Forever's Promise

By Missouri Vaun

Marriage of Convenience/Fake Relationship

Wesley Holden migrated west with her brother, Clyde, to build a life neither of them could hope for back East. To share the homestead claim, Wesley had to disguise herself as a man. As brothers, Wesley and Clyde began to carve a new home out of the Kansas frontier. When Clyde is unexpectedly killed, Wes is left alone with the farm, determined to carry on, but more isolated as the days pass.

Romanced and abandoned, Charlotte Rose embarks on a journey west in search of a better life. But the trip is cut short by disaster. Even worse, Charlotte can’t return home because she discovers after arriving in Kansas that she’s pregnant. Her only hope is to find a frontier husband. Desperate and out of options, Charlotte is resolved to win Wes’s heart.

Allowing Charlotte to get too close is dangerous. If Wes marries, she’ll have to reveal her secret and risk everything for a woman who might never really love her, but resisting Charlotte is easier said than done.

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The Accidental Bride

By Jane Walsh

Marriage of Convenience/Fake Relationship
Close Quarters
International Setting
The Spinsters of Inverley | Book 2

Miss Grace Linfield has resigned herself to life as a lady’s companion as the only path to respectable security. At least it allows her to visit the beautiful seaside town of Inverley with her charge, Lady Edith. Passions flare when botanist Miss Thea Martin whirls into town—and into Grace’s bed for a scandalous night of passion. 

Disaster looms when Lady Edith elopes with Thea’s brother. Prim-and-proper Grace and wildly outrageous Thea each wish it was anyone else by their side as they race after them to Gretna Green. In the midst of attempting to stop a wedding that will incur the wrath of both their families, they discover their passion for each other is too strong to resist.

A chance at a real relationship was the last thing either of them expected. When Grace and Thea return from Scotland, will the honeymoon be over? Or will love finally be in full bloom?

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To Meet Again

By Kadyan

London, 1938. Evelyn has only one dream: to become a singer. Fleeing an arranged marriage, she leaves for Singapore in pursuit of a future brighter than the conventions of society could offer her.

Evelyn performs in a Chinatown cabaret to survive, where she meets Joan, a young Australian doctor and avid fan. Little by little, Evelyn and Joan form a close bond that leads to a love stronger than either has ever known.

But history has other plans. The Japanese army invades Singapore, and Evelyn must flee while Joan refuses to leave her patients. From prison camps to the deep jungle, through encounters and tragedies, Evelyn and Joan struggle to survive and to find each other again.

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Enigma

By Suzie Clarke

World War II
Workplace Romance
Psychological Thriller
Coming Out

There is a time for courage, a time for sacrifice, a time for love.

In the fall of 1941, the United States Office of American Defense summons agent Polly Silvester to find an elusive spy. Critical information about aircraft designs, production numbers, and flight schedules vital to America’s safety are being stolen from the Portage Aircraft plant in Barberton, Ohio. And the spy is most likely a woman. Polly’s orders are simple. Find the spy—whatever the cost or sacrifice.

Polly has taken an oath to protect and serve her country, but the spy she’s hunting may be the love of her life. Desperate times and impossible choices skew the line between what’s right and what matters. Can Polly do what she must when everything is on the line?

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Hot Keys

By R.E. Ward

Magic
New York City
Music
Big City
Enemies to Lovers Romance
Bisexual
People of Color
Friends & Community
Gangsters

In 1920s New York City, it’s hard on the streets, but Betty May Dewitt and her best friend, Jack Norval, are determined to make their Tin Pan Alley dreams come true. Fate leads them to a speakeasy called the Trespass Inn, where people play fast and loose and criminals run the show. Betty and Jack are whisked into the glamorous and dangerous world of Prohibition rum-running, but fate has more in store for them than adventure. Romance blooms when a psychic medium’s magic dazzles Betty, and a gangster infuriates and fascinates Jack all at the same time. But danger lurks in every alley, and with the Trespass Inn under attack by rival gangsters, Betty and Jack will have to fight—not only for their hearts and dreams, but for their lives.

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Defiant Hearts

By Lee Lynch

Lawyers
Food
Magic
Disability
Small Town Romances
Virgins/First Love
Workplace Romance
Animals 
Blue Collar
Big City
Financial gap/Class disparity
New York City
Coming Out
People of Color
Actors/Artists
Vacation
Friends & Community
Age Gap
Multicultural 
Firefighters
Friends to Lovers Romance

Gathered for the first time in one collection, these short stories from Lee Lynch represent a quarter century of passionate portrayals of lesbian women. Lynch chronicles the lives of old women who fall in love, a Black firefighter seeking her place in the feminist community, bar dykes unwilling to back down, the denizens of lesbian-owned Café Femmes, and Henny—who runs an urban fruit stand while regaling her baby butch assistants with tales from her life. Iconic characters from Lynch's novels also make an appearance: Frenchy Tonneau from The Swashbuckler and Annie Heaphy from Toothpick House.

Lee Lynch’s work is considered among the classics and a cornerstone in the large and permanent foundation of lesbian literature.

