Happily ever after is easier said than done...

Sarah Matamoros can't complain. After immigrating from Mexico when she was nine years old, she's content with the life she's made for herself in sunny San Diego. She works hard at her mother's housecleaning service by day and spends the evenings with her quirky eight-year-old daughter, Grace.

From a very young age, Emory Owen had several concepts drilled into her head. Success is everything. Be the best. Fight your way to the top. Expectations were high in the Owen household and the world was watching. Born into a high society family, Emory never wanted for anything...at least anything money could buy. When she meets Sarah, hired to sort her mother's home, her sterile life suddenly sparks into color.

But when the emotional logistics of combining two very different worlds proves to be too much, a terrifying turn of events spurs the question: If love exists, can it really find a way?

Being popular, beautiful, determined, and a star athlete on her high school swim team is all that Bryce Montgomery has ever known. When she decides she wants to attend the Coast Guard Academy to become an officer, she knows that nothing can stand in her way. She is tested, however, when a harrowing encounter at a party leads to an unexpected attraction to one of her female friends. As their relationship blossoms, Bryce readily accepts her newfound sexuality, but her parents are horrified by the revelation. Being deeply religious, they shun Bryce and try to force her to change her sexuality or risk being kicked out of her own home. Luckily, her friends are there to support her through her ordeal. Despite the lack of support from her parents, Bryce achieves her dreams, but what will happen when that dream is shattered? Will her parents change their minds and help her pick up the pieces or will a friend from her past come to her rescue once again?

After an assassination attempt ruins his vacation, Agent Buck 98 is given a cryptic message by a dying drag queen: 3-1-4. The numbers match the date of Dr. Timothy Shoulwater's death, the noted scientist rumored to have discovered a potential cure for the AIDS virus before his notes mysteriously disappeared. Buck is paired with his former best friend turned rival Agent 49, the lovely Miss Noxia von Tüssëll, to investigate Dr. Shoulwater's ex-wife, the religious zealot and growing political advocate Dr. Raven Evangelista, who sponsors a heavily conservative political platform while secretly pursuing more personal and devious ambitions.

But it's neither an anti-gay political bomber nor the romantic pursuit of Richard, the handsome caterer he just met, that challenges Buck the most. It's that before the end of the mission, Buck must keep Noxia from discovering his own darkest fear.

"I shall always be in his shadow, unable to live up to the standard he set at Spindrift, hoping that someday Carlo might love me the way he loved his lost Timothy..."

The memory of Timothy haunts every corner of Spindrift, the beautiful mansion on the Atlantic shore. His face was flawless, his body breathtaking perfection. Everyone who saw him loved him, desired him, wanted him--whether they first laid eyes on him in a magazine ad, on a billboard, or on a box of underwear. No one ever forgot him, once they had passed through his orbit. They remember his wit, intelligence, and sense of style. He was the perfect match for wealthy Carlo Romaniello. Spindrift was the perfect backdrop for the glamorous couple, and the unforgettable, fabulous parties they hosted there. But then tragedy took Timothy, and darkness descended on the beautiful house on the beach. Carlo closed the house, and its secrets remained hidden within.

When Carlo reopens the house as a home for himself and his new young husband, those old secrets begin to creep out into the light. And those secrets might just prove deadly for his new spouse, a young man who has to compete with the memory of the unforgettable Timothy...

How many people do you cross paths with on any given day? A dozen? Twenty? Fifty? Ever stop to wonder how many of them might have more in common with you than you realize? What about your mail carrier? Your Zumba instructor? Your mechanic? The girl at the cash register of the supermarket? Your waiter? The person behind you in line at the bank? The truth is, we each have contact— however fleeting—with countless people each day about whom we know little to nothing. 

Join award-winning author Georgia Beers as she explores this very concept in Slices of Life, her first collection of connected short stories. Each story gives you a glimpse into the life of a character who happens to be a lesbian. Some are in love. Some are in trouble. Some are just going about their day. And at some point during that day, each character will cross paths with another, and then you’ll get a glimpse into her life.

Can love blossom beneath the waves of the Florida Keys? Or will the shadows that haunt two strangers prove too much to survive?

Scuba diving instructor Olivia Zuckerman loves guiding tourists under the water almost as much as she loves guiding women to her bed. Coerced into picking up a new trainee from the airport, Oz has no idea that her life is about to change in every imaginable way.

Daniela Finnsbury-Sterling, Finn to her friends, is trying to break away from an overbearing father, a man intent on making her life fit his plans. Desperate to make her own way, she escapes to Florida to train as a diving instructor. She knows it won't be easy. She knows her father will do anything he can to force her back into line. Unfortunately, she has no idea exactly what anything will be!

Parker "Kong" King is the number one tennis player in the world with a real talent for getting women in her bed. To prepare herself for the one title she's never won—and avoid the press and her ex—she retreats to a secluded home in Press Cove, Alabama. There she'll also be safe from the Soldiers of God who've threatened to kill her for what they see as her depraved lifestyle.

Commercial pilot Captain Sydney Parish loves the order that comes from a well-constructed plan for everything, her only failure being her personal life. She hopes a vacation will help heal her bruised heart, but soon finds that might not be possible when she discovers she's one house over from Parker King.

When Parker and Sydney meet, sparks fly, but not from attraction. They have the summer to see if they have a love match, or will the Soldiers of God kill their chance for a relationship?

What scares you the most? An impressive lineup of the biggest names in gay and lesbian publishing come together to share tales of things that go bump in the night, murder and revenge most foul, and dark creatures that will haunt your dreams, while putting a decidedly queer twist on the literary horror genre. Edited by award-winning authors Greg Herren and J. M. Redmann, the stories in Night Shadows are masterfully told, disturbing tales of psychological terror that will continue to resonate with readers long after they finish reading these delightfully wicked stories. Don't read these stygian tales when you're alone—or without every light in the house burning!

