Lesbian Light Reads Series

Life is better with a woman AND a dog. Beautiful African American Jordan is quite happy spending most of her free time hanging with her dog Minnie. She doesn’t need a girlfriend. Her life is just fine as it is. Jordan’s life begins to change one early Sunday morning when Minnie meets Arrow, a golden retriever, at the dog park, and Jordan meets Arrow’s owner, a sexy woman with pale translucent skin and hazel eyes. Minnie likes Arrow. Jordan slowly realizes that she likes Arrow’s owner even more. She has to find her again, even though she doesn’t know her name, and begins to realize that her life will be even better with this woman in her life. Lesbian With Dog Seeks Same is the third book in the Lesbian Light Reads series, but each book can stand alone. This lesbian contemporary love story includes graphic sex and is intended for adults only. Excerpt: I surprised myself by waking up just before 7 a.m. on Sunday. I woke up at that time during the week but only if my alarm clock went off loudly several times. I hadn’t set an alarm or anything for today. I just woke up. Weird. Minnie was up as soon as I was, wagging her tail. She seemed eager to return for another Sunday morning romp at the dog park. I had taken her there a few times in the evenings during the week, but we hadn’t seen Arrow or Ms. Arrow. She seemed like a regular, but maybe it was only in the mornings. I yawned. I was as eager to get to the dog park as Minnie was, but I wasn’t sure why. The dog park was fun, mostly because it gave Minnie so much joy, but I did believe that 7 a.m. on a Sunday could officially be classified as ungodly. As we left, a light, warm summer rain began to fall. Once upon a time, I would have reached for a hat or an umbrella to keep water from touching my hair. This morning the warm water felt good on my bare head. I stopped getting my hair relaxed six years ago, and I hadn’t looked back. I went from getting my chin-length hair chemically treated every six to eight weeks to getting it trimmed short periodically. It made my life far easier. Plus, I could enjoy a light rain like the one that greeted us when we left home without fear over what it would do to my hair. The water felt good. On approaching the dog park, I saw Ms. Arrow right away. She was standing off to the side while Arrow greeted another dog. We got to the park a little later than we had last Sunday morning, so I was surprised to see that Ms. Arrow, Arrow and the other dog and its owner were the only ones there. Maybe the rain was keeping everyone else away. I waved to her when she looked my way. “Good morning!” I said as I unlatched the gate and followed Minnie in. “Hi there,” she said. Minnie was straining at the leash to greet her new pal, Arrow. I let her off the leash but stayed close to her. “I guess the rain has kept a lot of people away,” I said as Arrow sniffed Minnie’s butt. The other dog, a mid-sized mutt with grey hair and a big smile, also stopped by to say hello. She shrugged. “The dogs don’t care. They’ll get their people out. They just won’t stick around as long.” Her coffee today smelled of vanilla again. She wore a pale blue windbreaker, and her long hair was wet and matted around her face. The grey, rainy day did nothing to dim her light brown eyes with touches of green. She still had that just-fell-out-of-bed look from last weekend, but I was starting to think she was beautiful.

"An easy, lighthearted read perfectly suited for before bed." - Planet London "If you need a reminder that happy lesbians in healthy relationships exist this Valentine's, this is definitely the story for you. I'm so impressed with what Andre managed to do in 42 pages and I'll definitely look at her other work." - Lesbrary "My first thought after finishing this book was AWWWW!!! I loved it! The ending was so sweet... actually the whole book was really good." - Prism Book Alliance Would you let your mother find your next girlfriend? Beautiful thirty-two-year old African American Aisha Watson works hard all week as a budget analyst and plays hard all weekend as a competitive longsword fighter. But her heart was recently broken, and she’s not even so sure she wants to be in love again after a series of dating disasters. Aisha’s mother decides to find her a nice girl and introduces her to Kris Donnelly. Kris, with long chestnut brown hair and vibrant green eyes, is Aisha’s former high school classmate who is all grown up and has become one of Chicago’s leading sommeliers. In between choosing fine wines, she’s just getting back into dating as Aisha is leaving the scene, but Aisha is about to learn that her mother may be right about something. Love’s Perfect Vintage is the first book in the Lesbian Light Reads series, but each book can stand alone. This lesbian contemporary love story includes graphic sex and is intended for adults only.

