Going on Red


Lyn Gardner - 2020
    A successful architect, she spends long hours turning her clients’ dreams into reality, but when Friday night comes along, Brodie’s focus shifts from work to play…because Brodie likes to play.Out and proud, Brodie doesn’t lack in female companionship. As long as it lasts for only one night, Brodie is content to go about her life. She’s not interested in a relationship, and out of all the women who have come and gone from her life, not one has turned Brodie’s head for more than it took to bring her to climax, and then she meets Kate Monroe.Kate Monroe is dedicated, diligent, and determined. A Detective Inspector on the outskirts of London, Kate is as disciplined in her job as she is in her life because Kate has a stubborn streak, and Kate has a plan. She’s plotted out her life like a roadmap, but upon meeting Brodie Shaw, another avenue appears. It’s tempting. It’s oh so tempting, yet a life set in stone is not easily crumbled, and Kate’s not one to give up without a fight.Love happens out of nowhere. A glance, a touch, a scent, a word, and a life planned to the nth degree is altered in the blink of an eye. It’s a detour you tell yourself you don’t want to take. You can’t take it. You shouldn’t take it. You must not take it, and you do everything in your power to stay on the straight and narrow path you had planned…or do you?

Fixer Upper


Cara Malone - 2017
    Avery Blake has spent years getting by all on her own in a big house on the countryside. As a contractor, there’s not much room for emotion in her male-dominated profession, and she’s perfectly content to keep people out of her private life, too.After watching her elderly neighbor, Nora, be torn away from her long-time lover by heartless relatives, Avery has seen what it’s like to love and to lose, and she’d rather skip the whole thing and focus on work (and the occasional meaningless fling) instead. Some relationships can be fixed with a little breathing room… and some are too far gone. Hannah Grayson has nothing but room to breathe when she finds out her Great-Aunt Nora has passed and left her a house in rural Indiana. Fleeing a dysfunctional and controlling relationship in New York, she moves into the house because she’s got nowhere else to go. Disasters start piling up almost as soon as the plane touches down - the house is in disrepair, Nora’s grandchildren are trying to evict her, and the gorgeous but chilly woman across the street seems to have a problem with Hannah’s presence. When a pipe bursts on her first night in the house, Hannah has no choice but to run across the street and beg for help from Avery.The rest, as they say, is history…

The Woman Who Owned the Shadows


Paula Gunn Allen - 1983
    "An absorbing...fascinating world is created...not only is it an exploration of racism, it is a powerful and moving testament..."--New York Times Book Review

Kissing Kate


Lauren Myracle - 2003
    They've shared everything for four years. Then one night at a drunken party, Kate leaned in to kiss Lissa, and Lissa kissed her back. And now Kate is pretending Lissa doesn't exist. Confused and alone, Lissa's left questioning everything she thought she knew about herself, and about life. But with the help of a free-spirit new friend, Lissa's beginning to find the strength to realize that sometimes falling in love with the wrong person is the only way to find your footing.

Jordan vs. All the Boys


John Goode - 2019
    The nights are longer, the songs are better, and the friends you make are forever. For Jordan, Brandon, Ethan, and Dominic, that summer is now. This pack of self-proclaimed nerds set out on an adventure that defines every young man’s life—the search for love, or at least what they think love is. As with all great quests there are pitfalls and challenges ahead of them and they will have to overcome their greatest enemy, their own egos. But the power of true friendship could give them the strength they need to complete their quest and win their prize.

Smut Peddler


C. Spike TrotmanMr. Darcy - 2012
    It was an anthology of erotic comics, with contributions from some of the best and the brightest creators. There were three issues, and they were AWESOME. But that was it. The third Smut Peddler mini was followed by a years-long publishing hiatus...UNTIL NOW.

Georgia Rules


Nanci Turner Steveson - 2017
    She never wanted to move with her mama to the farm her daddy owned before he died. But now here she is, in a tiny Vermont town where everybody sings the praises of the father Maggie never knew.Then Maggie meets the Parker family—two moms, six kids, plus a pony. The Parkers are loud and wild, ask lots of questions, and don't follow any of the rules Maggie grew up with in Georgia. Suddenly Maggie has questions too—questions about her father, and why Mama kept him away for so long.In her search for answers, Maggie will learn that families are like patchwork quilts, sewn together by love, and all the more beautiful for their different colors.

