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
RESERVATIONS OF THE HEART
by TB Markinson
Available in Kindle Unlimited
Can two wounded souls find solace together?
41-year-old doctor Stella Gilbert used to have it all. Her career was on fire, and she had a picture-perfect family—until she was blindsided by her wife doing the unthinkable.
Reeling from the revelation of a long-held family secret, 29-year-old Aurora Shirley is just over it all.
When Stella and Aurora unexpectedly come together, sparks fly. Neither is looking for a relationship, but what they discover in one another is so much more than a physical connection. Can two wounded women who believe love is the last thing they want overcome their fears to find healing?
Best-selling lesbian romance author T.B. Markinson brings lesfic readers a heartwarming age-gap story about facing one’s demons to live a fuller and loving life. Grab your copy of the standalone medical romance novel that will make your heart sing.
SEPTEMBER LESSONS
A Year in Paradise: Book 9
by Hildred Billings
Available in Kindle Unlimited
On the first day of senior year in a new school, Alabaman transplant Carrie Sage meets the girl of her lesbian dreams.
Too bad the mayor’s daughter is a bit too straight to go for a troublemaking Southerner like Carrie.
Enter Leigh-Ann Hardy, the only girl in Clark High School who knows a thing or two about the girl Carrie crushes after like it’s Valentine’s Day. After all, Leigh-Ann and the mayor’s daughter used to be best friends!
While Carrie navigates life in a brand-new place that automatically labels her more trouble than she’s worth, Leigh-Ann faces a truth she’s been suppressing her whole life in Paradise Valley.
She might be a little bit gay. It only took the new girl to make her see that!
ALL THE REASONS I NEED
by Jaime Clevenger
Kate Owens has kept her attraction to her best friend Mo Calloway a carefully guarded secret for years. But some secrets you can’t hide forever and she’s worried that Mo is beginning to suspect her feelings.
It’s harder than ever to pretend there’s nothing going on when a reservation mistake on a trip to Mexico leads to Kate sharing Mo’s bed for five long nights.
One fateful vacation could change everything. But are Kate and Mo ready to risk their friendship for a chance at love?
COUNTING ON LOVE
by RL Burgess
A rising star in the corporate world of finance, Zoe Cavendish is nursing a secret flame for her boss. She knows it’s stupid and her friends keep telling her she should move on, but somehow she can’t quite extinguish the hope.
The last thing on Reyna Azoulay’s mind is love. Not only is she busy with her demanding role as CEO of a high-flying financial advisory firm, but she’s also just recently taken in her sister’s child.
When Zoe is selected to present alongside Reyna at a prestigious international conference, they are thrown together and reality comes knocking—as does the suave keynote speaker who seems determined to whisk Zoe away into the desert sunset.
Will Zoe and Reyna realize what’s right in front of them before it’s too late?
SUMMER DESIRES
by Emily King
On the crowded sandy beaches of southern California, newly minted lifeguard Amy Bergen has her hands full keeping the beachgoers safe. She loves her job and knows she made the right decision to finally pursue her childhood dream. The problem is—she’s still the busy owner and manager of a luxury auto dealership. And with so many roles to juggle, finding time to date seems like one more complication…until she meets Sarah.
When Midwestern transplant and middle school teacher Sarah Wagner sees Amy on duty at the beach, she is immediately drawn to her. But so are a lot of other women. And after a rocky first encounter, Sarah isn’t sure Amy is truly the kind of woman she is looking to date. But with Amy, desire just might win out…
DESTINY’S BRIDGE
The Somerville Series: Book 1
by Carrie L Carr
Available in Kindle Unlimited
Budding realtor Amanda Cauble is sent on a fool’s errand on a stormy afternoon. When her car is washed into a rising creek, it could be the last thing she does.
Lexington (Lex) Walters has run the Rocking W Ranch for the last ten years, alone except for hired hands and her feisty housekeeper, Martha. She doesn’t have the time or inclination for dating, but when fate drops a beautiful woman into her path, how can she resist?
With the bridge out of service and the weather against them, Lex and Amanda work together to take care of the ranch. When they stumble across a group of rustlers also stranded by the weather, will the stress destroy their budding relationship?
CONTEMPORARY ROMANCE
DREAMS
by Serena J. Bishop
Aurora’s life is perfectly mundane. She has a job she hates, an ex that ran her out of her hometown, and the highlight of her week is Monday breakfast with her best friend. That changes when Aurora starts dreaming of a woman who can’t remember her own name. A woman who Aurora falls head over heels for. She knows the romance that develops between them isn’t real, but the dreams make life so much better that she hurries to bed every night…until she discovers that her dream woman isn’t imaginary. Her name is Leela and she is in a coma.
Aurora must risk everything—her job, apartment, friends, and her sanity—to save Leela, a woman she’s only ever met in her mind. But in order to help, Aurora must convince Leela’s neurologist and parents that she and Leela have a bond that transcends the physical plane.
Can Aurora fight through a progressively nightmarish landscape to wake Leela? And if Leela wakes, will she recognize Aurora as the one who saved her? As the one Leela said she loved? Their dream-relationship might not be real, but if there is any possibility of making her dreams come true, Aurora has to try.