 

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The Inconvenient Heiress

By Jane Walsh

The Spinsters of Inverley | Book 1
International Setting
Friends to Lovers Romance
Small Town Romances

In the quiet seaside town of Inverley, nothing exciting ever happens to gently bred spinsters like Miss Arabella Seton. Content with her watercolor paintings and her cats, she is confident that no one suspects her forbidden and unrequited passion for her best friend, Caroline. 

The eldest in a family of six children, Miss Caroline Reeve has the unenviable task of shepherding her siblings into adulthood with little coin and even less patience. The only benefit to being an eternal chaperone is that no one ever expects her to marry.

When the Reeve family inherits an unexpected fortune, Caroline must take her rightful place in high society. Fortune hunters abound, and it is up to Arabella to save her from their snares and convince her that love has been in front of her all along. 

Can the heiress and the spinster discover an unconventional love outside of the Marriage Mart?

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Worth a Fortune

By Sam Ledel

Reunion Romance
Workplace Romance
Financial gap/Class disparity
New York City

In the aftermath of the Second World War, Harriet Browning has thrived as the heiress to a lumber fortune, living lavishly among New York’s elite. Her father’s death reveals unexpected financial woes, and Harriet is left to face a sudden, harsh reality.

Ava Clark threw herself into the war effort when her brothers enlisted. Suddenly, the war is over, and she’s without a cause and a job. An ad for a personal secretary from Harriet—the woman she loved more than a decade before—surprises Ava and proves impossible to resist. 

Harriet only wanted an assistant for a few months—someone to help sort out the mess her parents left. She never bargained for the woman who got away to show up at her front door.

 

Starred review from Publishers Weekly: "The romance burns tantalizingly slowly as Ledel takes the time to thoroughly explore the ways her well-shaded heroines both complement and clash with each other. This remarkable emotional maturity does not come at the expense of heat, however; when the love scenes come, they steam up the pages. It’s subtle, lovely, and stirring."

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Her Duchess to Desire

By Jane Walsh

International Setting

Anne, the Duchess of Hawthorne, is tired of her reputation as the Ice Queen of London society. She resolves to leave behind her cold-hearted marriage to the duke—and to find a woman to keep her warm at night. Perhaps the dashing designer she hires to transform her Mayfair estate can also help her to transform her life.

Letitia Barrow has big dreams of running her own interior design business. The opportunity to reinvent the Hawthorne estate is the job that will finally establish her as a leading designer among the ton. The duchess might make her weak in the knees, but giving in to temptation could risk everything she’s working so hard to build.

The designer and the duchess embark on an affair, with renovations to the house in full swing—and the renovations in their hearts well underway. Then, unexpectedly, the duke returns home and their feelings are tested. Can London’s hottest new designer melt the Ice Queen forever?

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Wildflower Words

By Sam Ledel

Food
Blue Collar
Small Town Romances

Hazel Thompson prides herself on being a beacon of earnest goodwill in Cedar Springs, Utah, where she works alongside her mother as a cook in a raucous restaurant and dance hall. But lately, Hazel wonders if she hasn’t clipped her own wings by always putting her family and neighbors first, leaving no time for her own wants.

Lida Jones, the daughter of roving Eastern European immigrants, treks West with her father in search of a better life on the rapidly developing American frontier. To help make money, Lida takes a job in the Pack Horse Library and gets to know the rowdy, tough residents of Cedar Springs. Getting close to anyone is a waste of time, though. She won’t be here long.

Hazel and Lida can’t help but get to know one another as Lida travels through on her route. When Lida’s father begins to struggle at work, Lida fears she’ll have to leave Cedar Springs—and Hazel—behind. But how can she when, finally, she’s found a place, and a person, to call home?

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A Fairer Tomorrow

By Kathleen Knowles

Military
People of Color

Maddie Weeks and Gerry Stern leave their homes when Uncle Sam calls for help winning the Second World War. Maddie is desperate to escape the economic and racial oppression of the Jim Crow South. Gerry doesn’t see a future for herself as a farmer’s wife in California’s Central Valley. When they meet by chance in a blues club in San Francisco, not even their differences can prevent them falling in love.

But love doesn’t solve every problem as Maddie and Gerry struggle to hold on to their identities and livelihoods as the war comes to an end and their independence is threatened. The war brought them together, but it could wind up destroying everything, including their future.

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Beulah Lodge

By Cathy Dunnell

International Setting
Virgins/First Love
Coming Out
Financial gap/Class disparity

It’s 1874, and newly betrothed Ruth Mallowes arrives at Beulah Lodge, her austerely religious aunt Beatrice’s crumbling, isolated house in the North Yorkshire moors. Ruth plans to join her fiancé when he has established his mission in India, but what was supposed to be only a temporary stay will change her life forever.

Eliza Chambers has survived on the streets of Victorian London any way she can, and her future depends on her keeping her housemaid position at Beulah Lodge, even if it means enduring the cruelty of her mistress. Her growing attraction to Ruth, and the affection Ruth returns, could cost her everything.

