Ian Baines seems to have it all—a career as a hotshot software programmer in Silicon Valley, a beautiful wife and family, a nice house in an upscale San Francisco neighborhood, and a past that he’s mostly managed to forget. Life takes an unexpected turn for Ian when he finds himself in Paris for a three-month work project where he meets former fashion photographer Luca Sparks. The unlikely friendship grows and Ian sees a new side to life as Luca takes him on a journey through the glamorous and lustrous Paris nightlife. But something strange starts to happen during their adventures in Paris—the two start to fall in love. Both battle their own demons on the road to self-discovery, ultimately learning how to come to peace with their feelings and their pasts.

Lambda Literary says... 

Outwardly, Ian Baines’ life has all the clichéd trappings of success:  a rising career as a software programmer at a Silicon Valley start-up; a beautiful, accomplished wife; two above-average sons; a fabulous house in an upscale San Francisco neighborhood. The long hours at his job, however, begin to strain his marriage and threaten to unravel his perfect family life. Against his better judgement, then, he accepts a three-month work project based in Paris, creating a database of the fashion house Môti’s collection. While in Paris, alone, he meets the former fashion photographer Luca Sparks who introduces him to the Paris that is hidden from tourists, and together they enjoy the glamorous Parisian nightlife. Their unlikely friendship soon develops into something deeper, until finally Ian is forced to make a choice.

Such is the basic story behind The Photographer’s Truth by Ralph Josiah Bardsley. The two protagonists appear to share little in common: Ian, the unkempt and logical American contrasts with the impeccable, artistic, and cosmopolitan Frenchman Luca. But neither man is entirely what he seems on the surface: for example, buried in their pasts are Ian’s single sexual experience with another man, and Luca’s marriage to a female photojournalist. Ian, in typical American fashion, is rather out of touch with his feelings, so it takes a while for what is obvious to the reader to dawn on him, namely that Luca is attracted to him and is courting him. Perhaps it is Ian’s liberal Californian upbringing, or being thrust into a milieu so different from his normal world, but Ian is not consumed with feelings of “I can’t be gay or Bi”; instead he is consumed by guilt over cheating on his wife.

Bardsley allows the relationship between the two men to develop at a believable pace; as the narrative unfolds, we gradually learn more about the two men at the center of the story, and how they evolve over the course of the romance. Ian narrates the story, so it is clear to the reader how drastically his attitudes and life change; but when Ian meets Luca’s friends, and through them learns Luca’s backstory, it becomes apparent to him (and the reader) that their relationship has also changed Luca. A notorious recluse, once he meets Ian he begins ignoring even his close circle of friends; he also quits smoking.

It used to be said that “the camera doesn’t lie”—at least without irony before the advent of Photoshop and Instagram filters—but the truth is that the photographer carefully constructs the photograph (using light, shadow, color, setting, etc.) in much the same way that the fiction writer constructs a scene in a chapter. Both use their respective media to tell a story, and both use lies to tell a deeper truth. Luca acknowledges how much artifice goes into making art when he explains to Ian that the “photographer must make a decision. He must decide what his subject looks like before he takes the picture. We have to decide what we want to see….What do you want to see?  What do you want your world to be?” Of course, Luca’s explanation of how to be a good photographer could just as easily be applied to the question of how to live one’s life in an authentic manner.

DEA Agent Dale Nelson paid the ultimate price for her service when her wife was killed by drug dealers. Now she’s assigned to a task force investigating the suspects and she doesn’t need the distraction of the beautiful but infuriating reporter, Lindsey Ryan. Despite her initial resistance, Dale discovers that Lindsey is as talented and capable as she is attractive. Will she get a second shot at love, or will the peril of her job rob her of the chance at happiness again?

Investigative reporter Lindsey Ryan will do whatever it takes to get the truth. As a favor,she agrees to anchor what is supposed to be a puff piece on the DEA. However, despite the reluctance of the striking Agent Nelson to share any information, Lindsey learns power and politics are at play, and exposing the truth could not only be dangerous, but could jeopardize her chance at love.

Special Agent Ryan O’Connor’s life is exactly on track—she’s with a wonderful woman, and she’s doing something she loves. Sure, her boss can’t stand her, but she figures if that’s her biggest problem, she’s pretty damn lucky. She should have known it was too good to last and that when fate finally slapped her, it would do so hard enough to leave a mark.

