Contemporary Books

Josie Lockner scores big when she’s awarded a summer artist-in-residence in the small beach town of Goda, Massachusetts. The Wellingtons are the perfect host family and Revere Estates the best backdrop. She’s more than ready to capture the beauty of nature with her pencils and brushes. Falling for the Wellingtons’ quiet neighbor, Olivia Monteclair isn’t in the picture, but just because it won’t last forever doesn’t mean she can’t have some fun. 

Olivia’s peaceful days are interrupted when Josie, with her infectious grin and sunny disposition, crowds her space. Was Olivia ever that young or that hungry about life? She isn’t in the market, not after her devastating heartbreak, but there’s something about Josie that brings out a lightness she’s missing from her life. 

Both cherish the time spent together, but when the summer ends and their temporary romance melts into the real deal, reality gets complicated.

Venture capitalist Jude Benoit is named Majesty of Artemis, New Orleans’s premier lesbian Mardi Gras parade and ball, and enlists the expertise of private dance instructor Gabriella Viard to save her from making a fool of herself. Jude can follow the steps, but what happens when Gabby challenges her to lead with her heart?

Follow Her Lead was originally published in Opposites Attract: Butch/Femme Romance Novellas (Bold Strokes Books, 2021).

Dylan Fleming is a confident and capable woman in every way except the stereotypical ways her ex-girlfriend thought she should be. When her insecurities get the better of her and she fumbles on a date with beautiful auto mechanic Carrie Grice, Dylan has to let go of the past. Can she accept that she is loved just as she is?

Just as You Are was originally published in Opposites Attract: Butch/Femme Romance Novellas (Bold Strokes Books, 2021).

Sweet Spot—the place on the face of a wave where a surfer can catch the greatest speed.

Standing up on the wave is hard enough, but finding the sweet spot is almost impossible when you’re battling riptides. Shia Turning has been battling riptides her entire life and she knows she’s close to finding the sweet spot. Having spent most of her life in the foster system, she’s worked hard to make something of herself in the pro-surfing world. And living at Oceana has given her the community and support she needs to take her there. But when the mother she never expected to hear from again shows up, everything she’s worked for is threatened.

As the property manager for Oceana, her grandfather’s mobile home park, Rose Monroe is anxious to make him proud even at the expense of her own dreams. When Shia and Rose meet, their attraction threatens to distract them from their goals—something neither of them is willing to risk. What they don’t seem to know is that riptides often create the perfect waves. Will they be willing to take a chance of a lifetime to find the sweet spot that can take them to a happily ever after?

A private resort on a tropical island, a feisty old chief, and a kleptomaniac pet pig bring Suzanne and Allie together for unexpected love.

Heiress Suzanne Bennett was making the wrong kind of name for herself as her hard-and-fast lifestyle played out in the tabloids. But one fateful night upends everything, and she trades the glitz and glamour of LA for an unassuming life on her private Bahama Island. She changes her name, builds a small resort, and hopes her new identity will keep the paparazzi, and the lure of her old life, at bay.

Allie Aukai was born on the other side of the tracks and never had many opportunities or luxuries. When her father’s dying wish sends her to the Bahamas to fulfill an unconventional request, Allie’s life takes a surprising turn. The mystery Allie uncovers leads to misguided betrayal and reminds Suzanne and Allie of the unexpected power of love.

Josie Sanchez is the head winemaker at Cadieux Vineyards, and all her dreams ride on the upcoming crush. If she can produce a gold medal pinot noir, the owner will give Josie her own wine label. Finally. She’s worked years for this opportunity, and nothing will stand in her way. Not even Mac, the owner’s annoyingly beautiful niece who doesn’t know anything about wine, but whom Josie’s forced to hire as her only harvest intern. Josie can’t imagine a more ill-suited partner for the most important harvest of her life.

After a lackluster start in her marketing career, Mackenzie Layton is eager to jump headfirst into the illustrious Willamette Valley wine industry. Thanks to her uncle, her first harvest job is with one of the most prestigious wineries in town. But when she meets Josie, it’s clear her presence is a nuisance, even if she does occasionally catch Josie’s gaze lingering on her. Mac has a proclivity for misadventure, and she is unable to resist the one person who is off limits.

This crush will be a messy one, indeed.

As a kid, Adley Purcell dreamed of owning Get the Scoop ice cream shop, and now that she does, she’s worried it could go under. She’s trying to focus on her love of ice cream, but she’s edgy and stressed. And how the hell she’ll survive national dessert chain Sweet Heaven opening a store less than two blocks away, she has no idea. Life is a rocky road right now, and there’s only one cherry on top: the sexy business suit-clad blonde at happy hour.

Sabrina James doesn’t stay still. Sweet Heaven takes her all over the country, opening new stores, then moving on to the next city. Smooth and simple. Until the gorgeous woman she meets at a bar who leaves her craving more turns out to own the small-town ice cream shop barely two blocks from the new Sweet Heaven location. Could life get any more complicated?

Have Adley and Sabrina bitten off more than they can chew, or will they swirl the salty with the sweet? In love and ice cream there’s only one rule: When life gives you heavenly hash, eat dessert first.

Crab fishing is in Remy Miller’s blood. Millers have been fishing off the coast of Oregon for three generations, so she’s heartbroken when her dad refuses to give her the chance to prove she can captain her own boat.

When Julia Clayman, the beautiful daughter of a rival crabbing family, offers Remy a chance to run her own boat for the Claymans, she knows the decision could deepen the long-standing rift between their families.

All Remy wants is the chance to live her dream, and the more time she spends with Julia the more her dreams include the chance for a happily ever after. But blood is thicker than the waters lapping the Oregon coastline, and old rivalries may mean Remy loses her career and her heart.

Will love overcome the odds for this modern-day Romeo and Juliet?

Lily Andrews is only eleven years old when she boards a small aircraft with her mother, destined for the beautiful gulf coast of Texas. Tragedy strikes midflight when the plane goes down deep in the wild Ozarks, and Lily must survive in the unforgiving forest. With the help of a gruff mountain man and his dog, along with Lily’s intense grit and determination, she thrives in her private oasis. When a simple mistake forces her to make a life-altering decision, she is ripped from her mountain paradise and thrust into civilization once more.

Jessica Velasquez has never recovered from the death of her father. The only way she can get closure is to find out what really happened when his plane went down. When a stranger races out of the wilderness with her father’s belongings eight years after his plane went down, Jessica hopes the woman will have the answers she’s looking for.

Between Lily’s sheltered life and Jessica’s reservations about letting anyone close, both are ill-equipped for a relationship, but can they deny their true feelings?

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.