Before we get to today’s new releases, including gems by Hildred Billings, Jenny Frame, Nicole Pyland, Melissa Brayden, and many others, we have some announcements.
IHL SAPPHIC READING CHALLENGE
It’s week 10 of IHL’s Sapphic Reading Challenge. You can click here for reading suggestions for Toaster Oven romances. 11 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.
FREE BOOK
After Summer Ends
by Katie Mettner
Available in Kindle Unlimited
This is the story of Summer and how she taught me to love her. It’s about her quiet, and sometimes fearful, way of teaching me to embrace the moment, and to live recklessly. It’s about how both of us learned to forgive, to hope, to pray, and to love, even after summer ends.
Deal ends March 15.
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
Push & Pull
by Cynthia Dane & Hildred Billings
Available in Kindle Unlimited
Simone Evans is a hot mess. Fresh from a second stint in rehab and on sabbatical from the family business, Simone doesn’t believe that there’s a genuine soul in the world.
Yet at a gathering in Miami, Simone meets the outgoing and charming Petra, a woman she doesn’t think will be worth anything more than a conversation.
The next day, hungover Simone wakes up in Petra’s car. They’re heading north, far from Miami and farther from Simone’s past.
2022 IHL Reading Challenge Categories: Rich Girl / Poor Girl, Forced Proximity; One Night to Forever; Grumpy / Sunshine
The Block Party
Holiday Series: Book 2
by Nicole Pyland
Available in Kindle Unlimited
Talon Mitchell had gotten a job right out of college, had her own coffee mug at the office that no one else could use, and planned to keep her job as sales manager for a long time because she had practically grown up working for this company. She was content and not looking for anything when a new sales director showed up and changed everything.
Emerson Bagley just got a new job, and while she felt ready for the next step, when she sees someone she recognizes from a holiday party working on the same team, she can’t believe her luck, both good and bad. Good, because Talon Mitchell was very attractive, very smart, and seemingly, very interested in Emerson, too. Bad, because she couldn’t date someone who worked for her, especially in her brand-new job.
Feeling the simmering heat begin to boil over, the two women decide to at least take one step and deal with the rest later. When neither of them had been prepared to seek out love, they managed to find it where they least expected it.
2022 IHL Reading Challenge Categories: Hot & Steamy; Holiday Romance
Champagne Problems
Moonflower Cove Romances
by Addison Clarke
Available in Kindle Unlimited
Emily Crawford is entering her last year of her master’s program and is ready to be done with school. Not that she has anything figured out once she graduates. The only thing she does know is that her sexy professor is taking up too much space in her brain.
Sophia Beauchamp has struck out twice in love and doesn’t believe the third time will be the charm. That is, until the beautiful Emily Crawford shows up to her master-level English class. Sparks fly as the undeniable chemistry abounds around them.
During winter break, the two realize they’ve fallen hard and fast for each other. But when a secret surfaces, how will they overcome it to find their happily ever after?
2022 IHL Reading Challenge Category: Age Gap
A Masc for Purim
Hot for the Holidays
by Roz Alexander
Does true love have an expiration date? What about forgiveness?
Every year, tomboy-femme Liza plans the perfect party for Purim, and every year she goes alone. She’s convinced her role as holiday host is enough to find happiness, but lately, the nights have gotten lonelier.
Carrie, a.k.a. Liza’s first love, a.k.a. the butch who broke her heart into a million pieces, is back in town and determined to win Liza back. Carrie has spent the last ten years unlearning the internalized ableism that reared its head after her diagnosis of progressive vision loss…and regretting leaving Liza.
Their inexperience and inability to be vulnerable with one another may have driven them apart the first time, but has the last decade taught them both to be brave? Luckily, they have the whole megillah to figure it out.
A Masc for Purim is an angsty, steamy, second chance romance novella between a bisexual butch and her tomboy lesbian.
It’s a standalone part of the “Hot for the Holidays” series.
2022 IHL Reading Challenge Categories: Second Chance; Hot & Steamy
The Game
by Jan Gayle
Ryan Gibbs was the best thing to hit the LPGA from New Mexico since Nancy Lopez, but that was two years ago when her rookie year tour made the history books. Since she left the world of professional golf to be with her sick mother, she hasn’t played outside of her home course in Los Alamos, where she now works as a coach.
Katherine Reese has the drive to be the best, but since her second season, when she landed herself in the top ten in nearly every tournament, she’s barely been able to make the cut. Unable to let go of her ghosts, Katherine is in danger of tanking her career before it even begins.
