Book picks similar to
Beyond the Blue by T.J. O'Shea


romance
age-gap
sapphic-romance
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Courage


Jesse J. Thoma - 2021
    She charges into danger without a gun or badge to de-escalate crises. She’s quick on her feet and confident in her opinions. If only she could convince her by-the-book, humorless partner that she’s an asset, not the enemy.Being a cop is in Tommy Finch’s blood. She comes from a long line of cops and grew up learning how to protect and serve with honor and integrity. Getting saddled with a shrink who’s reckless and brash isn’t something Tommy signed up for. How can she do her job when she’s responsible for the safety of an unarmed civilian?No matter how often they clash on the job, an undeniable attraction simmers just beneath the surface. Can they find the courage to change so love has room to grow?

Don't Call Me Hero


Eliza Lentzski - 2014
    She knew that coming back after eight years in a war zone wouldn’t be easy, but she’d underestimated the real difficulties of transitioning back to civilian life. War is hell, but the aftermath is endless. Looking for a fresh start, she’s left her friends and career in Minneapolis to be a police officer in northern Minnesota. It’s in the tiny town of Embarrass where she learns more about Julia Desjardin. The city prosecutor is cool, professional, and untouchable. But she and Cassidy have history, and Cassidy isn’t going to let her easily forget that. For all their surface differences, Cassidy and Julia have more in common than they first realized—both are reluctant to hand over their pasts to be judged and studied. But it might take someone just as damaged as the other to help each cope with the skeletons in their respective closets.

In the Distance There Is Light


Harper Bliss - 2016
    All they have left is each other.Sophie's life is turned upside down when her partner, Ian, dies in a tragic accident. The only one who can understand her devastation is Ian's stepmother, Dolores. Together, they try to make sense of their loss and rebuild their shattered lives. While their shared grief brings them closer, it also takes their relationship in an unexpected direction. Where does sorrow end and romance begin? Or has Ian’s death blurred the lines too much?If you love deeply emotional lesbian romance with a twinge of controversy, don’t miss this intense but hopeful novel by chart-topper Harper Bliss.

Ice


Lyn Gardner - 2012
    This time...it's worse.Ice begins when a boy is kidnapped from a London park and Detective Inspectors Alex Blake and Maggie Campbell are brought together to work on the case. While their goal is the same, their work ethics are not. Intelligent, perceptive and at times disobedient, Alex Blake does what she believes it takes to do her job. Maggie Campbell has a slightly different approach. She believes that rule books were written for a reason. Unexpectedly, their dynamics mesh, but when her feelings for Alex become stronger than she wants to admit, Maggie provokes the worst in Alex to ensure that they will never be partners again. Three years later, fate brings them together again. Their assignment is simple, but a plane crash gets in their way. Now, in the middle of a blizzard, they have to try to survive...and fight the feelings that refuse to die.

Something Far Away and Happy


Bryce Oakley - 2020
    Their passionate romance burned brightly for a season, but it was painfully over just as quickly and abruptly as it began — neither one understanding exactly why.Now, a 100-year storm, a meddling assistant, and a lucky blue velvet blazer join forces to throw Julia and Remi back in each other’s lives for a second chance. But soon they find that there are certain perks to being stuck together, even with a deep loathing of one another…This friends-to-lovers-to-enemies-to-friends-to-lovers (whew, that's a mouthful) second chance romance is a little angsty, a lot funny, and completely swoon-worthy.

Hearts in Motion


Miranda MacLeod - 2021
    But when her younger sister and brother-in-law die tragically, the pain of loss is too great to ignore. Reeling from guilt over letting her family take a back seat to her career, Hadley seizes the opportunity to make things right by returning to her hometown to raise the infant son her sister left behind.At 29, Tyne Briggs knows firsthand how hard it is to grow up without a loving family. After being saved from a hostile foster home as a queer pre-teen, the young artist dotes on her large and boisterous adoptive family. When she loses her brother and sister-in-law in a car accident, her top priority is to make sure her baby nephew has the happy childhood she was denied.Shared grief and mutual attraction bring the two women together, where they find solace and passion in equal measure. But they are soon at odds when each decides she is the best choice to give baby Owen a permanent home. Without a will to guide them, and with the two aunts unable to reach a compromise, a lengthy custody battle looms.Cooperation and a common purpose could lead to true love and the creation of a new family together, but not if impulsive decisions and unsavory lawyers tear them apart first.Best-selling lesbian fiction author Miranda MacLeod has written a heartwarming and emotionally gripping medical age-gap romance that will convince you love conquers all.

Making a Comeback


Julie Blair - 2015
    An invitation to play at the prestigious Monterey Jazz Festival is an opportunity she can’t turn down, and a challenge she might not be up to until she enlists the help of a mysterious neighbor who’s surprisingly knowledgeable about jazz.When Jac Winters reluctantly agrees to help, a past she wants to forget threatens to destroy the carefully ordered life she’s built with her guide dog, Max, in the quiet town of Carmel-by-the-Sea.With music and love swirling around them like ocean currents, will Liz and Jac play it safe or risk everything on making a comeback?

