Dear lesfic fan,

Here are this week’s new ebook and audio releases, sales, 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: tbm@iheartlesfic.com. Include “Sale for IHL Newsletter” in the subject line.

Anyone with lesfic news, give me a shout at tbm@iheartlesfic.com.

Happy reading and listening,

TB

ROMANCE

SUMMER FATE

by Emma Nichols
Available in Kindle Unlimited

Grace has it all. At least she did until a moment of indiscretion threatens to destroy her career.

With everything in London at stake and her fate in the Board’s hands, she escapes to her Aunt’s house in the Lake District – the perfect place to hide from her secrets and to get some much-needed peace and quiet.

But Duckton-by-Dale is nothing like she remembered and she certainly didn’t expect to be attracted to her new neighbour, Harriet. But then she also didn’t expect her world to be turned upside down by the quirky ensemble of villagers who plot to give love a helping hand. What could possibly go wrong?

Laugh out loud as you immerse yourself in the antics of the Duckton-by-Dale villagers and watch Harriet & Grace’s romance blossom…

JUNE BRIDE
A Year in Paradise: Book 6

by Hildred Billings
Available in Kindle Unlimited

Doctor Brandelyn “Brandy” Meyer has dreamed of the picture-perfect wedding since she was a little girl. Now that fiancee Sunny Croker is ready to tie the knot? All hell breaks loose as Dr. Bridezilla is unleashed!

Sunny is the embodiment of her name, with her blond hair and genial disposition. Yet even the owner of Paradise Valley’s biggest B&B can’t keep her cool when Brandy’s vision overwrites who Sunny really is. Their previously unbreakable bond goes up against the ultimate test!

Paradise Valley’s wedding of the year will be the only thing residents talk about for months. But will it be the impeccable flowers and sweet vows they discuss? Or how a certain someone was left at the altar?

SCOUT AND THE LAVENDER GIRL

by K.C. Littleton
Available in Kindle Unlimited

Scout Martinez, retired WNBA star, just moved back to Austin to put her life back together after her health, love life, and investments have all taken a beating, and she has no time for a curvy, lavender-haired bisexual with a big mouth and zero girl experience. Not. Going. To. Happen.

If it weren’t for bad luck, Evie Koenig would have no luck at all. Her ex-husband stole thousands of dollars from her college fund, she’s barely scraping by with three jobs, and now she’s buried her car under the back end of a huge moving truck. Which, by the way, just happens to be driven by one of her sports heroes and the architect of her bisexual awakening. #fml

It’s too bad, really, that they keep on running into one another.

FORGETTING TO BREATHE

by Megan E. Bean

Wonderfully bright Ashley Engles feels extremely nervous on the first day of her senior year at Cactus High. Having skipped a year, Ashley now has to face kids in class she’s never met before. She goes to her first class full of apprehension and meets someone who will turn her world upside down.

Keira Mitchell is captain of the golf team at Cactus High School, attractive, athletic, and popular — every boy in high school’s dream girl. Except she isn’t. Keira is openly gay and currently in a relationship. And she keeps a painful secret to herself.

Sparks fly when Keira ends up sitting next to Ashley in math class. But trouble looms. How will Ashley’s best friend since first grade react to the new development? Will Ashley be able to keep her oldest friendship and start a love relationship at the same time? When she discovers Keira’s secret, will Ashley and all her loved ones sail through stormy waters and reach the calm with all her relationships intact?

Is it really possible to have it all?

CONTEMPORARY ROMANCE

GOOD SPIN

by Monica McCallan
Available in Kindle Unlimited

Emery Bates has exactly one problem she’s willing to admit, and it’s that she doesn’t have a girlfriend to take as her date to a wedding. Not because she needs a girlfriend, but because she needs an easier way to come out to college friends that she hasn’t seen in five years. When her next door neighbor ends up single a few weeks before the wedding, problem solver Emery realizes inviting Jordan along and faking romance for a week in Hawaii could be perfect for both of them.

Jordan Davis doesn’t worry about much, especially what will happen tomorrow. Life’s too short to plan every second, and it usually doesn’t work out anyway. When Emery invites her on an all-expenses paid trip to Hawaii, it’s not a hard sell. She’ll get to enjoy a tropical vacation with one of her closest friends, and she’ll get to spend more time with Emery, away from Emery’s hectic work schedule back in Austin.

But, there’s more to the request than Emery’s letting on, and there’s more to Jordan’s willingness to help than she wants to admit. It’s only eight days, but time passes differently when there’s nowhere to be and nowhere to hide. When lines blur between reality and fiction, both women have to decide if falling in love is worth the jump.

