When rancher Bobbie Del Rey walks into the veterinarian’s office with an injured pup, the last person she expects to see is the one woman she’s never allowed herself to love. The only thing more dangerous than the storm raging outside is the tempest in her heart.

Veterinarian Grace Hammond is looking for a fresh start. Haunted by her past, she hopes moving back to her hometown will help her find the strength to stand up for what she needs in matters of the heart. The moment her first love, Bobbie Del Rey, walks into her clinic—tall, dark, and soaking wet—the boundaries Grace desperately needs become paper thin.

Can the heartbreaks of the past ever truly be mended?

An anthology of short fiction featuring the finalist selections from the 2020 Saints+Sinners Literary Festival.

What happens when you leave your inhibitions at the door? When you’re ready for something different, something that pushes your boundaries and makes your wildest, wettest fantasies come true? What would you do if no one was watching? Or if they were? Is there something you’ve always wanted try? A bit of role play? A top to someone’s bottom? That chance meeting that leads to unexpected pleasures?

Life is anything but ordinary when the lights go out and there are no rules to follow. This collection of stories by award winning authors offers fantasies as soft as silk and tough as leather. The only question is: How far will you go to make your deepest desires come true?

Praise from Publishers Weekly: "The 20 stories in this scorching anthology of lesbian erotica celebrate Sapphic love, freedom of choice, and female sexuality...Readers will be thrilled by the erotic journeys of these empowered heroines who break out of their shells and claim their pleasure. There are no false notes in this red-hot anthology." (starred)

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

On the night of her twenty-second birthday, Aria Jasper discovers the family secret: she comes from a long line of people who communicate with ghosts. Now that she’s beginning to see and hear the newly dead, she’s expected to pledge her service to her father’s company, AfterCorps, and help rookie ghosts get their earthly affairs in order so they can make their final transfer. Angry about having to give up a music career that’s on the verge of exploding, Aria reluctantly begins her training.

The only other student, Sloane, is a sexy AfterCorps devotee determined to join the most dangerous branch of the organization: the Criminally Demonic Unit. As Aria and Sloane grow closer, they begin to suspect all is not as it seems. A terrified ghost claims that Aria’s father is evil and keeping her earthbound against her will. She begs for their help to cross over, but Aria and Sloane may not be prepared for the consequences of defying an organization powerful enough to exert influence in both the land of the living and the dead.

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?

Best-selling mystery writer Taylor James has struggled to complete a novel ever since divorcing her husband. When her publicist insists she take time away at a remote cabin to “finish the damn book,” Taylor reluctantly agrees.

Amid the crystal-clear lakes and towering pines of the north woods, Taylor encounters a mysterious woman. Small and beautiful, Levade keeps to herself, but at night she rides a white horse bareback into the lake, as if looking for something. Taylor is captivated, but Levade pushes her away. There’s a secret she can’t share involving a murderer who walks among them and who promised to kill anyone or anything Levade loves.

But White Horse Point is haunted by another pair of lovers, long deceased, who have a personal connection to the two women, and are determined to bring them together.

Beast: Former hip-hop artist Ebony “The Beast” Trent has wrapped her persona around herself like a protective wall of bitterness. Belinda Jansen is confident, intelligent, sexy, and—to Ebony's fascination—not the least bit intimidated by Ebony’s beastly demeanor. Can Beauty truly tame The Beast?

Awaken: Local celebrity chef Chayse Carmichael has achieved a level of success she’d only imagined while learning to cook. But when free-spirited Georgia peach Serena Frasier walks into her restaurant, Chayse realizes that success doesn’t always bring happiness if you don’t have someone special to share it with. Does love at first sight truly exist?

Stiletto: Music mogul Cass Phillips barely has a moment to sleep, let alone build a relationship. But an unexpected encounter with shoe designer Faith Shaw leads her to believe that maybe fairy tales do come true. Can true love really conquer all?

Six women find themselves in their own real-life fairy tales when true love finds them in the most unexpected ways.

Praise from Publishers Weekly: "Shade twines together three sensual novellas, each based on a classic fairy tale and centering black lesbian love....The fairy tale connections put a fun, creative spin on these quick outings. Readers looking for sweet and spicy lesbian romance will be pleased."

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.

Ben considers himself lucky. He found Gabriel early in life and he is loved.

But at twenty-one, he’s beginning to question if the boat of youthful independence will soon set sail without him. Will his devotion to Gabriel prevent him from exploring with other guys? Will he ever get to experience the heart-wavering thrill of falling in love again?

Vacationing on Gabriel’s family boat on the French Riviera, Ben is unprepared for the arrival of Leo, a beautiful adolescent thriving in the noontide of carefree nonchalance. Over the course of a single day, Ben battles his burgeoning lust and intensifying guilt.

Will he betray Gabriel, who has done nothing but love him? Or can he resist the carnal temptation of the most beautiful boy he has ever seen?

Elizabeth Rosseau and Abigail Lester were best friends. At twenty-one, they confess their feelings for each other before leaving for winter break. It should have been a love story, only Abigail never came back.

Six years later, Elizabeth contacts her one last time, and to her surprise, Abigail answers. Their chemistry is undeniable, but Abigail is hesitant to see her in person. She was in an accident that left her a monster, a wendigo. Now she’s in a support group for other inhuman cannibals and is mostly convinced that she could avoid eating Elizabeth, but Abigail doesn’t trust herself, and even more, she’s terrified that if Elizabeth finds out the truth, she’ll never want to see her again.

They want nothing more than to be together, but they belong to different worlds, different lives, and different food groups.

When Gwen picks up a pretty hitchhiker on the side of a lonely Texas highway, she has little reason to suspect that her entire life is about to change.

Annie has just broken out of prison, and she needs more than a ride—she needs Gwen’s help to recover the money she stole.

With other more dangerous criminals trying to stop them and the police on their tail, Gwen and Annie will have to decide what’s more important: the money or each other.

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.

Austin’s killed a man. Escaping his nefarious past and running from those who would force him to live as a woman, Austin dreams of becoming an upstanding man and homesteading alone on the fringes of the wild frontier.

The burgeoning tent township of Molasses Pond is clenched in the bloody fist of the deadliest gunslinger the country has ever known, Lightning Jack McKade. McKade knows who Austin is. In fact, McKade knows more about Austin’s past than Austin does. He had a hand in creating it.

On the last stagecoach until spring, a mail order bride, Sahara Miller, arrives in Molasses Pond. She claims to be Austin’s and has the documentation to prove it. But McKade’s gang will do anything to have her. Now Austin must choose: Strap on his twin six-shooters to protect the bride he never wanted, or turn a blind eye and keep his dream alive.

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.

Far from her Midwestern roots, Kathleen Schmitt is living in Tokyo as the project head for Personal Love Companion, a synthetic love robot made to match a customer's preference in personality and appearance. When Kathleen receives her own beta model for testing, she’s shocked to find her personalized robot is the exact replica of her neighbor, Yuriko Vellucci.

American-born engineer for the PLC project, Yuriko is sympathetic to Kathleen’s difficulties adjusting to Tokyo’s culture, but quickly realizes Kathleen will need her help if this transition—and the PLC project—is to be a success. With Yuriko to show her the way, Kathleen learns to socialize at an izakaya, find the best onsen in Nikko, party at a matsuri, buy doujinshii in Akihabara, fall in love with Japan, and, perhaps, fall for the person who showed it to her.

First Bold Strokes Books edition; previously published 2016.

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?