Book picks similar to
Any Other Name by Devan Johnson


romance
lgbtq
historical-fiction
lesbian

A Story of Now


Emily O’Beirne - 2015
    And some new friends.But brittle, beautiful, and just a little bit too sassy for her own good sometimes, she no longer makes friends easily. And she has no clue where to start on the whole finding a life front, either. Not after a confidence-shattering year dogged by bad break-ups, friends who have become strangers, and her constant failure to meet her parents sky-high expectations.When Robbie and Mia walk into Claire’s work they seem the least likely people to help her find a life. But despite Claire’s initial attempts to alienate them, an unexpected new friendship develops.And it’s the warm, brilliant Mia who seems to get Claire like no one has before. Soon, Claire begins to question her feelings for her new friend.The sequel, The Sum of These Things, will be released in late 2015. Paperback available July 15.Length: approx. 140,000Themes: Australia, lesbian, Melbourne, young adult, new adult

Tumbleweed Fever


L.J. Maas - 2000
    When a local widow needs help on her ranch, she enlists Devlin to help her.

Wind and Sea


C.L. Ryder - 2018
    Not in high school, not in art school, and not since she’d gotten her work into major galleries across the country. It’s not that she doesn’t want it—she’s just never found the right woman—until a trip to the beach put her right onto Cammy’s canvas. The mysterious surfer in red. She’s charming and sexy, and Cammy can’t get her out of her mind… but there’s only one problem: The girl is 100% undeniably straight. Lei Castle is a real free spirit. She’s traveled the world with only her surfboard, and now she’s finally back home in the California. With her van set up on the beach, her only worry is how the waves are going to be that day. When Cammy shows up at her private cove the two are drawn into a close friendship, and Lei takes it upon herself to show the risk-averse painter how to have a little excitement. As Cammy falls deeper in love with her friend, it becomes harder and harder to keep her tremendous desires a secret. Will she suffer the pain of unrequited love for as long as they’re together? How can the tides of fate make an impossible love a reality?

Mutual Benefits


H.P. Munro - 2020
    Which it would be, if Hannah was gay.Ashley West isn’t looking for a relationship. When she’s set up by her mother on a blind date, she’s ready to nip any expectations in the bud. She’s less prepared for her love interest to be straight.What do you get when you combine a fake relationship with two meddling mothers? A laugh-out-loud romantic comedy that will have you glued to the page!

Thora: A Spartan Hoplite's Slave


Red Hope - 2019
    Previously published under ISBN 978-1-7321153-1-6. She is the only female hoplite in Spartan history. She is a royal guard to King Leonidas. She is the Iron Edge. In an age when men rule, Halcyon rises above and is the master of her own life. At home, Halcyon controls her lands and her personal slaves with a strict hand, until the day she purchases an unusual slave. Thora is a fair skinned woman who stands taller than the Greek gods, with hair the color of gold, and blue eyes that rival the skies. Halcyon must own the unusual woman, but she is hardly prepared for the thunder that follows. Step back into the glory of Ancient Sparta when the city-state becomes a formidable military power. Learn about Sparta’s unique social system including women’s dominant roles in both the house and in public affairs, and follow one slave owner’s journey as she learns to accept her slave’s spirit. Thora is a 45,000-word 3rd-person omniscient Historical Lesbian Romance Fiction novel. It includes a glossary for minor Greek terminology. No rape. No BDSM. No cliffhanger. Happy ending.

Catch and Cradle


Katia Rose - 2021
    After witnessing way too much drama in the past, Captain Becca Moore is intent on keeping her players’ love lives out of the locker room. Becca has no time or tolerance for any distractions from the game. Unfortunately, that’s exactly what Hope Hastings has been since the day she showed up for tryouts: one walking, talking, charismatically dorky and way-too-kissable distraction. Hope knew she was headed straight to the danger zone from the moment she saw Becca’s flame-red hair and surly captain smirk. She’s spent the past two years writing off her attraction as a harmless crush, but starting a new semester fresh out of an awful relationship makes Hope realize just how far from harmless the heat between her and Becca really is. The friendships of a tight-knit team and their shot at the title are all lying on the line, but as Hope and Becca get closer to bending rules they’ve sworn never to break, they realize they’ve put their hearts on that line too. Losing has never been an option, but winning might cost more than they’re willing to pay.Catch and Cradle is a New Adult F/F romance from Katia Rose that’s filled with all the hilarity and heartache of finding your way through college while discovering love, friendship, and what it means to be yourself.

To Love and Protect


Mardria Portuondo - 2020
    That's it. And I would be great at it if I didn't have to let in its owner, Lillian Codwell. I start to fail at this simple job on the very first day because that is all it takes to recognize that this woman, so out of my league, is the one my life has been missing. It turns out that loving Lillian is easy, protecting her becomes the greatest challenge of my life.

When Love Wins


Sherryl D. Hancock - 2016
    Though, does anyone? A friendship-turned love affair is hard enough to navigate through; throw in IEDs and gun battles, along with the separation that inevitably comes with life in the military and you're asking for trouble. This is uncharted territory for both of them; Tyler has been openly gay for years, whilst Shenin has always dated men. With the government's Don't Ask, Don't Tell policy, it's a path that could endanger both of their careers, but realising they cannot live without each other, they take it all on to prove that love really can win.

