Contemporary Books

Competitive barrel racer Lacey Bishop has worked her way from homelessness and poverty to needing only a few points to qualify for the National Rodeo Finals when her only horse suffers a career-ending injury. Without the money to buy a new horse, Lacey has no choice but to trust an offer from Two Rivers Ranch to lease one of their best barrel-racing horses.

Horse trainer Wil Rivers is working hard to get her family’s ranch profitable again after the coronavirus pandemic shut them down for more than a year. Her best chance to save the ranch from foreclosure is a million-dollar-plus offer to buy the one barrel horse that could defeat the mare she’s leased to the bewitching Lacey Bishop.

When Lacey discovers Wil’s plan to sell the Two Rivers “money” horse to her fiercest competitor, she sees their chance for a future together and her chance to qualify for the finals disappearing in the rodeo arena dust.

Can data predict who we fall in love with? Reality television is here to find out, and thousands of viewers are along for the ride. Two total strangers, matched by the world's most advanced romance algorithm, meet at the altar to say, "I do." Their every awkward moment and moonlit kiss are filmed to uncover if happily ever after is a simple perfect data match.

When executive producer Annie Jackson convinces Nicole Hart to leave her prestigious job and write and refine the romance algorithm for I Do, I Don't, their success is almost guaranteed. So, when one of the brides backs out days before the wedding, Annie panics and Nicole steps in as the algorithm's second choice to get married on national TV, or else.

Nicole can't believe her bad luck when the backup turns out to be...her. To test the system she designed, she used her own data, but she sure as hell didn't expect to be hauled to the altar against her better judgment. Her algorithm is flawless, but her growing feelings for Annie could destroy all her credibility and sink the show.

Makeup artist Lane Donnelly has been planning to be her best friend Darcy’s maid of honor since her engagement. So, when Darcy chooses her sister instead, Lane is hurt and disappointed. Just to add fuel to the fire, Darcy has picked the wedding planner of Lane’s nightmares.

Helen Trent isn’t thrilled that her mother has asked her to take on a wedding last minute. In addition, the bride’s makeup artist keeps getting in the way. Helen has met Lane at a gazillion weddings, and they clashed every single time, so why should this wedding be any different?

Lane and Helen can’t stand each other, and all the marriage vibes in the world won’t make them admit their feelings are a lot more complicated. When the matron of honor throws their plans into a chaotic mess, Lane and Helen must set aside their differences and work together to ensure Darcy gets the wedding of her dreams, and maybe make a few of their own dreams come true in the process.

Grace Cook left her small hometown after high school with a free ride to college and a pulverized heart. Now, years later her father’s death brings her back to town. As long as she can settle his affairs quickly and avoid interacting with Bonnie Whitlock, maybe she’ll survive the trip.

Bonnie was at Mr. Cook’s bedside the night he died. She knows Grace Cook,the only woman she’s ever loved, will be back in town for the funeral. Since Bonnie was the cause of Grace leaving all those years ago, the least she can do is let Grace mourn her father in peace.

However, distance is impossible when the will is read and the Cook family house is left jointly to Bonnie and Grace. A cruel joke or a second chance at a love that was always meant to be? To find out, Bonnie and Grace must forgive their past selves and embrace the future together in the town that built them.

What happens when you mix a suddenly single small-town hairstylist with her BFF and all-you-can-eat ice cream? A short story from award-winning and bestselling author Georgia Beers, of course.

Scottie Templeton’s head is spinning from her recent heartbreak. How dare Penelope go and fall in love with someone else? In a big, loud, obnoxious way, love sucks elephant balls and she’s doing the rational thing and drowning her sorrows in ice cream. Lucky for her, Scottie’s BFF Adley just happens to own Get the Scoop, the best ice cream shop ever.

Join Scottie, Adley, and their delicious mystery-flavor ice cream in this quick read introducing the characters from Dance With Me and Peaches and Cream.

Tally Dewilde forges her own path when she chooses to go into veterinary medicine and ignores her mother’s desire that she establish a boutique clinic for the pets of the wealthy in Manhattan. When she arrives in upstate rural New York to join Sydney Valentine’s animal  hospital, the break with her old life seems complete on every level. Until an unwelcome reminder of the painful past arrives at her door in the form of Roman Ashcroft. 

