New Releases

A Wolf in Stone

By Jane Fletcher

Amateur Sleuths
Marriage of Convenience/Fake Relationship
Enemies to Lovers Romance
Other Worlds

High level politics in the Kavillian empire is a dirty, dangerous game—a game Cassie knows well. As a member of an ambitious imperial family, she has been tutored from birth to play a leading role in the contest for power. Yet even she is caught out when a murderer raises the stakes.

Meanwhile her lover, Arian, has problems of her own. Life in the upper strata of Kavillian society is so very different from the honor-based culture of her homeland. She despises the unending, ruthless cycle of intrigue, blackmail, and deception that Cassie views as normal—regrettable sometimes, but more often a source of entertainment. Nor can she accept Cassie’s willingness to sacrifice everything and everyone to advance her family’s position.

Arian’s determination to stay true to her own moral code will be put to the test if she is to save their relationship, and Cassie’s life.

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One Last Summer

By Kristin Keppler

Friends to Lovers Romance

It’s Emerson Fields’s last summer before she starts her dream internship at the prestigious Bardot Design Studio architectural firm in Paris. The only problem? Her application hasn’t been accepted yet. Without a backup plan in place, Emerson heads to North Carolina to stay with her aunt and uncle and resume her seasonal job waitressing at the beach…and her no strings fling with town local Peyton Reilly.

In desperate need of a Bardot distraction, Emerson asks her coworker Alice Scott to teach her how to surf. What she doesn’t expect is to fall so quickly for the Aussie surfer. While her casual relationship with Peyton is in full swing, her feelings for Alice deepen, and her future with Bardot hangs in the balance. Emerson is standing at a crossroads. The question is, which path will she take?

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StreamLine

By Lauren Melissa Ellzey

Bisexual
Magic
Coming Out
Disability
New York City
People of Color

Seventeen-year-old Diana hasn’t left her home in at least a month, but she has the whole online world at her fingertips. Waking up each day at sunset, she logs into the vast world of Garlandía, an online massive multiplayer role-playing game. Offline, she’s labeled as autistic and treated like a freak. Online, she’s Lune, an up-and-coming video game streamer with a small but steady fanbase. As Lune, Diana can access adventure, admiration, and a future career as a pro-gamer. All she needs is to hit the milestone of one thousand subscribers on StreamLine, and she’ll be well on her way.

When Lune crosses paths with the legendary girl gamer Nocht, she may have found the key that will boost her to the upper echelon of streamers. But as Nocht begins to unravel all Lune thought she knew about gaming, friendship, and love, Diana must find the courage to risk building her dreams offline, too.

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The Devil You Know

By Ali Vali

Cain Casey Series | Book 8
Gangsters
Police / Cops
Federal Agents
New OrleansĀ 
People of Color

Cain Casey has much to be thankful for—a loving wife in Emma, three beautiful children, and an ever-expanding family. Her business continues to grow, giving her the power to keep it all safe, but is it? Unknown federal agents are not playing by the government’s rules, and the Russian mob comes seeking revenge for the losses Cain’s inflicted. Cain and Emma have agreed to partner with the local feds to root out their rogue agents, but their goals for the endgame are completely different. Cain wants to remove the threat the way she knows is best—permanently. There is also Nicola Antakov, who she plans to handle the same way. 

Cain Casey is the devil you know. She loves her family and will do anything to keep them safe and whole.

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The Meaning of Liberty

By Sage Donnell

Bodyguard/Protection Romances
Close Quarters
Dystopian

TJ knows she doesn’t fit in the ultraconservative Crusade of the Redeemer Church, no matter that her father is their chief of security, but leaving is difficult to say the least. Still, she has a plan. Until it gets shot to hell when her secret ex-girlfriend is taken to conversion camp where she will absolutely spill the beans. With his job on the line, her father sends TJ away until the storm blows over.

