Name: Judge Me When I'm Wrong
Brand: Cheryl A. Head
Price: 16.95 USD
Availability: InStock

Jill Malone

Red Audrey and the Roping

$14.95

“This is a literary gem . . . one of the best books I’ve read this year.”—Ellen Hart

"This raw and convincing first novel is narrated by a woman who can’t help testing the limits of her ability to endure pain in her intimate relationships with men and women... the vivid characters and potent emotions keep the pages turning."—The Advocate

Occasionally a debut novel comes along that rocks its readers back on their heels. Red Audrey and the Roping is one of that rare and remarkable breed. With storytelling as accomplished as successful literary novelists like Margaret Atwood and Sarah Waters, Jill Malone takes us on a journey through the heart of Latin professor Jane Elliot.

Set against the dramatic landscapes and seascapes of Hawaii, this is the deeply moving story of a young woman traumatized by her mother’s death. Scarred by guilt, she struggles to find the nerve to let love into her life again. Afraid to love herself or anyone else, Jane falls in love with risk, pitting herself against the world with dogged, destructive courage. But finally she reaches a point where there is only one danger left worth facing. The sole remaining question for Jane is whether she is willing to accept her history, embrace her damage, and take a chance on love.

As well as a gripping and emotional story, Red Audrey and the Roping is a remarkable literary achievement. The breathtaking prose evokes setting, characters, and relationships with equal grace. The dialogue sparks and sparkles. Splintered fragments of narrative come together to form a seamless suspenseful story that flows effortlessly to its dramatic conclusion.

Winner of the Bywater Prize for Fiction, Red Audrey and the Roping is one of the most memorable first novels you will ever read.

Cover image for Red Audrey and the Roping, isbn: 9781932859546

Jenn Alexander

Live It Out

$18.95

Years after a fractured teenage romance, an up-and-coming musician and a youth counselor team up on a project that rocks everything they thought they knew about themselves and each other.

Spencer Adams was never expected to be anything more than a high school dropout. She’d been a troubled teen, spending more time at the skate park than in school, at least until her music teacher introduced her to the guitar, and music class became her lifeline. Ten years later, she is the guitarist in a band that has become a breakout success, and she wants to use that success to help other teens who have had the same rough start as her. She takes on a volunteer project with local youth as a way of honoring her past, not knowing that it will force her to revisit the one part of her past that she’d hoped to forget.

Faith Siebert has always had high expectations to live up to, and she has tried her best to fulfill those expectations, to be a good daughter, a good student, and a good friend. When she fell for Spencer in high school, she knew her family and friends would never approve. Scared of their reactions, Faith ended things with Spencer, following the path her parents wanted for her, even at the immense personal cost. Of course, it had only been a high school romance, destined for brevity anyway. At least, that’s what she told herself. But when Spencer shows up in her life once again, partnered with Faith on a youth music project, her world is rocked and she is forced to re-examine everything she knows about relationships and herself.

Live It Out is a second-chance romance about forgiveness and finding one’s authentic self.

Ellen Hart

Taken by the Wind

$22.95

"Absorbing . . . unexpected twists and turns . . . and the activities of her irrepressible best friend, Cordelia Thorn (a treasure of mystery fiction), will keep the reader guessing."Publishers Weekly

"A judicious balance of long-term development and short-term storytelling; even readers who come for the ongoing characters will stay for the mystery."Kirkus Reviews

"An engrossing mystery with captivating characters"Star Tribune (Minneapolis)

Lesbian sleuth Jane Lawless confronts one of her most frightening situations: children gone missing. Seamlessly integrating enough backstory to orient readers new to the series, Ellen Hart also quickly establishes restaurateur Lawless's professional skills as a part-time PI as she deftly secures the details pertaining to the disappearance of Eric and Andrew's hot-headed, charismatic twelve-year-old son, Jack, and develops a search strategy. Jack has previously masterminded risky situations with his less volatile cousin, Gabriel, who is troubled, having recently consented to genetic testing since his father died of ALS. But have the boys escalated their adventures?

Jane's first impression of the case isn't goodin fact, she's not convinced the boys ran away at all. She thinks they may have been abducted . . . or worse.

Ellen Hart is a five-time winner of the Lambda Literary Award for Best Lesbian Mystery and a three-time winner of the Minnesota Book Award for Best Popular Fiction.

Paula Martinac

The Ada Decades

$15.95

A girl from a Carolina mill family isn't supposed to strive for a career, but Ada Shook graduates from college on a scholarship and lands a plum job as a school librarian. As the 1950s South rocks with turbulence, Ada finds herself caught in the ugly fight to integrate the Charlotte, NC public schools. At the same time, she makes friends with Cam Lively, a teacher who challenges her to reexamine her narrow upbringing. The two young women fall in love and throw in their lot together, despite their underlying fear of being found out and fired.

Over seven decades, Ada is witness to the racism laced through her Southern city, the paradox of religion as both comfort and torment, and the survival networks created by gay people. Eleven interconnected stories cover the sweep of one woman's personal history as she reaches her own form of Southern womanhood compassionate, resilient, principled, and lesbian.

