Jess has loved Melissa for longer than she can remember and it’s bearable when they’re a hundred miles apart, but what will happen when they’re thrown back together and there’s nowhere to hide?Jess has tried everything to put her feelings aside, but when Melissa comes home from university and becomes a permanent fixture in her office, kitchen, and sometimes even bed, she’s got no chance of making it work.Throw in a best friend who’s taken over the spare bedroom with her toddler daughter, and an extended family who’ll meddle in anything going, and life is about to get complicated.

    I can remember Hetty’s hand in mine as we moved slowly down the steps of the escalator, as if standing completely still would have been harder than moving.Hetty and Ness, best friends since childhood, have left suburban Melbourne for the first time to live abroad. Hetty is charming and captivating, the life of the party. Ness is a wallflower, hopelessly in love with her. In the student quarter of Toronto, the pair take a room in a share house full of self-assured creatives. Hetty disappears into barkeeping work and a whirlwind nightlife, while Ness drifts aimlessly. But when Ness finds Hope one day in the art gallery, an intense affair develops. There are new friends, too, and a job: at last her life starts to make some sense. And Hetty’s starts spectacularly to fall apart, in a mess of bad drugs and bad men.As winter freezes the lakeside city, the dark undercurrents of Hetty’s character—abusive relationships, a dangerous obsession with bodies of water—become ever stronger. Ness may lose the person she loves more than anyone else in the world.Beautifully written and intimate, Cherry Beach is a revelatory story of friendship and desire.

    Falling in love off-page was like the next part of the story. But after a huge falling out, three years have passed in bitter silence.When they both appear at a science fiction convention in London, Natalie, a struggling writer, wants nothing to do with El, the hot debut novelist who sold her book at auction under a male pseudonym. But over the weekend, ignoring each other--and their attraction--proves impossible, not least because they have several panels together. Can El hope to atone for the mistakes of their past, and is Natalie willing to let hope fly?

    She’s 23 years old, starting grad school, and perfectly content to ignore the world beyond her textbooks. That is, until she meets Ruby Satterwhite, who makes Max want to give love one more shot.Ruby is the consummate social butterfly – sorority president, extracurricular list a mile long, and stunning to boot. In short, she’s way out of Max’s league, and on top of it all, she kind of hates Max for how she blurts out whatever’s on her mind, no matter how blunt.But when they’re thrown grudgingly together for a group project in their first class, the heavens open up and the sparks begin to fly. There are only two problems – Ruby’s still pining for her perfect ex-girlfriend.It’s time to turn on the charm like never before, but can Max master the rules of love?

    Ellis and Vada have a friendship so consuming it’s hard to tell where one girl ends and the other begins. It’s intense. It’s a little codependent. And nothing can tear them apart.Until an accident on an icy winter road changes everything.Vada is left deeply scarred, both emotionally and physically. Her once-promising art career is cut short. And Ellis pulls away, unwilling to talk about that night. Everything Vada loved is gone.She’s got nothing left to lose.So when she meets some smooth-talking entrepreneurs who offer to set her up as a cam girl, she can’t say no. All Vada has to do is spend a couple hours each night stripping on webcam, and the “tips” come pouring in.It’s just a kinky escape from reality until a client gets serious. “Blue” is mysterious, alluring, and more interested in Vada’s life than her body. Online, they chat intimately. Blue helps her heal. And he pays well, but he wants her all to himself. No more cam shows. It’s an easy decision: she’s starting to fall for him. But the steamier it gets, the more she craves the real man behind the keyboard. So Vada pops the question:Can we meet IRL?Blue agrees, on one condition. A condition that brings back a ghost from her past. Now Vada must confront the devastating secrets she's been running from—those of others, and those she's been keeping from herself...

    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.

    It’s time for a fresh start, a move across the country, and a new set of rules to help heal her heart—no straight women, no women with kids, and no commitment. But when she meets her new neighbors, the beautiful Erica and her special needs daughter, Siena, she struggles against the pull she immediately experiences.Erica Cooper has learned to rely only on herself. She knows most people don’t stick around when the going gets tough. And when caring for a child with autism, the going can get tough fast. She is content with the quiet and emotionally safe life she’s constructed, but when they are befriended by their kind, playful, and—damn it—really hot new neighbor, the walls protecting her heart threaten to crumble.So much for good intentions and firm resolutions—neither stand a chance when the stars align for love.Words: 88,000Cover Artist: Melody PondGenres: Contemporary / Romance Tags: Children / Families, Animals, California, Disability, Friends to Lovers Romance, Homecoming

     Princess Natasia is the eldest child of the Emperor Andreth, ruler of the Four Realms. If she were a boy, she’d be the unquestioned heir to the throne. But as a girl, her main duty in life is to marry someone her father can shape into his successor. Everything changes when an unknown would-be assassin nearly takes Tasia’s life. Someone wants to destabilize the Empire — but who? Was the assassin aligned with the power-hungry Western lords, who have always rebelled against the Emperor? Was he hired by the barbarians in the East, who are fighting against the Empire’s subjugation? Or was he a member of the mysterious Cult of Culo? Unsure of whom he can trust, the Emperor realizes that his daughter might be his best option for an heir. There hasn't been a female heir to the throne in living memory, but as palace intrigue becomes increasingly dangerous, the reckless, rebellious, and stubborn princess suddenly has to face the responsibility of learning to lead. Will she rise to the occasion? Or will the Empire fall at the hands of one of its many enemies? For fans of epic fantasy… with an LGBTQ twist.

    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).

    Things go from bad to worse when she gets a call from Monique, a beautiful stranger who turns out to be Jim Bob’s mistress and mother to his son. Monique needs financial support for her child, and Tucker steps up―it’s what family does. Willow Vernon has never approved of her sister’s affair with a wealthy married man, but when Monique becomes ill, Willow assumes care of her nephew. When Tucker insists that financial support should give her custody rights, Willow’s ready to go to battle. Tucker’s the same kind of irresponsible philander as Jim Bob, and she’s not falling for the Delacroix charm like Monique had, no matter how tempting Tucker might be. Family ties bring Tucker and Willow together, but they could also tear them, and any chance they have at love, apart.

    The father she has shunned for 23 years has died, leaving her his bar, The Risk, along with a slew of bad feelings. Unhappy in her law career and life in general, Sierra returns to her hometown, Shamrock Cove, to settle her father's affairs. But as a prodigal daughter, returning to possibly sell a bar filled with patrons and staff who loved her father, and resent her, she'll need to employ all her expertise and people skills. Kelsi Belmar first arrived in Shamrock Cove to complete her residency. Enamored by the little community and its people, she stayed on to take over the local clinic for the elderly doctor wanting to retire. Kelsi's heart had never been tempted by the women she dated, until Sierra Kipling stepped off the boardwalk and into the bar with a satchel in her hand, and a Siamese cat named Me-Too on her shoulder. The young doctor, grieving the loss of her father figure, will find herself fanning the flames of desire for the woman who broke Thorn Kipling's heart. Against the backdrop of a quaint harbor town in coastal Rhode Island, Sierra Kipling is about to learn the truth about her father in the testimonies of those who loved him and the journals he left behind.