Book picks similar to
Unexpected by Jenny Frame


romance
lgbt
lesbian
lesbian-romance

The Loudest Silence


Olivia Janae - 2015
    During her first rehearsal, she is surprised and intrigued to meet Vivian Kensington, the formidable by reputation board president who also happens to be…deaf.As Kate treads the waters of a rocky relationship with the young and foolhardy Ash, she develops a tentative friendship with her cold-hearted boss. As she does, she finds a kindness and a warmth that she never expected.As their friendship grows into something more, Kate wonders, is Ash really who she wants? Or is Vivian who she desires? Is it possible for two women, one from a world of sound and one a world of silence, to truly understand one another?

Romancing the Girl


Camryn Eyde - 2016
    Life is easy and full of hard, dusty work, but when her brother Joseph decides to become a contestant in a reality TV dating show, Romancing the Farmer, everything goes to hell.The station gets overrun by city women and stuck-up producers right in the middle of shearing season. Justine Cason, the ringleader of the circus Aimee instantly detests is an irritating, arrogant presence that she is forced to chaperone around the massive property.The two women find more in common than trading insults the more time they spend together, sparking an unexpected connection neither was looking for. As Joseph navigates the dating scene, and Aimee's sister Sally navigates a crumbling marriage, Aimee's life turns on its head in more ways than one when her blooming connection with Justine is the catalyst to leaving the land she loves.When the worst fire season in decades strikes their patch of the world, the Turner family must find a way to save themselves and the ones they dearly cherish. Can they put aside their differences to protect each other?*minor edits updated 1st May 2016*

The Midnight Hunt


L.L. Raand - 2010
    It isn't the bright shining pain of the bite or even the wrenching agonies of the fever that convinces her everything in her life has changed. It's the way she feels about the blonde with the silver-blue eyes leaning over her hospital bed when she finally wakes up. Sylvan, the Alpha of the Adirondack Timberlake Pack—the one woman Drake can't have. And the only one she wants. The first in the Midnight Hunters series.

Bad Girl Love


Cynthia Dane - 2018
    They don't even know about her ex-girlfriends or her fake IDs.But it's that fake ID that leads her to the hottest club in the city. While her friends tear up the dancefloor, however, Audrey meets the foil to her suppressed desires and curiosity.Dylan. The resident bad girl with an affinity for good girls like Audrey.What begins as a torrid fling soon transforms into something that opens Audrey's eyes to the life she's always wanted. The longer she's with Dylan, the more she realizes the sources of her suffocation. A toxic family. Airheaded friends. Caring for nothing but the trappings of wealth. "A bad girl is someone who refuses to accept the status quo." Dylan has dated her fair share of heiresses, but Audrey is the first one to make her believe in a chance at love.Yet it's not easy to give over to someone like Audrey. She represents everything Dylan has spent her whole life rejecting, for she knows all too well what it's like to be forced into the good girl role.And her past is constantly threatening to ruin everything she's built for herself since her darkest days. "Good girls don't go bad. They save themselves." The fatalistic love that haunts both Dylan and Audrey will last the summer. After that? Someone will have to give up the only life they've ever known.Easier said than done.Please note that this book contains examples of transphobia and growing up in an abusive cult.

Delilah Green Doesn't Care


Ashley Herring Blake - 2022
    Her life is in New York, with her photography career finally gaining steam and her bed never empty. Sure, it’s a different woman every night, but that’s just fine with her.When Delilah’s estranged stepsister, Astrid, pressures her into photographing her wedding with a guilt trip and a five-figure check, Delilah finds herself back in the godforsaken town that she used to call home. She plans to breeze in and out, but then she sees Claire Sutherland, one of Astrid’s stuck-up besties, and decides that maybe there’s some fun (and a little retribution) to be had in Bright Falls, after all.Having raised her eleven-year-old daughter mostly on her own while dealing with her unreliable ex and running a bookstore, Claire Sutherland depends upon a life without surprises. And Delilah Green is an unwelcome surprise…at first. Though they’ve known each other for years, they don’t really know each other—so Claire is unsettled when Delilah figures out exactly what buttons to push. When they’re forced together during a gauntlet of wedding preparations—including a plot to save Astrid from her horrible fiancé—Claire isn’t sure she has the strength to resist Delilah’s charms. Even worse, she’s starting to think she doesn’t want to…

Without Warning


K.G. MacGregor - 2007
    Two strangers, trapped in a collapsed shopping mall, find each other amid the rubble and join forces to escape. Hampered by injury and darkness, they dig and claw their way through one crumbled store after another, emerging long after most have given up hope for survivors.The ordeal leaves both women shaken, but their shared triumph sets them on a life-changing course together, igniting a connection like neither has ever known.Anna Kaklis—whose perfectly planned life never included falling in love with another woman—is thrown for a loop, but she doesn’t doubt her heart.Lily Stewart—abandoned too many times by people she trusted—won’t let herself believe that Anna’s love will endure.Without Warning is the story of their courageous journey through adversity, and their promise of steadfast love.