Paula Martinac is the author of four published novels and a collection of short stories. Her debut novel Out of Time won the 1990 Lambda Literary Award for Fiction. She has published three nonfiction books on lesbian and gay culture and politics as well as numerous articles, essays, and short stories. Also a playwright, her works have had productions with Pittsburgh Playwrights Theater Company, Manhattan Theatre Source, the Pittsburgh New Works Festival, No Name Players, and others. She teaches creative writing at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte.

Cover image for The Ada Decades, isbn: 9781612940854

Hilary Sloin

Art on Fire

$14.95

Art on Fire is the apparent biography of subversive painter Francesca deSilva, the founding foremother of "pseudorealism," who lived hard and died young. But in the tradition of Vladimir Nabokov's acclaimed novel Pale Fire, it's a fiction from start to finish. It opens with Francesca's early life. We learn about her childhood love, the chess genius Lisa Sinsong, as well as her rivalry with her brilliant sister Isabella, who publishes an acclaimed volume of poetry at the age of twelve. She compensates for the failings of her less than attentive parents by turning to her grandmother who is loyal and adoring until she learns Francesca is a lesbian, when she rejects her. Francesca flees to a ramshackle cabin in Wellfleet, Massachusetts, working weekends at the flea market. She breaks into the gloomy basement of a house, where she begins her life as a painter. Much to her confusion and even dismay, fame comes quickly.

Interspersed with Francesca's narrative are thirteen critical "essays" on the paintings of Francesca deSilva by critics, academics, and psychologists—essays that are razor-sharp satires on art, lesbian life, and the academic world, puncturing pretentiousness with every paragraph. Art on Fire is a darkly comic, pitch-perfect, and fearless satire on the very art of biography itself.

Art on Fire is the latest winner of the Bywater Prize for Fiction and was a finalist for the Heekin Foundation Award, the Dana Awards, and the Story Oaks Prize. It was mistakenly awarded the nonfiction prize in the Amherst Book and Plow Competition.

Cover image for Art on Fire, isbn: 9781612940311

Rachel Spangler

Love All

$16.95

Throughout her long career, professional tennis player Jay Pierce has been burned by both players and the press. She’s learned the hard way that she can trust no one and nothing, especially her own judgment. So, when she undertakes one last career comeback, she knows the only hope she has to redeem her legacy is to go it alone.

Sadie Larsen knows virtually nothing about the world of professional tennis when her daughter, Destiny, breaks onto the women’s tour at the age of 17. Sadie learned everything she needed to know about single parenting on her own, and she knows she can do the same now that the stakes are higher than ever. All she has to do is stay laser-focused on protecting her family of two.

Neither Jay nor Sadie expects the path ahead to be easy. The only thing neither woman had prepared for is each other. As Jay and Destiny fight their battles on the court, Sadie and Jay fight their attraction off it.

Jesse Blackadder

The Raven's Heart

$16.95

"Jesse Blackadder has all the hallmarks of a great historical fiction writer, achieving a fine balance of thoroughly researched atmospheric detail and suspenseful story. . . . In The Raven's Heart she doesn't hit one wrong note."—The Sunday Telegraph

Scotland, 1561, and a ship comes across the North Sea carrying home Mary, the young, charismatic Queen of Scots, returning after thirteen years in the French court to wrest back control of her throne.

The Blackadder family has long awaited for the Queen's return to bring them justice. Alison Blackadder, disguised as a boy from childhood to protect her from the murderous clan that stole their lands, must learn to be a lady-in-waiting to the Queen, building a web of dependence and reward.

Just as the Queen can trust nobody, Alison discovers lies, danger, and treachery at every turn.

This sweeping, imaginative, and original tale of political intrigue, misplaced loyalty, secret passion, and implacable revenge is based on real characters and events from the reign of Mary Queen of Scots.

The Raven's Heart is a breathtaking epic from a bold, fresh voice. Winner of the Varuna HarperCollins Manuscript Development Award, The Raven's Heart was published in Australia in 2011.

Jesse Blackadder finally had enough of people asking if she was related to Rowan Atkinson, star of the BBC sitcom Blackadder. She traveled to Scotland to find the origins of her surname and discovered the ruins of Blackadder House on the banks of the Blackadder River. The Raven's Heart grew from there. Jesse lives in Byron Bay, Australia.

Cover image for The Raven's Heart, isbn: 9781612940274

Marianne K. Martin

The Liberators of Willow Run

$18.95

It's 1943 and the world is at war.

Hope for victory rests on the wings of America's Liberator, the B-24 bomber. And, with more than nine million Americans on the front lines, there is only one way for the assembly plants to produce enough planes to meet the demandand that is to recruit women by the thousands into the work force.

