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).

Relic


Anne Hagan - 2014
    These days, she spends life on the road, moving from one case to another until one day when runs run right into the path of Sheriff Mel Crane. The feisty, sexy butch cop is as determined to uncover a counterfeiting ring in her county as Agent Rossi becomes to stop a stalker obsessed with Mel and hot for her company. Dana is under the added pressure of conducting an undercover investigation of her own with a tight deadline: finding and then stopping a ring of smugglers bringing high end designer knock-offs into the states.Could their cases be related? When repeated vicious attacks on Mel and on her home accelerate the danger for her and also their attraction to each other, they become desperate to find the truth and solve the two mysteries. Can they find a way to work together to resolve both cases while coming to terms with their growing feelings for one another? Can Dana move beyond her jilted lover past and find true happiness with a small town Sheriff?

Heart of the Storm


Nicole Stiling - 2020
    Her career with the Shell Creek Police Department is on track, her son, Declan, is amazing, and for the first time in a long time, life is simple, if unremarkable. Until a dead body is found outside the Shell Creek Library.Sienna Bennett doesn’t know how she ended up here. She’s overwhelmed as a big city victim advocate, her soon-to-be-ex-husband is living in their pool house, and she feels like her stepson, Declan, blames her for the state of their family. She needs something else to focus on.Juliet and Sienna might share a history with Declan’s dad, but they’re nothing more than friendly acquaintances. When they’re thrown together in the midst of the biggest investigation Shell Creek has ever seen, neither anticipates a forbidden attraction. It definitely isn’t worth upending the life they’ve worked so hard for. Is it?

Irregular Heartbeat


Chris Zett - 2018
    She’s determined not to let anything stop her—not even falling in love with her aloof mentor, Dr. Emily Barnes.Emily has only ever focused on her career as a senior attending in the emergency department, and she isn’t happy about having to babysit a resident with a ten-year gap in her résumé, no matter how intriguing she is.But every time they work together, it’s not just their patients’ heartbeat that gets a little irregular. Soon, the once-clear lines between work and personal life begin to blur.When Diana’s unorthodox secret past is revealed, putting her job in jeopardy, Emily has to choose between her career and her relationship. A lesbian romance that asks how much we’d risk for love.Themes: medical romance · professional drummer · rock star life94,000 words

Table for Two


Kate Gavin - 2021
    When another woman walks into the crowded restaurant seeking a table, Reagan offers to share hers.Jillian Jacobs just wanted a quick bite before she’d have to focus on a new and unreasonable deadline. Irritated by her empty stomach and by the prospect of waiting, Jillian resentfully accepts a seat at a stranger’s table.Their shared lunch is filled with hostility, snide comments, and shades of derision from Jill and Reagan finds herself relieved at the end of the encounter.But then the two are thrown back together when Jill becomes a catering client of Reagan’s. Soon navigating a professional relationship becomes complicated as their attraction begins to smolder. Will it get in the way and cause even bigger problems? Or will this be the start of something they’ve both been looking for all along?Genre: RomanceEditor: Ann RobertsCover Designer: Kayla Mancuso

Olivia's Awakening


Ronica Black - 2020
    One morning, after struggling to run up a mountain trail, she meets Eve Monroe who stirs her in ways she doesn’t understand.Eve helps women achieve the physical fitness they yearn for, but when it comes to her love life, she buries her own yearnings and only dates casually. All that changes the day she meets the beautiful and sheltered Olivia. Eve is surprisingly smitten, and she soon finds that her desire to help is quickly overshadowed by her desire to make love.When Olivia hires Eve as her trainer, their attempts at controlling their attraction are no match for their unbridled passion. But it’s the deeper, more poignant feelings neither of them can ignore that have Olivia and Eve questioning everything they’ve ever known about love.Cover Artist: Tammy SeidickGenres: Contemporary / Romance Tags: Coming Out, Friends to Lovers Romance, Virgins/First Love

Holding Space


Michele L. Rivera - 2020
    After thirty-seven years of heartache, Hannah Bradshaw has every reason to be cynical about love—except she’s not, which turns out to be a real problem when she meets Charlie on an alleged blind date.Just out of a relationship, love is the furthest thing from Charlie Meyer’s mind, although she is open to the idea of having one night of fun with the beautiful stranger she’s been set up to meet on the evening of her birthday.What starts off as a casual arrangement between Charlie and Hannah quickly becomes complicated as their feelings for one another begin to grow because Charlie isn’t ready for anything serious, but Hannah’s been waiting for someone like Charlie all her life.If two people who are right for each other fall in love at the wrong time, do they stand a chance?

Bells Will Be Ringing


Barbara Winkes - 2019
    When she discovers that the property is in worse shape than she expected, she must rely on helpful townspeople to improve it for potential future owners…One of them is Dr. Holly McEwen who has been working hard to cope with a tragic loss. Friends and neighbors try to convince the well-loved town doctor that she deserves a second chance at love—but is she ready to open her heart? Find out in this sweet lesbian Christmas romance...

