Tuesday, April 2, 2013

Contemporary & LGBT Releases: April/May 2013

Here are a few recent and/or upcoming releases already in my possession that I'm hoping to read soon!

CONTEMPORARIES:

Contemporary Romance
The Best Man by Kristan Higgins (Harlequin HQN)
February 26, 2013

Sometimes the best man is the one you least expect…

Faith Holland left her hometown after being jilted at the altar. Now a little older and wiser, she's ready to return to the Blue Heron Winery, her family's vineyard, to confront the ghosts of her past, and maybe enjoy a glass of red. After all, there's some great scenery there….

Like Levi Cooper, the local police chief—and best friend of her former fiancé. There's a lot about Levi that Faith never noticed, and it's not just those deep green eyes. The only catch is she's having a hard time forgetting that he helped ruin her wedding all those years ago. If she can find a minute amidst all her family drama to stop and smell the rosé, she just might find a reason to stay at Blue Heron, and finish that walk down the aisle.

Women's Fiction
What Tears Us Apart by Deborah Cloyed (MIRA/Harlequin)
March 26, 2013

Love lives in the most dangerous places of the heart. The real world. That's what Leda desperately seeks when she flees her life of privilege to travel to Kenya. She finds it at a boys' orphanage in the slums of Nairobi. What she doesn't expect is to fall for Ita, the charismatic and thoughtful man who gave up his dreams to offer children a haven in the midst of turmoil.

Their love should be enough for one another-it embodies the soul-deep connection both have always craved. But it is threatened by Ita's troubled childhood friend, Chege, a gang leader with whom he shares a complex history. As political unrest reaches a boiling point and the slum erupts in violence, Leda is attacked …and forced to put her trust in Chege, the one person who otherwise inspires anything but.

In the aftermath of Leda's rescue, disturbing secrets are exposed, and Leda, Ita and Chege are each left grappling with their own regret and confusion. Their worlds upturned, they must now face the reality that sometimes the most treacherous threat is not the world outside, but the demons within.

Contemporary Romance
Love Irresistibly by Julie James (Berkeley)
April 2, 2013

A former football star and one of Chicago’s top prosecutors, Assistant U.S. Attorney Cade Morgan will do anything to nail a corrupt state senator, which means he needs Brooke Parker’s help. As general counsel for a restaurant company, she can get a bug to the senator’s table at one of her five-star restaurants so the FBI can eavesdrop on him. All Cade has to do is convince Brooke to cooperate—and he’s not afraid to use a little charm, or the power of his office, to do just that.

AND WHAT HE WANTS IS HER

A savvy businesswoman, Brooke knows she needs to play ball with the U.S. Attorney’s office—even if it means working with Cade. No doubt there’s a sizzling attraction beneath all their sarcastic quips, but Brooke.

Contemporary Romance
Big Boy by Ruthie Knox (Samhain)
April 2, 2013
A Strangers on a Train Story
Meet me at the train museum after dark. Dress for 1957.
When Mandy joins an online dating service, she keeps her expectations low. All she wants is a distraction from the drudgery of single parenthood and full-time work. But the invitation she receives from a handsome man who won't share his real name promises an adventure--and a chance to pretend she's someone else for a few hours.

She doesn't want romance to complicate her life, but Mandy's monthly role-playing dates with her stranger on a train--each to a different time period--become the erotic escape she desperately needs. And a soul connection she never expected.

Yet when she tries to draw her lover out of the shadows, Mandy has a fight on her hands...to convince him there's a place for their fantasy love in the light of day.

Contemporary Romance/Fiction
Changing Lanes by Kathleen Long (Brilliance Corporation)
May 14, 2013

Abby Halladay has the perfect life. Or, rather, she will, as long as everything goes exactly according to plan. Abby never leaves anything to chance --- not her job as a syndicated columnist, not her engagement to her fiance, Fred, and certainly not her impending wedding in Paris (New Jersey, that is). Unfortunately for Abby, even the best-laid plans often go awry, like when Fred runs away to Paris (France, that is), her column is canned, and her dream home is diagnosed with termites.

Forced to move back in with her parents and drive her dad's cab, Abby's perfect life has now officially become the perfect disaster. Then a funny thing happens. Slowly but surely, Abby begins letting go of her dreams of perfection. As she does, the messy, imperfect life she thought she never wanted starts to feel exactly like the one she needs.

Poignant and heartfelt, Changing Lanes celebrates the unexpected joys of everyday life and the enduring promise of second chances.
******

LGBT:

M/M Romance
An Ordinary Boy by Brian Centrone (Seventh Window Publications)
February 23, 2013

Tom Grove’s family is rich, his grandparents are famous, and he’s beautiful. He can have anything he wants, but all Tom really wants is to be an ordinary boy. Like his best friend, Marissa, Tom wants to fit in, make friends and date sexy boys. It would also help if he could be free of his father’s weighty expectations, his mother’s insane demands, and his older brother’s snide remarks.

