Erin Zak

Can falling in love melt the hearts of the iciest ice queens? 

Going back to college is never easy, but Caroline Stevens is prepared to work hard and change her life for the better. What she’s not prepared for is Dr. Atlanta Morris, her new professor whose tough demeanor is no match for Caroline’s burgeoning confidence.

Closed-Door Policy was previously published in Hot Ice: Romance Novellas (Bold Strokes Books, 2019).

Enjoy your vacation at the Hummingbird Sanctuary, Colorado’s hottest resort destination. Come for the mountains, stay for the charm, and enjoy the drama as Olive, Eleanor, and Harriet figure out their lives, their loves, and the meaning of true friendship.

Owning and operating the Hummingbird Sanctuary was supposed to be the best time of Olive Zyntarski’s life. She was going to tackle the future with eyes wide open and forget about her guilty conscience. All that changes when a chance meeting with a mysterious new guest has Olive’s long-buried secrets bubbling to the surface.

As marketing director, Eleanor Fitzwallace knows how to present everything in its best light, everything except her nonexistent love life. When her high school heartbreak unexpectedly saunters into the Sanctuary’s restaurant, Eleanor’s determined to ignore her. She wants real love, and people don’t change, do they?

After hitting rock bottom, Harriet Marshall made a promise to herself: no more one-night stands that make her feel bad about herself. She’s determined to turn her life around, and that means focusing on keeping the Sanctuary’s restaurant and bar hip, trendy, and booked solid. So, of course, she meets the most gorgeous woman ever, and everything changes.

Months after accomplished journalist Brittany is nearly killed in a motorcycle accident, her body is healing, but her mind has changed. When she begins experiencing the strange, violent visions of someone bent on murder, they lead her to Swift Island, a sleepy LGBTQ+ summer retreat.

Toni has wounds of her own to heal. Heartbroken from her breakup with a womanizer she believed she could change, she accepts her aunt Leslie’s invitation to spend time with them on Swift Island and work in their brewpub, the Second Wave.

Although consumed with their own lives on the island, when Brittany and Toni meet, their attraction is immediate, but a killer lurks in the shadows of this cozy enclave, and the only way to stop one of them from becoming the next victim is to help Brittany focus on the message of her visions.

When she’s passed over for the role of a lifetime, Hollywood actress Gwendolyn Carter is absolutely crushed. That’s when things go from bad to worse. Home to celebrate her dad’s birthday, Gwen discovers her mom is sick and might not have much time left. She stays to help and to repair the emotional rift that has kept them apart for so long. That’s easier said than done, though, because oh-so-perfect Lila Machowicz has all but replaced Gwen as Carol Carter's surrogate daughter.

Gwen and Lila are forced to work together to support the woman they both care about, even though they’re rivals for a place in Carol’s life. The last thing either expects is an attraction as undeniable as it is inconvenient. When Lila helps Gwen rebuild trust with her mom, Gwen’s heart begins to thaw. But every family has a closet full of skeletons, and when she discovers the family secret, will she ever be able to trust Lila again?

Can falling in love melt the hearts of the iciest ice queens? 

In Ice on Wheels by Aurora Rey, all’s fair in love and roller derby. That’s Riley Fauchet’s motto, until a new job lands her at the same company—and on the same team—as her rival Brooke Landry, the frosty jammer for the Big Easy Bruisers.

In Private Equity by Elle Spencer, Cassidy Bennett spends an unexpected evening at a lesbian nightclub with her notoriously reserved and demanding boss, successful venture capitalist Julia Whitmore. After seeing a different side of Julia, Cassidy can’t seem to shake her desire to know more.

In Closed-Door Policy by Erin Zak, going back to college is never easy, but Caroline Stevens is prepared to work hard and change her life for the better. What she’s not prepared for is Dr. Atlanta Morris, her new professor whose tough demeanor is no match for Caroline’s burgeoning confidence.

Stevie Adams doesn’t believe in fate, not after losing her parents in a car crash. Now twenty-eight and a star in the Chicago improv scene, Stevie puts career first. No one’s going to get in the way of her New York City dreams. When her friends beg her to tag along to go see Constance Russo, a deaf psychic, Stevie begrudgingly agrees, as long as no one makes her get a reading. 

American Sign Language interpreter Bernadette Thompson has two priorities: caring for her mother and working with her best friend, Constance Russo. But when the headstrong Stevie Adams accidentally stumbles into her life, Bernadette feels an instant connection that’s so intense it frightens her. They can’t seem to stop bumping into each other, or deny their attraction. 

When Stevie’s goal of starring in New York becomes more than a pipe dream, will competing desires prove their love to be everlasting or a fleeting act?

Romance novelist Jackie Mitchell has built a life that works: few responsibilities, friends that know she’s far from outgoing, and sex whenever she needs it. She has her past, but she doesn’t think about it. Ever.

All that changes when she finds the child she gave up for adoption standing on the doorstep. Now sixteen years old, Beth Weber is resourceful, a blossoming artist, and a spitting image of her birth mom. To say Jackie is stunned is the understatement of the year.

When Jackie meets Beth’s adoptive mom, Susan, they’re immediately attracted to each other, but there’s no way Jackie is getting involved with a married woman, especially Beth’s mom. But when Susan and Beth need a place to stay and end up back on Jackie’s doorstep, their lives change forever.

Will these three women who share a past and face an uncertain future be able to forge a life of love together?

Leaving is what Julia Finch does best.

When a meeting with her birth parents goes horribly wrong, Julia escapes on a hastily planned road trip and winds up breaking down in a Colorado town so small the cows outnumber the people. Completely out of her element, she takes a temporary job as a ranch hand at Bennett Ranch. She only has to survive long enough to get her car fixed, and then she’s out of there for good. 

Her bad luck continues when she meets the ranch owner, Elena Bennett. Elena is unhappy, abrasive, and annoyingly breathtaking. But the longer Julia stays, the more the ranch starts to feel like home, and her feelings for Elena become impossible to ignore. She’s spent years building her defenses high and running from her past. Could a love worth staying for be the key to breaking down her walls?

If you had the chance to grab on to happiness and not let go, would you?

Kathryn Hawthorne, local Chicago celebrity, thinks everything in her life is just fine. She has friends, money, a job—everything she needs to survive. Except, of course, love, which, after getting her heart broken, she avoids like the plague. Pam Phillips, on the other hand, just buried the love of her life—her husband of twenty-one years. The last thing she wants is a new friend, let alone a new love interest. When the two women meet and swap witty banter, things start to change. Kathryn can feel that familiar tug of desire in her chest as she suggests—in a smooth as silk way—that they meet up again someday. In a moment of pure insanity—or desperation—Pam decides to take a chance. What happens next changes Pam’s life forever