Before we get to today’s new releases, including gems by Sienna Waters, Roslyn Sinclair, Chelsea M. Cameron, Harper Bliss, and many others, we have some announcements.
IHL SAPPHIC READING CHALLENGE
It’s week 18 of IHL’s Sapphic Reading Challenge. You can click here for reading suggestions for characters with disabilities or mental illness. 14 of the books featured on the page are on sale.
Remember, you can join the I Heart SapphFic 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.
VOTE FOR FAVORITE FAKE RELATIONSHIP
We asked readers to nominate their all-time favorite sapphic Fake Relationship romance. Find out who made the cut and cast your vote. Voting ends on May 28 and the top three winners will be announced on June 2.
FREE BOOKS
Safe Passage
by Rachel Ford
Kay Ellis, a brilliant engineer with a checkered past, needs safe passage to escape her old bosses, the dangerous Conglomerate crime syndicate. Magdalene Landon has a ship, and a plan – but it doesn’t involve running away.
Then again, it doesn’t involve falling in love either…
Deal ends May 10.
Life in Bits
by Harper Bliss & TB Markinson
Can a Christmas romance mend a life that’s broken to pieces?
When Eileen meets Naomi Weaver, a small-town girl who dedicates her free time to helping those in need, Eileen is entranced by Naomi’s zest for life. Can Eileen overcome her inner demons and troubled family relationships to let Naomi in?
Best-selling lesbian romance authors Harper Bliss & T.B. Markinson have teamed up to bring this touching age-gap love story to life.
Deal ends May 13.
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, Em, & Miranda
ROMANCE
Count on You
by Sienna Waters
Available in Kindle Unlimited
Love isn’t an option. But Cupid isn’t listening…
Under investigation after a fake harassment claim, Carson Maxwell washes up in Hartley, the tiniest town in the world, for one last-ditch attempt to save the career she loves.
But when she meets dedicated nurse Katie Robinson, it begins to dawn on Carson that keeping to her company’s strict no-fraternization rule might not be as easy as she thinks.
Katie loves her town and is fiercely protective of the clinic that Carson is under instruction to close. And she’s not above using her charms to persuade the strangely attractive accountant that the clinic is worth saving.
When country mouse and city mouse clash, the last thing they expect is to fall for each other. Too bad that everyone else in town thinks that they’re the perfect match…
2022 Reading Challenge Categories: Girl Next Door; Medical Character; Ice Queen; Forced Proximity / Stranded Together
Just One Summer
Castleton Hearts: Book 7
by Chelsea M. Cameron
Available in Kindle Unlimited
Hayden Lindsey expects to spend lots of time at the beach and with her cousin Piper when she temporarily moves in with her in Castleton, Maine. What she doesn’t expect is to bump into Alessi Mason at the bakery and fight her for the last cinnamon roll. The girl she used to spend every summer in Castleton with is all grown up and she probably doesn’t even remember the last time they saw each other and that kiss they shared when they were kids.
Hayden doesn’t think about it either. Much.
But now is no time for thinking about past kisses. Hayden is only in Castleton to get on her feet and figure out how to balance her accounting job and her online tie-dye shop. A romance with Alessi is the last thing on her mind.
That is, until Alessi is in a bind and Hayden comes to the rescue and that little spark Hayden felt during the kiss? Well, now it’s an inferno, and she isn’t the only one who feels it. Alessi has her own complications, and a relationship is the last thing she needs.
Alas, chemistry sometimes has other plans. Will Hayden and Alessi give in to everything pulling them together, or will they let too many obstacles pull them apart?
2022 Reading Challenge Categories: Neurodiverse Character; Friends to Lovers; Hot & Steamy; Return to Hometown
Truth and Measure
The Carlisle Series: Book 1
by Roslyn Sinclair
What happens when the world’s fiercest fashion editor learns she’s pregnant—and her distracting assistant is the only one she can turn to? This wildly popular age-gap lesbian romance mixes humor and chaos with self-discovery.
Jules Moretti is newly single, an aspiring writer, and the hyper-competent assistant to the most powerful woman in fashion. It’s a tough job, but her ice queen boss won’t settle for less than perfection.
Vivian Carlisle helms the internationally revered fashion publication Du Jour. She might be smack in the middle of a messy divorce, but you have to make sacrifices to be the best. That’s what she tells herself, anyway.
When the unthinkable happens, Vivian’s regimented world is turned upside-down. Her life is about power, success, and dominance—not a baby!
This single, shocking moment throws boss and assistant together into an intimacy neither could have imagined. With their lives in chaos, every day brings a new challenge bigger than the last. But everything will work out…just so long as they don’t do anything totally ridiculous.
Like fall in love.
2022 Reading Challenge Categories: Age Gap; Slow Burn; Toaster Oven; Rich Girl/Poor Girl; Celebrity; Ice Queen; Hot & Steamy; Grumpy/Sunshine
The Duet
by Harper Bliss
The Lady Kings and their singer, Lana Lynch, have been out of the limelight since Lana’s partner’s sudden death ten years ago. They’re ready for an epic comeback tour, but have to take a young and hip support band with them.
