Pride and Joy


M.L. Rice - 2012
    When she decides she wants to attend the Coast Guard Academy to become an officer, she knows that nothing can stand in her way. She is tested, however, when a harrowing encounter at a party leads to an unexpected attraction to one of her female friends. As their relationship blossoms, Bryce readily accepts her newfound sexuality, but her parents are horrified by the revelation. Being deeply religious, they shun Bryce and try to force her to change her sexuality or risk being kicked out of her own home. Luckily, her friends are there to support her through her ordeal. Despite the lack of support from her parents, Bryce achieves her dreams, but what will happen when that dream is shattered? Will her parents change their minds and help her pick up the pieces or will a friend from her past come to her rescue once again?

Don't Call Me Hero


Eliza Lentzski - 2014
    She knew that coming back after eight years in a war zone wouldn’t be easy, but she’d underestimated the real difficulties of transitioning back to civilian life. War is hell, but the aftermath is endless. Looking for a fresh start, she’s left her friends and career in Minneapolis to be a police officer in northern Minnesota. It’s in the tiny town of Embarrass where she learns more about Julia Desjardin. The city prosecutor is cool, professional, and untouchable. But she and Cassidy have history, and Cassidy isn’t going to let her easily forget that. For all their surface differences, Cassidy and Julia have more in common than they first realized—both are reluctant to hand over their pasts to be judged and studied. But it might take someone just as damaged as the other to help each cope with the skeletons in their respective closets.

Behind the Pine Curtain


Gerri Hill - 2006
    Her family was the largest employer in the county, owning Pine Springs Lumber, and her father was mayor of this small town. Her mother could not accept the fact that her only child was gay, could not tolerate the gossip about her family. So, with a hundred dollars in her pocket and a one-way bus ticket out of town, Jacqueline was told not to come back until she had come to her senses. And that included being prepared to marry the son of a business associate of the family. Fifteen years later—long after she’d hitch-hiked to Los Angeles, long after she’d worked nights to put herself through college, and long after she’d written her first best seller, No Place For Family—Jacqueline is persuaded to go back to the tiny town of Pine Springs after her father’s death. The quick trip she’d envisioned for the funeral turns into weeks as she learns her father’s business is suddenly hers to manage. And she is also again face-to-face with the woman who, as a teen, had been Jackie’s first crush. She and Kay had been inseparable as kids, and later as teens. They find themselves falling back into their old habits, and Jackie is soon fighting the same feelings she’d had when she was seventeen. But living behind the pine curtain, Kay is afraid of her love for Jackie, afraid of what her family will say, afraid of how the town will react. Jackie refuses to hide, refuses to crawl back into the closet, so once again, she leaves Pine Springs . . . alone.

Lilies of the Bowery


Lily R. Mason - 2015
    Finding neither the milk or honey America had promised, Joan is quickly disenchanted with the city; the heat and noise and poverty are oppressive, and her father, who journeyed ahead to find work and accommodations, is nowhere to be found. Tucked into a disorganized laundry, Joan meets an unlikely companion named Paloma Morello, who is as secretive as she is beautiful. As Joan develops an intense attraction to her, she discovers that though things aren't always as they seem, all love is sanctuary.

The Lies That Bind


Susan X. Meagher - 2008
    Even though a car accident caused the optical illusion, Erin’s skills as a doctor were outshone by her luminous smile. Katie begins to devise a series of excuses to trek to the small town where Erin lives and works.According to Katie’s complex rating system Erin has great promise. She’s beautiful, bright, athletic and good-hearted. Erin professes to love her job and is happy with small town life. But Katie thinks that Erin is secretly a risk-taker who craves excitement—the kind of excitement that Katie would love to provide. The first time Katie sees Erin flying down a ski slope she’s hooked, and their first kiss seals the deal.That’s when the trouble begins. Erin’s nearly an indentured servant. The town paid for her education and she promised to serve as their doctor for ten years. Ten long years attached to a place that’s only sixty miles but seems light years away from Katie’s beloved Boston.Something tells them that they could be good together, and the mutual attraction is undeniable. But one or both of them is going to have to make some massive changes before they can let the sparks fly.

A Perfect Romance


Layce Gardner - 2013
    How perfectly romantic!When Dana meets Ellen she’s not entirely honest because she doesn’t want to look foolish. If she explained that she’s wingman to her BFF Trudy, who is trying to pick up men at an AA meeting, then Ellen would quite reasonably want to back away, slowly.The only way to see Ellen again is to keep going to the meetings and try really hard not to dig herself a deeper hole. But on the day Dana was born the good Lord was handing out shovels and whichever idiot said the course of true love was easy, well, they flat-out lied.If love wasn’t funny there’d be no way we’d survive it. Join Goldie winner Layce Gardner for A Perfect Romance.

Rescue Me


Julie Cannon - 2011
    Stupid idea, but simple. She'd done it a dozen times before.Kristin Walker, doesn't want to go on this trip, be the perfect hostess, or be the boss's wife anymore, but finds herself trapped in all three.When an unexpected turn of events transforms their three days in paradise into a fight for survival, both women struggle against the odds and their own fears. However, the biggest challenge is their growing attraction toward each other and the question of who will rescue whom?

