Contemporary Books

Julia Pierce can think of nothing more humiliating than her wife of eight years leaving her for her personal trainer. Oh, wait. She can. Without a career or a place to go when that exact thing happens, she’s forced to move home and take a job at her family’s winery.

Taylor Winslow has been in love with Julia since tenth grade. Not the desperate, pining sort, but the kind that never really went away. When Julia reappears, Taylor has a chance to finally win her heart. The only problem? Julia’s hell-bent on making up for lost time by dating every eligible lesbian in town.

Signing on as Julia’s wingman may land Taylor in the friend zone for good, but it’s a gamble she’s willing to take. With Taylor in her corner, will Julia find love, and herself, where she least expects it?

"The romance is satisfying and full-bodied, with each character learning how to achieve her own goals and still be part of a couple. A heartwarming story of two lovers learning to move past their fears and commit to a shared future."–Kirkus Reviews
 
"[A] sex-positive, body-positive love story. With its warm atmosphere and sweet characters, The Last Place You Look is a fluffy LGBTQ+ romance about finding a second chance at love where you least expect it."–Foreword Reviews

Allison McDonald has a thriving massage practice and a spot on the local roller derby team. When an amazing woman swipes right on her dating profile, life couldn’t be more perfect. Perfection turns out to be illusion when she finds out she’s been catfished by someone using the photo of the actress, Geena. Determined to protect others from heartbreak, she contacts the dating site and Geena about the fraud.

Virginia Harris’s fans know her as “Geena,” the lesbian star of a popular web series. Playing the role of Geena, and protecting her identity, is Virginia’s latest way of keeping real life—and real love—at arm’s length. Until the woman of her dreams walks into her life. But is it Geena she’s really interested in?

Their attraction is immediate, but when Allison looks at Virginia, she struggles not to see the woman she thought she was in love with. As the lines between fantasy and reality blur, will they know the real thing?

Fate will find a way to intervene when it’s least expected.

Jax Levine and Gretchen Mills fell madly in love in college and never looked back. They built a great life together, but careers, a baby, and years of mounting tension later, they are living separate lives and their once grand love is forgotten.

After an accident, Gretchen suffers a brain injury that erases years of her memories. She wakes in the hospital with Jax at her side and everything seems normal…except Jax won’t look her in the eye and their baby boy is now a rambunctious toddler. Every line drawn between Jax and Gretchen starts to blur while Gretchen fights to figure out which of her most haunting recollections are real, and which are fake.

Is it possible for this accident to be the second chance neither Jax nor Gretchen knew they wanted?

One dark summer night, Beth and Jackie go out to the canoe dock.

Two years later, Beth is still carrying the weight of the secrets they shared, and the truth about what happened to Jackie.

At seventeen, she’s living alone in her father’s apartment, popping sedatives to squash the nightmares, and trudging to therapy with the indomitable Dr. Sullivan so that she can get into the bridge program that will let her start her life over. But the harder Beth tries to outrun her past—including her fraught family relationships—the more entrenched in memories she becomes.

As her life starts to spin out of control and Dr. Sullivan begins to succumb to her own demons, Beth is in danger of losing herself in the black waters of her own mind.

Lynn Monroe is finally living life on her terms. The niece she raised as her own has finished medical school and started an internship, and she’s healing from a painful divorce that was long overdue. But when she runs into a ghost from her past, the stable life she’s worked so hard to build begins to crumble.

Dr. Maggie Randall is focused, driven, and in love with her best friend’s aunt. When she unexpectedly bumps into Lynn it’s like no time has passed. She’s sure it’s a sign they’re meant to be. But all Maggie ever wanted in life is to raise children, and Lynn’s not ready to start a second family.

The choice between love and family has never been so difficult, and different visions of the future may end their romance before it’s begun.

In an instant, Brittany Yardin’s view in the mirror changed forever. A tragic accident as a preteen left permanent physical scars, but teasing by the mean girl clique left deeper emotional ones. Years later, Brittany has made a life for herself on a tiny remote island, and the last person she expects to run into is high school mean girl and secret crush, Amy Jansons.

