Great Sass


Mary B. Moore - 2020
    New house, new friends, new life. I thought I had a chance at becoming the Sadie Dahl I’d always wanted to be—fun loving, free, clean, and happy. It was a dream I was working hard to make a reality, and I thought I’d succeeded.But nothing stays buried, nothing stays hidden, especially with all the information available on the internet today. Jealousy’s a curse, but apparently a woman scorned is evil and will do anything she can to get revenge. Then again, I can understand how being forgotten by a man like Elijah Townsend-Rossi would sting. ∞∞∞∞As a kid my dream was to join the Coast Guard. I wanted to save lives, protect our waters, and stop the bad guy. And that’s exactly what I’d done. I’d spent years living for Semper Paratus. Dreams shatter when it’s your best friend’s body that you pull out of the water and almost die trying to save six other sailors from the same vessel, though. Eight years of living and breathing my job had come to an end just as I was due to extend my service, and now I felt like a nomad. I roamed, I slept, I ate, I breathed. I had no purpose, just a void that I couldn’t fill and emotions I couldn’t get rid of.And then I met Sadie. She amused me with her eccentricities and was unique, opening up a part of the world I hadn’t known existed. And damn, she had great sass.Unfortunately, during my roaming I’d made some bad choices that were coming back to bite me—and her. Even worse, they were putting her life at risk with someone from her own past.I might have failed my best friend, but I wasn’t going to do the same with her.

Lime Gelatin and Other Monsters


Angel Martinez - 2015
    Tall, physically perfect, reserved, and claiming he has no broken psychic talents, Vikash Soren irritates Kyle in every way. But as much as he’d like to hate Vikash, Kyle finds himself oddly drawn to him, their non-abilities meshing in unexpected ways. If they can learn to work together, they might be able to stop the mysterious killer who has been leaving mutilated bodies along the banks of the Schuylkill.

Chasing Whispers: Women's Fiction Romantic Suspense


Jennifer Youngblood - 2021
    

The Girl at the Deep End of the Lake


Sam Lee Jackson - 2018
    But, when the ingrate disappears into the mean streets of Phoenix you don’t let that stand. You recruit your old partner, Blackhawk, and together you take on two of the bloodiest cartels in the Southwest. Yeah, that’s what happens.

Hot Mess


Zane Menzy - 2020
    It is a humiliating ordeal for the uptight 26-year-old who swore he would never return to the place he was bullied mercilessly as an unpopular teen.A welcoming distraction comes Kieran's way though when his brother's best friend, the fun-loving Ziggy Zurakowski, invites him for a weekend away to a secluded cabin. Kieran jumps at the opportunity, keen to try and forget his troubles for a few days. However, it soon becomes apparent Ziggy has more than just rest and relaxation on his mind.Kieran doesn't know what to do. Sure, Ziggy is an incredibly handsome guy but Kieran's straight... Isn't he? As Ziggy turns up the charm, and the sexual tension between them increases to boiling point, Kieran realizes he's fighting a losing battle. What follows is a night of reckless passion filled with deviant exploits that take Kieran places he needed to go, exploring things he needed to explore, but...But what happens now?HOT MESS is a standalone gay romance packed with scorching hot scenes and the promise of new beginnings. It was very briefly released as a novella titled Something So Right but has been rewritten and extended by 25,000+ words.

Jake


Kathi S. Barton - 2017
    Cutting off her funds, and the simple use of the word “no” sends her packing. When he comes home from work and finds his house empty of everything, including food, he feels—liberated. Jake’s grandmother, Jenna, calls her friend and attorney, Forrest Stout, to handle Jake’s messy divorce. She can’t stand Jake’s soon-to-be ex-wife and is leaving nothing to chance. Only the best for her grandson, and the best is Forrest.Forrest is a Were Tiger, and he knows “who” he is. He is an oddity in his paranormal world because he is gay. His kind mate for life, and after a recent disastrous attempt to find companionship, he has given up hope of ever finding his life mate.From the moment Forrest meets Jake for the first time, he knows that Jake is his life mate, and he wants to run in the opposite direction because Jake isn’t gay. To claim and lose a mate would spell disaster for him. How can he ask a straight man—that he wants with every fiber of his being—to conform to his way of life? He can’t….Ex-lovers, and ex-wives can be a dangerous combination. Especially when neither are right in the head….

In Safe Hands


Victoria Sue - 2019
    When his sister asks for his help on a private protection case to babysit a disgraced pop star, Mav reluctantly agrees.Deacon Daniels, onetime lead singer and idol to his teenage fans, saw his career and reputation ruined when a reporter’s exposé led to a devastating scandal. Without money or a job, a heartbroken Deacon has lost custody of his baby niece. And just when he thinks his life can’t get any worse, a stalker’s threatening messages escalate to murder.Mav only agreed to one meeting, but his protective instincts kick in, along with an attraction to Deacon. When the body count increases, however, Mav is unsure he is up to the task of protecting Deacon from a killer. But it is too late for Mav to step away, now that he’s lost his heart, and he must find the strength to reassure Deacon and his niece that they are in safe hands no matter the cost.Cover Artist: Jay Aheer

Origins


Shannon West - 2018
    With three months left on his sentence, he’s approached by a recruiter for a private military group. The Red River Group make him an offer he can’t refuse—a get out of jail free card and a chance to continue as a soldier, working as a hired gun. He’s sent to join a team already in training for their first mission. The new soldiers are all former elite military but also misfits, like Logan, and recently sprung from brigs across the country. At the training facility, he meets company man and trainer, Luke Warren, a former Navy SEAL. Logan begins an intense relationship with the prickly but gorgeous man as they get ready for a top-secret mission against the drug cartels in Mexico. The team has to make sure that MARS, a highly addictive and lethal new drug, along with the factory that produces it, is completely destroyed. When everything on the mission goes wrong and the factory blows up in their faces, the team wakes up to find they not only survived, but the now have impossible enhanced strength and abilities. Frightened and confused, not knowing who to trust, Logan leads the team in a run for the States to find a safe haven, forcing Luke to come with them. With violence and intrigue swirling around him, Logan relies on his instincts and his ingenuity to discover who his allies and his enemies really are. As they travel across the country, Logan and Luke begin to realize that they have to stick together and they’ll need all their newfound abilities and a lot of luck to make it out of this alive.

