Brooke's life has been a mess for the past six months. Struggling with deep-seated nihilism and lingering trauma, her only real escape is the climbing gym—that is, until her guarded world is shaken up by a petty rivalry with a fiercely confident athlete on the trail. Hinging on an impulsive bet, the two soon find themselves hopelessly lost in the Rocky Mountains with only each other for guidance. As a simple weekend expedition spirals into a brutal mountain trek, they are forced to navigate grueling hikes and treacherous terrain just to stay alive. Can two bitter opposites find enough peace to make it home together? This rom-com gone bad tells the story of the Southwest and the resilient people who call it home.

Inês Tavares restores broken azulejos in a workshop in Alfama, piecing together other people's histories while keeping her own carefully sealed. She almost left once, for love, and came back alone, and she has not made that mistake again. Mara Duarte arrives in Lisbon with a one-way ticket, a half-finished translation contract, and no plan past the ninety days her visa allows. She has spent a while leaving places before they can leave her first. When a sudden downpour sends Mara through the wrong door on the Rua de São Miguel, she finds Inês elbow-deep in glue and broken porcelain, unimpressed and unmistakably beautiful. What begins as a favor, a few afternoons learning to mend tile, becomes something neither woman is prepared for: a slow, stubborn falling, built out of bicas on cracked tiles, evenings on the Graça hillside watching the light go copper over the Tejo, and the particular intimacy of being taught, carefully, by someone who has learned not to trust easily. But Mara's time in the city has a hard edge to it, and Inês knows better than anyone what it costs to love something you cannot keep. The Weight of Staying is a story about the difference between visiting a life and choosing one, and about two women who have to decide, together, what they're willing to risk to stop running.

Rania Idrissi has spent eleven years turning her family's crumbling riad in the Marrakech medina into a small, quiet sanctuary, for guests, and for herself. She has built a life of careful walls: warm enough to keep the business alive, high enough to keep her own truth hidden from a city that knows her name. When a French-Algerian photographer named Chloé Bouzid arrives for a six-week residency to document the disappearing crafts of the medina, Rania expects another guest to feed, another door to lock behind. She does not expect someone who looks at her the way Inès does — like she's already been seen. Chloé has come to Marrakech running from a life that stopped fitting her the day her mother died and left her, at thirty-four, without the one person she'd been performing stability for. She tells herself the trip is about the work. It becomes about the woman who pours her tea from a height of three feet without spilling a drop, who moves through the medina like water finding the path of least resistance, who is, Chloé realizes slowly and then all at once, the most guarded person she has ever wanted to know.

When Alma Peretz, freshly graduated from college and reluctantly back in her quirky Florida hometown, bumps into the last person she ever wanted to see—her high school English teacher and unrequited crush, Rachel Adler—her plan to quietly rebuild her life starts to unravel like a poorly carved jack-o’-lantern. Alma has never quite lived down the sting of confessing her feelings to Rachel on the last day of senior year, only to be gently but firmly turned away. Now, in a small city where everyone knows everyone, avoiding her is almost impossible. The coffee shop, the bar, even the corner store seems haunted by Rachel’s presence. When her old best friend dares her to finally face the town’s infamous tradition—spending one night in the supposedly haunted Harrington House, a rite of passage she’d always chickened out of—Alma reluctantly agrees. After all, she’s determined to shed her fears and start fresh. But when she shows up at the doorstep with shaking hands, she finds Rachel already there… confessing she never braved the house either. Forced to endure creaking floors, flickering candles, and maybe more than one mischievous ghost, Alma and Rachel must spend the night confronting both the supernatural and the unspoken tension between them. Alma might realize the only thing more terrifying than Harrington House is risking her heart again. And this time, Rachel might just be ready to meet her halfway.

This alternate universe follows Anna and Daniella’s journey in a reality where Daniella chooses to teach at a different school. What are the odds?

The job is easy. Eretz Hayim, a professional spy and assassin with the code name Yael Hanani, has to infiltrate the life of Eve Blau, a successful businesswoman with a company holding so much power that it's hard for the common human mind to grasp fully. The mission: seduce Eve, extract confidential information, and then eliminate her to pave the way for her brother to take control. As the line between duty and desire becomes blurred, Eretz grapples with conflicting loyalties. The mission unfolds in a dangerous dance of romance and betrayal, leaving both women entangled in a web where love and espionage collide. Will the heart survive the shadows of deceit, or will duty extinguish the flame they dared to ignite?

Esther Agassi is a feared and respected woman. She worked hard to earn her position as head of the marketing team at a well-known magazine—and she’s working even harder to keep it. In fact, so hard that she may have lost the ability to enjoy anything besides work, work, and more work. But all of that changes the moment her team’s new intern walks into her office. Do you believe in hate at first sight?