Amy, aka Erika James, longs to be more than just a pretty face. As a top fashion model her beauty is the benchmark most women long to attain. She travels the world and wears the latest designer clothes, but as her fortieth birthday approaches, so does the end of her career, and she’s determined to keep her place at the top.

When Amy needs help during a shoot, Brittany puts the past aside and friendship blooms. But so does the attraction neither of them can deny, and life on a remote island is no place for a serious model trying to save her career.

Lauren Prescott had dreamed of being an actress since she was cast as Wendy in her middle school production of Peter Pan. Yes, her nightgown snagged and brought the set tumbling down, but she was hooked. After years of unsuccessful auditions, performing just wasn’t in the cards. Instead, Lauren established herself as a successful stage manager at the esteemed McAllister Theater. Unfortunately, the resident director has cast celebrity Carly Daniel: headstrong, entitled, and always late. So why is their chemistry turning her the hell on?

After partying her way through her twenties and ruining a successful film career, Carly Daniel has to take whatever she can get. If schlepping it onstage will raise her star again, she’ll listen to her pesky agent. Added bonus: the uptight stage manager is a sexy distraction.

When Carly’s costar is sidelined, Lauren must decide whether renewing a long-forgotten dream will jeopardize what she has percolating with Carly. Is the limelight big enough for two?

Ashleigh McAllister’s life is a total disaster. Her ex dumped her for a guy, and she can’t seem to stop bumping into them in their suddenly way too small Brooklyn neighborhood. At least Mother Nature is on her side. Summer is here and the forecast is all sun. Ashleigh needs a little excitement, and things get exponentially hotter when Kellan Dwyer walks into her life. 

Fresh out of the army, Kellan is killing time apartment sitting before returning home to a scripted future in Colorado. Her itinerary consists solely of having a blast. 

Ashleigh and Kellan decide friends with benefits is hot, and fun, and sexy as hell, but romance? Terrible idea. 

With the New York City skyline as their backdrop, the summer heats up fast. They just have to keep their feelings in check before someone gets hurt. When opposites attract, can a summer of passion lead to a lifetime of love?

Kitty Kerr is a high-flying lawyer when her career plans are derailed by the luscious blackberries from Lucy Shen’s Country Mouse Farms. Kitty can’t get enough of the fruit, or of Lucy. Suddenly, she’s wanting things she never dared to want—Lucy, and the life on the farm. But how will being an artisan cook/farmer fit with her legal ambitions and city habits?

Between her beautiful farm and her sculpture, Lucy’s life is set. Falling for a big city lawyer is not part of the plan. Even as Kitty helps make her dreams of spotlighting her farm’s produce in restaurants a reality, Lucy’s terrified that she and the farm aren’t enough to keep Kitty interested in love and the simpler things in life.

Pulled in two different directions, will the city kitty and country mouse be able to make it work?

Love is never easy.

But once you add a complicated ex-wife and eight-year-old daughter, you’re playing with a new set of rules. Madisen’s just beginning to figure out those rules when she meets Rae in what becomes an all-consuming affair filled with late nights and exhausted euphoria. Rae is charming. Madisen is smitten. And life couldn’t feel more perfect.

At least, that is, until her ex-wife begins to have second thoughts.

Luca Garner is eager and hardworking, but her new boss is a total nightmare: snarky and uncooperative, not to mention an ice queen. VP Stephanie Austin doesn’t mean to be unkind, but the last thing she wants is an assistant getting under her skin, especially one who is as attractive as she is kind.

Opportunity of a Lifetime was previously published in The Boss of Her: Romance Novellas (Bold Strokes Books, 2018).

Attorney Abby Keane’s vacation is perfect, especially her steamy interlude with a beautiful stranger. But her newfound zen crumbles when her biggest client, a chain of bridal stores, leaves hundreds of brides without dresses. As if reentry isn’t bad enough, a new wedding blogger is doing her best to stoke the anger of the already unhappy brides, and has chosen Abby as the villain.

Roxanne Daly’s blog has finally hit the sweet spot, and her popularity is soaring. With a regular TV spot on the line, she’ll do whatever it takes to impress the network producers. Running point for a horde of angry brides against a hotshot lawyer seems like the perfect plan until her crusade collides with Abby, the woman she hasn’t been able to stop thinking about since she left her in a tropical paradise.

