The Forever Factor

By Melissa Brayden

California
Reunion Romance
Coming Out
Sports

Is it truly better to have loved and lost? Bethany Cahill says nope. Eleven years ago, her fellow cheerleader Reid Thatcher held her heart in her hand...and crushed it like a bug. Since then, Bethany avoids risk, reward, and anything romantic on TV. Just, no. But when grown-up Reid’s shopping cart bumps into hers, Bethany is catapulted into the past and staring into Reid’s eyes, which are still annoyingly stunning. Forgiveness doesn’t come easy, and Bethany isn’t about to let Reid in. Not after all she took.

Reid never fully understood why Bethany withheld forgiveness all those years ago, but no kiss since has ever been as satisfying as Bethany’s lips on hers. The happenstance run-in was a stroke of luck and ignites Reid’s plan to get to the bottom of Bethany’s silence, a mystery she can’t let drop. But she hadn’t planned on the reckoning in store when she learns the truth.

When Bethany and Reid confront their past, they give new meaning to letting go, forgiveness, and a future worth fighting for.

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The Frenemy Zone

By Yolanda Wallace

Friends & Community
Financial gap/Class disparity
Young Adult
Blue Collar
Rivals
Coming Out
Multicultural 
Homecoming
Children / Families
Small Town Romances
People of Color

Olly Smith-Nakamura had it all until an unexpected financial setback forces her dads to leave their idyllic life in San Francisco behind in search of a fresh start. Relocating to a small West Virginia town where families like hers are considered an anomaly was not how she planned to spend her senior year of high school. Her grandmother tries to sell her on the merits of her new home, but she just sees more reasons to leave than to stay.

No one knows Ariel Hall has a secret. No one except the BFF who broke her heart. Sharing her truth isn’t on her agenda because unless she’s throwing strikes on the softball field, she prefers to fly under the radar. Olly Smith-Nakamura is everything she’s not: out, proud, and in your face. They don’t get along at all. So why does kissing her seem like more fun than butting heads?

 

PRAISE FOR THE FRENEMY ZONE

"A fun, thoughtful small-town tale of teen romance and family connection...A coming-of-age story with a rich cast of interesting characters." —Kirkus Reviews 

"As an openly lesbian wrestler with one Black and one Japanese American father, [Olly] contends with casual racism and homophobia in the mostly white, conservative town. Her goal is to survive until graduation and move on without attachments; that is, until she meets white-cued Ariel Hall, the mayor’s closeted lesbian daughter...Emphatic writing by Wallace capably builds tension; the characters’ intensely felt hopes and fears, and their struggles navigating interpersonal and external obstacles, make for a pensive read." —Publishers Weekly

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Triple Dog Dare

By Georgia Beers

An All I Want for Christmas Novella

Sasha Wolfe has been talking up her new girlfriend to her overbearing mother for months, and when her skeptical sister dares her to invite this new squeeze over for family Christmas, Sasha accepts the challenge. After all, how hard can it be to bring your nonexistent girlfriend home for the holidays?

Triple Dog Dare was previously published in All I Want for Christmas: Romance Novellas (Bold Strokes Books, 2020).

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A Cutting Deceit

By Cathy Dunnell

Gangsters
Police / Cops

Valeria married Sirvan, a crime boss, to escape a life of poverty and find security. Now she lives life by his rules. Forced to suppress her true self and play her part well, Valeria finds solace running her hair salon, the only place she can escape and truly be herself.

Everything changes when Athena, an undercover cop, takes a job at the salon to gather evidence to prove Sirvan’s guilt. What starts as a tentative friendship quickly turns into a dangerous affair. Valeria begins to question the choices and compromises she’s made as her feelings for Athena grow. But when Athena reveals her true motives, the shocking deceit cuts Valeria to the quick.

Danger creeps closer as Valeria and Athena, wounded by betrayal, play a perilous game of truth, lies, and love.

 

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As Seen on TV!

