Book picks similar to
Chasing Shadows by Lila Bruce
paranormal
lgbt
mystery
romance
As the Crow Flies
Karen F. Williams - 2018
When she buys an old bookend that looks like her avian muse, her world begins to resemble the plots of her novels. Determined to find the mate to her bookend, Samantha and her antiquarian sidekick, Liz, go on a search leading them to the beautiful and wealthy Gwen Laraway. Samantha is instantly smitten, but the age difference has Gwen second-guessing Samantha’s interest. Meanwhile, Liz is crushing on Gwen’s niece, Isabel. As clueless as she is sensuous, Isabel hasn’t had a date since her high school prom ten years ago, and she’s petrified to act on her sudden attraction to Liz.Romance seems to be blooming all around, but problems arise when a restless ghost emerges from the ether to roam the dark corners of this haunting tale that explores the quantum mechanics of immortality.Words: 121,000Cover Artist: Melody PondGenres: Paranormal & Urban Fantasy / Romance Tags: Children / Families, Age Gap, Animals , Coming Out , Friends & Community, Ghosts, Small Town Romances, Virgins/First Love
Who'd Have Thought
G. Benson - 2017
And with over $200,000 on offer to tie the knot, no questions asked, cash-strapped ER nurse Hayden Pérez isn’t about to demand answers.The deal is only for a year of marriage, but Hayden’s going into it knowing it will be a nightmare. Sam is complicated, rude, kind of cold, and someone Hayden barely tolerates at work, let alone wants to marry. The hardest part is that Hayden has to convince everyone around them that they’re madly in love and that racing down the aisle together is all they’ve ever wanted. What could possibly go wrong?Words: 122,000
Good Spin
Monica McCallan - 2019
Not because she needs a girlfriend, but because she needs an easier way to come out to college friends that she hasn’t seen in five years. Her job is about controlling the narrative, and as she sees it, there's no reason why that can't extend to her personal life. When her next door neighbor ends up single a few weeks before the wedding, problem solver Emery realizes inviting Jordan along and faking romance for a week in Hawaii could be perfect for both of them. Jordan Davis doesn’t worry about much, especially what will happen tomorrow. Life’s too short to plan every second, and it usually doesn’t work out anyway. When Emery invites her on an all-expenses paid trip to Hawaii, it’s not a hard sell. She’ll get to enjoy a tropical vacation with one of her closest friends, and she’ll get to spend more time with Emery, away from Emery’s hectic work schedule back in Austin. But, there’s more to the request than Emery’s letting on, and there’s more to Jordan’s willingness to help than she wants to admit. It’s only eight days, but time passes differently when there’s nowhere to be and nowhere to hide. Faking it is all about the spin, but when lines begin to blur, both women have to decide if falling in love for real is worth the jump.
The Summer of Our Discontent
Robin Alexander - 2013
A few doors down, Rachel Chauvin is looking for the same, but her conservative style hasn’t yielded any keepers, either. Neither woman is willing to consider the other as a prospective partner, mostly because they’ve hated each other for nearly four decades.Change is in the air, and spring is giving way to The Summer of Our Discontent.
In Development
Rachel Spangler - 2018
Only, she's not a teenager anymore. Ready to challenge herself artistically and earn the part she's always dreamed of, she's forced to face the realization that in order to win the roles afforded to edgier actresses, she might first have to audition by playing someone edgier in her day-to-day life.Pop star Lila Wilder built a multimedia empire by always having her finger on the pulse of what's hot. However, as she struggles to produce her next smash hit record, she's finding it hard to keep her name in the public eye, and a string of tumultuous relationships with Hollywood boy-toys no longer captivates anyone's attention.Both women tentatively agree to a headline-grabbing fauxmance, with two simple rules: Always stick to the script, and never forget that on the stage of public perception, nothing is real. Can two women find love in a world of carefully crafted illusions, or will a successful charade mean the potential for something more gets left on the cutting-room floor?
