Book picks similar to
The Ghost and the Machine by Benny Lawrence
lesbian
historical-fiction
lgbt
ff
Willa & Hesper
Amy Feltman - 2019
When they fall apart, they unwittingly take the same path to heal from their breakup, seeking answers in the lands of their ancestors. From Tbilisi, Georgia to the war sites of Germany, they discover what can break and what can mend when you look to the past to understand your present.Willa's darkness enters Hesper's light late one night in Brooklyn. Theirs is a whirlwind romance until Willa starts to know Hesper too well, to crawl into her hidden spaces, and Hesper shuts her out. She runs, following her fractured family back to her grandfather's hometown of Tbilisi, Georgia, looking for the origin story that he is no longer able to tell. But once in Tbilisi, cracks appear in her grandfather's history-and a massive flood is heading toward Georgia, threatening any hope for repair.Meanwhile, heartbroken Willa is desperate to leave New York that she joins a group trip for Jewish twentysomethings to visit Holocaust sites in Germany and Poland, hoping to override her emotional state. When it proves to be more fraught than home, she must come to terms with her past-the ancestral past, her romantic past, and the past that can lead her forward.Told from alternating perspectives, and ending in the shadow of Trump's presidency, WILLA & HESPER is a deeply moving, cerebral, and timely debut.
Somewhere Between Love and Justice
S.W. Andersen - 2015
Stripped of her innocence at the tender age of thirteen, she's grown into a woman with nothing to lose and one thing on her mind. Justice. With her horse, her guns and a plan, the gunslinger takes to the trails of the old west in search of those who wronged her family. A trusted friend shares the quest for justice, but wants so much more. However, another silently holds Sarah's heart. Little does Sarah know, the woman, Jo, who graces her dreams has a past of her own and has spent the last year wishing for the return of the mysterious gunslinger who stole her heart. When Sarah's path takes a disastrous turn, the pair reunite. Now the gunslinger has to decide if she will open herself up to love or let her thirst for vengeance lead her down a path of no return. Choosing between love and justice was never part of her plan.
96 Hours
Georgia Beers - 2011
Free spirit Abby Hayes is flying into New York City to visit her mother before jetting off again. Both end up in Gander, Canada, when their flight is diverted because of 9/11. For ninety-six hours they share a rollercoaster of emotions and find themselves drawn to one another. Will their nascent connection survive everyday life when they return home?
A Kiss Before Dawn
Laurie Salzler - 2012
For Chris, love, compassion, and trust are critical. In their absence, Chris has turned to her dog and her horse for the emotional fulfillment she craves. Then along comes Mary Jo Cavanaugh. Fresh out of veterinary school, Mary Jo inadvertently antagonizes Chris with her overconfident assumptions about how to care for animals. She comes to learn that Chris's practical experience provides both a wealth of knowledge and a friendship unlike any she's ever known.The carefully built walls around Chris's heart begin to crumble as she acknowledges the unfamiliar feelings evoked by being with Mary Jo. Just as she believes she's found the happiness that had always eluded her, someone from Chris's past comes back into her life, intent on winning Chris's affections, no matter what the cost.Can the love between Chris and Mary Jo survive so that they can share A Kiss Before Dawn?
Carmilla
J. Sheridan Le Fanu - 1872
Until one moonlit night, a horse-drawn carriage crashes into view, carrying an unexpected guest – the beautiful Carmilla. So begins a feverish friendship between Laura and her mysterious, entrancing companion. But as Carmilla becomes increasingly strange and volatile, prone to eerie nocturnal wanderings, Laura finds herself tormented by nightmares and growing weaker by the day… Pre-dating Dracula by twenty-six years, Carmilla is the original vampire story, steeped in sexual tension and gothic romance.
Ammonite
Nicola Griffith - 1992
These are the only options available on the planet Jeep. Centuries earlier, a deadly virus shattered the original colony, killing the men and forever altering the few surviving women. Now, generations after the colony has lost touch with the rest of humanity, a company arrives to exploit Jeep–and its forces find themselves fighting for their lives. Terrified of spreading the virus, the company abandons its employees, leaving them afraid and isolated from the natives. In the face of this crisis, anthropologist Marghe Taishan arrives to test a new vaccine. As she risks death to uncover the women’s biological secret, she finds that she, too, is changing–and realizes that not only has she found a home on Jeep, but that she alone carries the seeds of its destruction. . . . Ammonite is an unforgettable novel that questions the very meanings of gender and humanity. As readers share in Marghe’s journey through an alien world, they too embark on a parallel journey of fascinating self-exploration.
Tiopa Ki Lakota
D. Jordan Redhawk - 2000
But the tribal shaman has a vision that Anpo is wicakte - a two-souled person embodying both male and female spirits. She will become a great warrior and a great asset to her people. During a vision quest, Anpo finds that her life will be intertwined with the lives of a sacred white buffalo and a pale skinned woman with yellow hair, yet both will be wounded by her actions. Kathleen McGlashan Stevens has been captured by renegade Indians, and thrust into a terrifying and foreign culture where she must learn to survive. The sacred white buffalo brings Anpo and Kathleen together. As their relationship develops, Anpo wonders: Can she change her destiny, or is she fated to wound the woman she loves?