Audrey Draper is committed to the war effort, and beyond that, to finding her own personal and financial independence. And she is not alone. Ruth Evans also chooses to seek employment. As a waitress living on her own, she not only searches for freedom, but also a way to fulfill an important promise. And then there's young Amelia, a fifteen-year-old rape victim who is being forced to return to a dark and dangerous home. Audrey, Ruth, and a handful of these newly independent women must risk everything they have fought so hard to achieve to give one of their own a fighting chance to survive. Set against the backdrop of a rapidly changing world, these women capture the spirit of the times through their determination, ingenuity, and enduring courage.

Marianne K. Martin is one of the most popular lesbian romance authors in the genre. She is the author of ten novels, including four Lambda Literary Award finalists. She has been honored with the Trailblazer Award from the Golden Crown Literary Society, and she was inducted into the Saints & Sinners Literary Hall of Fame in 2013.

Abigail Padgett

Ultimate Blue

$17.95

The California desert hasn't changed, but everything else in Blue McCarron's life is about to. After the inevitable break-up with partner Roxie in Philadelphia, Blue drags herself home—to the tumbleweeds, sidewinders, and emptiness.

A part-time job teaching Social Psychology at a private university in nearby San Diego provides at least the appearance of a life. But when Lupe, an unfriendly colleague invites her to a Mexican rock concert, everything in Blue's life begins to shift. And when the gorgeous rock star is kidnapped and the campus is blanketed with flyers calling for the death of a young, gay Spanish professor, Blue finds herself in the middle of a brand new mystery—who is behind the paper threats?

Fighting a growing and inappropriate attraction to the just-divorced Lupe, Blue searches for the culprit amid oddball board members, rancorous academics, and obscure Latin American politics. And when the threat lands at Lupe's doorstep, Blue is left with only her instinct to stop it.

Lydia Stryk

The Teachers' Room

$17.95

A novice fifth-grade teacher embarks on a clandestine love affair with another teacher, which sets her on the tumultuous path of self-discovery.

It is 1963, one of the most turbulent years in American history. The escalating tensions and conflicts in society at large are playing out in classrooms, principals’ offices, and school boards across the country, along with the first stirrings of social transformation, though the past still holds its suffocating grip. And behind the closed door of the teachers’ room in one small Midwest town, two teachers set eyes on each other and find it hard to look away.

Karen Murphy, fresh from college, has taken on her first teaching job. Despite her best efforts, she can’t seem to stick to the subjects in her fifth-grade school books, helped along by the antics of a girl who upends all her lesson plans. She has a lot to learn, and her women colleagues are there to offer their advice, especially the enigmatic fourth-grade teacher, Esther Jonas. As Karen quickly discovers, the devoted spinster teacher with no life beyond the classroom is a myth—the school is teeming with passion and secrets, her own perilous desire for Esther Jonas included.

The Teachers' Room offers both a panoramic view of a changing America and an intimate portrait of the hidden lives of teachers.

Hilary Zaid

Paper is White

$16.95

When oral historian Ellen Margolis and her girlfriend decide to get married, Ellen realizes that she can't go through with a wedding until she tells her grandmother. There's only one problem: her grandmother is dead.

As the two young women beat their own early path toward marriage equality, Ellen's longing to plumb that voluminous silence draws her into a clandestine entanglement with a wily Holocaust survivor—a woman with more to hide than tell—and a secret search for buried history. If there is to be a wedding Ellen must decide: How much do you need to share to be true to the one you love?

Set in ebullient, 1990s Dot-com era San Francisco, Paper is White is a novel about the gravitational pull of the past and the words we must find to make ourselves whole.

Hilary Zaid is an alumna of the Community of Writers at Squaw Valley and the Tin House Writer's Workshop. Her short story "For Non-Speakers of the Mother Tongue" (Tahoma Literary Review, Winter 2017) has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize, and "The Dark Between the Stars" won the 2014 BLOOM Fiction Chapbook Prize. Hilary works as a freelance editor in Oakland, California.

Georgia Beers

Olive Oil and White Bread

$14.95

Praise for Georgia Beers's 96 Hours:

"96 Hours is a page-turner. . . . It is a riveting story rich with detail."EDGE Boston

What happens to lovers after the happy-ever-after moment? What goes on behind the closed doors of a relationship once the commitment is made? What does romance turn into when the hands of time keep turning? Olive Oil and White Bread is a novel that dares to answer those questions.

Angie Righetti is the daughter of a sprawling but close-knit Italian American family. She's out and they're proud.

Jillian Clark's family is the white bread to Angie's olive oil. Stoic and emotionally buttoned up, they don't want to think about Jillian's sexuality.

It's 1988 when they move in together, on the brink of starting their careers. Like every couple at the start of their life together, they expect to live happily ever after.

And for twenty-three years life happens: they change jobs, buy a house, get a dog, and deal with money issues and the death of a parent. They fight, love, cry, play, make mistakes, have regrets, and try to be good to each other and to everybody else. Like most of us they tumble into a routine that turns into a rut that leads to distraction and danger.