By CF Frizzell

Celebrity
Actors/Artists
Enemies to Lovers Romance
Food
Ghosts

Who in her right mind inserts a popular laid-back chef into the top paranormal show on television? What a ridiculous idea. Granted, TV crossover shows boost ratings, but the respective stars have no interest in the other’s genre and spatter like water in hot oil. The only thing that home-spun chef Ronnie Smart and tenacious paranormal investigator Peyton Stanford agree on is the idiocy of their network’s demand. They have practically nothing in common, and it shows.

But the show goes on amidst their innuendo, snickering banter, and bumbling interference and, surprisingly, viewers clamor for more. Inevitably, the begrudging “odd couple” find mutual respect and even the occasional tease. Are they flirting? Ratings skyrocket. In their expanded finale—an investigation that airs live on a stormy Halloween night—Ronnie and Peyton come face-to-face with a paranormal spirit and a chance at forever neither can deny.

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Blood Memory

By Sandra Barret

Transgender
The Jade Murphy Diaries | Book 2
Big City
Blue Collar
Vampires
Firefighters
People of Color

Vampires have it easy—stay out of the limelight (and the sunlight), earn a living (preferably legal), and for Jade Murphy, avoid human blood directly from the vein.

When Jade’s vampire friend gets some unwanted attention from a human stalker, Jade is forced to break more than one of those rules. Can she protect her friend, scare off the stalker, and keep her dates with Beth without revealing her secrets?

Best two out of three, Jade?

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Foolproof

By Leigh Hays

Military
Friends & Community
Friends to Lovers Romance
Food

Martine Roberts and Elliot Tillman’s childhood friendship was intense. When they bump into each other again thirty years later, sneaking out of an apartment after one-night stands with a pair of roommates, all their feelings come rushing back. 

Elliot needs a place to stay, and Martine needs a roommate. It should be simple, but it’s not friendship simmering between them. 

Growing up in Key West, rum distiller Martine has friends and family to spare, but her deepest heart she keeps to herself. 

With her career in the Coast Guard, Elliot’s never had a permanent address and didn’t mind, until moving in with Martine gives her a home. Now she wants to chart a different course with a woman who likes her relationships short and seasonal? Perfect.

Sometimes friends with benefits isn’t a foolproof way to hide from the truth at the heart of an affair.

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Glass and Stone

By Renee Roman

Blue Collar
Actors/Artists
Enemies to Lovers Romance

Jordan Spade doesn’t get involved. The last thing she wants is to be responsible for someone. When her father needed her the most she wasn’t there, and she never got a chance to express her regret. She’s channeled her guilt into building her business as a general contractor, to at least have a sense of purpose even if she isn’t exactly happy.

Callie Burke is well on her way to making a name for herself as a stained-glass artist. Her next job puts her on a job site with Jordan, where some of the crew harass her. Callie knows how to handle it. She doesn’t need Jordan’s assistance, but she can’t help but notice Jordan doesn’t intervene. 

Jordan later feels compelled to make it up to Callie, and an unlikely friendship fans their simmering attraction. But to get close to Callie, Jordan must open her heart and accept she can’t control every outcome, and that means forgiving herself for a mistake she can never undo.

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Hard Pressed

By Aurora Rey

Workplace Romance
Enemies to Lovers Romance
Food
Small Town Romances

For Mira Lavigne, cider is about tradition, elegance, and class. She has little respect and even less patience for self-anointed mavericks who think their ticket to fame and fortune is throwing the rulebook out the window. Dylan Miller is one of those people. The only thing she loves more than pushing the envelope is finding ways to make cider, perry, and a few things she hasn’t even named yet more delicious and more accessible to everyone.

When Mira and Dylan are tapped to co-chair Finger Lakes Cider Week, neither can pass up the publicity and prestige of the role. But professional compromises raise personal stakes, and Dylan and Mira are hard-pressed to keep their businesses—and their hearts—out of harm’s way.

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The Laws of Magic

By M. Ullrich

Bodyguard/Protection Romances
Friends & Community
Military
Magic

Isla Hoffman has finally made it. No longer the recklessly trusting teenage witch who nearly killed her family, Isla owns a successful business and is a healer to the residents of Bender, Massachusetts—human and nonhuman alike. How’d she do it? By hiding her identity and never, ever falling in love. Easy, until the ultimate temptation starts patrolling her parking lot. 