Jaime Rivers, author of the popular romance series, The Quest, survived an accident that nearly took her life. Cajoled into accepting an invitation for a seven-day cruise to celebrate her ten-year high school reunion, she comes face-to-face with her past when the woman of her dreams haunts her days on the warm seas, even as she struggles to keep a secret that tears at her heart.

Sierra Connor works for the travel agency responsible for booking her high school reunion cruise. She doesn't want to attend the reunion in the first place because one woman will be therethe one who always made her feel whole but then disappeared and left Sierra's heart and soul crushed without so much as a word. She knows love is for people who can trust, and she's not one of those people.

It was only one touch, ten years ago. Forced together once more, will the memory of that one touch ignite a new future? Or will their old hurts quench the flame?

What's the point of finding yourself if you lose your heart in the process?

Ren Molson should be chasing a bright new future. Instead, she's spent the last two years floundering in a small-town community college. She hates being the only lesbian she knows, and a virgin. She's tired of watching her friends move forward while her momentum stalls. Most of all, she's sick of feeling lost and confused about who she is or what she's supposed to do with her life. Desperate for a change, Ren hopes to use her Spanish class tour through Spain to remake herself.

True to her plan, as Ren travels through Spain, she learns more about herself than the country she's visiting. What she doesn't expect is to fall in love with her beautiful young tour guide, Lina Montero. She'll have to decide if her life can handle any more uncertainty and just how far she's willing to go in order to become the person she thought she wanted to be.

Before Stonewall, having a drink with friends or your girl could mean jail.

In 1961, The Old Town Tavern is more than just a gay bar. It's a home to strangers who have become family. Murph, the dapper unschooled storyteller. Rockie Solomon, the gentle, generous observer. Lisa Jelane, in all her lonely dignity. Gorgeous Paul, so fragile, and his twin (straight?) sister Cissy. Deej, the angry innocent. Norman, plump and queenly lover of a college professor who's happiest in schoolmarm drag. Harry Van Epps, police officer, and old Dr. Everett, "family" physician. They drink, they dance, they fall in lust and in love. They don't even know who the enemy is, only that it is powerful enough to order the all-too-willing vice squad to destroy the bar and their lives.

Would these women and men still have family, a job, a place to live after...The Raid?

This was how it was done then, this was the gay life, and this is the resilient gay will.

Abbey Brooks, Gila High freshman-to-be, never thought a hellish day of shopping at the mall with her best friend, Kate, could change her life. But when she orders French fries from the flirtatious Hot Dog on a Stick Chick, she gets more than deep-fried potatoes. Abbey tries to ignore the weird, happy feeling in her gut, but that proves to be as impossible as avoiding the very insistent (and--rumor has it--very lesbian) players on Gila High's girls' basketball team. They want freakishly long-legged Abbey to try out, and Abbey doesn't hate the idea. But Kate made Abbey pinky swear to avoid basketball and to keep away from the you-know-who girls on the team.

Sometimes promises can't be kept. And sometimes girls in uniform are impossible to resist.

Isa has begun to dream of the most amazing woman—a woman named Lilith with a gorgeous face, an amazing body, and the ability to turn Isa on like no other. But Lilith is just a dream...isn't she?

Lilith is indeed real. She is a sexual Dreammaker, a being who exists solely to bring pleasure to humans while they sleep. And soon, Lilith finds she is falling for Isa, falling hard, something a Dreammaker is never supposed to do. Is there any way they can truly be together, or will their relationship have to remain as it is—just a dream?

ATF Special Agent, Allison Jacob has never had an assignment like this. Formerly undercover, she now leads a task force that has trailed meth from the Mexican border to Wisconsin. Teamed up with the Milwaukee Police Special Crimes Unit, they fight a daily battle with drugs, sex crimes, and murders, but her investigation has hit a wall--on the streets and within her organization.

In the worst blizzard of the year, the latest victim unexpectedly shows up at AJ's office. Bright and attractive, small business owner Katie Blackburn angrily relates her experience during the interview when, unknowingly, Katie gives AJ the break she's desperately needed.

Immediately, Katie presents another kind of battle for AJ. Just as she took the oath to keep America safe, AJ's heart begins to feel the same oath for Katie. AJ knows drugs don't care who handles them, but she does. It's her job and her war.

Love doesn't always happen overnight; sometimes it takes a month of Sundays.

Conservative accountant Rachel Bauer is recovering from the abrupt end of a long-term relationship when she's tossed into the dating pool against her will. Expecting to meet friends for drinks, she finds herself in the middle of a blind date with Griffin Sutton, the sexy celebrity chef with a reputation for being easy on the eyes but hard on the heart. Rachel isn't interested in becoming the latest notch on Griffin's well-worn bedpost so she rebuffs her advances. Griffin, who hasn't met a woman she couldn't seduce, decides the best way to Rachel's reluctant heart is through her stomach. She offers to take her on a culinary trip around the world one Sunday at a time.

If Rachel accepts Griffin's proposition, will she find more than a good meal?

To most, Princess Katya Nar Umbriel is a rogue and a layabout; she parties, she hunts and she breaks women's hearts. But when the festival lights go down and the palace slumbers, Katya chases traitors to the crown and protects the kingdom's greatest secret: the royal Umbriels are part Fiend. When Katya thwarts an attempt to expose the king's monstrous side, she uncovers a plot to let the Fiends out to play.

Starbride has no interest in being a courtier. Ignoring her mother's order to snare an influential spouse, she comes to court only to study law. But a flirtatious rake of a princess proves hard to resist, and Starbride is pulled into a world of secrets that leaves little room for honesty or love, a world neither woman may survive.