Adrift

By Sam Ledel

Bisexual
California
Financial gap/Class disparity

Janeth Castro never expected to be the most prominent bootlegger in Southern California. After growing up in Central Mexico and falling into her role in the business, she’s torn between supporting her family values and living life on her own terms. The last thing she needs is a white woman protesting at her door.

Alice Covington is many things: a pickpocket, a drifter, and now a daughter of the Prohibition movement. Under her mother’s cruel eye, she follows the protests to a mysterious mansion by the sea. Determined to play by her parents’ rules—which include not falling in love with a woman—she is surprised to find the great house host to the most surprising, and attractive, rum smuggler in town.

Janeth and Alice are caught in storms that neither can seem to escape. Obligation, fear, and old guilt claw daily at their hearts, and their chance meeting leads to an unexpected romance that may be just what they need to find safe harbor.

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Heart of Stone

By Sam Ledel

Other Worlds
Financial gap/Class disparity
Magic
Royalty

Maeve’s quiet life of isolation has kept her from the outside world—as a gorgon, she has to protect herself and others. Princess Keeva Glantor is proud to be a member of Uterni’s royal family. But her mother’s health is failing quickly, and Keeva’s life of ease is turned upside down.

On a hunt for the key to keeping Uterni’s queen on the throne, Keeva meets Maeve. The princess is intrigued by the lone woman in the fen, but she has her own mission to complete and no time for anything, or anyone.

Maeve yearns to believe she has a chance at a regular life and is curious enough to push the boundaries of what she’s always known, revealing a deception that has kept her a pariah in a world she fears as much as it fears her.

Both must unravel lies and come face-to-face with the truth to create a future they can call their own, perhaps even one that includes each other.

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Worth a Fortune

By Sam Ledel

Reunion Romance
Financial gap/Class disparity
Workplace Romance
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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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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The Princess and the Odium

By Sam Ledel

The Odium Trilogy | Book 3
Royalty
Magic

The kingdom of Venostes is in upheaval.

Her sister’s cure in hand, Jastyn races home to find her family in chains. The Dark Fae has grown more powerful, and malevolent forces reign. When Jastyn is forced to work alongside the Diarmaids, things become even more complicated.

Aurelia is dragged back to Venostes to confront not only her brother’s killer, but her own parents’ dark past. As evil takes hold of her kingdom, Aurelia fights to destroy the Dark Fae and his masters once and for all.

Together, Jastyn and Aurelia face unimaginable dangers. Can they take back Venostes? Even more, can two people as different as they­—a princess and an Odium—be together? Are they destined for one another, as Aurelia hopes? Or, as Jastyn fears, are they simply impossible?

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Broken Reign

By Sam Ledel

Royalty
The Odium Trilogy | Book 2
Magic

Jastyn Cipher hated the royal family until she met Princess Aurelia. But the princess continuously surprises her, like when she unexpectedly joins Jastyn on a dangerous and harrowing journey to find the cure for Jastyn’s ailing sister.

Princess Aurelia Diarmaid knew she was meant for more than a life trapped inside the castle in the Kingdom of Venostes. But she never anticipated the price of her freedom would be the tragic death of her brother at the hand of their closest friend.

Fate brought Jastyn and Aurelia together, but their budding relationship is tested as obstacles both fae and human stand between them and the cure they desperately seek. Will their new love be enough to carry them through what lies ahead?

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Daughter of No One

By Sam Ledel

The Odium Trilogy | Book 1
Financial gap/Class disparity
Royalty
Magic
Other Worlds

Princess Aurelia’s dreams of a life full of love and adventure become even more alluring when she meets village outcast Jastyn. Aurelia refuses to deny her attraction even after an unexpected attack on her family catapults her into the center of the Kingdom of Venostes’s sinister intrigues.

Jastyn Cipher despises the royal family. After all, they are responsible for the exile of her mother and their life at the bottom of the social rung. She refuses to acknowledge her attraction to Princess Aurelia even when she is forced to seek help from the royal family when her sister falls gravely ill.

While the circumstances of birth might keep them apart, fate seems determined to bring them together. When Aurelia is kidnapped, she and Jastyn must face their enemies, fae and human, if they want to survive.

Book One of the Odium Trilogy

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Rocks and Stars

By Sam Ledel

Young Adult
Coming Out
College Life
Friends & Community

For Kyle Lindsay, life is simple. She comes from the ideal suburban family—two hardworking parents, a geeky younger brother, and a supportive best friend. But everything changes when Kyle starts having those kind of thoughts about her soccer teammate.

Things don’t get any easier when college starts and she heads off to play for a Division I squad. Figuring out how to pass her classes is one thing. Figuring out herself and the other girls on her team, a whole other ball game.

Kyle’s struggle to own who she is and what she really wants may end up landing her on the bench and without the woman of her dreams.

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