Lu Cadman should have an ex- before her name. Ex-military. Ex-New Yorker. Ex-wife. Starting over means a new job as security for a sleepy strip mall, but she isn’t complaining, not when sunshiny Isla brings her tea almost every morning. She’s not planning to get involved, but there’s more to Isla than meets the eye and Lu can’t stop her attraction. 

Isla and the nonhumans in their community aren’t as hidden as they think, and when a powerful force comes after them, they must work together to protect everyone. But Lu isn’t being completely honest, and when Isla discovers the truth, will she be able to trust enough to let herself fall in love?

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The Lonely Hearts Rescue

By Morgan Lee Miller and Others

Veterinarians
Friends to Lovers Romance
Animals 
Homecoming

When a hurricane hits the Gulf Coast, the animals at the Lonely Hearts Rescue Shelter need love, and so do the humans who adopt them.

Something About You by Morgan Lee Miller. After rescuing a cat stranded in the hurricane, animal control officer Reese Shepard is adamant about finding shy, timid Apollo the best forever home. When she discovers Apollo giving cheek rubs to Hannah Marsh, Reese’s high school crush, she’s captivated by her all over again.

Force of Nature by Missouri Vaun. Rebekah Hawks has stepped in to help with hurricane disaster relief. Challenges are no match for Rebekah. At least until she agreed to foster an impossible dog. Rebekah has no choice but to seek the aid of handsome local dog trainer Rory Maclaren. But who is training whom?

Test of Faith by Nell Stark. Rescuing a dog is a dream come true for Faith Kincaid—and a chance to prove to herself that she really can, in the words of her therapist, “commit to commitment.” When Faith takes her new best friend, Pinoe, to the vet, she can’t stop staring at Dr. Delphine Wu. Del is completely out of Faith’s league. Or is she?

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The Mage and the Monster

By Barbara Ann Wright

Virgins/First Love
Enemies to Lovers Romance
The Sisters of Sarras | Book 3
Disability
Other Worlds
Magic

Gisele del Amanecer’s days look the same from the outside: work, home, and the occasional one-night stand that she hides from her nosy older sisters. But Gisele is a mage, and that means pain invisible to outside eyes. Each act of magic can be agony, but she loves the power, the bond with the unseen, and how only her will keeps the magic from consuming her. She can master any task, including saving her family and homeland from Firellian invaders—until she’s ordered to hunt another mage, one who may be her equal in power and commitment. One she might risk everything for.

Vale has been subjugated her entire life—to the point where she thinks she deserves it, but she is determined to save others from that fate. Magic has been her one bright spot, but now she’s forced to use that power to kill in the name of the Firellian Empire. Escape or rebellion is out of the question unless she can guarantee the safety of her fellow captives, but how can everyone make it out alive while surrounded by enemies? Perhaps with the help of another mage, someone who bonds with magic like Vale does, someone who might want her for herself instead of for her power. But war always demands a sacrifice.

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Truly Wanted

By J.J. Hale

Friends & Community
Close Quarters
Friends to Lovers Romance
Bisexual
Disability
Truly Series
Children / Families
Small Town Romances

After a chaotic childhood in a long line of foster homes, Sam McKenna found her version of serenity in her friendship with Brooke Fields. When tragedy forces Brooke to become a single mother, Sam is there for her. Sam ignores the crush she’s had on Brooke since college. Their relationship is too precious to risk.

After the loss of her husband, Brooke finally dips her toes back into the dating world only to have each encounter end in disaster. If it wasn’t for Sam by her side picking her back up, she might give up on ever finding love again.

After a night of unexpected passion when Brooke and Sam cross the line of friendship, Brooke can’t help but yearn for more with Sam. A chance encounter leads Brooke and Sam on a journey to Sam’s birth family, uncovering the ghosts of Sam’s past and revealing wounds that threaten the friendship both once believed to be indestructible, and any chance for something more.

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A Good Chance

By Ali Vali

Weddings

Harriet “Harry” and Desi Basantes spent sixteen years waiting to find each other again, and now they’re weeks away from a wedding and the baby they’ve planned since high school.

