Book picks similar to
Any Other Name by Devan Johnson


romance
lgbtq
historical-fiction
lesbian

Sword of the Guardian


Merry Shannon - 2006
    But in the midst of a birthday celebration, her world shatters when a mysterious assassin takes her brother's life. Shasta, the only remaining heir to the throne, narrowly escapes the assassin's blade thanks to the intervention of a traveling acrobat named Talon.With the threat of another attempt on Shasta's life imminent, her father declares that the young hero will be come the Princess's bodyguard. But what Shasta doesn't know is that her new guardian has a very well-kept secret: he is actually a she.Talon and Shasta soon grow closer than anyone, especially her father, could have predicted. Will the truth of her guardian's secret change their relationship forever?Book 1 of The Legends of Ithyria Series

Crossing the Wide Forever


Missouri Vaun - 2017
    Lured by stories of opportunity, even for women, Cody disguises herself as a man and prepares for the arduous journey west. Lillie Ellis leaves New York to accept a post as a schoolteacher on the frontier near a small homestead she just inherited from her uncle. Lillie’s ultimate desire is to become a painter, and she hopes the Kansas frontier will offer her the freedom to follow that dream. In the nineteenth-century, a young woman has few options in the East that don’t revolve around marriage and motherhood. Lillie is interested in neither. Cody rescues Lillie after a chance encounter in Independence, Missouri. Their destinies and desires become entwined as they face the perils of the untamed West. Despite their differences, they discover that love’s uncharted frontier is not for the weak in spirit or the faint of heart.

Madeleine


Emma Nichols - 2018
    Claudette isn’t like other young French women. As their lives collide, Madeleine and Claude will discover a depth of connection and desire they never knew could exist. Can their love flourish in post-WW2 France or will their past derail their future? If you like your novels with strong leading ladies, smouldering chemistry and an epic love story that twists and turns, then you’ll love Emma Nichol’s latest lesbian romance.

Before You Say I Do


Clare Lydon - 2020
    When Abby meets Jordan, she can hardly breathe. Marcus is oblivious. The wedding is weeks away. Now, the only question is: will Abby make it to the altar? Best-selling author Clare Lydon brings you a love story to top them all. Download this story of forbidden love and submerge yourself in lesbian romance today!

The Only Way


Jamie Sullivan - 2014
    When Hart decides that’s not good enough for her, she takes on the high stakes world of no-holds-barred fighting. There's just one problem: women aren’t allowed in the ring. Hair cut short and dressed in her father’s old clothes, Hart ventures into the Alley and the world of arena fighting. There she meets Ruby, the daughter of the Arena owner and a brilliant fighter in her own right. When she offers Hart the chance for friendship, Hart cannot resist.But Ruby thinks Hart is a man, and as she and Ruby grow closer, it gets harder and harder to maintain the façade …

The Dark Wife


Sarah Diemer - 2011
    Now, only a goddess can tell the truth. Persephone has everything a daughter of Zeus could want--except for freedom. She lives on the green earth with her mother, Demeter, growing up beneath the ever-watchful eyes of the gods and goddesses on Mount Olympus. But when Persephone meets the enigmatic Hades, she experiences something new: choice. Zeus calls Hades "lord" of the dead as a joke. In truth, Hades is the goddess of the underworld, and no friend of Zeus. She offers Persephone sanctuary in her land of the dead, so the young goddess may escape her Olympian destiny. But Persephone finds more than freedom in the underworld. She finds love, and herself.

Pulp


Robin Talley - 2018
    It’s not easy being gay in Washington, DC, in the age of McCarthyism, but when she discovers a series of books about women falling in love with other women, it awakens something in Janet. As she juggles a romance she must keep hidden and a newfound ambition to write and publish her own story, she risks exposing herself—and Marie—to a danger all too real.Sixty-two years later, Abby Zimet can’t stop thinking about her senior project and its subject—classic 1950s lesbian pulp fiction. Between the pages of her favorite book, the stresses of Abby’s own life are lost to the fictional hopes, desires and tragedies of the characters she’s reading about. She feels especially connected to one author, a woman who wrote under the pseudonym “Marian Love,” and becomes determined to track her down and discover her true identity.In this novel told in dual narratives, New York Times bestselling author Robin Talley weaves together the lives of two young women connected across generations through the power of words. A stunning story of bravery, love, how far we’ve come and how much farther we have to go.

The Sublime and Spirited Voyage of Original Sin


Colette Moody - 2009
    Together with Gayle Malvern, daughter of wounded pirate captain Madman Malvern, Celia becomes a reluctant participant in an unexpectedly thrilling journey through the Caribbean. For Gayle, Celia's presence is at first a welcome and shapely distraction, but as her attraction to the seamstress deepens, she realizes that Celia comes to mean more to her than is almost certainly prudent. As Celia and Gayle navigate the perilous territories of gypsies, prostitutes, mercenaries, and slave-traders, they forge a partnership born of necessity that Gayle soon hopes will veer away from insurmountable danger and instead detour directly to her bed.

