Trying not to get lost in translation is quite the culture shock for this born-and-bred Midwesterner.She’s surprised when her boss asks her to beta test the new dolls—an assignment that requires having her brain scanned so the company can fashion a personalized doll based on her innermost desires. But most surprising of all: her test PLC turns out to be a woman—one who looks and acts remarkably like her neighbor and coworker, Yuriko Vellucci. American-born Yuriko is a former transplant herself and is sympathetic to the difficulties of adjustment—to a point. Kathleen is about the most pathetic foreigner this engineer’s ever met. She clearly needs Yuriko’s help and expertise if this transition—and the PLC project—is to be a success. With Yuriko to show her the way, Kathleen will learn to socialize at an izakaya, find the best onsen in Nikko, party at a matsuri, buy doujinshii in Akihabara, and fall in love with a country so very different from her own. But can she also learn how to confess her love for the person who showed it to her?

    When she's accepted into the prestigious dance program of her dreams, she thinks nothing can bring her down—until she realizes she doesn't have enough money to go. Refusing to give up, Addie and her friends decide to put on a top-secret, invitation-only burlesque show to raise funds. But word soon gets out, and the slut- and body-shaming begin. Has Addie been resisting the patriarchy, or playing right into its hands?Perfect for fans of Jennifer Mathieu and E. Lockhart, The Big Reveal asks hard-hitting feminist questions while reveling in some of life's greatest joys: chasing your passions, falling in love, and embracing yourself exactly as you are.

    Until he runs across an old friend who seems more than happy to see him, and the attraction is instantaneous. But can the magic of Christmas and a love he'd never known be enough to make him think about giving up his wandering ways? Through the years, Kevin found himself wondering about Peter and where he wound up when he was pulled from their community into yet another "home." But when they reconnect again, he discovers that in all his travels, Peter never had a real home. As Kevin's feelings deepen, he knows the one thing he needs to do to keep Peter is show him that true happiness boils down to opening yourself to love. And a little mistletoe doesn't hurt either.

    Fulfilling career, loving family, great friends, and… Who’s she kidding? She lives at home with her aging mother, Fleur. She works as a massage therapist, and spends all her time with her best friend, Bobbi. But damn it, she’s happy. Well, okay, maybe not happy, but she’s content. It’s enough. Until the well-meaning but meddlesome women in her life, Fleur and Bobbi, team up and enter Sasha into a writing competition with the potential to change her life.Film producer and director Jac Kensington has the career she’s spent thirty years honing to perfection, with little thought to her personal life. She helps run an annual scriptwriting competition in search of new talent and projects for her company to produce.Meddling might have brought Jac and Sasha together, but fate has plans of its own. Sasha’s life is on the brink of changing beyond all recognition in this bittersweet lesbian romantic comedy.Themes: British lesbian romcom · Lesbian Film producer · Manchester · scriptwriting competition104,000 words

    Liliana’s hitting all the wrong notes. She’s a sixteen-year-old exchange student with a secret crush on Carter, her new band’s smoking hot guitarist – but she’s also got a girlfriend back home. So when she writes a song about him and it lands the band a record deal, she quickly realises she’s in hot water. Soon, Liliana will have to choose – between an alluring boy and the girl she left behind, between love and lust, and between the fame that beckons and staying true to the music that’s in her heart. With shades of hit TV series Nashville, the musical passion of Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist and the band drama of Fleetwood Mac, this brilliant own-voices YA debut is perfect for music lovers everywhere.

    In front of Ryoji, Toru hides his feelings and acts as if he is just one of Ryoji's good friends, but in a moment out of the blue his world will be turned upside down as Ryoji will confess a secret desire for Toru. Dazzled, Toru can barely hide his excitement for Ryoji and quickly accepts his offer. As time passes, Toru's happiness begins to fade knowing that his affair with Ryoji was just a fling based out of Ryoji's sexual curiosity.Toru, adamant about his feelings for Ryoji, confides in another one of his close friend, Kashiwazaki, about his dilemma. The two set off to devise a plan to test Ryoji's true intentions by faking a romantic relationship. Soon after, a frustrated and jealous Ryoji attempts to pry Toru out of the arms of Kashiwazaki. Is it just as they planned? Yeah! That is of course until Toru realizes Kashiwazaki wasn't really faking! How could he not have seen it coming?Both Toru and Ryoji have hidden their feelings from each other in the past, but now they have discovered that they were not the only ones. Will Toru and Ryoji be reunited or will their true feelings for each other go unfulfilled?

    A loner by choice, Colby works hard with his hands and finds his peace camping in the mountains outside Boulder. Gordon James is a white-collar restaurateur who owns not one, but two successful establishments in downtown Boulder. He’s a sophisticated urbanite who is devoted to his work and is accustomed to getting what he wants. The men are friends, but sparks fly when Colby falls in love and decides to show Gordon how much fun a good old boy can be. They’re just beginning to explore their relationship when Gordon’s sister’s suicide leaves him with custody of his five-year-old niece. Colby comes from a huge family and is eager to help with the girl and to prove his worth to Gordon. But neither of them is ready for the tremendous changes to their already busy lives, or for how this new relationship with Olivia challenges them, complicating the way they interact with each other. They say opposites attract, but can these two very different men work together to join their disparate lives and form a strong, if highly unlikely, family? This is a previously published title. The publisher has changed.

