Sapphic One Night to Forever Romances (IHS Reading Challenge #32)

Welcome to week 32 of the 2022 IHS Sapphic Reading Challenge.

Before we get to the books, we want to remind you of two ways you can interact with other readers to enhance your experience during the challenge this year.

First, 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.

Now to get to the task at hand. We paired One Night to Forever week with Happiness Happens Month, because these days, all happiness should be cherished, especially if it leads to love.

Below you’ll find reading suggestions. Better yet, 10 of them are on sale, so scoop up some fantastic reads at bargain prices. Before you click any buy buttons, please ensure the sale price matches. (Some international prices may vary.)

The following books are on sale for One Night to Forever week: August 15 through August 19

 

Symphony in Blue

by MJ Duncan

$0.99 $7.99 (Also in Kindle Unlimited)

It was just supposed to be a working weekend in Maui and not anything remotely life-altering, but all that changes the moment Gwen Harrison holds a hotel elevator for Dana Ryan. Beautiful and charming, Dana is a breath of fresh air that Gwen is helpless to resist—something she dearly regrets when their whirlwind weekend is over and reality sets back in. The course of true love is notorious for being anything but smooth, but the truths and consequences of an inauspicious beginning such as theirs are enough to put that old adage to the ultimate test.

 

London Holiday

by Miranda MacLeod

$0.99 $5.99 (Also in Kindle Unlimited)

When a struggling journalist meets a runaway princess, will it be the story of the century or the love of a lifetime?

Jordan is an American journalist living in London, but when her newspaper is sold to an infamous tabloid king, she has one week to produce a sensational tell-all article, or she’s out of a job—and out of the country. When a runaway princess nearly falls into her lap, it seems like the answer to her prayers.

Abby was a typical California girl until a twist of fate turned her into Princess Abigail, the heir to the throne of her father’s kingdom. When presented with an opportunity to escape her royal duties for a night out on the town while on an official state visit to London, she seizes the chance. But when she’s rescued by the woman of her dreams, she begins to doubt that she can ever return to royal life again.

As their madcap adventure carries them through the streets of London, both Jordan and Abby suspect they’ve found their perfect match, but if the secrets they are hiding are exposed, will their relationship survive?

 

Confined Spaces

by Renee MacKenzie

$0.99 $3.59 

Andie Waters spends her days pulling waste samples for environmental testing and at night, she tends bar at The Cave, a popular hangout for straights in a small Georgia town. Serial monogamy has grown stale for her, so she’s content working to pay off her debts and hanging out with her old hound dog. Or so she thinks, until a beautiful lesbian drops by The Cave.Andie suspects her involvement with the woman will be only temporary. Little does she know no part of her life will be left untouched.

Kara Travis likewise anticipates nothing more than a brief fling upon meeting Andie, especially given her reputation as both a personal ice princess and a corporate hatchet wielder for Royal Environmental. What luck to find a hot lesbian bartender in nowhere rural Georgia.

Andie and Kara spend a passionate weekend together and find that their notions of no strings attached are far from accurate. Their supposed short-term ideal diversion of a commitment-free romp hits a major complication when they come face-to-face with one another at Royal Environmental’s offices Monday morning.

While carrying out her duties, Kara discovers crimes being committed by and against Royal Environmental employees. Will Kara be forced to shut down the Georgia Division of the company? If she does, Andie will lose her job. Worse yet, Kara may lose Andie before she’s really even sure she’s got her.

 

Sequestered

by Nicole Higginbotham-Hogue

$0.99 $3.99 

When Special Agent Keir Ortega busts Tartino and his gang for drug trafficking and selling weapons to the American Black Market, she thinks that she can rest her mind of the case. However, after finding out that New York’s Ronnie Giorgio might be an extension of this criminal activity, Keir is assigned to search the streets of New York to find the new ringleader in this crime. She is led to the theatre district, where she meets Gina, a woman that always seems to be at the wrong place at the wrong time. This woman might be the key to busting the drug chain that is thriving along the New York Harbor, but who is she? And can she be trusted? As Keir learns more about the woman, she starts to feel something that she hasn’t felt before. Gina is captivating, entrancing and Keir’s weakness. Will Keir be able to solve the case before her heart gives in to this vixen’s subtle charm, or will Gina be her destruction?

 

Wild Seedling

by Dawn K. Lake

$0.99 $2.99 (Also in Kindle Unlimited)

An ill-advised one-night stand reignites a passionate flame between two women who previously parted after both making irrevocable choices.

Laurie Kendal is twenty-one, newly divorced, and no longer able to pretend to herself that she isn’t a lesbian. On her first visit to a lesbian bar, she stumbles across the last person she ever expected to meet again—Alexandra Fremont, Laurie’s former best friend and the crush she could never quite forget.