Breakthrough
Kris Bryant - 2018
She’s worked too hard over the years to have it snatched away because of one tiny indiscretion that ended with a giant lawsuit. After five months of writing mind-numbing articles about current events, her boss agrees to let her get back to reporting on the rich and famous after one last story. A born and bred city girl, Kennedy is sent to cover fishing in Alaska, which has her feeling just like a fish out of water. When Brynn Coleman, director of Alaska’s Wildlife Rescue and Sanctuary, comes to her rescue time after time, Kennedy can’t help but lower her guard and open herself up to Brynn’s standoffish charm. Falling for the sexy ranger is one thing, but is the possibility of love worth giving up a career she’s always dreamed of?Cover Artist: Kris Bryant and Sheri HalalGenres: Contemporary / RomanceWords: 68,400
Everything She Needs
Cynthia Dane - 2021
When medical debt looms, she doesn’t hesitate to do whatever it takes.Even if it means putting herself – and her inexperience in love – up on the auction block.She only asks that nobody discover her biggest secret. The reason she’s gone gray at twenty and now has something to offer a would-be suitor looking for a month-long affair.ASTRID EVANSTwo years after the death of her husband, Astrid is used to the jokes and jeers from the peerage. Everyone knows she’s a trophy wife who received the inheritance of a lifetime.But it didn’t come without a price. Traumatized by her former experiences, Astrid now spends her nights subjecting herself to the same events that once changed her life.That’s how she discovers Tara, a young and naïve woman who will be chewed up by the same system that stole Astrid’s own youth.THE ONLY KEY… IS HYPOCRISYWhen Tara arrives at Evans Manor for a month of companionship, Astrid rejects their mutual attraction, if only to sleep better at night.Soon, she can’t sleep at all.The electric chemistry between Astrid and Tara is unlike anything to hit the quiet country manor. While Tara explores what it means to fall in love and indulge in her lifelong fantasies, Astrid confronts the nightmares that have turned her into the ice-cold queen of her fortress.Everything she needs is within grasp – yet she denies it.Until she can’t anymore, and all hell breaks loose.
The Wrong Woman
Jane Retzig - 2015
Kate is a rapidly rising star of the trauma therapy world - London based, shy, uptight, and with an air of aloofness that masks a deep sense of insecurity. When she has to relocate her 'Traumatology for the 21st Century' conference to Horton Hill 'Deluxe' Hotel and Conference Centre in the heart of industrial West Yorkshire, she is understandably horrified by the state of the place. Horton Hill is a mess. The car park looks like the surface of the moon. The pool is a health hazard. And the staff seem incapable of speaking intelligible English. When Naz, the hotel's 'Hospitality Assistant' finds Kate struggling with her luggage, she instantly stops to help. Bright, enthusiastic and hard-working, she is drawn to Kate's barely concealed vulnerability, and desperately wants to make a good impression on the harassed, but undeniably attractive conference organiser. Despite her natural caution, as the weekend progresses, Kate finds herself warming to Naz's kindness and obvious interest in her. But she is unaware that her carefully constructed life back in London is starting to unravel. And when she finds herself accused of a terrible crime, Kate discovers that sometimes friendship and love can be found in the most unlikely of places.
Iron & Velvet
Alexis Hall - 2013
I’m a paranormal private investigator, which is like a normal private investigator except—and stop me if you’re having trouble following this—more paranormal. This business comes with a few basic rules: don’t start drinking before noon, don’t get your partner killed, don’t sleep with the woman who killed him.Last year I broke all of them.The only rule I didn’t break was the one that said don’t work for vampires. But then a dead werewolf showed up outside the Soho shag palace of Julian Saint-Germain—a bloodsucking flibbertigibbet who’s spent the last eight centuries presiding over an ever-growing empire of booze, sex and hemoglobin. I shouldn’t have taken the job. The last thing I needed was to get caught in a supernatural smackdown between a werewolf pack and a vampire prince. Even if the vampire prince was dangerously my type. But what can I say? I was broke, I’m a sucker for a pretty face and I gave up on making good decisions a long time ago.This book is approximately 77,500 words
Undone
Bryce Oakley - 2019
The kind of songs that her rock band, The Shrikes, would never play. After their successful first album, the pressure for a perfect follow-up is crushing her creativity. Billie’s new songs and sound need an outlet, but she’s not just going to give them away to anyone.Vero De Luca is always in the limelight for making mistakes. The daughter of a famous musician, she’s trying to make smart decisions for the first time in her life as she sets off on a solo career after years in a popular all-female group. Though she knows she’s fully capable of writing her own songs, the label insists that her first single needs a major name behind it, not just her own.Both women think that working together sounds like a match made in hell. Though they can hardly stand each other, sparks start to fly when they’re writing the new single, “Undone.”Will they go up in flames or find a way to work together through the blaze?
