Contemporary Books

Grace Dawson is completely over her ex, Christina. But that doesn’t mean she wants to plan her wedding proposal to another woman.

Grace dreams of the day she’ll have a romantic proposal like those she plans for her clients at Tie the Knot. She’s spent the last year reading a boatload of self-help books. No way she’s going to fall back into old patterns and date someone afraid of commitment ever again. When it comes to everlasting love, Grace is all in.

Bridget Cartwright, Christina’s personal assistant, will do anything for Christina with the hopes of getting a promotion, even plan her proposal. So what if she knows zilch about romance and doesn’t even believe in happily-ever-after? There are companies for hire that do that sort of thing.

When Grace and Bridget end up stranded together on Mistletoe Mountain, Grace has no chance to escape. Not from her painful past, not from her attraction to Bridget, and definitely not from all the romance in the air.

Remi Brenner will one day see the world. Literally. She’s one summer away from starting her degree in aerospace at MIT, but then her dad cuts off her college tuition until they repair their estranged relationship. Remi has no choice but to spend her summer with him and her annoyingly famous stepmom in resort town Gaslight Shores, South Carolina.

Harper Hebert wishes her life didn’t revolve around her family’s restaurant, a staple in Gaslight Shores for more than seven decades. When a new restaurant is opened by a famous chef and business begins to decline, Harper’s dreams of ever making it on her own are threatened.

The more Remi and Harper’s friendship blossoms into something deeper, the more Remi becomes tangled in the intense restaurant rivalry between her stepmom and the Heberts. She knows she has to tell Harper, but the truth could scare away the only person who can capture her summer and her heart.

Wisdom is knowing which battles are worth fighting.

Sophia Lamont is the youngest representative her state has ever seen. She’s determined to leave her mark on day one. Old school politics won’t dare stand in her way.

As a prison guard, Reggie Northrup has seen the system fail to provide healing for families or rehabilitation for offenders. She closes herself off emotionally to do her job, but it costs her more than she knows.

When Sophia and Reggie are chosen for the governor’s new community design team and tasked with tackling substance use and mental health issues, battle lines are drawn even as sparks fly. Do Reggie and Sophia have the wisdom to set aside the things they cannot change and fight courageously to change what they can? Love just might depend on it.

Cuffing season has come for lesbians.

Jess Archer, digital journalist for the internet’s hottest lesbian media platform, has been assigned to research cuffing, from an up close and personal perspective. She’s not sure it’s really her thing, but the assignment gives her the chance to write something more substantial than her usual fluff pieces. All she needs now is a willing lesbian.

For Cody Dawson, signing up for Jess’s project is a no-brainer. She gets to date an interesting woman, enjoy her company, and not disrupt the tidy life she’s built for her son. Everything’s perfect until she starts falling for Jess. When she realizes she’s heart-deep in the feelings she’s agreed not to have, their convenient arrangement becomes anything but.

Andrea Daniels’s life is overflowingly full. She puts every ounce of energy she has into being a mom to her two daughters and her work as a registered nurse. When her best friend, Sara, asks her to be her maid of honor at her wedding in Fairbanks, Alaska, Andrea accepts. A week off from work and an adults-only trip filled with relaxation and scenic tours sounds amazing.

Wedding photographer Riley Canon can pick and choose her clients, so when she’s asked to shoot a wedding in a remote lodge in Alaska, she jumps at the opportunity for a trip of a lifetime. It’s been on her bucket list for years. 

The last thing either Andrea or Riley expects is to bump into the one who broke her heart fifteen years ago, but when they meet at the welcome party, their feelings come rushing back. Trusting each other again might be impossible, but if they can overcome the hurt from the past, they just might get a second chance at love.

Gia Williams is living her dream as a successful travel magazine columnist. Gia’s Gems, featuring a single, thirty-something lesbian who travels around and finds the little gay gems in each town she visits, is the best gig ever, right? There’s just one problem. Gia is agoraphobic, and she hasn’t left her house in years. Gia’s Gems is a complete photoshop fake.

Lindsey Speyer is a huge fan of Gia’s Gems, so imagine her disappointment when she accidentally stumbles upon Gia’s secret. Not knowing what to do with the information, a friend talks Lindsey into turning the tables on Gia. Gia must come to Lindsey’s economically struggling Midwestern town and feature it in her next article...or else.

Gia just needs to get through one week with one beautiful and captivating blackmailer in a quirky little town she’s never heard of. What could possibly go wrong?

