It would be a lot simpler if she could pinpoint exactly what she should do when she graduates in less than a year. Oh, and if she could figure out how to talk to a woman without feeling completely hopeless, that would be great too. Charlotte Thompson is very much the opposite. She's always had clear steps outlining her path to success with no time or inclination for romance. Her burgeoning career in politics means everything to her and she’s not willing to compromise it for something as insignificant as love. Fleeting, casual, and discreet worked perfectly fine. When they meet through a dating app, it's immediately clear that they aren't suited for anything more than friendship. Right?194,000 words

    When it comes to men, Sam won’t make time for anything more than a one night stand. No commitments, no connections. The night her life changes forever is a night Sam actually can’t remember. Even so, the indelible mark a woman named Mia Rossi leaves on Sam's heart is something she can't ignore. Elle Spencer takes us on a heartwarming, humorous, journey with Sam and Mia as they navigate life, love and a surprising shared history that complicates things, to say the least.

    To understand why Calliope is not like other girls, she has to uncover a guilty family secret, and the astonishing genetic history that turns Callie into Cal, one of the most audacious and wondrous narrators in contemporary fiction. Lyrical and thrilling, Middlesex is an exhilarating reinvention of the American epic.

    After accepting the opportunity to drink the elixir of the sun, Kendal becomes immortal and the Genesis Clan’s slayer. History has taught her the dangers of getting too close to anyone who hasn’t harnessed the power of time.After many years, she returns to New Orleans to finish a job she’s trained for all her life. It’s time for her to face her brother Henri, and it will have dire consequences to mankind if she fails.Piper Marmande believes Kendal has come to take over the company her family has built over generations. As Kendal prepares for the most important battle of her long life, Piper does her best to uncover every one of Kendal’s secrets, making herself a distraction Kendal can’t afford as she hunts Henri and Ora, the vampire who seduced him to a life of darkness.

    Pratt sets out on a road trip in search of a new life and ends up in the middle of somewhere she never expected.Start with one independent, urban lesbian who cashes out her life in San Francisco for a secondhand travel trailer and sets off to the Michigan Womyn's Music Festival in search of a new life. Add to this a broken-down '66 T-bird, a bunch of small-town Texas Baptists, a ton of fried food, and a church scandal. Pepper with a hot love interest and a dash of greed, and what you get is Eadie T. Pratt's road trip gone awry.

    When news spreads of a high school teacher's relationship with his underage student, participants and observers alike soon take part in an elaborate show of concern and dismay. But beneath the surface of the teenage girls' display, there simmers a new awareness of their own power. They obsessively examine the details of the affair with the curiosity, jealousy, and approbation native to any adolescent girl, under the watchful eye of their stern and enigmatic saxophone teacher, whose focus may not be as strictly on their upcoming recital as she implies.

    But when Melissa gets to know her friend Tom’s new girlfriend, it changes everything. Laila, a stunning beauty with emerald eyes, seems to be able to show her that there are many other ways of living than the one seemingly hewn in stone for Melissa. The girls fall head over heels in love – but sometimes it's hard to follow one's heart when you have everything to lose.

    The same applies to Catherine’s personal life. Her next self-imposed deadline is looming, and all that’s left to do is to meet the perfect man. At her friend’s urging, skeptical Catherine meets with a psychic who tells her to look for the color blue, and that’s when life spirals from her control. Prospective client, quirky Imogene Harris, is reluctant to hire anyone to help with her inheritance, but when she sees what’s being offered, she has a change of heart. Catherine denies her attraction to Imogene. Imogene is falling for the woman behind the numbers. Not even a rocky start, secret past, or misinterpreted predictions can stop the women from being drawn to one another. Together they learn that perhaps blue isn’t the color of sadness after all…

    Non-smoker. No boys allowed. When Alyssa’s roommate leaves her in a lurch, she’s desperate to find someone, anyone, to move in with her. Rent is coming due and she can’t afford to pay it by herself. There’s only one rule: no boyfriends allowed. Her religious family would throw a fit if they knew she was living in a house with boys. Needed: new place ASAP. Female preferred. Hannah doesn’t have a boyfriend. But her cheating ex-girlfriend has made her housing situation untenable. With her career as a musician about to take off, she can’t afford a distraction. A tip from an old friend leads Hannah to Alyssa and a roommate match made in heaven is born. Filled: one girl next door plus one singer equals domestic bliss? Alyssa thinks Hannah is really cute. Which wouldn’t be a problem if she were into women. Hannah has no interest in dating a straight girl. But when sparks fly, neither young woman can say no to the chemistry between them. Despite their passion, Alyssa’s worried about the reaction from her conservative family. Even worse, Hannah’s career may take her out of state for good, stopping their relationship before it even begins. They will need to face their problems together or be torn apart. Can Alyssa overcome who she thinks she is in order to be with the woman she loves? Can Hannah learn to trust again after a failed relationship? Or will they both be putting up housing wanted ads before their lease is up?

