Hello and happy Tuesday!
Did you know today is 2/22/22? Even TB can’t mess up today’s date, although, she’s trying really hard to mess it up just to keep her terrible with numbers reputation intact.
Before we get to today’s new releases, including gems by KJ, VK Powell, Anne Shade, and many others, we have some announcements.
IHL Sapphic Reading Challenge
It’s week 7 of IHL’s Sapphic Reading Challenge. You can click here for reading suggestions for Fantasy Romance stories. 9 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.
Best Sapphic Books of 2021
The polls have closed, and the winners will be announced soon. We apologize for the delay, but TB and Miranda are furiously trying to meet a March 1 edit date. Send them positive writing vibes and stay tuned for the Best Sapphic Books of 2021 announcement!
Free Book
Rook Takes Queen
by Em Stevens
Available in Kindle Unlimited
When a stubborn chess player is pitted against an ambitious pageant winner, heads butt and sparks fly.
Fate aims for a checkmate in this lesbian romance!
Feb. 22, 2022 is the last day to grab the deal.
New Releases
Here are this week’s new ebook and audio releases and announcements.
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
Her Heart’s Desire
by Anne Shade
Eve Monroe couldn’t ask for a better life. She’s free of an unhappy marriage, her event planning business is a success, and she’s surrounded by the love and support of her family. Then Lynette walks into her life and her intense dark eyes and easy charm have Eve longing for a love her heart has always desired, but she’s too afraid to admit to.
The last thing Lynette Folsom is looking for is love, especially with a closeted lesbian. She’s gone down that road before and has nothing but a broken heart to show for it. When she meets Eve, she begins to wonder if love behind closed doors can really work.
Two women. One choice. Will they be able to overcome their doubts and fears to embrace their deepest desire?
2022 IHL Sapphic Reading Challenge Categories: POC Character; Coming Out
Learning to Trust
Doveport: Book 2
by Kallie Mont
Available in Kindle Unlimited
“Parker?”
Parker loved that voice and she adored hearing it say her name. But in this moment, it scared the shit out of her.
In the sleepy coastal town of Doveport, the pot isn’t just stirred—that bitch is boiling over.
Maggie and Parker are new… like, brand-spanking-new. But for all of their flirting and butterflies and romantic intention, the universe has devised one giant beaver-dam.
Maggie is already falling for the woman of her dreams, but that same woman might very well be leaving by the year’s end. With a mourning best friend, a transitioning career, and parents who are squarely on the wrong continent, Maggie can barely catch her breath, let alone figure out how to convince Parker to stay.
Add in a pickle-thieving cat and a first date consisting mostly of fish bones, and you’ll start to get the picture.
Parker’s found the kind of excitement and acceptance she never knew was possible, but it’s with a woman thirteen years her junior. Plus, she came to Doveport to start over, not to stay. Working on a short-term contract meant that she would have the freedom to go anywhere after this stopover.
She’d never expected to be in another relationship, especially this soon, but when you find someone that feels like home, how can you leave?
2022 IHL Sapphic Reading Challenge Categories: Age Gap; Girl Next Door; Friends to Lovers; Sweet
Cursed
Kiss Me Quick Series
by Edie Marr
Available in Kindle Unlimited
How Far Would You Go To Get Revenge On Your Ex?
When Kat Kerrigan is dumped and fired by her ice queen boss in one text, she does the sensible thing. She puts out the call on the group chat and drowns her sorrows with her friends — but things get weird, later that night when she drunkenly stumbles on a mysterious woman who might be a witch and that witch offers her the power to curse someone.
Kat doesn’t believe in curses, but a few months later her ex Stella Steel is suffering a terrible run of bad luck and Kat is still not over the love of her life.
Did Kat curse her glamorous ex? Or is there a simpler explanation?
Cursed is a lesbian romance novel set in the seaside city of Brighton, UK with two compelling heroines, an age gap, a thawing ice queen, a heartwarming happy ending and a tiny dash of magic.
2022 IHL Sapphic Reading Challenge Categories: Age Gap; Ice Queen; Paranormal Romance
New Beginnings
by Graysen Morgen
Captain Tristan Malloy has dedicated her life to the Army and takes her job very seriously, leading a team of Special Forces soldiers deep behind enemy lines. When an unexpected situation arises back home, her world is upended. When the dust settles, she makes a choice that will change her life forever.