Rome Ashcroft was forced to give up her dreams when accused of a crime that cost her everything. She intends to start a new life as a PA at the Rivers community hospital, until a simple act of kindness throws all her plans into question. Her past, it seems, is not so easily forgotten when fate brings her and Tally Dewilde together—along with an attraction neither welcomes.

Taylor Sparks is sick of swiping left or right. Online dating, where a casual glance at a profile forms your opinion of a person, has no sparkle. She has a business idea to make dating special—the Regency Romance Club. Guests fall in love in the regency style, with grand balls and regency pursuits, while enjoying some of Britain’s most magnificent stately homes.

Jaq Bailey is mourning the death of her best friend. She wants to feel every inch of the pain and guilt she deserves for their death. A professor of early modern history, Bailey has sequestered herself in her study writing books and articles. Life is lonely and unchanging, until her publishers ask her to meet with Taylor, who is looking for a historian to help with her new business.

As they start working together, Taylor’s bubbly personality and Bailey’s guilty angst clash, but as Bailey gets dragged into the magical, regency romance world, Taylor’s sparkle brings hope back into her life. They’re working to help others find their true loves, but they just might find it for themselves too.

Thomas Simmons nearly died when a rocket-propelled grenade threw him ass over teakettle while flanking insurgents in Mosul, ending his military career. Recovery’s rough and gives him all the time in the world to face the question he’s avoided all his life: Why does he feel jealous of women?

The more Thomas searches, the closer he comes to an answer: gender dysphoria.

Seeking therapy as a road through his confusion, Thomas embarks on an unexpected journey as Emily is born. Emily’s route to self-acceptance, love with another woman, and community are only some of the challenges that began the day her world exploded.

Reader Advisory: Transphobic violence.

Robyn Moore is a firefighter by trade and a lesbian lothario by choice. After losing her father and witnessing her mother’s broken heart, Robyn learns that loving someone never ends well. Spending her days trying to honor her father’s legacy isn’t easy, and the best way to blow off steam is by falling into bed with whomever happens to be available. 

Lexi Lynch is an artist with a passion for painting. That is, until real life kicked in and bills piled up. To prove to her overprotective father that her chosen profession isn’t a mistake, Lexi takes on commissions that pay well but bore her to tears. Missed deadline after deadline has her career in jeopardy with the only bright spot in her days being her gorgeous friend and roommate, Robyn.

As Lexi leans on Robyn for support, more than just a creative spark flares between them. Their close proximity may ignite a fiery romance or send their friendship up in flames.

Wealthy tech whiz Sena Abrigo has deep roots in the Arizona-Mexico borderlands. But when she marches into Owen Station on red-soled stilettos like she just walked off the cover of Vogue, she plans to pull this little town into the future. And she is used to getting exactly what she wants. First, she has to get past Hazel Butler.

The proud granddaughter of Irish immigrant miners, Hazel loves her job at the library, her spooky cat, her opinionated friends, vintage Mary Janes, and the little house she inherited. And she is determined to protect the historic legacy of her town.

In spite of their differences and because of them, sparks fly and love isn’t far behind. But Sena’s arrival doesn’t just turn Hazel’s life upside down in the most wonderful of ways. It sets off an explosive series of events exposing an ugly truth lying just beneath the town’s surface, threatening their chance at love…and their lives.

Former army sergeant Seneca Twist has difficulty adjusting to civilian life after losing her brother in Afghanistan. She picks up her backpack and begins walking. Her travels take her to a boys’ ranch in Idaho where she meets residential psychologist Robyn Mason. Seneca and Robyn couldn’t be more different, and they can’t seem to agree on anything, but when Seneca decides to winter at the ranch, their shared values draw them together.

Robyn is determined to get to the bottom of the resignation and pain Seneca keeps locked inside, but the more Robyn learns and the closer they become, the more she can’t resist falling for Seneca. The warmth of the local community, the surrogate family they have created, and their feelings for each other mean everything, but will it be enough for Seneca to call the ranch home?

Asher Evans is living her dreams eight seconds at a time. She’s finally at the top of the rankings and headed for the National Finals Rodeo in Las Vegas, and she owes it all to the man who taught her everything, Silas Wilson.

