Reading guide • October 26, 2026 • Spoiler-light.
An immortal woman with excellent cheekbones and deeply questionable intentions? We understand the appeal. Sapphic vampire romance books can give us centuries of yearning, enemies who cannot keep their distance, or the very awkward business of falling for someone who considers you a food group.
Start with the quick picks if you know your mood. The first seven selections lean into romance and adventure; the final three are Gothic choices where desire, power and horror share the page. A vampire on the cover does not promise a comforting love story.
The quick bite: choose your next sapphic vampire book
- A Long Time Dead — Samara Breger. Victorian yearning and an older vampire with unfinished business. Amazon US · paperback ↗
- House of Crimson Hearts — Ruby Roe. Explicit enemies-to-lovers, vampire politics and deadly trials. Buy direct from Ruby Roe ↗
- Better Off Red — Rebekah Weatherspoon. College life and falling for a vampire queen. Amazon US · paperback ↗
- Carmilla and Laura — S. D. Simper. A romance-centred return to Carmilla’s castle. Kobo US · ebook ↗
- The Coldest Touch — Isabel Sterling. YA romance with a murder mystery and death-oracle powers. Buy from Penguin Random House ↗
- The Witch and the Vampire — Francesca Flores. YA fairy-tale adventure and a former friend with divided loyalties. Amazon US · hardcover ↗
- The Lost Girls — Sonia Hartl. YA revenge, a vampire girl gang and an appalling ex. Apple Books Canada · ebook ↗
- An Education in Malice — S. T. Gibson. Dark academia, poetic rivalry and dangerous mentorship. Amazon US · paperback ↗
- Hungerstone — Kat Dunn. A repressed wife, the moors and feminine rage. Amazon US · paperback ↗
- The Wicked and the Willing — Lianyu Tan. 1920s Singapore, a love triangle and uncompromising horror. Buy the ebook direct from Lianyu Tan ↗
Storefronts and available editions vary by country.
Sapphic vampire romances: love stories with bite
1. A Long Time Dead — Samara Breger
Adult historical paranormal romance
Newly turned Poppy has an eternity to figure herself out. Roisin, the older vampire helping her adjust, has centuries of history and a revenge problem. The attraction here is the contrast: a new life opening up for one woman while the other is still entangled in her past. Choose this for a historical love story with room for found family, adventure and danger beyond the couple.
Explore A Long Time Dead on Sappho’s Arc
2. House of Crimson Hearts — Ruby Roe
Adult vampire fantasy romance · Kingdom of Immortal Lovers, book 1
Hunter Red wants revenge on Octavia Beaumont, the vampire who turned her sister. A contest for control of Sangui City forces the enemies into an alliance, with blood bonds and attraction making cooperation considerably less professional. This is the pick for readers who want the sexual tension to become explicit and the fantasy plot to keep raising the stakes. A sensible working relationship was clearly never on the table.
Start with Hearts, then House of Crimson Kisses and House of Crimson Curses. Ruby Roe’s reading-order guide also places the prequel and bonus material. Reading order ↗
3. Better Off Red — Rebekah Weatherspoon
Adult paranormal romance · Vampire Sorority Sisters, book 1
Ginger’s college plans involve good grades. Joining Alpha Beta Omega adds a rather more demanding commitment: serving a nest of vampires. Falling for its queen, Camila, makes keeping her new life separate from her family harder still. Pick this when you want a campus romance with a supernatural power imbalance and a sorority secret substantially bigger than a bad initiation photo.
Begin the Vampire Sorority Sisters series here.
Explore Better Off Red on Sappho’s Arc
4. Carmilla and Laura — S. D. Simper
Adult Gothic romance · Carmilla retelling
Laura’s isolated life changes when an accident brings the beautiful Carmilla into her household. Affection grows alongside a much less welcome development: young women nearby are dying. Simper puts the women’s relationship at the centre of this retelling. Choose it if the castle, the mysterious guest and the dangerous intimacy are exactly what brought you to lesbian vampire fiction in the first place.