Snowblind


Eli Easton - 2017
    Jude says he’s in the area for a ski trip and that he fled a domineering lover, thinking he could make it into town. But Hutch is a suspicious SOB and treats his unwanted guest warily. The problem is Jude isn’t just gorgeous, he’s funny and smart and flirtatious.Two gay men snowed in for three days—things happen. Really good things. By the time the storm clears, Hutch finds himself a little too attached to Jude Devereaux, San Francisco-based male model. But is Jude what he claims to be? Or is he entangled in the secrets Hutch moved to Alaska to escape?

Southernmost Murder


C.S. Poe - 2018
    With his soon-to-be-boyfriend, hotshot FBI agent Jun Tanaka, visiting for a little R&R, not even Aubrey’s narcolepsy can put a damper on their vacation plans. But a skeleton in a closet of the Smith Family Historical Home sure does throw a wrench into the works. Its identity drags Aubrey and Jun into a mystery with origins over a century in the past. They uncover a tale of long-lost treasure, the pirate king it belonged to, and a modern-day murderer who will stop at nothing to find the hidden riches. And if a killer on the loose isn’t enough to keep Aubrey out of the mess, it seems even the restless spirit of Captain Smith is warning him away. The unlikely partnership of a historian and special agent may be exactly what it takes to crack this mystery wide-open and finally put an old Key West tragedy to rest. But while Aubrey tracks down the X that marks the spot, one wrong move could be his last.

The Artifact


J.E. Lorin - 2014
    Bentley Blake, professor of Old Earth Cultures, has a life that seems set in stone: he’ll teach his classes, write research papers, look out for his younger brother Jamie, and, hopefully, he’ll find love somewhere along the way. It’s not an exciting life, but it’s solid and safe. All that changes the day he meets Harlow “Remy” Oakes, a mysterious and handsome man who invites Ben on a quest to find a deadly artifact. Ben declines the invitation, but after an attempted abduction, his life is thrown into chaos. Forced to join in with Oakes, a man he doesn’t trust, Ben finds danger at every turn. Will he and Jamie make it out alive? And will Ben be able to stifle the growing attraction he feels for Harlow Oakes?

Resolution (Hot Holidays Novellas)


Jayda Marx - 2021
    

The Curse


T.S. McKinney - 2017
    Warlocks. Hocus Pocus. I didn’t believe in any of those things. To be honest, the only thing I really believed in….really had faith in its existence, was bad luck. There was too much proof of it in my life to deny it. As it turns out, the bad luck that accompanies me wherever I go escalated to a heightened level following a visit form a long-lost relative I didn’t even know existed. She starts spouting nonsense about my parents really loving me (even though they committed suicide a few days after my birth), how my mother tried using witchcraft to save their lives…and how there is a curse hanging over my head that requires my death on my twenty-fifth birthday. Supposedly all the Bailey men commit suicide on their twenty-fifth birthdays due to this curse. Total craziness, right? Wrong. A small dash of intrigue and a heaping-helping of fear cause me to pack up and head to Salem, Massachusetts – where it all started. Here’s my biggest problem: my twenty-fifth birthday is only a couple of weeks away and I’m having these very sensual dreams about a man I don’t know. I might not know him, but I sure want him.

The Alpha's Call


Wolf Specter - 2015
     As alpha of his pack, Liam strives to exercise complete control in all things. When a human is unwittingly turned into a werewolf without Liam’s knowledge, all hell breaks loose. Liam must track the new shifter down and convince him to bond to the pack or risk insanity as a lone wolf. Liam meets Ash, a scorching hot flirt who is more interested in charming Liam than joining the pack. Oh, and Ash doesn’t even know he’s a werewolf. To make matters worse, a betrayal in the pack puts Ash’s life in danger. Liam must set aside his instant attraction to Ash in order to save his life. That is, if he can find him first. The Alpha’s Call is a hot and steamy standalone romance story.

How to Shield an Assassin


A.J. Sherwood - 2019
     Ari had a game plan for life. Shoot people. Get money. Hang out with fellow criminal friends. He saw absolutely no reason to change that plan until one dark night in Memphis, when a little girl reached out to him with pocket change and a desperate plea for him to help her. Adopting an abused little girl off the streets was, needless to say, not part of the plan. Ari had no idea what he was doing with an eight year old. He especially didn’t know how to juggle taking contracts and raising a little girl. Things get more complicated when the mercenary, Carter Harrison, approaches him with a job. He needs Ari’s expertise to get into the very high-security museum, Knowles, and steal back Monet’s Water Lily Pond. The job isn’t an easy one. He’d need more than the two of them to make it happen. It’s further complicated because Ari’s not sure what to do with his new daughter while working this job. And for that matter, how’s he supposed to handle the sexy mercenary? Tags: Not child safe but child approved, children know best, Remi approves this book, idiots in love, but Remi loves them anyway, criminals make the best uncles, family of choice, Ari acknowledges Remi as the smarter one, Carter admits his own insanity, nothing blows up, Ivan is very disappointed by this, Kyou has PLANS for Remi, licking solves all problems, bedsheets, lifeskills, children should come with warning labels, it’s not stealing if you’re stealing it BACK, right?, the author once again regrets nothing Editor: Katie Griffin