March 2025 Notable Sci-Fi/Fantasy Sapphic Releases
The monthly post where I collect the most exciting sapphic releases from the last few weeks.
*Edited April 2, 2025 at 10:06 p.m. EST to include The Unworthy.*
If I make a ranking at the end of the year for the best months of sapphic releases in 2025, I strongly suspect that March will be at the top of the list. The first week alone gave us three (really four) new sci-fi/fantasy books to enjoy, and it only went up from there. Brace yourselves below for a fantastic collection of sapphic releases to add to your TBR!
Lovely Dark and Deep by Elisa A. Bonnin
Ellery West has always been home for Faith. After an international move and a childhood spent adjusting to a new culture and a new language, the acclaimed school for magic feels like the only place she can be herself. That is, until Faith and another student walk into the forest, and only Faith walks out.
Marked with the red stripe across her uniform that designates all students deemed too dangerous to attend regular classes, Faith becomes a social pariah. But when terrifying things continue to happen to students,Faith and the other Red Stripes will have to work together, risking expulsion from the magical world altogether.
Fable for the End of the World by Ava Reid
If you’ve read my most anticipated sapphic novels for the first half of 2025, you’ll know that Fable for the End of the World was on my list. Set in a world where a single corporation controls all aspects of society, Fable for the End of the World follows Inesa, an Outlier in a half-sunken town who learns that her mother has offered her as a sacrifice to the Lamb’s Gauntlet, and Melinoë, a biologically engineered assassin trained to track and kill sacrificial Lambs like Inesa.
While Fable for the End of the World didn’t ultimately live up to my expectations, the first two-thirds of the novel is exactly the type of reading experience my teenage self would have swooned for. This is a book brimming with some of my absolute favorite YA tropes, and if you’re looking to recapture some of that mid-2010s YA dystopian magic (but sapphic), you’re going to love reading Fable for the End of the World.
Tea You at the Altar by Rebecca Thorne
The first of Rebecca Thorne’s hugely popular Tomes & Tea cozy fantasy series to be traditionally published on release, Tea You at the Altar continues the journey of fan favorite power couple Kianthe and Reyna—this time, during their own wedding preparations. Will they be able to keep each other sane with all the planning, the mayhem, and the incoming guests, both welcome and unwelcome?
Like I mentioned in my review, I firmly believe that Rebecca Throne struck gold with Reyna and Kianthe. As a former Queen’s guard, Reyna is sturdy and steadfast. Meanwhile, Kianthe, the greatest mage of her generation, can be more anxious and impulsive. Tea You at the Altar keeps Reyna and Kianthe’s personalities but reverses their roles, allowing us to see a brand new side to the couple. Also, we don’t get enough books about wedding preparations!
They Bloom at Night by Trang Thanh Tran
Vietnamese American author Trang Thanh Tran takes another stab at queer horror in a novel set in a town where monsters walk in plain sight. When Mercy is submerged in a devastating hurricane, Noon is stuck navigating the town with her mom, who believes their dead family has reincarnated as sea creatures.
When Mercy’s predatory leader demands Noon and her mom capture the creature drowning residents, Noon reluctantly finds an ally in the leader’s deadly hunter of a daughter and friends old and new. As the next storm approaches, Noon must confront the past and decide if it’s time to answer the monster itching at her skin.
The River Has Roots by Amal El-Mohtar
Amal El-Mohtar returns for the first time since co-authoring sapphic cult classic turned overnight sensation This is How You Lose the Time War with a new novella about two sisters who cherish each other as much as they cherish the ancient trees they tend and harvest. But when one of the sisters rejects a forceful suitor in favor of a lover from the land of Faerie, not only the sisters’ bond but also their lives will be at risk.
I cannot express how much I love the premise of The River Has Roots. I absolutely die for sapphic stories about women falling in love with fae. I’m also noticing that 2025 is the year for sapphic novels centering strong sisterly bonds with lesbian romance on the side (including Blood on Her Tongue), and while I don’t know what brought this on, I think it’s a brilliant adaptation of the genre. We should celebrate all female relationships!
Idolfire by Grace Curtis
Grace Curtis’s newest novel is an epic sapphic fantasy roadtrip set in a world inspired by the fall of Rome. On one side of the world, Aleya is desperate for a chance. Her family has written her off as a mistake, but she’s determined to prove every last one of them wrong. On the other, Kirby is searching for redemption. An ancient curse tore her life apart, but to fix it, she’ll have to leave everything behind.