Reagan Wilson vowed she’d never return to Louisiana. Her father, Silas, had been a world champion rodeo rider until an accident destroyed his career, then killed him. Now she’s interning at a sports clinic in New Orleans, and her first patient is Asher Evans. Seeing her childhood neighbor and teenage crush brings all those painful memories rushing back.

Asher and Reagan are from different worlds, even if they grew up side by side. Reagan doesn’t understand why anyone would risk their life for a title and belt buckle, and Asher doesn’t do safe and predictable. Falling in love makes no sense, but as the spark between them ignites they may have more in common than they think.

Cassie Burke never believed in second chances. If something didn’t work out, then it was never really meant for her. In the years following two heart-wrenching breakups, she kept her life simple. She’d dated when the opportunity arose but focused her energy on her career and best friends of over thirty years, Jenn and Maggie. Tight since their high school days in the 80s, they’ve weathered many storms. The most tempestuous being Deana, who had briefly joined their “pantheon” and stirred things up as only a beautiful lost soul can, testing their friendship and the strength of Cassie’s heart.

Now as Cassie, Jenn, and Maggie plan a celebration for their fiftieth birthdays, none of them are prepared for the whiplash changes their half-century mark year has in store. Least of all Cassie, who discovers a second chance with Deana might be just what her heart needs.

Reader advisory: References to homophobic violence/sexual assault.

Sam Phillips is going through the motions. She was happily married for thirty-four years when a car accident stole her wife and destroyed her perfectly planned future. Now, it’s all she can do to exist day by day. The one thing that keeps her going is her IT administration job at Walsh Software Design. All seems lost when software stability issues threaten her career, until a hotshot programmer struts into her world and makes Sam want to feel again.

Jennifer Delgado doesn’t do cold and snow, but when a fluke February wildfire in the Southwest means evacuating for the third time in two years, it’s time for a change and she accepts a contract job in Minnesota. The weather is nothing compared to the unexpected feelings she develops for Sam. Jennifer has no idea if she can mend Sam’s broken soul, but it’s never too late for starting over.

Is there anything worse than your I-don’t-do-commitment ex finally getting married? Not according to Scottie Templeton. Factor in living with her grandma, her rattletrap car, and never-ending job struggles, and Scottie’s stressed. When a friend suggests they take dance lessons to blow off steam, she figures why not? How was she supposed to know that the super talented, ridiculously hot dance instructor is Marisa Reyes, the woman her ex dumped for her? Or that her friend would break his foot, leaving her without a dance partner? Or that dancers without a partner get paired with the instructor?

Scottie’s ready to quit, but her grandma won’t let her. She has nothing to be ashamed of and the playing field is level now. So, Scottie vows to finish the lessons, even if it kills her. And if the sizzling chemistry she has with Marisa, to say nothing of the closeness of their dancing, is any indication, it just might.

Kelly James has been handed a raw deal in life. When she is forced to give up Bear, the cat she’d recently adopted, it’s just one more heartache to add to the pile. To the outside world, Logan Spencer has it all, great looks, a killer body, a loving family, and any woman she wants with a snap of her fingers. When Logan agrees to take Bear, she promises him a good home and Kelly plenty of opportunities to visit him. It isn’t long before Kelly looks forward to seeing Logan almost as much as Bear. Logan seems so far out of her league that Kelly is sure she’s headed for even more heartache if she doesn’t keep her feelings under wraps. But there is much more to Logan than meets the eye and something special in Kelly that Kelly doesn’t see in herself.

Opposites really can attract, and as Kelly and Logan work together to create a loving home for Bear, they just might find one for themselves as well.

Despite being the youngest partner at her firm, corporate attorney Davy Dugan is gunning for a recently vacant name partnership—it would mean finally having the power to make a real change in her conservative workplace. But eighty-hour workweeks don’t allow any time with her much younger half-sister, Tally, who doesn’t seem to need Davy in her life anyway.

Davy aims to get back into Tally’s good graces by throwing her a big birthday party, but that means dealing with Tally’s other half sister, Anna. To say Davy and Anna don’t get along is putting it mildly.

When a misunderstanding leads to her boss’s assumption that she and Anna are headed to the altar, Davy sees a way to leapfrog over the competition straight into one of the top spots at her firm. She just has to convince Anna to be her faux fiancée in order to do it and keep her growing attraction in check, of course.