THE LOVE DOCTOR

by S. W. Andersen

Sofia Delacruz is her name and love is her game. Despite the tragic end to her own story, she hasn’t given up on happily ever after. At least, not when it comes to other people. When a new client hires them in hopes of kindling a relationship with her long-time crush, life takes an unexpected turn. Personal desires burn like bonfires and professional boundaries are pushed, putting the duo in uncharted territory. For Sofia, however, that tantalizing burn also pierces like a stake through the heart. Can she finally shake the pain of her past and heal?

FEAR OF FALLING

by Georgia Beers

Since she was fourteen, singer Sophie James has been an international superstar. With her career (and life) directed by her manager, Ray, she hasn’t had to worry about a thing for more than a decade…not where she goes, not what she sings, not who she is. But when Ray has a heart attack, Sophie is left without the only real father figure she’s ever known and questioning everything she believes about what’s important to her.

Enter Dana Landon, the new manager sent by Sophie’s record company. Dana is gorgeous, sophisticated, and ready to do her job keeping Sophie’s career on track and making the record company money. Dana captures Sophie’s attention in ways Sophie never expected and isn’t ready for, but after so many years of being told what to do, Sophie’s ready to shake things up with some ideas of her own. Ones Dana hasn’t been planning on and isn’t at all sure she likes.

CREATE A LIFE TO LOVE

by Erin Zak

Romance novelist Jackie Mitchell has built a life that works: few responsibilities, friends that know she’s far from outgoing, and sex whenever she needs it. She has her past, but she doesn’t think about it. Ever.

All that changes when she finds the child she gave up for adoption standing on the doorstep. Now sixteen years old, Beth Weber is resourceful, a blossoming artist, and a spitting image of her birth mom. To say Jackie is stunned is the understatement of the year.

When Jackie meets Beth’s adoptive mom, Susan, they’re immediately attracted to each other, but there’s no way Jackie is getting involved with a married woman, especially Beth’s mom. But when Susan and Beth need a place to stay and end up back on Jackie’s doorstep, their lives change forever.

Will these three women who share a past and face an uncertain future be able to forge a life of love together?

PLAYING WITH FIRE

by Lesley Davis

Takira Lathan’s life revolves around her restaurant. She owns it, cooks in it, and is one hundred percent dedicated to its success. Her life starts to veer off course when money goes missing and so does her restaurant manager, leaving her in the lurch. Most importantly, raising her young nephew was never anywhere in her plans.

Dante Groves could be the answer to Takira’s prayers. She’s an excellent manager and is totally at ease with children. She’s also mature, kind, and unashamedly butch. Takira can’t help being attracted, but Dante’s emotional baggage from her last relationship has left her way too wary of romance.

Betrayed by those they trusted, Takira and Dante must rely on each other to create a recipe for success, both in business and in love.

PRACTICE MAKES PERFECT

by Carsen Taite

Meet law school friends Campbell, Abby, and Grace, law partners at Austin’s premier boutique legal firm for young, hip entrepreneurs. Or, it will be as soon as they score a victory for their first big client.

Campbell Clark wins the big pitch and lands the client, or so she thinks, until the internet start-up insists her firm work with the legal counsel Campbell thought they’d be replacing. Wynne Garrity has never been second best, and she’s not going to let anyone screw up her chance of making partner, but to do so she needs to hang on to her client and prove to everyone her firm isn’t stuck in the Stone Age.

Reluctant team players, Campbell and Wynne would risk everything by giving in to the attraction that flares between them. In the boardroom and the courtroom, only one can win, but the price of victory could mean losing at love.

Legal Affairs: one law firm, three best friends, three chances to fall in love.

WAVERING CONVICTIONS

by Erin Dutton

Maggie Davidson lives in fear after being robbed on the street outside her office. But the trauma has only just begun, and now she must face her attacker in court. A chance encounter with a beautiful woman in the courthouse café is the only bright spot in her day, until she finds out just who the woman is.

Ally Becker has always been her brother’s hero, and she’s at the courthouse to support him as he faces up to his mistakes. When she discovers that the stranger she shared coffee with is actually Maggie, the victim of her brother’s crime, she is torn between family loyalty and an attraction she can’t seem to forget.

Maggie and Ally have absolutely no intention of falling in love, but what they find in each other just might heal them both.

THE LAST SEDUCTION

by Ronica Black

Growing older has hit youth softball club owner Hannah Carter across the face like a jilted lover. So much so that she’s let her long-time partner, Sasha, slip right through her fingers. Hannah has convinced herself things are better this way for everyone involved, that is until Sasha calls her, near death and pleading for her to come quickly.

Sasha Bashton is trying like hell to move on with her life after the breakup, but dating someone new and throwing herself into her work doesn’t stop her from reliving Hannah’s warm smile and loving embrace no matter how much she wants to forget. When her chronic disease recurs, she’s rushed to the hospital fighting for her life. The only person she wants by her side is Hannah, but can she truly depend on her sticking around?

