi men.
Also, the Anita Blake series is a hot mess and I knew it was going to go downhill after Anita got Jean-Claude’s feeding-on-sex power in book 10. I ditched it 10 years ago after being a dedicated reader for 10 years before that. Anita is a total Mary Sue and the author is a jerk to anyone who criticizes her books – no matter how bad, plotless, and in dire need of editing they might be. I could write a whole diatribe on how awful that series and author are, but typing on my phone would take forever.
I’d highly recommend Tell Me Anything by Skye Killaen, although it does have a rather high amount of angst, especially in the beginning of the book. The main female character is being blackmailed by her former BF about her sexuality. He threatened to out her to her very conservative parents unless she paid the remainder of the rent owed on their extremely high price apartment while he moved out and went on his merry way. Honestly, she’s in a pretty bad way at the beginning of the book, but then she meets the bi and adorable cinnamon roll hero, a total caretaker, and it slowly gets better. Apparently this falls under the “hurt-comfort” trope? something I didn’t know was a thing, but I very much enjoyed it.
Sorry, spelled the author’s name wrong, it’s Skye Kilaen with just one “L”. She writes mainly queer and poly contemporary and SF romance, so she may very well have other books that would work for this rec league also.
Kathryn Nolan’s On The Ropes features a bisexual heroine. The last person she dated she was a woman, and she falls for a man in the story.
I think both heroines have been out since high school, but “Payback’s a Witch” by Lana Harper is maybe the only romance I’ve read between two bi women. (Of course, their having a shared ex-boyfriend is part of the gimmick of the book.)
@Nicolette: sorry—I went to look for the Rec League I as thinking of and I think I was conflating today’s Rec League request with either a Rec League for M/M/F throuples or one for lesbian heroines.
White Trash Warlock by David Slayton- Alt history/magic m/m with bi character. Loved it!
Proper Scoundrels by Allie Therin magic, alt history m/m with Bi character.
Top Secret by Serina Bowen m/m New Adult
Jenn Burke’s Not Dead Yet series (m/m) features a grey ace/demi character.
Josh Lanyon’s Secrets and Scrabble cosy mystery series(m/m)has a bi main character. So does his Adrien English series.
Annabeth Albert writes m/m and has frequent representation for pan, demi, and bi characters. KJ Charles has bi and trans characters. In fact, I find it much easier to find those orientations in m/m romance than m/f.
I think the most challenging part of the request is the “adult woman realizing or coming to terms with her sexuality” part – which surprises me. But I’ve read a lot of bi romances with an interest in bi woman and I can’t think of ANY that are also contemporary. Ramona Blue by Julie Murphy is YA about a high school student who identifies as a lesbian at the start of the book and falls for a guy. Silver Moon: A Wolves of Wolf’s Point Novel by Catherine Lundoff is a UF novella about a middle aged woman who unexpectedly finds herself interested in her female neighbor and who becomes a werewolf after experiencing menopause. The later in life bi realization was done well – the menopausal werewolf plot started out strong and then got too crazy-sauce and too violent for my taste.
As for feel good contemporaries about adult bi+ women who already are comfortable with their sexuality, a lot of my recs have been mentioned.
I second Small Change by Roan Parrish (m/f), although I remember it being a little angsty, mostly because it’s 1st person, narrated from the POV of the heroine, who has anxiety. She’s an angry tattoo artist who falls for a sunshiny cook who opens a sandwich shop near her tattoo shop. I loved it!
Others that I haven’t seen mentioned yet:
Something Like Love by Christina C. Jones – m/f with 2 bi MCs. Opposites attract between two small business owners in an urban neighborhood.
American Sweethearts by Adriana Herrera m/f, third in the American Dreamers series
AutoStraddle’s list of m/f romances featuring bi women has some contemporaries – https://www.autostraddle.com/m-f-romances-featuring-bi-women-whose-queer-identities-and-communities-are-front-and-center/
I liked the Anita Blake series, although I might think differently if reading it today. They were unique at the time and actually allowed the heroine to fall out of love with previous ‘leading men’.
Most of the bi/pan heroines that come to mind are from the fantasy/paranormal romances:
Gesa’s Menagerie series by Kaye Draper- a reverse harem that eventually gains a female kraken ( several books in)
The Harem Master by Megan Derr – a secondary romance is between the queen and a possible new addition to her all female harem.
There is also a very vocal bi-best friend in Avon Gale’s Breakaway.
@cleo agreed! Bisexual erasure was very real in my personal experience (I’m in my late 40s). The fact that I am attracted to men as well as all other genders seemed to mean that my attraction to women, (and non-binary, and gender fluid people) was just a minor appreciation (I grew up before there was a widespread awareness of NB identities). Nothing REAL. You were either a lesbian or straight, there was no in between. Blah…
I’m always happy to see older bi/pan characters, and feel the dearth of characters who come to terms with their sexuality later in life rather than as a teen or new/young adult.
Menopause werewolf sounds promising… though… I have questions… is that like, a whole “after menopause you become monstrous” deal?? Maybe not, as the MC finds said menopausal werewolf attractive… In any case, violence can be an issue for me, so I’ll probably never read it through either.
I do hope for more diversity in older age categories!
Thanks everyone for recs!
@Penny “I have questions… is that like, a whole “after menopause you become monstrous” deal??”
Actually there is a long history in many, many cultures about the power women gain after menopause making them both feared and revered. Clearly not a mainstream (White, Western) thing given elder, LGBTQ+ (and for this post especially bi-) and other erasures.
@Cleo, thanks for the Lundoff rec along with your other comments!
I just finished Cat Sebastian’s “A Duke in Disguise”–the heroine is bi/pan, and the hero is (probably) demisexual. In her previous Regency Impostors novel “Unmasked by the Marquess”, the hero is bi/pan and the heroine is genderfluid.
@Penny – Silver Moon isn’t about women becoming monstrous after menopause, although maybe someone could interpret it that way. I interpreted it on a riff on how a lot of werewolf lore works as a metaphor for puberty.
The MC moved to a small town several years before the book started for her husband’s job and stayed after they divorced. Once she experiences The Change, she learns that this happens to (some of) the women in this town and she’s welcomed into their pack. That part I loved – this secret pack of middle aged and old women werewolves who defend their town. Her love interest is also a werewolf.
Another YA recommendation: The Last True Poets of the Sea by Julia Drake. It’s a glorious retelling of Shakespeare’s As You Like It, starring a wonderful flawed bisexual heroine falling in love.
Whoops – it’s Twelfth Night, not As You Like It!
Love and Other Disasters by Anita Kelly have a queer female character and a NB character.
Takes place on a competition cooking show (Like Rosaline Palmer!)