Please note: due to TB & Miranda attending the GCLS conference, there won’t be a new release newsletter on July 12th and June’s Book of the Month winners will be announced on July 14.
Before we get to today’s new releases, including gems by Nicole Pyland, Amanda Radley, Katia Rose, Cade Haddock Strong, and many others, we have some announcements.
Giveaway Winners
M won the 5-year anniversary $50 Amazon gift card giveaway.
R won the June $15 Amazon gift card giveaway.
IHS SAPPHIC READING CHALLENGE
It’s week 26 of IHS’s Sapphic Reading Challenge. You can click here for suggestions for Hot & Steamy reads. 9 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 RICH GIRL / POOR GIRL ROMANCE
We asked readers to nominate their all-time favorite sapphic Rich Girl / Poor Girl romances. Find out who made the cut and cast your vote. Voting ends on July 23 and the top three winners will be announced on July 27.
FREE BOOK
Liaison in the Park
by Sam Kestrel
Also Available in Kindle Unlimited
While camping at a national park, Jada asked for assistance from a cute Park Ranger who wore her uniform well. When they run into each other again, Amelia offers to show Jada more than trails.
Deal ends July 5.
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. IHS will not include books unless they receive an email from either the author or publisher.
Happy reading and listening,
TB, Em, Faith, & Miranda
ROMANCE
Mailboat
by Cade Haddock Strong
Wen Apollo runs the mailboat in a small island community. When she goes to deliver a package to Owl Island, summer home to the illustrious Gage family, she assumes the island is uninhabited. Except it’s not. The family’s oldest daughter, Estelle, is in residence.
Estelle Gage escaped to the islands seeking solitude. With the deadline fast approaching for her latest novel, she must devote herself to writing. But when the handsome mailboat captain shows up on her doorstep, her life veers off course.
A steady stream of packages continues to bring Wen back to Owl Island, and to Estelle. Each visit stretches longer than the one before. But summer looms, and with it, the arrival of Estelle’s extended family, including the matriarch, her overbearing mother.
One question weighs heavily on Wen: Is the gap between their worlds too wide for any kind of lasting relationship?
2022 Reading Challenge Categories: Rich Girl / Poor Girl; Forced Proximity
The Fireworks
Holiday Series: Book 3
by Nicole Pyland
Available in Kindle Unlimited
Aria Bancroft had been in love exactly one time. It didn’t go well, and ever since, she’s been floundering. Choosing sex over relationships and working as a freelance editor more to have something to do than anything else, worked for a time. But as her friends begin to couple off with their new girlfriends, Aria begins to wonder if she can ever feel that kind of love again.
London Carlson met a girl in high school and fell in love. After moving away, she tried to find that kind of connection with other women, but it was never the same. London focused on her friendships instead, and with two of those friends, she decided to open a bakery that happened to be in the same city where that long-lost love lived now.
It was July 4th, and Aria had just gotten back from Europe. She didn’t want to go to the annual fireworks display downtown, but her friends wouldn’t let her off the hook. Seeing the woman she’d only known as a teenager, shook Aria to her core, and she couldn’t believe the girl she’d once thought to be the love of her young life was standing right in front of her. Now that they’re both adults, can they put their past behind them and search for what could still be possible?
2022 Reading Challenge Categories: Second Chance; Rich Girl / Poor Girl; Holiday Romance
Just Might Work
by Katia Rose
Available in Kindle Unlimited
As a self-proclaimed ‘cosmically guided matchmaker,’ she’s played every card in the deck trying to set Dane up with the perfect match she’s found.
The problem? The ‘perfect’ match is Evangeline Hudson.
Dane and Evangeline rent rooms in Dane’s eccentric aunt’s house, but that’s where their similarities end. Dane is a drifter who freewheels from one odd job to the next, and Evangeline is an overachieving undergrad with a ten year plan so detailed it reads like an autobiography.
The two can’t even agree on a laundry schedule without feuding, but when Dane’s aunt reveals new tenants ready to take over the lease, they realize they’ll need to play some cards of their own to keep the beautiful old house they both love.
Their plan is simple: fake falling for each other long enough to get some soul mate sympathy—and a lease renewal.
A few lingering glances, some ‘accidental’ touches, maybe some well-timed tiptoeing into each other’s rooms late at night…
It’s a stretch, but it just might work.