When Ruth and Eliza’s chance at happiness is threatened by tragedy, Ruth is forced to confront the ultimate choice: her duty or her heart.

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The Secrets of Willowra

By Kadyan

Children / Families
Virgins/First Love
Coming Out
Small Town Romances

A family saga of three women, their homestead called Willowra in the Australian outback, and the secrets that link them all.

Gabrielle fled Willowra for Sydney and the freedom to live as an out lesbian, leaving behind all those she loved, especially her cherished grandmother, Victoria. Years later, Gabrielle and her partner, Tess, return to Willowra when Victoria instigates a family gathering to reveal the long-kept secret surrounding her parents, Jason and Maggie, and her own tumultuous past.

As stories and secrets are uncovered, the threads of the past weave together the lives of Jason, Victoria, and Gabrielle and illuminate a new path forward for those who share the legacy of Willowra.

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Late City Summer

By Jeanette Bears

It’s the summer of 1946 and Emily Stanton is returning to New York City for her wedding. After graduating from college and having her life planned out for her, she’s ready to walk down the aisle to the perfect man. That is until she’s face-to-face again with the woman who defined her love for the city and so much more over one long summer four years earlier.

Kate Alessi has made a life photographing the times and people around her, while trying to forget the woman who came to town for a few short months and turned her world upside down. When she ends up as the photographer for Emily’s coming wedding, she and Emily will have to navigate how to follow their dreams while realizing the ones that were lost along the way—the biggest of those dreams being their love for one another.

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Her Countess to Cherish

By Jane Walsh

International Setting

Miss Beatrice Everson has managed to marry the Earl of Sinclair, solving her family’s disastrous financial problems for good. She should be the happiest woman in London, but a less than satisfactory wedding night has Beatrice fleeing her husband and planning an affair with the dashing Mr. George Smith.

Lady Georgina Smith has a secret she must keep at all costs: she divides her time running a bluestocking salon as Gina, and carousing across London as George. Captivated by Beatrice’s wit and charm, Georgina realizes that her secret is in danger—along with her heart.

When Beatrice discovers that her wedding night has resulted in an unexpected pregnancy, she sees an opportunity to have it all by divorcing Sinclair and marrying George. However, Georgina isn’t sure that a lifetime spent as a man is staying true to herself. Beatrice and Georgina must risk giving up their secrets to finally have their heart’s desire. But is the risk too great to take?

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The Fiend in the Fog

By Jess Faraday

Magic
International Setting

1885, East London

Abigail and Gideon are under siege. Noxious fogs have been bringing their clinic waves of indigent patients with inexplicable symptoms, telling wild tales of a demonic presence in the fog. If that’s not enough, someone wants the clinic for themselves, and they’re using the force of law to get it.

On the other side of town, heiress Meg Eisenstadt and her brother Nat live a life of well-intentioned aimless luxury. She dabbles in social justice causes and he pursues alchemy. And in a secret lab in the depths of Whitechapel, disgraced physician Jin Wylie attempts to rebuild his shattered life by performing dubious research for a shadowy cabal.

They live in separate worlds on different trajectories until the mysterious fiend in the fog brings them together.

Abigail and Meg discover a shared passion for social justice, and for one another. But where does that leave her plans with Gideon? And what of the future of the clinic? Gideon has his own monster. Can he keep it in check without Abigail’s constant presence? Does Dr. Wylie’s research hold the solution to Gideon’s problems, or is it the cause of them? And could Nat’s own dabblings be the key to defeating the vicious killer in the fog?

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Measure of Devotion

By CF Frizzell

Disguised as her late brother Cooper in the 19th Massachusetts Volunteers, Catherine Samson fights to quell the Confederate rebellion and preserve her nation’s unity. She believes the Constitution’s declarations of equality and freedom apply to everyone, and dreams that someday they will extend to her own pursuit of happiness with a woman.

Helping her father raise her siblings on their Gettysburg farm, Sophie Bauer likewise clings to hope for a woman to love, but when she serves as an army aid and meets Cooper, Sophie is confounded by her growing feelings for him. Catherine, meanwhile, wrestles with her deception and the disguise she must maintain. Disclosure could not only repulse Sophie but send Catherine home a social outcast.

When the battle of Gettysburg engulfs the Bauer farm, Catherine and Sophie learn far more about themselves than they ever expected. But first there’s a war—and hearts—to be won.

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Masquerade

By Anne Shade

Coming Out
People of Color

Harlem, New York, 1925 is a mecca of cultural and creative freedom, where masquerade drag balls are all the rage and the music, dancing, and loose prohibition laws unite people from all walks of life.

Dinah Hampton came to Harlem for better opportunities for her family but ends up working as a nightclub chorus girl to help make ends meet. Among the nightlife and danger, she finds love in the most unexpected way.

When a scandal rocks Celine Montre’s family and sends them fleeing from New Orleans to Harlem, the gorgeous Dinah Hampton helps her to discover that there’s more to life, and love, than she ever thought possible.

When a notorious gangster sets her sights set on seducing Celine, Dinah and Celine are forced to risk their hearts, and lives, for love.

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