Freshman Year


Annameekee Hesik - 2010
    But when she orders French fries from the flirtatious Hot Dog on a Stick Chick, she gets more than deep-fried potatoes. Abbey tries to ignore the weird, happy feeling in her gut, but that proves to be as impossible as avoiding the very insistent (and—rumor has it—very lesbian) players on Gila High’s girls’ basketball team. They want freakishly long-legged Abbey to try out, and Abbey doesn’t hate the idea. But Kate made Abbey pinky swear to avoid basketball and to keep away from the you-know-who girls on the team.Sometimes promises can’t be kept. And sometimes girls in uniform are impossible to resist.

The Fifth Stage


Margaret A. Helms - 2003
    She muddles through daily routines, her only respite coming in the form of a harmless crush on Rebecca Greenway. Claire believes that the sexy restaurant manager is safely unavailable. But when Rebecca shows signs of interest, Claire's past unravels, revealing an immeasurable love and a dark secret. .an outstanding contribution to lesbian fiction. Author Margaret A. Helms deftly alternates past and present events in the life of Claire Blevins to build an enthralling and intriguing story. Her rich prose, compelling plot, lively pace, and strongly-drawn characters make The Fifth Stage an outstanding contribution to lesbian fiction. -- Nann Dunne, editor and publisher of Just About Write (www.justaboutwrite.com), author of The War Between the Hearts, and other stories.

And Playing the Role of Herself


K.E. Lane - 2007
    Her sometimes-costar Robyn Ward is magnetic, glamorous, and devastatingly beautiful, the quintessential A-List celebrity on the fast-track to super-stardom. When the two meet on the set of 9th Precinct, Caid is instantly infatuated but settles for friendship, positive that Robyn is both unavailable and uninterested. Soon Caid sees that all is not as it appears, but can she take a chance and risk her heart when the outcome is so uncertain?

Spring Tide


Robbi McCoy - 2012
    Her plans are to get the craft seaworthy and then sail into the snaking waterways—alone.Life for a veterinarian in Stillwater Bay is good. Jackie Townsend is fond of the quirky inhabitants and loves the natural beauty. The newcomer working on the dilapidated boat could become much more than a random acquaintance, but it’s clear that the moody Stef harbors a grim secret and wants to get lost in her pain, not found by romance.The waterways of the Delta tangle and weave for hundreds of miles, hiding secret coves, serene vistas and fragile depths. But they are no match for the tides of a woman’s heart.

Beyond Innocence


Carsen Taite - 2012
    Doesn’t it?After a devastating professional embarrassment, Cory Lance has been banished from the courtroom. As part of her penance, she volunteers with an organization that works to free the wrongly convicted, and soon she’s saddled with a case certain to set her up for another big defeat. To top it off, she’s battling a strong attraction to her client’s sister, a woman with unreasonable expectations.Serena Washington has learned to compartmentalize the negative pieces of her past, except for one—her brother, Eric, who is on death row for a murder he insists he didn’t commit. Loyalty drives her to enlist help from an organization with a reputation for unparalleled success, but Serena’s optimism is shaken when she learns the attorney assigned to the case has a reputation for cutting corners. Her whole world is shaken when she begins to fall in love with her.

Snow Moon Rising


Lori L. Lake - 2006
    Every day since her birth, she and her extended family have been on the road in their vardo wagons meandering mostly through Poland and Germany. She learned early to ignore the taunts and insults of all those who call her people "Gypsies" and do not understand their close-knit society and way of life. Pauline "Pippi" Stanek has lived a settled life in a small German town along the eastern border of Poland and Germany. In her mid-teens, she meets Mischka and her family through her brother, Emil Stanek, a World War I soldier who went AWOL and was adopted by Mischka's troupe. Mischka and Pippi become fast friends, and they keep in touch over the years. But then, the Second World War heats up, and all of Europe is in turmoil. Men are conscripted into the Axis or the Allied armies, "undesirables" are turned over to slave labor camps, and with every day that passes, the danger for Mischka, Emil, and their families increases. The Nazi forces will not stop until they've rounded up and destroyed every Gypsy, Jew, dissident, and homosexual. On the run and separated from her family, Mischka can hardly comprehend the obstacles that face her. When she is captured, she must use all her wits just to stay alive. Can Mischka survive through the hell of the war in Europe and find her family? In a world beset by war, two women on either side of the conflagration breach the divide-and save one another. Snow Moon Rising is a stunning novel of two women's enduring love and friendship across family, clan, and cultural barriers. It's a novel of desperation and honor, hope and fear at a time when the world was split into a million pieces.

The War Within


Yolanda Wallace - 2014
    She went to Saigon in 1967 looking to help those in need. She didn’t expect to meet the love of her life along the way. Forty-seven years later, a summer vacation with her granddaughter, Jordan Gonzalez, puts Meredith on a collision course with someone from her past and sends Jordan on a journey toward an uncertain future.When Meredith comes face-to-face with Natalie Robinson, a woman whose heart she once broke, can a love once lost be regained? When Jordan meets Natalie’s niece Tatum, wheelchair-bound as a result of injuries she suffered when her Marine unit came under fire in Afghanistan, will her anti-war beliefs prevent her from falling in love?

Nora and Liz


Nancy Garden - 2002
    Nora Tillot walks Liz out to the barn and, as they search for the jack, the two women begin a journey neither anticipated. As their friendship turns passionate, will their happiness be shattered by rumours?