A Good Happy Girl
A poignant, surprising, and immersive read about a young professional woman pursuing an emotionally intense relationship with a married lesbian couple, for readers of Kristen Arnett and Melissa Broder Helen, a jittery attorney with a self-destructive streak, is secretly reeling from a disturbing crime of neglect that her parents recently committed. Historically happy to compartmentalize--distracting herself by hooking up with lesbian couples, doting on her grandmother, and flirting with a young administrative assistant--Helen finally meets her match with Catherine and Katrina, a married couple who startle and intrigue her with their ever-increasing sexual and emotional intensity. Perceptive and attentive, Catherine and Katrina prod at Helen's life, revealing a childhood tragedy she's been repressing. When her father begs her yet again for help getting parole, she realizes that she has a bargaining chip to get answers to her past. A Good Happy Girl is interested in worlds without men--and women who will do what they can to get what they want. In her exploration of twisted desires, queer domesticity, and the effects of incarceration on the family, Marissa Higgins offers empathy to characters who often don't receive it, with unsettling results.
The King's Bracelet
In 1904 colonial Kenya, power, faith, and forbidden desire intertwine in this historical political fiction. When British authorities confiscate a sacred brass bracelet-the omukasa-from the Wanga king, three men find their lives irrevocably connected. Wabala, the deposed chief elder of the Wanga people, crafts an ambitious plan to restore his position, aided by Sande, a servant with hidden loyalties. Their secret connection threatens to upend the colonial power structure. Meanwhile, French missionary Father Alain Fontaine's growing feelings for Wabala force him to confront his religious vows and true nature. Their developing bond-taboo in both African and European society-deepens as they share language lessons and intimate conversations. District Commissioner Harold Smith, threatened by their closeness, schemes to separate them while securing his own authority. As Smith tightens his grip on the region, he unknowingly becomes entangled in traditional power structures through a mysterious ritualist's ceremonies. This historical fiction love story explores the cost of ambition, the power of forbidden attraction, and the clash between duty and desire. As colonial politics mesh with traditional authority, each man must choose between the expectations placed upon him and the truth in his heart. Their choices will reshape not only their own lives but the future of an entire people. Themes of colonial power, cultural preservation, and the universal struggle for acceptance are masterfully woven in this African historical fiction, against the backdrop of a rapidly changing society where nothing is quite what it seems.
The Gift
A turbulent telling of one woman's immersion in her faith, and one man's journey to acceptance.Seeking comfort in the isolation of the western landscape, young single mother Pansy Blackwell brings her son Butch to the Siskiyou Mountains. Fully engulfed in the Jehovah's Witnesses assurances for a soon-to-arrive end of the world, Pansy raises her son to conform to the constrictive requirements of their religion. But as Butch discovers the wonders of the world around him with an endlessly patient and kindhearted rancher, he embraces the cowboy culture and struggles to live as his authentic self.In the late 20th Century, rural communities in America were often hostile to the rising-awareness of LGBT people, and Butch is soon cast aside by his church for homosexuality. In The Gift, Scott Terry crafts a memorable and historically-accurate tale of religious extremism and the struggle for acceptance, before the truth of those times are swept under the forgotten rug of history.
Zane's Inferno
When burning, hot lust ignites into raging love. After being trapped in a fire, Zane Wilson is shocked by the heat directed his way by Nick Dubois, the fire department's top paramedic. Nick comes on to Zane, kissing him in the bunkroom, surprising the hell out of him. The next day, Nick shows up at Zane's house and the fireworks really begin. The sex is rough and hot, not at all like anything Zane has had before. When Zane is trapped in a forest fire and almost killed, Nick moves in and doesn't leave his side. But a jealous ex is setting Nick up and gunning for Zane. Will they survive the firestorm created by their relationship, or succumb to the flames?
Fill the Empty Spaces
Austin and Del were the love of each other's life for two decades...until a drunk driver ended Austin's. Now Del struggles to get through each day without his partner.In an effort to get Del back into the realm of the living, Austin's honorary sister Remy books an afternoon at a local cat cafe. A visit which changes Del's existence. He bonds with Charlie, a senior cat with health issues who wears sweaters to cover his lost fur, and with Lochlan, a human who volunteers at the cafe. On impulse, Del signs up to volunteer there too. And with the friendship of Lochlan, Charlie, and the rest of the resident cats, Del begins to live again.As Del and Lochlan's friendship deepens, Lochlan admits one of his deepest secrets: He is a psychopomp, a human who guides spirits to the "crossing point" at the time of their death. In his need to understand Austin's death, Del interrogates Lochlan, and Lochlan turns away from him. During the weeks of no contact, Del emerges more into life, and realizes, in Lochlan's absence, that he is falling for Lochlan. When they finally reconnect, the sparks are there, but only a few months after Austin's death, can Del let himself love again?This book has a main character who has lost his life partner and depicts his grieving process. It includes discussions of child abuse and child death, suicide, and homophobia and transphobia. But it also includes an adorable cat who wears sweaters.