Hannah has one last chance to show Sasha how wrong she has been and start fresh for a love worth fighting for. All she has to do is convince Sasha she’s the right woman for her—the second time around.

FANTASY ROMANCE

DAUGHTER OF NO ONE
The Odium Trilogy: Book 1

by Sam Ledel

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.

FANTASY

BEAST CALLER
Witch Queen: Book 1

by Brea Alepou
Available in Kindle Unlimited

Melony thought her life was boring. Every day the same routine; going to class and hanging with her best friend, Denelle.

Then, suddenly, everything changed. While investigating a flash of light she was transported to another realm. The harder she tries to return to her world and forget about it, she’s dragged back into this foreign world. Zola’s world.

Zola is an esteemed unicorn general. One of the highest ranking warriors of the forest. She vowed to protect the forest and all its inhabitants. While fighting against a pack of wild ghouls, she meets a beautiful witch. It’s been drilled in her head from a young age that Witches and magical creatures don’t mix. Witches aren’t to be trusted, yet she can’t fight the attraction she has toward this stranger. This beautiful soul.

Itsumi is indebted to the queen and must follow her orders. One of her missions is to help capture a powerful witch. When she does, she can’t understand, nor can she fight the attraction to the sarcastic beauty.

One witch and two magical creatures, fireballs fly and screams will be heard. Everything could be ripped away in a flurry of blood and pain. The start of the Witch Queen has begun.

Trigger Warnings: death, violence, graphic language and scenes for 18+

URBAN FANTASY

BLOODBATH
Harrietta Lee: Book 2

by Stephanie Ahn

Harrietta Lee has a friend who can see the future, and she’s just gone missing.
She’s not the only one. There are too many disappearances to count, and Harry can’t be everywhere at once–which is why she’s enlisting the help of a fumbling, fedora-clad detective, a programmer who moonlights as a DJ, and your friendly neighborhood demon, Lilith.

Well, “help” is a relative term…

Trigger Warnings: graphic violence, death of adults and minors, explicit sex, and discussion of past abusive relationships.

PARANORMAL ROMANCE

SLAVE MOON
Return of the Old-Bloods: Book 3

by Brett Hicks
Available in Kindle Unlimited

Ingrid finds herself on a habitable moon filled with lost remnants of human civilization. She soon learns that she, like all human-like beings, is on the menu. Deadly Stakes are raised, and Ingrid might not be able to save herself, much less the helpless mortals enslaved on this deadly moon!

ROMANTIC INTRIGUE

BREAKING POINT

by Amy Bright
Available in Kindle Unlimited

Andi and Dawn collide (literally) on a beach in Mexico. This leads the women to indulge in a hot and steamy, but short-lived fling. After returning to their respective homes on the East Coast, they begin a long-distance affair. An affair that quickly turns from casual to serious.

Tess has been Dawn’s best friend since they were seven-years-old. She has also been in love with Dawn since discovering she liked girls in junior high school. In an attempt to win Dawn’s heart, she has successfully sabotaged every relationship Dawn has ever attempted to have, but still has not moved past the friend zone.

Will Andi and Dawn’s new-found love fall victim to Tess’s sabotage? And just how far is Tess willing to go to have Dawn for herself?

SALE ALERT

DON’T ASK DON’T TELL

by Jessa Stone

FREE $2.99 (Available in Kindle Unlimited)

LAST DAY TO GRAB THIS FREEBIE! 

Having been left for the other woman more times than she’d like to remember, Darcy finds herself caught up in an unlikely attraction with a mysterious woman. What was supposed to be a one night stand, turns into a repeat affair. Can love be built on secrets? Or is this one connection that Darcy walks away from?

FIRE ON THE ICE

by Tamsen Parker

$1.99 $3.99 

Blaze Bellamy is the bad girl of the short track speed skating world. Looking like a roller derby bruiser when she’s not in her Team USA uniform, she’s an unlikely American heroine. She’s got a punk attitude to match her provocative dress and her dyed hair, and she’s determined to get onto the front pages of the papers regardless of how she has to do it.

Maisy Harper is the workhorse of the Canadian women’s figure skating team. Serious, modest, and above all, polite, Maisy would prefer to win her victory on the ice rather than in the press, and is exasperated by Blaze’s antics. When she’s not lusting after her anyway. After they both failed to make the medal podium at the last Snow and Ice Games, they drowned themselves in gin—and each other.

Despite their hookup being drunken, they both harbor fond memories of their night together and are keen for a repeat. But they’ve got different ways of going about getting what they want, and Blaze’s willingness to go to any lengths for the spotlight could ruin any chance she has with Maisy.

