Hello and happy Tuesday!
Before we get to today’s newsletter, we have a couple of announcements.
IHL Reading Challenge
It’s week 2 of the IHL Reading Challenge. You can click here for reading suggestions for POC character. Some of the books are on sale, which are on the reading challenge suggestions page, but can also be found right here.
Remember, you can join the I Heart Lesfic Facebook reader group. Every Monday we will announce the category for the week, and every Wednesday you will have the opportunity to post what book you are reading and be entered into the monthly drawing for a $25 Amazon gift card. (For those who are not on Facebook and still want to enter, remember you can email your reading selection to tbm@iheartlesfic.com).
Second, we have created a Goodreads group where readers can discuss books, swap recommendations, and generally have a good time.
Author Roz Alexander created some graphics for the IHL reading challenge. Visit the page here if you want visual aids for the categories scheduled each week. Thanks so much Roz!
Free book alert!
PLAYING WITH FIRE
by Sue Graham
Available in Kindle Unlimited
Michaela is driven by ambition and her vast creative fire burns for expression and acclaim. Kim has been there, knows the cost, and has lost the spark of inspiration she once had. Their chance meeting and growing friendship sets in motion events that leads them through loss and heartbreak onto new paths of discovery, but will these paths bring them together?
New Releases
Now, here are this week’s new ebook and audio releases.
Please click on this link for how to submit books (ebook and audio) for the newsletter. IHL will not include books unless they receive an email from either the author or publisher.
Happy reading and listening,
TB & Miranda
ROMANCE
A QUIET LIFE
by Sienna Waters
Available in Kindle Unlimited
What does it take to melt a frozen heart?
When a heart attack nearly kills her, lawyer Holland Goldmann secludes herself in the country. All she wants is a quiet life. Until a stray dog sets her on a collision course with a beautiful young vet.
Emory Carter is fresh out of vet school and desperate to save her dead father’s veterinary practice. But when she ends up getting sued, it looks like her dreams are shattered.
When ice queen lawyer meets ambitious young vet sparks start to fly. But it’s all so wrong. Holland is too old and broken for this, and Emory is too busy failing at life. And yet the two just can’t keep their hands off each other. Right up until tragedy strikes.
Opposites can attract, but can they build a life together? When lives are quite literally on the line sometimes the only thing you can do is believe in true love. Which might be a problem if you’re a cold-hearted lawyer…
2022 IHL Reading Challenge Categories: Ice Queen, Cute Animal, Age Gap
RISKING HER HEART
by Lindsey Pennington
Available in Kindle Unlimited
What do you do when your world falls apart?
You go home.
But what if that home hasn’t been home for far too long?
Award-winning photographer Georgia Quinn lost her family years ago for loving the wrong person. A woman who became her everything without them in her life. After her passing, Georgia’s lost. Now she is back in Minnesota to help her mom through cancer treatments, giving her something to focus on. Because her camera has lost all its appeal.
Staying at her family’s lake house should be relaxing, but her mom isn’t exactly a good patient and her sister is avoiding her. Add to that, her mom demands she hide that she’s gay, something she hasn’t done since leaving them behind. Making getting out of the house a priority, her walks on the beach with her dog a lifeline. Running into the daughter of her mom’s best friend gave her something to look forward to.
Her silly teenage crush is all grown up and still oblivious to how Georgia sees her. Which is fine, because Georgia’s not over her wife. What she needs is a friend, and Olivia Janes is someone she can talk to when her family won’t. In return, Georgia pushes Liv to take her first tentative steps into the dating world after her divorce.
But what happens when Georgia starts to see Liv as more than a friend? Will her family send her away again, this time for good? Is she willing to risk her heart that is just starting to heal?
2022 IHL Reading Challenge Category: Friends to Lovers
PARIS RULES
by Jaime Maddox
Dr. Paige Waterford is struggling with a strained marriage and trying to find her stride after finishing her residency and beginning her career in the ER. When she meets Carly Becker, the fog begins to lift, and she feels a connection like none she’s ever known.
Carly Becker has been searching for the perfect woman all her life, but no one ever seems to be just right. She must be fun and adventurous, love travel and theater, and most importantly, golf. Paige checks all the boxes, except the most important one—she’s married.
Through their mutual passion for golf, a friendship grows, and Paige finds the courage to separate from her husband. Then, on a group trip to Paris, they rewrite the rules. Under Paris Rules, they explore their feelings. But is Paige brave enough to fall in love when they return home?
2022 IHL Reading Challenge Categories: Medical Character, Coming Out, Sports
West End’s Moonlight Boxed Set
by Scarlett Grace
Available in Kindle Unlimited
Two west-end actresses with a hidden past are forced together on the stage. Will their chemistry turn enemies into lovers?
