Wracked with guilt over her sister Libby’s death, she’s spent three months trying to handle her grief while taking care of Libby’s young daughter, Annie.Libby’s best friend Ally never had a chance to say good-bye to her dear friend. When she finally returns home, Ally finds Libby’s family open and welcoming…everyone, that is, except Libby’s sister Bron.For her part, Bron can’t fathom why her family is so enamored with Ally—even offering her a job and a place to live—but grudgingly admires the way Ally and Annie get along.While Bron contemplates moving Annie to Boston and away from the only home the little girl has ever known, bushfires begin to rage in the nearby mountains, and Bron begins to see that she’s sorely underestimated her sister’s friend.Soon Ally’s past and Bron’s future collide—with a heat and wonder that neither of them expected.Words: 58,940

    What better time to leave Boston for her native England, where her late grandfather has named her sole heir of the Hughes fortune, along with Penderworth, a centuries-old manor house that’s been in the family for generations. Only one problem with that plan—there is no Hughes fortune. And the only way out from under the hefty tax bill is to sell the manor as quickly as possible and find another job.If anyone deserves to be cynical about life, it’s Dr. Lark Latimer. She overcame a dysfunctional upbringing in East Boston only to lose both her high school sweetheart and a promising medical career when her Ma fell critically ill. Determined to bounce back, Lark signs on with a pharmaceutical company, a job that takes her abroad to investigate a drug trial gone sideways. Ever the optimist, she finds something to cheer no matter how dismal the landscape. This summer in England, that something is Channing.Neither woman imagined the spark they shared on their trans-Atlantic flight would lead them to life-changing decisions. Will Channing give up a future with Lark to save her home? Or will Lark persuade her to sell the manor and return to Boston? Their clock is ticking.Genre: RomanceEditor: Katherine V. ForrestCover Designer: Judith Fellows

    But pressure is mounting for Anita to reveal herself to her clamoring public. It’s scrutiny that writer Paris Ellison can’t allow, especially since the glamorous “Anita” is a work of pure fiction.Lady Diana Beckinsale excels at disappearing into a good role. Especially if that role gets her close to certain objects she desires. When Diana proposes the perfect solution to Paris’s predicament, Paris is less than enthusiastic. She can’t let someone as unsettling and observant as Diana get too close.But Diana is persistent. After all, if she and the handsome, secretive Paris both get what they want out of an unorthodox arrangement, then it’s a win-win for them both.My Lady Lipstick is high stakes on a merry-go-round of lies—it’s all fun and games until somebody loses her heart.Genre: RomanceEditor: Katherine V. ForrestCover Designer: Judith Fellows

    Once back home in DC, her fiancée leaves, her military career ends, and her faith in humanity evaporates. With prescription drugs and alcohol her only relief from the pain, Chrys is on her way to becoming a statistic. That is until the State Department calls and offers her an important assignment—to serve as a diplomatic liaison and interpreter for a Turkish national living in exile. Reyha Arslan, a wise and elegant woman with a tragic past, shows Chrys that there’s still beauty to embrace and reason to hope despite the world’s cruelty. With Reyha’s help, Chrys’s broken spirit starts to heal and she learns that the most significant love is often the shortest lived.

    They say you can never go home again, but sometimes you have no choice. A phone call in the middle of the night and news of a death in the family has Abigail Henry catching the next flight out of Los Angeles and traveling back to the small hometown she hasn’t visited in a decade. Nearly everything and everyone looks untouched by time, but it's Abigail herself who has changed. A love story by genre, Bittersweet Homecoming grapples with the basic question: Can you really ever go home again? You might never be able to go home again, but it’s Charlotte, the beautiful bartender at the local pub, who can tempt Abigail into staying.

    Galen Burgess has a reputation for keeping it casual. She likes women close—but not too close. Nothing is more important to her than her budding surgical career as chief surgical resident at Boston City Hospital. After spending years trying, and failing, to please her father, Galen knows getting close enough to care is a recipe for heartbreak. Everything in her carefully structured life begins to change when she meets her newest intern, the disconcertingly beautiful Dr. Rowan Duncan. Sheltered doesn’t even begin to describe Rowan’s comfortable, quiet life before moving to Boston. When Rowan starts to fall for Galen, everything Rowan's ever known comes into question, including her relationship with high school sweetheart Brian. With her own heart on the line, will Rowan have the courage to make the cut, or risk losing Galen forever?