Ryan and Katherine are natural competitors thrown together by their swing coach, Maggie Hart. Both have so much to prove and so little time for the inconveniences of falling in love. But if they can figure out how to work together, they just might be a force for women’s sports and a beautiful match for each other.
2022 IHL Reading Challenge Categories: Enemies to Lovers; Sports
Don’t Say “I Do”
by Ivy Whitaker
Available in Kindle Unlimited
For as long as Lily can remember, it’s always been her and Autumn. They’ve had many sleep-overs, awkward school pictures, bad break-ups, and embarrassing drunken nights. It was always supposed to be them against the world.
Until it became Autumn and her husband-to-be. And Lily.
Naturally, Lily was asked to be Autumn’s maid of honor — a role she filled perfectly. All except for one crucial thing. She forgot to write her maid of honor speech.
The day before the wedding has come, and Lily has hidden away to put pen to paper. But it’s not as simple as jotting down the poetry that fills her head. Not when every story reminds her of their past — when every retelling makes her heart ache for their future. A future where they could be more than friends.
A future where the only speech she writes are her wedding vows.
It’s the night before the wedding, and Lily has to decide which speech she will make.
2022 IHL Reading Challenge Category: Friends to Lovers
Business of the Heart
by Claire Forsythe
Abby Archer should be content. Her coffee shop, Haze, is thriving, and she has a great group of friends. There’s just one thing missing: love. Despite past betrayals, Abby hasn’t given up on finding the one, waiting with increasing impatience to experience the sparks she’s always dreamed of.
Lexi Finn lives for her career. At least her job won’t break her heart. Unlike Abby, she’s most definitely not searching for the one or anyone for that matter. Avoiding relationships isn’t all that difficult when she’s become so skilled at keeping people at a distance.
So imagine Lexi’s shock when, walking into Haze, she feels instant attraction and an unshakeable connection with Abby. Abby has a picture of her perfect woman in her mind, and it certainly isn’t the intolerable Lexi Finn. When a hopeless romantic meets a tough-as-nails cynic, they’ll need to overcome the wounds of the past to discover that their hearts are the most important business of all.
2022 IHL Reading Challenge Category: Grumpy / Sunshine
Exclusive
by Melissa Brayden
Her new job as an on-air reporter in sunny San Diego is a big break for Skyler Ruiz. No more covering small-town softball games or vegetable growing competitions. She’ll be working at the same station as her TV mega-crush and longtime idol, anchorwoman Caroline McNamara, and that doesn’t hurt either.
Unfortunately, people don’t always live up to expectations.
Skyler’s hopes of impressing Caroline are dashed when she discovers Caroline has little time for newbie reporters and is downright unwelcoming. But when Caroline drops her guard, Skyler is left with her head happily spinning, her heart wide open, and oh-so ready to explore a romance she never saw coming.
So, of course, the network pits them against each other.
It’s only when Skyler is ready to sacrifice everything she’s ever dreamed of for Caroline does she begin to suspect love is nothing but fake news.
2022 IHL Reading Challenge Categories: Age Gap; Forced Proximity; Enemies to Lovers
HISTORICAL ROMANCE
Her Duchess to Desire
by Jane Walsh
Anne, the Duchess of Hawthorne, is tired of her reputation as the Ice Queen of London society. She resolves to leave behind her cold-hearted marriage to the duke—and to find a woman to keep her warm at night. Perhaps the dashing designer she hires to transform her Mayfair estate can also help her to transform her life.
Letitia Barrow has big dreams of running her own interior design business. The opportunity to reinvent the Hawthorne estate is the job that will finally establish her as a leading designer among the ton. The duchess might make her weak in the knees, but giving in to temptation could risk everything she’s working so hard to build.
The designer and the duchess embark on an affair, with renovations to the house in full swing—and the renovations in their hearts well underway. Then, unexpectedly, the duke returns home and their feelings are tested. Can London’s hottest new designer melt the Ice Queen forever?
2022 IHL Reading Challenge Categories: Historical Fiction; Historical Romance
MYSTERY
Whereabouts Unknown
by Meredith Doench
Theodora Madsen has everything she’s ever hoped for: a distinguished career as a homicide detective with the Dayton Police Department, a woman she loves, and a baby on the way.