In 96 Hours Georgia Beers gave herself the challenge of writing a romance set in the immediate aftermath of 9/11. And she succeeded, coming up with a book that garnered awards and great reviews. She returns with a new challengewriting a romance that starts, rather than ends, with the happy-ever-after.

Cover image for Olive Oil and White Bread, isbn: 9781612940496

Sally Bellerose

The Girls Club

$15.95

The Girls Club is the coming-of-age story of a young, white, working-class woman. Set in the 1970s, the story revolves around Cora Rose as she copes with her emerging sexuality, an illness her sisters refer to as "the dreaded bowel disease," and the conflicts created by the growing disparity between her desires and her Catholic upbringing.

Part one deals with the three sisters' adolescent relationship to each other and their Catholic working-class world. Cora Rose's distress at being caught in an embrace with her best friend Stella leads her to sleep with the first boy who shows interest. She is married with a child at age eighteen.

Part two shows how the sisters help and hinder each other in their struggles to take control and responsibility over their lives.

Part three reveals Cora Rose's physical challenges, including an ostomy, that further complicate her feelings about her sexuality and increase her need for her sisters' support. She becomes involved with a woman she meets at a bar called The Girls Club. Marie and Renee play out their own struggles as Cora Rose leaves her husband, fights to keep her child, and overcomes religious and social prejudices that threaten her personal integrity.

Sally Bellerose was awarded a Fellowship in Literature from the National Endowment for the Arts based on an excerpt from this book. The manuscript was a finalist for the James Jones Fellowship, the Thomas Wolfe Fiction Prize, and the Bellwether Endowment. Sally Bellerose lives in Northampton, Massachusetts.

.

Cover image for The Girls Club, isbn: 9781932859782

Marianne K. Martin

Kickin' Rocks

$16.95

Jada Baker is a millennial, but she was born to worry—about her mom, her job, abused animals, and about the growing discord she sees playing out in the news every day. But she also believes that good will triumph over evil, and that she will find a true and deep love. And when Amie Luca, a veterinarian whose compassion for helping mistreated animals captures her heart, Jada believes that she has finally found the woman she’s been searching for.

But, when the happiness that Jada and Amie are building is suddenly threatened by a surge of hate and homophobia, they turn to a friend who has learned the hard way that kicking rocks can be painful. Dusty Logan logged long hours fighting for women’s rights, watching friends suffer and die through the AIDS crisis, and battling for the right to openly love a woman, and she’s bone tired. Yet when she sees Jada and Amie—a new generation of women—facing a new but familiar wave of discrimination, her spirit to fight the good fight is rekindled. And Dusty will do everything she can to make sure that Jada and Amie get that shot at real happiness after all.

Lisa Gitlin

Postcards from the Canyon

$16.95

Lisa Gitlin's Postcards from the Canyon is a quirky snapshot of one woman's rapidly changing world, where control is an illusion and chaos offers shelter from an unrelenting storm.

Faced with the sudden and unexpected death of her mother, disillusioned novelist Joanna Jacobs begins chronicling her unruly childhood in 1960's Cleveland, Ohio. But the writing exercise that starts as a means to reflect and refocus becomes a journal of Joanna’s rebellious existence. Jewish and gay, yet unwilling to expose herself to the accompanying scrutiny and rejection, Joanna spends much of her youth fostering chaos and embracing self-denial, even while celebrating an affirming commitment to the psychiatric ward.

After an inadvertent bomb threat to a conservative talk show host brings the FBI knocking on her door, Joanna finds herself navigating an unexpected immigrant invasion, a crew of juvenile delinquents in her living room, and a never-ending low pressure system. When the going finally gets too tough to wrangle alone, Joanna turns to her lifelong friends for emotional support—but this comfort is tempered by a confusing cocktail of lingering hurts, unresolved anger, and resurgent disappointment, making it even more difficult for Joanna to put her life to paper.

Cathy Pegau

The Demon Equilibrium

$16.95

Grace Carter, a "source" of magic, has spent the last nine months searching for Maggie Mulvaney, her "catalyst." The joy of reuniting with her partner—and her lover—is thwarted by her worst fear: Maggie remembers neither Grace nor their life together in the Order of Saint Teresa, the centuries-old organization that trained them to be the strongest demon-hunting duo in generations.

When Maggie and Grace unexpectedly come face-to-face with the demon Horde, they are forced to team up once again. As they begin to piece their lives back together, they discover that their memories have been masked by someone within the Order. Should the Horde succeed in their plan, those who have committed their lives to slay worldly demons will be relegated to little more than minions as humans are completely enslaved.

Now, Grace and Maggie must sacrifice everything, possibly even their love, and their lives, in an all-out battle to save humanity.

NEW YORK

Plain English

$19.95

Reconnect with your favorite characters from Rachel Spangler’s best-selling romances, Full English and Modern English.