Only said tiptoeing starts to heat the house up faster than they can stop it. As their plan begins peeling back the layers between them to reveal more similarities and way more feelings than either expected to find, Dane and Evangeline are forced to toe the line between real and fake—and decide which side they’re brave enough to stand on.
2022 Reading Challenge Categories: New Adult; Cute Pet; Forced Proximity
Choosing Her
by Natalie Debrabandere
Available in Kindle Unlimited
WHAT HAPPENS WHEN LOVE IS THE HARDEST CHOICE?
Being shot multiple times while saving the life of one of her men has cost Marine Captain, Charlie Winters, the career and lifestyle that she loved. Following that, losing her temper in a bar robbed her of her freedom. When a well-meaning judge sentences her to spend three weeks at a civilian Healing Centre in Canada, Charlie’s backup plan is simple: don’t think, don’t engage, just stay drunk.
Therapist Renée Clarke is no stranger to personal tragedy, and a broken Marine with an attitude problem is a welcome challenge to keep her focused. As days go by, she discovers that Captain Winters is not as damaged as she expected. Meanwhile, Charlie realises that speaking to her coach is a lot more pleasant than she thought.
Life is rarely straightforward though, and always a high-stakes game.
When loving Renée could mean paying the ultimate price…
Will Charlie be strong enough to choose her?
2022 Reading Challenge Category: Ladies in Uniform
Never Again
The Perfect Blend Series: Book 2
by Teresa Purkis
Available in Kindle Unlimited
After Bren had been wrongly accused of inappropriate behaviour, and with her teaching career in ruins, she has returned home, defeated and penniless, to look after her infirm, bigoted father. During the six years she has been back, Bren has immersed all her pent-up emotions into her writing.
Marie is a presenter on the local radio station, and is in the middle of a messy divorce from her wife. She will do anything to honour the prenup she signed.
Bren uses The Perfect Blend coffeehouse to launch her latest novel. Marie covers the launch, but her boss has manipulated the recording, casting Bren in an unfavourable light. Demanding an on-air apology, Bren agrees to meet Marie, having vowed never again to be bullied.
Will Bren start to trust once more and will Marie’s integrity win through? Will a path be smoothed towards their goals? Or will outside influences scupper both their chances for happiness?
2022 Reading Challenge Categories: Slow Burn; Sweet Romance; Girl Next Door; Enemies to Lovers; Loss / Grieving
Awakening Souls
Awakening Series: Book 2
by Angie K. Love
Available in Kindle Unlimited
A serendipitous reconnection. A trip to France. A powerful attraction that never waned. Does true love grant second chances?
Alex: There’s my Sage, looking more beautiful than ever! What are the odds I’d run into her the first time I’m on a date—with a woman? My heart and body have always wanted her, but my faith led me to walk away seventeen months ago. . .
When she asks me to join her on a trip to France, my head spins. Is this God giving me a second chance? Will I be able to show up in the way Sage deserves if I say yes, or will my old demons and guilt come back to haunt me?
Sage: My body and heart respond to Alex as strongly as ever, while my mind’s apparently already on vacation. I hear myself invite her on my trip to France . . . What am I thinking?!
I know the pain of losing her intimately—but she’s clearly been working on herself, and I, too, have been doing my own healing. Still, is it crazy to risk my heart a second time?
Can love overcome all obstacles and mend old wounds?
2022 Reading Challenge Categories: Second Chance; Slow Burn; Magical Realism; Toaster Oven; Coming Out; Cute Animal / Pet / Wild Animal; Hot & Steamy
Over the Moon with You
by Jaime Clevenger
Paige Dannenberg has never taken a water aerobics class. As a busy farm vet, she’s never even given a second thought to water aerobics. But when she gets roped into teaching her mom’s class, it’s time to learn a new skillset—and fast.
Lately the unexpected is the new norm for Seren Winters. She’s single, four months pregnant, and trying not to worry about where she’ll be living by the end of the year. Still, the last thing she expects when she shows up for her first doctor-prescribed water aerobics class is a hot butch instructor. Even more unexpected is accidentally dunking her.
Despite an undeniable attraction, Seren is sure dating Paige is a bad idea. But can Paige change Seren’s mind before her two weeks teaching the class is up?
