New Lesfic Goodies: January 22 Edition |

Dear lesfic fan,

Here are this week’s new ebook and audio releases and announcements.

Authors: Want to see your new releases in the newsletter? Click here for details. Or if you’re having a sale, please email me and let me know: tbmarkinson@gmail.com. Include “Sale for IHL Newsletter” in the subject line.

Anyone with lesfic news, give me a shout at tbmarkinson@gmail.com.

Happy reading and listening,

ROMANCE

I’M GONNA MAKE YOU LOVE ME

by Tracey Richardson

Claire Melbourne is a steely newspaper editor who’s just lost the biggest scoop of her career, thanks to her naïve intern’s mistake. Firing the young Ellie Kirkland for the offense was a no-brainer.

But when fate brings the two women together again, Claire finds herself questioning everything she thought she was—especially her cynical, take-no-prisoners approach to life. When she’s not breaking stories or breaking in reporters, Claire’s one outlet is to lose herself in Motown music and in the seat of a cheerful antique Mustang. But lose herself to the much younger, far-too-nice Ellie? There’s no breaking news there. Nope. That’s a story that needs to be spiked before it ever sees print.

Ellie Kirkland is at loose ends—and not for the first time. Resistant to following the path her parents insist on, she’s been trying out careers like she’s trying on outfits at Banana Republic. Now that her dream of being a journalist is over, Ellie must begin again. And the woman who crushed that very dream is the very woman who just might hold the key to Ellie’s future.

CONTEMPORARY ROMANCE

CHARM CITY

by Monica McCallan
Available in Kindle Unlimited

Taylor Tate has one last chance to turn things around. As the owner of Charm City Events, she needs her upcoming week of Valentine’s Day events to go off without a hitch. She’s painstakingly planned every detail down to the last red heart decoration, but what Taylor doesn’t plan on is the less than enthusiastic bar manager she’s paired with stumbling into her life at the worst possible time, making things more difficult every step of the way.

Carson Smith is getting by fine. She loves her job as the bar manager at Second Chances, a dive bar staple of the Baltimore landscape, and she doesn’t need anything or anyone disrupting the delicate balance she’s finally created. Especially for a stupid Valentine’s gimmick to take advantage of desperate singles. When the owner of the bar forces her to work with an event planning company to drum up business, she has no choice but to begrudgingly agree. It’s either play along or see the bar close, and she can’t let that happen.

It’s only a week, but time passes differently when there’s love in the air and too much on the line, and both women soon find their lives, and hearts, intertwined as they work together to make the week a success.

Can opposites attract? Find out in this HEA Valentine’s Day novella.

AFTER THE DARK

by Samantha Hicks

Can a love that starts out in terror be real or last?

Meredith Ashcroft is on her way to a client meeting in the Yorkshire dales when she disappears. Five months later, Art gallery manager Stephanie Edwards also goes missing. Both are held and tortured by the same sadistic man. Realizing their fate is doomed, and likely to die where they are, they take comfort from each other. Sharing their lives and dreams to help ease their terrifying existence.

After their rescue, the bond that connected them grows to a friendship that most deem unhealthy. Thrown together by chance and united in trying to overcome their shared ordeal, they find themselves falling in love. But is it true love or just an attachment to each other born out of fear for their lives?

MAY TO DECEMBER ROMANCE

THE SHOWER

by Kay Bigelow

Alex Aoki, a talented and aspiring artist, has had an opportunity to paint full time for the last five years thanks to the very generous patronage of Lucia DelAlessio. In exchange for accompanying Lucia to events around the world and occasionally sharing Lucia’s bed, Alex is able to focus on her art without worrying about day-to-day hassles and expenses.

Lauren O’Brien has left the rat race of a large Manhattan law firm to live a more peaceful life in rural New York. She meets the vivacious painter Alex at the small town’s library, and it is clear that the attraction between the two extends beyond a love of books. Lauren dismisses Alex’s interest as a schoolgirl crush because of their substantial age difference, but discovers that Alex is both persuasive and persistent.

Lauren soon learns of a bigger issue that Alex has been hiding—the rich, jet-setting patroness whose financial support comes with sexual privileges.

While Lauren tackles her ideas of relationships and monogamy, Alex must face hard questions about what is really worth sacrificing for her painting. As they each search their souls for what is most important, they must sort out their feelings about age, passion, propriety, honesty, art, truth, and above all, love.

ROMANTIC COMEDY

THE PIKE: NEW BEGINNINGS

by Erik Schubach

Eve, along with her sister Zoey, has an uncanny knack for helping people who frequent the Pike bakery at Pike Place Market in Seattle to find love. Her meddling is a thing of legends when it comes to matchmaking. But for Eve, it is a spectator sport as she has never really pursued a romantic relationship of her own.

Love was for other people, and she basked in the results of watching people find their happily ever afters. Imagine her surprise when serendipity came knocking and she found herself falling head over heels.

