Book picks similar to
The Sea by K.L. Hughes


fantasy
lesbian
short-story
paranormal

The Emergency Claus


Robin Roseau - 2013
    Now it is up to his daughter, Tabitha, to deliver the Christmas presents. Tabitha has never been interested in the family business and would much rather run her own consulting business based out of Chicago. She is even less interested in marrying some nice young boy to take over as Santa, but there are some nice (and perhaps a few naughty) women she finds more intriguing. It all comes to a head when Allison catches Tabitha in her role as Santa. This is a novella of 25,000 words.

Being Hers


Anna Stone - 2018
    By day, she studies at law school, and by night, she serves drinks at an exclusive club to afford her tuition. But the hard-working Melanie will never admit her true desire: to escape from her fast-paced, high-pressure life, if only for a moment. When Melanie meets Vanessa, a glamorous executive and a regular at the club, she is drawn to the enigmatic black-haired woman. Vanessa is relentless in pursuing what she wants—and what she wants is Melanie. Soon, Melanie finds herself caught up in Vanessa’s sensual games of submission, power and control. Melanie insists that her affair with Vanessa remains purely physical. But as her limits are tested, so is the line between lust and love. When ghosts from the past reappear, both women must face their deepest fears. Can Melanie surrender her everything to Vanessa, or will old wounds prove too great?

Summer Heat


Harper Bliss - 2012
    Prepared for two weeks of sun-drenched melancholy, she finds much more than nostalgia in the house where she used to spend her summers as a child.

Passing Strange


Ellen Klages - 2017
    Tourists flock to the cities within the city: the Magic City of the World’s Fair on an island created of artifice and illusion; the forbidden city of Chinatown, a separate, alien world of exotic food and nightclubs that offer “authentic” experiences, straight from the pages of the pulps; and the twilight world of forbidden love, where outcasts from conventional society can meet.Six women find their lives as tangled with each other’s as they are with the city they call home. They discover love and danger on the borders where mystery, science, and art intersect.At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.

Reaping the Benefits


E.J. Noyes - 2020
    The award for Minion of the Year is slipping out of reach, and she has to administer an afterlife package to one of her human employees. An employee she’s attracted to. An employee who’ll soon know Morgan isn’t quite what she seems.Jane Smith was having a great day. Until her hot boss dropped a bombshell. It’s time for Jane to complete the questionnaire to decide where she’ll spend her afterlife. Oh, and her boss is immortal and also Death’s Head Minion. Yes, Death, as in the Grim Reaper.Jane decides to bargain—if Morgan needs her to sign the afterlife document, she can use her unlimited resources to help Jane with her bucket list. Seems straightforward. Except for the matter of their mutual attraction, and the fact one of the items on Jane’s list is “Sleep with my boss.”The more time Morgan and Jane spend together, the more they realize mutual attraction barely scratches the surface. But can Jane heal the broken heart Morgan has nursed for centuries? And will Morgan risk loving, then losing, another mortal woman when she knows it means an eternity of heartbreak?Genre: RomanceEditor: Cath WalkerCover Designer: Kayla Mancuso

Glorious Day


Skye Kilaen - 2020
    The princess is her one true love. And the revolution is almost here.Elsenna Hazen left spaceport security and ended up a royal bodyguard. She should have known better than to fall in love with a princess.It’s been two years since one ill-advised kiss in the garden pulled them apart. With uprisings in the streets, the nervous princess transfers Elsenna back into her service. Her Highness has no idea Elsenna is leaking data to the revolutionaries bent on overthrowing the princess’s oppressive father.Now Elsenna wakes up each day wondering what will happen first: her own execution, or that of the woman she could never stop loving. When rebel attacks escalate and the king plans retaliation, Elsenna discovers that the fights for her love and her life are one and the same.A low heat science fiction F/F romance novella with a guaranteed HEA. Detailed content warnings are available on the author's website for those who need them.23,500 wordsCover Artist: Natasha Snow

Beautiful Accidents


Erin Zak - 2019
    Now twenty-eight and a star in the Chicago improv scene, Stevie puts career first. No one’s going to get in the way of her New York City dreams. When her friends beg her to tag along to go see Constance Russo, a deaf psychic, Stevie begrudgingly agrees, as long as no one makes her get a reading. American Sign Language interpreter Bernadette Thompson has two priorities: caring for her mother and working with her best friend, Constance Russo. But when the headstrong Stevie Adams accidentally stumbles into her life, Bernadette feels an instant connection that’s so intense it frightens her. They can’t seem to stop bumping into each other, or deny their attraction. When Stevie’s goal of starring in New York becomes more than a pipe dream, will competing desires prove their love to be everlasting or a fleeting act?Cover Artist: Jeanine HenningGenres: Contemporary / Romance Tags: Children / Families, Big City, Age Gap, CelebrityWords: 86,000

Just My Type


Lucy Bexley - 2020
    She’s been lying low since arriving in Sorrow, Massachusetts. Until she breaks into a hematology lab at the local university one night after her fresh dinner is interrupted.Dr. Annie Golden has been hitting dead end after dead end in her research on a rare blood disease. Everything changes when she accidentally attacks a stunning woman she finds lurking near her blood samples.Annie can’t put her finger on what’s so enrapturing about this beautiful, dark-haired woman. And Ero can’t figure out why Annie is appealing to more than just her appetite.When Ero’s true self is revealed, will Annie’s fear win out over her attraction?Get ready for a different kind of high-stakes lesbian romance. This vampire novella is not for the faint of heart—but if you love your stories a little bit gorey, a little bit swoony, and laugh-out-loud funny, this is one you’ll definitely any to sink your teeth into.