Alex Grendall has been fighting her whole life for her career on the stage. Coming from a working-class background and a hard life being bullied at drama school for being gay, she’s struggled to be taken seriously as a Queer actress. When she’s finally offered the lead role in an all-female version of Romeo and Juliet, she thinks that things are probably looking up, but then she realises the woman playing opposite her is none other than … Clara Columbia, the girl who bullied her so much at school!
Clara Columbia has been running from her past for years. Coming from a high-class background with no shortage of opportunities, she is unsurprised when she’s cast in Romeo and Juliet. But she never expects that her scene partner will be none other than Alex Grendall!
What Alex doesn’t know is Clara’s bullying was just a mask to hide her attraction. Jealous of Alex for being “out” whilst Clara had to hide her sexuality from her well-off parents, she picked on her brutally.
Now a mature woman, Clara knows that if she wants to save the production, she will have to find a way to prove to Alex she’s changed her ways. But how? And will Clara be able to come to terms with her feelings for Alex once and for all?
2022 IHL Reading Challenge Categories: Enemies to Lovers, Celebrity
EXES AND O’S
by Joy Argento
Ali Daniels is a successful writer. Too bad she can’t say the same for her love life. After yet another failed relationship, she decides it’s time to dig deep and find out what she’s doing wrong. Contacting her exes with a questionnaire seems like a piece of cake, until she gets to her high school sweetheart and the girl who shattered her heart, Madison Parker.
Madison has made a neat little life for herself in her small hometown, whose only claim to fame is being an hour from the beach. She’s content running the donut shop her father left her and hanging with her sister and niece. The last thing she expects is for Ali to drop back into her life. After the way Ali left town twenty years ago without so much as an explanation, Madison really shouldn’t be feeling any sort of attraction, but she can’t seem to help herself.
After all this time, Ali and Madison really only have one thing in common. The girl who broke their heart may be the only one who can put it back together.
2022 IHL Reading Challenge Categories: POC Character, Return to Hometown
DURING THE STORM
Art of Love: Book 1
by Scarlett Knight
Available in Kindle Unlimited
A new resident of Colorado, Willow has no idea how to survive in a snowstorm. She finds out just how unprepared she is when a blizzard hits. Snow and ice trap her alone in her home, and with it come unexpected complications. The only person available to help is her neighbor Joy. Hotter than hell on the outside but with a personality colder than ice, Joy has lived in the area for years but hasn’t said one word to Willow since she moved in next door. Initially, both women refuse to reach out to one another in the blizzard, but after the neighborhood loses electricity, everything changes. Joy is no stranger to surviving winter storms, and Willow quickly realizes she has a lot to learn from her, including how to start a fire. But as the two women spend more and more time together during the storm, a different sort of flame begins burning between them.
2022 IHL Reading Challenge Categories: Ice Queen, Hot & Steamy, Forced Proximity, Grumpy/Sunshine
ALWAYS
by Kris Bryant
Peri Logan’s first client is dead, but not in a morbid way. When her great-grandmother passes, her estate bequeathed Peri a piece of jewelry, a stack of cash, and a note that simply reads “find her.” As a newly licensed private investigator, Peri travels to Italy to find the mysterious woman whose photo was perfectly preserved in the heart-shaped locket. What she doesn’t expect is to be given the runaround from a beautiful stranger who offers to help and does anything but.
Camila Barnes is bored. Nothing exciting ever happens in the small town of Sequina, Italy. When a pushy American shows up demanding to meet the woman in Camila’s artwork, instead of introducing her to her great-grandmother, Camila decides to lead her on a wild goose chase all over town. Nobody messes with her family, especially people who won’t tell her why.
When the truth is finally revealed, Peri and Camila realize they are a part of something greater than they ever expected. Attraction is fleeting and true love touches only a few. Do they take the easy road home, or do they fight the odds and give love the chance to last for always?
2022 IHL Reading Challenge Categories: Enemies to Lovers, Suspense
BELVEDERE
by Amy DeMeritt
Available in Kindle Unlimited
It has been seven months since Reese Coldwater’s ex chose a job promotion over their relationship and moved to another country. And when the radio starts playing Christmas music the day after Halloween, she decides she doesn’t want to endure the holiday season alone. She needs a distraction from all of the hype and merriment, so she activates her account on a dating app for people with a predilection for BDSM and power play. She’s not looking for love – she just needs someone to pass the time with.
But love finds her – where she wasn’t even looking for it.
Bella Knight loves Christmas, but she doesn’t like big parties, especially having to plan them. But when the office administrator has to go on maternity leave, Bella is put in charge of coordinating the company’s Winter Gala. Bella’s anxiety is at an all-time high when she has to meet with the company’s business partner – Reese Coldwater. Bella hasn’t been on a date in a year, but there is something about the beautiful executive that captivates her and she can’t get her out of her head.