An ill-advised one-night stand with Alexandra reignites Laurie’s feelings and makes her determined to pursue the possibility of a relationship, but many obstacles stand in the way. Like the suspicions of Alexandra’s friends, none of whom trust Laurie. Or Alexandra’s own doubts as to Laurie’s intentions. And not least of all, a society in flux where the position of lesbians is improving but tenuous.

 

The Touch of Her Voice

by Sara Scott

$1.99 $9.99 (Also in Kindle Unlimited)

My world turned to shades of grey as I squared my shoulders and turned around. The woman with the short, dark hair and the blue scarf was the only source of color in the coffee shop. I seemed to glide across the floor until I found myself standing by her table. She had been stunning from across the room; up close she dazzled.

Suddenly, there was Sophie…

On the surface, Jensy Willett appears to have it all: good friends, a storied basketball career, a great job, and most important, the love of her life, Sophie Barnes.

But there is a secret in Jensy Willett’s past that she will not share. Not even with her beloved Sophie. That vow of silence will have far-reaching ramifications when a chance encounter results in a disastrous decision. A decision that will tear at the fabric of Jensy and Sophie’s relationship and send them spiraling out of control.

Can their relationship be saved?

 

Two of a Kind 

by Miranda MacLeod & TB Markinson

$2.99 $6.99 (Also in Kindle Unlimited)

Could something you can’t remember be the best decision of your life?

Maisie Sullivan is a hard-working marketing assistant from Milwaukee who wants nothing more than to earn a promotion and finally finish her college degree. But when she’s swept off her feet by a charming cowgirl while on a business trip to Las Vegas, she decides there’s no harm in having a little fun.

Drew Campbell is a no-nonsense Wyoming rancher with a talent for horse training. Her only goal in traveling to Las Vegas for a riding competition is to win enough money to pay off her family’s debts. But when a beautiful stranger catches her eye and then some, she figures she might as well let loose for a night on the town.

What takes place after that, neither can recall. But months after parting ways, when both their fortunes have fallen, they discover what happened in Vegas has followed them home. A quickie divorce will solve the problem, but each woman has something the other needs, and neither will budge until she gets her way.

They just want to get on with their lives, but will they end up falling in love with their wives?

 

The Headmistress

by Milena McKay

$2.99 $5.99 (Also in Kindle Unlimited)

A chance encounter. An unforgettable night.

And back home, trouble is brewing on the remote island of Three Dragons, where nothing feels like it used to. Alone and lonely, Sam Threadneedle wishes upon a star, hoping for change. But when said change comes, it’s with a roar and not a whimper.

Torn between loyalty and lust, Sam is forced to re-evaluate everything.

Can she and the Home of Dragons withstand the storm that is Magdalene Nox, or will any and all crumble?

Not everything is as it seems, and as she slowly unravels the mysteries behind the centuries-old walls, Sam realizes that home is much more than oak and stone.

 

In Her Arms

by Melissa Tereze 

$2.99 $7.99 (Also in Kindle Unlimited)

One night. Nothing held back. And maybe finding everything they need…

Reagan’s only plan, when she came alone to a lesbian bar in the city, was to knock back a few drinks far from her lonely country house. Looking around at the younger regulars, though, maybe it was a mistake to think this was a good place to start fresh.

Then she meets a beautiful woman with stunning brown eyes and the world’s cheesiest pickup lines. Before Reagan knows it, she’s spending one night of passion in a stranger’s bed. Then fleeing back to the country. Alone.

Frankie’s had enough of the city. Even the bar scene has gone stale, eclipsed by the memory of a black-haired, green-eyed woman who lit up her world—and disappeared. Needing a change of scene, Frankie sets out to rent a quaint country cottage.

That’s when she discovers her new landlord is Reagan. But a different Reagan. She’s cautious. Prickly. Afraid. Maybe the smart thing for Frankie to do is head straight back to the city. Or maybe it’s worth the risk to stay—and kiss away the walls Reagan’s built around her heart.

 

A Real Love Story

by Madison Locke

$2.99 $5.99 (Also in Kindle Unlimited)

Courtney Jacobs always put the wants and needs of others before her own. On a graduation trip to Hawaii, far from her overbearing parents and fiancé James, she put her own desires first when she meets Kristina (Kris) Mallet. She never expected to fall in love with Kris not to mention that being with a woman would not be acceptable to her overly controlling parents. She decides to stay in Hawaii, but never thought her parents would come after her! Everything that happened from that moment on was just meant to be.

 

Keep scrolling for more reading suggestions!

 

Embracing the Dawn

by Jeannie Levig

Does love have a chance when no one knows she wants it?