Courtney Hewitt is a third generation Army helicopter pilot, who’s been flying in and out of warzones until she gets sent to South America for a Special Forces Operation. The redeployment is a welcomed change of scenery, and the leader of the special forces team she’s assigned to work with is an added bonus Courtney can’t wait to cash in on, until the alluring captain abruptly kicks her to the curb, ending their secret, torrid affair. When Courtney follows her home on leave and discovers the reason, she must make a choice of her own.
Everyone deserves a chance at a new beginning in this action-packed romance.
2022 IHL Sapphic Reading Challenge Categories: Ladies in Uniform; Single Parent
EROTIC ROMANCE
NEED
by Lily Hardt
Available in Kindle Unlimited
When Lucy draws the eye of dominatrix Lady Nyx, she learns what it is to want, to desire, someone with every piece of herself. Their journey together changes them both as they explore the world of consensual BDSM and Lucy finds her true self in her desperate NEED.
2022 IHL Sapphic Reading Challenge Categories: Erotic Romance; BDSM; Hot & Steamy
EROTICA
Siren’s Song
by Sharon F Kay
Available in Kindle Unlimited
For the past four years, Marcella had been making a name for herself as an infamous pirate captain, able to swoop in on ships with uncanny timing. Little did her peers know that she had an ally: a mermaid with a razor-sharp smile and knowledge of the seas beyond what the captain could glean on her own.
But Marcella always wondered what the mermaid got in return for helping her. While she always brought her accomplice some baubles after a successful raid, the mermaid had never asked her for a single thing.
Until now.
Siren’s Song is a quick read novella intended as a fun afternoon for adult audiences.
Trigger Warnings: Graphic Violence (pirates gonna pirate)
2022 IHL Sapphic Reading Challenge Categories: Fantasy; Erotic Romance; Hot & Steamy
ROMANTIC SUSPENSE
Deadly Secrets
by VK Powell
Special Ops Agent Rafe Silva has always been a dedicated soldier, content in the military and jetting from one mission to the next. Her life is structured and clear of emotional entanglements until an old friend requests she provide protection for an industry whistle blower.
Jana Elliott had found her ideal career and a second home within the corporate environment of Alumicor until a coworker dies and Jana suspects the company is covering up a deadly secret. When she starts investigating, her boss quickly shuts her down. Jana is determined to uncover the truth even if it means risking her life. Her friend’s suggestion of a bodyguard seems like overkill, but then Rafe Silva shows up and their irresistible attraction changes everything.
2022 IHL Sapphic Reading Challenge Categories: Romantic Suspense; Forced Proximity
Perilous Obsession
by Carsen Taite
Detective Beck Ramsey is paying a stiff price for blowing the whistle on a fellow cop. Relegated to the always underfunded, often ignored cold case desk, she’s biding her time until she can escape long-forgotten lost causes and get back in the field.
Journalist Macy Moran digs deep on every story, but when her usually objective reporting turns into an unrelenting hunt for a serial killer, she risks losing her relationships, her career, and her reputation. Haunted by the memory of her best friend’s death, Macy is willing to put everything on the line until she meets the infuriating and captivating Beck Ramsey and somehow convinces her to reopen the coldest case on her desk.
As their plans and their hearts careen out of control, Macy’s obsession with a murderer will either bring her closer to Beck or rob her of a chance at true love.
2022 IHL Sapphic Reading Challenge Categories: Romantic Suspense; Thriller
Watching Over Her
by Ronica Black
All Riley Robinson wants is peace and serenity. She can’t wait to spend the winter at her new cabin in snowy, remote Northern Arizona. On the way Riley meets Zoe Mitchell, a secretive woman whose barely hidden vulnerability captures her curiosity and sparks her interest.
Zoe was doing just fine until without warning she becomes the focus of a stalker. With no idea who is following her and desperate to shrug off the sense of being watched, Zoe takes off to her grandfather’s old cabin. Unfortunately, the cabin hasn’t been used in years, and the snowstorm of the century is moving in. Zoe has no intention of taking chances with a beautiful woman she’s just met, but she can’t turn down Riley’s offer of help and a warm place to take refuge.
As they face the storm and the looming threat of a stalker, Riley and Zoey just might find love in the most unexpected of places.
2022 IHL Sapphic Reading Challenge Categories: Romantic Suspense; Thriller; Forced Proximity
FANTASY ROMANCE
Errant
Volume One
by L. K. Fleet
Aspen Silverglade used to be a force for good, but now she’s just a sword for hire. On the run from the people she once trusted most, she needs to keep her head down and keep moving.