Frying Plantain


Zalika Reid-Benta - 2019
    We see her on a visit to Jamaica, startled by the sight of a severed pig’s head in her great aunt’s freezer; in junior high, the victim of a devastating prank by her closest friends; and as a teenager in and out of her grandmother’s house, trying to cope with the ongoing battles between her unyielding grandparents.A rich and unforgettable portrait of growing up between worlds, Frying Plantain shows how, in one charged moment, friendship and love can turn to enmity and hate, well-meaning protection can become control, and teasing play can turn to something much darker. In her brilliantly incisive debut, Zalika Reid-Benta artfully depicts the tensions between mothers and daughters, second-generation Canadians and first-generation cultural expectations, and Black identity and predominately white society.

Crush


Carrie Mac - 2006
    Miserable, Hope ends up meeting Nat, and developing a powerful crush. The only problem is that Nat is a girl. Hope is pretty sure she isn't gay. Or is she? Struggling with new feelings, fitting in and a strange city far from home, Hope finds that love--and acceptance--comes in many different forms.

A Love Story Starring My Dead Best Friend


Emily Horner - 2010
    Then Julia is killed in a sudden car accident, and while Cass is still reeling from her death, Julia’s boyfriend and her other drama friends make it their mission to bring to fruition the nearly-completed secret project: a musical about an orphaned ninja princess entitled Totally Sweet Ninja Death Squad.Cass isn’t one of the drama people. She doesn’t feel at home with Julia’s drama friends, and she doesn’t see a place for her in the play. Things only get worse when she finds out that Heather Galloway, the girl who made her miserable all through middle school, has been cast as the ninja princess.Cass can’t take a summer of swallowing her pride and painting sets, so she decides to follow her original plan for a cross-country road trip with Julia. Even if she has a touring bicycle instead of a driver’s license, and even if Julia’s ashes are coming along in Tupperware.Totally Sweet Ninja Death Squad is a story about friendship. About love. About traveling a thousand miles just to find yourself. About making peace with the past, and making sense of it. And it’s a story about the bloodiest high school musical one quiet suburb has ever seen.

What Is Not Yours Is Not Yours


Helen Oyeyemi - 2016
    In “Books and Roses” one special key opens a library, a garden, and clues to at least two lovers’ fates. In “Is Your Blood as Red as This?” an unlikely key opens the heart of a student at a puppeteering school. “‘Sorry’ Doesn’t Sweeten Her Tea” involves a “house of locks,” where doors can be closed only with a key—with surprising, unobservable developments. And in “If a Book Is Locked There’s Probably a Good Reason for That Don't You Think,” a key keeps a mystical diary locked (for good reason).  Oyeyemi’s tales span multiple times and landscapes as they tease boundaries between coexisting realities. Is a key a gate, a gift, or an invitation?

Like Other Girls


Claire Hennessy - 2017
    She also knows it's problematic to say that - what's wrong with girls? She's even fancied some in the past. But if you were stuck in St Agnes's, her posh all-girls school, you'd feel like that too. Here everyone's expected to be Perfect Young Ladies, it's even a song in the painfully awful musical they're putting on this year. And obviously said musical is directed by Lauren's arch nemesis.Under it all though, Lauren's heart is bruised. Her boyfriend thinks she's crazy and her best friend's going through something Lauren can't understand... so when Lauren realises she's facing every teenage girl's worst nightmare, she has nowhere to turn. Maybe she should just give in to everything. Be like other girls. That's all so much easier ... right?

Kings, Queens, and In-Betweens


Tanya Boteju - 2019
    After a bewildering encounter at a local festival, Nima finds herself suddenly immersed in the drag scene on the other side of town.Macho drag kings, magical queens, new love interests, and surprising allies propel Nima both painfully and hilariously closer to a self she never knew she could be—one that can confidently express and accept love. But she’ll have to learn to accept lost love to get there.

Kissing Dead Girls


Daphne Gottlieb - 2007
    Fusing pornography and postfeminist theory, transcript and tell-all, these playful, penetrating poems and stories reach off the page in search of what it is to be known, both to the masses and to the "Other."

Verge


Lidia Yuknavitch - 2020
    In novels such as The Small Backs of Children and The Book of Joan, she has captivated readers with stories of visceral power. Now, in Verge, she offers a shard-sharp mosaic portrait of human resilience on the margins.