Books Like In the Event of Love: 5 Sapphic and Small-Town Romances

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The appeal of In the Event of Love starts with a homecoming: event planner Morgan returns to Fern Falls and reconnects with Rachel while helping a Christmas tree farm. But a snowy setting is only part of the match. The more useful question is whether you want another holiday romance, another second chance, or another place where a queer couple can build a life.

These five recommendations follow those different threads. Start with Kiss Her Once for Me for Christmas complications, or Delilah Green Doesn’t Care for a return home that unsettles carefully protected feelings. The final pick stays with Courtney Kae but changes the central couple to two men.

Choose your next read

• Kiss Her Once for Me by Alison Cochrun — christmas romance with complicated history.
• Delilah Green Doesn’t Care by Ashley Herring Blake — coming home and finding a different future.
• Late Bloomer by Mazey Eddings — a rural reset and reluctant proximity.
• Count Your Lucky Stars by Alexandria Bellefleur — old feelings that refuse to stay in the past.
• In the Case of Heartbreak by Courtney Kae — more of kae’s community, with an mm love story.

1. Kiss Her Once for Me by Alison Cochrun

Try this if you want: christmas romance with complicated history.

Ellie agrees to a fake engagement, then discovers that her supposed fiancé’s sister is the woman she fell for the previous Christmas. That makes this a strong next choice when the seasonal setting and unfinished feelings were your favorite parts of Morgan and Rachel’s story. The important difference is the machinery of the plot: expect a family holiday and an increasingly awkward romantic arrangement, rather than a town fundraiser. Pick it when you want your festive romance to have some emotional mess.

View Kiss Her Once for Me on Amazon →

2. Delilah Green Doesn’t Care by Ashley Herring Blake

Try this if you want: coming home and finding a different future.

A wedding photography job brings Delilah back to Bright Falls, where she connects with single mother Claire. The overlap is the uneasy return to a place that seems to remember an older version of you. This is the better match if you care more about belonging, friendship and family tensions than Christmas itself. It begins the Bright Falls series, so it also offers a useful next reading project if you enjoy getting attached to an entire social circle.

View Delilah Green Doesn’t Care on Amazon →

3. Late Bloomer by Mazey Eddings

Try this if you want: a rural reset and reluctant proximity.

A lottery win leads Opal to buy a flower farm, creating a difficult situation with Pepper, who already lives there. Try it for another sapphic romance in which a physical place becomes tied to the possibility of starting again. The flower-farm setup replaces the holiday homecoming, and the central relationship begins with clashing needs rather than a shared romantic past. It is the choice for readers who want the country setting while changing the second-chance formula.

Search Amazon for Late Bloomer →

4. Count Your Lucky Stars by Alexandria Bellefleur

Try this if you want: old feelings that refuse to stay in the past.

Margot and Olivia reconnect years after their teenage friendship became something more. A wedding brings their lives together again, making this a useful pick for the reunion side of In the Event of Love. Here, the atmosphere is contemporary Seattle rather than a snowy small town. Choose it when the pleasure you want is watching adults reconsider an old hurt, with the added complication that knowing someone’s history does not automatically mean understanding the person they are now.

Search Amazon for Count Your Lucky Stars →

5. In the Case of Heartbreak by Courtney Kae

Try this if you want: more of kae’s community, with an mm love story.

This Fern Falls companion centers baker Ben and his feelings for Adam. It is the natural author-continuation option, but it should not be mistaken for another Morgan-and-Rachel novel or another sapphic pairing. The attraction is returning to Kae’s romantic world through a different relationship. If familiar community matters more to you than matching the original couple’s genders or Christmas setting, put this ahead of the more distant readalikes on the list.

Search Amazon for In the Case of Heartbreak →

Which one should you read first?

For the closest seasonal match, choose Kiss Her Once for Me. For a longer run of interconnected sapphic romances, begin with Delilah Green Doesn’t Care. For a second chance with less emphasis on a rural setting, choose Count Your Lucky Stars. Those are three different reading moods; you do not need to buy the entire list to find a satisfying follow-up.

Before you choose

Are all these books sapphic?

The first four recommendations center relationships between women. In the Case of Heartbreak is an MM romance and is included as the same-author companion.

Are these all Christmas books?

No. Kiss Her Once for Me is the holiday match. The others are selected for homecoming, community, fresh starts or romantic history.

More reading guides

• Books Like Delilah Green Doesn't Care — 10 Sapphic Small-Town Romance Reads (2026)
• Books Like Late Bloomer — 10 Sapphic Romances With Flower Farms, Forced Proximity & Neurodivergent Joy (2026)
• Books Like Those Who Wait — 10 Sapphic Slow-Burn Romances With Politics, Age Gaps & Impossible Timing (2026)

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