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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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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In Our Words

By Anne Shade and Others

In Our Words: Queer Stories from Black, Indigenous, and People of Color Writers is a thoughtfully curated collection of short stories at the intersection of racial and queer identity. Comprising both the renowned and emerging voices of Black, Indigenous, and People of Color authors, across multiple countries, and diverse in style, perspective, and theme, In Our Words reflects the complexity and diversity of human experience.

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Pursuit: A Victorian Entertainment

By Felice Picano

International Setting

Handsome, intelligent, street-smart, ruthlessly ambitious, and omnisexual, young Addison Grimmins has been hired by the Lord Exchequer of England to be his second and to do what Lord R. cannot do himself. After a country estate wedding, the Marchioness of R. is discovered missing. Is it a kidnapping or…a more sinister plot? Addison vows to find her and bring her back no matter what it takes. It is the 1880s and despite only letters, bribed information, and telegrams as communication; despite only horse, coach, and train service as transportation, Addison tracks Lady R. across Europe, via the strangest people and places: from Venetian palaces to opium dens. Who and what he discovers about her, and more fatefully about his own life, will lead Addison to the crisis of his life, an extraordinary decision, and a stiletto duel with his most implacable foe.

And don't miss the sequel, Pursued: Lillian's Story

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I Am Chris

By R Kent

Young Adult

When your life falls apart, couldn’t you just be someone else? Especially if that someone else was you all along anyway? 

Seventeen-year-old Chrissy Taylor is orphaned to a stepmama who squandered their sizable inheritance on drinking and drugging. Now, with their ranch lost, they squat in a run-down, rented trailer on the outskirts of small-town-podunkville where Chrissy cares for her nine-year-old half sister, Luce. But landing on the wrong side of the tracks puts them on the radar of the local sheriff and social services.

There’s one saving grace to losing everything and moving away. Nobody knows her. Chris can now live who he truly is.

As Chris Taylor, he knows he’ll have to cowboy up to make enough money to keep his stepmama out of jail and his half sister out of foster care. There’s only one way a kid growing up in the shadow of a world champion bull rider can earn that kind of cash. But Chris never expected to chase a championship title of his own, even with a lifetime of training on bulls.

 

ADVANCE PRAISE for I Am Chris: "Kent has taken elements of Western, coming-of-age, and romance novels and combined them to create a touching yet exciting tale of a young man finding his way in the world...A gripping teen Western with a transgender protagonist." —Kirkus Reviews

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The Queen Has a Cold

By Jane Kolven

Royalty
International Setting

Praise from Foreword Reviews: "[B]rims with warmth, tenderness, and comedic wit. The Queen Has a Cold is a nonconforming romance that’s fun and lighthearted."

Remy, the heir to the throne of the tiny nation of Montamant, is finally free of their royal chains as they start graduate school in Boston. No one here knows Remy is royalty or intersex. It’s the break Remy has been looking for—until they meet Sam, the sassy lesbian across the hall. Sam doesn’t tolerate Remy’s snobbery and won’t let anything distract her from getting a PhD in gender studies. But Sam understands Remy in ways no one else ever has, and Remy pushes Sam to see beyond her books.

As things are starting to heat up between them, Remy is summoned home. The queen has a cold and can’t perform her royal duties. There’s just one problem: the people of Montamant haven’t seen Remy since puberty and the changes might mean Remy’s not the princess they expect. When Remy asks Sam to come with them, it might be the chance they both need to conquer their fears and find true love.

Content advisory: This book contains instances of misgendering and references to medical procedures.

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Not Broken

By Lyn Hemphill

Music
Friends & Community
Transgender
International Setting
People of Color
Small Town Romances
Second Chance at Love
Friends to Lovers Romance
Children / Families
Multicultural 

Rose Pereira is drifting through life when she’s first introduced to Stare at the Sun, an up-and-coming indie band led by the puppy-eyed Harley. The energetic group pulls her in, and she finds herself living for the first time in ages. Especially when she meets a friend of the band, Max, a trans guy. 