2022 Reading Challenge Categories: Medical Character; Sports
Weight of her World
by Amanda Owens
Bullies come in all shapes, sizes, and ages.
Brynlee McAdams is used to relentless verbal criticism from her mother and tries to ignore that vitriol to focus on caring for her younger brothers, both of whom have her whole heart. When her brother Brayden becomes the target of school bullies, Brynlee steps in when her mother refuses to, even though she knows it could set them on a collision course with potentially devastating consequences.
When Sarah Cain—Brayden’s kind and engaging third-grade teacher—gets involved, Brynlee discovers she doesn’t really have to handle everything on her own. Brynlee’s blossoming relationship with Sarah also makes her realize that by trying to be the daughter her mother wanted and the sister her brothers needed, she might have forgotten about her own wants and needs.
But Brynlee’s path to happiness is littered with obstacles, and she learns that finding your way sometimes means going completely off track and trusting someone you love to guide you back.
2022 Reading Challenge Category: Forced Proximity
THRILLER / MYSTERY
Ashes to Ashes
Aubrey Blake Thrillers: Book 1
by Rachel Ford
A private eye and a vigilante priest face off to bring down a corrupt band of evildoers—by the book, or off the books. Her way, or his.
Years ago, Aubrey Blake joined the police force to make a difference. She almost lost everything in the pursuit of justice. Now she’s about to do it again.
Disillusioned with her former career, she makes a living as a private detective. A living, but not a life.
Then the killings start. The police are on it. But Blake can’t let it be. She can’t walk away. She’s not wired that way.
Then again, neither are the killers…
Trigger Warning: Mention of previous sexual assault. Not on the page.
2022 Reading Challenge Categories: Thriller; Mystery; Grumpy / Sunshine; Suspense
Vera Kelly: Lost and Found
A Vera Kelly Novel: Book 3
by Rosalie Knecht
It’s spring 1971 and Vera Kelly and her girlfriend, Max, leave their cozy Brooklyn apartment for an emergency visit to Max’s estranged family in Los Angeles. Max’s parents are divorcing—her father is already engaged to a much younger woman and under the sway of an occultist charlatan; her mother has left their estate in a hurry with no indication of return. Max, who hasn’t seen her family since they threw her out at the age of twenty-one, prepares for the trip with equal parts dread and anger.
Upon arriving, Vera is shocked by the size and extravagance of the Comstock estate—the sprawling, manicured landscape; expansive and ornate buildings; and garages full of luxury cars reveal a privileged upbringing that, up until this point, Max had only hinted at—while Max attempts to navigate her father, who is hostile and controlling, and the occultist, St. James, who is charming but appears to be siphoning family money. Tensions boil over at dinner when Max threatens to alert her mother—and her mother’s lawyers—to St. James and her father’s plans using marital assets. The next morning, when Vera wakes up, Max is gone.
In Vera Kelly Lost and Found, Rosalie Knecht gives Vera her highest-stake case yet, as Vera quickly puts her private detective skills to good use and tracks a trail of breadcrumbs across southern California to find her missing girlfriend. She travels first to a film set in Santa Ynez and, ultimately, to a most unlikely destination where Vera has to decide how much she is willing to commit to save the woman she loves.
2022 Reading Challenge Categories: Thriller; Mystery
Can I Trust Her
Frances Lucas
When North Anchorage High School student and rising star is found dead at the bottom of the film club staircase, everyone assumes it was an accident. After all, the stairs are poorly lit, and a person in a hurry could easily miss a step and take a tumble. Besides, who would want to kill someone so universally loved? Except, it turns out, the dead girl wasn’t loved at all.
Virginia and Katie, amateur sleuths and former 8th grade sweethearts, are determined to find out what really happened to their classmate, a girl keeping some very dangerous secrets. But first they must work through their own issues, like why did Katie and her parents suddenly leave Alaska, and why does she want nothing to do with Virginia now—three years later?
Can Virginia and Katie find their way back together and trust each other to tell the truth?
2022 Reading Challenge Categories: Young Adult; Mystery
ROMANTIC SUSPENSE
Love Burns Bright
Fatal Fidelity: Book 3
by Rien Gray
Love always comes with a price.
