Book picks similar to
Diving Into the Turn by Carrie L. Carr


lesbian
lesfic
butch-fem
cowgirls-outback-girls

Far from Xanadu


Julie Anne Peters - 2005
    In this fresh, poignant novel Mike is struggling to come to terms with her father's suicide and her mother's detachment from her family. Mike (real name Mary Elizabeth) is gay and likes to pump iron, play softball and fix plumbing. When a glamorous new girl, Xanadu, arrives in Mike's small Kansas town, she falls in love at first sight. Xanadu is everything that Mike is not - cool, confident, feminine, sexy and - straight! No matter how close their growing friendship is, Mike is always going to be 'far from Xanadu'.Following the success of Luna, Julie Ann Peters' has written a heartbreaking, yet ultimately hopeful, novel which will speak to anyone who has ever fallen in love with someone who can't love them back

The Origins of Heartbreak


Cara Malone - 2017
     She was 19, studying to be an art teacher, and living happily like any other college student. Then abruptly, her life was reduced to funeral arrangements, depression, therapy, and the responsibility of caring for her mother, who retreated to the couch to take solace in the artificially cheerful hosts on the Home Shopping Network. After more than a year of living frozen in the moment of her father’s death, Alex decides to take the first steps out of her grief. She enrolls in a paramedic program and during one of her first classes, she meets Megan Callahan, a pretty but aloof medical student who comes crashing into her life at the most unexpected moment. It’s not long before Alex discovers that Megan has her own skeletons in the proverbial closet, and when a bacterial outbreak forces them together, they must both decide whether to confront their demons together, or continue to live in limbo. Can Alex and Megan work together to mend their broken hearts? Or will they turn away in fear? This is the first book in the Lakeside Hospital series. Each book can be enjoyed as a stand-alone novel and the series can be read in any order.

The Long Shot


A.L. Brooks - 2019
    She has a brilliant new plan: a documentary featuring Morgan’s rise and rise, capitalizing on the young woman’s star appeal.The main problem is that the reserved golfer treats Adrienne’s plan like an invasion of privacy. The other issue is her growing feelings for the irritatingly attractive woman—an unprofessional lapse that would get her ridiculed by her peers if anyone found out.When things come to a chaotic head, as fierce desires, risked careers, age differences, and dreams all come into play, what will win?A slow-burning lesbian sport romance about taking a chance with your heart.Themes: golf · slow burn · TV producer93,000 words

Dear Taylor


Eija Jimenez - 2016
    Seeing her city in shambles, coated in ash, and American lives lost, she enlisted to fight the War on Terror. Daniella Melo, a Rhode Island American History teacher, challenges her class to write letters to soldiers fighting overseas. With one name left and a student short, Daniella takes it upon herself to write letters to Private Taylor Phillips stationed in Afghanistan. Over the next two years, the women exchange letters, sharing stories of their daily lives: Daniella trailing after her rambunctious daughter, Jackie, and dealing with overeager seniors planning prom while Taylor trudges through sand and dirt, driving her humvee in cold deserts. Their friendship continues to grow until it becomes something so much more than either woman expect.

Of Drag Kings and the Wheel of Fate


Susan Smith - 2001
    Using an ancient myth reset in the queer community in Buffalo, New York, it explores gender fluidity, sexual diversity, and the deeper questions of love and identity.

Ice


Lyn Gardner - 2012
    This time...it's worse.Ice begins when a boy is kidnapped from a London park and Detective Inspectors Alex Blake and Maggie Campbell are brought together to work on the case. While their goal is the same, their work ethics are not. Intelligent, perceptive and at times disobedient, Alex Blake does what she believes it takes to do her job. Maggie Campbell has a slightly different approach. She believes that rule books were written for a reason. Unexpectedly, their dynamics mesh, but when her feelings for Alex become stronger than she wants to admit, Maggie provokes the worst in Alex to ensure that they will never be partners again. Three years later, fate brings them together again. Their assignment is simple, but a plane crash gets in their way. Now, in the middle of a blizzard, they have to try to survive...and fight the feelings that refuse to die.

