Book picks similar to
Ride the Wave by Natasha West


romance
lesbian-romance
ff
contemporary

Taking a Shot at Love


K.C. Richardson - 2020
    She’ll never get there if she stays where she is, coaching for a small-town college. She wants to move on and move up, so a relationship is the last thing on her mind.English professor Celeste Bouchard is exactly where she wants to be teaching at Glassell University. Popular and on a first-name basis with her students, Celeste loves her job. She doesn’t love the gossip and rumors that followed her disastrous romance with a fellow professor, but she’s never getting involved with a coworker again.When Lisa’s star player has trouble in Celeste’s class, they have to work together to find a solution. The attraction is off the charts, but Lisa and Celeste are determined to block another shot at love.Cover Artist: Tammy SeidickGenres: Contemporary / Romance Tags: Sports, Workplace Romance, College Life

First Do No Harm


Emily Smith - 2020
    That is, until she begins working with Dr. Cassidy Sullivan, a new emergency medicine resident. Their chemistry makes Pierce start to believe all her dreams will come true, but a secret from Cassidy's past may end the fairy tale before it gets to happily ever after. For Pierce and Cassidy, the risk of heartbreak may be too high a price for the chance at love.

An Infatuation


Jennifer Lyndon - 2013
    A successful realtor in Aspen, Lise is married to her high school sweetheart and is the mother of two great kids, Michael and Candace. To her two closest friends, Kitty and Cheryl, Lise's life appears ideal, until her husband Scott is passed over for the partnership in the architectural firm where he works. At the party to welcome her husband's new boss, a woman she's determined to despise, Lise meets Juliana Rhodes. The attraction is immediate and unsettling for Lise, sending her perfectly balanced life into a tailspin.

Romancing the Girl


Camryn Eyde - 2016
    Life is easy and full of hard, dusty work, but when her brother Joseph decides to become a contestant in a reality TV dating show, Romancing the Farmer, everything goes to hell.The station gets overrun by city women and stuck-up producers right in the middle of shearing season. Justine Cason, the ringleader of the circus Aimee instantly detests is an irritating, arrogant presence that she is forced to chaperone around the massive property.The two women find more in common than trading insults the more time they spend together, sparking an unexpected connection neither was looking for. As Joseph navigates the dating scene, and Aimee's sister Sally navigates a crumbling marriage, Aimee's life turns on its head in more ways than one when her blooming connection with Justine is the catalyst to leaving the land she loves.When the worst fire season in decades strikes their patch of the world, the Turner family must find a way to save themselves and the ones they dearly cherish. Can they put aside their differences to protect each other?*minor edits updated 1st May 2016*

Blend


Georgia Beers - 2018
    She’s thrilled when her boss leaves her in charge (well, half charge) and tells her to feel free to make changes. Lindsay has tons of ideas that she's been dying to put into action, and this is her big chance to increase the success of the business and prove she’s more than ready to run things solo. But getting the boss's daughter on board is harder than expected. The uptight and annoyingly attractive Piper is blocking her every move. For Piper Bradshaw, Vineyard is not her job. She already has one. She's VP at a large tech company, and she's damn good at it. Who cares if people say she’s a workaholic and an icy bitch? She didn't get to the top by being prone to whims and experiments. She's not happy when her mother suddenly decides to gallivant all over the country and furious that the family business has been left in the hands of the happy-go-lucky, born-a-generation-too-late hippie who manages it. Good thing Lindsay can't make any changes unless they both agree, because Piper doesn't intend to. Lindsay and Piper are like night and day. Working together won’t be easy, but not falling in love might prove the hardest job of all.

Force of Nature


Kim Baldwin - 2005
    Wind. Fire. Ice. Love. Nothing for Gable McCoy and Erin Richards seems to go smoothly. From the tornado that sets its sights on them, to the perils they face as volunteer firefighters, the forces of nature conspire to bring them close to danger, and closer to each other. From the author of the acclaimed intrigue/romance Hunter's Pursuit.

Freshman Year


Annameekee Hesik - 2010
    But when she orders French fries from the flirtatious Hot Dog on a Stick Chick, she gets more than deep-fried potatoes. Abbey tries to ignore the weird, happy feeling in her gut, but that proves to be as impossible as avoiding the very insistent (and—rumor has it—very lesbian) players on Gila High’s girls’ basketball team. They want freakishly long-legged Abbey to try out, and Abbey doesn’t hate the idea. But Kate made Abbey pinky swear to avoid basketball and to keep away from the you-know-who girls on the team.Sometimes promises can’t be kept. And sometimes girls in uniform are impossible to resist.

Chef's Special


Susan X. Meagher - 2016
     Her new boss is classically trained, has stunningly high standards, and effortlessly designs delicious, creative cuisine. She’s also demanding, inflexible, ridiculously confident and so hot it’s almost silly. Emily is determined to spend her time learning all of the tricks and tools she’ll need to keep moving up. But keeping her mind on the job with the enigmatic Blake Chadwick pervading her thoughts and her dreams proves much harder than she could have ever imagined.

