A Wolf for Valentine's Day


Bridget Essex - 2015
    She's grown up and settled down in her veterinarian practice she built from the ground up, but a secret part of her misses the untamed woman she used to be.  Now her life is quiet, safe, and a little bit lonely.   When her sister surprises her with a gift--a singles retreat at a yoga studio in the Rocky mountains--Trish is reluctant to go.  While most of her happiest memories were in the Rockies, she isn't into granola-crunchy stuff and has never done yoga in her life. She also doesn't know if she's ready to brave a romantic relationship with anyone. But the yoga studio is nothing like she imagined, and when she meets the owner of the studio--a gorgeous, exciting woman named Kennedy--Trish begins to feel stirrings of her younger, wilder self waking up.  Against the backdrop of snowy mountains and amidst the howling of unseen wolves, the attraction between the two women continues to grow until Trish is met with a choice: give in to her attraction or regret this trip the rest of her life. But Kennedy has a few secrets, secrets that Trish is about to discover... A WOLF FOR VALENTINE'S DAY is a light-hearted, steamy romance. It is approximately 22,000 words.

Brother


David Chariandy - 2017
    With shimmering prose and mesmerizing precision, David Chariandy takes us inside the lives of Michael and Francis. They are the sons of Trinidadian immigrants, their father has disappeared and their mother works double, sometimes triple shifts so her boys might fulfill the elusive promise of their adopted home. Coming of age in The Park, a cluster of town houses and leaning concrete towers in the disparaged outskirts of a sprawling city, Michael and Francis battle against the careless prejudices and low expectations that confront them as young men of black and brown ancestry -- teachers stream them into general classes; shopkeepers see them only as thieves; and strangers quicken their pace when the brothers are behind them. Always Michael and Francis escape into the cool air of the Rouge Valley, a scar of green wilderness that cuts through their neighbourhood, where they are free to imagine better lives for themselves. Propelled by the pulsing beats and styles of hip hop, Francis, the older of the two brothers, dreams of a future in music. Michael's dreams are of Aisha, the smartest girl in their high school whose own eyes are firmly set on a life elsewhere. But the bright hopes of all three are violently, irrevocably thwarted by a tragic shooting, and the police crackdown and suffocating suspicion that follow.With devastating emotional force David Chariandy, a unique and exciting voice in Canadian literature, crafts a heartbreaking and timely story about the profound love that exists between brothers and the senseless loss of lives cut short with the shot of a gun.

The Road to Madison


Elle Spencer - 2019
    Falling in love with her childhood friend Ana Perez was not in the cards. As Madison’s father puts it, “A gay daughter? Married to the maid’s daughter? Running my company? Over my dead body.”By the time George Prescott dies, it’s been 15 years since Madison and Ana were ripped apart by his lies. They haven’t spoken since, but Madison has spent every minute waiting for this day to come. Unfortunately, it turns out time doesn’t heal all wounds. Why was Madison willing to give up everything in the face of her father’s threats, and why can she never tell Ana the truth about what really separated them?Caught between a present they can’t trust and a past they can’t forget, Madison and Ana must decide if this is their second chance, or their final heartbreak.Editor: Barbara Ann WrightCover Artist: Tammy SedickGenres: Contemporary / Romance Tags: Financial gap/Class disparity, New York City, Multicultural, Big City, Friends to Lovers Romance, Reunion Romance, Virgins/First Love, Second Chance at Love

Spontaneous Combustion


David B. Feinberg - 1991
    . . both urgent and convincing."--The New York Times Book Review In this sequel to David Feinberg's national bestseller Eighty-Sixed, B.J. Rosenthal navigates life with an HIV-positive diagnosis amidst the "constant tide of deaths" in New York City during the AIDS crisis.

Kiss of the Fur Queen


Tomson Highway - 1998
    Their language is forbidden, their names are changed to Jeremiah and Gabriel, and both boys are abused by priests.As young men, estranged from their own people and alienated from the culture imposed upon them, the Okimasis brothers fight to survive. Wherever they go, the Fur Queen--a wily, shape-shifting trickster--watches over them with a protective eye. For Jeremiah and Gabriel are destined to be artists. Through music and dance they soar.

Beauty and Cruelty


Meredith Katz - 2015
    Worse, he comes bearing news Cruelty would be happier not hearing: Sleeping Beauty has gotten tired of lying around and is trying to save the world Cruelty left long ago. Any respectable Archetype knows it's a waste of time; their chances of survival are much better if they can hide in the human world. But since nobody sent her an invitation to the world-saving, she's pretty much required to interfere. Sparks fly in more ways that one in this F/F urban fantasy as Sleeping Beauty and the Evil Fairy try to put aside their differences in order to try to save the world of Archetypes. Rainbow Awards 2016: Winner Best Lesbian Debut; 2nd place Best Lesbian Fantasy Romance.

Romancing the Kicker


Catherine Lane - 2018
    When the High Rollers, the professional football team from Las Vegas, chase after her to be their point-after specialist, she jumps at the chance. Sure, the position is only a publicity stunt, but she has always been able to turn any situation to her advantage.Carly Bartlett joins the Rollers as the newest athletic trainer and the only other female on the payroll. This dream job could bring the financial security her family desperately needs. The head trainer has only one warning: don’t get involved with a player. Not a problem. She doesn’t go for guys.When Parker reaches out to Carly for treatment, sparks fly. Will Carly fall for Parker’s charms and put her own desires ahead of her family’s? Has Parker finally found the woman who’ll make her slow down and stop playing the angles?With the macho world of football against them, can they beat the odds in this lesbian sports romance?