Legal Affairs: one law firm, three best friends, three chances to fall in love.

Praise from Publishers Weekly: "Taite combines legal and relationship drama to create this realistic and deeply enjoyable lesbian romance....The reliably engaging Taite neatly balances romance and red-hot passion with a plausible legal story line, well-drawn characters, and pitch-perfect pacing that culminates in the requisite heartfelt happily-ever-after."

Rebekiah Kearns’s passion is photography—erotic images of sex, love, and the boundaries between them. Still wounded by the death of her best friend, she’s locked her heart away and forges her only meaningful connections through the lens of her camera.

Lindsey Blackwell never stops. Her work as a wealth management consultant takes her all over the world, and she just doesn’t have time to make a relationship work. Women always end up asking for more than she can give.

When Rebekiah receives a huge inheritance, all she wants to do is get rid of it, but Lindsey has other ideas. Their professional relationship quickly turns personal when Lindsey agrees to pose for Rebekiah. With every click of the shutter, Rebekiah finds it harder and harder to keep Lindsey in focus without getting too close.

Lisa Tobias dreams of coaching women’s basketball at a major university and possibly advancing to the pros. She’ll never get there if she stays where she is, coaching for a small-town college. She wants to move on and move up, so a relationship is the last thing on her mind.

English professor Celeste Bouchard is exactly where she wants to be teaching at Glassell University. Popular and on a first-name basis with her students, Celeste loves her job. She doesn’t love the gossip and rumors that followed her disastrous romance with a fellow professor, but she’s never getting involved with a coworker again.

When Lisa’s star player has trouble in Celeste’s class, they have to work together to find a solution. The attraction is off the charts, but Lisa and Celeste are determined to block another shot at love.

Dress for success takes on a very different meaning. CFO Riley Stephenson finds herself in a particularly difficult position when the stripper she's fallen for shows up at her office—as her new employee.

For Your Eyes Only was previously published in The Boss of Her: Romance Novellas (Bold Strokes Books, 2018).

Mickey dreams of becoming a jazz pianist but instead spends her days arranging and transcribing other people’s music. When her idol, world-renowned jazz great Helen Robins, offers her a job, Mickey goes out of her way to prove she’s capable. But there’s more to Helen than meets the eye, and Mickey soon discovers a whole new world of erotic submission. 

The agreement: As her mistress, Helen pushes Mickey to her sensual limits, delivering the pleasure only a BDSM lifestyle can provide her. As Helen's submissive, Mickey serves her in any way she requires. Drawn into a seduction she never knew she needed, Mickey discovers her true identity in the thrill of passion and the test of pain. For Mickey, being in Helen’s hands is everything, but when desire gives way to something deeper, their bond is tested to the breaking point.

Cassie Miller is broke. Her parents cut off all funding when she dropped out of medical school, and graduate school is expensive. A full-time nanny job at the Wellington estate is the answer to her problems, except working for beautiful, successful Brook Wellington wasn’t in the job description.

Brook has always had a head for business. Born into a global shipping empire, she sits at the helm running it with skill and savvy. But success comes at a cost. Her priority is her six-year-old son, but she can’t be in two places at once. Hiring a nanny isn’t the perfect solution, but it would certainly help, and Cassie came highly recommended. If only she wasn’t so damn attractive.

Can Cassie and Brook deny their growing attraction and keep things professional? Or will they sidestep propriety and give in to temptation?

Augusta “Tucker” Delacroix is perfectly content running a successful oil field supply company until her brother and business partner, Jim Bob, dies suddenly. Things go from bad to worse when the family's lawyer introduces her to Monique, a beautiful stranger who turns out to be Jim Bob’s mistress and mother of his son. Monique wants Jim Bob's son to be a Delacroix, and Tucker steps up—it’s what family does.

Willow Vernon has never approved of her sister’s affair with a wealthy married man, but when tragedy strikes, Willow assumes care of her nephew. When Tucker demands shared custody rights, Willow’s ready to go to battle. Tucker’s the same kind of irresponsible philanderer as Jim Bob, and she’s not falling for the Delacroix charm like Monique did, no matter how tempting Tucker might be.

Family ties bring Tucker and Willow together, but they could also tear them, and any chance they have at love, apart.