With his bizarre sense of humor, his gorgeous arms, and the way he talks about music, Max is a danger to her don’t-care attitude. He’s her best friend, in her corner no matter what, he makes her laugh, and he gets her.

Even when she screws everything up, Max is on her side. Pregnant with Harley’s baby, she absolutely can’t be in love with Max.

Rose is not in love. Because if you don’t fall in love, then you can’t get broken.

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Thor: Daughter of Asgard

By Genevieve McCluer

College Life
Other Worlds
Magic

Hannah Olsen just wanted to be an accountant. She met the girl of her dreams and was more than ready to settle in for an ordinary life. Then she found out she was the reincarnation of Thor. Suddenly, she’s thrown into a world of magic and intrigue, unexpected attraction, and a mystery she’s got to unravel. All she can count on are her friends and her partner, and perhaps her new crush. With their help, she just might be able to find her way in this new life, and maybe stop an evil plot along the way.

 

Praise from Publishers Weekly: "Norse mythology intrudes on a bubbly romance in this light adventure from McCluer. Hannah Olsen, an athletic, heavy drinking recent graduate of Portland State University, meets bombshell bartender Emily Johnson on a night out, and the pair soon start dating...Soon thereafter, two burly, armor-clad men accost Hannah and Emily, claiming the women are reincarnations of husband and wife Norse gods, Thor and Sif....Readers will come for the gender bending mythology and stay for the light romance."

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The Holiday Detour

By Jane Kolven

Non-Binary Gender
Holidays |

Sometimes it takes everything going wrong to make you see how right things are.

Dana Gottfried is a stressed-out Jewish lesbian who’s just quit her job and wants to get home to see her grandmother. When her car breaks down in Indiana on Christmas Eve, Dana is stranded—until she’s rescued by Charlie, a pig farmer who doesn’t identify as male or female. Although they come from different worlds, Dana is intrigued by Charlie’s sense of humor and kindness. Despite her better judgment, Dana says yes when Charlie offers a ride.

But the journey home is paved with detours. From car accidents to scheming ex-girlfriends to a snowy and deserted Chicago Loop, everything that could go wrong on their road trip does, but it leads Dana on a path of self-discovery that just might end in love.

Content advisory: This book contains instances of misgendering. 

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Quake City

By St John Karp

People of Color
Dystopian
Psychological Thriller

Andre met his best friend Amy on a night like tonight. The way Amy tells it she had to stop him from climbing over the bar at Aunty Bob’s to punch the bartender, though if you ask Andre he’ll say, “What? That never happened. I don’t even know what you’re saying to me right now.” 

Now Amy is worryingly missing in action, and Andre goes to Aunty Bob’s on a quest to find her. No sooner does he walk in with his depressingly heterosexual date than his best hat is spirited away by a lesbian in the throes of breaking up with her girlfriend. She in turn has it stolen from her when she starts a fight with two twinks at the bar. The hat makes its way around Aunty Bob’s from one head to another, giving glimpses into the dozens of stories playing out at the same time, unaware of each other but colliding in catastrophic ways. Can Andre find Amy before this party devolves into a nightmare of broken hearts, malevolent drag queens, and spontaneous human combustion? Or has it always happened this way, every night, at Aunty Bob’s Quake City Club?

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The Mail Order Bride

By R Kent

Close Quarters
Transgender
Small Town Romances
Virgins/First Love

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.