Dapper


Jenny Frame - 2016
    When she is asked to stand in for her boss’s private appointment with the mysterious Byron De Brek, she couldn’t be more excited—or nervous. Byron is the perfect example of a dapper butch, and someone who fuels Amelia’s darkest fantasies. Will she follow Byron’s lead and explore those darker needs, or will she run away from what her heart and her body truly hunger for?words: 8,110; novelette; erotica

Full of Briars


Seanan McGuire - 2016
    Squire. Hockey fan. Canadian. And Crown Prince to the entire continent of North America, known as “the Westlands” to the fae, currently ruled by his parents, High King Aethlin and High Queen Maida. Not that most people know that, since he’s a blind foster squired to a changeling—not exactly something that screams “hidden royalty.”But with a new Queen on the throne in the Mists, his parents have finally come to town to see how he’s doing…and to take him home with them. That’s going to be a problem, since Quentin doesn’t particularly want to leave, and his knight, Sir October Daye, doesn’t particularly want to let him go.Set after Chimes at Midnight and before The Winter Long, it’s finally time to meet the parents in our first-ever story narrated by Quentin himself.

Blood Witch


Naomi Clark - 2015
    She's the only blood witch in Fort Rosser, mistrusted by other witches and happier working solo. But when her dark practices make her the prime suspect in a brutal murder investigation, she's forced to turn to others for help. Not that she has many allies—her ex-girlfriend thinks Lola is the killer, and the local coven leader thinks Lola will corrupt them all if she gets too close. Help comes in an expected—and alluring—form. Tristesse is a demon on the run, beautiful, enigmatic, and suspiciously keen to assist Lola while she chases down the real killer. How can Lola refuse? With the police breathing down her neck, accusations flying, and inhuman monsters on the streets, Lola needs all the help she can get. The killer is angry, desperate, and determined. But so is Lola Guntram. And she doesn't care how dark or bloody the magic has to get—she's going to stop them.

Better Off Red


Rebekah Weatherspoon - 2011
    She has more important things on her mind, like maintaining her perfect GPA. No matter how much she can't stand the idea of the cliques and the matching colors, there's something about the girls of Alpha Beta Omega—their beauty, confidence, and unapologetic sexuality—that draws Ginger in. But once initiation begins, Ginger finds that her pledge is more than a bond of sisterhood, it’s a lifelong pact to serve six bloodthirsty demons with a lot more than nutritional needs.Despite her fears, Ginger falls hard for the immortal queen of this nest, and as the semester draws to a close, she sees that protecting her family from the secret of her forbidden love is much harder than studying for finals.

In the Shadow of Darkness


Nicole Stiling - 2020
    As a newly turned vampire, the only one she can turn to for help is the vampire who becomes her worst nightmare.Meghan Denham is in the wrong place at the wrong time. After ending up the victim of a robbery-gone-wrong, her life is turned upside down by the strange and beautiful Angeline. If Angeline is telling the truth about who she is, then everything Megan believes about the world is a lie. If Angeline is lying, then she will have to walk away from the first person to set her heart on fire. When suspicious deaths begin to occur in their small town of Fog Hollow, Angeline and Megan find themselves as unlikely allies, with an even more unlikely attraction.Cover Artist: Tammy SeidickGenres: Paranormal & Urban Fantasy / Romance

The Sting of Victory


S.D. Simper - 2018
    The sting of victory will fade with time.”Haunted by a history of horror and abuse, Flowridia, a witch with a tender heart, finds a second chance in the home of her kingdom’s royal family. With employment comes friendship, and perhaps she has finally found a place to belong—until she catches the eye of Lady Ayla Darkleaf, a woman with enticing grace and a predatory smile. The corrupt world of politics consumes her, and Flowridia falls into a toxic love affair surely doomed for heartbreak. Yet when Ayla’s legacy as a monster unfolds, Flowridia sees only the tender soul hiding beneath.An ancient deity returns, hell-bent on restoring the world to its natural order, and Flowridia’s kingdom is tasked to stop him. Caught in the ensuing clash of gods, her loyalties will be tempted at every turn—by family, by fate, and by the woman whose claws grip her heart.Horror abounds, monsters rise, and hearts break in the first installment of FALLEN GODS

For Now, Forever


Trin Denise - 2012
    After a full weekend of celebrating her birthday, she goes to work thinking it will be just another typical workday. That thought comes to a crashing halt when she flips the “Closed” sign to “Open” and finds an elderly mustachioed man standing at the door.Gordon LeVitt, Attorney at Law drops a bombshell that will flip Cassie’s life upside down. The man that she believed to be her father for the last thirty-three years is not really her father, and her recently deceased biological father Collin Masterson has named her as an heir in his Last Will and Testament. The catch: Her presence is required at the reading.Cassie heads to Masterson, West Virginia and has a blow-out that sends her car careening off the side of the road. With her heart racing in her chest, she is relieved when the most gorgeous creature she’s ever seen stops to help and then Cassie does something she has never done in her life—make mad passionate love with a complete stranger named Eelyn M. Carmichael who has agreed to drop Cassie off for her appointment.After Mr. LeVitt’s introductions, Cassie gets an even bigger shock when Eelyn comes strolling into the room and takes a seat next to Lenora, her father’s widow. Feeling sick to her stomach and thinking her world is crashing down, Cassie does the only thing she can—she runs with no intention of looking back. The one thing Cassie forgets is that things are seldom what they seem and Eelyn M. Carmichael has already made up her mind that Cassie Reynolds is not going to be the one who got away because some things that happen in the now, can and do last forever.