Hello and happy Tuesday!
Before we get to today’s newsletter, we have a couple of announcements.
IHL Sapphic Reading Challenge
It’s week 4 of IHL’s Sapphic Reading Challenge. You can click here for reading suggestions for magical realism stories. 4 of the books featured on the page are on sale.
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.
The winner of the January $25 Amazon gift card will be announced on Monday, week 5 of the challenge.
Books of the Month
Click here to vote for your favorite January new releases featured on IHL. Remember, you can also enter the $15 Amazon gift card giveaway on the poll page.
We’re working on the winner announcement for December and we’re compiling all of the winners from the previous year to create the Best Books of 2021 poll. Look for the December winners and the Best Books of 2021 poll to be released on Thursday.
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
by Hildred Billings
Available in Kindle Unlimited
When Noelle walked away from her adult entertainment gig, she never thought she’d return. Not with a comfortable corporate career in her life. Yet shortly after being laid off, she’s back to escorting the region’s wealthiest women… and growing more tired by the night.
An opportunity to take on a single patron opens Noelle to searching for full-time employment and dating again. Noelle wants to fall in love. Have a family. Remember what it’s like to be with people who love her for who she is, not what she can provide.
That’s how she meets Claire on a dating site. And that’s how her world quickly spirals out of control.
2022 IHL Reading Challenge Categories: Girl Next Door; Hot & Steamy; One Night to Forever; Erotic Romance
by Claire Highton-Stevenson
Available in Kindle Unlimited
Hannah Pascoe is an independent, beautiful young woman, enjoying life and what it has to offer. And right now, that’s a date with the deliciously gorgeous Carrie Kimble. Introduced by friends, Hannah has been daydreaming about this moment, and just when she thinks her life might actually be complete, tragedy strikes.
A terrorist bomb explodes across the street, the café’s window imploding seconds later, and when Hannah wakes up in the hospital, she can’t see.
Dealing with her injury, Hannah has much to overcome, but it’s when she meets Erica, a volunteer support worker at the hospital, that she starts to come to terms with her sight loss and understand that although her life is changed, it’s not over.
With Erica’s help, Hannah gets a place at the rehab centre where Erica is a mentor. Erica is able to help Hannah relearn the confidence to undertake the tasks that most people take for granted. A simple bath or cup of tea is now a very different undertaking, but not impossible, and Hannah is determined to overcome her fears.
But being this close to Erica brings another issue for Hannah, one that she didn’t expect…she’s falling for her.
2022 IHL Reading Challenge Category: Character with a Disability
by TB Markinson
Available in Kindle Unlimited
Is a single day worth changing the course of your entire life?
Marley Royce has just two goals for her seventy-two-hour stay in London: land a career-making business deal and finally meet the woman of her dreams face to face.
Fate has something else in mind.
The mega conglomerate Marley works for wants to acquire the venerable but struggling Braithwaite Books. The centuries-old shop is owned by Cleo Braithwaite, a woman with a fierce and frightening reputation. Cleo turns out to be nothing like the rumors but refuses to sit still long enough to be dazzled by the meticulous spreadsheets and slides Marley has prepared to seal the deal. Instead of making her proposal, Marley soon finds herself on an impromptu walking tour of London with the charming Cleo.
Even though Marley has a dinner date that night with the woman she’s been chatting with online and was convinced was her soulmate, she can’t ignore the feelings her bewitching guide stirs up inside as they explore the historic city on foot. What’s more, the longer she’s with Cleo, the more Marley begins to question the business deal she’s been sent to make.
Should Marley stick with the plan, or is a single life-changing day with Cleo worth blowing up the future Marley was so certain she wanted?
Best-selling lesbian romance author TB Markinson, has written a heartfelt and quirky novella about finding love when you least expect it.
2022 IHL Reading Challenge Categories: Sweet; Forced Proximity; Girl Next Door; Friends to Lovers
by Harper Bliss
When a trip down memory lane sparks an unexpected journey to love…
TV cop Sadie Ireland needs a break from her Hollywood life. She heads home to the beach town where she grew up to celebrate her 40th birthday with her family.
Devon Douglas can’t believe it when she comes face-to-face with Sadie again. They were inseparable in high school until Devon did something she has regretted for more than twenty years—she ruined their friendship on a lovestruck whim.
Sadie is as dazzling as Devon remembers—and she can still hold her own surfing the wild waves of Clearwater Bay.
Devon’s first priority is her five-year-old son, but getting to know Sadie all over again is taking up more and more of her headspace.
Sadie is inexplicably drawn to Devon. It could be nostalgia. It could be remnants of their old friendship flaring up. But what if it’s more than that?