Bailey split her childhood between Portland with her mom and Tulsa with her Patriot Army dad. But she’s stayed out of Oklahoma ever since they decided together it was too risky for her to be there. She strongly prefers the blue state culture of Oregon anyway. But when her dad calls her with a job offer she can’t refuse, she risks going back into the red to protect her childhood crush, TJ.

When TJ and Bailey get caught in the political crossfire, escape is the only plan. On the run and fighting for their lives is not the time to be falling for each other. But the danger is closer than either of them knows, and when TJ is betrayed by those she loves the most, it could spell the end of their chance at forever.

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Undercurrent

By Patricia Evans

International Setting
Magic
Close Quarters
Enemies to Lovers Romance
Federal Agents
Non-Binary Gender
People of Color

When bodies start washing up on the shore in Salem Harbor, Massachusetts, an elite task force of FBI agents, profilers, and detectives join forces in a remote log cabin to decode the clues and stop the killer from targeting another victim.

Agent Tala Marshall overcame a childhood of deep generational wounds to become the country’s best criminal profiler. Now she faces her most challenging case yet, racing against the clock to profile the elusive killer before they strike again. She must partner with Wilder Mason, a local detective convinced that the murders are connected to the Salem Witch Trials of 1692, and Tala builds a connection to the task force that helps her come to terms with her tumultuous past. But Wilder wants more and is determined to find the key to both the case and Tala’s guarded heart.

Can they find the undercurrent that connects Salem’s past and present before another victim washes to shore?

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And Then There Was One

By Michele Castleman

Friends & Community
Amateur Sleuths
Bisexual
Friends to Lovers Romance
Blue Collar
Police / Cops
Lawyers
Children / Families
College Life
Financial gap/Class disparity
People of Color

Six weeks after Lyla Smith dragged her sister’s dead body onto the Lake Erie shore, she escapes her small Ohio town to work as a nanny for distant relatives on their remote private island. Plagued by strange memories and drowning in the guilt she tried to leave behind, Lyla struggles to break up with her boyfriend and forget her feelings for her sister’s girlfriend. Especially now that she has met another girl on the island who seems to be flirting with her.

Lyla’s first family dinner is a tense affair, and mid-argument the matriarch, Crystal Payne, takes a sip from her wineglass and dies. Suddenly everyone is a suspect. From rival interests in Crystal’s corporation to family secrets that won’t stay hidden, there are too many people with a motive for murder, and Lyla’s trapped with an unknown killer.

The only way to save herself is to be free of the secrets that drag her down. But when the killer strikes again, it’s only a matter of time before Lyla drowns.

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Digging for Destiny

By Jenna Jarvis

Food
Pirates
Good girls/Bad girls
Friends & Community
AnimalsĀ 
Asexual/Aromantic
Bisexual
Friends to Lovers Romance
Magic
Close Quarters
Military
Disability
Enemies to Lovers Romance
Other Worlds
Dragon Circle Series | Book 2
Financial gap/Class disparity
People of Color

Kella Mabaki, dragon slayer extraordinaire, devoted sister, and celebrity hero of Jeenobi, has become a nobody by choice. Unable to continue hunting the dragons still tormenting her people and distanced from a brother she no longer understands, Kella is adrift in the city that was once her home. When she’s captivated by a rumor that could mean the end to the dragon sickness plaguing her land, she becomes obsessed with learning the truth of it. Nobody or not, she’s never been one for standing still.

Dragonrider Litz is torn when Kella reappears in her life, devoted to a quest she appears to have invented. Despite her beloved cousin’s disappearance and her growing doubts toward the empire she serves, Litz is experiencing an unexpected period of stability in her life. Kella’s arrival and the brewing war between their nations forces Litz to make a choice. Her country, career, and family, or the chance of making a better world with the woman she hasn’t been able to forget?

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Hot Hires

By Nan Campbell and Others

When business turns to pleasure, romance ignites. 

