Suspecting Her

By Mary P. Burns

Weddings
Big City
Financial gap/Class disparity
New York City
Workplace Romance
People of Color
Age Gap
Amateur Sleuths

Erin O’Connor is broke in more ways than one. A rising star in the art world, her last showing crashed and burned, wrecking her marriage on the way down. Now her finances are in ruins, and she may have to leave New York City. To help Erin out, her best friend, journalist Nat Robicheaux, hires her to help research a story about racist practices at a local realty company.

Catherine Williams, Sumter Realty’s top saleswoman, thought she was done with relationships when her last one imploded. But when Erin walks into one of her open houses, all bets are off. She invites Erin to a private showing. Then, she asks her to dinner. And a friend’s wedding. The more time she spends with Erin, the deeper she falls.

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Two Winters

By Lauren Emily Whalen

Homecoming
Young Adult
People of Color
Friends & Community
Holidays |
Children / Families

The winter of 1997 is a tragedy waiting to happen. Small-town life isn't easy for seventeen-year-old bisexual and closeted Paulina, especially when her best friend Mia becomes pregnant and doesn’t want to tell the baby's father, Paulina's other best friend, Tesla. Meanwhile, Paulina's secret relationship with volleyball star Ani is about to go public. One fateful night, everything changes forever.

In the winter of 2014, Perdita, bi and proud in Chicago, is weeks away from turning seventeen. She loves her two moms, but why won’t they talk about her adoption? When Perdita meets improv performer Fenton, she discovers both a kindred soul and a willing accomplice in her search for the truth. Will Perdita find what she's looking for? 

Two Winters is a contemporary YA retelling of Shakespeare’s The Winter’s Tale about birth, death, Catholic school, improv comedy, and the healing nature of time.

 

"This retelling of The Winter's Tale follows parallel stories of family and forgiveness in two very different times...Finding the original play’s resonance in the complicated kingdoms of high school while still appealingly down-to-earth, the specificity of place and slow build toward complication and tragedy work well in Paulina’s section but less successfully in Perdita’s. Readers need not be familiar with Shakespeare’s original to appreciate this skillful adaptation. Unabashedly queer, moving, and sincere."—Kirkus Reviews, 08/15/2021

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Calumet

By Ali Vali

Jaxon Lavigne left the small town of Chackbay, Louisiana, to escape disapproving parents and has never looked back. She’s now a popular English lit professor. Life is good. Really. The only problem is the invite in her mailbox. Who in their right mind has a fifteen-year high school reunion?

Iris Long’s days are predictable. She did the safe thing and married the high school quarterback. While her life isn’t a grand love affair, it’s comfortable, and as the secretary at the local high school, she can see her daughter and son throughout the day. Her family is great, but Iris longs for the one person she can’t have. 

Jaxon comes back to town amid gossip that started sixteen years earlier and never really died down. After crushing on Iris in high school, seeing her again is a welcome surprise. But it’s Iris’s daughter, Sean, whose dark hair, blue eyes, and brilliant mind are startlingly like Jaxon’s own who exposes scars from small town secrets.

Jaxon has been kept in the dark by those she loves most, including Iris. But when the truth is finally revealed, will she leave for good?

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Her Countess to Cherish

By Jane Walsh

International Setting

Miss Beatrice Everson has managed to marry the Earl of Sinclair, solving her family’s disastrous financial problems for good. She should be the happiest woman in London, but a less than satisfactory wedding night has Beatrice fleeing her husband and planning an affair with the dashing Mr. George Smith.

Lady Georgina Smith has a secret she must keep at all costs: she divides her time running a bluestocking salon as Gina, and carousing across London as George. Captivated by Beatrice’s wit and charm, Georgina realizes that her secret is in danger—along with her heart.

When Beatrice discovers that her wedding night has resulted in an unexpected pregnancy, she sees an opportunity to have it all by divorcing Sinclair and marrying George. However, Georgina isn’t sure that a lifetime spent as a man is staying true to herself. Beatrice and Georgina must risk giving up their secrets to finally have their heart’s desire. But is the risk too great to take?

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Hot Days, Heated Nights

By Renee Roman

Children / Families

Cole Jackson’s promise to her dying father has left her destined for a solitary life in the small town of Inlet, NY.

After Lee Walker's employer goes bankrupt, her world crumbles, and she’s forced to move in with her uncle.

When Cole and Lee meet, instant attraction quickly flares into uncontrollable passion, but their connection might be short lived. Lee’s identity is tied to her life in the city, and she’s worked hard to make it on her own terms. Inlet, NY is just a way station on her trip back to the world where she belongs.

It will be up to Cole, and the heated nights they share, to give her a reason to stay.

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Never Be the Same

By MA Binfield

Celebrity

They say opposites attract. They aren’t kidding.

When Casey meets Olivia—the actress she’s driving around for two weeks—she figures it’s going to be all business. Sure, Olivia’s hot and has women throwing themselves at her feet, but Casey is only interested in making the money she needs before going back to Portland. London is full of painful memories, and anyway, perfectly put together celebrities are not really her thing.

