Contemporary Books

In book three in the Dark Peak series, things are looking up for Detective Sanne Jensen and Dr. Meg Fielding. Dating each other seems to be working, their families are behaving themselves, and the worst of the post-Christmas crime wave is over. 

The discovery of a Pakistani girl’s body out on the moors changes all that. No one knows who she is, who hurt her, or how she came to be there. As pressure mounts on East Derbyshire Special Ops for a quick resolution, it becomes ever more apparent that the case won’t provide one.  

With the Pakistani community closing ranks, and threads of suspicion reaching farther than anyone could have predicted, the investigation leaves Sanne facing an ordeal she may not survive.

For lesbians in Provincetown, seductive Sable is more than just a bedroom voice on late-night radio. Through her talk show, Nightlight, she is a fun, anonymous friend and confidante, until one mysterious caller attracts her attention. Behind Sable’s “mask,” Murphy Callahan allows herself to enjoy the no-strings radio relationship—she’s mourned the death of her partner for three years—and ignores the growing attachment as their very public conversations push permissible limits.

But when local tradeswoman Riley Burke enters her life, Murphy faces a difficult choice:  continue the safe “night voice” fantasy or risk the reality of falling in love. If only she could have both…

The last person Nash Wiley expects to bump into over a two a.m. breakfast at Waffle House is her college crush, decked out in a curve-hugging law enforcement uniform. Nash can’t believe her luck when Ms. Crush asks to join her, explaining that she’s just getting off shift. But something seems a little off. It could be the glitter in her eye shadow, or the black lace bra peeking from her barely buttoned uniform shirt, or maybe the exotic dancers who stroll in from the local gentleman’s club and crash their private reunion. Nash isn’t sure she’s still hungry until the waitress takes her order. “How you want those hashbrowns, hon?” Ms. Crush pins Nash with a sultry gaze and answers for her. “Mmm. I’ve heard she likes hers smothered and covered.”

Some soul mates can never be forgotten.

Jordan was in love with her best friend, Sophie, in high school and no one knew…least of all Sophie. After fleeing without a trace before graduation, Jordan vowed never to return to Monarch, the butterfly obsessed town along the Central California coast.

Ten years later, Jordan owns a successful soul mate matchmaking company where she finds love for others, but has little use for it herself. Sophie runs the Monarch Butterfly Sanctuary and has yet to forgive Jordan for disappearing from her life. When Jordan is forced to return to Monarch, will their soul mate connection deepen or will differing goals tear them apart?

Alex Taylor is an ER nurse who prides herself on the care she gives to those in need. Through a chance encounter, Alex meets police sergeant Francesca Greco and finds the handsome officer too hard to resist. When Alex is diagnosed with a devastating disease, her role is changed from caregiver to patient and she prepares for the fight of her life.

Frank Greco has developed intense feelings for Alex, but wonders if she has it in her to take care of another woman she loves who has become sick. However, she sees this as an opportunity to do things differently this time around.

Will Alex and Frank be able to overcome Alex’s illness, and their own demons, to embrace love?

Advance praise from Publishers Weekly: "Richardson combines sweet and heat in her second contemporary romance....Richardson aptly captures the myriad emotions and sometimes irrational thought processes of a young woman with a possibly fatal disease, as well as the torment inherent in the idea of losing another loved one to the same illness. This sensitively told and realistically plotted story will grab readers by the heartstrings and not let them go."

Nash Wiley, aka slow learner, discovers that hooking up with your sexy neighbor isn’t such a great idea, especially if you like your apartment and you’d like to keep living there. Having sex with both of your neighbors is an even worse idea, especially if those neighbors happen to be in a relationship…with each other. Threesomes always sounded so exotic and exciting in the abstract. As it turns out, the reality of sleeping with two women at the same time is a lot more complicated. But it wasn’t like it was Nash’s idea, and when the offer presented itself she found it impossible to say no.