While Bella navigates the intimidating and monumental task of planning a huge corporate holiday party, romance blossoms, and she might even be the one person able to make Reese like Christmas.
2022 IHL Reading Challenge Categories: BDSM, Holiday Romance
THRILLER
INVOCATIONS
Carpenter/Harding: Book 13
by Barbara Winkes
Available in Kindle Unlimited
Halloween is around the corner…
Detectives Carpenter and Harding are used to bizarre cases, but this one might take the cake: Sightings of scary clowns, murders, a gruesome find on the grounds of an abandoned amusement park.
Did someone’s prank go horribly wrong, or is there something more sinister behind the incidents?
While Jordan, Ellie and their friends work hard to solve the case so citizens can have a safe holiday, another case brings up difficult memories.
Meanwhile, Kathryn needs help with a problem that might have far-reaching consequences for their family…
2022 IHL Reading Challenge Categories: Thriller, Mystery, Suspense
ROMANTIC SUSPENSE
THE KISS
by C.A. Popovich
Kate Willis’s marriage to a possessive, abusive woman is the biggest mistake of her life. Worried about her three-year-old daughter’s emotional state, Kate attempts to convince her wife they need marriage counseling, fails, and files for divorce. Moving from Ohio to start a new life, she settles near her sister in Michigan and joins a hiking group where she meets Leslie, and they share the most incredible kiss ever.
Leslie Baily runs the family restaurant she’ll one day own. On days off, she hikes. The last thing she expects is to meet an intriguing woman she can’t stop thinking about, let alone be kissed senseless.
Kate has a child to support, is waiting for her ex to sign divorce papers, and has absolutely no business falling for Leslie. When her wife refuses the divorce and begins to stalk her, threatening not only her chance at happiness but her life, Kate realizes to protect Leslie she has to let her go, even if it breaks her heart.
2022 IHL Reading Challenge Categories: Romantic Suspense, Thriller
SHADOW DANCERS
The Moon Shadow Series: Book 3
by Suzie Clarke
Security specialist Rachel Portola and her wife, Claire, have begun to rebuild their lives and hope for their future. Rachel has made a promise to stay far away from danger, but her loyalties are tested when two of her team go missing while searching for Eshee Yumiko, the woman who will stop at nothing to see Rachel suffer. Rachel must find a way to become the hunter rather than the hunted and put an end to Eshee’s vendetta. But all Claire sees are Rachel’s broken promises, and her obsession to keep them safe by putting herself in peril may be the very thing that tears them apart for good.
Third and final book in the Moon Shadow series.
2022 IHL Reading Challenge Categories: Romantic Suspense, Thriller
FANTASY
BASTET’S DAUGHTERS: UNKNOWN DREAD
Town of Unknown: Book 2
by Scott Kujawa
Available in Kindle Unlimited
Welcome to the Town of Unknown.
Isabella never expected to be a leader of a pack of werewolves. As she grows into the role, she learns the struggles of living with magic as it changes the world around her. When Sheriff Margaret requests her help with finding a missing person, Isabella realizes she’s become someone everyone relies upon. She never expected Cassidy to reveal her feelings, but once her former rival does, Isabella wants a relationship with the blond woman who didn’t treat her well when they were young.
Cassidy settled into her role as a member of her werewolf pack. When magic destroys the electric grid of the Town of Unknown, she does what she can to help Isabella and David. The surprise of having a dragon daughter isn’t something she believed was possible. Ferno’s birth is another strange event during the others Cassidy deals with during the night when magic changes everything.
Being best friends with Isabella and Cassidy wasn’t easy. David was the peacekeeper between them. His role was the same as magic ravaged the Town of Unknown. However, he can’t say the same about himself as the werewolf transformation made physical and mental changes to him. The one thing he refused to allow anything to take away from him was his work at the health clinic. Tending to the animals and humans was important.
Book two of the Town of Unknown contains: friendships, werewolves, Isabella’s dog, a vampire, a dragon, and other surprises.
2022 IHL Reading Challenge Categories: Fantasy, Vampires
BLACK PORT
Knight Protector: Black Wyvern: Book 1
by Rachel Ford
Available in Kindle Unlimited
A secret order, hunted by two rival kingdoms. A network of spies and saboteurs.
Valia Iceborn is the daughter of two worlds, and a servant of none: her mother was a Northern outlaw and her father a Southern deserter. She grew up in the wilds of No Man’s Land, but the open sea is her home. She swears no allegiances, lest they be to gold.
Knight Protector Portia Daysen is a loyal of daughter of the empire. She goes where she’s told, and does what she’s told. When the empire sends her to the bustling city of Black Port to ferret out a mysterious secret order threatening stability in the region, she doesn’t think twice.
Plunged into a world of deceit and derring-do, where no one is who they pretend to be, and nothing is at it seems, Daysen’s investigation leads her to Valia’s dock.