Next Exit Home


Dena Blake - 2021
    She’s a partner in a successful veterinary practice and loves everything about her job and the big city life she leads with her teenage daughter.Addison Foster had big dreams, but life hasn’t turned out the way she’d planned. Working as a veterinary assistant in a rural clinic gives her the chance to raise her daughter surrounded by the people she loves, but it’s not easy to be honest about who she really is and what she really wants in a small town. When Harper’s father becomes ill, she whirls into town to run the clinic, and sparks fly between her and Addison in more ways than one. Their attraction is undeniable, but Addison isn’t ready to admit her desires, and Harper isn’t sure if she’s willing to stay. Home may be where the heart is, but is the journey back worth the pain?

Love's Falling Star


B.D. Grayson - 2021
    With her gorgeous stage presence and pitch-perfect voice, she’s earned her countless awards and sold out shows. But being famous hasn’t changed the fact that her favorite place to write music is in the quiet confines of libraries. Everything changes the moment she meets college student Vanessa and her fast-paced, very closeted world of country music is turned upside down.Vanessa Wallace, a serious pre-med student, aspires to becoming a pediatric oncologist. During a late-night session at the campus library, an annoying hum coming from a secluded section leads to an encounter with Lochlan Paige. Little does Vanessa know she is about to take off on a whirlwind adventure that may end in love…or loss.

Measure of Devotion


C.F. Frizzell - 2021
    She believes the Constitution’s declarations of equality and freedom apply to everyone, and dreams that someday they will extend to her own pursuit of happiness with a woman.Helping her father raise her siblings on their Gettysburg farm, Sophie Bauer likewise clings to hope for a woman to love, but when she serves as an army aid and meets Cooper, Sophie is confounded by her growing feelings for him. Catherine, meanwhile, wrestles with her deception and the disguise she must maintain. Disclosure could not only repulse Sophie but send Catherine home a social outcast.When the battle of Gettysburg engulfs the Bauer farm, Catherine and Sophie learn far more about themselves than they ever expected. But first there’s a war—and hearts—to be won.

All That Matters


Susan X. Meagher - 2006
    She's a very successful real estate agent, happily married to a man who encourages her to live the independent life she loves; and they're actively working to have a baby.The wrench in the works is that Blair favors adoption, while her husband David desperately wants to have a biological child. The fates are against them, and they finally seek the help of a group of reproductive specialists. One of the doctors, a surgeon named Kylie Mackenzie, eventually becomes a good friend to Blair. And she needs all of the friends she can get when things start to go horribly wrong at home. As her marriage teeters on the brink of collapse, she relies more and more on Kylie's friendship.Kylie's happily gay; Blair's happily straight. But the way they structure their relationship leads friends and family to privately question whether the pair is setting themselves up for heartache. They eventually come to a crossroads, which could either destroy their friendship or turn it into what each of them has been seeking. The question is whether each woman can change her view of herself and her needs. The answer is all that matters.

Above All, Human


Natalie Debrabandere - 2020
    WALKING AMONG US… BIDING THEIR TIME.US presidential hopeful Abigail Christensen is on a mission that goes far beyond her official political goals; it is planetary in its scope. As a secret global network threatens to silence her for good, she needs to watch her own back, or have someone do it for her.Army Ranger Crystal J. Thor spent her career running high-risk covert operations in the Middle-East. Now retired, she is done with her service with a capital D… Or so she would like to believe. A combination of restlessness and curiosity for the controversial candidate leads her to becoming Christensen’s personal bodyguard.A handsome soldier; tough as nails, and fiercely protective…An alluring politician; passionate, but vulnerable…A deadly conspiracy to enslave humanity...TWO WOMEN TO SAVE THE WORLD

From the Boots Up


Andi Marquette - 2013
    She’s finishing up a college degree, getting ready to apply to vet school, and working another summer with her dad, Stan, on the family ranch in southern Wyoming. He’s managed to get the Los Angeles Times to send a reporter out to do a story on the Diamond Rock, which doubles as a dude ranch. Meg knows the ranch needs all the publicity it can get to bring in more customers, but she’s not looking forward to babysitting a reporter for a week. When the originally scheduled reporter can’t make it, Meg worries that they won’t get a story at all, which is worse than dealing with a city slicker for a few days. Fortunately for Stan and the ranch, the Times finds a replacement, and Meg prepares to be under scrutiny, under the gun, and the perfect hostess. She knows what this opportunity means to her father, and she’s hoping that if it goes well, it’ll ease some of the distance between them that resulted when she came out a few months earlier.What Meg’s not prepared for — and never expected — is the reporter herself and the effect she has on her. In spite of what she feels, Meg can’t risk the fallout that could result from overstepping a professional boundary. But as the week draws to a close, it becomes clear that not taking a chance could be the biggest risk of all.Novella, 35,000 words (about 180 Kindle Fire pages)

Officer Down


Erin Dutton - 2015
    Now she spends every shift dreading what could happen and doubting whether she’ll be able to handle another tragedy.Olivia Dennis joined the sheriff’s department for the action and to fulfill the family legacy. But she could lose both when she’s caught up in an internal investigation and assigned to a security desk at the communications center.