Kenya Davis’s ability to find the perfect employee is unparalleled. Her ability to find the perfect mate? Not so much. After she takes a chance on speed dating, she finds herself with not one but two chances to find true love. But with her spotty romantic track record, how can she be sure which woman is Miss Right and which is only Miss Right Now?

Simone Bailey works as a bartender at one of the hottest nightclubs in South Beach, has more female attention than she knows what to do with, and spends her spare time following her musical ambitions. Then she meets Kenya Davis. After her initial attempt to charm her way into Kenya's heart fails, she resolves to reach her ultimate destination one question at a time.

Cash Braddock is a drug dealer. But the classy kind. Pills. She really doesn’t get why people are so uptight about that sort of thing. She has a decent operation, a little business to launder money through, and only a few Mommy issues.  

Laurel Collins is the perfect girl for Cash. She wears vintage ties and is totally chill. She doesn’t mind the dealing or Cash’s cat. It’s almost like she’s Cash’s dream girl. Sometimes she’s a little closed off about, you know, life. But who isn’t?

Sadly, the drug game doesn’t always run smoothly. There are dealers who don’t respect boundaries and unreliable customers. And, of course, dealers don’t fly under the cops’ radar forever. Even when they work with dirty cops. Which is a damn shame. It’s not like they’re hurting anybody, right?

How did a club night with friends go so off the rails? Nash’s day had started out so well. An adorable barista flirted with her as she picked up her morning espresso, which might have contributed to the distraction that moments later nearly ended in disaster. Nash had used the word “disaster” carelessly not realizing how far the rest of her day would spiral after her tragic morning commute. Picking up girls after midnight in an ER is a clear sign of desperation, right? Unless that girl is the enchanting nurse who keeps coming to her rescue.

A shot at Olympic gold in ski jumping. It’s a dream that has been the exclusive property of male athletes. Until now.

For seventeen-year-old Ellie Engebretsen, the 2011 decision to include women’s ski jumping in the Olympics is a game changer. She’d love to bring home the gold for her father, a former Olympic competitor whose dreams were blown along with his knees on an ill-timed landing. But can she defy the pull of gravity that draws her to Kate Moreau, her biggest competition and the girl of her dreams? 

How can Ellie soar through the air when all she feels like doing is falling hard?

Some people work to pay the bills or send the kids to school or afford playtime. Ex-Army medic physician-assistant Glenn Archer works, as much as she possibly can, to atone for all the lost lives on her conscience. No matter how many patients she helps save at the Rivers Community Hospital, it will never be enough, but it helps her look at herself in the mirror in the morning. Mariana Mateo needs to make a new life, one without the daily reminders of all she’s lost and far away from the suffocating sympathies of her well-meaning family, and moving to a place as different as possible from the bustling LA she grew up in seems like a good idea. A cousin she hasn’t seen in twenty years is the only person who knows her in the tiny upstate New York farming community, and that’s just the way she wants it. When working side by side with Glenn Archer in the ER makes Mari remember what desire feels like, Mari determines to ignore the feelings, which isn’t all that difficult since Glenn is as unapproachable as the beautiful but remote mountains.

A Rivers Community Novel

Welcome to Junebug Farms, a successful, well-known animal shelter in upstate New York, where every day brings something new—love, stress, heartbreak, warmth—and not just from the animals. 

Catherine Gardner knows what it means to work hard. Growing up with little, it's pretty much all she's done for most of her life. As the bookkeeper for Junebug Farms, she handles the money. When Catherine finds herself undeniably attracted to Emily Breckenridge, daughter of the shelter’s largest donor, it doesn't sit well with her. At all. 

Emily Breckenridge has spent her life in the shadows of both her family’s money and her brother Clark. But when the reins of the family’s charity foundation are taken from Clark and handed to Emily, it’s her chance to shine on her own. Everything about Catherine Gardner is unexpected, from her emotional reserve to the crazy magnetic pull she has…one Emily can’t seem to fight… 

The second in the Puppy Love Romances by award-winning author Georgia Beers.