Hairpin Curves


Elia Winters - 2020
    Now a wedding invitation lures her to Quebec…in February. When her ex-friend Scarlett offers to be her plus-one (yeah, that’s a whole story) and suggests they turn the journey into an epic road trip, Megan reluctantly agrees to the biggest adventure of her life.A week together in a car is a surefire way to kill a crush, and Scarlett Andrews has had a big one on Megan for years. The important thing is fixing their friendship.As the miles roll away, what starts as harmless road-trip games and rest-stop dares escalates into something like intimacy. And when a surprise snowstorm forces Megan and Scarlett to hunker down without the open road as distraction, they’ve got a bigger challenge than making it to the church on time: facing the true nature of their feelings for each other.Carina Adores is home to highly romantic contemporary love stories where LGBTQ+ characters find their happily-ever-afters.

Playing For Keeps


Carla Kincaid - 2019
    Her focus, for the past fourteen years, has been on making sure her daughter Dana has everything she needs. After losing her own mother at an early age, Kate vowed never to let her daughter feel that kind of loneliness — even if that means missing out on the love Kate truly desires. Joy Sizemore has been living the dream. As one of the top professional softball players in the world, her life is filled with great times on the field, exotic travel, and more than her fair share of post-game fun. But all of that changes when she suffers what might be a career ending injury. Forced to return home to her parent’s house to recover, Joy tries to forget her sorrows in the bottom of a bottle — with nearly tragic consequences. When Kate and Joy's lives unexpectedly collide they both have to decide whether they’ll give up on the game of love or stay on the field and try Playing For Keeps.

The Pyramid Waltz


Barbara Ann Wright - 2012
    But when the festival lights go down and the palace slumbers, Katya chases traitors to the crown and protects the kingdom’s greatest secret: the royal Umbriels are part Fiend. When Katya thwarts an attempt to expose the king’s monstrous side, she uncovers a plot to let the Fiends out to play.Starbride has no interest in being a courtier. Ignoring her mother’s order to snare an influential spouse, she comes to court only to study law. But a flirtatious rake of a princess proves hard to resist, and Starbride is pulled into a world of secrets that leaves little room for honesty or love, a world neither woman may survive.

The Actor and the Earl


Rebecca Cohen - 2014
    When his twin sister, Bronwyn, reneges on the arrangement to marry Anthony Redbourn, Earl of Crofton, Sebastian reluctantly takes her place. At nineteen, Sebastian knows he is getting too old for the female leads, and the male ones are hard to come by. He might feel like he’s in one of Master Shakespeare’s plays, but with his performance as Lady Crofton, he hopes to pay off his late father’s debts. Never mind the danger of losing his head should he be discovered. Sebastian didn’t expect Anthony to be so attractive and alluring—not to mention shrewd. Anthony sees through the ruse, but not being the type of man to care if his lovers wear a gown or a doublet, he is charmed by Sebastian, and offers a mutually beneficial alternative. Fool Anthony’s fellow nobles and court in an extravagant wedding, then retire to Crofton Hall to play Anthony’s beloved wife for a year or two, after which the young, but sickly, Lady Crofton will succumb to a fever, and Sebastian can return to his normal life. Sebastian will need every drop of his acting talents to survive with both his head and his heart intact. Third edition – previous editions published by Dreamspinner Press

Marriage of Unconvenience


Chelsea M. Cameron - 2018
    She needs money, like ASAP. She lost her job, the rent is due, and her car needs repairs. Problem is, the inheritance left to her by her old-fashioned Granny has one stipulation before she can collect: she has to be married.Let’s just say suitors (of any gender) are not knocking down her door. And then Cara Simms, her best friend from childhood that she’s recently reconnected with, pours her heart out and confesses that she needs money to pay for grad school. Lo has a completely brilliant idea: they should get hitched.Not married married. Like, fake married. All they have to do is play the part for the lawyers, get the money, and then get the marriage annulled. Easy as hell.Well, it starts out that way, but being fake married feels a lot like being real married, and Lo is flipping out. She cannot be falling for her best friend. Can she?

Sword Dance


A.J. Demas - 2019
    Adrift and still grieving, he tries to find meaning in an unsatisfying job. Work takes him to the remote seaside villa of an old friend, where, among an odd assortment of guests, he meets the eunuch sword-dancer Varazda. Enigmatic and beautiful but distinctly prickly, Varazda is the antithesis of the straightforward and serious Damiskos. Yet as they keep getting in each other’s way at the villa, their mutual dislike is complicated by a spark of undeniable attraction. Then the villa’s guests begin to reveal their true characters and motives—no one here is what they seem—and Damiskos finds himself at the centre of a bizarre web of espionage, theft, and assassination. Varazda may need Damiskos’s help, but not as much as Damiskos, finally awakening to a new sense of life and purpose, needs Varazda. Sword Dance is the first book in the Sword Dance trilogy, an m/nb romance set in an imaginary ancient world, with murderous philosophy students, sex acts named after fruit, and love blossoming in the midst of mayhem.

Wait For Me


Susan X. Meagher - 2018
    The schedule is so tough she would have quit after the first meeting. But spending a little time with Alexa Fox, the host for that night’s meeting, convinced her that whipping through a book a week was a small price to pay for the pleasure of her company.Now all she has to do is remind herself that their growing friendship has to remain just that—a hurdle that proves to be her toughest yet.