Plus 1
Erica Lee - 2018
While she loved weddings and everything involved in them, she knew marriage wasn’t the path for her. She was happy casually dating. At least that’s what she thought until she met the beautiful, flirtatious Jenny Hanson at a wedding and her whole world was turned upside down. Jenny didn’t have any plans of getting married either. It was the perfect formula for a lasting friendship, except for the fact that the two girls were highly attracted to each other and lived at opposite ends of the country. As the two girls navigate through this friendship filled with plane rides, weddings, and lots of flirting, Rory begins to question if the life she always planned on is really what she wants.
Things a Bright Girl Can Do
Sally Nicholls - 2017
Enraged that she is expected to marry her childhood sweetheart rather than be educated, she joins the Suffragettes, and vows to pay the ultimate price for women's freedom.May is fifteen, and already sworn to the cause, though she and her fellow Suffragists refuse violence. When she meets Nell, a girl who's grown up in hardship, she sees a kindred spirit. Together and in love, the two girls start to dream of a world where all kinds of women have their place.But the fight for freedom will challenge Evelyn, May and Nell more than they ever could believe. As war looms, just how much are they willing to sacrifice?
Chosen
Brey Willows - 2018
When a military convoy arrives to pick up Devin Rossi and Karissa Decker, along with dozens of other bewildered people, the two have no idea they are part of a group selected by the government to be transported to a space station preparing for the colonization of another planet. They are members of the Chosen. On their way to the military base, their convoy is attacked and Devin and Karissa learn the real reason behind their selection. Their attraction grows as they struggle to survive and wrestle with the decision to continue on to the base as part of the Chosen, which means leaving millions of others behind to die. Will they face an uncertain future together, or will the cost be too high?Cover Artist: Tammy SedickGenres: Romance / Speculative Fiction
The Grass Widow
Nanci Little - 1996
A moving novel of support, friendship and love, set in the tiny frontier community of Washburn Station, Kansas in the year 1876.
Five Moons Rising
Lise MacTague - 2017
The presence of these supranormals (“supras”)—werewolves, vampires, demons—is a closely guarded government secret, as is the existence of a cadre of specially engineered Hunters charged with exterminating them.Code-named Malice, Hunter Mary Alice Nolan was genetically modified and rigorously trained to use her great strength, heightened senses, and killer instincts to track and eliminate supras who prey on the innocent. A loner by choice, her only real link to the human world is her close connection to her mother and sister—until the unthinkable happens…Ruri Samson has been a werewolf for more than a century and is comfortably situated as the Beta of her peaceful pack. Until she is betrayed by the woman she loves and an evil outsider massacres her Alpha and his most loyal followers. Barely escaping with her life, Ruri is forced to tread the perilous path of a lone wolf while vowing vengeance against the usurper and his minions.Although these two powerful women should rightfully despise each other, fate will soon compel them to join forces on a dangerous quest to avenge their loved ones—and will ignite a forbidden passion that neither of them ever imagined.
The Well of Loneliness
Radclyffe Hall - 1928
Stephen grows to be a war hero, a bestselling writer and a loyal, protective lover. But Stephen is a woman, and her lovers are women. As her ambitions drive her, and society confines her, Stephen is forced into desperate actions.The Well of Loneliness was banned for obscenity when published in 1928. It became an international bestseller, and for decades was the single most famous lesbian novel. It has influenced how love between women is understood, for the twentieth century and beyond.
Cheer
Mia Archer - 2017
Isn't that how it always starts?The problem? Those pretty blue eyes are attached to Candice. We're talking Candice who's been my best friend forever. My partner in crime since before we could talk.Yeah, talk about taking "it's complicated" to a whole new plane of existence.So now I'm a cheerleader. And I totally have a crush on my best friend who may or may not be into me. Oh, and as if that wasn't enough I'm also dodging crazy Danielle who thinks I want to steal her man (not likely given recent developments in my sexuality) and crazy Chris who thinks he has a shot with me or Candice.Also not likely. See above about recent confusing developments in my sexuality.Yeah, high school was complicated enough before the whole cheerleader thing. And the whole Candice thing. And everything else. Now I don't know if I'm going to survive my senior year!Princess CharmingThe world thought being a princess was so cool, but Amelia knew the truth: it sucked.One kiss with another girl. One photograph that went viral. One international firestorm of gossip and Amelia finds herself banished halfway around the world to America to cool her heels and wait for the gossip to die down.A trip to Royal Realms was supposed to be the best part of Dani's school band career, but she was miserable.So she realized she was into girls. So she broke up with her longtime boyfriend. He didn't have to hold a grudge and do everything he could to ruin her trip. Dani was on her perfect vacation and all she wanted to do was escape.Two girls desperate to break free. Two girls who are about to be thrown together by a chance meeting. Royal Realms is supposed to be the place where dreams come true, and sparks will fly as princess meets band geek in an unexpected romance hot enough to cause an international incident!