Welcome to Junebug Farms, a successful, well-known animal shelter in upstate New York, where every day brings something new—love, stress, heartbreak, warmth—and not just from the animals. 

Lisa Drakemore is in charge of intake and adoption at Junebug. She excels at her job, in large part because of her ability to keep her emotions in check. Her past has given her many years of practice and she’s become a pro. But once she meets dog-walking volunteer Ashley Stiles, a distractingly attractive, perpetually late, emotions-on-her-sleeve young woman who smells like cupcakes, all bets are off for Lisa. 

The first of the Puppy Love Romances by award-winning author Georgia Beers.

Andrea Blake’s life has order. Everything is meticulously laid out and planned, from her house in its quiet neighborhood to her career path at Hagan’s, the largest supermarket chain in the Northeast. Andrea knows what she wants. 

Enter Kendall Foster, the distractingly attractive woman in charge of sales for her family’s local microbrewery, and somebody who wants very much to get her beer onto Hagan’s shelves. A decision that happens to be Andrea’s. 

The physical attraction is immediate and hard to resist, but Andrea doesn’t need a complication like Kendall in her life, not when she’s rocketing toward predictable security. But Kendall is fun. And smart. And oh-so-sexy. Can she convince Andrea that her rather flat, flavorless life could be way better with just a little bit of spice?

For a smart woman, Alex is pretty clueless. She wants the truth, but she's looking in the wrong place. She wants love, but she's not looking at all. If only Cam didn't keep disrupting her life, Alex might be able to find some answers. After all, it's not as if Cam is interested in her. Which is probably a good thing, since Cam is even more infuriating than she is charming—and she's got plenty of charm.

On the other hand, Rosamund, Cam's ex and Alex's professional rival, is definitely interested in Alex, but can she be trusted? Alex doesn't even realize the historic house she's staying in is haunted. Perhaps a little supernatural help will lead Alex to uncover the secret of a love story hidden for over a century, and to solve the greatest mystery of all—the truth hidden in her own heart.

Bouncing has always been a way of life for Alex Dalton. The former basketball star and new coach likes to keep life simple, bouncing from woman to woman, with no responsibilities and no complications. Then a summer fling opens her eyes to other possibilities, and now Alex wonders if a relationship might be what she really needs. There is an instant attraction to her new assistant coach, Britain Dodge, but for some reason, Brit wants nothing to do with Alex. Then a spontaneous kiss under the stars forces them to admit their feelings and work on their issues. Their love grows, but so do the outside pressures that influence them, and they have to decide if they should forfeit their love or play until the final buzzer.

At eighteen, Emerson Rosberg was poised to become an Olympic skiing sensation. Growing up in the Adirondack ski town of Lake Henry with a world-renowned ski champion for a father gave her an edge over the competition…until the day she let her ego get the better of her and made a devastating mistake that would cost her any future in the sport. Deciding the only way to heal her shattered dreams was to run as far away from Lake Henry as possible, she settled in Los Angeles, leaving all memories of her previous life far behind. 

When her mother dies suddenly, Emerson is forced back to Lake Henry to take care of things, including the sale of The Lakeshore Inn. Her plan to get in and get out of that miserable town as quickly as possible is brought to a screeching halt when Cassie Prescott, the bubbly, friendly owner of a local sporting goods store, gets in the way. Cassie’s still cleaning up the debris from her last relationship, but she’s instantly drawn to Emerson, despite warnings from friends and family alike. 

As the cold weather closes in and Emerson and Cassie’s relationship heats up, one question keeps popping up for Emerson: can you really go home again?

Abbey Brooks has recovered from her end-of-freshman-year heartbreak and has vowed that this year, her sophomore year at Gila High, will be different in every way. Her to-do list: get her driver's license, come out to her mom, get (and keep) a girlfriend, and survive another year of basketball. As always, though, nothing goes according to plan. Who will be there for her as her plans start to unravel? Who will bring her back to life after another round of heartache and betrayal? These remain a mystery even to Abbey.

But one thing is for sure, she's not confused about who she is. And that is going to make all the difference.