Olivia loves being “Susie,” her TV alter ego. She’s sassy, sexy, and never short of admirers, but living her life in the public eye is taking its toll. When her new driver turns out to be tall, dark, and undeniably handsome, Olivia is intrigued. But Casey seems like she has something to hide, and the last thing Olivia needs is someone she can’t trust.

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Quiet Village

By Eden Darry

When her sister dies, Collie Noonan gets custody of her ten-year-old niece. Hoping for a fresh start, they move to a small village on the outskirts of Suffolk. But in Hyam all is not as it seems. The locals are verging on hostile, and all the local shop seems to stock is meat – a problem for Collie’s vegetarian niece.

Emily Lassiter is also new to the village, and Collie is drawn to the mysterious schoolteacher. Unknown to Collie, Emily is an undercover reporter looking into the disappearance of her brother. He warned her something was wrong in Hyam. Something was watching him. Emily believes the answers lie in the village, and she’ll do whatever it takes to discover the truth.

But something not quite human is stalking Collie and her niece. It’s coming for them all, and they’ll need to work together if any of them want to get out of Hyam alive.

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Shaken or Stirred

By Georgia Beers

A Swizzle Stick Romance | Book 1

The only girl in a house of boys, Julia Martini worked extra hard to get noticed. That has made her business-minded and driven, and she’s determined to turn her family’s struggling bar around. Simple. All she has to do is remodel, re-staff, and rebrand the place, work insane hours and ignore the sexy blonde who comes in to...she’s flirting, right? ’Cause Julia’s rusty and has zero time for dating, even if their chemistry is off-the-charts steamy.

Savannah McNally’s needs always come last. A caretaker by trade, she also takes care of her widowed dad, her brother, her sister, and everybody else on the planet, it seems. When her dad finally starts dating, Savannah can focus on her own life for once—her career, her house, maybe even that super-hot bartender at Martini’s who has her thinking naughty thoughts. 

When family feuds are exposed and a popular blog trashes the bar, the weight of business decisions, family loyalty, and life in general may outweigh their attraction that could lead to more.

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The Fiend in the Fog

By Jess Faraday

International Setting
Magic

1885, East London

Abigail and Gideon are under siege. Noxious fogs have been bringing their clinic waves of indigent patients with inexplicable symptoms, telling wild tales of a demonic presence in the fog. If that’s not enough, someone wants the clinic for themselves, and they’re using the force of law to get it.

On the other side of town, heiress Meg Eisenstadt and her brother Nat live a life of well-intentioned aimless luxury. She dabbles in social justice causes and he pursues alchemy. And in a secret lab in the depths of Whitechapel, disgraced physician Jin Wylie attempts to rebuild his shattered life by performing dubious research for a shadowy cabal.

They live in separate worlds on different trajectories until the mysterious fiend in the fog brings them together.

Abigail and Meg discover a shared passion for social justice, and for one another. But where does that leave her plans with Gideon? And what of the future of the clinic? Gideon has his own monster. Can he keep it in check without Abigail’s constant presence? Does Dr. Wylie’s research hold the solution to Gideon’s problems, or is it the cause of them? And could Nat’s own dabblings be the key to defeating the vicious killer in the fog?

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The Marriage Masquerade

By Toni Logan

Friends to Lovers Romance
Marriage of Convenience/Fake Relationship

Taylor Braxton needs to get married, then divorced, with no strings attached. 

Taylor, a physical trainer, has just inherited her grandfather’s B&B on Maui, but there’s a catch. She can’t have the deed until the day after her one-year wedding anniversary. She’d rather stick a fork in her eye than get hitched, but the B&B is a dream come true. So all she has to do is find a woman who will agree to fake a marriage. How hard can it be? 

Jayden Wheaton could use a year in paradise to help her recovery. After a crippling accident, she hires Taylor in the hope of gaining back some mobility. When Taylor casually mentions her dilemma, Jayden jumps at the chance, hoping the warm island temperatures will help with her chronic pain. A marriage masquerade in exchange for a year in Paradise? Yes, please. After all, it’s not like either of them are looking for romance, so there’s zero chance of their feelings complicating the arrangement. Right?

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Flight SQA016

By Amanda Radley

The Flight Series | Book 1

Emily White works an exhausting transatlantic schedule for Crown Airlines. Crippling debt means she spends more time in the air as a member of the first-class cabin crew than she does on the ground being a mother, and she desperately misses her young son.

Fastidious passenger Olivia Lewis is used to things being a certain way. When her routine is changed by this new, attractive member of the staff, she attempts to reach out to Emily. Unfortunately, Olivia is famous for her terrible social skills, and things quickly go oh-so-wrong.

When disaster strikes for her son, will Emily be able to swallow her pride and accept the assistance Olivia offers?

First publication 2016

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Home Is Where the Heart Is

By Jenny Frame

International Setting
A Rosebrook Romance | Book 2

Ashling O’Rourke has always seen love through the prism of her vintage romance novel collection. The dukes, the duchesses, and the corsets and carriages help her to experience different kinds of love. She’s content living a sheltered life in a small village and even gets a job working for the Rosebrook Village Trust. Ash’s newly exciting life is only marred by the arrogant Archie, who thinks she’s the office tea girl.