Stress, drama, and hopeful hearts come together when a group of friends and family try their best to survive another holiday season. 

Billie is madly in love with her girlfriend, Leah, but her plan to use the spirit of Thanksgiving to figure out if Leah feels the same doesn’t go as planned. Theo wants a baby, but Liv isn’t quite ready, and being surrounded by family at Christmas time only serves to twist the knife in their marriage. April and Gemma, strangers only looking for a good time on New Year’s Eve, are surprised by the fun and flirtation of their chemistry. Jesse can’t believe Eloise is back in town only a few months after ending their secret affair for good, but even more shocking is Eloise’s intention for a second chance by the New Year. 

’Tis the season for love, hope, and wishful thinking.

Sophie Swanson and Tess Anderson have been BFFs since childhood. Even though they’re both attracted to women, falling for each other would’ve risked their friendship, and neither is willing to take that chance.

Sophie is fed up with dating and tired of being alone. When heat flares with a new connection on social media, Sophie’s ready to take love more seriously. She’s great at short flirty banter, but horrible at romance, and asks Tess to help her woo the woman who just might be The One.

Tess is still looking for her perfect match, or at least that’s what she tells herself while secretly crushing on Sophie. The last thing Tess wants is to help Sophie fall in love with someone else, but how can she stand in the way of her happiness?

Allison Hale had always played second fiddle. She didn’t win the science fair, have a million friends, or become the world’s best mom. That was her sister, Betsy. However, Ally’s managed to do something her sister couldn’t, connect her family’s failing business to the wealthy Carmichaels through her engagement to their son, Brent. All she has to do is plan the wedding of the century with the hottest wedding planner in town, Megan Kinkaid. How could she have ever guessed that Megan and her zest for life would threaten everything she’d carefully planned?

Megan Kinkaid knows how to produce a wedding for the history books and she’s not about to miss out on the chance to tackle high-profile Brent Carmichael’s. His fiancée, however, is not who Megan imagined for shiny Brent. Ally Hale is beautiful, earnest, selfless, and fun. She’s also everything Megan ever wanted for herself, and their chemistry hovers in the stratosphere. But can she make Ally see that there’s more to life than making others happy before it’s too late?

Praise from Publishers Weekly: "A bride-to-be falls for her wedding planner in this smoking hot, emotionally mature romance from Brayden...Brayden is remarkably generous to her characters, allowing them space for self-exploration and growth..." 

Dr. Bennett Anderson accepts a short-term contract at a rural medical center to fill the gap year before taking the high-profile job she’d put on hold while chasing a dream that had slipped away. In a deep-rooted community where everyone seems to know everyone else, Ben is an oddity—a stranger just passing through with no plans to build any ties.

Courtney Valentine is looking for a woman exactly like Ben—smart, sexy, and not in the market for anything serious. All she has to do is convince Ben that sex-without-strings is the perfect pathway to pleasure. What could be better?

Flora Buchanan doesn’t think a relationship is an option. A variety of mental health issues—anxiety, OCD, and PTSD—make it seem impossible to find love. Instead, she seeks joy in the one thing that is safe and ordered: her sweetshop in Glasgow.

Mack Sharkey is ready to start a new life after being released from jail. As part of the infamous Sharkey family, she took care of business on the edge of the law for the once criminal, and now legitimate, empire. After being sentenced to jail time her cousin should have shared, she’s promised a quiet life running her dream barbershop.

Flora and Mack are bound together by a night that changed their lives two years before and never thought they’d ever see each other again. But when Mack opens up her barbershop right next to Flora’s sweetshop, their connection comes roaring back.

Content advisory: This book contains instances of violence against women. 

Sophia McGovern can’t seem to settle down. Memories of all her bad decisions refuse to leave her alone. So, she moves from town to town, from one dead-end job to another, keeping to herself, which serves her well—until she arrives in Ft. Devlin, Colorado. From the first day, Ft. Devlin was different. Maybe that’s why she says yes to teaching a car maintenance class at the local high school.

High school literacy teacher Pru Glynn is happy with her life just as it is. She has a great job, close friends, and a loving family. She’d like to find a wonderful woman to share it with, but she isn’t about to settle for just anyone. When beautiful Sophia McGovern swings into town, Pru can’t deny an attraction, but Sophia’s itinerant lifestyle doesn’t fit in with her deep-set roots and strong ties to family and friends.

Sophia and Pru have no intention of falling in love, but sometimes love happens when and where you least expect it.

