Instead, Astrid spends hours lying on the backyard picnic table watching airplanes fly overhead. She doesn't know the passengers inside, but they're the only people who won't judge her when she asks them her most personal questions--like what it means that she's falling in love with a girl.As her secret relationship becomes more intense and her friends demand answers, Astrid has nowhere left to turn. She can't share the truth with anyone except the people at thirty thousand feet, and they don't even know she's there. But little does Astrid know just how much even the tiniest connection will affect these strangers' lives--and her own--for the better.In this truly original portrayal of a girl struggling to break free of society's definitions, Printz Honor author A.S. King asks readers to question everything--and offers hope to those who will never stop seeking real love.

    Fifteen years into a marriage that will seemingly last forever, a tragic accident tears them apart. After reaching the end of her rope, Blake is blessed with the chance to relive her life. She can right her wrongs, live life to the fullest and change the course of fate, or so she hopes.

    Secretly in love with Cheryl for years, Elaine hopes she'll finally have a chance to win Cheryl's heart. But will she? Mickey's fling will soon be over and she'll want Cheryl back...in the worst way.

    By day, she studies at law school, and by night, she serves drinks at an exclusive club to afford her tuition. But the hard-working Melanie will never admit her true desire: to escape from her fast-paced, high-pressure life, if only for a moment. When Melanie meets Vanessa, a glamorous executive and a regular at the club, she is drawn to the enigmatic black-haired woman. Vanessa is relentless in pursuing what she wants—and what she wants is Melanie. Soon, Melanie finds herself caught up in Vanessa’s sensual games of submission, power and control. Melanie insists that her affair with Vanessa remains purely physical. But as her limits are tested, so is the line between lust and love. When ghosts from the past reappear, both women must face their deepest fears. Can Melanie surrender her everything to Vanessa, or will old wounds prove too great?

    That, and the fact she’s hopelessly in love with her best friend Leah. When Leah needs help extricating herself from an awkward one-night stand, Ashley runs to the rescue. An innocent touch turns electric, and Ashley has to come clean about her charade or risk losing the woman she loves.Words: 14,600

    Her greed made me a slave and circumstance left me with no way to escape.Trapped, the only way I could silence the nightmares driving me to insanity was to wrap them in color, hold them with shadow, and stitch them to negative space with line.But no matter how bright the pigments, no one could see my confession.Except for Roy Callahan.I thought he was just another nameless one-night stand in a long line of many. But I was wrong. Roy could see past the façade of my life and through the veil color over the canvas. He could see what the world couldn’t.And with him I’d find the courage to tell the truth about the boy.The boy who kissed me.The boy who loved me.The boy whose name I couldn’t remember.

    When she moves to a cabin in the Santa Cruz Mountains to study for the bar exam, crossing paths with her intriguing neighbor leads to a journey of sexual awakening and self-discovery that wasn’t part of the plan.Landscaper and handsome butch top Chris Brent has a well-deserved reputation as a considerate lover. Avoiding relationships with all their emotional messiness, she indulges in her favorite pastime at sex parties and with casual lovers. She enthusiastically agrees to initiate her cute neighbor to ways of sexual pleasure.Sex was the deal. Falling in love ruins everything. Or does it?

    Coming back home to America, Celeste is glad to see the end of the peril she has been in—or so she thinks. Danger seems to follow Celeste and she finds it in the shape of Amy. What Celeste feels for Amy scares her more than anything she has faced in war zones. Amy has the same feelings, but is in denial and vows to marry Josh, Celeste’s twin brother, no matter what. When fate brings them together again, will they give in to their mutual attraction or will they once again deny what they feel.

    Everything changes abruptly when her brother’s and sister-in-law’s deaths devastate her and her family. Left responsible for her young niece and nephew, Anna finds herself dumped and alone in Melbourne, a city she doesn’t even like. She tries to navigate the shock of looking after two children battling with their grief while managing her own. Filled with self-doubt, Anna feels as if she’s making a mess of the entire thing, especially when she collides with a long-legged stranger. Anna barely has time to brush her teeth in the morning, let alone to date a woman—least of all one who has no idea about the two kids under her care. Just when Anna finally starts to feel as if she’s getting some control of the situation, the biggest fight begins and Anna really has to step up once and for all.

    Eleanor startles them by insisting that they take turns reading aloud from Eleanor’s diaries of her life with Daphne DeMonet. Only after the diaries are read in her presence will Eleanor proceed with a full interview.Once Eleanor discovers that Bailey and Chelsea are ex partners, the diary readings take on a new meaning for her. Can they learn from the mistakes she and Daphne made as young lovers? Will that knowledge bring Bailey and Chelsea together again? Or is it too late to mend their broken relationship?79,000 words

    Niles and Rylan have been together a long time. They have great sex, they are deeply intimate, and Rylan never holds back on displaying his affection. As far as their family and friends are concerned, they’re an established couple, and yet, after three years of being “together”, Niles is still unsure if they’re actually in a relationship.As their sexual intensity reaches a dangerous tipping point, Niles must find the courage to articulate how he feels in order to try and keep the only thing he has ever wanted. Emotional and compelling, It’s Like This is a must-read for true romantics.

    He was kidnapped as a young boy, and his parents abandoned him after his newsworthy return. He bounced from foster home to facility and back. Now an adult, ghosts from his past continue to haunt him. After a suicide attempt, he is locked away in Hartfield so that people can make him tune in to emotions he has tried to bury. Hunter Morgan had the kind of love that spans ages. But the stress of college and adulthood became too much to handle, and the love of Hunter’s life turned to drugs. After he overdoses, Hunter finds himself soaring out of control on the same miserable path. His brother finds him and calls an ambulance, and the sister Hunter would rather not have calls it a suicide attempt, landing Hunter in Hartfield. Finding love isn’t easy, but it can happen under the most dire circumstances. Together Hunter and Riley may be able to grow from their pain. But they will need to learn to live for themselves, letting love come second.

    Janet ran away from forbidden love 15 years ago. She did what her parents wanted, married the boy who got her pregnant and became a mom. Now a working single parent struggling to take care of her father and a teenage boy, she is still trying to do the right thing and keep everyone happy while denying her own true desire.It’s only when her boy gets in trouble with the law that she realizes that she can’t do it alone. Everyone needs love and to feel desire. When Officer Susan Carter reenters her life, will she take the safe way out or risk everything to experience the heart-melting passion she had so long ago?HER KISS is a short story by author Willow Hawke and contains sexual themes. It is not intended for readers under the age of 21.

    Taylor doesn’t talk – to anyone. When Jordan’s curiosity about the athlete overpowers her predisposition to being guarded, the two strike up an unlikely romance. In the midst of desolation left by being disowned and forbidden from seeing her little brother, Jordan finds that sometimes the biggest risks reap the greatest rewards.

    An honors student at her old school, she is put into remedial classes, spit on and tormented daily.Linda Hairston is the daughter of one of the town's most vocal opponents of school integration. She has been taught all her life that the races should be kept separate but equal.Forced to work together on a school project, Sarah and Linda must confront harsh truths about race, power and how they really feel about one another.Boldly realistic and emotionally compelling, Lies We Tell Ourselves is a brave and stunning novel about finding truth amid the lies, and finding your voice even when others are determined to silence it.