Cleo Palmer and The Other Women are over the moon when they get booked to support their lifelong idols and share the stage with the iconic Lady Kings—especially queer legend Lana Lynch.
But when Lana invites her to sing a sensual duet together every night, Cleo gets way more than she bargained for.
Lana and Cleo’s on-stage chemistry is off the charts, but the differences in their age and life experience, not to mention some dramatic band politics, prove difficult to overcome.
Can Lana and Cleo find their way to each other once the spotlights are switched off?
2022 Reading Challenge Categories: Age Gap; Love After 50; Celebrity; Musician
Forever
by Kris Bryant
Who doesn’t want to believe in true love? Ten years ago, Savannah Edwards agreed to be a contestant on the lesbian dating show When Sparks Fly. The last thing she expected was to fall in love and get dumped on national television. When she’s invited to be the next bachelorette for the ten-year anniversary show, she makes up her mind that this time she’ll show the world that finding true love on television can really happen.
Lauren Lucas breathed life into a show that was on the brink of cancellation. Her charm as the host of When Sparks Fly catapulted it to a nationwide hit. Her own love life is in shambles, but she puts on a dazzling smile and pretends that love isn’t heartbreak waiting to happen.
Every week, Lauren watches Savannah date other women and tries to ignore the spark. When the cameras stop rolling and their attraction becomes impossible to deny, will they take a chance on real-life love and abandon the reality TV fairy tale?
2022 Reading Challenge Categories: Celebrity; POC Character
Just a Birdhouse
by Emily Fohr
When twenty-one-year-old Bellamy Artois returns to the coast of Saint __ de Vie to visit her wine aficionado grandfather for the summer, she falls eagerly back into step, daydreaming alongside her childhood friend, Appoline Alarie.
Vacationing on the seaside, Bellamy attempts to balance the affections of the village baker, while struggling to keep her growing infatuation with Appoline, internal and at bay. Together, the pair rediscover friendship and explore its confines, as deemed by society. The soundtrack of their summer is narrated by Paul Simon songs and the fantasy of French romance; melodious freedom begging to be inhaled and exhaled without any inhibitions.
2022 Reading Challenge Categories: Young Adult / New Adult
Candle on the Water
by M.A. Myers
High school senior Stephanie Turner is about to be the state swimming champion until a last minute bout with the flu ruins her chances. Despondent after her crushing loss, her world is instantly brightened by a pair of sparkling brown eyes belonging to one Sara Austin. Their bond forms in an instant, but their love must remain a secret in their conservative Midwestern community.
Sara’s self-sabotage, fueled by her jealous friend Jenny, causes them to go their separate ways. As the two women struggle to survive in their own worlds, entering into loveless marriages to fit in and denying their own truth and personal desires, the timelessness of their love endures. Soon, Stephanie will find that the love she shares with Sara reaches across the centuries, and destiny will prevail over human prejudice.
2022 Reading Challenge Category: Coming Out
ACTION & ADVENTURE
Riding the Storm
Daredevils Rescue Service: Book 1
by Erin Wade
Daredevil Kensley Storm and her partner TJ Cummings own Daredevils Rescue Service, an organization that specializes in extracting undercover government agents from deadly situations.
Kensley lives for the adrenaline high she gets every time she pulls off an impossible assignment. Her latest task is to save Regina Rider from the roof of a skyscraper before armed assassins can reach the gorgeous woman.
Regina is a legend in her own right having solved more cases than any agent in her division. Like Kensley, she lives for the rush of almost dying. Fires ignite when the two find themselves on the same assignment, but which one is the savior?
2022 Reading Challenge Categories: Suspense; Romantic Suspense; Thriller
MYSTERY
Cinco de Die-O
by Toni Draper
It’s Cinco de Mayo on San Antonio’s famed River Walk, a time of mariachis and margaritas, but when muertos are thrown into the mix, there’s a mystery to be solved–and quick! When newly assigned SAPD Officer Paige Turner (the daughter of a librarian with a bookish sense of humor) shows up looking for answers, it’s bar owner Bobbi Garza she finds, and there is an immediate and irresistible sizzle between the two women causing much more than the comal in the little cantina’s cocina to heat up. But when a second body appears, and then a third, they begin to wonder WHAT’s happening and WHERE all the people are coming from – and find themselves forced to put their attraction to one another on a low-flamed back burner and team up with a duo of neighboring merchants in an attempt to solve the WHOdunit.
2022 Reading Challenge Categories: POC Character; Slow Burn; Mystery; Ladies in Uniform
With a Minor in Murder
by Karis Walsh
Officer Clare Sawyer, newly arrived at the University of Washington’s campus police department, hopes her investigation of a murdered professor will give her a chance to show her worth and prove to herself she made the right choice leaving the big city behind. Life on campus brings back uncomfortable memories, but she is determined to do her job and remain on the outskirts of the academic world. Until Professor Hart walks into her interrogation room…
Architectural historian Libby Hart found her true home when she entered college, and she hasn’t left academia since. She loves her friends, her job, and the gorgeous buildings surrounding her. When the harsh reality of murder brings chaos into her world, she tries to help Clare restore order on campus.