When Claire Bailey left London to open her own art gallery in the tiny village of Amberwick, she’d hoped the slower pace and lower cost of living might allow her to focus on her own painting, away from all the drama and distractions that had plagued her in the city. She fully intended to make an honest go at simple living right up until the moment a shockingly attractive aristocrat rocketed off the road and knocked her world off its axis.

Pip has learned to play the part of a ne’er-do-well upper elite: charismatic, enigmatic, and a little bit erratic. Luckily, women tend to like those characteristics. After leading such a charmed existence, where even motorcycles wrecks come with the added bonus of meeting beautiful women, Pip finds that Claire’s complete lack of interest in money or status sparks both curiosity and attraction.

Surrendering to both boredom and sheer chemistry, the two agree to an unconventional, no-strings, romantic adventure designed to provide them both a bit of freedom and entertainment. However, once released from the pressure to project perfect images of themselves, the walls they depended on for protection begin to crumble. Worlds blend and identities blur as their whirlwind romance quickly becomes more than they bargained for. Will their almost elemental attraction be enough to overcome the complexities rushing in from all sides? Or will the pressures they’ve both sought to escape force them to forge a new path neither of them had dared to dream of?

Ann Aptaker

Murder and Gold

$16.95

New York City, 1954.
Two women are found murdered. One is Lorraine Quinn, Cantor Gold’s most recent one-night-stand. The other is political power broker and aspiring New York socialite Eve Garraway, a regular client of Cantor’s stolen art trade.
Police nemesis, Lieutenant Norm Huber, wants to pin the murders on Cantor, send her to prison, and put her in the electric chair. He’ll get evidence on her any way he can. Into this cauldron of danger and death come two other women, each with ties to Cantor’s past. One hates her until passion intervenes; the other harbors darkly hidden feelings.
Set during the earliest stirrings of the Homosexual Rights Movement, Cantor begins to question her own tenuous identity, and the trade-offs she must make to get what she wants.
Cantor Gold, dapper butch art thief and smuggler for whom survival is everything, must now grapple with two fronts: surviving the shifting sands of the criminal underworld, and navigating the changing tides of society.

Cover image for Murder and Gold, isbn: 9781612942056

Bett Norris

What's Best for Jane

$14.95

“An impressive, gifted storyteller.”—Katherine V. Forrest

Mary McGhee is a legend—heroic to some, hated by others. Her dead lover’s inheritance has fueled resentment among a dispossessed family, and in the South, grudges are as hard and immutable as the rocks themselves.

But there is one member of that family who seems immune to the grievances of the past. Jane Jackson is a lonely child, isolated from her brutal family by her intelligence and her adventurousness. She’s drawn to the lonely old woman who owns what her family expected to be theirs and who also carries some of their darkest secrets—secrets of love, hate, and murder. But Jane’s devotion brings Mary as many problems as pleasures. Ugly rumors, emotional temptation, and a violent death swirl around, poisoning the innocence of their relationship.

As Mary struggles with her own mortality, she tries to decide what’s best for Jane. But Jane Jackson has a mind of her own. A mind that is going to lead her into some difficult places and hard choices before she finally discovers what’s best for herself.

Bett Norris gets up every morning at five and writes. She was a finalist in the first annual Bywater Prize for Fiction contest. She lives in Florida with her partner.

Cover image for What's Best for Jane, isbn: 9781932859560

Kathleen Brady

The Language of Light

$16.95

It's 1982, and China has just barely begun to open to the West.

When Lu McLean sells all her possessions and leaves Los Angeles to study Mandarin Chinese at the Beijing Language Institute, she imagines a life of serious scholarship and an eventual job as a translator at the United Nations. On the night of her arrival, Lu meets the captivating, Ming, a Chinese teacher at the institute. Still recovering from a failed ten-year relationship, Lu has vowed never to give her heart away again.

But as Lu struggles to balance Beijing's simple beauty with the confounding rigidity of ageless custom, her feelings for Ming deepen. She soon finds herself vacillating between letting herself love Ming and her escalating fears about the certain barriers that would prevent them from ever navigating a life together. Against the backdrop of China's Spiritual Pollution and a tightening cultural climate, it becomes clear that Ming cannot leave—and Lu cannot stay indefinitely. Events soon force Lu—and Ming—to balance the love that binds them against the social and political forces that threaten to tear them apart.

The Language of Light seamlessly interweaves the expressive and timeless beauty of the Chinese language with the poignant tale of a profound love, inveighing against the oppressive climate of cultural and political change.

Fay Jacobs

Fried & Convicted

$15.95

As the author of four humorous memoirs, activist and comedian Fay Jacobs returns with her newest tall tales, Fried & Convicted, Rehoboth Beach Uncorked. And, as you’d expect, It’s chock-full of Fay’s signature witty, wise, and often laugh-out-loud commentary about the craziness of contemporary life in the diverse and welcoming resort town of Rehoboth Beach on the Delaware Coast.

This time, though, everyone’s favorite Sit-Down Comic” grapples with the insanity of a high-tech bra, cartoon bladders in prescription advertising, and refusing to act her age . . .