    . . and we can't, but we can. And there's so much relief in that." --Carolyn Taylor, BARONESS VON SKETCH SHOWA traumedy about life and death (and every cosmic joke in between)When her mother is diagnosed with cancer, Rachel Matlow is concerned but hopeful. It's Stage 1, so her mom will get surgery and everything will go back to normal. But growing up in Rachel's family, there was no normal. Elaine, an alternative school teacher and self-help junkie, was never a capital M "Mommy"--she spent more time meditating than packing lunches--and Rachel, who played hockey with the boys and refused to ever wear a dress, was no ordinary daughter.When Elaine decides to forgo conventional treatment and heal herself naturally, Rachel is forced to ponder whether the very things that made her mom so special--her independent spirit, her belief in being the author of her own story--are what will ultimately kill her. As the cancer progresses, so does Elaine's conviction in doing things her way. She assembles a dream team of alternative healers, gulps down herbal tinctures with every meal, and talks (with respect) to her cancer cells. Anxious and confused, Rachel is torn between indulging her pie-in-the-sky pursuits (ayahuasca and all) and pleading with the person who's taking her mother away.With irreverence and honesty--and a little help from Elaine's journals and self-published dating guide, plus hours of conversations recorded in her dying days--Matlow brings her inimitable mother to life on the page. Dead Mom Walking is the hilarious and heartfelt story of what happens when two people who've always written their own script go head to head with each other, and with life's least forgiving plot device.

    In Bite Hard, poet Justin Chin explores his identity as an Asian, a gay man, an artist, and a lover. He rails against both his own life experiences and society's limitations and stereotypes with scathing humor, bare-bones honesty, and unblinking detail. Whether addressing "what really goes on in the kitchen of Chinese restaurants" or a series of ex-boyfriends, all named Michael, Chin displays his remarkable emotional range and voice as a poet.His raw, incantatory, stream-of-consciousness poems confront issues of race, desire, and loss with a compelling urgency that reflects his work as a performance artist, speaking directly to an audience. Throughout this collection, Chin showcases his ability to convey thought-provoking viewpoints on a variety of controversial subjects. As R. Zamora Linmark of Rolling the R's says, "He plugs the stage microphone into the page and lyrically blasts the heart of our fears, rage, and import-export nightmarish dreams".

    He didn't expect a glance from one man to change his entire life. Cory Chow is the world's top underground fight club star and a sex slave to his owner. Cory hates his life and one sympathetic glance from the brawny stranger on the sidelines makes Cory realize what he's missing. Cory will do whatever it takes to escape his owner and find the love he craves. But the owner of a million-dollar baby isn't going to let go of his slave so easily and both Cory and Mike will face the fight of their lives.

    In this tumultuous time, factory worker Virginia Chisholm hopes for more, but her dreams go up in smoke when a tenement blaze rips her family apart. Aided by Lindsay Killian, the street-wise, rail-riding drifter she meets in a charity hospital, Ginny follows the orphan train that has taken her siblings west. The desperate quest to reunite her family takes the young women from the slums of New York City to the farms of West Virginia and the bustling frontier beyond. This harrowing journey moves Ginny and Lindsay from one mishap and adventure to another. It also leads them from friendship to a tender and unexpected romance.

    It'd not been a great beginning of the summer season for either Bill, a young bridal store clerk, or Ted, a college student working as a lifeguard at the apartment complex’s pool. They'd both been dumped in their respective relationships and were still looking for “the one.” Their chance meeting at this low ebb in their lives and an off-the-cuff remark about what they both needed as a temporary solution to their physical needs, lead to a unique and adventuresome pact between the two. They agree to be what's lacking in each other’s lives. They begin a journey of self-discovery. One that will only last the length of the summer and will forever change their lives and ideas about love and friendship. One season of guiltless sex.

    Put on administrative leave under a cloud of accusation, with no support from her boss, Natalia seeks a little anonymous companionship at her favorite bar. But she’s surprised when the woman who catches her fancy starts buying her drinks.Desperate, Genevieve “Gennie” Caine had no choice but to seduce, drug and tie Natalia to the bed to get her attention. With the Reyes Corporation after something she has, Gennie needs Natalia to open an investigation and distract them long enough for her to get off Nevarro.Natalia doesn’t trust Gennie—despite the growing attraction between them—but the corporation’s suspiciously high profits convince her that they must be hiding something. But she has no idea just how deep the deceptions run….

    On a guy. Not a big deal, except that said guy, Walter Chase, is a famous online gamer who has no idea Edgar even exists. Edgar has harbored these feelings for nearly a year, and when Walter announces on Twitter that he’ll be visiting New York City as a guest at the GamerOn convention, Edgar decides he’ll be one of the thousands of fans who responds to the message. He definitely doesn’t expect to be singled out by the humble, gorgeous, out-and-proud heartthrob. When it comes to dealing with people, Edgar’s skills are pretty nonexistent, even with Walter giving all the right signals. Edgar lacks the courage to do anything about the mutual attraction growing through their online courtship, but then again, he’s always been better with the written word. So maybe the perfect Christmas gift will say what he cannot. But if Edgar can’t get the present to Walter before the convention ends, he may miss out on the boyfriend of a lifetime.

    It's not like there's anything else to do in their boring home town.Then Seb's older brother appears; a gorgeous vision in tight, black clothing, and long dark hair. Rhys is instantly attracted, though his attempts to flirt with the mysterious Damien don't go all that well. So Rhys resorts to a fail safe plan: steal Damien's phone number, and send him anonymous love-texts.