Clare and Libby are from different worlds, but the more time they spend together, the harder it becomes to ignore their growing feelings for one another—until the murderer targets Clare and danger threatens to destroy their happiness.
2022 Reading Challenge Categories: Mystery; Ladies in Uniform
PARANORMAL ROMANCE
Sidhe
by Aria Storm
College freshman discovers she’s a rare breed of fairy as she is brought to the world of Fairey. Her life is threatened instantly when human assassins discover her in the forest of Fairey. Now, she will be forced to unravel a deeper plot, with the help of a sexy female protector called The Hawthorn Knight.
Sexual discovery and awakening of her true attractions manifest. Ella is made aware of who she is, not just as a being, but also as a maturing woman.
2022 Reading Challenge Categories: Paranormal Romance / Magical Realism
Undergrounder
by J.E. Glass
Drowned by men. Saved by a monster.
The last place Alexandra Bailey expects her routine life of domestic journalism to lead is being sucked into icy floodwaters below New York City with a knife in her ribs. Headlines like this happen to other people, but it’s real, and she knows she’s dead. Which makes the circumstances of her survival as impossible as the woman who drags her from the water.
Saved but hardly safe, Alex wakes in the Underground, a world of misfits and monsters thriving below the streets. It’s a journalism goldmine. One Alex can’t resist digging into after learning her beastly savior is Leanna Farrow, adopted daughter of an infamous and “presumed dead” scientist. But Alex’s curiosity, coupled with her rapidly developing feelings for Leanna, put both women in danger when Alex’s inquiries pique the interest of a powerful family with bloody connections to the Underground.
If Alex wants to unravel the secrets of the world below she’ll have to walk the razor’s edge, but some mysteries are better left buried.
Trigger Warnings: Graphic depiction of physical assault, gun violence, mentions of suicide, and off-camera suicide.
2022 Reading Challenge Category: Paranormal Romance
NEW AUDIOBOOKS
Dream Lover
by Lyn Denison
narrated by Anthea Greco
Jo Creighton’s life was in tatters. All she had to show for the last ten years was a failed marriage and trampled self-esteem. She’d been a naive fool who believed in fairy tales and true love.
Gathering the last remnants of her resolve, Jo decides to make a clean break, get away, and find the person she used to be. So she takes leave from work and escapes to the mountains where she’s sure the clean, fresh air will clear the negativity, the fuzzy cobwebs from her mind. She would regain her emotional strength, reacquaint herself with the Jo she used to be, and find a new path for her life. Maybe then her recurring dreams would cease, or at least she might see them through to the end, discover whatever it was she sought but never quite found.
A chance meeting with one of the most self-assured women Jo had ever met gave her new courage. Alex Farmer was all that Jo wasn’t and as their friendship grew, Jo found new strength in herself. And so much more. But was she strong enough to choose such a radical new direction?
2022 Reading Challenge Categories: Age Gap; Slow Burn; Toaster Oven; Coming Out
Laia Rios: Sex Raider
Amazon Bondage Trilogy
by Riley Rose
narrated by Nikki Monroe
Laia Rios is the sexiest adventurer and relic hunter on the earth. She travels the globe finding the most hidden artifacts and treasures—while having sex with the most sensual women of every nationality.
When she gets word of a new clue to the legendary Lust Idol of the Amazons, she can’t pass up the opportunity to find it. And all she’ll have to do is pass through a temple filled with the most elaborate sex traps ever.
And once through those sinful snares, she’ll just have to deal with an ancient tribe of ridiculously muscular and beautiful women—who all want a piece of her super-hot ass!
Will Laia pass all the Amazonian physical and sexual tests and become one of them? Will she become the Queen’s willing sex toy? And how many spankings from strong, sensual Amazonian hands will she be able to take?
2022 Reading Challenge Categories: Hot & Steamy; BDSM; Erotic Romance; POC Character
Germanic
by K’Anne Meinel
narrated by Nicola Casey
How do you cope with a life you are bored with? You make a new one, right? Be careful what you wish for, because you might get a whole lot more than you bargained for…
When you’re bored with your current life, take a trip. That always changes things, right? What Analisa Meunier didn’t realize is that every decision you make in your life can change everything. A new life, a new country, a new family, a new threat to all of that…will she survive? Will they?
Baroness Lydia Von Horn has never met an American like Analisa Meunier. Hiding her own identity leads to problems in their initial relationship, but making a family, a life, and surviving with both intact is the real challenge. From Oconomowoc, Wisconsin to Hammerbruke, Germany; from Cambria, California, to Munich, Germany, their lives and trials and tribulations take them around the world.
2022 Reading Challenge Categories: Suspense; Rich Girl/Poor Girl; Romantic Suspense
SAPPHFIC 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, Em, & TB
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