Her family has been dying of curiosity for months to find out who has Eve sneaking off to talk to in the middle of movies, or has her turning down events because she “has a date.” Her secret has them all frantically trying to discover who has stolen the red headed dynamo’s heart.

Eve promises everyone that her certain someone will be attending their annual family Thanksgiving celebration… but first, she has to pick up a family friend from London at the airport.

(The Pike series is set in the same world as Music of the Soul and London Harmony, and can be read as a standalone book.)

URBAN FANTASY

THE BOOK WITCH

by Annette Mori

What if someone had the power to bring characters from a book to life…should they be allowed to glimpse reality? Imara is that person, a book witch who is convinced of her superiority, especially over book magicians. Even if one of those magicians is her former best friend Elle, owner of The Enchanted Page bookstore.

Jaiden is hesitant about love after growing up with her free-spirited mother, but somehow finds herself drawn to two different women. One she can’t decide whether to kiss or smack, and the other who might not be real.

Imara is drawn to Jaiden, but she needs Elle’s help to see if she can turn interest into something more. Only problem—Elle isn’t speaking to her.

Elle’s nemesis sets a trap for Jaiden and Imara, forcing them to work with the characters from a book to get out alive. What could go wrong? Will love forge the magic that helps them all triumph?

Join award-winning author, Annette Mori, and the gang from Asset Management, The Organization, and the colorful women in The Book Addict to bring you this delightful, magical romance.

NEW AUDIOBOOKS

AT THE WATER’S EDGE

by Harper Bliss
narrated by Anne James

Sometimes you need to go back to where you came from.

When Ella returns to her hometown to recover from a trauma, she makes a connection with Kay, the lovely owner of a lake resort.

Ella thought she didn’t have time for love, but this extraordinary woman may just prove her wrong.

LOVE AT COOPER’S CREEK

by Missouri Vaun
narrated by Brittni Pope

Successful but suffocated by the demands of her corporate career, Shaw Daily walks out on it all. She returns to her grandparents’ rural property in Cooper’s Creek, North Carolina, with a plan to hide out and reboot her life to be simple and stress-free. But escapism eludes her when her attentions are captured by small-town beauty Kate Elkins.

Kate has spent almost her entire life in Cooper’s Creek. For Kate, the bonds of small-town life are a source of strength and comfort. When her aging mother weakens, Kate takes a leave from teaching to care for her. Romance is the last thing on her mind when she bumps into her unrequited teen crush Shaw Dailey just back from California. Long-buried feelings resurface for Kate, but all Shaw sees is a beautiful woman saddled with the responsibilities from which she is finally free.

DARKNESS REMAINS

by KC Luck
narrated by Violet Dixon

If the lights go out forever, can love survive?

When a group of women from different walks of life are brought together by fate during the end of the world as they know it, each must find a way to survive against the odds, as well as learn to rely on each other.

Laura Kennedy finds herself without a home when part of the city of Astoria, Oregon, burns after a solar storm causes a worldwide blackout. Left with few options, she resigns to living with her brother’s family and trying to get by while food and resources quickly diminish. As she begins to despair about the fate of the world, a handsome, young stranger rides into her life, and suddenly, she finds herself attracted to a woman in a way she never expected.

Sam Quinn is a veterinarian student. When the power goes out everywhere and believing everything happens for a reason, she decides to ride Northwest on her horse to explore the rapidly changing landscape in hopes of finding a place where she belongs. Instead, she encounters nothing but fear and unrest, or at least until she has an accident and wakes up to meet a woman named Laura. Sam can’t stop thinking about her, but Laura nothing to do with Sam.

Taylor Barnes is an Army veteran, who is happy to simply work on a farm she shares with her close friends outside of town. However, when the city of Astoria struggles to maintain order after the world goes dark, she suddenly she finds herself thrust into a leadership role she never wanted. The only reason she agrees is so she can keep the world safe for Jackie, the woman she loves.

Jackie Scott, once a powerful CEO, had the world at her fingertips but is now adrift in a new reality without any of the modern conveniences she once relied on. Living on her sister’s farm near the small town of Astoria, the only stability she can rely on is Taylor, the one person who she is slowly learning to trust and, if she is willing to listen to her heart, maybe even love. The end of the world is only the beginning.

IN THE EYE OF THE BEHOLDER: ONLY YOU

by Tosh Baker
narrated by Hilarie Mukavitz

If you enjoy a good romance, you will enjoy this lighthearted and humorous display of true love. Both women in their early forties, cross paths in a fortunate turn of events. You will fall in love with Madison and Katherine, as they overcome the harsh elements of controversy, in a lesbian relationship.

FREEBIES

Have you checked out the freebies page on I Heart Lesfic?

Many authors, like Miranda MacLeod, give away a freebie when you sign up for their newsletter. Click on the image to sign up for Miranda MacLeod’s newsletter.