Fried & Convicted was written over the last few years and culminates with Election Day, 2016. It chronicles the joy of gaining equal marriage rights for same-sex couples, tales of Icelandic lagoons, Provincetown adventures, and much ado about lesbians of a certain age. It tells a few harrowing personal stories, such as Bonnie’s unnerving medical diagnosis, the time Fay went kayaking with alligators, and how she came up with a public relations scheme to rescue her pal’s purloined pooch. And through it all, she finds a way to make it provocative, political, occasionally heartwarming, and reliably hilarious.

Featuring Fay’s latest magazine columns plus new, never before published material, Fried & Convicted is a pleasure for longtime fans and new readers alike.

Come along for the rideyou’ll be happy you did!

Fay Jacobs spent thirty years in Washington, DC working in journalism and public relations. Her latest project is a one-woman show, Aging Gracelessly: 50 Shades of Fay, which is being performed in theatres around the country. She lives in Rehoboth Beach with her wife of thirty-four years and a Miniature Schnauzer.

Rachel Spangler

Close to Home

$18.95

Kelly Rolen is a CPAshe's smart, she's focused, and she's worked hard to build an orderly career and a respectable life in her hometown of Darlington, Illinois. Everything is precisely as it should be. Well, it is until her father suffers a debilitating stroke during the busiest time of her yeartax season. Suddenly, Kelly finds herself overworked, exhausted, behind schedule, and forced to hire an intern to meet her deadlines.

Elliot Garza is young and brash, but she's also a talented accounting student who is charismatic, driven, and solely focused on completing her internship so she can escape from the bleak Midwestern town to Washington, DC and her dream job. She knows she has the professional skills necessary to do the job well, but she is less certain about her ability to handle her beautiful, prickly, demanding, and compelling new boss.

In this fresh new romance from one of the genre's top young authors, will Kelly's past and Elliot's future add up to something greater than the sum of their escalating attraction, or will the answer to their equation end up hitting too close to home?

Rachel Spangler is the author of ten lesbian romance novels and novellas and the winner of two Golden Crown Literary Society Awards. She pens the popular blog, Wonder Boi Writes, and lives with her wife and son in Western New York.

Cover image for Close to Home, isbn: 9781612940816

Rachel Spangler

Perfect Pairing

$15.95

Hal Orion is an accomplished chef and food truck owner. She loves her life, her longtime sous chef and best friend, and the food she shares with the residents of her beloved city of Buffalo. Her life is exactly how she wants it: no strings, no commitments, and no roots—just great grilled cheese and a whole lot of freedom on the side.

Quinn Banning is an investment banker, and the dividend she seeks is a resurgence of the once-great city of Buffalo. Putting together her next business venture, she recognizes Hal's talent and charm as necessary assets for success—her good looks don't hurt, either. But Hal's transient ways are in direct opposition to the stability Quinn craves. Relying on their shared love of Buffalo, Quinn makes Hal an offer she can't refuse—a restaurant under her own name, complete creative control, and secure financial backing. It's every chef's dream. But Hal utters the one word Quinn can't stand to hear, "No."

Will their physical attraction grow cold as they argue over their ideals, or will they find that the most distinctive ingredients often make for the perfect pairing?

Rachel Spangler is the author of nine lesbian romance novels and novellas, and the winner of two Golden Crown Literary Awards. She pens the popular blog, Wonder Boi Writes, and lives with her wife and son in western New York.

Cover image for Perfect Pairing, isbn: 9781612940694

Paula Martinac

Dear Miss Cushman

$16.95

In 1850s Manhattan, 18-year-old Georgiana Cartwright witnesses the downfall of her father, a renowned actor who disgraces himself performing under the influence. When he deserts the family, Georgie is expected to save the day by marrying well. But she aspires to the stage, hoping to earn an independent living like her idol, the great actress Charlotte Cushman.

Hired as a supporting actress for a prominent theater company, Georgie launches her career with the help of a trio of young friends, including Clementine, a budding scribe determined to make her mark on the literary landscape—and to win Georgie's heart. Early reviews garner Georgie the promise of a bright future, but then unwanted sexual advances from within the company threaten to derail her career.

Following Cushman's lead, Georgie regains her footing in “breeches roles” parts written for men but performed by women. A thrilling gender-bending turn in a Shakespearean role boosts her confidence—until her harasser renews his efforts. Will she be able to vanquish him and find success and love on her own terms?

Jill Malone

Giraffe People

$14.95

This is not just a luminescent work, it is a transcendent and transformative one. Jill Malone finds and plays the desperate times of the teenaged years like an old Gibson. The reader is instantly, effortlessly, back in those halls of high school, the auditoriums and locker rooms and gyms, the whispered conversations in the library, solving math problems on the phone, sneaking out late at night, wondering, always wondering, if you have gone too far this time, or not far enough. . . . Malone continues to delight with each new book. Her writing reveals a sure, deft skill at the subtleties and ever-changing emotions of characters as they grow and progress. . . . Malone is the real thing, a novelist of great touch and tone, like a fine musician, the kind who play because they love the music and look up at the end of a song, surprised to find an audience.” Lesbian.com, June 4, 2013

Between God and the army, fifteen-year-old Cole Peters has more than enough to rebel against. But this Chaplain’s daughter isn’t resorting to drugs or craziness. Truth to tell, she’s content with her soccer team and her band and her white bread boyfriend.

