MacLeod’s young protagonist enters all the bright open avenues of peer-group play and the dark blind alleys of individual and collective terror, as she discovers within herself both the capacity for and the conflict between impulses of good and evil. In thinking back on the history of her own tight-knit group of friends, she begins to see how in the excitement of belonging to a ritualized, secret collective, the self is created by the increasing dehumanization of the other—of both the bully and the victim. The Shape of a Girl goes far beyond a simple dramatization of the seemingly inexplicable code of silence and tacit complicity which surrounded the sensationalized Reena Virk murder in 1997 on which the play is based. It speaks eloquently and compassionately to a world increasingly dominated by all forms of collectivised and ritualized tribalist hatred, and offers the embrace of trust as the only way out of this circle of violence.Jewel is also based on a real-life catastrophe—the sinking of the Ocean Ranger, an oil rig off the coast of Newfoundland, on Valentine’s Day, 1982. Three years later, a widow, Marjorie Clifford, at home in her trailer in Fort St. John, British Columbia, begins to take the first step in understanding that the humanity of love, in all of its tentative frailty, uncertainty and promise, can free a life paralyzed and dominated by loss.

    Disgusted by an overabundance of phallocratic narratives and Freytag’s pyramid, she turns to a subcultural canon of resistance and failure. Wryly riffing on feminist literary tropes, it documents the survival of a demonized single mother figuring things out.

    In the empty days after her son's death, left alone in her grief by her husband, Isabelle Berendon falls in love with the unlikeliest person in the world: her sister-in-law.Self-published by one of President Ronald Reagan's daughters, who does not identify as a lesbian.

    She eats, she sleeps, she works. On the path to becoming a manager, she doesn't spare much time for anything else.Then she bumps into Nira, one of the regulars she's had a crush on for years, for the first time in a while.Nira isn't in a good place. She needs a friend.Ashley decides that putting the crush aside is a no-brainer. She'll be the friend Nira needs, even if it ends up giving Nira's other friends the wrong idea.There are definitely worse things than people assuming they're dating.

    The only problem? Penelope is straight. Penelope Bennett has been picking up the pieces of Diana's failed and flawed flings since high school and wants for her best friend to find happiness; but is certain that is not with her. A two-month long overseas work excursion puts twenty-four years of friendship to the test when Diana returns home with more than just a new cultural experience and Penelope must decide once and for all if there's a possibility for more between them.

    and too scared to let the world see any of those qualities. Interacting with her restaurant coworkers makes her want to melt into the floor. They're all beautiful, outgoing, and confident - terrifying to a shy lesbian. When Chloe somehow catches the most intimidating girl's eye, she wonders if their mutual attraction could develop into more. Waitressing isn't Jennie's passion, but then neither is anything else. Adrift in life, the tattooed beauty only cares about weed and her motorcycle. At least this job's paying the bills until she can move on to better things. Fooling around with coworkers isn't in her plans - but once she notices the resident wallflower is drop-dead gorgeous, those plans change. Falling for Chloe, though? That's another matter. Will Jennie chew Chloe up and spit her out? Or could Jennie be the first person to see Chloe for who she really is?

    A heart warming, slow burn, late in life, friends to lovers story.Georgina owns an independent coffeehouse. Her co-owner, ex lover and sometime friend with benefits, has recently died in a car accident. Grieving, and trying to keep the business going, she finds out the half share has been willed to a complete stranger.Catherine has flitted from job to job, always searching for an important missing piece in her life. Dumped by her boyfriend, jobless, single, penniless and soon to be homeless, Catherine receives a letter which could solve all her problems.Georgina has said she would never again date a straight woman. So why is Catherine continually invading her thoughts? Catherine knows she isn’t gay. So why is she feeling something more than friendship towards Georgina? Will Georgina let her past control her future? Will Catherine acknowledge a future different to her past?Set in a coffeehouse on a busy, bustling main thoroughfare into Bristol. The Perfect Blend introduces us to the owners and characters who frequent the establishment.

     Even the best job can slowly drain your battery. When Gillian Lindsay realizes it’s time for a recharge, she impetuously decides to visit Scotland. Knowing nothing about the country, she schedules a tour of Edinburgh Castle for the day she arrives, just to get the lay of the land. After spending the afternoon with Torie Gunn, her very able tour guide, Gillian proposes hiring her for a week-long trip across the country. Torie’s astonished. Gillian has done no research, and has no plans, placidly asking Torie to come up with an itinerary. That seems like the ideal way to create an unsatisfied customer. But Gillian certainly seems like a very easygoing person, and earning a week’s pay merely talking sounds like a dream. Torie jumps in, hoping she can satisfy Gillian’s desires. Over the course of their trip, other, more romantic desires spring to life. Will they be satisfied too?

