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Playing Games by Kendra Spencer


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Four Steps


Wendy Hudson - 2016
    She has her farm in the Scottish countryside, and the self-imposed seclusion suits her until a crime that has haunted her for years tears through the calm and shatters the fragile peace she'd finally managed to find.Lori Hunter's greatest love is the mountains. They're her escape from the constant hustle and bustle of everyday life. Growing up was neither traditional nor easy for Lori, but now she's beginning to realise she's settled for both. A dead-end relationship and little to look forward to. Her solution when the suffocation sets in? Run for the hills.A chance encounter in the mountains of the Scottish Highlands leads Alex and Lori into a whirlwind of heartache and a fight for survival as they build a formidable bond that will be tested to its ultimate limits.

The Madam


Jaime Raven - 2016
    That's how long Lizzie Wells has been banged up inside Holloway prison, serving time for a crime she didn’t commit.Six months. That's how long it’s taken Lizzie to fall in love with her fellow inmate, Scar.Now they are both finally free and, together, they are about to embark on a vengeful search to find those who framed Lizzie. It’s time to make them pay…THE BUSINESS MAN. THE COPPER. THE MADAM.

My Last Season With You


S.V.C. Ricketts - 2014
    Just sayin’.” – Regina CallahanReggie Callahan has come to terms with her prognosis of less than a year to live. She’s been dealing with it all summer thanks to blacking out and falling off her horse back home in Wisconsin. Instead of starting her junior year, she’s only back at New York University to tie up loose ends. One of them is breaking the news to her childhood friend, actress and model, Desi St. Clair. For Reggie, telling her that she is sick, and leaving the city is harder than learning you’re going to die.Until Desi kisses her.This isn’t a story about gender preference or about living with cancer. Plain and simple, it’s about love and what people are willing to endure to live without regrets and savor every moment.Portion of all sales will go to Free2Luv, a non-profit charity that supports anti-bullying & the freedom of expression. **This is a STANDALONE novella. It is not part of a series, and does not contain a cliffhanger. This book is intended for mature audiences. Does NOT contain explicit or graphic sexual scenes. **

Magnetic Reverie (The reverie, #1)


Nico J. Genes - 2017
    with her husband, Greg. Right in the middle of a peaceful and simple life, she awakens from a dream that reveals to her a new reality that questions the very essence of who she is.Enter Claire, a beautiful young woman with who Lana is supposedly in a relationship.Meandering between Slovenia while sleeping and the USA while awake, this love story makes Lana evolve and grow.Magnetic Reverie is the first book from The Reverie series, now available also in Spanish.Warning: There are a few descriptive same-sex love scenes. The ending is a cliffhanger. The next book in the series is Reverie Girl.

Delayed Gratification: The Honeymoon


Meghan O'Brien - 2016
    First stop: the final weekend of Carnevale in Venice, Italy. When the international leg of their flight is cancelled due to a fast-moving winter storm, Willa refuses to admit defeat and give up her carefully laid plans. All Rae wants is some quiet time to reconnect with her wife after months of wedding madness, but she agrees to attempt a late-night trek across the snowy midwest in a last-ditch attempt to make it to Venice before the festivities end. After surviving a near-death experience on the icy road, Willa and Rae find themselves at odds regarding the entire point of their honeymoon. Can an unexpected rescuer help them rediscover what’s really important, and each other?

Sight Lines


Michelle DiCeglio - 2015
    But as the murders get more intense, so do Detective Mills’ feelings for Alison—and her suspicions that Ali may be more than just a witness.

Sweet Temptation


Spencer Pearson - 2020
    Harper, the woman she'd been crushing on for the last three years.After five years of teaching accounting at the same college as her brother, Lauren Harper was finally settling in.She'd left behind a high paying, high stress job at an accountancy firm, and although teaching didn't pay nearly as well, she was starting to enjoy the simpler things in life, like sipping on a whiskey while she played cards at a local casino.When one of her students sits down at her poker table, it piques Lauren's curiosity. It wasn't unusual for students and teachers to mix in such a small town, but for some reason, she didn't expect to see Riley playing poker.Lauren had been badly burned by a student in the past, and there was no way she was going there again.No way. Under no circumstances.That's what Lauren keeps telling herself anyway, but as the two get to know one another, Lauren finds herself being drawn to the younger woman.How bad would it really be to date a student?

A Woman Lost


T.B. Markinson - 2013
    She’s rich, beautiful, intelligent, and successful. None of this matters to her mom. Les-Bi-An. That’s all her mom sees.Even though Lizzie insists her mom’s antagonism does not bother her, Lizzie distances herself from her entire family. When her brother, Peter, calls her out of the blue to announce he’s getting married, Lizzie’s entire life changes drastically. Peter’s fiancée wants to bring the lesbian outcast back into the family. Will this desire cause Lizzie to lose everything dear to her?Sarah, Lizzie’s girlfriend, is ecstatic about this change in Lizzie’s personal life. Sarah, the hopeless romantic, wants it all, including settling down with the fiercely independent Lizzie.Can Lizzie be tamed? And can she survive her family and all of their secrets?

Dante's Awakening


Devon Marshall - 2012
    She is also a friend to the secret community of vampires living in Los Angeles, and occasionally she assists them when they have a problem that requires a human to handle it. The vampires are led by Voshki Kevorkian, a gorgeous, sexy female vampire, who has made it clear that she would like Dante to be her human. Dante, although attracted to Voshki, is wary of the possessiveness and jealousy involved in being a vampire's chosen human lover and resists. When the Children of Judas, a two-thousand-year-old sect of murderous, rebel vampires shunned by the main community, rise up under a new leader and threaten to topple Voshki's leadership and expose the whole community, the vampires turn to Dante for help. Dante travels to a small town in upstate California where the Children seem to be active, in the company of Ellis Kovacs, another vampire sired by Voshki, and Voshki's "right-hand woman." There, whilst investigating the Children and their leader Robin Shepherd, Dante succumbs to being seduced by the alluring Ellis. When Dante is kidnapped by the Children, Voshki decides it's time to take matters into her own hands. Hell hath no fury like a vampire scorned. This is the first in a brand-new series.