No one knows that better than Justine. Her freedom has cost two bodies and counting, but now that she’s back in the United States, the only thing she can think about is seeing her parents again. After an abusive marriage kept Justine away from them for ten years, she’s returning to New York City a changed woman—and with the assassin she loves in tow.
Campbell lost what little family they had years ago, and their cover as a killer relies on never attracting attention. Publicly playing Justine’s rich lover risks stripping that mask away, but Campbell is willing to give her anything, no matter how dangerous.
Everything comes to a head the night Justine and Campbell touch down in New York. Their friend Sofia is kidnapped by her Mafia relatives and held for ransom. The trade? Her life for that of a vicious mob boss. And the clock’s ticking. As Campbell plans the kill, the lies they share with Justine start to strain their relationship, and even a second’s exposure will destroy everyone they care about.
It only takes one spark to start a blaze, and this fire could bring the whole city down with them.
2022 Reading Challenge Categories: POC Character; Character with a Disability or Mental Illness; Romantic Suspense; Loss / Grieving; Neurodiverse Character; Hot & Steamy
Bloodlines
The Journeys Series: Book 2
by Shireen Magedin
In this thrilling sequel to “Lifelines,” trouble is never far away from Doctor Sarah Shah and Agent Tanya Kareem. A vengeful, jilted lover from Sarah’s past shatters their idyllic life in England. Betrayal, kidnapping, and a narrow escape from a forced marriage leads them on a frenetic journey through the infamous Pakistani “Badlands.”
Can Sarah and Tanya find the peace they crave?
2022 Reading Challenge Categories: Romantic Suspense; Medical Character; Historical Fiction
YOUNG ADULT
Caught Inside
by Lynnette Beers
Maddie Fong is painfully aware of being the outsider at her new Southern California high school. Teased for being different, she does her best to adapt to her new life. Raised by a single mom, Maddie retreats by burying herself in books and dreaming of a different life. But one day she and her mother meet an intriguing man from Hawaii who introduces Maddie to surfing—which ignites in her the sense of new and exciting possibilities.
But can Maddie overcome her intense fear of water to ride the waves? And if she summons up the courage to learn to surf, will it help her win the attention of a sweet girl from school named Ally Flores? Once Maddie adjusts to life in a beachside town and starts college, she learns that love and bravery might not be enough for her to reach her dreams and find happiness. When she encounters unexpected obstacles that could change the course of her life forever, Maddie faces tough decisions as she has to choose what’s most important to her. But she is determined to never give up—no matter what it takes.
2022 Reading Challenge Categories: Young Adult; Sports
NEW AUDIOBOOKS
Reclaiming Love
by Amanda Radley
narrated by Amy Putt
Sarah Campbell told one tiny white lie.
When her tech-giant employer moves her to a cottage on a small Scottish island to work on a classified, controversial, and potentially world-saving project, Sarah must keep her eco-terrorist mother in the dark to prevent her from disrupting everything. Sarah’s cover story—she’s fallen in love, she and her girlfriend are escaping the bustle of the city, she couldn’t be happier….
But Sarah’s better at firewalls than real walls, and when she arrives at the run-down cottage, she quickly discovers she needs help.
Pippa Kent is a widowed, semi-retired structural engineer who’s done with love. She fills all her free time running a handywoman service on the island. When Sarah calls Pippa out for the most basic repairs, Pippa can’t help but wonder—often out loud—how anyone could be so inept at home maintenance.
Then Sarah’s mother suddenly decides to visit and meet her daughter’s wonderful new partner. With little option, Sarah begs Pippa to be her fake girlfriend. Only the more time they spend faking it, the less pretend it feels.
2022 Reading Challenge Categories: Enemies to Lovers; Fake Relationship
Christmas in July 99-cent Sale
I Heart SapphFic is planning a 99-cent sale.
The Sale Details:
This sale will run July 22 through July 26 and there will only be one price point: 99 cents.
The deadline for supplying the details is Tuesday, July 12. The sooner you can get us the details, the better.
Click here for all the details and to submit your books.
BUY US A COFFEE
Running IHS takes the four 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!
TB, Em, Faith, & Miranda
Want to stay up to date on all the happenings on IHS? Sign up here for the newsletter and never miss a thing.
