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.

    Part mystery thriller, part love story, Happy Endings Are All Alike was only the third young adult novel featuring lesbian characters and was a commercial and critical sensation.

    A tautly-plotted and suspenseful debut about an intense war-time friendship, a suppressed passion, a jealous crime, and a corrosive secret kept for decades.

    Blocked memories. And an Academy for young witches that might just hold the answers. I should have known something was wrong when my weird aunt arrived in town just as I started getting killer headaches. But how was I supposed to know that it was a sign of repressed magic? Or that an ancient witch had escaped her tomb and sent demons after me? Demons who cursed my mother. I wanted to stay with her, even if she wouldn’t wake, but I was sent to Ember Academy for Young Witches instead. Somewhere the demons hopefully can’t get me. I need to find a way to lift the curse, but there’s a block on both my magic and memories that everyone is refusing to lift. A block that might hold the answers as to why an ancient witch is after me in the first place. If I can figure her out, maybe I can figure out this curse. My teachers don’t want me digging into it, worried about the danger. But I don’t care. My mother was cursed because of me, and I’m not going to rest until she’s safe again. BASICS OF SPELLCRAFT is the first book in the Ember Academy for Young Witches YA Urban Fantasy Academy series. If you love kick-ass heroines, Sapphic slow-burn romances, and magical boarding schools, you’ll love this latest fast-paced series in L.C. Mawson’s Snowverse.

    Kendall Long is sexy, yet delicate. Whether separate or together, these stunning best friends tend to cause quite a stir among the male population. An innocent fall, however, propels their friendship to a new plateau -- one where each is compelled to explore and confront her sexuality. She Slipped and Fell alternates between each characters' point of view, for only Tina and Kendall can decide whether or not their friendship, and love, is strong enough to endure the humility that is oftentimes associated with being different. Will Tina and Kendall risk stepping outside of their comfort zone into unfamiliar territory, defying society, God, and their families, in their quest to discover who they truly are?

    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

    But when a lifelong friend with connections recommends her to the king to track down a runaway princess, her life gets turned upside down. Finding the princess is easy. Deciding what to do in a conflicting mess of politics and emotions… not so much.175,000 words

     Oh, did I mention assassins? Seers foretold the conflict would end by her hand. From the moment she drew her first breath, the neighboring kingdom has been trying to kill her so she could not grow powerful enough to destroy them. Fearing for his daughter’s life, the king has kept her confined to the castle grounds for most of her sixteen years. With the tide of war turning against them, the burden of her crown becomes too much to bear, yet one thing lifts her spirits amid the gloom. Her servant girl, Kitlyn. Alas, in a kingdom obsessed with the god of purity, she is terrified to confess her forbidden love. When her father makes a demand she cannot abide―marry a prince to forge a military alliance―Oona panics. He is handsome and honorable, but he’s not Kitlyn. Unable to admit why she cannot obey, Oona does the only thing she can think of, and runs away. Alone and unprepared in the wilderness, she prays the gods will let Kitlyn find her—before the assassins do.

    It is a strange world of blistering sun, rolling dunes, and wind-carved plains, ruled by the Scion Zafirah Al’Intisar, a powerful and mysterious woman with seductive eyes of sapphire blue.When Zafirah liberates the caravan the rescue Dae prayed for is not as it seems; Zafirah’s carnal appetite is legendary. Dae is taken into Zafirah’s harem, a decadent world of excess and sexual freedom. At first, Dae struggles with desires she has never before experienced, but as love and lust collide these two women slowly forge a bond as one learns to listen to her heart, and the other to the call of her awakening body.Length: 113,000 words

    The woman cares nothing for Rowan's company, but nor does she seem perturbed by the powers that burn within her.Rowan soon learns that the scope of their journey is more than a desperate grasp at adventure. She breaks away from the weighty judgement of her village, but has no choice but to abandon her Kingdom altogether. Sir Ightham's past leads them through Kastelir, a country draped in the shadow of its long-dead Queen—a woman who was all tusks and claws and great, spiralling horns.Hiding her necromancy is no longer Rowan's greatest challenge, and what leads them across Kingdoms and through mountains is a heavier burden than she ever could've imagined.

    But Alex has never shown any signs of reciprocating. That is until a game played on a group camping trip reveals her true feelings. Will the revelation tear their friendship apart? Or will Stacy finally get what she really wants? A 10,000 word short story.

    Sent away to safety, she meets another displaced child and they, star-crossed, fall in love. They are from different ethnic communities. They are also both girls. When their love is discovered, Ijeoma learns that she will have to hide this part of herself. But there is a cost to living inside a lie. As Edwidge Danticat has made personal the legacy of Haiti's political coming of age, Okparanta's Under the Udala Trees uses one woman's lifetime to examine the ways in which Nigerians continue to struggle toward selfhood. Even as their nation contends with and recovers from the effects of war and division, Nigerian lives are also wrecked and lost from taboo and prejudice. This story offers a glimmer of hope — a future where a woman might just be able to shape her life around truth and love.

    

    Michelle refused to follow Sydney to California and leave her family behind in New York. Michelle knew her mother would never accept her relationship with another woman. Eighteen years later the two women cross paths again. Can they find the love they once had or are they destined to be apart?

    When the master of the dojang offered to train Eden as a live-in student, he started her on a journey that would eventually lead her to become the UFC featherweight champion of the world. Eden loves competing and coaching the underprivileged kids of her community, but just as she’s getting comfortable with her champion title, a new martial artist from a legendary family comes roaring onto the scene with a dynasty on her shoulders. Brooklyn Shaw is a loud, cocky, aggressive Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu genius who’s also unfortunately pretty dreamy. Brooklyn and Eden’s rivalry attracts worldwide attention, but as they spend time together, Eden sees past Brooklyn’s showmanship to who she really is. They ought to be perfect for one another, but can either really fall in love with the person standing in the way of her dreams?