Will they or won't they book recs, post 2018

December 29, 2021 11:36 AM

I love well-written novels with an excellent build up of sexual tension. I've read a lot of novels of this type and I'm looking for some new ones now. I am looking for newer authors/book releases, ideally post 2018. Not looking for romance novels, YA, or fantasy.

I read a looooot of romance novels anyway, so I am specifically not looking for romance novel recommendations. If it has been marketed and released as a romance novel I've probably read it.

Ideally I am looking for literary fiction or science fiction. I'd rather avoid YA and fantasy if possible.

Slight preference for queer relationships but hetero is also fine.

My favourite novels of this type are the entire Sarah Waters' oeuvre, As Meat Loves Salt by Maria McCann... and Austen's Persuasion.

Lots of questions like this have been posted, but I am specifically after newer releases.

posted by unicorn chaser to Writing & Language (14 answers total)

Have you read Winter’s Orbit? It’s queer SF c. 2021, which I believe began life as a romance and was subsequently beefed-up into a science fiction novel with a significant will-they-won’t-they romantic component (but also interplanetary dynastic intrigue).
posted by mumkin at 1:06 PM on December 29, 2021 [2 favorites]

Have you read This is How You Lose the Time War (2019) by Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone? It’s queer literary sci-fi, featuring time travelling, epistolary, slow burn romance. Lovely prose.
posted by hurdy gurdy girl at 1:16 PM on December 29, 2021 [6 favorites]

Do they need to have explicit sex eventually, or is it enough for it to be implied?
posted by clew at 1:24 PM on December 29, 2021

Sally Rooney’s novels!
posted by forkisbetter at 2:19 PM on December 29, 2021 [1 favorite]

Re: Sally Rooney recommendation, specifically Normal People! (notes: hetero, lit-fic)

The Starless Sea ticks a lot of your boxes (including centering queer romance). It might lean too into fantasy for you, although I'm not a big fantasy fan and I loved this book.
posted by Paper rabies at 2:31 PM on December 29, 2021

Sally Rooney’s Beautiful World, Where Are You too!
posted by jabes at 2:36 PM on December 29, 2021

The Unbroken by CL Clark is probably over your fantasy border, but it's more inspired by 1800s colonial Algeria than eg Lord of the Rings and otherwise I think it fits the bill.
posted by knapah at 3:14 PM on December 29, 2021

Perhaps Kate Mascarenhas's The Psychology of Time Travel-- 2018, sci fi (time travel), lesbian romance.

Arkady Martine's books A Memory Called Empire (2019) and A Desolation Called Peace (2021) might work too-- also sf. I've only read the first; the lesbian romance kindles very slowly and apparently is explored more in the second book.
posted by zompist at 3:39 PM on December 29, 2021 [1 favorite]

I highly recommend The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo, though it was published in 2017. One of my top reads for this year and that is all I can say about it!

The Wicked Cometh by Laura Carlin definitely had a Sarah Waters vibe, with strong F/F tension buildup but I recommend just flat out stopping reading the (paperback) book at page 267 and letting your imagination take it from there. It goes downhill fast from there but the first part is awesome!

Also worth reading is The Space Between Worlds by Micaiah Johsnon. Very fast paced parallel universe thriller with awesome F/F tension.

And seconding hurdy gurdy girl's recommendation for the astonishingly beautiful poetic prose novella This Is How You Lose the Time War by Amal Al-Mohtar and Max Gladstone.
posted by oxisos at 3:56 PM on December 29, 2021

Gideon the Ninth!!!
posted by Gadarene at 4:28 PM on December 29, 2021 [2 favorites]

Response by poster: Do they need to have explicit sex eventually, or is it enough for it to be implied?
posted by clew

Not a dealbreaker either way!

Thanks everyone for the great suggestions!
posted by unicorn chaser at 5:57 PM on December 29, 2021

Oh, and I nearly forgot, The Hundred Years of Lenni and Margot by Marianne Cronin had a will they/won't they F/F subplot with significant buildup.
posted by oxisos at 6:15 PM on December 29, 2021

Response by poster: Just popping in to say, I forgot to add in my original question but I also really love historical novels in this vein, if anyone has any recommendations for one? Love all the great suggestions so far, thank you so much.
posted by unicorn chaser at 10:51 PM on December 29, 2021

Here are a few excellent reads from my queer historical shelf: She Rises, by Kate Worsley and Everfair, by Nisi Shawl but they are from 2013 and 2016.
posted by oxisos at 10:11 AM on January 4, 2022