When Ryan’s ex-girlfriend, Special Agent Allison Reynolds, suddenly reappears in New York, her carefully constructed world is thrown into chaos. As they’re forced to work together, Ryan is compelled to confront several realities that she wishes she could avoid. One of which is that it’s terrible to mix the past with the present. The other is that it’s not only the past that paints the present with lead.

Groomed for high-stakes business since her childhood in Sweden, Sylvie Thorn resides in Manhattan. As Thorn Enterprise’s US branch president, she goes into business with Maeve DeForest, a party-loving socialite.

Aeron DeForest, Maeve’s clandestine daughter, was brought up by nannies and sent off to boarding schools and has always been invisible to her mother. After college, Aeron moves to the Adirondacks and becomes a successful horror novelist. 

When Maeve dies, Sylvie learns Maeve has a daughter, and she needs Aeron to sign vital papers. After an initial clash, they reluctantly start working together. Just when they start to believe in love and their all-consuming passion, outside forces threaten to keep them apart forever.

Does love have a chance when no one knows she wants it?

Jinx Tanner is an ex-con trying to piece together a life on the outside and heal her relationship with her half-sister who hasn’t spoken to her in over twenty-five years. Romantic love is nowhere on her radar. E. J. Bastien is a business executive with her life and heart under control. She has a successful career, a woman in her bed whenever she wants one, and a healthy relationship with her grown children—as long as they don’t find out she’s gay. She has no desire for romantic entanglements.

When these two women awaken after a one-night stand to find their lives inextricably entwined, love has its work cut out for it.

Krish Nayar is damp. He’s cold. He’s an American lost in the foggy woods of Wales and sporting a sprained ankle. When a handsome renaissance faire player in shining armor, Bleddyn ap Rhys, rescues Krish from stumbling around and getting even more lost, Krish thinks his prayers are answered. At least until Bleddyn brings him to Castle Gwydir, where everyone lives like it really is Medieval Wales, no one knows what an iPhone or indoor plumbing is, and where, by all accounts, the year is 1626.

Traveling four hundred years into the past is improbable, but apparently not impossible. Learning to fit in with medieval Welshmen is difficult, but not impossible. What’s impossible is Krish not losing his heart to gallant Bleddyn in a time when, if acted on, their love means a death sentence.

Jane's PayBuddy account gets hacked and she inadvertently purchases a mail-order bride from Transnistria. Jane doesn't realize she's about to embark on her honeymoon until the bride, Natasha, shows up on her doorstep, with luggage. Jane's roommate, Ethan, can't stop drooling over sexy Natasha. Luckily, after the demise of the local newspaper, Jane has just taken a job at the public library where she has lots of coworkers smarter than she is that she enlists to help her figure a way out of this accidental marriage. Natasha believes if she can get Jane to consummate their marriage that, according to California's new state rulings on same-sex marriage, she'll be a US citizen. But is that all she's really after? Or does true romance begin to bloom between Natasha and Jane? If Jane's part-time girlfriend, Dorothy, has anything to say about it, the answer is no!

When special interest reporter Tessa Finnegan “Finn” McCoy met paralegal Amber Kent four years ago, she knew she was going to marry her. Planning the perfect proposal is never easy, but Finn is determined to make this one and only time the best she can for the love of her life. With all of her careful planning and the ring in hand, what could possibly go wrong? Except…absolutely everything. In the chaos, can Finn salvage the day and will Amber just say yes?

Sometimes a sacrifice is the purest form of love.

Rhea Daniels is a survivor. Just released from prison for the murder of her pedophile father, she is trying to put the past behind her and build a new life. When Rhea goes to work for Morgan Scott, an ex-priest with a big heart and a damaged soul, Rhea is challenged to face her wildest dreams and worst nightmares.  

And Morgan isn’t without challenges of her own. When a man with a grudge comes to claim his revenge, she learns that, sometimes, there is no clear line between right and wrong. And sometimes redemption is about being willing to take a stand.

What’s the best birthday present a girl could want? The undivided attention of her one true love, of course. Except this time, the love of her life makes her wait, and wait, and wait…for what she really wants the most. Join our party girl for the hottest day of her life.