Book #2 from the Ms. Evans series.

Anna Krause is in her senior year and more than ready to leave high school behind and start a fresh life without homework. What she didn't expect, however, was that she might want to spend a little more time inside what she thought was a prison... once she meets her new calculus teacher. A fresh, lighthearted, and warm take on the classic tale of forbidden love — romance, humor, and plenty of banter.

I thought we were forever. We built a home together, filled with our routines, promises, unfinished paintings, heart-shaped pancakes, and all the little things I once believed I would have for the rest of my life. Then you left. Now I sit in the home we once shared, surrounded by pieces of you I don't know how to escape. Your perfume. Your gifts. Your side of the bed. Even the smell of coffee reminds me of you, despite the fact that I never really liked drinking it in the first place. I have tried to move on. I have made new friends, buried myself in work, and convinced everyone around me that I am doing just fine. Then your name appears on my screen. That's all it takes to bring you back to every corner of my mind and remind me of the future we almost. Because how I am supposed to forget you when everything around me still remembers us?

A mild-mannered British psychiatrist, Dr. Noctis' first priority is to her patients. She is, without a doubt, the 'good doctor.' With her specialty in forensics, Lilith works alongside the exceptional Emelia Blackburne as DC Metro PD's criminal behavior consultant. Yet, Lilith's human facade is built upon manufactured half-truths. The evil that lies beneath is a singular misstep from being revealed to the world around her. When a string of odd occurrences leads Detective Blackburne far too close to Lilith's secret world, she has to choose between her safety and Blackburne's. Fear is Lilith's vice, but the brunette with the emerald green eyes has become her addiction. --- Paperback copy now available at mstarauthor.com!

SophxJenny WARNING: Spoiler alert, do not read if you haven't read up to the 12th chapter of the sequel "The Start of Something New" old version.

Lexie Carlyle has always believed the world was ordinary—until she learns how wrong she is. Hidden beneath the surface of everyday life lies something vast, ancient, and extraordinary. And Lexie, a nineteen‑year‑old with a past she doesn’t understand, is bound to it in ways she could never have imagined. As her true nature awakens, Lexie must face the dangers of the hidden world and confront the terrifying beauty of who she really is. Because embracing her fate might be the only way to claim the love she’s been destined for.

Years have passed, but time hasn’t dulled the pull between them. Adalyne has built a quiet, steady life far from the chaos of her past. The world no longer feels like a battlefield—until Jazmin Valencia walks back into it. A chance encounter forces open old doors neither of them were ready to face, and suddenly Adalyne is no longer the girl who ran, nor the woman who could ever forget. Jazmin has her own ghosts to reckon with—years defined by sacrifice, guilt, and the haunting memory of the wife she let go. When circumstances bring them together again, the distance between who they were and who they’ve become feels impossible to cross. Yet, in every conversation, in every lingering glance, the truth resurfaces: love has always been the one thing they couldn’t unlearn. Now, with the past threatening to reclaim them and the future uncertain, Adalyne and Jazmin must decide if love can survive not just separation, but transformation. To find their way back to each other, they will have to face the hardest question of all—can two broken hearts learn to beat as one again?

She has freedom at last—but freedom doesn’t mean forgetting. Adalyne should feel liberated. After breaking away from the crushing grip of her family’s cult and the marriage of convenience that bound her to Jazmin Valencia, she finally has the life she once only dreamed of: her own choices, her own body, her own future. But independence is lonelier than she imagined. Navigating a world of possibility—women who adore her, nights filled with promise, and a heart desperate to belong—Adalyne discovers that freedom also means facing the ache she cannot outrun. Because no matter how many arms she finds herself in, one truth remains: she is still married to Jazmin, the woman who both saved and shattered her. Caught between the lure of new beginnings and the ghost of a love that refuses to fade, Adalyne must confront a question she has long avoided: can she truly become her own if her heart has never stopped belonging to someone else?

From the first thaw to the last frost, a lesbian Japanese poet traces love’s small rituals and the wild answering call of forest, tide, and sky. Divided into Spring, Summer, Autumn, and Winter, the collection follows a year’s turning—under moonlight and the watch of winter wolves, through spring rain and summer heat—gathering moments of body and spirit, hunger and return, grief and renewal. For readers drawn to contemporary queer poetry, to minimalist lyric and the intimacy of nature, Songs of the Wolf and Moon offers brief pieces to savor in one sitting or wander back to. Its themes span sapphic love and longing, Japanese place and sensibility, wilderness and weather, memory and ritual, until the year closes like a hand cupping flame—warm, certain, alive in the dark.