Explore Carmilla and Laura on Sappho’s Arc
5. The Coldest Touch — Isabel Sterling
YA paranormal romance
Elise sees how people will die when she touches them. Claire is a vampire assigned to help her control that ability, but a predicted murder makes the arrangement urgent. The YA love story comes with a murder mystery for the two girls to solve together. Attraction is complicated enough before one girl starts questioning the organisation that sent the other.
The author lists grief, sibling death, blood, drowning and murder among the content notes.
6. The Witch and the Vampire — Francesca Flores
YA fantasy romance · queer Rapunzel retelling
Ava has been turned into a vampire; her former friend Kaye is learning to hunt them. A journey through a cursed forest forces the two together while their loyalties pull in different directions. The fairy-tale setup makes trust the real obstacle to their reunion. The interesting question is whether shared history can survive everything they have been taught to believe about each other.
Explore The Witch and the Vampire on Sappho’s Arc
7. The Lost Girls — Sonia Hartl
YA paranormal romance and revenge story
Holly discovers that the vampire boyfriend who abandoned her has done this before. Joining forces with his other exes gives her a revenge plan; falling for his next target, Parker, gives her another reason to stop him. This is the change of mood for readers who would rather organise against the terrible vampire boyfriend than spend another eternity admiring him.
Three Gothic picks when you want the beautiful trouble
Stay here if the setting, obsession and uneasy power dynamics matter as much as the romance. These are distinct reading experiences; treat the descriptions below as your mood check, rather than assuming every book offers the same kind of ending.
8. An Education in Malice — S. T. Gibson
Adult Gothic dark academia with a central sapphic relationship
Laura and Carmilla become academic rivals at Saint Perpetua’s College, under a poetry professor whose interest in Carmilla creates another dangerous imbalance. The college creates an enclosed world where ambition and desire are difficult to separate. It takes the Carmilla connection into the classroom, where wanting someone’s attention can be as consequential as wanting their affection.
Explore An Education in Malice on Sappho’s Arc
9. Hungerstone — Kat Dunn
Adult Gothic horror · Carmilla reimagining
Lenore has spent ten years married to a steel magnate when an accident brings Carmilla into their lives. The newcomer awakens desires her marriage has left little room for, against an industrial landscape of wealth and exploitation. Lenore’s awakening gives the Gothic menace a personal stake. The question of what she wants is inseparable from the question of who has been allowed to decide for her.
Explore Hungerstone on Sappho’s Arc
10. The Wicked and the Willing — Lianyu Tan
Adult historical Gothic horror · choice of endings
Gean Choo needs work. Vampire mistress Verity Edevane needs blood, while fellow servant Po Lam wants to save Gean Choo from a relationship that could destroy her. Class, colonial power and dependence shape the danger here. This is the darkest stop on this list: a book to approach for its horror and difficult choices, with a choice of endings rather than one uniform romantic promise.
The author’s content notes include sexual violence, abuse, torture, suicide and self-harm; the detailed list contains spoilers.
Buy the ebook direct from Lianyu Tan
A few things worth knowing before you choose
Do you need to read Carmilla first?
No. Carmilla and Laura, An Education in Malice and Hungerstone offer different ways into its characters and ideas. If you want the original Gothic novella, explore Carmilla or read the Project Gutenberg edition, which is public domain in the United States.
Are all sapphic vampire books spicy?
No. The Coldest Touch, The Witch and the Vampire and The Lost Girls are YA selections. House of Crimson Hearts is explicitly marketed for adults with explicit sexual content. Darkness, violence and sexual explicitness are different things; choose for the reading experience you actually want.
Where should you start?
For a historical romance, start with A Long Time Dead. For explicit enemies-to-lovers fantasy, choose House of Crimson Hearts. For a YA mystery, try The Coldest Touch. And if your ideal evening involves a troubled marriage, a remote landscape and a very unsettling houseguest, Hungerstone is waiting.