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Saints+Sinners 2018

By Amie Evans and Others

Saints+Sinners

An anthology of short fiction featuring the finalist selections from the 2018 Saints+Sinners Literary Festival.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

  • Stockyards Harlot by W. L. Hodge
  • Sand Angels by Jeremy Schnotala                                                            
  • Aloha, Ollie Bell by William “Chris” Smith                                                    
  • Frey and Gared by James Penha
  • Women and Children by Miranda Recht
  • Always Chasing the Serpent by Sarah Fonseca
  • The Widower by Vince Sgambati
  • Down Hawthorne Street by Mahin Ibrahim
  • When We Get Home by Dante Fuoco
  • Devoured by Andrew Schopp
  • Collecting Brass by Laura Steadham Smith                                                 
  • Mr. Darcy’s Pride by Jameson Currier
  • The Buried Bodies of Old Pompeii by J. Marshall Freeman
  • Old Friends by J. Michael Norris
  • Memorial at the Club New Orleans by Reed Vernon Waller 
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Children of the Healer

By Barbara Ann Wright

A Godfall Novel | Book 3
People of Color
Space Opera
Other Worlds

With the Storm Lord dead, Cordelia Ross and Simon Lazlo return to Gale, to normality, but when they find the populace poisoned by the drushka, it’s clear the aliens must be dealt with before life can be anything near normal. In the north, Patricia Dué takes control of Gale’s mine with Jonah, the servant she created in Dillon Tracey’s old body. She thinks controlling the humans’ only source of metal will bring her power, but her past won’t be banished so easily.

Amidst the chaos and conflict, a prophet predicts that true calamity is still to come, and the only way to stop it may be a murderous widow looking for revenge. As factions splinter and reconnect, the fate of Calamity lies uncertain, and even the prophets can’t see every ripple on the horizon.

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Sweet Boy and Wild One

By T.L. Hayes

Transgender
College Life

Graduate student Rachel Cole is feeling the weekend blues and heads to her favorite lesbian hangout, looking for Ms. Right Now. She is immediately attracted to a brown-haired, brown-eyed, flannel-wearing soulful singer named Bobby Layton. But when Bobby introduces himself to Rachel, Rachel questions things about herself—things like her own sexuality and her very identity. Could she be falling for this sweet boy?

Bobby Layton lost a lot when he came out as trans. And he's sworn off dating lesbians because dealing with hate from the straight world is hard enough. Who needs the drama? But something about wild girl Rachel Cole keeps him coming back.

Love may be enough to take them to unexpected places beyond their expectations.   

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Saints+Sinners 2017

By Paul Willis and Others

Saints+Sinners

An anthology of short fiction featuring the finalist selections from the 2017 Saints+Sinners Literary Festival.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

  • Introduction by Michael Thomas Ford
  • Moonshine by Michael Chin
  • The Gay Restaurants of New York by William Moeck
  • The Gods Are Stacked Against Us by Sheila Morris
  • Jesus Year by Dale Corvino
  • Must Love Animals by Louis Flint Ceci
  • Temporary Adhesions by P.D. Walter
  • Leaves by James Penha
  • Curo The Filthmonger: A Tale of Art and Survival in the Cold Embrace of Outer Space by J. Marshall Freeman
  • Passing Through by John Morgan Wilson
  • Obituaries by Thomas Westerfield
  • The Fool by Ellis Anderson
  • Oni and Marie by Debra Curtis
  • Slaying the Dragon by W. C. Smith
  • Beauty Marks by David James Parr
  • Bear Food by Alise Wascom

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Widows of the Sun-Moon

By Barbara Ann Wright

A Godfall Novel | Book 2
People of Color
Other Worlds
Space Opera

Naos is bored. Alone in space, life should be idyllic. No more random thoughts intruding on her brain; no bodies clogging her senses. But what is there to do besides stare at the planet below and wonder what it would feel like to be Calamity’s only god?

War between the other gods shouldn’t be too hard to start. The Storm Lord has a bad temper, and after being abandoned by Simon Lazlo, source of immortality, he’s easy to provoke. And the Sun-Moon live closely with Calamity’s plains-dwelling people and their new neighbors, a pack of humans and aliens led by the intriguing ex-soldier Cordelia Ross. With a plague ravaging their numbers, it will be easy to set them at each other’s throats.

A little war, a bit of death, and the chance to be Calamity’s only deity? It’s a game to keep even the most fickle goddess entertained.

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