And then, of course, there’s Meghan.

Meghan is eighteen years old and preparing for entry into West Point. For this she has sponsors: Cole’s parents. They’re delighted their daughter is finally looking up to someone. Someone who can tutor her and be a friend.

But one night that relationship changes and Cole’s world flips.

Giraffe People is a potent reminder of the rites of passage and passion that we all endure on our road to growing up and growing strong. Award-winning author Jill Malone tells a story of coming out and coming of age, giving us a take that is both subtle and fresh.

Praise for Jill Malone's debut Red Audrey and the Roping:

"A lyrical, passionate novel about desire, about danger, and about the need for self-forgiveness. A wonderfully impressive writing debut."Sarah Waters

"With its lyrical dialogue, complex characters, and atmospheric setting, this is a dazzling and dramatic debut."Richard Labonte, Book Marks Reviews

"Finely tuned, daring, and perceptive, Malone's auspicious debut leaves us wanting more."Booklist

Praise for Jill Malone's A Field Guide to Deception:

"This gem of a book avoids the second-book blahs and gives us a poignant, real story of relationships and all they cost."OutSmart Magazine

"An absolutely gripping and beautifully written story."AfterEllen.com

"Beautiful, essential reading."Outinprint.net

Jill Malone's second novel, A Field Guide to Deception, won the Lambda Literary Award for Lesbian Fiction and was a finalist for the Ferro-Grumley Literary Award. Her first novel, Red Audrey and the Roping, won the Bywater Prize for Fiction and was a finalist for the Lambda Literary Award for Debut Fiction. Jill Malone is a regular blogger and her following is moving beyond the queer reading community. She lives in Spokane, Washington.

Cover image for Giraffe People, isbn: 9781612940397

Rachel Spangler

Full English

$18.95

After a publicly humiliating divorce, best-selling author Emma Volant runs away to hide in the seaside English village of Amberwick, where she doesn’t know another living soul. She wants nothing more than to surrender to her broken heart in private. However, when the locals discover their newest resident is world famous, they gather at the local pub and hatch a plan to draw Emma out of her self-imposed isolation, hoping her celebrity status will elevate the village’s reputation to something more than a holiday hotspot. It doesn’t take long for them to try to rope their favorite bartender, Brogan, into the act. Born and raised in Amberwick, Brogan McKay has built a comfortable life by never overreaching. Part-time jobs and short-term flings have always been good enough for her, but when she meets her beautiful and wounded new neighbor, Brogan realizes Emma has the potential to wreck the carefully controlled expectations she uses to protect her heart. Despite their obvious attraction and growing friendship, both Emma and Brogan are in firm agreement that neither of them is in a position to look for love, but how long can they fight their fears and desires as the events and people around them all conspire to create a full English love story?

Cheryl A. Head

Warn Me When It's Time

$16.95

A hate group operating in Oakland County, Michigan has claimed responsibility for a six-month-long string of arson fires and robberies at mosques, temples, and black churches around Detroit, eluding police and federal agencies. The most recent fire, at a mosque in Dearborn, kills a respected imam. His children—suspicious of law enforcement’s treatment of Muslims and afraid of reprisal—hire Charlie Mack and her team of investigators to find their father’s murderers. The Mack team begins to hunt down the clues in this local hate crime, but they aren’t prepared when they realize that those clues are pointing to a widespread conspiracy that runs through elected state officials and up to the highest levels of national leadership. FBI agent, James Saleh, returns to help the Mack Agency infiltrate and take down a homegrown militia hell-bent on starting a race war in America.

Warn Me When It's Time is a finalist for the 2022 Anthony Award Nominee for Best Paperback Original/E-Book/Audiobook Original Novel and was awarded an Independent Publishers (IPPY) Silver Medal for Great Lakes Regional Fiction.

Samara Breger

Walk Between Worlds

$16.95

Sergeant Major Scratch Keyes of the King’s Guard is having a bad day.

On what should be the biggest night of her life, everything suddenly goes horribly wrong. First, her king denies her the promotion she rightfully earned, as well as the knighthood that goes along with it. And then, when Scratch is wallowing somewhere near the fetid rock bottom, she and her best friend, the flamboyant and carefree Sergeant James Ursus, are arrested for orchestrating the abduction of Princess Frances and sentenced to death. On the whole, things could be better.

Luckily, help comes in the form of the mysterious Shae siblings—Vel and Umbrella—who inform the doomed pair that the issue of the missing Princess is far more complicated than it appears. After a daring escape, the four embark on an ill-advised rescue mission through a forest filled with beasts, bandits, and mysterious fair folk, bringing nothing with them but a kitchen knife and the vague outline of a plan. Their destination is the Between, a sacred and shadowy fae-guarded place that promises to deliver Scratch and James to the princess—if they manage to survive.