For golf pro Piper Holthaus, a not-so-secret romance with wealthy socialite Vanessa Devereaux in exchange for a life of privilege and promotion of her art seems like a small price to pay.

Brook Myers is determined not to let her girlfriend Meg’s substance abuse ruin her life or her new catering business, but Meg really needs her and leaving the woman she once loved seems unfathomable.

When Piper and Brook meet on a secluded fairway, neither can deny the intense connection that just might be love, but the entanglements of their past may destroy any possibility of a future.

Content Warning: Substance abuse

Former Protection Command Officer Eve Webb quit her job when a terrorist incident revealed that internal communication failures had caused multiple deaths. Now her former commanding officer and mentor has asked for a favor, and Eve can’t say no. It should be an easy job. All she has to do is guard one female civilian.

Lady Katherine Lovegrove is forty-something-ish in line to the throne and has lived a sheltered life until her father—a high profile judge—upsets the wrong people. She’s not exactly thrilled to need a full-time babysitter, uh, bodyguard, and is even less happy that Eve is an anti-monarchist who despises the upper class.

If Eve had known she’d be protecting royalty, she’d never have taken the job, but as the threat to Lady Katherine’s life draws closer, she’ll do whatever it takes to save her and may just lose her heart in the process.

Royal Canadian Mounted Police officer Suzanne (Mitch) Mitchell has been disappointed in love. She’s done playing around and is ready to get serious. The only thing veterinary surgeon Kay Gallant takes seriously is her professional reputation and the animals she saves. Women are for fun, not forever.

Dangerous drugs are stolen from the veterinary clinic, and the further Mitch investigates, the more of a suspect Kay becomes. Add to that their opposing relationship goals and the fact that Kay is only staying in Thresherton a year before she starts a job in America, and falling in love definitely seems impossible. But as pride and profession clash, their hearts just might prove otherwise.

Ellison Gamble owns the most successful luxury real estate firm in Boston, but the accomplishment feels hollow when she comes home to an empty house.

Institutionalizing her mother for her own safety was the hardest thing Katie Crawford has ever done. The costs are becoming more than she can manage, and her only solution is to sell her childhood home that has fallen into disrepair.

After a tense first interaction with Katie, Ellison eventually finds herself in an unlikely friendship and makes a risky offer to help Katie sell her mother’s home. Katie will do anything to help her mom, but being attracted to a woman for the first time was not in the plan.

Will the risks they take be worth the reward? Or have they wagered on a losing bet?

Aspen Wellington is whirling through life with the help of alcohol and one-night stands until she meets Remington Stone, a girl from the other side of the tracks. Somehow, Remington sees behind all Aspen's defenses, leading her on an unexpected journey of self-discovery.

Remington is a badass, with a father in prison and a mother working two jobs. Aspen, a spoiled, popular cheerleader, isn’t her type at all. Remington doesn’t want to like her, but she can’t seem to stop. 

Denna Ashford and Raleigh Hunter are Aspen’s best friends. Denna is quick-witted but has temper issues. Raleigh is a genius with a difficult past who excels in everything. They’re in love, but that doesn’t mean their relationship is always perfect.

On the cusp between high school and adulthood, all four face challenges in life and romance that they never expect. Each is dangerous without the love and loyalty that holds them together, but their love for each other just might be the thing to save them all.

Janesse Crawford spends her teenage and young adult years trying to balance her tomboy, girl-loving side with being the picture-perfect daughter her mother wants. It’s difficult, and Janesse is full of self-doubt, but she manages to find a way to make it work. Then Janesse meets sexy, confident Maya Lawson, who is everything she didn’t realize she wanted, and her world is turned upside down. But Janesse makes a choice and doesn’t look back.

Thirty years later, Janesse is married to a man who loves her, has raised two wonderful children, and has a successful career doing what she loves. But when a chance meeting with Maya brings her past rushing back, the lie Janesse has been living comes crashing in on her. She let Maya get away once, but her second chance at true love could cost her the picture-perfect world she’s spent a lifetime building. It’s not too late for Janesse to blossom into the woman she’s always wished to be. But on her path to self-acceptance, she will risk everything—and possibly everyone—she loves.

Starred review from Publishers Weekly: "Shade imbues this optimistic story of lifelong self-discovery with a refreshing amount of emotional complexity, delivering a queer romance that leans into affection as much as drama, and values friendship and familial love as deeply as romantic connection...Shade’s well-drawn Black cast and sophistication in presenting a variety of relationship styles—including open relationships and connections that shift between romance and friendship—creates a rich, affirming, and love-filled setting..."