And crossing sabers with the most formidable – and charming – foe of her career might be the last mission Knight Protector Portia Daysen ever takes.
2022 IHL Reading Challenge Categories: Fantasy, Science Fiction, Slow Burn
FANTASY ROMANCE
THE GHOST’S HOST
by Cathleen Collins
Renee Chambers is a burgeoning germaphobe in search of a new job—something less stressful than her last job, teaching high school students. When her supposedly psychic best friend, Ellen, points her toward an odd little bookstore and a strange, otherworldly woman, Adrianne, Renee is thrown for a loop. One awkward interview and an even stranger psychic encounter later, Renee gets the job. Then Ellen’s psychic dabbling has unintended consequences when Renee meets a pushy new friend, Katherine, a jealous ghost who’s convinced they are soul mates.
A casino trip, a drunken drag show, an old beater of a car, and a pair of dinosaur panties push Renee to the edge, but the real kicker is when Katherine starts getting more insistent and borrowing bodies. All Renee wants is a peaceful, fledgling hermit existence, but that’s unlikely unless she can figure out her true connection to Katherine, Ellen, and Adrianne. To discover the truth, she must come to terms with her past and learn how to embrace the future.
2022 IHL Reading Challenge Categories: Fantasy, Fantasy Romance, Ghosts
FICTION
AND THEN I MET YOU
by Erica Lee
Available in Kindle Unlimited
Have you ever met someone and known from that very first moment that they were going to have a big impact on your life? That’s how it was with Willow Stone. She was that person to me. She will always be that person to me.
And this is her story.
Before you get your hopes up, I need to issue a warning about this story. There’s happiness. And there’s an ending. But there’s not a happy ending. At least, not in the conventional sense.
Anyway, my moment came at freshman orientation when the girl who would eventually become my everything stood up during introductions and proudly announced, “My name is Willow Stone, and I’m going to die on December 27th, 2019.”
2022 IHL Reading Challenge Category: Coming Out
NEW AUDIOBOOKS
THE DEVIL’S ORCHARD
Cain Casey Series: Book 5
by Ali Vali
narrated by Paige McKinney
Cain and Emma are planning a wedding before the birth of their third child. Cain has done everything possible to protect her family and get their lives back to normal. Cain is strengthening her partnership with the Jatibons and Carlotti families, as well as trying to help her cousin Muriel heal from FBI Agent Shelby Phillips’ betrayal.
But nothing can distract her from hunting Juan Luis down to make him pay for trying to take Emma from her. That is the most pressing problem to be dealt with before she can truly enjoy the life and family she and Emma have together. Those plans are derailed with the arrival of someone who not only challenges her place as her father, Dalton’s heir, but also her belief and loyalty to the man who raised her.
2022 IHL Reading Challenge Category: Thriller
LOVE FORGED
by Nicole Pyland
narrated by Leanne Woodward
Tate Antonio has been without her father for nearly 13 years. He left one day and never came back. Tate has given up on hearing from her father ever again when a strange letter arrives in the mailbox of her apartment that she shares with her best friend since birth, Flynn McEntire.
Born just two weeks apart, the two girls grew into women with a plan. They would attend the same university, and later, medical school. They would be at each other’s wedding party when they married the men of their dreams.
The problem with that plan? Tate has no idea that Flynn’s dream has changed, and Flynn wonders if Tate will ever realize she’s in love with her. The other problem? Tate’s father has left her a letter and a lot of confusing information to sort through. That sorting takes Tate and Flynn on a summer journey that will have implications for the rest of their lives.
Will Tate find her father? Will she find the love she was always meant to have? Will she find herself in the process? Can she find it all?
2022 IHL Reading Challenge Categories: Slow Burn, Hot & Steamy, Friends to Lovers, Young Adult / New Adult
SIZZLING SAPPHIC ROMANCE READS
FRIDAY FEELS
Click here for the latest edition.
Wanna get involved? Readers and authors can participate. Find out how here.
VOTE FOR BOOK OF THE MONTH
WRITERLY WEDNESDAY
IHL launched a new feature called Writerly Wednesdays. TB and Miranda will share about some part of their creative adventure, whether it be inspirational, nitty-gritty how-to, or anything in between.
TB shares the backstory to learning that motto just keep going the hard way. Click here to read.
2022 IHL READING CHALLENGE
JAE’S SAPPHIC BOOK BINGO
BUY US A COFFEE
Running IHL takes the three of us many hours every single week. Also, the costs add up. Last year we setup a Buy Us a Coffee page, which allows people to help cover the expenses. When we first announced the page, we were blown away by the response. Not only were people willing to pitch in, but all of the kind notes and encouragement brought more than a few tears to TB’s eyes. If you’d like to support us, click here. Every cup helps immensely! If you’d like to learn more about TB’s initial response to the outpouring of support, click here.
Have a wonderful day!
Miranda & TB
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