When Tom begins his first year of college, he believes he’s going to come out and start a new life. But Tom’s plan to come out of the closet and meet hot college boys isn’t exactly foolproof. His new roommate is a straight jock, the gay club at school is made up of outcasts, and the lines between going out to dinner and a date are blurry at best.

If that isn't challenge enough, Tom has to learn how to navigate drunken college parties, the campus social hierarchy, and the attentions of the wrong sort of boys. What begins as a journey to independence turns into a series of mishaps, love, heartache, soul searching, awkward situations and the realization that life is less like an Abercrombie & Fitch catalog and more like the everyday low prices of Wal-Mart.

And to make matters worse, he still has to make it through freshman year.

Historical Gay/General Fiction
My Dear Watson by L.A. Fields (Lethe Press)
April 4, 2013

One of the most famous partnerships in literature yields, over time, to a peculiar romantic triangle. Sherlock Holmes. Dr. John Watson. And the good doctor’s second wife, whom Doyle never named. In L A Fields's novel, Mrs. Watson is a clever woman who realizes, through examining all the prior cases her husband shared with the world's greatest consulting detective, that the two men shared more than adventures: they were lovers, as well. In 1919, after the pair has retired, Mrs. Watson invites Holmes to her home to meet him face to face. Thus begins a recounting of a peculiar affair between extraordinary men.

“You are such a unique person,” Holmes says poisonously. “What a shame that history will most likely never remember your name.”

The question Mrs. Watson faces: Did Holmes simply take advantage of her husband’s loyalty and love, or did the detective return those feelings? And what to do now that the pair are no longer living together at Baker Street and Watson has other claims on his affections? My Dear Watson offers readers a romance that requires as much reasoning to puzzle out as it does passion. Mrs. Watson proves a worthy opponent—in intellect, in guile, in conviction—for the great detective.

Lesbian/General Fiction
Broken in Soft Places by Fionna Zedde (Bold Strokes Books)
May 14, 2013

Some mornings, Sara Chambers wakes in bed next to her girlfriend and her girlfriend’s lover wondering how she ended up there. Beautiful, successful, and a force to be reckoned with at her Atlanta law firm, Sara is still powerless in her attraction to the rebellious and reckless, Rille Thompson.

As college girlfriends, Sara and Rille’s relationship had been incendiary, burning away Sara’s innocence and self-respect even as it widened her world beyond her wildest imagination. Now, almost twenty years later, Rille still pushes Sara beyond her limits, bringing a third lover into their bed and domestic lives when their monogamy gets stale. The hold Rille has over Sara—and their new lover—becomes as powerful as it is dangerous. Can Sara pull herself free in time, or will her life turn to cinders in the wake of Rille’s powerful flame?

******
AND, looking forward to the release of:

Contemporary Romance/Suspense
Whiskey Beach by Nora Roberts (Putnam Adult)
April 16, 2013
For more than three hundred years, Bluff House has sat above Whiskey Beach, guarding its shore—and its secrets. But to Eli Landon, it’s home…

A Boston lawyer, Eli has weathered an intense year of public scrutiny and police investigations after being accused of—but never arrested for—the murder of his soon-to-be-ex wife.

He finds sanctuary at Bluff House, even though his beloved grandmother is in Boston recuperating from a nasty fall. Abra Walsh is always there, though. Whiskey Beach’s resident housekeeper, yoga instructor, jewelry maker, and massage therapist, Abra is a woman of many talents—including helping Eli take control of his life and clear his name. But as they become entangled in each other, they find themselves caught in a net that stretches back for centuries—one that has ensnared a man intent on reaping the rewards of destroying Eli Landon once and for all…

4 comments:

  1. Nice picks :D
    I hope you enjoy them, personally I'm really exited about the new Julie James book :D

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    1. Alex, I agree! I can't wait to read the Julie James book. No matter what, her books always seem to be fun in the end.

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  2. The new NR comes out tomorrow! I just can't wait!!

    I think you're going to enjoy the new Julie James, Hils! :) I did LOL. Changing Lanes look interesting, but I'm a bit tired of those down-on-their-luck heroes and heroines. I mean, seriously, how many books have that premises out there lately?

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    1. I have Whiskey Beach already! Began reading it this morning on my way to work, lol!

      I have the Julie James book and hope to pick it up soon. I'm just giving myself a little time to see if I get over the "romance-reading funk" first. I want to be fair to the book. :D

      RE: Changing Lanes. It is women's fiction/romance. I will let you know how it turns out! It caught my attention.

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