the grandeur of Ayers Rock... legendary Alice Springs... the Great Barrier Reef... the primal beauty of Cape Tribulation…Two women, from different continents, with different values, collide with spectacular results... UNDER THE SOUTHERN CROSS.American Lee Paynter has built her Small travel agency into an international tour company. Brash, confident, openly lesbian, her great love is her business. Women? They're to enjoy and let go.Alexandra Findlay is pursuing a career in Australian tourism with quiet focus and determination, convinced that her career is the best she can hope for in her arid, closeted emotional existence.Now Alex has been assigned to accompany Lee on the American woman's visit Down Under, to win Lee's company over to Australian tourism. Suddenly Alex's quiet life explodes... And Lee is challenged by a woman unlike any she has ever known.

    Assigned to the Vice/Narcotics Division, Alex is given the dangerous but career-building mission of catching the city's most notorious and elusive drug lord, Sonny Davis.

    "What do you want from me?" she whispered.Suzanne pressed up into Sage's embrace, her body making demands on the skillful hands, commanding pleasure from the exciting mouth. "I need you to love me...as long as you possibly can".What was it about Sage Bristo that drew women to her? Maybe it was the tall, toned body and androgynous good looks. Perhaps they liked her confidence -- her movements and manner so sure and decisive. Or was it the air of mystery, the temptation of a challenge to unravel?Sage couldn't explain the attraction, but she had certainly benefited from it, at least physically. As her reputation as a Don Juana grew, so did her black book of admiring women. Women who wanted to spoil her, to own her, to please her. Women who would do anything for her. But never the woman she needed the most -- the one woman who could lead her through the realm of desire, to the thing she desires most...

    There she meets USMC Captain Tyler Jackson, a talented young officer who uses her career as an excuse to avoid personal relationships. The handsome captain has learnt the hard way that love can hurt beyond life itself, but Kate's presence in camp is making it difficult for her to keep her distance. When fate blows them apart, both women will discover the power of hope, trust, and that destiny really is only a matter of choice.

    But when she comes face to face with her first lover, she is overcome by the rush of desire that threatens to ignite the dangerous flames of rekindled passion.

    So with her last breath, she implores her beautiful granddaughter, Lillie, to flee to the family’s polo estate in South Carolina and seek the protection of someone Abigail has come to trust—Swain Butler. What Lillie doesn’t know is that she is putting herself in the hands of a woman who may be the biggest family secret of them all.“Be careful,” Abigail cautions Lillie. If sleeping dogs must be roused, then call them forth softly.

    Amy Stewart finding true love together... except a banana peel, a psycho stalker, a lesbian poetess, an extreme chef, a KGB spy, and a sex toy inventor. Join Saxon Bennett and Layce Gardner as they combine their creative *genius to bring you the romantic comedy of the century. ** Guaranteed money back if you don't laugh out loud. * Geniuses in their own mind. ** This is a lie. The authors are broke.

    Her first day in town, Faythe receives unsolicited warnings from the locals to stay away from her neighbor, which only rouses her curiosity. Deanna Moore, a successful illustrator, has dedicated her life to her work and her family. Beleagured by accusations stemming from an event she is powerless to explain or defend, Deanna lives a solitary life. When she meets Faythe she is reluctantly attracted to her, but she fears Faythe will not be able to see beyond the rumors. This is a story of hurt and betrayal, but also of trust and endurance as two women struggle to show faith and dare to love.

    Ray McKenna returns from the war in Iraq to find that she had attained unwanted celebrity status back home. As the only surviving American soldier of a well-publicized hostage crisis, she is the center of attention at a time when all she wants is solitude. Struggling to overcome the fear and anxiety that plague her, she relies on her psychiatric therapy dog Jagger to help her through the vicious symptoms of PTSD. Veterinarian Dr. Carly Warner hasn't yet figured out how to open her heart to the possibility of falling in love again after the death of her longtime partner. When Ray McKenna walks into the North Coast Veterinary Clinic with Jagger, she and Carly begin a friendship that takes them both by surprise. Brought together by their shared love of dogs, Ray and Carly discover that they are both capable of moving forward, if only they are brave enough to try

    Seeing her city in shambles, coated in ash, and American lives lost, she enlisted to fight the War on Terror. Daniella Melo, a Rhode Island American History teacher, challenges her class to write letters to soldiers fighting overseas. With one name left and a student short, Daniella takes it upon herself to write letters to Private Taylor Phillips stationed in Afghanistan. Over the next two years, the women exchange letters, sharing stories of their daily lives: Daniella trailing after her rambunctious daughter, Jackie, and dealing with overeager seniors planning prom while Taylor trudges through sand and dirt, driving her humvee in cold deserts. Their friendship continues to grow until it becomes something so much more than either woman expect.

    Doesn’t it?After a devastating professional embarrassment, Cory Lance has been banished from the courtroom. As part of her penance, she volunteers with an organization that works to free the wrongly convicted, and soon she’s saddled with a case certain to set her up for another big defeat. To top it off, she’s battling a strong attraction to her client’s sister, a woman with unreasonable expectations.Serena Washington has learned to compartmentalize the negative pieces of her past, except for one—her brother, Eric, who is on death row for a murder he insists he didn’t commit. Loyalty drives her to enlist help from an organization with a reputation for unparalleled success, but Serena’s optimism is shaken when she learns the attorney assigned to the case has a reputation for cutting corners. Her whole world is shaken when she begins to fall in love with her.

    But their first lecturer is not at all what she expected. Psychologist Dawn Kinsley has just found her place in life. After a failed relationship with a police officer, she has sworn to herself never to get involved with another cop again, but she feels a connection to Aiden from the very first moment. Can Aiden keep from crossing the line when a brutal crime threatens to keep them apart - before they've even gotten together?

    Tripping in front of the dark-haired Erin and caught ogling to boot, was only the preamble for the tall blonde, as both ended up splashed with beer in the stands and laughing good naturedly about the accident and clean-up. So begins what will be bound to open old wounds and make both women stronger as they find in each other a connection, and love, lust, trust, kids and trouble times two and more will decidedly make their relationship a rocky one but ultimately worth pursuing.

    Lynn finally sees her chance, and during a game of True Confessions, expresses her love for Jessie. Expecting rejection, Lynn is shocked to realize that the feelings might be mutual.But for Jessie, nothing has ever been simple. Her father was abusive, and she married a man just like him. Her husband has already put her in the hospital once and has threatened her since they separated. All Jessie cares about is protecting the people she loves, and that includes her six-year-old daughter.When Jessie’s husband shows up looking to make good on his threats, will Lynn and Jessie be able to weather the storm, or will he succeed in keeping them apart forever?

    Her plans to hide out and heal her wounds go by the wayside as she gets drawn into the daily lives of the quirky locals and becomes fast friends with Maddie Stevenson, the enigmatic physician who has returned to the backcountry community to take over her late father’s medical practice.Ann McMan weaves a story of life and love in the beautiful mountains of Virginia.