The Chinaberry Tree


Lauren Alexander - 2011
    The family is powerful for the same reasons it is vulnerable. There are deadlines for nurturing and restoring relationships, and, with its intricate makeup, it takes the entire family to save itself. THE CHINABERRY TREE is a rare memoir of a family at war with itself. It lays bare the erosion of the author's family of origin in the absence of divorce and any criminal or heinous behavior. Perception is the pivotal force in the family. This innovative memoir offers a slideshow viewing of the interwoven dynamics that fueled the author's original family life: harmony, humor, separation, sorrow, discord, despair, surrender and death. The youngest of four children, the author presents each and every family member, including herself, from the unusual viewpoint of an insider with no agenda, an insider spreading out pieces of a puzzle with no intention of finding the missing ones. Making no pretense of telling the whole story, she revisits her life within the family. The author began writing THE CHINABERRY TREE long before her family's fate had run its course. In the end, the author discovers that the undying family bond she counted on was a deep-rooted myth she cultivated amidst all the evidence to the contrary. In ruins, the family finally loses its power over her and the grief the author thought she would carry to her grave is put to rest.

Jellicle Girl


Stevie Mikayne - 2012
    Jackie—wilful, cheeky and confident, made Beth see things in herself that she'd never imagined, and do things she never thought she would. As memories of Beth's last night with Jackie grow more like waking nightmares, Beth does everything she can to forget the girl who was so much more than a friend. Beth has a self-destructive ritual she swears she'll keep secret, even from the psychologist trying to help her. But Dr. Nancy Sullivan doesn't have time for secrets. In fact, she doesn't have much time at all. She's been charged with helping Beth break through the barriers of her past, knowing very well that her own demons might end her career before she can get through to the stubborn young woman. Meanwhile, a young foster child with a wicked sense of humour, and a devastating past, reminds Beth that secrets seem powerful, but can destroy the person who holds them too close. A haunting and evocative story about redemption, identity, and learning to let go of secrets that scar.

I Do? ...or Do I?


Karen King - 2016
    When Sylvia books the exclusive ID images to take photographs of the extravagant wedding, Cassie has no idea what she's walking into. The elusive JM who is the newest photographer employed just so happens to be Jared, Cassie's first love and ex-fiancee, who broke off their engagement to follow his life-long dreams. Jared is back to earn some cash before jetting off on his next wild adventure. When Cassie is asked to write an article with top tips and advice for Brides to Be, she jokingly writes a column depicting her current scenario and a co-worker submits it in place of the real article. Cassie's column is soon making the headlines with readers asking the age old question Who Will She Choose?

My Kind of Happy


Cathy Bramley - 2021
    She treasures the memories of her beloved grandmother's floristry and helping her to arrange beautiful blooms that brought such joy to their recipients.But ever since a family tragedy a year ago, Fearne has been searching for her own contentment. When a chance discovery inspires her to start a happiness list, it seems that Fearne might just have found her answer...Sometimes the scariest path can be the most rewarding. So is Fearne ready to take the risk and step into the unknown? And what kind of happiness might she find if she does?

Ranger Games: A Story of Soldiers, Family and an Inexplicable Crime


Ben Blum - 2017
    He had one goal in life: endure a brutally difficult selection program, become a U.S. Army Ranger, and fight terrorists for his country. He poured everything into achieving his dream. In the first hours of his final leave before deployment to Iraq, Alex was supposed to fly home to see his family and beloved girlfriend. Instead, he got into his car with two fellow soldiers and two strangers, drove to a local bank in Tacoma, and committed armed robbery...The question that haunted the entire Blum family was: Why? Why would he ruin his life in such a spectacularly foolish way?At first, Alex insisted he thought the robbery was just another exercise in the famously daunting Ranger program. His attorney presented a case based on the theory that the Ranger indoctrination mirrored that of a cult.In the midst of his own personal crisis, and in the hopes of helping both Alex and his splintering family cope, Ben Blum, Alex's first cousin, delved into these mysteries, growing closer to Alex in the process. As he probed further, Ben began to question not only Alex, but the influence of his superior, Luke Elliot Sommer, the man who planned the robbery. A charismatic combat veteran, Sommer's manipulative tendencies combined with a magnetic personality pulled Ben into a relationship that put his loyalties to the test.

Men Like Air


Tom Connolly - 2016
    Nineteen-year-old Finn has just arrived in the city with his irrepressible and volatile girlfriend, Dilly, determined to even the score with his older brother Jack for abandoning him in the UK in the aftermath of their parents’ deaths. Across town, successful gallery owner Leo Emerson is haunted by loneliness, unsettled by the contrast between his life and that of his brother-in-law and oldest friend Isidor, who is enviably contented in his faith and his marriage. When Finn wanders into Leo’s gallery, a series of unexpected and interconnected events unfold, changing the lives of all four men, for better or worse. Leo and Isidor’s settled existences are overturned by events outside of their control, while Jack and Finn’s complex relationship reaches its long overdue showdown. Beautifully orchestrated and richly comic, Men Like Air explores the romance and solitude of cosmopolitan life, the transformative power of art, and the impact we have on one another’s lives—and what happens when the ties that bind us are tested or broken. It is an intense and uplifting story of growth and renewal, mapping the complex workings of the human heart across the streets of New York City.