Dreams is a sweet lesfic romance about a love that defies the laws of physics.
NEW ADULT CONTEMPORARY ROMANCE
WICOMICO SLOW
by Cameron North
Life on the Eastern Shore of Maryland is laidback, except for Clare Danforth, who is in her junior year at college. She is busy between dual majors, a string of gruesome student deaths committed by the Wicomico Killer, and a drunk night of sex with another female student. Clare attempts to hide her one-time gay mistake until she meets Leigh Carver, who is a tall, gorgeous, and totally gay police officer.
But as a Maryland State Trooper, Leigh struggles with hiding her sexual orientation and carrying a badge in a male dominated field. When the serial killer escalates his kill rate, Clare and Leigh are faced with life changing choices. But will if they make them in time, before Wicomico Killer sets his sights on Clare?
[INSERT SELF-DISCOVERY HERE]
by Belinda Roddie
Available in Kindle Unlimited
Who needs a road map for life when you can just improvise in a cozy cabin in the woods?
Belinda Roddie’s debut novel, [Insert Self-Discovery Here], tackles young love and the coming-of-age story in a fresh, humorous, and refreshingly honest way. A fun addition to the New Adult genre!
Jamie has never exactly been sure about what she wants to do in life, despite an initial plan to become a history teacher sans a passion for history. So when the motive for her education and work – her girlfriend Emily – breaks up with her after their college graduation, she’s left with the typical twenty-something depression and a complete lack of direction in her life.
Enter Devin, an old friend and “free spirit” who offers Jamie a chance to do something remotely fulfilling for the year; specifically, they will be taking care of and renting out Devin’s Uncle Aaron’s property in the small wooded town of Pensalado. Caught in the middle of the wilderness with no technology past the nineteen nineties, a hippie Devin, a fabulously gay Kyle, and a snarky yet wounded Rachel (who ultimately becomes an unprecedented target of affection. Big shocker) – Jamie has the chance to learn to cope, rebuild, and figure out a new goal. Even if that goal, as it may turn out, is simply to improvise.
ACTION & ADVENTURE / ROMANCE
OUTBACK BRED
A Woman Down Under: Book 2
by K’Anne Meinel
Available in Kindle Unlimited
Melissa Lawrence swims ashore in Australia. She has no idea what to expect after escaping her captors. Since becoming Mel Lawrence, she finds her interests are expanding beyond just the “woman of means” role she had been raised to accept. After finding someone to teach her about becoming a grazer, she herds a flock of sheep into the Australian outback. She never imagined she would find a mate, a land that challenges her, and a life she felt she was bred for.
ACTION SCI-FI
BIRTHRIGHT
Ascension: Book 1
by L. Fergus
Available in Kindle Unlimited
To claim her birthright Kita must win her harrowing Proving Ritual, but it proves to be more of a challenge than she can handle. She would rather die than lose. Is she willing to reveal her darkest secret to win?
FANTASY
FIANNA THE GOLD
The Shift Series: Book 1
by Louisa Kelley
Abbie is a compulsive jewel thief whose life hasn’t been making much sense. On a solo camping trip in the forests of western Oregon, she’s attacked by mysterious men and the event triggers a shift within her that she doesn’t understand and refuses to believe.
Fianna, Orla, and Guin are dragon shape-shifters living in secret in a magically hidden cabin in the mountains of Oregon. Fianna’s on a redemption quest to locate the rare human-dragon hybrid whose Draca DNA has been triggered and deliver the fledgling to the dragon community. Abbie is that magical being. With her two sisters’ help, Fianna must protect Abbie from nefarious forces that seek to exploit her, as well as from humans, who must remain oblivious to the existence of shape-shifters.
But Abbie’s a handful, as Fianna soon learns. Wrangling a strong-headed mischievous hybrid who has no idea of her own powers proves to be a frustrating mission. They have to move fast, before it’s too late and their secret existence, both on earth and in an alternate reality, is revealed by an unwitting baby dragon.
Abbie is hunted by a human who knows her secret, and something else that Abbie doesn’t even know about herself. Abbie has to come to terms with who and what she is, but who can she trust? When she encounters the three dragons, the events that follow rock the dragon world and threatens the safety of its inhabitants. The circumstances bring Abbie and Fianna into sizzling contact, and they both end up with more than they expected that day.
Throw in a conniving, thousand-year-old dragon with dementia determined to capture Abbie in Portland for his own purposes, and you’ve got…delicious, magical, dragonly fun. Everyone wants Abbie, especially Fianna, and it’s a race to see who gets to her first.
URBAN FAIRYTALES
ARMAGEDDON
Urban Fairytales: Book 11
by Erik Schubach
Last Upon a time…
The Avatars have all gathered in Seattle to face the Elders in a bid to stop the reset of the mortal realm and the loss of trillions of souls spread across the many worlds of our realm.
The women of fairy tales, myth, & legend must split up to face the enemies, who are bordering on godhood, on many fronts. Fighting a losing battle, the Avatars give all that they have to save the world from Armageddon.