Innocent Hearts


Radclyffe - 2005
    She doesn't know what she wants, or who, until she moves with her family to the wild Montana Territory of the 1860's. Just eighteen and quietly struggling against the social constraints of the era, Kate meets a woman who fires first her imagination, and then her dreams. Jessie Forbes, a fiercely independent but touchingly tender rancher, finds in Kate the passion she had unknowingly sought all her life.This is the story of their struggle to love in a land and time as cruel as it was beautiful.

Heart of Gold


L. Dreamer - 2020
    She didn't want to be a rancher's wife, so she makes the harrowing decision to leave all she's known, risking everything for the chance to choose her own fate in life. Now going by 'Thomas' she realizes hiding her identity is a rather small price to pay for the freedom to live her own life and the Klondike Gold Rush is the perfect opportunity to help her fund her endeavor.Rachel Harkes knew that marrying Roy would be her ticket out of her small town in Kansas. Two years into their marriage and still looking for more adventure, Roy decides they should try their luck and join the Klondike Gold Rush.When tragedy strikes and Thomas and Rachel are brought together at the top of the world in the unforgiving, arduous search for gold, can Thomas navigate her relationship with Rachel without revealing her secret? Will Rachel reconcile what she's known with the new, seemingly overwhelming reality she now finds herself in?

Alaskan Bride


D. Jordan Redhawk - 2016
    Soon she's on the adventure of her life, leaving the comfort and stability of a well-to-do family for a man she's never met and a life of uncertainty.Callie Glass isn't happy with her brother Jasper's proposal to a mail-order bride, though she knows it's not her call. And when a tragic accident takes Jasper Glass's life, Callie doesn't hesitate to call off the wedding in a letter to Clara. Callie is soon surprised to find a strange woman settling into her cabin, a stranger who had never received news of Jasper's demise.While Callie insists that the other woman should return home, Clara digs in her heels. If Callie can live without a man in this isolated land, why can't she? Both headstrong women struggle in the ashes of their dashed hopes and dreams, slowly coming together to forge an alliance for which neither is prepared.

Casting Lacey


Elle Spencer - 2017
    At least that’s how the hyper-private Quinn Kincaid sees it. When her publicist suggests a good old-fashioned sham of a Hollywood relationship, Quinn reluctantly agrees. And that’s how the star of Jordan’s Appeal, TV’s highest rated legal drama, ends up with a fake girlfriend – the very real, very sexy and very gay soap star, Lacey Matthews. In Casting Lacey, Elle Spencer gives us a hilarious new take on a classic storyline, complete with nosy mothers, fawning assistants and two beautiful actresses who might learn about true love. If they don’t kill each other first. 110,000 words

The Way Home


Lily Hammond - 2018
    Leaving the city and an old love affair behind, she buys a medical practice in a small country town. Here she hopes to find peace, friendships, and the sort of medical practice she’s always dreamed of, where she knows all her patients by name. What she discovers is the possibility of a new, deep love with Eadie McClintock, a young woman struggling to raise her baby nephew while hiding her brother from the men determined to send him off to the war. Shunned by the town, however, Eadie refuses to have anything to do with May – for the new doctor’s own good.Which leaves May with an impossible task. How can she win the trust of the town when they are so set against the one person May wants to be closest to?

Gay Pride and Prejudice


Kate Christie - 2012
    Netherfield Hall has just been let to a single man of large fortune. But while it is true that such a man is generally considered to be in want of a wife, it is equally true that not all men desire female companionship, just as not every woman dreams of being married.Like other variations on Jane Austen's classic romance novel, Gay Pride & Prejudice poses a question: What if some among Austen's characters preferred the company of their own sex? In this queer revision of the classic original, Kate Christie offers an alternate version of love, friendship, and marriage for Elizabeth Bennet, Mr. Darcy, and others among their circle of friends. But even as the path to love veers from the straight and narrow, the destination remains much the same.If you have an open mind, dear reader, you may discover the book Jane Austen would likely never have approved, but which, nonetheless, affords a window onto gay and lesbian life in early nineteenth century England.

The Companion


E.E. Ottoman - 2021
    When a friend offers her a safe haven as the live-in companion to reclusive, bestselling novelist Victor Hallowell she jumps at the chance to escape the city.Madeline expects to find rest and quiet in the forests of Upstate New York. Instead, she finds Victor, handsome and intensely passionate, and Audrey Coffin, Victor's mysterious and beautiful neighbor.When Victor offers her a kiss and the promise of more Madeline allows herself to become entangled even as Audrey is also claiming her heart. The only problem is that Audrey and Victor are ex-lovers with plenty of baggage between them. As Madeline finds herself opening up and falling in love with both she starts to wonder, can there be a future for all three?