Desi’s sister Rachel Thompson is happy for them. Rachel might wish for her own grand love affair, but her attraction to Harry’s ex Serena Ladding doesn’t exactly spell happily ever after. She’s pretty sure Serena is still in love with Harry and isn’t prepared to take the chance on a broken heart. So then why can’t she stop thinking about Serena?

Angola State Penitentiary is one of the toughest prisons in the country, but when Desi’s ex-husband Byron Simoneaux sees the chance to run, he does with only one goal in mind: to finish what he started and kill Desi, Rachel, and Harry, the women who stole his life.

Can you really outrun your past? For Harry, Desi, and Rachel, it’s a matter of life or death.

 

The sequel to One More Chance

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A Perfect Fifth

By Jaycie Morrison

Music
Virgins/First Love
Financial gap/Class disparity
International Setting
Coming Out
Friends & Community
Royalty
Weddings

Two divides perfectly into four, not five.

Zara Keller is a survivor turned piano phenomenon living for a big dream. When she’s invited to spend the weekend with four long-time friends outside of London, she has little use for luxurious Fullerhill Manor—but Lady Jillian Stansfield might be a different story.

The obligations thrust on Jillian Stansfield as Lady of the Manor center on home and family. Even her best friends expect her to put aside the desire for a meaningful life and carry on her legacy through marriage and children. Will the arrival of a fifth person be enough to tip the balance of their “gang of four” in her favor?

Zara challenges Jillian to pursue grander plans and stirs something new and profound, compelling Jillian to be true to herself and make the hardest decisions of her life. But when tragedy strikes, saving Jillian may cost Zara the goal of a position at the Royal College of Music, and the chance at love. 

Content advisory: This book contains instances of trauma and homophobia.

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Catching Feelings

By Ana Hartnett Reichardt and Others

College Life
Enemies to Lovers Romance
Bisexual
Sports
The Alder Series | Book 2
Close Quarters
Friends & Community

As a sophomore, Andrea Foster doesn’t expect to earn the starting catcher position on the Alder University softball team. She’s used to blending in and leaving the spotlight for the likes of Maya Gonzalez, the team’s fiery ace pitcher. No one is more surprised than Andy when she’s named starting catcher and captain of the Alder Lions.

Maya was supposed to be captain, everyone says so. Instead, she’s forced to train with Andy every day, partners for everything, and she isn’t happy about it. But there’s something more than animosity building between them. Tough games, hard losses, and a memorable bus ride later, an undeniable attraction pulls Andy and Maya closer. Now they just need to rise above their differences and lead their team to the College World Series.

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Defiant Hearts

By Lee Lynch

Friends & Community
Magic
Age Gap
Virgins/First Love
Financial gap/Class disparity
Workplace Romance
Friends to Lovers Romance
Animals 
Blue Collar
Big City
New York City
Coming Out
Actors/Artists
Lawyers
Vacation
Firefighters
Multicultural 
Disability
Food
Small Town Romances
People of Color

Gathered for the first time in one collection, these short stories from Lee Lynch represent a quarter century of passionate portrayals of lesbian women. Lynch chronicles the lives of old women who fall in love, a Black firefighter seeking her place in the feminist community, bar dykes unwilling to back down, the denizens of lesbian-owned Café Femmes, and Henny—who runs an urban fruit stand while regaling her baby butch assistants with tales from her life. Iconic characters from Lynch's novels also make an appearance: Frenchy Tonneau from The Swashbuckler and Annie Heaphy from Toothpick House.

Lee Lynch’s work is considered among the classics and a cornerstone in the large and permanent foundation of lesbian literature.

 

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Love and Duty

By Catherine Young

Royalty
Space Opera
Other Worlds

Princess Roseli has always known her duty as heir apparent to the Delphian throne was to marry, not for love, but to form political alliances. That doesn’t stop her from wishing she could marry her three lovers, General Tate, Senator Veritas, and Lady Swann. When her mother, the empress, informs her that she is to marry Princess Lucia, a Calliopean admiral, to secure a military treaty between their planets, her greatest concern is how this will change the delicate balance she has established with her lovers.
 
With a rapidly deteriorating political situation and war looming on the horizon, Princess Roseli has little choice but to learn to get along with her stubborn fiancée, especially if they are all to survive the escalating assassination attempts against them.

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