When fate puts Aleya and Kirby on the same path, the two women must work together if they want to have any chance of opening the gates to a fallen city once poised to conquer the world with the power of a thousand stolen gods. Delve into Idolfire for a strangers-to-lover adventure with sword fights, slow burn romance, and an enemy empire that wields the terrifying power of organized faith.
Murder by Memory by Olivia Waite
Dorothy Gentleman is not your typical detective. She spends most of her days on the HMS Fairweather resting between lifetimes, her mind carefully preserved in the Library, shielded from every danger. But when she wakes up in a body that isn’t hers, just as someone else is found murdered, she knows that her vacation is over. It’s up to her to catch the crook, if she can employ the help of the sultry ex-girlfriend of the body she’s currently inhabiting.
When she’s not on the clock, Dorothy is the cool lesbian aunt to her programmer nephew Ruthie, who tends to leave chaos in his cheerful wake. This time, Dorothy suspects that Ruthie might have something to do with her sudden awakening. Someone on the Fairweather is not only killing bodies but purposefully deleting minds from the Library, making murder on the interstellar ship very permanent indeed.
The Gift of Blood by Vaela Denarr and Micah Iannandrea
Monsters are real, and Ryann is one of them. Chosen as a weapon in a war that is not her own, Ryann finds an outlet for her anger in the fighting pits beneath Toronto and on hunts for the vampires that changed her. Whatever the cost, she’ll take back her life, her control, and make them fear the hunger they’ve roused in her.
Burdened by monstrosity, Meg, assassin of the Scorching Dawn, drowns her pain in the blood of her enemies. When the call comes to slay the monster whipping the city’s beasts into a frenzy, she welcomes the hunt. But as Ryann and Meg are drawn together by mutual hunger, they must also learn to trust each other—or perish in the dark.
The Unworthy by Agustina Bazterrica
Thank you to Sadie on Reddit for letting me know that the English version of The Unworthy came out on March 4th. Augstina Bazterrica, author of global sensation Tender is the Flesh, returns with a sapphic eco-horror novel about nuns inside a mysterious convent known as the Sacred Sisterhood.
A lower member of the Sacred Sisterhood, the protagonist dreams of ascending to the ranks of the Enlightened and of pleasing the foreboding Superior Sister. But when a stranger infiltrates the convent walls, the narrator is forced to consider her long-buried past—and what she may be overlooking about the Enlightened.
Blood on Her Tongue by Johanna Van Veen
I have it on good account that My Darling Dreadful Thing was many sapphic horror fans’ favorite novel of 2024, and while I’m not a horror girlie myself, I’m sure fans of My Darling Dreadful Thing are salivating at the release of Blood on Her Tongue, the newest gothic horror novel by Johanna Van Veen.
When Lucy’s twin sister Sarah becomes unwell, refusing to eat and growing increasingly obsessed with a centuries-old corpse, Lucy must unravel the mystery surrounding Sarah’s condition to protect her from a terrible fate in the lunatic asylum. It’s clear that Sarah is hiding something. Then again, Lucy is as well.
The Knight and the Butcherbird by Alix E. Harrow
I don’t usually do short stories on my monthly round-ups, but Alix E. Harrow’s The Knight and the Butcherbird is begging for an exception. Set in a dystopian post-apocalypse where knights wearing tire treads are sent out to hunt mutated humans known as demons, The Knight and the Butcherbird follows a young woman named Shrike who is determined to protect her demon wife from the legendary hunter known as Sir John of Cincinnati.
Coming in at only 36 pages, The Knight and the Butcherbird is so immaculately paced you can almost forget you’re reading a short story at all. The world-building is also a highlight. I especially loved trying to identify all the pop culture references nestled in the fable-like descriptions. I think I got The Hulk and Animorphs? The ending is satisfying and melancholic, as all good post-apocalyptic short story finales are, but it also leaves the reader with a sense of hope for an uncharted new beginning.
Did any of these new releases catch your eye? Have you already read some? Let me know your thoughts in the comments below!
Wow, this is a great collection! I am tempted by Fable nonetheless 🤔
Super excited for The Knight and the Butcherbird, loved the other books from Alix I've read, Once and Future Witches was phenomenal. Also that cover is so gorgeous, hello??