Best-selling lesbian romance author Harper Bliss brings you a steamy, big-hearted romance about two women who used to be best friends, until a teenage crush destroyed it all.
2022 IHL Reading Challenge Categories: Toaster Oven; Celebrity; Return to Hometown; Hot & Steamy
Holiday Series: Book 1
by Nicole Pyland
Available in Kindle Unlimited
Weston White just got dumped right before the New Year and hasn’t ever felt particularly lucky in love. Her only love has been writing and working on this novel she’s been trying to finish for years now. Finally, feeling like she’s ready to put it out to the world, she decides to get a literary agent to help her get published. Little does she know, her book getting published would be the second best thing to happen to her this year.
Annie Halifax is the third generation part-owner of The Halifax Agency, a literary agency that’s been dying on the vine for years with the advent of self-publishing. Her job is to carry the torch for the family and ensure the agency doesn’t go under on her watch. When her father decides to retire and, instead, puts her uninterested and sometimes flighty older sister in charge, Annie is left to figure out why and find her new place, either at the agency or somewhere else entirely.
When Weston meets Annie, she’s taken aback instantly, but navigating through getting her first book published while also falling in love with the agent representing her, isn’t easy. And with Annie trying to find out what her future looks like at the agency on top of it, things get complicated.
Watch these two women try to make things work just in time for Valentine’s Day.
2022 IHL Reading Challenge Categories: Holiday Romance; Slow Burn
American Superstar: Book 1
by Shay Paris
Available in Kindle Unlimited
Lennon Emery, an aspiring singer and closeted lesbian, auditions for a spot on the famous American Superstar, a singing competition that promises fame and fortune for the winner. Lennon’s goal is simple, win the show and become the performer she was born to be, and then maybe her parents might finally be proud of her – all the while keeping her secret just that, a secret.
Camila Bianchi, child star turned wild party girl turned redeemed performer. Camila was finally coming out on top, her image rebrand finally allowing her to reap the rewards. She has one more deal to fulfill with her label before she would be free of their clutches – be a judge on American Superstar and mentor the hopeful singers. Falling for one of the performers was not part of the plan.
2022 IHL Reading Challenge Categories: Celebrity; Forced Proximity
by Jazzy Mitchell
Six years after completing her internship, Clarke Parson, a videogame graphic designer and animator, finds herself back in the orbit of Haboob Software’s CEO, Fran Silvetti. Clarke contacts Fran to warn her that the game her company is developing was stolen from Clarke’s computer by an ex-girlfriend after an acrimonious breakup. As Clarke is swept into a torrid affair with the fascinating woman, she covets their time together, hoping Fran may someday return the love Clarke harbors for her.
2022 IHL Reading Challenge Categories: Second Chance; Age Gap
by Shireen Magedin
It’s 1975 in Nawabshah, Pakistan. Sarah and Tanya have fallen in love in an ancient land. Can they withstand the fierce opposition to their forbidden love in a city of deeply held beliefs and cultural traditions? Their journey is just beginning.
The world is changing, but not fast enough for Tanya Kareem. Her promotion to police inspector sends her to Nawabshah where she will have to prove herself and take a leading role in a man’s world.
Sarah Shahzad Shah’s passion for learning and compassion for her patients make her a brilliant doctor in training. But she possesses psychic abilities that she doesn’t know how to master… yet. Those gifts will come in handy when she handles some of her more puzzling cases that lead her to Inspector Tanya Kareem.
2022 IHL Reading Challenge Category: Medical Character
ACTION & ADVENTURE
by KC Luck
Available in Kindle Unlimited
Hold on to your heart…
The daughter of an actress superstar, Ashley Landish wants nothing more than to simply run her popular coffee shop on the Venice Beach boardwalk and enjoy the sun and beaches of beautiful southern California. There is only one thing missing in her life—someone special to take her breath away.
Marine Corporal Bryce Cooper is home on leave after taking care of her father in his last days. Although the Marine Corps is calling, she has a new outlook on life, leaving one last box to check—to tell the woman she knew in college, Ashley Landish, that she loves her.
Award-winning author Drew Andersen’s mission in life is to spread the message of her novel to the world by having it made into a movie. Everything is going perfectly until a last-minute switch gives the lead actress role to Hollywood diva Tess Landish. She’s ready to do whatever she can to have her kicked off the movie—until the chemistry between them sends Drew into a tailspin.
Forty-eight-year-old Tess Landish realizes her illustrious career as an A-list celebrity is starting to fade. When the opportunity comes to take the romantic lead in a film based on a popular novel, she jumps at it only to learn the author of the book doesn’t want her for the role. Tess is determined to change her mind—especially after they meet and sparks fly.
When a powerful earthquake rocks Los Angeles, the four women must find a way to not only work together to save themselves but also to protect their hearts.