This final chapter in the Urban Fairytales saga all comes down to the woman who started it all, Maireni Damaschin, the Red Hood, as she attempts to outmaneuver these timeless titans who can destroy worlds with but a thought.
THRILLER / SUSPENSE
IMPLICATIONS
Carpenter/Harding: Book 9
by Barbara Winkes
Available in Kindle Unlimited
Did George Wilder die in prison serving a life sentence for a crime he didn’t commit? A reporter asks Ellie on behalf of Wilder’s family to look into the decades old murder. When initial inquiries raise doubts about Wilder’s guilt, Ellie thinks that the real killer might have gone unpunished, but she doesn’t have much time to prove her theory.
Together, Jordan and Ellie work on the most important project of their lives…
HISTORICAL FICTION
BLOOMSBURY’S LATE ROSE
by Pen Pearson
Available in Kindle Unlimited
A poet in Edwardian London. A woman struggling to let her voice be heard.
In 1894, sisters Charlotte and Anne Mew take a solemn vow never to marry, and never to pass on the family curse: insanity. The spinster Mew sisters descend into genteel poverty, their mother on an invalid’s sofa, Anne, the painter, in a menial job.But Charlotte, the poet, will find immortality, and unexpected love.
Her path will require that she keep secrets and make sacrifices that may be too much even for Charlotte’s determined spirit.
In Bloomsbury’s Late Rose, Pen Pearson, herself an accomplished poet, has imagined a vivid and affecting story of a woman’s life in Edwardian London that will engage and move every reader.
SALE ALERT
SAFE PASSAGE
Black Flag: Book 1
by Rachel Ford
$0.99 $4.99
Available in Kindle Unlimited
Go big or go home. For privateer Captain Magdalene Landon, it’s all about going big. For Kay Ellis, it’s about getting home. Together, they’re about to architect the most daring heist in the galaxy.
Kay knows too much. She knows it’s a matter of time before a Conglomerate hitman finds her. She’s desperate for safe passage back to Union space.
Then Magdalene shows up, promising a way home in exchange for that information. It’s a risky bet, but Kay is out of options. So she strikes a deal: the heist of the century for her freedom.
Kay is playing a dangerous game, and she knows it. She’s made herself Enemy Number One of the Conglomerate. She’s relying on privateers for her safety. It’s a fool’s game. But the worst part is, her fool’s heart is starting to warm to the enigmatic captain. And that’s a risk for which she hadn’t planned.
NEW AUDIOBOOKS
IT’S ONLY LOVE
by Diane Marina
narrated by Daniela Acitelli
Jessica Thomas flees heartache to spend a summer in Rome, Italy. What begins as a summer to forget the past turns into one full of memories in “Italian Summer”.
In Savannah, Georgia, a young heir to the city’s largest candy manufacturer falls hard for the new employee. Will she lose her heart and her family’s business in “Sweet Girl”?
Cameron struggles with her inner demons and visits The Castle, a lesbian-only club where women can live out their fantasies with like-minded women. What she discovers leads her toward acceptance in “It’s Only Love”.
Miranda and Chelsea move to a stylish home in Pasadena The house has been the source of some unsettling occurrences. Miranda and Chelsea vow to get to the bottom of what is happening in “Blue Lamp”.
In a posh hotel in New York City in 1948, two young socialites are introduced. Will their love simply become part of the history of the Imperial Hotel?
MEMORY
by Bridget Essex
narrated by TJ Richards
Piper once believed she’d found her happily-ever-after in Estella.
Until Estella left.
Piper and Estella met when they were kids. Estella was rich and spoiled, Piper was poor and curious, and – in each other – the two girls found an unexpected friendship. Year after year went by as they grew up together, growing closer and closer as time passed, until Piper realized that she loved Estella more than anything in the universe.
The day Piper told Estella she loved her was the day Estella walked out the door, never to return again….
Or so Piper thought.
Years have passed, and they’re both grown women living opposite lives on opposite sides of the country. All they have between them are the memories of a young love that was so beautiful and profound that it changed their lives forever….
But a chance encounter pulls the two women together once more.
Does true love exist? Or are some scars too deep to ever heal?
PODCAST NEWS
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!
GIVEAWAYS
LESFIC BOOKCLUBS
AUTHOR NEWS
NECRWA20 Workshop Submission
Do you have an amazing workshop? Pitch us your best!
We are looking for a wide variety of panels and instructional sessions that will appeal to authors of all sub-genres and levels of experience. We especially encourage Authors of Color, LGBTQ+ authors, and otherwise marginalized authors to send in workshops for consideration.
If you have any questions, please reach out to Tamsen Parker, our workshop chair, at conference_workshops@necrwa.org
***
The Awards Administrators are pleased to announce that nominations for the 2020 Golden Crown Literary Awards is open.
Anyone, including members and non-members, are invited to submit nominations for the awards.
Please visit our website for more information regarding eligibility, judging guidelines, categories, how to nominate a book, and deadlines.
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.
For all the offerings, click this page.
Want to receive a weekly update about new releases delivered to your inbox. Sign up here.
