Four Steps by Wendy Hudson

Alex Ryan lives a simple life. She has her farm in the Scottish countryside, and the self-imposed seclusion suits her until a crime that has haunted her for years tears through the calm and shatters the fragile peace she’d finally managed to find.

Lori Hunter’s greatest love is the mountains. They’re her escape from the constant hustle and bustle of everyday life. Growing up was neither traditional nor easy for Lori, but now she’s beginning to realise she’s settled for both. A dead-end relationship and little to look forward to. Her solution when the suffocation sets in? Run for the hills.

A chance encounter in the mountains of the Scottish Highlands leads Alex and Lori into a whirlwind of heartache and a fight for survival as they build a formidable bond that will be tested to its ultimate limits.

Genres: contemporary, romance

Get the book from The Book Depository here!

There’s a f/f novel set in Scotland?

Let’s have it.

sapphicliterature:

Huntress by Malinda Lo

Nature is out of balance in the human world. The sun hasn’t shone in years, and crops are failing. Worse yet, strange and hostile creatures have begun to appear. The people’s survival hangs in the balance.

To solve the crisis, the oracle stones are cast, and Kaede and Taisin, two seventeen-year-old girls, are picked to go on a dangerous and unheard-of journey to Tanlili, the city of the Fairy Queen. Taisin is a sage, thrumming with magic, and Kaede is of the earth, without a speck of the otherworldly. And yet the two girls’ destinies are drawn together during the mission. As members of their party succumb to unearthly attacks and fairy tricks, the two come to rely on each other and even begin to fall in love. But the Kingdom needs only one huntress to save it, and what it takes could tear Kaede and Taisin apart forever.

Genres: fantasy, adventure, romance

Get the book from The Book Depository here and follow the author on tumblr @malindalo

So glad this book is mentioned here – if you love women warriors, magic, fairy tales, the supernatural – and women who love women – you’ll love this.

Follow up by reading ‘Ash’ – set a few hundred years after ‘Huntress’ – Ash is a retelling of the Cinderella story, a rich fairytale and slow burn romance between the King’s Huntress and a young girl who has lost her mother and become ensnared by the fae.

10 Should Reads

lesbiansubtextempire:

for Ladies into Ladies into Sci-fi/Fantasy

[You like Buffy, contemporary urban fantasy, witches, sisterhood, Young Adult]

You’ll love; The Engelsfors Trilogy by Mats Strandberg & Sara Elfgren Bergmark

[You like classic fantasy, epic fantasy, quests, magic, sole survivors]

You’ll love; Fire Logic by Laurie Marks

[You like military fantasy, matriarchal societies, female warriors, slow-burn bow chicka-wow-wow]

You’ll love; The Warrior’s Path by Catherine M Wilson

[You like shapeshifters, secret societies, romance, star crossed lovers]

You’ll love; Second Nature by Jae

[You like super powered mutants, near future dystopias, underdogs, and orphans who like to box]

You’ll love; Santa Olivia by Jaqueline Carey

[You like Zombies, pop culture references, innuendos and sass]

You’ll love; Eat Your Heart Out by Dayna Ingram

[You like Norse mythology, urban fantasy, blacksmiths, dragons and Portland]

You’ll love; Black Blade Blues by J.A. Pitts

[You like classic Science Fiction, parallel universes, poetry and philosphy]

You’ll love; The Female Man by Joanna Russ

[You like gothic ghost stories, mind-fucks, atmospheric autumn novels in a New England setting]

You’ll love; The Red Tree by Caitlin Kiernan

[You like robots, space, science fiction, wit, scathing satire]

You’ll love; The Stone Gods by Jeanette Winterson

You really should read more lesbian books, so you’re perfectly free to see this as the kick in the ass that you need to do just that. Pick one and read it. Pick two, read both. Pick all. Just read more lesbian books.

Thanks for sharing this!

Can I add Malinda Lo’s ‘Ash’ and ‘Huntress’ – the first a take on the Cinderella story and the second is a classic fantasy adventure in the same universe as Ash, but set several hundred years earlier. Her science fiction thrillers Adaptation and its sequel, Inheritance are excellent, also.

If you like a different take on fairytales, Emma Donoghue’s Kissing the Witch is absolutely a must-read. Lyrical, challenging – totally reinvents classic fairy tales for modern readers.

Since Lexa knows Clarke so well does she realize how depressed Clarke is and says anything in gaf or is Clarke just that good at hiding it? I know youve said Clarke gets help & goes on meds but whats the timeline for that, after highschool? I just wonder how Lexa deals with it or if she doesn’t pick up on the cues? Luv your writing and take on things by the way.

possibilistfanfiction:

lol everyone knows not just lexa clarke is ok at hiding it but like sometimes she Cannot do stuff & yah when clarke is 19 she starts rly seriously going to therapy & starts SSRIs which rly help in combo & yah she feels Tons better after abt two months of that & just does rly well but for a while its rly hard for sure

Such an amazing story from @unicyclehippo and @possibilistfanfiction and their insights to their characters (all these wonderful ‘side notes’) just a thousand more reasons why I hope they return to this universe one day and revisit how wonderful it has been.

You’re Magic and You’re Real is a truly great piece of writing – and one that stands out for being so positive in representing and taking on concerns of NBs, queer youth, neurodivergence and class privilege. Pass this story on, it’s far more than ‘fan fiction.’ It deserves to be recognised as an important piece of YA literature.