The Haunting Season for Love and Witches
Sometimes, the heart you're looking for is already deadFirst, she was called a witch. Now, they call her stupid. Eilidh wants nothing more than to spend her days working on her flower arrangements, but people call her a pariah. She's always seen them-seen more. Ghosts. But ghosts were not what put her on the town's List of Shame, a new movement that is destroying girls' reputations. Scotland is changing, and if Eilidh is not careful, she will burn like the old ways they came to purge. When a new love takes root where she least expects, and it is all but what she needs, Eilidh will have to decide exactly how far she's willing to go to save her life.Or not.The Haunting Season for Love and Witches is a story about the thin line between love, deceit, obsession, and one's perpetual cost of being true to oneself.
First Snow
What if you only exist because you're the splinter of someone else's soul? After spending his whole life in his brother's shadow, Zanoah gets banished from his home, paying the price for his brother's crime.Thrown into a world unknown to him, he'll have to find himself and a purpose to live for. Crossing a half-sentient jungle, he's bound to find his destiny-a forgotten deity of all things.
Such Times
Christopher Coe was a contemporary and friend of authors like Amy Hempel and Lynne Tillman, and a student of Gordon Lish. Such Times is his masterpiece; perhaps the defining novel of the AIDS era and a foundational work of gay literature. First published in 1993 shortly before his death, it has long been out of print and passed around like a secret handshake, and his cult following is now ready to break out into the open. "Gives voice to the dreams and terrors of an entire generation." --THE NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW "The novel of the decade. Treasure it." --THE PHILADELPHIA INQUIRER "The gay novel of the decade." --PUBLISHER'S WEEKLY "Wrenching ... powerfully effective." --SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE "Perhaps the great novel of the AIDS epidemic." --DAVID LEAVITT "A fresh classic from the most elegant pen on the planet." --PAUL RUDNICK In this hypnotically beautiful, haunting novel, Christopher Coe evokes a lost world of gay pleasure and privilege in the 1970s and early 80s, juxtaposed with the tragic years of loss afterwards. Over the course of Jasper and Timothy's twenty-year relationship, Coe crafts a deeply moving work that elegantly, indelibly evokes a lost paradise and its tragic fall. Archway Editions spent years tracking down the rights and researching his life; this volume will also feature never-before-seen photographs and testimony from those who knew him - far more than a reissue, this is a celebration of a life and of an unjustly forgotten writer. As the original description read, "Coe creates an inexpressibly moving portrait of people living on the razor's edge of desire, from the bathhouses of San Francisco to the waterfronts of New York and the streets of Paris, and offers a rapturous, bittersweet homage to those who now face death for having lived so exuberantly in such times."
Stop Me If You've Heard This One
NAMED A MOST ANTICIPATED BOOK OF 2025 BY PEOPLE, VOGUE, AND NBC TODAY From the New York Times bestselling author of Mostly Dead Things, a sparkling and funny new novel of entertainment, ambition, art, and love."Sweet, sexy, sad, articulate, and funny." - Vogue"As much heart, humor, and gritty realness as can fit between two covers." - People Cherry Hendricks might be down on her luck, but she can write the book on what makes something funny: she's a professional clown who creates raucous, zany fun at gigs all over Orlando. Between her clowning and her shifts at an aquarium store for extra cash, she's always hustling. Not to mention balancing her judgmental mother, her messy love life, and her equally messy community of fellow performers. Things start looking up when Cherry meets Margot the Magnificent--a much older lesbian magician--who seems to have worked out the lines between art, business, and life, and has a slick, successful career to prove it. With Margot's mentorship and industry connections, Cherry is sure to take her art to the next level. Plus, Margot is sexy as hell. It's not long before Cherry must decide how much she's willing to risk for Margot and for her own explosive new act--and what kind of clown she wants to be under her suit. Equal parts bravado, tenderness, and humor, and bursting with misfits, magicians, musicians, and mimes, Stop Me If You've Heard This One is a masterpiece of comedic fiction that asks big questions about art and performance, friendship and community, and the importance of timing in jokes and in life.