But Scratch didn’t rise above her humble childhood in the Royal City slums by accepting things at face value. It’s clear that the enigmatic Shaes are hiding something, but what do they know? Who are they working with? And why, in the name of all the divine constellations in the scrambled sky, can't Scratch stop staring at Brella?

Samara Breger’s debut novel, Walk Between Worlds is a romantic queer fantasy adventure that will make you laugh even as it keeps you on the edge of your seat.

Avery Brooks

Other Girls

$16.95

Once upon a time, Sam and Ashley were other girls. Three years after the loss of her wife to a brain aneurysm, 34-year-old Samantha Parker focuses her energy on caring for her young son, Jake. She can’t imagine ever falling in love again, so she focuses on putting one foot in front of the other and being the best mom she can be. It’s not a perfect life, but as long as her son is happy and her softball team keeps winning, everything is fine. That is, until Ashley Valence, the girl who bullied Sam throughout high school, moves back to New Orleans and joins the softball team. As tensions rise on the field, unexpected chemistry between the two women begins to grow. No matter how much Sam wants to hate Ashley for the pain and anguish those teenage taunts caused, Ashley’s eyes hold only warmth now. And, as Sam slowly introduces Ashley into her life with Jake, she begins to let go of the past. But as their relationship progresses, all of the former hurts and resentments resurface for Sam, and she lashes out at Ashley. Sam understands that her anger is a byproduct of the events of the past and that Ashley isn’t the same girl she used to be. But when Sam begins to realize that she’s fallen in love with Ashley, she has to decide if she can truly trust her heart and find happiness with the woman who once hurt her so deeply.

Marianne K. Martin

Love in the Balance

$14.95

"Not only does [Love in the Balance] have love and excitement, but it has issues very close to all of us."The Alabama Forum Gaiety

"Marianne Martin is a wonderful storyteller and a graceful writer with a light, witty touch with language and a sensitivity to the emotions of people in love."Ann Bannon

Real life has a way of sneaking up on you.

Connie likes men. Sure, she's just dumped one, but she'll find another one soon enough. Instead she finds Kasey. Who happens to be a womana lesbian, actually. Connie reckons they'll be good friends, and she soon realizes she wants more.

But Kasey has already had her heart broken. Her ex-girlfriend turned out to like men. Kasey won't take a chance on that happening again. And her friends won't let her, either. Especially not Sharon.

If this is love, Connie has a lot of convincing to do and a lot of people to win over. Just when it seems like maybe she has, real life comes sneaking up again. Some people hate lesbianshate them enough to kill. And it's not obvious that the authorities care. Connie and Kasey and Sharon must each put their doubts to the side and work together to get justice.

Marianne K. Martin is the author of eight novels and has been shortlisted three times for the Lambda Literary Award.

Cover image for Love in the Balance, isbn: 9781932859744

Jenn Alexander

Home

$16.95

Rowan Barnes never planned on living in Texas, and she’s not sure she likes it. She tells herself that her dream job as grill chef at a new up-and-coming restaurant was worth the relocation from her Portland home, but she feels out of place and alone in the Lone Star State.

Kate Landreth, on the other hand, is Texas through-and-through. Rowan meets Kate while picking up beef from a local cattle ranch, and is immediately drawn to the woman whose heart is as big as the state she loves. As the two women become closer, Rowan begins to see Texas through Kate’s eyes, but Kate is hesitant to fall too deeply for someone who makes it clear that Texas will never be her home.

When Rowan finds herself at an unexpected crossroads, she must decide whether she stays in Texas or returns to the safe confines of Portland.

It all comes down to one question: is home is where she grew up, or is home where the heart is?

Baxter Clare Trautman

Touch of the Bone

$19.95

After a lifetime spent steeped in death L.A. Franco has retired from the LAPD and has plunged head first into living—but separating her two worlds isn’t as easy as she hoped.

Following the death of “Sal” Saladino, a recluse and mentor with uncanny healing abilities, Frank is busy sloughing off her old identity as a cop and reluctantly growing into the new skin of a healer. She doesn’t understand her newfound abilities, but the patients she sees believe in them.

When a ranch hand brings her an old journal of Sal’s, Frank’s world begins to shift uncomfortably. The pages of the journal describe an injustice Sal was too cowardly to confront. And as Frank begins to work her way through the pages, her cop instincts kick in—but she’s done with that phase of her life and isn’t willing to return. However, when one of her new patients comes to her with mysterious neck pain, she begins to suspect the ailment might be related to the murder Sal has alluded to.

As Frank slowly learns to trust her newfound abilities—and her new lover—she begins to unravel the murder in the journal. When she suspects who the murderer is, Frank must choose whether she will confront them and the injustice in her old role as a cop or let bygones be bygones and continue on her new path as a healer.