While Theo and Bree nest and plan for their family’s future, two sixteen-year-old Ohio girls vanish—one from Dayton and the other from Brecksville—each leaving behind a bloody handprint. Then a routine interview goes disastrously wrong, and Theo’s injured and facing a lengthy recovery.
With her professional future uncertain and the cases growing cold, Theo scrambles to piece together the links between the girls. But the clock is ticking and time is running out.
2022 IHL Reading Challenge Categories: Mystery; Ladies in Uniform; Thriller
PARANORMAL ROMANCE
Dying for You
by Jenny Frame
Victorija Dred, Principe of the Dred clan, is one of the most feared vampires to walk the earth, but since her unwanted blood bond with Daisy, she’s slowly losing herself to blood sickness. Her clan is dismayed by her reluctance to order Daisy brought to her. The old Victorija would have used her for her blood without a second thought. However no one knows of the age-old vow holding her back.
Daisy MacDougall is struggling to cope with the vampire bite that is urging her to seek out Victorija. Secrets and history bind them in unfathomable ways, and when she discovers her family’s past and a very different Victorija, she vows to find the truth even if she must force their meeting.
Victorija and Daisy travel a dark and seductive path even as Victorija fights every instinct to take Daisy’s blood, and love seems all but impossible. As if that wasn’t bad enough, neither expects the real threat to Daisy’s life to be hiding inside the Dred clan.
2022 IHL Reading Challenge Categories: Paranormal Romance; Vampires; Enemies to Lovers
YOUNG ADULT
Take Her Down
by Lauren Emily Whalen
In this queer YA retelling of Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar, stakes at Augustus Magnet School are cutthroat, scheming is creative, and loyalty is ever-changing.
Overnight, Bronwyn St. James goes from junior class queen to daughter of an imprisoned felon, and she lands in the care of her aunt and younger cousin Cass, a competitive cheerleader who Bronwyn barely knows. Life gets worse when her ex-best friend, the always-cool Jude Cuthbert, ostracizes Bronwyn from the queer social elite for dating a boy, Porter Kendrick.
Bronwyn and Jude are both running for student body president, and that means war. But after Bronwyn, Porter, and Cass share a video of Jude in a compromising position, Jude suddenly goes missing. No one has seen her for weeks and it might be all Bronwyn’s fault. Will Jude ever be found? Or will Bronwyn finally have to reckon with what she’s won—and what she’s lost?
Content Advisory: Depictions of sexual assault.
2022 IHL Reading Challenge Categories: Young Adult; Coming Out; Friends to Lovers; POC Character
NEW AUDIOBOOKS
Hopes and Dreams
by PJ Trebelhorn
narrated by Lula Larkin
Riley Warren has spent her entire life in the same small town, in Upstate New York. There aren’t many prospects for true love, but she keeps hoping she will find it somehow. She dreams of owning the small movie theater she manages, but that takes money, which is hard to get when you live paycheck to paycheck.
Victoria Thayer has fallen for a woman more interested in her money than her heart, for the last time. When she runs into Riley, the first girl she ever had a crush on, at their high school reunion, she’s hoping there might just be a chance for the kind of relationship she’s always wanted. But Victoria can’t help wondering if Riley, too, is only after her money; and Riley can’t seem to forgive the fact that Victoria was part of a group of kids who used to bully her.
When hopes and dreams are on the line, will true love find a way?
2022 IHL Reading Challenge Category: Rich Girl / Poor Girl
Sexy Time Cop
Cowgirl and Pirate Sluts
by Riley Rose
narrated by Nikki Monroe
Riley Shu is a Time Cop, traveling to amazing periods in the past to stop criminals from altering the timeline. And having sex with some of the hottest men and women in history!
The sexy Time Cop has to save Wyatt Earp and Doc Holliday from a future felon and gets in some kinky cowgirl fun along the way. Then it’s off to the Caribbean and the Golden Age of Piracy for some submissive shenanigans with the most famous female pirate of all time: Anne Bonny!
Will Riley let Doc unload his sexy six shooter in her? Will she let Anne practice her amazing rope tying skills on her naked body? And how much will all this kinky sex change the timeline?
Find out in Book 1 of this sexy, sci-fi journey through time!
2022 IHL Reading Challenge Categories: Hot & Steamy; BDSM; Erotic Romance; Sci-Fi Romance; POC Character; Historical Romance
JAE’S SAPPHIC BOOK BINGO
SUPPORT SAPPHIC AUTHORS IN KINDLE UNLIMITED
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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