Jinx Tanner is an ex-con trying to piece together a life on the outside and heal her relationship with her half-sister who hasn’t spoken to her in over twenty-five years. Romantic love is nowhere on her radar. E. J. Bastien is a business executive with her life and heart under control. She has a successful career, a woman in her bed whenever she wants one, and a healthy relationship with her grown children—as long as they don’t find out she’s gay. She has no desire for romantic entanglements.

When these two women awaken after a one-night stand to find their lives inextricably entwined, love has its work cut out for it.

 

Bookends

by Brenda Murphy

The life of university librarian, Amari Foster, is neatly cataloged. Work, home, and securing a future for her daughter are her focus. Hard-edged and handsome, she manages her private life with ruthless precision, cutting ties, and maintaining distance to protect her battered heart.

Plumber Thalia Makris has given up her dream of long-term love after a series of bad relationships. Desperate to have her own business, Thalia fills her days working overtime and her nights with fantasy novels.

After a chance encounter leaves both women wanting more than a one-night stand, they find themselves on the precipice of love. Will they take the plunge?

 

The Woman at the Top of the Stairs

by Jamey Moody

Available in Kindle Unlimited

What would you do for the woman you love?

Dru Rae gave up everything to get away from her mafioso family. She disappeared with hopes they’d never find her. All she wanted was a quiet life with a few friends and the woman she knew in her heart was out there.

Marina Summit was an uber successful realtor in a thriving housing market. She gave someone two dates, if there wasn’t a spark then she moved on. Besides, she was too busy for love.

As a house stager on the first day of her new job, Dru was waiting to meet the realtor for a final walk through.

Marina was set to approve a new listing when she went to check on the house staging. She wasn’t prepared for what happened to her heart when she saw the woman at the top of the stairs.

 

The Gift

by Raven J. Spencer

Available in Kindle Unlimited

The sensual romance between an escort and her reluctant client…

What do you do when your friends’ birthday surprise turns awkward?

It’s Chloe’s birthday. She’s successful and single, and content with her life the way it is. When her friends give her a relaxing spa weekend in a luxury hotel, she thinks nothing of going alone–after working hard for a long time, she has earned it. Chloe doesn’t know that the weekend includes some time with Lacey, or that what she has to offer to her, would be so hard to resist.
Lacey knows how to keep her emotional distance from a client. Reluctant Chloe turns out to be a challenge in many ways, and soon both of them face difficult decisions.

Can they really go back to the way things were before–do they want to? Or can life go into a different, unexpected direction?

 

Catching On

by Ali Williams

Available in Kindle Unlimited

I’ve been in love with my best friend since we were twelve, and I’m finally ready to tell her the truth at our monthly movie night. What’s going to happen when she finally catches on…?

 

A Marine’s Conflict

by Jax Meyer & Elle Armstrong

Available in Kindle Unlimited

Mags Newsome has already given over a decade of her life to the Marine Corps. She’s learned to compartmentalize her life to survive the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy that keeps servicemembers from serving openly. But that’s also kept her from any meaningful relationships.

Elaine ‘Lane’ Chapman moved to the US from England with her girlfriend who soon left her. Remaining in sunny southern California, Elaine built a life for herself as a college math professor, content to experience love through romance novels rather than risk her heart again.

A chance encounter in a bookstore cafe brings the two women together where they discover an off the charts attraction. As they battle their feelings to maintain their ‘friends with benefits’ agreement, another war looms in the Middle East, threatening everything they’ve built.

 

Hot For Teacher

by Emersyn Grey

Available in Kindle Unlimited

Riley Stephens is taken on an unexpected outing that will change her life forever. What will she do when she meets a beautiful blonde who reappears in the least likely of places?

Lakin Hart loves the power her job gives her, and she’s not looking for a change. But what will happen when her path crosses that of a lonely professor?

Will Riley and Lakin be willing to explore worlds outside their comfort zones in search of what they’ve both been missing most?

 

Happy reading!

Faith, Em, Miranda, & TB


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About TBM

TB Markinson is an American who's recently returned to the US after a seven-year stint in the UK and Ireland. When she isn't writing, she's traveling the world, watching sports on the telly, visiting pubs in New England, or reading. Not necessarily in that order. Her novels have hit Amazon bestseller lists for lesbian fiction and lesbian romance. She cohosts the Lesbians Who Write Podcast (lesbianswhowrite.com) with Clare Lydon. TB also runs I Heart Lesfic (iheartlesfic.com), a place for authors and fans of lesfic to come together to celebrate lesbian fiction.
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2 Responses to Sapphic One Night to Forever Romances (IHS Reading Challenge #32)

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