NEW AUDIOBOOKS

NEVER JUST FRIENDS

by Lily Craig
narrated by Emily Beresford

Falling for your best friend is hard. 

Georgiana – Georgie to everyone outside her family – figured out long ago that being in love with your straight best friend sucks. Turns out it’s even worse when that friend, Madelyn, tells you she’s not so straight after all. After it becomes clear to Georgie that she needs to get over Madelyn, Georgie moves cities and starts a new job.

To grad student Madelyn, though, the sudden rift between the friends prompts painful introspection. A year later, she realizes her feelings for Georgie are romantic after all. Madelyn plans to use their annual winter cabin getaway to confess her love.

But Canadian winters are unpredictable. When Madelyn and Georgie are snowed into their cabin in the woods, the two are forced into difficult conversations that confront deeply felt emotions about the past, present, and future. Can the friends find common ground after all they’ve been through?

ALL THE LITTLE MOMENTS

by G. Benson
narrated by Cat Gould

A successful anaesthetist, Anna is focused on herself, her career, and her girlfriend. Everything changes abruptly when her brother’s and sister-in-law’s deaths devastate her and her family. Left responsible for her young niece and nephew, Anna finds herself dumped and alone in Melbourne, a city she doesn’t even like. She tries to navigate the shock of looking after two children battling with their grief while managing her own.

Filled with self-doubt, Anna feels as if she’s making a mess of the entire thing, especially when she collides with a long-legged stranger. Anna barely has time to brush her teeth in the morning, let alone to date a woman – least of all one who has no idea about the two kids under her care.

Just when Anna finally starts to feel as if she’s getting some control of the situation, the biggest fight begins and Anna really has to step up once and for all.

ASK, TELL

by E.J. Noyes
narrated by Abby Craden

Captain Sabine Fleischer is a skilled and dedicated US Army surgeon deployed to a combat hospital in Afghanistan. She is also one of the thousands of troops who are forced to serve in silence because of the military’s anti-gay policy of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell (DADT)”.

Usually driven and focused, Sabine finds that battles raging both inside and outside the perimeter walls are making it more and more difficult for her to deal with her emotions. Dealing with loss and mortality, lack of privacy, sleep deprivation, loneliness, and the isolation forced on her by Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell are all taking their toll. Plus, her long-term relationship with a civilian back home is quickly becoming another casualty of war.

Colonel Rebecca Keane is an enigmatic career officer who runs the surgical unit like clockwork. Well-liked and respected by those who work with and under her, she walks a fine line to preserve the military’s chain of command while connecting with those under her care and supervision. Sabine knows the colonel is way off-limits but can’t help fantasizing about her. Especially when she starts picking up unspoken cues – a stolen glance, a secret smile, an “accidental” brush of hands. Or is it just wishful thinking? After all, Rebecca’s wedding ring shines almost as brightly as her deep blue eyes….

NEITHER PRESENT TIME

by Caren J. Werlinger
narrated by Eliza Foss

Can a house save the lives of the people who live in it? Can an inscription written in a book over 60 years ago change the fates of people not even born when it was written?

Beryl Gray is solid and dependable – her partner, Claire, thinks so, her family thinks so, her colleagues think so. She has a long-term relationship and a job she likes as a university librarian. Her life seems settled, content – except nothing is as it seems.

Aggie Bishop’s last girlfriend left her three years ago and she hasn’t had a date since. Her life now revolves around work and taking care of her great-aunt Cory who doesn’t want to be taken care of. Aunt Cory still lives in the run-down mansion that the rest of the family wants to sell if they can only get the old lady into a nursing home. Aggie is all that stands between them and her great-aunt.

When Beryl finds a book with a romantic inscription dated 1945, the events that follow will change the lives of all three women forever.

Spanning decades, this enchanting tale reminds us that some loves never fade and that sometimes, home truly is where the heart lies.

LESFIC NEWS

The June selection for Lesfic Book Club is The Brutal Truth by Lee Winter. They’ll be chatting on SATURDAY June 22nd at 8PM EST this month because it would be downright inhospitable to ask Lee to get up at 4am in Australia for the usual meeting time, so if you’re planning to attend, please note the change!

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Click this link to enter.

PODCAST NEWS

LWW 16: Should You Go Indie, or Should You Find a Publisher? 

Listen to episode 16 of Lesbians Who Write to learn the big sticking points for why Clare Lydon decided to become an indie author.

Click here to listen. 

If you’d like to leave a comment on the episode, head on over to www.lesbianswhowrite.com. Or email lesbianswhowrite@gmail.com. Also, if you have a suggested topic for an episode, please let Clare and TB know! They’d love to hear from you!

Have a lovely week!

TB

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