In Roaring Twenties Chicago, eighteen-year-old farm boy and hockey hopeful Brett Bennet is drafted to the big leagues of the city's first ever team. His deepest secret catches fire when he meets the dashing but reclusive goalie, Jean-Paul Moreau. As they circle one another finding out who they truly are, their lives are changed in ways neither can control.

Brett will need the help of freewheeling flapper Margret to find a way to break through Jean-Paul's ice, and to navigate the high stakes world of professional sports from the opening game through to the championship. Only together do they have a hope of facing the deadly threat of a man who can bring it all down with one word.

In the port city of Fortaine, two young girls acquire new families.

Four-year-old Eawynn, the unwanted illegitimate daughter of an ambitious noble, is dumped in the temple. When she is old enough, she will be initiated into its sisterhood of priestesses. Meanwhile Matt, the street urchin, earns a crime lord’s admiration, so much so he adopts her as his daughter and heir to his underworld clan.

Nearly two decades later, their paths cross when Eawynn is appointed custodian of the Shewstone, the mystical orb of prophecy. Unfortunately for her, Matt is on a mission to steal it.

Stanford law graduate Kate Dawson is focused on the future laid out for her—partnership in her family’s law firm and marriage. When she moves to a cabin in the Santa Cruz Mountains to study for the bar exam, crossing paths with her intriguing neighbor leads to a journey of sexual awakening and self-discovery that wasn’t part of the plan.

Landscaper and handsome butch top Chris Brent has a well-deserved reputation as a considerate lover. Avoiding relationships with all their emotional messiness, she indulges in her favorite pastime at sex parties and with casual lovers. She enthusiastically agrees to initiate her cute neighbor to ways of sexual pleasure.

Sex was the deal. Falling in love ruins everything. Or does it?

Publishers Weekly says: "[T]he characterization is top-notch, with emotional beats tied heavily to the increasing erotic entanglement of the leads....This is a sizzling, satisfying romance that hits the spot."

No one has her life more mapped out than Kai Merlin. She’ll succeed her mother Galen and carry out every duty expected of her—the most important of which is to keep hidden the secrets her people have kept for eons.

Vivien Palmer’s life has been just as planned out by her parents, and their dream is for her and her brother Franklin to eventually run the family business. But Vivien’s dreams lie in the depths of the oceans searching for clues to the shells she and Franklin wear around their necks.

A chance encounter as children forever linked Kai and Vivien for life, but can they find a way to be together despite what’s expected of them?

The answers lie beneath the waves.

College: four years when anything goes and rules are made to be broken. A time for freedom, experimentation, and guiltless pleasures. Come join the co-eds for a homecoming bash, crash a girls-only party, and enjoy study hall where the topic is Eros. From roommates with benefits to sexy sorority initiations, hot professors demanding extra credit after class and summer vacation threesomes, this collection is required reading for anyone looking to earn an A in sex-ed.

Selena Miller accepts a job in Wolfgang County, jumping at the chance to get away from her overbearing family. Crippled by anxiety, she’s determined to start a new, independent life.

As Second of the Wolfgang pack, Caden Wolfgang is used to having her orders followed without question. When the Alpha allows a human to work in the heart of their business, Caden is horrified. Haunted by a childhood tragedy at the hands of a human, Caden makes it her mission to keep Selena from threatening everything they’ve built.

When contempt turns into attraction and passion flares, can their love survive Selena learning the truth of what the Wolfgangs really are?

When Samantha Monteiro launched Perfect Match, Inc. a few years ago, she never imagined her matchmaking business would be booming while her own love life floundered. When her business partner drags her out of hiding to attend the wedding of one of their successful client matches, she meets a dancer with a dark past and a penchant for secrecy who excites her in a way she hadn't thought possible. Samantha wonders if Lucinda Moss is the key to solving not one but two matches that have eluded Samantha since everything around her fell apart or if she is destined to find love for everyone but herself.

In a world where nothing is constant, Lucinda has learned to keep herself emotionally at arm's length and given up on the chance to find true happiness. Can the notorious Miss Match help her forget her troubled past?

Publishers Weekly says: "In this sweet, sensual debut, Riley brings together likable characters, setting them against a colorful supporting cast and exploring their relationship through charming interactions and red-hot erotic scenes....Rich in characterization and emotional appeal, this one is sure to please."