But old habits are hard to quit. One night in a tavern, Aspen tries to save a woman from some unwanted attention. The woman, Charm Linville, is in the middle of a subtle and delicate act of thievery, and she does not appreciate Aspen blundering in.
The disastrous and public rescue-gone-wrong makes the townspeople think Aspen and Charm are a couple. This mistake sets Aspen’s bloodthirsty betrayers on Charm’s trail, tying the two of them together.
Even if Aspen can’t run from her past any longer, Charm shouldn’t have to suffer. Despite Aspen’s determination to work alone, Charm insists on helping—and she has a past of her own. The two of them don’t care for each other’s methods, but as they journey through the villages and wildernesses of Falland, solving problems and meeting magical friends and foes, Aspen and Charm grudgingly come to care for each other. Can these two guarded, stubborn women admit their feelings, or will Aspen’s enemies kill them first?
Trigger Warning: Mentions of intimate partner violence.
2022 IHL Sapphic Reading Challenge Categories: Fantasy; Fantasy Romance; Fake Relationship
Dragon Queens
by Kathleen de Plume
Available in Kindle Unlimited
Dragons fly again…
With her betrothal imminent, the beautiful Princess Ava has gone missing. Where has she fled to? Why has she gone? And why is the dragon stirring?
Enter our hero. Gwen has been hunting wanted criminals for years, collecting bounties to provide for her mother and brother since the death of their father. The promise of an armful of gold for bringing the princess home is too good to ignore.
But bringing her home doesn’t solve anyone’s problems. Gwen still has family to support, and Ava still has a miserable marriage to look forward to. How will they get over these hurdles? And what new ones will they create along the way?
2022 IHL Sapphic Reading Challenge Categories: Fantasy; Fantasy Romance; Fake Relationship; Forced Proximity
Enchanted Autumn
by Ursula Klein
When Dr. Elizabeth Cowrie shows up in Salem, Massachusetts, to study the witch trials, Hazel and her best friend, Roxy, are both instantly attracted to the workaholic professor. Roxy snags a date with Elizabeth first, but when their chemistry fizzles out, Hazel sees an opportunity to pursue Elizabeth herself—until she realizes Elizabeth is avowedly anti-magic.
That’s definitely a problem since Hazel is a bona fide witch: rides a broom, has a black cat, brews love potions, lives in a haunted house, and has a vampire ex-girlfriend. Roxy is the only person who knows the truth, and Hazel has gotten used to hiding who she is, but she can’t live a lie with the person she loves most. Can Hazel give up magic to make it work with Elizabeth? Or will she give up on the love of her life instead?
2022 IHL Sapphic Reading Challenge Categories: Fantasy; Fantasy Romance; Friends to Lovers; Paranormal Romance
The Willing
by Lyn Hemphill
Kitty Wilson doesn’t know how, but she can bring people back from the dead as long as someone is willing to take their place and keep the universe in balance. Oxford student Talia McGregor’s life goes from bad to worse when she’s killed in a hit-and-run. When the drunk driver responsible agrees to sacrifice his life to save Talia’s, Kitty makes the trade and brings Talia back to life. Neither of them expects the ghost of Matt, Kitty’s BFF, to come back with her.
Kitty has to figure out how to untether Matt’s ghost from Talia and bring him back for good. In her quest to discover the extent of her magic, Kitty must confront a secret society with questionable motives and connections to tragedies in her past, and a magical bloodline she never knew was hers.
As the stakes and the spells rise, Kitty and Talia rely on each other to survive, but can they open their hearts and trust the magic of love?
2022 IHL Sapphic Reading Challenge Categories: Fantasy; Fantasy Romance; POC Character; Ghosts
Bastet’s Daughters: Geneva
Book 2
by Scott Kujawa
Available in Kindle Unlimited
Geneva’s plans on freeing the Perseverance from the cavern she fell into are derailed when she learns the area is guarded by a dragon. With Pyre at her side, she does what is needed to convince Lirrenia to allow her to free the machine to return it to the settlement surviving on the Martian surface.
Pyre’s mother continues to torment them, not being pleased Geneva rescued the hellhound pup and allowed her to stay with her. The relationships Geneva has with those inside the Martian settlement change the longer she’s the leader of the menagerie Commander Heron requested Geneva build for them.
This tale is part two of a collection of short stories set in the world of Bastet’s Daughters, Rainy Days, the Event, the Acinonyx, and the Town of Unknown. This tale takes place after the Acinonyx leaves Earth to explore space.