Popcorn Love


K.L. Hughes - 2015
    Her love life, however, is lacking, as those closest to her keep pointing out.At the persistent urging of her closest friend, Elena reluctantly agrees to a string of blind dates if she can find a suitable babysitter for Lucas.Enter Allison Sawyer, a free-spirited senior at New York University.Elena is intrigued by Allison’s ability to push her out of her element, and the young woman’s instant and easy connection with a normally shy Lucas quickly earns Allison the job.After each blind date, Elena returns home to complain to Allison about her lacking suitors. As they bond, Elena begins to realize that the person possessing all the qualities she most desires might just be the woman who has been in front of her the entire time.The vast difference between the two women’s social statuses, however, may be an obstacle not easily overcome.Length: approx. 160,000 wordsThemes: humor · Lesbian · romantic comedy

New Girl on the Street


Donna Jay - 2020
    It’s not just that the curvaceous beauty is up all hours, hauling suitcases in and out of her car. It’s that the mysterious, maddening, probably married woman was her schoolgirl fling from years ago—a girl who blew up her life, then blew out of town without a word.What’s she doing back in town? And what on earth is she up to?Bella McBride can’t believe her life. A job transfer has landed her back home and she’s wound up living next door to the woman who stole her heart as a teenager. Worse, Lisa won’t even give her the time of day—and she can’t really blame her.Life would be so much easier if they just stayed on their own side of the fence. But how can they with the pull of attraction constantly teasing them, and so much left unsaid?A heated, enemies-to-lovers lesbian romance about daring to take a second chance.

Running the Tides


Amanda Kayhart - 2018
    Love runs fast. And Avery Greene . . . runs the hell away. Left with scraps from several broken relationships, carpenter Avery Greene builds herself a safe and steady life in Upstate New York. No love. No loss. No problem. But when she makes a jarring discovery in her grandmother’s attic, it cracks her stable life at its vulnerable foundation. In search of a permanent fix, Avery finds herself at the Sea Springs Inn, a bed and breakfast in the Outer Banks—where the rip currents roll, sand dunes shift, and her strikingly gorgeous hostess throws her plans completely off course. Embarking on a new journey doesn’t come without squalls, and just as Avery adapts to her surroundings and the possibility of love, a violent storm strikes the North Carolina coast. Will the fear of heartbreak keep Avery anchored to the same, drawn-out plans? Or will she revise her design, remodel her heart, and finally add love to life’s blueprint?

Mrs. Mix Up


Candace Harper - 2020
    A mix-up in paperwork. And suddenly, a fake marriage that lands two women in one hotel room–and face to face with their denial.After six months of simmering attraction, librarians Sofiya Anderson and Molly Andersen are ready to burst. There’s a magnetism between them that threatens their commitment to professionalism, and not even a librarian’s stern shushing can quiet it down. But they’ve managed to hold themselves in check…for now.Until a mistake at a regional conference, a tiny oversight in spelling, makes the coordinators believe they’re a married couple.Two women. One bed. And a Mrs. Mix-Up that doesn’t quite go by the books. Can they make it through four days of professional development with both their hearts and their jobs intactMrs. Mix Up is a high heat, low conflict novel featuring a demiromantic lesbian and alloromantic lesbian pairing.

Love's Spell


Q. Kelly - 2012
    So, she figures trying a love spell her grandmother left her won’t hurt. Worst case: her life will stay the same. Best case: her fellow second-grade teacher James Friedlander will fall in love with her, and they’ll live happily ever after.Except…oops!Ava accidentally places the spell on her principal, Libby Lubbock. Libby is wrestling with her own issues in the love department, namely the fact that she’s deciding whether to give her ex a second chance after the ex cheated. Libby is beginning to think she’s the type who is better off single.The spell can be undone, but it requires Ava and Libby getting to know each other better. Lots better. Libby agrees to the undo because no way does she want to fall in love with Ava if she can help it. However, perhaps the last paragraph in a letter Ava's grandmother wrote is right: “Why all these crazy steps? My great-great grandmother, the witch, strongly believed that things happen for a reason. This time with the ‘wrong person’ will help determine if the wrong person might be the right person, after all.”Can Libby and Ava cast a love spell that has nothing to do with abracadabra magic and everything to do with the magic of true love?*** This novella is 24,000 words.

In the Shadow of Darkness


Nicole Stiling - 2020
    As a newly turned vampire, the only one she can turn to for help is the vampire who becomes her worst nightmare.Meghan Denham is in the wrong place at the wrong time. After ending up the victim of a robbery-gone-wrong, her life is turned upside down by the strange and beautiful Angeline. If Angeline is telling the truth about who she is, then everything Megan believes about the world is a lie. If Angeline is lying, then she will have to walk away from the first person to set her heart on fire. When suspicious deaths begin to occur in their small town of Fog Hollow, Angeline and Megan find themselves as unlikely allies, with an even more unlikely attraction.Cover Artist: Tammy SeidickGenres: Paranormal & Urban Fantasy / Romance

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.