Starting from Scratch


Georgia Beers - 2010
    I’m a 34-year-old single lesbian and my heart belongs to my rescued mutt, Steve. I work as a graphic designer and my life is quiet and comfortable. All in all, I’m a pretty regular girl and for the most part, I lead a pretty regular life.Things I look forward to: baking goodies and then sharing them; spending time with my grandmother; reading anything I can get my hands on; enjoying dinner with my friends; a quiet evening and a glass of wine; hiking new trails and exploring nature with Steve. Things I’d like to avoid at all costs: in-depth discussions with my ex; dealing with children; online dating; babysitting; falling for somebody’s mom; taking my perception of myself all the way back to square one.See that list of things I’d like to avoid? Yeah, guess who’s going to hit every single one of them this year… What happens when your life takes an unexpected turn? What happens when you need to protect the one you love from the one you want to love? What happens when you lose something you never knew you wanted?Lambda and Golden Crown Literary Award-winning author Georgia Beers brings to you her long-awaited seventh novel, Starting from Scratch, a story where learning, laughing, loving, and baked goods are just a few of life’s basic ingredients.Starting from Scratch…where life is what you make it.

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?

Ghosts of Winter


Rebecca S. Buck - 2011
    But Winter Manor is not entirely at rest. The echoes of its past reach forward into the present, and Ros’s life is perceptibly shaped by the lives—and loves—of the people who inhabited those rooms and corridors in the centuries before her.Then Anna arrives. The architect—with her designer clothes, hot car, and air of supreme professionalism—is at first an unwelcome, if necessary, intrusion. But as Ros learns Anna’s truths, she finds solace from her past losses in their developing intimacy. And when their love is threatened, Ros must decide whether her own ghosts will forever define her, or if she can embrace her life for what it is—past, present, and future.

Death by the Riverside


J.M. Redmann - 1990
    The trail leads to the Hundred Oaks Plantation, a transvestite named Eddie, a beautiful doctor named Cordelia, and memories Micky thought she had buried twenty years ago.Hard-hitting prose in the style of Sam Spade and Mike Hammer with a lesbian twist.The First Micky Knight Mystery

Different Worlds


Lily Seabrooke - 2020
    Losing her friends, falling away from her work responsibilities, and sinking deeper into depression, rumors are she won’t be able to succeed the company at the end of the summer.Annelise Benson just lost her kitchen job and is in freefall. With rent looming and college tuition still to save for, she’s desperate enough to take a sketchy job offering more money than should be possible. But the summer caretaker position she signs up for gets tricky when it turns out she’s a tool used to try shaming Natasha Seychelle herself into reforming.The two come from vastly different worlds and clash in an ugly meeting that sets them head to head. Annelise’s dedication to completing a job is too strong for Natasha to shake her off, but—maybe, just maybe, they’ve come together for a reason.Different Worlds is a 100k enemies-to-lovers slow burn romance featuring a class difference romance, themes of grief and loss, comfort and healing, and lots of sentimental emotional fluff. Content warnings for depression, loss of family, references to self-harm, and one really nasty uncle. Oh, and sapphic flirting. Don’t read this book if you hate seeing girls flirting with each other. Definitely not.

The Goode Vet


J.J. Arias - 2020
    . . and her heart.Vanessa is content being America’s favorite reality TV veterinarian and living in her gated, island community. That all changes when a new neighbor bulldozes into her life. Literally.When Ronny wins the lottery and buys a dilapidated mansion in an exclusive south Florida town, she doesn’t expect the difficult woman next door to impede her plans of turning the home into a dog sanctuary.Can Vanessa and Ronny move beyond having gotten off on the wrong foot to nurture the spark they felt on their first meeting?Hit the jackpot with this fun enemies-to-lovers romance featuring swoon-worthy leads and a gaggle of four-legged friends!The Goode Vet is a SHORT STORY in the bestselling Goode Girl lesbian romance series, telling the stories of women loving women in and around a small, all-women’s college in Florida. Books can be read in any order.

It's Not a Date


Heather Blackmore - 2018
    Entrepreneur and innovator Kadrienne Davenport gets results. A demanding executive and stickler for punctuality, Kade throws herself into work to avoid hurting anyone, convinced she only causes pain to those she loves. When Jennifer Spencer meets an incognito Kade at a conference, sparks fly. But when Kade unexpectedly becomes her boss, Jen’s problems multiply. The company she founded is going broke, her grandmother’s dementia is worsening, and her attraction to Kade―her difficult, brilliant, charismatic mentor―is growing. Kade’s desire to keep things professional between them is in Jen’s best interest. Yet what’s in Kade’s best interest…is Jen.

The Warrior's Path


Catherine M. Wilson - 2008
    Since she never did find the story she was looking for all those years ago, she decided to write it.In Book I of the trilogy, Tamras arrives in Merin's house to begin her apprenticeship as a warrior, but her small stature causes many, including Tamras herself, to doubt that she will ever become a competent swordswoman. To make matters worse, the Lady Merin assigns her the position of companion, little more than a personal servant, to a woman who came to Merin's house, seemingly out of nowhere, the previous winter, and this stranger wants nothing to do with Tamras.

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?