2022 IHL Sapphic Reading Challenge Categories: Fantasy; Fantasy Romance
FICTION
The Forever and The Now
By KJ
Available in Kindle Unlimited
Bron McIntyre, forty-two, has it all together. Terrific job. Loving family. No desperate need for a girlfriend but would be interested if one came along. Bron McIntyre is Teflon.
Kate Agostino, forty-eight, is not Teflon. Yes, she has a terrific job. But a loving family? Not really. And her personal life is rapidly disintegrating and turning into dust.
When her orange smoothie explodes all over her business suit while she’s on her afternoon walk, Kate simply shakes her head in resignation.
Bron, having witnessed the smoothie eruption, races to help, and suddenly her life takes an unexpected turn.
Falling in love is like watching the grandest sunset on the calmest ocean where the tiniest ripples wear silver sparkles as their hats. Kate and Bron find that sunset on that ocean with those ripples of love, but what happens when you take that love for granted? What happens when your person disappears? The answers are hard to hear and Bron chooses not to listen.
After a relationship break, a family intervention, and conversations that rip apart seams, Bron and Kate eventually find themselves, each other, and their now. And what they discover is that love is the large and the deliberate, and the simple and the small.
So when tragedy strikes, they call on its strength because, when you think about it, love can live on in the forever, particularly if it lives courageously in the now.
A beautifully poignant story about life, love and a loss so tragic that sometimes even the grandest sunset on the calmest ocean with the ripples wearing hats is too heartbreaking to bear.
2022 IHL Sapphic Reading Challenge Categories: Loss / Grieving; Toaster Oven
SHORT STORY COLLECTION
Sapphic Sweets
by Anne Hagan
Available in Kindle Unlimited
Short Stories of Romance, Love, and Chocolate
Four complete, Sapphic short stories and a novel preview featuring women falling in love, and realizing love at long last, all in a world of chocolate. Some are sweet. Some have a little heat…
Revel in food and fun with Amy and Rox in ‘Chocolate Fond of You.’
Dance with Etta and Corgyn in ‘Cruise Grooves.’
Ache with Quinn and Carlotta in ‘Cake Ache.’
Sweat it out with Charlene and Sierra in ‘Fit Benefit.’
Finally, meet Mandy, and the woman who changed her life without even knowing it, Lisette, in the preview of Anne’s future novel, “Drizzle Sizzle.’
2022 IHL Sapphic Reading Challenge Categories: Friends to Lovers; Age Gap
NEW AUDIOBOOKS
Reading Her
by Amanda Radley
narrated by Amy Putt
Awkward teenager Hugo Whittaker doesn’t know a cross-trainer from an elliptical bike, but getting strong is the only way to fight off the bullies who won’t leave him alone. Lauren Evans loves her job as an instructor at Fitness Zone, and she wants to guide him. Unfortunately, Hugo paid for his membership by stealing his mother’s credit card – and it doesn’t take his mother long to track down her wayward son.
In a courtroom, shrewd barrister Allegra Whittaker is unstoppable, but when it comes to her son Hugo, she’s afraid she’s losing her touch. She reluctantly allows him to continue using the gym, as long as she can keep an eye on him – and his undeniably intriguing instructor.
As each encounter leaves them wanting more, Lauren and Allegra learn love and happiness are right where they least expect it. There’s just one little problem: Lauren has a huge secret she absolutely cannot tell anyone, and Allegra knows she’s hiding something.
2022 IHL Sapphic Reading Challenge Categories: Love After 50; Rich Girl / Poor Girl; Single Parent
Perfect Timing
by Dena Blake
narrated by Lula Larkin
Lynn Monroe is finally living life on her terms. The niece she raised as her own has finished medical school and started an internship, and she’s healing from a painful divorce that was long overdue. But, when she runs into a ghost from her past, the stable life she’s worked so hard to build begins to crumble.
Dr. Maggie Randall is focused, driven, and in love with her best friend’s aunt. When she unexpectedly bumps into Lynn, it’s like no time has passed. She’s sure it’s a sign they’re meant to be. But, all Maggie ever wanted in life is to raise children, and Lynn’s not ready to start a second family.
The choice between love and family has never been so difficult, and different visions of the future may end their romance before it’s begun.
2022 IHL Sapphic Reading Challenge Category: Age Gap
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
Want to stay up to date on all the happenings on IHL? Sign up here for the newsletter and never miss a thing.