Being Hers


Anna Stone - 2018
    By day, she studies at law school, and by night, she serves drinks at an exclusive club to afford her tuition. But the hard-working Melanie will never admit her true desire: to escape from her fast-paced, high-pressure life, if only for a moment. When Melanie meets Vanessa, a glamorous executive and a regular at the club, she is drawn to the enigmatic black-haired woman. Vanessa is relentless in pursuing what she wants—and what she wants is Melanie. Soon, Melanie finds herself caught up in Vanessa’s sensual games of submission, power and control. Melanie insists that her affair with Vanessa remains purely physical. But as her limits are tested, so is the line between lust and love. When ghosts from the past reappear, both women must face their deepest fears. Can Melanie surrender her everything to Vanessa, or will old wounds prove too great?

In Her Arms


Melissa Tereze - 2020
    Nothing held back. And maybe finding everything they need…Reagan’s only plan, when she came alone to a lesbian bar in the city, was to knock back a few drinks far from her lonely country house. Looking around at the younger regulars, though, maybe it was a mistake to think this was a good place to start fresh.Then she meets a beautiful woman with stunning brown eyes and the world’s cheesiest pickup lines. Before Reagan knows it, she’s spending one night of passion in a stranger’s bed. Then fleeing back to the country. Alone.Frankie’s had enough of the city. Even the bar scene has gone stale, eclipsed by the memory of a black-haired, green-eyed woman who lit up her world—and disappeared. Needing a change of scene, Frankie sets out to rent a quaint country cottage.That’s when she discovers her new landlord is Reagan. But a different Reagan. She’s cautious. Prickly. Afraid. Maybe the smart thing for Frankie to do is head straight back to the city. Or maybe it’s worth the risk to stay—and kiss away the walls Reagan’s built around her heart.Best-selling author Melissa Tereze brings you a new cosy romance, about finding love when you least expect it, to settle in with this autumn.

A Heart This Big


Cheyenne Blue - 2019
    But when a child is hurt and a lawsuit threatens, Nina is determined to find the best legal assistance to help her save the farm.Enter high-flying lawyer Leigh Willoughby, whose city world is far from the farm’s chaotic mix of kids and animals. She certainly doesn’t have time for small cases that don’t pay or farm visits that wreck her cool—and her clothes.Still, the warm-hearted Nina and her challenging, twelve-year-old daughter, Phoebe, are awfully hard to say no to. What on earth has she gotten herself into?A captivating opposites-attract lesbian romance about a city woman discovering her country heart.89,000 wordsThemes: country romance · lawyer · opposites attract · rich girl/poor girl · single parent romance

The Sex Therapist Next Door


Meghan O'Brien - 2018
    When her best friend Ava is injured the night she is scheduled to assist with a hands-on sexual education workshop, Diana is forced to find a short term replacement. The last thing she wants is a new lover, even a paid one. After a year of living in the apartment next door, all Jude Monaco knows about her neighbor Diana is that she’s a gorgeous, older woman and the inspiration for more dirty fantasies than she cares to admit. So when Diana knocks on her door with a shockingly delicious favor to ask, Jude seizes the opportunity to learn more. Their professional relationship is supposed to be a clinical erotic arrangement between a sex therapist and her assistant, but at the intersection of sex and intimacy, anything is possible. Even love.

Dare to Love


A.L. Brooks - 2020
    Her love life’s been a lot bumpier, though. Ever since a heart-breaking affair with a straight colleague, she’s vowed to steer clear of women unsure of their sexuality. Talent-agency executive Carmen Lyttleton is straight, career focused, and not prone to distraction from her occasional casual relationships. When her best friend gets a tattoo at Ash’s studio, Carmen finds herself unexpectedly impressed by Ash and her business. When they accidentally meet again, Carmen is shocked by the sparks between them and the realization that she feels a lot more than just admiration for Ash’s work ethic. It can’t possibly mean what it seems…can it? The pull between the women is powerful but so are their fears, old baggage, and stubbornness. Can they dare to love? A slow-burn lesbian romance about leaving the past behind and opening your heart to new possibilities.

Behind the Green Curtain


Riley Lashea - 2013
    As vicious as she is beautiful, Amelia threatens Caton’s position and her sense of decorum.As the attraction between the two women spirals into a torrid affair, Caton is drawn deeper into Jack and Amelia’s world of privilege and prestige, where everything is at stake and nothing is what it seems.

You Make Me Tremble


Karis Walsh - 2017
    Casey is a scientist above all else, logical and disconnected from the natural disasters she studies. When she rescues a stray dog from some rubble, she finds herself caught up in the lives of Iris and the others affected by the quake, despite her best efforts to remain professional.The beautiful San Juan Islands in Washington State become the epicenter of both the earthquake and the collision of Iris and Casey’s hearts. Can love bind the shattered fragments together again?

Under a Falling Star


Jae - 2014
    Her new job, as a secretary in an international games company in Portland, OR, isn’t off to a good start. Her first assignment—decorating the Christmas tree in the lobby—results in a trip to the ER after Dee, the company’s second-in-command, gets hit by the star-shaped tree topper.Dee blames her instant attraction to Austen on her head wound, not the magic of the falling star. She’s determined not to act on it, especially since Austen has no idea that Dee is practically her boss.