[BBinNYC]

I recently read a ton of these because I wanted to understand the formula so I could write one. Most of the ones I read are not badly written, very focused on the romance (not very literary), and pretty vanilla. Most are not butch-femme but a few hint at it. All in all, they are worth a read if you need some escape. I put a list together for a friend. Here it is:

The ones with a * are the ones I like the best!

1. Heart Block* - Melissa Brayden: Rich, white, blonde CEO who never gets into relationships (but sleeps around a lot), Emory. Her mother dies and she hires Sara (Latina, single mom, not identified as a lesbian) to clean out the mansion of a house and give everything away. Good characters and writing.

2. Wild Things* - Karen Kallmaker: Rich, white attorney/politician in AA after alcohol addiction avoids relationships in order to keep a squeaky clean image so she can run for State Senate, Sydney. Her brother is dating Faith, a U Chicago history professor who is very Catholic and still living with her very Catholic parents at age 34. Faith has a lesbian past she is trying to forget.

3. Waiting in the Wings - Melissa Brayden: Jenna is a blonde dancer/singer/actor who majored in musical theater and gets her first big break in the touring company of a hit show which stars Adrienne, a former teenage actress. Romance ensues until Jenna gets a big offer to work in LA and they break up. Four years later, they are cast in a movie together.

4. Come and Get Me - Julie Cannon: Lauren is an in-house attorney for a Fortune 500 company, not sure of her sexuality. Elliott is a rich head of her family's venture capital fund. Elliott sleeps around. They meet and at the point when things get steamy, Lauren tells Elliott this would be her first time with a woman. Elliott freaks, thinking she's being played. The rest of the book is their coming back together.

5. The Princess Affair* - Nell Stark: Princess Alexandra (Sasha) is second in line to the British throne and has a reputation as a party girl. She's a closeted lesbian who sleeps around a lot. Kerry is an Irish Catholic Rhodes Scholar who comes to Oxford to study architecture and meets Sasha. Can they reconcile their different worlds?

6. Too Close to Touch* - Georgia Beers: Gretchen is a sales executive starting a new job. Kylie is the girl next door and is Gretchen's assistant. But you can't fall in love with your boss or your assistant. Can you?

7. Love Waits - Gerri Hills: Classic reunion story. Gina, a former high school jock, and Ashleigh, a blonde cheerleader, fall in love in high school and break up their first year of college after a terrible miscommunication. Neither has found real love over the next 20 years. They attend their 20th high school reunion dreading seeing one another.

8. Starting From Scratch - Georgia Beers: Avery pines after the local bank branch manager, Elena, who she believes is out of her league. After being asked by her friend to coach a T ball team while her friend recuperates from surgery, Avery meets a little boy named Max. One day Max shows up at Avery's backyard and begins playing with her dog. Her mom comes by looking for him and she is none other than Elena.

9. Learning Curve* - Rachel Spangler: Ash, a butch about town who never sleeps with the same woman twice, is convinced by her best friend to sit in on a support group for LGBT youth where she meets Carrie, a women's studies professor who volunteers with the youth. The book is about their growing attraction, romance and how they reconcile their two different worlds. It also features the story of a young lesbian struggling to get away from her homophobic mother.