Empress of Forever


Max Gladstone - 2019
    On the eve of her greatest achievement, she's trying to outrun those who are trying to steal her success.In the chilly darkness of a Boston server farm, Viv sets her ultimate plan into motion. A terrifying instant later, Vivian Liao is catapulted through space and time to a far future where she confronts a destiny stranger and more deadly than she could ever imagine. The end of time is ruled by an ancient, powerful Empress who blesses or blasts entire planets with a single thought. Rebellion is literally impossible to consider--until Vivian arrives. Trapped between the Pride, a ravening horde of sentient machines, and a fanatical sect of warrior monks who call themselves the Mirrorfaith, Viv must rally a strange group of allies to confront the Empress and find a way back to the world and life she left behind.A magnificent work of vivid imagination and universe-spanning action, Empress of Forever is a feminist Guardians of the Galaxy crossed with Star Wars and spiced with the sensibility and spirit of Iain M. Banks and William Gibson.

Stone Heart


Katee Robert - 2022
    She’s Athena’s knife hand, the one sent when Athena wants someone to disappear. No one asks Medusa what she wants, but she owes Athena her life, and if staining her hands with blood is the only way to repay the debt, it’s a small price to pay.Until Athena sends her after Calypso, the mistress of the rich politician Odysseus. As far as Medusa can tell, Calypso hasn’t done anything remotely worthy of a death sentence, and her conflicted feelings only get compounded when she finally sees the woman. Calypso is beautiful and cunning and she’ll do anything to keep her life—including seducing her would-be assassin. What starts as a ploy to escape quickly spirals into genuine interest. Medusa is hardly the cold killer that rumors suggest, and Calypso is far more complicated than her reputation as a ruthless gold-digger. But it doesn’t matter that they’ve finally found something special together. Athena will have her blood, and this time not even crossing the River Styx will save them…

A Complicated Love Story Set in Space


Shaun David Hutchinson - 2021
    Together, the three face all the dangers of space, along with murder, aliens, a school dance, and one really, really bad day. But none of this can prepare Noa for the biggest challenge—falling in love. And as Noa’s feelings for DJ deepen, he has to contend not just with the challenges of the present, but also with his memories of the past.However, nothing is what it seems on Qriosity, and the truth will upend all of their lives forever.Love is complicated enough without also trying to stay alive.

Girls at the Edge of the World


Laura Brooke Robson - 2021
    The Kostrovian royal court will be saved, of course, along with their guards. But the fate of the court's Royal Flyers, a lauded fleet of aerial silk performers, is less certain. Hell-bent on survival, Principal Flyer, Natasha Koskinen, will do anything to save the Flyers, who are the only family she's ever known. Even if "anything" means molding herself into the type of girl who could be courted by Prince Nikolai. But unbeknownst to Natasha, her newest recruit, Ella Neves, is driven less by her desire to survive the floods than her thirst for revenge. And Ella's mission could put everything Natasha has worked for in peril.As the oceans rise, so too does an undeniable spark between the two flyers. With the end of the world looming, and dark secrets about the Kostrovian court coming to light, Ella and Natasha can either give in to despair . . . or find a new reason to live.

The Dark Tide


Alicia Jasinska - 2020
    Walpurga's Eve, Caldella’s Witch Queen lures a boy back to her palace. An innocent life to be sacrificed on the full moon to keep the island city from sinking. Lina Kirk is convinced her brother is going to be taken this year. To save him, she enlists the help of Thomas Lin, the boy she secretly loves, and the only person to ever escape from the palace. But they draw the queen’s attention, and Thomas is chosen as the sacrifice.Queen Eva watched her sister die to save the boy she loved. Now as queen, she won't make the same mistake. She's willing to sacrifice anyone if it means saving herself and her city.When Lina offers herself to the queen in exchange for Thomas’s freedom, the two girls await the full moon together. But Lina is not at all what Eva expected, and the queen is nothing like Lina envisioned. Against their will, they find themselves falling for each other as water floods Caldella’s streets and the dark tide demands its sacrifice.

Trigger


Jessica L. Webb - 2016
    Kate Morrison doesn’t know how or why someone would create human bombs that are triggered by touch. But when Sergeant Andy Wyles blocks Kate from touching the patient who collapses in her Vancouver ER, Kate joins the investigation to demand answers, regardless of the danger. As the two women work together to find those responsible for creating an army of human weapons, Kate finds it increasingly difficult to ignore her feelings for the fiercely protective and unrelentingly perceptive cop. The investigation escalates, and Kate gradually begins to trust Andy, not only with her safety but also with the difficult details of her past. With lives at risk and her heart on the line, Kate must search for a way to defuse the bombs and save her patients, even as she questions the intensifying connection between herself and Andy.

A Pale Light in the Black


K.B. Wagers - 2020
    Coast Guard.For the past year, their close loss in the annual Boarding Games has haunted Interceptor Team: Zuma’s Ghost. With this year’s competition looming, they’re looking forward to some payback—until an unexpected personnel change leaves them reeling. Their best swordsman has been transferred, and a new lieutenant has been assigned in his place.Maxine Carmichael is trying to carve a place in the world on her own—away from the pressure and influence of her powerful family. The last thing she wants is to cause trouble at her command on Jupiter Station. With her new team in turmoil, Max must overcome her self-doubt and win their trust if she’s going to succeed. Failing is not an option—and would only prove her parents right.But Max and the team must learn to work together quickly. A routine mission to retrieve a missing ship has suddenly turned dangerous, and now their lives are on the line. Someone is targeting members of Zuma’s Ghost, a mysterious opponent willing to kill to safeguard a secret that could shake society to its core . . . a secret that could lead to their deaths and kill thousands more unless Max and her new team stop them.Rescue those in danger, find the bad guys, win the Games. It’s all in a day’s work at the NeoG.