Gnarled Hollow
Charlotte Greene - 2018
She doesn’t believe in the supernatural, but by the end of her first day, she knows something is wrong. The house has a disturbing habit of changing dimensions—and not just physical ones. Rooms go missing, doors close on their own, and time has a strange tendency to disappear. Emily is joined by other scholars, among them the beautiful art historian, Juniper Friend. Together they begin to research the history of the house, refusing to abandon their work despite the appearance of a mysterious, frightening presence. Spurred on by their desire to uncover the mysteries of Gnarled Hollow and its ghostly inhabitant, they’re determined to uncover the truth, even if it means risking their own lives.Cover Artist: Sheri HalalGenres: Crime & Mystery / Paranormal & Urban Fantasy / Romance
Atramentum
M.J. Duncan - 2016
Burned out on public accounting after too many sixteen-hour days, the allure of operating a small, independent bookstore is too tempting to resist, and Joss decides to walk away from the career she spent the last decade building to move back to the resort town high in the Rockies. Cupid strikes as she’s moving into her new place outside Sky and, contrary to popular belief, Cupid has four legs and a tail, hits like a linebacker, and answers to the name George. Before Joss can recover from being tackled by the Great Dane, she finds herself face to face with George's mom, Maeve Dylan. Joss is immediately smitten with her beautiful neighbor, but their conversations walk the line between friendliness and flirtation like it’s a tightrope, and Joss is reluctant to do anything that will risk their budding friendship. Thankfully for her, however, George doesn't give up so easily.
Killer Instinct: A Lesbian Thriller
Barbara Winkes - 2018
Joanna’s career ends after she kills a murderer and fails to cover her tracks. After serving a prison sentence, she struggles to pick up the pieces. The only person from her old life still keeping in touch is Vanessa, the Internal Affairs Inspector who was the lead investigator in Joanna’s case. Guilt and open questions define their tentative friendship. When there’s a new development in one of Joanna’s old cases, she can’t stay away, even at the cost of losing everything…including Rue, the woman she’s been falling for... Enough is enough...
In the Distance There Is Light
Harper Bliss - 2016
All they have left is each other.Sophie's life is turned upside down when her partner, Ian, dies in a tragic accident. The only one who can understand her devastation is Ian's stepmother, Dolores. Together, they try to make sense of their loss and rebuild their shattered lives. While their shared grief brings them closer, it also takes their relationship in an unexpected direction. Where does sorrow end and romance begin? Or has Ian’s death blurred the lines too much?If you love deeply emotional lesbian romance with a twinge of controversy, don’t miss this intense but hopeful novel by chart-topper Harper Bliss.
Relic
Anne Hagan - 2014
These days, she spends life on the road, moving from one case to another until one day when runs run right into the path of Sheriff Mel Crane. The feisty, sexy butch cop is as determined to uncover a counterfeiting ring in her county as Agent Rossi becomes to stop a stalker obsessed with Mel and hot for her company. Dana is under the added pressure of conducting an undercover investigation of her own with a tight deadline: finding and then stopping a ring of smugglers bringing high end designer knock-offs into the states.Could their cases be related? When repeated vicious attacks on Mel and on her home accelerate the danger for her and also their attraction to each other, they become desperate to find the truth and solve the two mysteries. Can they find a way to work together to resolve both cases while coming to terms with their growing feelings for one another? Can Dana move beyond her jilted lover past and find true happiness with a small town Sheriff?