Contemporary Books

Kennedy’s life is at a standstill. While on her therapist’s couch, she psychoanalyzes herself, her latest short-term failure of a relationship, and all of those mistakes she’s made along the way. On impulse, she books a getaway. Where better to find herself than a luminous gay-owned bed and breakfast on the coast of Maine?

Enter Logan, a stranger who approaches her in the lobby. Logan who’s oh-so-persuasive and determined to win her over. And maybe she does. Or maybe she’s beginning to, at least. But as the two find they’re inexplicably drawn to one another during an intoxicating and completely sublime few days secluded far away from reality, they’re also struggling with the relationship’s transience.

So It Went Like This is a candid and deeply personal exploration of fate, chosen family, and that dreamy vulnerability intrinsic in life’s uncertainties, as told in interwoven perspectives. It’s a portrait that seeks an answer to an enduring question: What if some were predestined and meant for one another?

Dani Raye has finally got her life back on track. After a messy divorce, Dani and her ex-wife, Catriona, have found a way to co-parent successfully. Most of the time. While Catriona has moved on, Dani is in no rush to find love again. She has her work and son, Jonah, and that’s all she needs to be happy.

Lucy Matthews is anything but happy. Her relationship is falling apart, and her son is taking out his frustrations on a boy in school. When Dani and Lucy are thrust together to sort out their children’s squabble, their priorities are clear—family first—despite the attraction neither expected.

All Maggie Hyde wants is to graduate from the School of Agriculture at Alder University and settle into her legacy by taking over Hyde Hill Farm, the apple orchard that’s been in her family for four generations. Well, okay, it’s not all she wants. Finding someone who loves her small hometown of East Sparrow, Georgia, is high on her list of priorities, too. Who wouldn’t want to fall in love and settle down?

Olivia Cypress, that’s who. A free-spirited traveler at heart, Olivia is enjoying life way too much to limit her options, especially by settling down in nowheresville East Sparrow. But when Olivia walks into Maggie’s horticulture class, she’s charmed by Maggie’s gorgeous smile. It’s fine, though. They can’t seem to agree on anything, especially farming.

Maggie is sure Olivia will leave, just like her mother did. Olivia is sure Maggie doesn’t need a 30-year life plan. Opposites don’t really attract, right?

Katie James didn’t plan on being a runaway bride. Twice. But when the gorgeous, accomplished, former love of her life, Emma Reed, reappears in her life the week of her wedding, will Katie risk everything for another chance with the woman who might be her soul mate?

Double Jeopardy was previously published in Still Not Over You: Romance Novellas (Bold Strokes Books, 2020).

Gina Henley doesn’t keep up with current events. She’s too busy partying with her friends and fending off her mother’s well-intentioned nagging about finding a man and settling down. When a mysterious illness causes her boss to close the office, Gina must work from home and life as she knows it changes forever.

Dr. Eleanor Osborne works at a busy London hospital and knows all too well the virus is causing panic. As if that weren’t bad enough, it’s too unsafe for her elderly neighbor to continue minding Eleanor’s daughter, Sophia. She needs a babysitter pronto, but who can she ask to take the risk?

Cut off from her social network, Gina finds the silence of her own company suffocating—who is she when no one is watching? Eleanor is sure she picked the worst time ever to become a single mother—how can she possibly raise a child in such an unpredictable world? Set against the backdrop of a viral pandemic, Gina and Eleanor are about to discover that loving another person is complicated when you’re desperately searching for yourself.

My Forever Girl was previously published in Still Not Over You: Romance Novellas (Bold Strokes Books, 2020).

Jody Acosta’s life was turned upside down the day her father died in a work-related accident. Struggling with her grief, all she can do is immerse herself in her work at the local animal shelter and help her mother while they wait for the settlement from the wrongful death lawsuit.

Nicole Bergeron, the company's representative, is conducting an internal investigation into the accident. She understands the Acosta family’s grief, but that doesn’t mean the company her father built is automatically responsible for the tragedy.

Jody doesn’t know what makes her more furious, that the wealthy Bergeron family refuses to pay for what they did, or that she can’t ignore her knee-weakening attraction to Nicole. But she’ll need to push aside her anger to work with Nicole to find the truth, about the company, about her father, and about her own heart.

Life changes like the ocean tides, and Mikayla Pierce is discovering that the hard way. Recently divorced and learning more about her bisexuality, she struggles to find her way on her own. Living in a borrowed home in Oceana Mobile Home Park, Mikayla knows one thing for sure. She’s done trying to be the person other people think she should be.

Gem Helmstaad, the property manager of Oceana, has resigned herself to the life she’s lived since she was a kid, helping her dad take care of his business. She thought she’d broken free of her family obligations, but with her father’s poor health and her siblings having lives of their own, she’s back in Oceana and it’s up to her to keep the business going.

Falling in love is the last thing on either of their minds, but when Mikayla and Gem meet, sparks of possibility begin to shine, revealing a new path that just might lead them to a future neither expected.

Once the first female quarterback of her high school team, Sutton McCoy has since landed her dream job as the offensive coordinator for the new NFL team the Connecticut Cheetahs. When the team recruits established quarterback Grayson Moats to lead them, Sutton’s heart is crushed. Grayson isn’t the problem. Sutton’s fifteen-year crush on his wife, Parker O’Neal, is.

Parker is living a life full of regrets dating all the way back to high school when her parents made her end her relationship with Sutton because there were too many rumors about her, not all of them good. When Grayson accepts the new quarterback position with the Cheetahs, he consults Parker first, knowing the three of them have history. But it’s not like she can tell him the truth, that Sutton still occupies so much of Parker’s head and heart.

