The Politics of Love


Jen Jensen - 2020
    Everything's totally fine, except that it really isn't. Shelley manages depression and crippling anxiety because of the secret she can never reveal: she's gay.Rand Thomas is a psychotherapist, transgender rights activist, and political liberal. Widowed and struggling with her wife's toxic parents, Rand isn't going to allow herself to love again.When Shelley and Rand meet in Manhattan, neither one expects to find that the other is exactly who they need.

Serenity


Jesse J. Thoma - 2020
    Serenity is in the acceptance.Kit Marsden is proud that she’s put her heroin use in the past. She’d really just prefer if no one made a big deal about it so she can move on with her life. After all, people hear the word “heroin,” smile politely, and run for the hills. Kit would have more success ignoring her past if her NA meetings weren’t at the library where she nearly died. Plus, she can’t stop thinking about the librarian, Thea Harris.Thea’s desperate to protect her library and keep it a safe place for the community. She’s used to keeping her life orderly and predictable, working hard, and preparing for every possibility at work and at home. But nothing prepares her for Kit Marsden.Will Kit and Thea be able to embrace who they are, what they want, and what they can create together, or will the library and their chance at love falter?Cover Artist: Tammy SedickGenres: Contemporary / RomanceWords: 78,000

Winter Jacket


Eliza Lentzski - 2013
    It all started with a broken classroom heater…Graduate school prepares you for many things – the rigor of academic life, how to pull consecutive all-nighters, and living off a meager stipend without having to be roommates with cockroaches.Elle Graft might have made it through six years of graduate school, but she's not convinced she'll survive her first position as an Assistant Professor.Because for all she learned, graduate school never prepared her for dealing with a student crush.

Romancing the Zone


Kenna White - 2006
    Her nineteen-year-old daughter Becca is a freshman at Chilton College in Ashton, Vermont. Becca also happens to be a rising star for the Lady Stingers basketball team – just as her mother had been twenty years ago. But back in those early days a dirty little secret had collapsed Liz’s world - a secret she has kept hidden from everyone - especially her daughter. Now Liz finds herself accepting her daughter’s challenge to return to college and finally earn the degree that has so long eluded her. As if that isn’t enough, Liz has also somehow found herself back in the gym – and playing out her final year of basketball eligibility. Soon sparks fly when Liz encounters resistance from the new head coach, Sheridan Ross.Coach Ross has no patience for babysitting an over-the-hill athlete - not while she’s worried about her own plans to move up the career coaching ladder as quickly as possible. Now in addition to battling the coach, Liz’s world begins to crumble when the secret from her past returns to Ashton...

Interference


Zoe Reed - 2014
    Taylor doesn’t talk – to anyone. When Jordan’s curiosity about the athlete overpowers her predisposition to being guarded, the two strike up an unlikely romance. In the midst of desolation left by being disowned and forbidden from seeing her little brother, Jordan finds that sometimes the biggest risks reap the greatest rewards.

Aurora


Emma L. McGeown - 2020
    Except the night before turns out to be eight years ago and Elena has no memory of the time she’s lost. Family feuds, breakups, and sexual awakenings―all forgotten. For Keelin Jax, Elena’s wife, the long nightmare only continues upon Elena’s awakening when Keelin becomes a platonic roommate overnight. While Elena struggles to adjust to her new present and find the life she left behind, someone from Elena’s past finds a way to seize the opportunity after years of silence.Cover Artist: Tammy SedickGenres: Contemporary / RomanceEditor: Barbara Ann WrightProduction Design: Stacia SeamaneBook Design: Toni WhitakerWords: 71,000

The Contract


Raven J. Spencer - 2020
    To make matters worse, hours at her job have been cut, and her kind landlady is moving away, handing the business over to her daughter Taylor. When Taylor finds out about Daisy’s dilemma, she makes her an offer that would solve the problem, but is morally questionable…but who’s to judge? Their arrangement becomes more complicated when emotions come into play, making it even harder to keep the secret...

A Knight to Remember


Bridget Essex - 2014
    Holly tells herself that the reason she hasn’t asked her girlfriend to move in (after four years of dating) is that she’s too busy–but it isn’t true. A very book-obsessed librarian, Holly has buried herself in so many romantic and magical stories, that at night, she dreams of a woman who will sweep her off her feet–something her indifferent girlfriend has never done. But one night, during an unusually vicious storm, magic and romance appear in Holly’s backyard in the form of a mysterious, gorgeous woman…wielding a sword. The dashing stranger’s name is Virago. She claims that she’s a warrior on the hunt for a great and terrible beast; that she, and the beast, slipped through a portal from their world into ours. Holly isn’t sure what to believe, but she is now responsible for a (possibly crazy) swordswoman who is bewildered by modern-day conveniences like escalators, but not by the chivalry of sweeping a woman off her feet. Can Holly help Virago find her own world again, or will that falling-in-love thing get in the way? And, of course, there’s the tiny problem of the beast Virago wounded that is now seeking revenge…

All My Mother's Lovers


Ilana Masad - 2020
    But when Maggie’s mom, Iris, dies in a car crash, Maggie returns home only to discover a withdrawn dad, an angry brother, and, along with Iris's will, five sealed envelopes, each addressed to a mysterious man she’s never heard of.In an effort to run from her own grief and discover the truth about Iris—who made no secret of her discomfort with her daughter's sexuality—Maggie embarks on a road trip, determined to hand-deliver the letters and find out what these men meant to her mother. Maggie quickly discovers Iris’s second, hidden life, which shatters everything Maggie thought she knew about her parents’ perfect relationship. What is she supposed to tell her father and brother? And how can she deal with her own relationship when her whole world is in freefall?Told over the course of a funeral and shiva, and written with enormous wit and warmth, All My Mother's Lovers is the exciting debut novel from fiction writer and book critic Ilana Masad. A unique meditation on the universality and particularity of family ties and grief, and a tender and biting portrait of sex, gender, and identity, All My Mother's Lovers challenges us to question the nature of fulfilling relationships.