    Three years later when offered a business opportunity she can't pass by, she decides it's finally time to return home—even though she’s far from sure of her welcome.Katherine Hunter took a different path in the face of loss, throwing herself into her work to fill the emptiness in her heart. She doesn't have the time to date, even if she wanted to. But then fate drops Devon on her doorstep—literally—and Kat begins to question if the life she has painstakingly rebuilt is really enough.Despite Devon and Kat’s powerful attraction, the past stands between them—preventing them from taking a chance on the future. Will what is growing between them be enough to convince them that from this moment on, anything is possible, even love?

    Her daughter, Carly, enthusiastically witnesses the change in her mother. But then a few months into their relationship, Dana tells Allison his secret: he has always been certain that he is a woman born into the wrong skin, and soon he will have a sex-change operation. Allison, is overwhelmed by the depth of her passion, and finds herself unable to leave Dana. By deciding to stay, she finds she must confront questions most people never even consider. Not only will her own life and Carly’s be irrevocably changed, she will have to contend with the outrage of a small Vermont community and come to terms with her lover’s new body–hoping against hope that her love will transcend the physical.

    Michael⁠⁠--with a ponytail down his back and a septum piercing⁠--lives with his aunt in the cramped stucco cottage next door. When Bunny catches Michael smoking in her yard, he discovers that her life is not as perfect as it seems. At six foot three, Bunny towers over their classmates. Even as she dreams of standing out and competing in the Olympics, she is desperate to fit in, to seem normal, and to get a boyfriend, all while hiding her father's escalating alcoholism. Michael has secrets of his own. At home and at school Michael pretends to be straight, but at night he tries to understand himself by meeting men online for anonymous encounters that both thrill and scare him. When Michael falls in love for the first time, a vicious strain of gossip circulates and a terrible, brutal act becomes the defining feature of both his and Bunny's futures⁠⁠--and of their friendship. With storytelling as intoxicating as it is intelligent, Rufi Thorpe has created a tragic and unflinching portrait of identity, a fascinating examination of our struggles to exist in our bodies, and an excruciatingly beautiful story of two humans aching for connection.

    She likes her job as a successful novelist and playwright because it allows her to peacefully ensconce herself in her New York City loft, avoid human interactions, and leave personal drama for the page and stage. When her agent asks her to return to her hometown of Darlington, Illinois, to accept an award, she agrees only because he promises the process will be quick and easy. One panic attack and concussion later, Stevie is forced to confront her past in ways that seem to defy reality. As if befriending a social outcast and confronting high school bullies weren’t enough, she also finds herself falling for a closeted teacher. Along the way, Stevie must decide if some things are worth fighting for. In her rush to escape the past, will she leave behind a better future, or are some conflicts really timeless?

    Deciding she’s done the last of her now ex’s laundry, Lee hops on the Harley, ripe for adventure. One thunderstorm, a brief stint as a funeral crasher, two ruined shoes and several cheerleaders later, she’s still planning to run away. Better yet, she’s got one of the cheerleaders along for the ride.Not just any cheerleader, either. Vivian Baxter is that cheerleader, the one that made Lee certain back in high school that she was never going to be like all the other girls.Destination? Someplace not Oklahoma. Possibilities? As many as the wide open road can offer. Problems? None at all. Except perhaps Lee’s ex, a hopping mad stripper who wants her Harley back.Vivian’s feminine wiles prove invaluable in solving their transportation problem just as her own past catches up to them. And Vivian’s past has two legs, a lot of henchman and a very big gun. Lee and Vivian may never get out of Oklahoma, and Oklahoma may never be the same.First-time novelist Layce Gardner’s love story sparkles with irreverent wit, unexpected developments and features two women in the race of their lives on the trip of a lifetime.

    But after growing up together in a small, southern black community and running away at age sixteen, it's not just the shape of their daily lives that is different as adults, it's everything: their families, their communities, their racial identities. Many years later, one sister lives with her black daughter in the same southern town she once tried to escape. The other passes for white, and her white husband knows nothing of her past. Still, even separated by so many miles and just as many lies, the fates of the twins remain intertwined. What will happen to the next generation, when their own daughters' storylines intersect?Weaving together multiple strands and generations of this family, from the Deep South to California, from the 1950s to the 1990s, Brit Bennett produces a story that is at once a riveting, emotional family story and a brilliant exploration of the American history of passing. Looking well beyond issues of race, The Vanishing Half considers the lasting influence of the past as it shapes a person's decisions, desires, and expectations, and explores some of the multiple reasons and realms in which people sometimes feel pulled to live as something other than their origins.