Training Ground


Kate Christie - 2016
    At fifteen, Jamie Maxwell’s main goals in life are to make the United States youth national soccer pool, move past the Incident-That-Shall-Not-Be- Named, and maybe—someday—kiss a girl. When she meets Emma Blakeley at a tournament in Southern California, something about the older girl draws her in. And it isn’t that she expects to ever get the chance to kiss Emma. Really. When Jamie invites her to sneak out on the last night of Surf Cup, Emma doesn’t go because she likes Jamie’s smile. She goes because, as the daughter of a surgeon and a nurse, she has a genetic predisposition to try to heal people. And Jamie, she can tell, is wounded.Neither girl suspects that this first last night together will form the basis of a bond that will last across years and miles, from SoCal soccer fields and New York hotels to Portuguese beaches and the streets of Vancouver. But that’s how most friendships begin, isn’t it? With a smile and a nod and the courage to ask, “Do you maybe, possibly, want to come with me?”

The Bone Shard Daughter


Andrea Stewart - 2020
    But now his rule is failing, and revolution is sweeping across the Empire's many islands.Lin is the emperor's daughter and spends her days trapped in a palace of locked doors and dark secrets. When her father refuses to recognise her as heir to the throne, she vows to prove her worth by mastering the forbidden art of bone shard magic.Yet such power carries a great cost, and when the revolution reaches the gates of the palace, Lin must decide how far she is willing to go to claim her birthright - and save her people.

Safe Passage


Rachel Ford - 2019
    For privateer Captain Magdalene Landon, it's all about going big. For Kay Ellis, it's about getting home. Together, they're about to architect the most daring heist in the galaxy. Kay knows too much. She knows it’s a matter of time before a Conglomerate hitman finds her. She’s desperate for safe passage back to Union space. Then Magdalene shows up, promising a way home in exchange for that information. It’s a risky bet, but Kay is out of options. So she strikes a deal: the heist of the century for her freedom.Kay is playing a dangerous game, and she knows it. She’s made herself Enemy Number One of the Conglomerate. She’s relying on privateers for her safety. It’s a fool’s game. But the worst part is, her fool’s heart is starting to warm to the enigmatic captain. And that’s a risk for which she hadn’t planned.

Easy Nevada and the Pyramid’s Curse


Georgette Kaplan - 2018
    She’ll do anything to get her hands on its untold riches, if she can just get past the deadly traps that protect them.Candice Cushing is an archaeologist born in Sudan and raised in Britain, who is drawn toward the mysterious pyramid that she sees as a piece of her heritage.Farouq Al-Jabbar doesn’t see it as either history or treasure. The zealot has come to destroy anything that smells of blasphemy, and anyone who gets in his way.In this wild adventure, as the stakes ratchet up amid the burning, shifting sands, the women fighting for their lives start to wonder if they’re really so different after all…and if that cursed pyramid has been buried for a reason.Themes: archaeologist · cursed pyramid · fortune hunter · mercenary · mysterious pyramid · wild adventure72,000 words

Silhouette


Robin Hale - 2018
    Molly Fawn’s life is surprisingly normal, considering that she spends her days running support for a man who can fly and lift city buses with one hand. But when Molly interrupts the Silhouette — the city’s most notorious thief — in a middle of a job, everything gets a bit more exciting. Suddenly, Molly sees the thief everywhere, and those leather clad curves and wicked smiles are all she can think about. The Silhouette seems determined to lure the mild-mannered Dr. Fawn out of her shell like taking a gem from a vault, but will Molly have the courage to let the beautiful thief have a shot at stealing her heart? Silhouette is a standalone F/F romance set in a fictional Midwestern city with superpowered heroes, villains, and the sidekicks who love them.

Keepers of the Cave


Gerri Hill - 2012
    But CJ and Paige fear there will be little distraction from the memories of the one-night stand they shared six months ago.Nevertheless, they integrate themselves into the lives of the teachers and staff, but soon the odd behavior of the townspeople has them convinced something sinister lurks there. Something, perhaps, that even the residents of Hoganville don’t know about.

Fireheart Tiger


Aliette de Bodard - 2021
    Now she’s returned to her mother’s imperial court, haunted not only by memories of her first romance, but by worrying magical echoes of a fire that devastated Ephteria’s royal palace.Thanh’s new role as a diplomat places her once again in the path of her first love, the powerful and magnetic Eldris of Ephteria, who knows exactly what she wants: romance from Thanh and much more from Thanh’s home. Eldris won’t take no for an answer, on either front. But the fire that burned down one palace is tempting Thanh with the possibility of making her own dangerous decisions.Can Thanh find the freedom to shape her country’s fate—and her own?

The Wrong McElroy


K.L. Hughes - 2019
    Besides, how hard could one festive family weekend be, anyway?That’s before she meets the boisterous McElroy clan, with accents as thick as a homemade pie crust, and an endless supply of competitive siblings, including Lizzie, Michael’s beautiful younger sister.Lizzie seems to be everywhere, with her intoxicating scent, wandering hands, lingering gaze, and that bright, echoing laugh. The more time Fiona spends in her orbit, she wonders how she can even concentrate let alone pull off a convincing fake relationship.An amusing, charming lesbian romance about finding unexpected love inside family expectations.Themes: Christmas · family · holiday romance · POC64,000 words