Driven


Suzanne Falter - 2019
    should be in the library of ever LGBTQ person ..." -- US Review of Books Who says you can’t find the love of your life while you’re getting your tire fixed? Even IF your boss is actively trying to close her garage? Driven is the oldest woman-owned garage in Oakland – and the pride of the lesbian community. At least, it is until the uber-competitive former race car driver Mindy Rose shows up and opens her own garage, complete with chair massages and a sushi bar. Mindy’s out to destroy Driven, a fact that galls her good-hearted, and very ethical Irish assistant Kate. This is just reinforced when Kate has an emergency blow out, and is forced to go into Driven for a repair. Instantly, she finds herself drawn to the tall, tantalizing co-owner Lizzy. That’s when things get … well … complicated. Especially because Kate is an undocumented worker who seriously needs her job. Soon Kate finds herself hatching a secret scheme to save Driven, while falling hard for Lizzy. Yet, Lizzy has no idea she’s part of Mindy’s nasty operation. Or even that Mindy is out to get her. Can sweet Kate and passionate Lizzy finally find the love they’ve been looking for forever? Or will Mindy find out and bring them and Driven down – and get Kate deported in the process? And when is Kate going to tell Lizzy who she actually is? It’s just the beginning of the wild ride that is the Oaktown Girls series.

The Queen's Curse


Natasja Hellenthal - 2013
    Instead of being imprisoned, she is soon chosen to be Artride's only bodyguard on a perilous secret mission! Why and how?The two women set out on their quest and have to work their way through their difficulties whilst trying to fight the undeniable chemistry between them and everything along the way. Will they find the much-needed sorceress - and if so- will she be willing to help them? For what price? Will they be back in time to save Tirsa's brother?Enter the world that is 'The Queen's Curse' and cling to Artride and Tirsa to experience a mind-blowing, heart-gripping, psychological romantic fantasy adventure where nothing is certain.

Eat Your Heart Out


Dayna Ingram - 2011
    Then the strip-mall calm of Nowhere, Ohio, is shattered by the sudden, simultaneous appearance of Renni Ramirez—hyper-competent star of the beloved Rising Evil B-movie franchise—and actual ZOMBIES, leaving Ashbee’s hapless staff and Renni trapped behind an automatic door they can’t lock.Can failed creative-writing student/apprentice store manager/eagle-eyed markswoman Devin escape the besieged furniture store to rescue her girlfriend? Will Renni’s experience slaughtering motion-captured CGI monsters save the day before the army bombs the town? Once bitten, how many zombies can a person expect to take out before succumbing to infection? Who is the mysterious Deus Ex Machina, and what is he doing with that bone saw?All of these questions and more whisper behind the scream of the single most important thing Devin needs to know in order to survive: is Renni a top or a bottom?

Never Mine


Bryce Oakley - 2021
    Sure, she’s a soccer star with World Cup trophies and Olympic medals, but she’s almost as well known for her rebellious behavior off the pitch. She’s left enough gorgeous women with broken hearts in her dust to fill a roster. That was, until she got injured. Now, her frustratingly-slow recovery means she’d better secure this new squeaky-clean endorsement deal in order to get back on top.Sweet, sunshiny Willa Bellamy has a crisis on her hands. She’s used to it — as an events coordinator for the Denver Zoo, it’s her job to handle crises. But when she receives an invite to her ex’s wedding, she’s not so sure it’ll be as easy to handle as an escaped emu during a Girl Scout sleepover. Even worse, when the bachelorette party invite mentions that couples are welcome, she realizes she’s the sole single person invited. Fifteen years ago, Willa and Sage roamed the same halls of Edgelake High School. When their paths cross again, they decide to team up to solve both their problems — a stable, albeit fake, relationship to snag the endorsement deal and a hot soccer star to make the couples getaway sting a little less… But when the lines between real and fake start to blur, will they be able to keep the growing heat between them just a game or will they start playing to win?

Juniper Lane


Dylan Morrison - 2016
    She certainly didn't expect to find herself striking up a strange, unexpected friendship with the intimidating Nadia Bahjat, the only other twenty-something on the street. But now that she's here, Mim thinks she might just do anything to stay – no matter the cost.Meanwhile, Nadia, a professional chef and a perennial disappointment to her parents, has been forced by her father's illness to return to Barn Ridge, Ohio. Though she loathes her wealthy, seemingly perfect neighbors as much as she always has, she's increasingly finding her growing friendship with Mim a balm to heal old wounds. But the longer she stays on Juniper Lane, the more she begins to suspect that when it comes to her family, not all is as it seems.An innovatively structured queer romance that encompasses both a cutting satire of suburban American life and a nuanced depiction of the psychological aftermath of abuse, Juniper Lane is a moving paean to the freedom of embracing the chaotic uncertainty of adulthood.

Gravel Queen


Tea Benduhn - 2003
    Kenney is usually the one who comes up with things to do -- her flair for the dramatic can make even boring old Greensboro seem interesting. And if she is a little controlling, Aurin and Fred just look the other way.Aurin has no intention of throwing off their established equilibrium. But when Neila joins their circle, Aurin realizes that she and Neila are becoming more than friends. Aurin and Neila are happy in their developing relationship, but Kenney feels left out. Can Aurin manage to mend things with an increasingly possessive Kenney, without letting her control this aspect of her life?In this stunning debut novel, Tea Benduhn looks at a teen making decisions about her future while trying not to lose her past.