The Disappeared


Kim Echlin - 2009
    Families, friends, lovers disappear.Kim Echlin’s powerful new novel tells the story of Anne Greves, from Montreal, who meets Serey, a Cambodian student forced into exile when he cannot return home during Pol Pot’s time of terror. Anne and Serey meet in a jazz club where their shared passion for music turns into a passion for each other, against the will of her father. But when the borders of Cambodia open, Serey is compelled to return home, alone, to try to find his family. Left behind, and without word from her lover, Anne tries to build a new life but she cannot forget her first love. She decides to travel to the war-ravaged country that claimed Serey. What she finds there is a traumatized and courageous people struggling to create new freedoms out of the tragedy that claimed their traditional ways, their livelihood, and a seventh of their population.“Despair is an unwitnessed life,” writes Anne as she searches for the truth, about her lover, and about herself. “If we live long enough, we have to tell, or turn to stone inside.”From its first page, The Disappeared takes us into the land of kings and temples, fought over for generations. It reveals the forces that act on love everywhere: family, politics, forgetting. Universal in its questions about how to claim the past, how to honor our dead, and how to go on after those we love disappear, it is a story written in spare and rhythmic prose. The Disappeared is a remarkable consideration of language, truth, justice, and memory that speaks to the conscience of the world, and to love, even when those we love most are gone.

Cantoras


Carolina De Robertis - 2019
    In this environment, where the everyday rights of people are under attack, homosexuality is a dangerous transgression to be punished. And yet Romina, Flaca, Anita "La Venus," Paz, and Malena--five cantoras, women who "sing"--somehow, miraculously, find one another. Together, they discover an isolated, nearly uninhabited cape, Cabo Polonio, which they claim as their secret sanctuary. Over the next thirty-five years, their lives move back and forth between Cabo Polonio and Montevideo, the city they call home, as they return, sometimes together, sometimes in pairs, with lovers in tow, or alone. And throughout, again and again, the women will be tested--by their families, lovers, society, and one another--as they fight to live authentic lives. A genre-defining novel and De Robertis's masterpiece, Cantoras is a breathtaking portrait of queer love, community, forgotten history, and the strength of the human spirit. At once timeless and groundbreaking, Cantoras is a tale about the fire in all our souls and those who make it burn.

After Happily Ever After


Astrid OhletzR.J. Nolan - 2020
    Discover the irresistible magic of the morning after, or the month after, or even years later. What happens when it’s not just about discovering new love, but letting love settle a little? What are these passionate lovers, fighters, executives, and explorers up to now? These charming, funny, and entertaining short stories can each be read as standalone pieces to whisk you into new and different worlds…or immerse you in universes you already know and love, and can’t wait to revisit. Find out what happens next in this After Happily Ever After anthology, with stories by Jae (Under a Falling Star), Lee Winter (The Brutal Truth), RJ Nolan (L.A. Metro), Lola Keeley (The Music and the Mirror), Chris Zett (Irregular Heartbeat), Cheyenne Blue (Code of Conduct), Roslyn Sinclair (The Lily and the Crown), Alex K. Thorne (Chasing Stars), and G Benson (All the Little Moments).

Perfect Freedom


Gordon Merrick - 1982
    Tropez -- dapper American expatriate Stuart Cosling, his ravishing French wife Helene, and their stunningly handsome son Robbie. To his parents, Robbie was still a boy, but in the spring of 1938, on a cruise of the Greek islands, Robbie discovered the pleasures of manhood. It wasn't until a certain season in St. Tropez that Robbie discovered the endless passion that comes only once with first love.

Ice Cream Wars


A.E. Radley - 2019
    After scraping together enough money, and applying for the correct permit, she has set up her new ice cream trike in the affluent market town of Wilmsford. Unfortunately, her permit-approved spot puts her right outside the Gelato Parlour. Owned by Juliana Martin-Sinclair, the meticulous woman who puts the ice into ice queen. What will happen when these two very different ice cream aficionados collide?31,400 words

House of Clouds


K.I. Thompson - 2007
    Actress and Northerner Jordan Colfax is hired by Allan Pinkerton to spy on behalf of the Union. When she meets Confederate sympathizer, Laura St. Clair, whose father is military aide to Jefferson Davis, the perfect opportunity presents itself. But when the truth about Jordan's real intentions are discovered, their growing love is put to the ultimate test - the result of which could mean the difference between life and death. Can a Southern belle and a Yankee spy overcome their differences or will divided loyalties keep them apart?From Tidewater Virginia to Washington, D.C., passion and betrayal converge in Civil War Richmond.

Alligator


Lisa Moore - 2005
    John's, Newfoundland. St. John's is a city whose spiritual location is somewhere in the heart of Flannery O'Connor country. Its denizens jostle one another in uneasy arabesques of desire, greed, and ambition, juxtaposed with a yearning for purity, depth, and redemption. Colleen is a seventeen-year-old would-be ecoterrorist, drawn inexorably to the places where alligators thrive. Her mother, Beverly, is cloaked in grief after the death of her husband. Beverly s sister, Madeleine, is a driven, aging filmmaker who obsesses over completing her magnum opus before she dies. And Frank, a young man whose life is a strange anthology of unpredictable dangers, is desperate to protect his hot-dog stand from sociopathic Russian sailor Valentin, whose predatory tendencies threaten everyone he encounters. Alligator is a remarkable book, a suspenseful, heartfelt, and sexy story that examines the ruthlessly reptilian and painfully human sides of all of us.

Written on the Body


Jeanette Winterson - 1992
    In places the palimpsest is so heavily worked that the letters feel like braille. I like to keep my body rolled away from prying eyes, never unfold too much, tell the whole story. I didn't know that Louise would have reading hands. She has translated me into her own book.