Everybody Needs a Hero is a multi-trope romance with a little adventure sprinkled in for fun.
2022 IHL Reading Challenge Category: Enemies to Lovers
FANTASY
Olympia the Bounty Hunter: Book 1
by Lila Gwynn
A fairy bounty hunter stumbles into a vampire conspiracy and gets more than she bargained for…
Olympia Carter is the fourth-best bounty hunter in the supernatural town of Mayfair, Missouri, which isn’t exactly an accomplishment she’s proud to take home to her Unseelie fairy parents.
Enter Leandra, a vampire who’s high up on the vampire food chain. She has a proposition for Olympia that could make her a ton of money, if the target is even real…
And if it isn’t, what is Leandra plotting?
2022 IHL Reading Challenge Categories: Fantasy; Vampires
PARANORMAL ROMANCE
Dhampir Dylan: Book 1
by Aria Storm
Available in Kindle Unlimited
Coming of age is difficult for any girl. Especially a gay one, now add to that being the only one of your species. I am the only dhampir in existence. I’m left to stumble blindly as I figure out who and what I am.
Two decades after one of my mothers, Mavis Aubrey, sacrificed herself, becoming the source of all darkness, the immortal community outside New Orleans opens the first Magiks University. Naturally, being eighteen, and eager to discover more about my gifts, mainly how to control my growing psychic abilities, and my deep empathic sense, I enroll in the first class. Along with my younger siblings, and my best friend and sort-of twin sister Jaxie, I start my post-apocalyptic university life.
Dangers follow me everywhere I go. Something is hunting the immortals of my class, and hunting me. Some unseen malice is directed at me, and I don’t even know if I have what it takes to stop the threat, before the first class of Magiks University, is the last class.
Expanded universe of the Blood and Darkness universe. A new generation of burgeoning immortals come into a crueler world, a world without the protection Mavis once provided her peoples. It is up to the survivors of the apocalypse to figure out how to navigate this visceral, unforgiving world.
2022 IHL Reading Challenge Categories: Fantasy; Paranormal Romance; Young Adult / New Adult; Magical Realism
SCI-FI
Black Flag: Book 7
by Rachel Ford
Available in Kindle Unlimited
Some days, it’s sink or swim.
Fresh off a successful mission, everything looks like it’s going swimmingly for the crew of the Black Flag. Right up until Captain Magdalene Landon-Ellis vanishes on her way back from a meeting with the admiralty.
With few clues about her disappearance and Union leadership proving as tightlipped as ever, Chief Engineer Katherine Ellis-Landon and the crew of the Black Flag decide to take matters into their own hands.
They’re going to figure out what happened to Maggie, and they’re going to get her back. Come hell or high water.
2022 IHL Reading Challenge Category: Sci-Fi
NEW AUDIOBOOKS
Book 1
by Morgan Lee Miller
narrated by Lula Larkin
Seventeen-year-old Quinn Hughes needs to be in top shape if she wants a medal at the Swimming World Championships in 10 months. This means no easy distractions, no matter how pretty they are.
She’s still piecing her confidence back together after not qualifying for the Olympics, her relationship with her twin brother is getting worse the more he hangs out with the popular kids, and then Kennedy Reed suddenly squeezes herself back into Quinn’s life. The girl who was her best friend. The girl who gave Quinn her first kiss. The girl who hasn’t spoken to her since.
Soon, Quinn finds herself juggling her new girlfriend, training for the biggest competition of her life, and discovering she’s not the only Hughes twin with a crush on Kennedy Reed. All these distractions are getting to her, and if she wants that medal, she needs to find a way to stop drowning on dry land.
2022 IHL Reading Challenge Categories: Young Adult; Sports; Enemies to Lovers
by Aria Storm
narrated by Fluer Strange
Mavis was my name, and you could say I have had a bit of a tough go. Following a tremendous personal loss, I was entombed by my own daughter rather than allow me to expose our secret to the world.
I woke up in a mausoleum and two centuries have passed. All I want to do is drink a bit of blood and maybe find a beautiful modern maiden to entertain what’s left of my soul. However, sinister forces are ever at play in my world. Even a queen who is two centuries usurped cannot rest. Vampyrs are dying and the royals, including my only surviving child, are all in danger, as are the communities around us.
Set in modern New Orleans, this is the tale of the Lower Queen, Mavis Aubrey, the mysterious vampyr who once led most of Britannia. Come follow Mavis as she struggles to learn how to function in the post-modern world and the vast array of new challenges rising to greet her.
2022 IHL Reading Challenge Categories: Paranormal Romance; Vampire; Magical Realism
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 had to battle audiobook pirates. Click here to read.
LESFIC BOOK CLUB
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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