Outside the Lines

As a doctor, Mick McVey knows what a mental health crisis looks like. Her own still takes her by surprise. When she inherits a house from the grandfather she’s never met, she puts herself on sabbatical and travels to the small hometown of the mother who abandoned her. It’s a temporary solution.

Mick might not be grieving her grandfather, but to her new neighbor Katy, his death is one blow too many. Mick’s arrival feels like Katy’s chance to forget her ex and her struggling cinema and reinvent herself. She’ll finally get her hot rebound and make this year her year.

When the COVID-19 lockdown traps both women in situations they’d convinced themselves were temporary, they’re forced to face what they really want from their lives, and who they want to share them with.

The glitz and glam of Hollywood are just an illusion, and everyone knows celebrities and paparazzi mix as well as oil and water.

Rylee Callison is one of the best paparazzi in Hollywood. A-List actress McKenzie Gomann hates the press after a series of photos create unwelcome trouble for her. When they meet, the attraction is undeniable, but Rylee is keeping a big secret to protect and provide for her family. When McKenzie finds out that Rylee is not only a member of the paparazzi, but the paparazzo who took the scandalous photographs of her, the heat between them turns ice cold.

Can the magic of Hollywood set the stage that brings them back together, or are happy endings only for the movies?

Hannah knows how to grow her family’s jewelry design company into one of the most successful on the West Coast. But share her emotions? Not so much. She needs to break up with her girlfriend, Bren, but tragedy strikes before she gathers the courage.

It’s been years, but Vanessa hasn’t recovered from her ex, Bren, dumping her. She’s owned her flower shop for over twenty-five years and should be confidently anticipating her fiftieth birthday, but she still battles her mother’s criticism.

When Vanessa mysteriously shows up at Bren’s funeral, questions, and a few eyebrows, are raised. Was Bren who Hannah and Vanessa thought she was? Did they really know her at all? As the secrets and lies mount, the shocking truth reveals why their relationships failed. But will learning from the past give them the skills to build a future with one another?

Explore the angst and excitement of forbidden love few would dare in this heart-stopping novella collection.

In Her Boss's Wife by Gun Brooke, January Wild needs a letter of recommendation to finally move to her dream job. Only she’s caught in the crosshairs of her bosses’ messy divorce and has a dangerous crush on her boss’s wife. Will they risk everything for a chance at forever?

In Her Therapist's Daughter by J.J. Hale, with the help of her therapist, Freya embarks on a journey of self-discovery that leads to a serendipitous meeting and an unexpected connection. Unbeknownst to them, Freya’s therapist is the same woman advising her daughter to follow her heart, straight into Freya’s arms.

In Her Brother’s Girlfriend by Aurora Rey, Hadley Devine always knew she’d find her way back to the family restaurant and take over as head chef. She didn’t count on working alongside Brianna Kerns, her brother’s girlfriend, and the woman she’s been in love with since high school.

CEO Eleanor Clairice Beauchamp’s rules for business:
#1: Business always comes first
#2: Succeed
#3: Don’t fail
#4: Never fall in love

Clairice “Claire” Beauchamp has spent her adult life escaping poverty and reaching the top of her industry by adhering to her rules. But staying there may prove to be the most difficult challenge yet. Lotus Enterprises’ next big project requires owning an entire city block, and one last property owner refuses to sell. So, Claire goes undercover to scope out the café owner. She expects to discover the source of her resistance and negotiate a deal. She doesn’t expect to be so drawn to her.

Abby Pita is finally her own boss after achieving her dream of owning Sunshine and Sweets Café. She has no interest in the buyout offers, especially not as her attraction to her newest customer, Claire, is growing. Claire seems to feel their connection too, and Abby has hope that there could be a future for them.

When the truth is revealed, will Claire break all her rules, or both their hearts?

Suri Daniels, a beautiful and troubled woman, is the descendant of a family of supernaturally gifted women, known as the Blessed, and literally holds keys to gateways between the earthly plane and seven powerful gods. A series of tragic losses and a stipulation in her grandmother’s will has her returning to the family’s home in New Orleans, unaware that she will need to step into the role of Orisha priestess and escape the attention of a powerful demon. To top it all off, she must accept the help of a Cambion—Lyla Jefferies, a dark supernatural being she has spent her life avoiding. What’s worse? She can’t help being drawn to Layla in ways she doesn’t understand.

Being the child of a top-tier demon and a human isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. For the past two hundred years, Layla Jefferies has lived a life of quietude. When an unknown force draws her out of seclusion, the pull is too strong to ignore. Layla is tasked to assist with protecting the gateways and saving Suri from becoming a vengeful demon’s avatar. Falling in love with her is definitely not part of the plan.

Layla and Suri are brought together by fate to defeat the darkness threatening to tear their world apart. What they don’t expect to discover is a love that might set them free.

Content advisory: Opening chapter includes a depiction of sexual violence and rape.

Dear Reader,

I wrote The Blessed to honor the resilience, strength, and faith of my community’s ancestors. To tell a story, in my own way, of their survival in a world that treated them as less than the lowest of creatures. A world that continues to methodically strip away our sense of selves as humans and our culture as a people. Layla is the embodiment of all People of Color, particularly Women of Color, in this country and the suffering they have endured, which was violent, painful, and has lasted for generations. I choose to honor all those women like Layla, her mother, and grandmother who survived and rather than turn to violence themselves, chose to stand tall and lift their community up.

The Blessed begins with an act of physical violence to represent how some People of Color were brought into the world. Just as we survived our violent past, so does Layla. Just as we did not allow what was wrought upon us to break us, to take away our capacity to love and cherish others the way we were not, Layla also does not let her circumstances break her. She turns that violence into the resolve to help her community. In the process, she finds a love that strengthens her even more.

You may feel discomfort when reading Layla’s beginnings as it mirrors the pain of the past. Atrocity and its generational impacts should not feel comfortable or easy. But her story is ultimately an uplifting one of family, faith, culture, and love that I believe you will enjoy. I hope you see The Blessed as honoring the struggles of my ancestors and accepting the blessing of life, faith, and love that they have bestowed upon me as a result of their survival.

Forever thankful, always grateful, abundantly blessed,

Anne Shade