Interfering in the personal life of the star quarterback and convincing Parker to walk away from her family were never in Sutton’s game plan. But standing on the sidelines when a second chance at true love comes their way proves all but impossible.

Beth Richards is a thirty-two-year-old virgin married to the family farm that’s been in her family for generations. With her mother battling Alzheimer’s, Beth is struggling to keep the farm afloat and provide for her sister. So of course, she refuses to sell everything when a beautiful businesswoman from Dallas waltzes in expecting to be the answer to her prayers. How can Beth ever let go of her family legacy?

Evelyn Bremer is used to getting what she wants, and what she wants is to build a windmill farm on Beth’s land. As she spends a little time in the small town in West Texas, she wants Beth, too. But even her best efforts at wooing aren’t enough to convince Beth to take a chance on the attraction they can’t deny.

Beth and Evelyn seem destined to remain mortal enemies, as neither is willing to give up their dreams. But love has a way of bringing people together even when their hearts seem destined to float in opposite directions on the wind.

Bailey Kaczmarek has three loves: her dog, her construction company, and her very large family. After she finds out that her fiancée never stopped dating, she resolves to be content with what she has rather than search for happiness in a relationship. It’s not like she has much free time anyway.

Skye Kohl is a high-powered commercial real estate broker who spends most of her waking hours negotiating some of the largest leases in the nicest buildings in Chicago. She’s so focused on topping the list of the most influential brokers in the city that she ignores her love life.

Bailey’s and Skye’s professional and personal lives collide as they join forces on a construction project and deal with their meddling mothers, who think they’re perfect for one another. But the more they clash, the hotter their simmering attraction burns.

Bonnie James has built her life around her passions—cats, coffee, and community. She rejected her family’s narrow visions of success and instead chose the non-lucrative, fur-filled life of a cat café owner. So what if her decision means she works way too much to have time for true love? She has plenty of friends and cats to keep her company.

Wedding planner Taryn Ritter has a knack for making impossible dreams come true. She might not understand the appeal of getting married in a cat café, but if that’s what her clients want, then she’ll make it happen. She’s not about to let the reluctant café owner stand in her way, so she makes Bonnie an offer she can’t refuse—give her the venue for one day and she’ll find a way to get more cats adopted into happy homes.

When Bonnie and Taryn join forces to help a bunch of shelter cats find their forever homes, they just might discover forever for themselves as well.

Arlette Adair has always done what’s right. From the day she was born, she’s lived the life her parents forced upon her. Now, she’s stuck in a sparkless relationship and a job she never wanted. Her father's presidential campaign will forever root her in the world of politics that she’s trying to escape from.

Brooke Dawson has always made her own rules. She’s a struggling freelance artist by day and a catering bartender at night, but her heart is full…almost. When she picks up a bartending shift at a high society party, she hopes to bring home enough money to pay her rent. She never expects to run into Arlette Adair: her former best friend, the girl she spent all of college secretly crushing on, and the one who got away.

Now face-to-face with their unresolved past, Arlette and Brooke quickly fall back into their old ways while dancing around the biggest question: Why hadn’t they fallen in love all those years ago?

As the oldest daughter of a baroness with a quite superior attitude, Bronte de Lacey was brought up in privilege and expected to follow a traditional path. Make a good marriage and settle down to the business of making a family. But making a family isn’t what Bronte wants at all. Instead, she’s dedicated her life to saving animals as an animal rehabilitator. The Rosebrook village trust may give her the chance to finally live the life she wants and help others in the process.

Griffin Harris was brought up by her single mother in a poor housing estate. Finding out she is the sole heir of a large English estate catapults her from poverty to riches in one day. Her good-for-nothing father was never part of her life, so Griffin resents the money but uses it for her mother’s comfort while she travels the world, wandering, hoping to find her true place. When an old friend asks for a favor, she agrees to help restart a brewery in Rosebrook. It seems like a fine, and temporary, idea to Griffin.

When Bronte comes to the village, Griffin is drawn to her strength. Their connection creates a safe haven for the wanderer. But when Griffin discovers the truth about her father, all she wants to do is run.

When internet executive Crystal Tucker is given the opportunity to finally make it to the top in her company, she jumps at the chance. She just has to sell Pine Grove’s government on the future: Wi-Fi, high-speed internet, and streaming services. Should be easy, right? Apparently not. To succeed where others have failed, Crystal must blend into the community and understand why the small town is stuck in the past.

The internet café Cyber Shack has been in Janie Elliott’s family for decades. More than a place to access the web, it’s an integral part of Pine Grove culture. Meeting your neighbor for a coffee? Working from anywhere-but-at-home? Want in on the local gossip? Cyber Shack has it all, and almost everyone wants to keep it that way.

Crystal is sure Wi-Fi could really help the more marginalized residents, even if it means putting a small business out of business, but her instant attraction to Janie makes moving ahead with her plans complicated. As their spark combusts into an undeniable flame, Crystal has to come clean about why she’s really there, and what it might mean for Cyber Shack, for Pine Grove, and for her relationship with Janie.

Simone Lavoie would be the first to admit she’s running from her problems, literally. She’s convinced herself a new job as an intimacy coordinator in a new city will give her a fresh perspective. Instead, problems on set only add to her worries.

Evelyn Harper has spent her whole life thinking she knows exactly what she wants: to be an actress. But when the fame gets to be too much following her breakout role, she’s torn between the ideal and reality. Then Evelyn discovers that Simone suspects a friend of trading bit parts for sex, and she starts to second-guess her growing attraction.

As the integrity of the show comes crashing down, Evie must stand up for her conviction to go for what she really wants in life, while Simone struggles to let go of a hard held past and give love a chance. As their feelings grow, it becomes harder and harder to tell the difference between what’s real and what’s an act.