High school teacher Jazmin Valencia has survived heartbreak by constructing walls—unfeeling, remote, and strictly in control, she refuses to let the world close enough to wound her again. But her detachment shatters when she takes notice of a student who seems as lost and hurting as she once was. Determined to save the girl from darkness, Jazmin throws herself into her care, all the while battling a dangerous attraction that threatens to consume them both. Jazmin is forced to choose: keep her heart barricaded, or risk utter ruin for a taste of something forbidden. She may lose the very fortress she's built to survive... but what if losing herself is the only way to truly live?

It all began with fingers being licked... In the quiet town of Valley View, Australia, Ana Pryce has long since accepted being single, focusing on ensuring her landscaping business thrives. Ana's days are spent elbow deep in fertiliser and mulch, nights are spent with a cold beer and the only friend Ana's got. Life, as far as Ana's concerned, is good. All Kathryn Johnson desires is a fresh start. Newly divorced, a single parent to her son Oliver and a reluctant caregiver to one rambunctious Golden Retriever, all Kathryn wants is to find her footing, regain her sense of self and rebuild a life she can find peace in. A random encounter launches Ana and Kathryn on a journey together that neither expected, nor fully understands. Ana can't help but wonder if there's something more between them, more than the friendship that begins to blossom. Kathryn never expected to find herself so inexplicably drawn to Ana, nor that she'd ever question who she believed herself to be. Yet despite the unknown the desire that whispers between them cannot be denied.

Esther Agassi is a feared and respected woman. She worked hard to get to her position in a well-known magazine as head of the marketing team, and is working as hard to keep it. So hard, she might as well have lost the ability to enjoy anything else other than work, work, and work. But all that changes the very moment... a talking frog shows up at her office, claiming to be the granddaughter of a billionaire. Louise, the frog, promises Esther a life of riches in exchange for a simple kiss. This is a lesbian retelling of the fairy tale "The frog Prince" with the Characters of "Rule no.1: No Romance" — you don't need to read it to understand this story.

Delilah is a daddy's girl through and through. More a headache than a helpful heir. When her ransom ends with her body thrown into the city's toxic sewers, the smoking hot Rayne comes to her rescue. The only problem is that Rayne wants Delilah's help in taking down her father's wasteful company so that no one else ends up like the two of them. Can Delilah turn her back on her father like he's done to her or will she forever be daddy's mistake? **(FxF(intersex))**

Years ago, Pamela Isley saved a young boy from an experimental facility. Since then, Poison Ivy is a ghost of the past. Only single mom and florist Pamela remains. And Harley Quinn, the clown princess of crime, with bad makeup and even bad-er attitude was the kind of creature Pamela hoped to avoid. It did not help that the woman who takes a sledgehammer to swat a fly has taken an active interest in her. Then entered Dr. Harleen Quinzel, always with a glacial calmness behind her rimmed spectacles and a smile meant only for her. Dr. Quinzel was the kind of woman Pamela would have wanted to have a family with. Too bad, she is her son's mandated therapist. A date would be crossing boundaries, right? Now Pamela is caught between two extreme women. One who pursues her and the other she wants to pursue. And they are two different women. Definitely. Or so thinks Pamela. ------- “You,” Pamela growled, “are a menace.” “Aww, Red!” Harley kicked her feet like an overexcited child. “Ya say the sweetest things.” Pamela didn’t dignify that with a response. Instead, she went back and returned with a pesticide spray and a bucket of water. She sprayed the mist directly into Harley’s face. “ACK... PFFT! RED!” Harley flailed, coughing dramatically. “That’s chemical warfare! I’m callin’ the Geneva Convention!” “And I am calling the police... and your parole officer.” Harley wiggled her eyebrows. “Like ain’t anyone touchin’ Harley Quinn.” “Good. Then guess it’s my way,” Pamela deadpanned,

A stranger to her own existence, Kayla moves to a small town with the hope of finding comfort in a fresh start. But as she steps inside the unfamiliar classroom on the first day, standing in front of the class is a mysteriously familiar face, one that rouses memories of a time she believed had gone by. With past baggage catching up in the most intrusive ways, she stumbles upon unexpected comfort of friendship, unconditional love of found family, and a beautiful yet complicated bond between two hesitant souls. "This book was like a warm hug, and I might believe in love again." "I would give everything, especially my soul, to have the opportunity to read this book for the first time again." — Started in January 2018. Re-published in November 2022. First draft (this version) finished in April 2023.

Two college roommates navigate love, intimacy, and self-discovery in a sensual and emotional journey.