    As work takes them to Australia, Maddie is goaded into a brief, seemingly harmless bet with her enigmatic boss—where they have to tell the complete truth to each other. It backfires catastrophically. A lesbian romance about the lies we tell ourselves.108,000 wordsThemes: Australia · media mogul boss · New York · newspaper · reporter

    The trauma of Sydney's dark childhood is something she would do anything to forget. Now only nineteen, she's trying to start over with a new life and a new name, but you can't escape the past...Caroline is the most stunning woman Sydney has ever seen. Every night, Sydney hears her singing from her apartment window, and every night, Sydney's heart aches with something indescribable. When Caroline offers singing lessons, Sydney jumps at the chance to be in the captivating woman's presence...but her desire for Caroline can't be hidden. And Caroline is over twice her age. Through Caroline's gentle instruction, Sydney finds her voice again. The broken girl feels like she's starting to mend. But her infatuation with Caroline is reaching a fevered pitch...Will Sydney lose everything if Caroline finds out the girl is in love with her?Provocative, passionate and achingly raw, THE LONGING, the latest romance from best-selling author Bridget Essex, explores the unbreakable human heart in a love story that you'll never forget.59,500 words

    An avowed bachelorette, Casey has no idea what’s in store when she grudgingly agrees to help Liz, who, by the way, is also pregnant and due in four months. Casey, Liz, and little Skye find themselves in for a hilarious, tender ride that will change their lives forever.

    Thirty years later, she’s a one-book wonder, a fifty-something college professor with the dubious distinction of being an expert on Jane Austen, hidden in the shadow of her famous husband and his Civil War novels. “Too young to retire, and too old to start over,” Margaret feels as dried up and dead as the neglected gardens her husband took such pride in before he became ill. Wyck Fitzsimmons is the Asheville landscape architect Gavin Braithwaite hires to restore his precious gardens to their former glory. She learned a long time ago that plants and trees are safer and more reliable companions than other people. Under Wyck’s care, the gardens begin to come back to life, but the flowers aren’t the only thing blossoming. For the first time in decades, Margaret feels the stirrings of love, but those long-buried feelings frighten her more than the prospect of withering away alone in her ivory tower of academia. Gavin, more observant than most people give him credit for, sees the attraction developing between his wife and his gardener. Using every means at his disposal, he arranges things so that Margaret has no choice but to remain faithful to him, even after death. Margaret, confused and faced with losing everything that offers her any kind of security, flees to England – to Austen and Wordsworth country – where she tries to forget Wyck and all the feelings she has awakened. Back in North Carolina, Wyck must come to terms with her own past and somehow find a way to forgive before it’s too late to make amends. Love, it seems, can take root in even the most barren hearts, if only Margaret and Wyck can find the courage to let it grow.

    Way decides to be the sitter for the night. Fascinated by both Ria and her eleven-year-old daughter, she finds herself sitting night after night, without revealing who she really is. Getting a glimpse into their family life seems like a nice change of pace from her world of music and fame. She doesn’t count on falling in love—or on having to watch Ria go on date after date.

    She chose her career. She chose her friends, and she also chose to come out in college. Since that time, many women have walked in and out of Robin’s life, but two had left indelible impressions. The first was a crush, and the second…almost destroyed her.Mentally bruised and battered from an abusive relationship, in one short year, Robin has gone from being a successful author to someone struggling to breathe almost as much as she’s struggling to write. With her confidence shattered, and her self-loathing at an all-time high, when an unexpected inheritance comes her way, Robin doesn’t think twice. At the age of forty-four, Robin Novak packs up her life and her cats and moves to a place where she hopes to start fresh. But a change of location isn’t the only thing Robin is looking for. After her last relationship, she knows this move will also drastically reduce the possibility of ever having another woman in her life.Choices made create the paths on which we travel. Down some, friendships are born, and down others love is found, and during those journeys, lives change, truths are discovered, secrets are revealed, and high school crushes…can sometimes walk back into your life. 188,000 words

    This year, she is being forced to celebrate with her best friend’s family in the Highlands of Scotland. Having missed her flight, Catherine reluctantly ventures on a road trip with beautiful stranger Holly Daniels.Although polar opposites, the intense attraction between them is unmistakable. Just as Catherine begins to think spending Christmas with Holly might not be so bad, a raging snowstorm leaves them stranded in the middle of nowhere. Huddled together, with little chance of rescue, they forge a pact: if they escape, they’ll make this a Christmas to remember. But will it be remembered for the right reasons?

    Olivia grabs the chance to reignite her passion, to step outside her comfort zone, and to achieve national exposure if she delivers everything the client expects.Savannah Quinn fled a broken heart and started fresh in a new city, at a new job, without any of her past in the rearview. Her new position as corporate liaison to Olivia and her team is exactly the distraction she’s looking for. She doesn’t have to settle into her empty apartment if she’s never there, right? And she can’t be betrayed if she never asks for forever.Long days in strange cities bring Olivia and Savannah closer, but keeping their growing attraction separate from their professional relationship feels impossible.

    When her father dies suddenly, she is called back from her Royal Navy post to assume the crown. While the people acclaim their new Queen, Great Britain’s first openly gay monarch, all George feels is the isolation of her station.Beatrice Elliot’s staunch anti-monarchist views have always been a point of gentle contention with her working class, royalty-loving parents. When Bea—director of a hospice charity—must spend six months working with Queen Georgina, her charity’s new patron, sparks fly and passion blooms. But is love enough to bridge the gap between Bethnal Green and Buckingham Palace?