Steff “Archie” Archer is a Townie who never likes to be more than a mile away from a coffee, sushi, or juice bar. Despite being an avid environmentalist and working for Rosebrook Village Trust, she never wants to live there. She’s lived the country life before and vowed never to return.

When unsentimental Archie falls for the hopeless romantic Ashling, Archie needs to learn how to make her sweetheart swoon, but will she be able to settle in the village and make her home where her heart is?

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Moving Forward

By PJ Trebelhorn

The last person Shelby Ryan expects to run into is Iris Calhoun, the sister of the man who killed her wife four years and three thousand miles ago.

Shelby hasn’t seen Iris since the day Iris testified in court to put her brother behind bars. When Iris becomes an administrator at Hopewell, the local nursing home where Shelby volunteers, avoiding her becomes impossible. Seeing Iris causes her grief to resurface, and she relies on her father and friends to help her through. There’s no way she would consider falling for anyone related to a murderer.

Iris believed her brother deserved a life behind bars, even if her family considers her a traitor. But then he was killed by a fellow inmate only months later, and Iris has struggled to forgive herself. 

Shelby and Iris know the best thing to do is stay away from each other, but neither of them is prepared for the instant attraction they feel. Can they put their horrific pasts behind them and move forward together?

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Poison Pen

By Jean Copeland

Kendra Blake is having her best year ever. At forty-five, she’s finally fulfilled her lifelong dream of writing a lesfic novel and is excitedly awaiting its publication. Alison Chatterley, a British au pair, aspires to stay in America and become a journalist. While neither woman has finding romance on their radar, when their paths cross at a dance, their chemistry and connection are instant, and they’re swept into a passionate relationship. But is it too much too soon?

Before long, the bloom falls off their rose when a nasty book review, Alison’s secrets, and baggage from Kendra’s past derail their promising future. Unable to trust Alison, Kendra calls it off. Despite a career change taking Alison’s life in a new direction, she is determined to prove what they had is worth fighting for. But convincing a skeptic like Kendra will be harder than she thinks.

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Seasons for Change

By KC Richardson

In the majestic mountains of Lake Tahoe, true love might be right next door.

Shawn spent much of her adult life running her diner, giving all her passion to the great outdoors, and bedding the occasional tourist. But loneliness has crept up on her, and suddenly in her late thirties, she’s turning over a new leaf and looking for more than transient passion.

Following a bad breakup with her good-for-nothing cheating ex, Morgan escapes to Lake Tahoe to heal her heart. Her temporary neighbor, Shawn, is ruggedly handsome in all the right ways, but Morgan is determined not to notice and risk her heart again.

Shawn helps Morgan to slow down and appreciate the moment but finds it increasingly difficult to deny her attraction. Morgan’s definitely not staying, and the last thing Shawn needs is to fall in love with a tourist.

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Summer Lovin'

By Julie Cannon

Three stories of fun in the sun during one unforgettable summer.

In Maui Magic, Addison Bradbury can build anything, but her love life falls apart before it even gets going. Erin Williams, the owner of Maui Magic Catamaran, is more interested in having fun with a woman than building a future with one. Addison is used to getting her way and Erin simply sails through life. There’s no way they’ll fall in love, right?

In Bahama Breeze, Samantha Recker is not a stereotypical CFO. She’s into Harleys, hang gliding, and living life on the edge. When she meets Teresa Tinsdale, Sam is completely thrown. She has met her match in more ways than one. Like magnets, they are pulled together and pushed apart, and there’s no way they’ll stay together, right?

In Jamaican Haven, as an introvert, Cora Donaldson expects to spend her volunteer time quietly cleaning kennels and poop-scooping for a charity dedicated to rescuing stray dogs, until she spills her entire bucket of poo on beautiful, captivating Tyler Sanchez, the shelter’s director. There’s no way Cora is ever going to recover, right?

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Unbridled

By D. Jackson Leigh

After a hard-fought battle to take control of her personal and professional life, mystery writer Lauren Everhart’s star is finally rising. She vows never to give up control of anything in her life until she meets her niece’s sexy horseback-riding instructor and signs up for her own private lessons, and more.

Riding top horses on the show jumping circuit and igniting a woman’s desire are simply games of power, and Marsh Langston is a master player. Only this time, the flame she fans with Lauren Everhart burns too hot and so quickly it threatens to sear through Marsh's impenetrable control.

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VIP

By Jackie D

Audrey Knox has been America’s Sweetheart since she appeared in her first film at sixteen. Never one for a scandal, she’s lived a predictable and well-manicured life. With each movie more successful than the last, she has the world at her fingertips. An undeniable connection with bad girl superstar Harlow Thorne was never in her plan. 

Harlow Thorne left her childhood trailer park with nothing but her guitar and twin brother. Those times are nothing but a distant memory now, and she’s consistently at the top of the pop music world. She has managed to keep her mother in her rearview mirror through all her success, but that all changes when her mother reappears with a family secret.

Together these two could conquer the world—but in a town where careers are made and broken by the press, the secrets and lies may be too much to overcome.

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