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…

The Road Home


Erin Zak - 2020
    That’s when things go from bad to worse. Home to celebrate her dad’s birthday, Gwen discovers her mom is sick and might not have much time left. She stays to help and to repair the emotional rift that has kept them apart for so long. That’s easier said than done, though, because oh-so-perfect Lila Machowicz has all but replaced Gwen as Carol Carter's surrogate daughter. Gwen and Lila are forced to work together to support the woman they both care about, even though they’re rivals for a place in Carol’s life. The last thing either expects is an attraction as undeniable as it is inconvenient. When Lila helps Gwen rebuild trust with her mom, Gwen’s heart begins to thaw. But every family has a closet full of skeletons, and when she discovers the family secret, will she ever be able to trust Lila again?Cover Artist: Tammy SeidickGenres: Contemporary / RomanceTags: Enemies to Lovers Romance, Homecoming, Age Gap, Small Town RomancesWords: 86,000

Rum Spring


Yolanda Wallace - 2010
    When she meets Dylan Mahoney, however, the rules go out the window. During Rebecca's rumspringa—the four-year period during which Amish teenagers decide whether to join the church or leave it for the outside world—Dylan, a film buff and aspiring movie critic, shows Rebecca a world she never dreamed of. The pair make plans to spend the rest of their lives together until a rift forms between their families and forces them to part ways. After much soul-searching, Rebecca decides familial loyalty is more important than her own happiness. But when Dylan develops feelings for another woman, Rebecca's loyalty is put to the test.Love or tradition? Which path will she choose?

Tell Me Again How a Crush Should Feel


Sara Farizan - 2014
    Her Persian heritage already makes her different from her classmates; if word got out that she liked girls, life would be twice as hard. But when a sophisticated, beautiful new girl, Saskia, shows up, Leila starts to take risks she never thought she would, especially when it looks as if the attraction between them is mutual. Struggling to sort out her growing feelings and Saskia's confusing signals, Leila confides in her old friend, Lisa, and grows closer to her fellow drama tech-crew members, especially Tomas, whose comments about his own sexuality are frank, funny, wise, and sometimes painful. Gradually, Leila begins to see that almost all her classmates are more complicated than they first appear to be, and many are keeping fascinating secrets of their own.

Black Iris


Leah Raeder - 2015
    One stupid gesture for a hopeless crush. Then the rumors began. Slut, they called her. Queer. Psycho. Mentally ill, messed up, so messed up even her own mother decided she wasn't worth sticking around for.If Laney could erase that whole year, she would. College is her chance to start with a clean slate.She's not looking for new friends, but they find her: charming, handsome Armin, the only guy patient enough to work through her thorny defenses—and fiery, filterless Blythe, the bad girl and partner in crime who has thorns of her own.But Laney knows nothing good ever lasts. When a ghost from her past resurfaces—the bully who broke her down completely—she decides it's time to live up to her own legend. And Armin and Blythe are going to help.Which was the plan all along.Because the rumors are true. Every single one. And Laney is going to show them just how true.She's going to show them all.

Hooked on You


Jenn Matthews - 2019
    As a teacher with two great kids and a boyfriend, she seems to have it all. Except…she’s bored as hell. Perhaps a new hobby’s in order? Something…crafty?Divorced mother and veteran Ollie has been through the wars, emotionally and physically. To relax, she runs a quirky crochet class in her London craft shop. She can’t help but notice the attractive, feisty new student. A shame Anna’s straight as an arrow.But somewhere between the chain stitches, doubles and trebles, Ollie and Anna form a powerful connection they never expected.A quirky lesbian romance about love never being quite where you expect.Tags: crochet · England · London · quirky lesbian romance · teacher · veteran98,000 words

VIP


Jackie D. - 2021
    Never one for a scandal, she’s lived a predictable and well-manicured life. With each movie more successful than the last, she has the world at her fingertips. An undeniable connection with bad girl superstar Harlow Thorne was never in her plan.Harlow Thorne left her childhood trailer park with nothing but her guitar and twin brother. Those times are nothing but a distant memory now, and she’s consistently at the top of the pop music world. She has managed to keep her mother in her rearview mirror through all her success, but that all changes when her mother reappears with a family secret.Together these two could conquer the world―but in a town where careers are made and broken by the press, the secrets and lies may be too much to overcome.

The Love Factor


Quinn Ivins - 2020
    It might be the nineties, and everything’s shoulder pads, Doc Martens, and The X-Files, but people won’t budge on gay rights. Molly decides to give a PhD a whirl but finds herself more interested in campus politics…and her strict and sexy statistics professor.Professor Carmen Vaughn is stuck in small-town Maryland with smarmy blowhards for colleagues and ungrateful students who can’t handle her high standards. She has no intention of coming out, least of all to Molly, a troublemaking grad student who can’t stop picking fights with the conservative faculty.But when Molly discovers evidence implicating a homophobic colleague in a scandal, Carmen can’t ignore it—even if the subject hits too close to home. As the two women work together to make their case, they grow closer than Carmen ever imagined. But she absolutely refuses to get involved with a student.The thing is, as the chemistry builds between them, Molly isn’t sure she wants to be a grad student anymore…if she ever did.75,000 words

When the Stars Sang


Caren J. Werlinger - 2018
    Like a siren’s call she can’t resist, Kathleen is pulled back to Little Sister Island. She leaves her job and her girlfriend, packs up her few belongings, and moves into her grandmother’s cottage.Molly Cooper loves life on Little Sister, where the islanders take care of their own. Kathleen Halloran doesn’t belong here, and her arrival stirs up unwelcome memories for the islanders—including Molly’s brother. Molly is certain Kathleen will pack up at the first big blow. When she doesn’t, Molly begins to see maybe there’s more to Kathleen than she thought.Sometimes, before you can more forward, you have to look back.Words: 95,480