    Trying her best to hold it together in Chicago, she is battling both the effects of her mother’s death and the betrayal of her ex-girlfriend. Opting to throw herself into work and the gym, she at first ignores an invitation from her largely absentee father to take some time off at his estate in Texas. He may be the Chairperson of Foster Oil & Gas, but it doesn’t change the fact that he was never part of her life. Besides, she’s up for a big promotion and sees it as the solution away from her one-way track into deep depression. In many ways, Natalie Silva is the complete opposite of London. Where London is pale, Natalie is sun-kissed. In that dark space deep down where London is filled with regrets and bitterness, Natalie radiates warm light. As a Texas native and sort-of Southern belle, Natalie is compassionate, kind and raised with a healthy dose of Southern hospitality. She’s followed her passion for baking throughout her adult life and it’s led her to being a co-owner of Mission Bakery – A popular bakery and food truck she manages with her lesbian aunts and the occasional help from her best friend’s precocious daughter. After a years-old heartbreak, the one lesson she has taken through her life is to never fall for an outsider. You know the type – The mysterious, attractive out-of-towners who offer equal promise of passion and complications. London and Natalie are less than impressed with each other upon their first meeting. But fate and Texas have a very different and much more sensual plan for these two polar opposite women. In the sultry-hot summer heat, they will learn just as much about themselves and their lives as they will about each other…And it might just be everything they want.

    Blake's an ambitious skeptic who thinks true love doesn't exist. Will these two very different women find a spark between them, or will it be a passing glance?Leia is creative and thoughtful, and when a chance encounter with Blake, a stranger, stirs something deep inside her, she believes it is the universe speaking to her soul.Blake, despite her success, feels something is missing from her life but disguises her discontentment with a tough façade, which keeps her from opening her heart.Will Blake and Leia be each other's missing piece, or will it turn out to just be a dream?Join Blake and Leia as they are swept into a journey of self-analysis and soul-searching that could change their perception of love forever.This is lesbian author Abigail Taylor's debut novel and part of the Looking for Love lesfic series.

    It is in her poetry, however, where she achieves the full extent of her revelation as artist and human. The poems in this first selection from her whole work were written over a period of forty years. They convey a wonderfully energetic alternation of mood, idea, and experience that are part of her unique creative process.

    Grace is smart, beautiful, and most unfortunately, straight. Life would’ve been perfect if Grace had only loved her back, but when Grace gets married, Dex knows it’s time to move on. Then Dex meets Emma Lawson, and her life takes a whole new direction. Only trouble is, she never expected to have to choose between her best friend and her new love.Emma Lawson is successful and happy except when it comes to love. She’s been alone for a year and has no intention of giving love another chance, until falling for Dex changes everything. When Grace comes between them, Emma refuses to be second best. Can Emma show Dex what true love really looks like?

    The author of the critically acclaimed collections The Frost Fairs and Spacecraft, Brighton-based John McCullough pulls no punches in this latest - and his most powerful -collection. These are poems of skill, joy and quiet musicality that reflect the conflict and complexity of being.

    "there are so many words I've left unsaidso instead of going another year or five or tenin brutal, crushing silencedon't waste this opportunitydon't be scared when the full weight of my hearttests the strength of your handsI'm trusting you with something I barely trust myself withthis knowingthis tellingthis momentous uprootingI'm hereI amI am right here in these words"A debut poetry collection about love, heartbreak, body image, how absolutely breathtaking girls are, flower blooms and starlight.

    Sort of, anyway. She’s just landed her first job since finishing uni. She loves working with the young people at the youth centre, especially the ones who need a bit of extra attention. She’s determined to make something of herself, and she knows enough about love to know it’s not what she wants right now. Life is too full, too wild, to get tied down. That is, until she finds Java, a beautiful, abandoned dog who steals her heart.Dr Evie Jackson is all about stability. She and her son live a calm, happy life, andalthough Evie misses companionship, a recent relationship taught her not to trust her instincts when it comes to women. Passing dalliances are all she’ll allow so she keeps her heart, and her son, safe.When Ash and Evie meet at the Hound Hotel where Evie volunteers, sparks fly. Ash is a free spirit, something that calls to Evie despite her knowing better, and Ash can’t get enough of Evie’s strong, sexy fire.But will they answer love’s call, or will they let it pass them by?