In New York is Losing Hope by Nan Campbell: With thirty-five on the horizon and still single, Hope Mason is abandoning her beloved New York City to try her luck in bright, shiny Los Angeles. One problem. This New Yorker is terrified of driving, an essential skill for Californians. She hires instructor Val Caceres to teach her how to drive off into the sunset, but Val could be the one thing she doesn’t want to leave behind.

In Two Women, Two Weddings by Alaina Erdell: Aarti Singh’s brilliance in cardiology hasn’t diminished her longing to be an event planner, even if familial expectations demand a career in medicine. Meanwhile, Jo Samuels’s love life has taken a back seat to her demanding chef career and her desire to keep her life simple. When Aarti hires Jo to cater a wedding, their attraction is undeniable, but how can they fall in love when they’re struggling to be true to themselves?

In For Love or Money by Jesse J. Thoma: Short-seller Frances “Frankie” Sender has always been good at picking winners, but her skills might make her the ultimate loser when a company she is researching frames her for a crime. Her only chance at staying alive is Dakota “Oz” Osborne, a woman with a million-dollar reason to toss her in jail. They’ll have to trust each other and avoid the easy cash out if they want the stock to rise on a chance at love.

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McCall

By Patricia Evans

A McCall Romance | Book 1

Sara Brighton, Savannah’s rising star in the competitive culinary scene, is devastated when her historic riverside restaurant burns to the ground. Finding herself without the creative chaos that has defined her world for the last decade, she impulsively decides to pack up her life and return to McCall, Idaho, the last place she remembers being truly happy. 

Sam Draper, head of the Lake Patrol division of McCall Police Department, is less than pleased to see another entitled tourist putting down roots in her picturesque hometown. Still, Sara surprises her by helping her swerve a professional disaster, and Sam returns the favor by teaching Sara to drive the ski boat languishing at the marina. 

Their chemistry heats up under the summer sun, and they are falling in love, at least until Sara decides to buy her late father’s iconic diner and turn it into yet another pretentious gastropub. Can they build a future amid the ghosts of the past that surround them?

Reprint. Originally published Sapphire Books Publishing, August 2018.

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One and Done

By Frederick Smith

California
Close Quarters
Enemies to Lovers Romance

One night of passion and possibly one more chance at love…

Determined, motivated, goal-driven, and eternally single, Dr. Taylor James is an accomplished university administrator in San Francisco determined to get his campus successfully through an upcoming accreditation process. The process could set him up for his ultimate career goal–to be one of the only Black and openly queer university presidents in the US. Taylor gives himself just one day a week to have fun and let loose with friends–a one and done Sunday Funday brunch in the Castro District.

Dustin McMillan is a consultant and project manager who reluctantly returns to the Bay Area, his hometown, for an assignment. The first in his family to finish college, earn a healthy six-figure income, and have choice and agency in his life’s direction, Dustin is fearful that returning home could mean falling back into roles that he’d thought he’d resolved by moving miles away…and equally fearful of falling back into bed with one sexy and toxic ex-boyfriend who still lingers in his memories.

One chance encounter. One night of passion. Will Taylor and Dustin leave it at one and done?

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Promises to Protect

By Jo Hemmingwood

Friends & Community
AnimalsĀ 

Park ranger Maxine Ward has a duty to protect the colony of people who live on the Georgia state park in-holding. They call themselves Tree City and treat Max as one of their own. The conservation work they do is important, and Max is more than happy to run interference between Tree City and the city of Blue Falls, Georgia.

Her commitment to protect Tree City is put to the test when social worker Skylar Austen takes a special interest in the commune. Her style of care isn’t exactly endearing herself to the community. Skylar, like Max, is a Blue Falls local and her reputation precedes her. Just not in the way she would like. Max remembers Skylar’s famed exploits from high school and is reluctant to have her anywhere near Tree City. It may have a little something to do with Max’s unresolved feelings for Skylar, but she’s never going to admit it.

As their feelings for each other deepen and outside pressures arise to threaten Tree City, Max and Skylar must put their differences aside to protect the people they care for, including each other.

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