It’s never too late for love... When Hannah, a 65-year old retired nurse, goes on a Caribbean cruise with a bunch of her friends all she wants to do is win the euchre tournament. She’d like to fall in love, but suspects it may be too late for her. When Hannah recognizes an old friend from decades ago, she starts to believe that it is never too late for love. Joyce is a fellow retired nurse who lost her husband five years before and hasn’t had love since. Hannah is afraid of being Joyce’s vacation lesbian experiment. Joyce never thought she would find love again, and it never occurred to her that love would take the form of a woman. Together they navigate the rocky waters of love found when they both least expect it and discover that second chances are worth taking. Right Time for Love is the fifth book in the Lesbian Light Reads series, but each book can stand alone. This lesbian contemporary love story includes graphic sex and is intended for adults only.

All Lauren Golden wants is to be the best journalist ever. The gorgeous redhead with pale white skin and hazel eyes wants the story and nothing else. When an editor tells her to interview the CEO of a successful cosmetics company, she quickly realizes she has met the woman, Charlenae White, before. When Lauren was a reporter at her university newspaper, Charlenae was a student as well and competing in the state beauty pageant. Lauren wrote about Charlenae then and never forgot her long black hair, dark brown skin and beautiful smile. After the story ran, Charlenae called Lauren to ask her out, but Lauren did not respond. Now Charlenae wants to give Lauren a second chance for love. All Lauren has to do is believe her and, most importantly, believe in herself. The Beauty Queen Called Twice is the seventh book in the Lesbian Light Reads series, but each book can stand alone. This lesbian contemporary love story includes graphic sex and is intended for adults only. Excerpt: I started scribbling down my impressions of the office, but I didn’t have to wait long before Charlenae glided in with a coffee in one hand and a phone in another. She wasn’t wearing the chiffon trousers I remembered and loved so well, but her black, straight-legged pants and low heels suited her. Her hair was still long, although curlier and bouncier than I remembered it. The smile hadn’t changed. She looked like she had managed to mature without aging. “Lauren!” she exclaimed. She looked excited to see me. I was surprised that she remembered who I was. “Charlenae,” I said as I stood up to shake her hand. The skin was as soft as I remembered it. “You haven’t changed a bit.” “Oh, but things have changed so much,” she said enigmatically. She took a seat on her sofa next to me, flipped her long hair and answered my questions about her business success. She had launched her company three years ago because she felt there was a market need for makeup that suited her aesthetic and her skin tone. She wanted strong but subtle colors for women with dark brown skin, and she wasn’t satisfied with what was already out there. She had spent about a year at a large corporation after finishing college before deciding that she didn’t want to work for someone else. She wanted to be in control of her work and her life. She sold her products online directly to customers, bypassing the department store cosmetic counters. “People always want something different. Something that speaks to them and makes them feel good. I was selling that. People bought what I was selling,” she said as she reached forward and placed her hand on my knee. “And you know that gal who won last year’s best actress Oscar? She loves my stuff.” She gave my knee a little squeeze. I tried to ignore it. The heat from her hand radiated through the thin fabric of my trousers as she continued dropping the names of minor and major celebrities who swore by NaeWha cosmetics and periodically interjected questions about me. She actually seemed interested. For most sources, I revealed only limited information about myself, and most of them didn’t care that much about me anyway. I told her that I had made my way in journalism since college, from print to online publications. She asked me whether I had a girlfriend. I smiled, said, “no,” and tried to get control of the interview again. I asked her about her love life even though it was completely unnecessary for the story. I worked for a business website, not a tabloid newspaper. Still, I was curious. Her hand was still on my knee, and I was getting warm all over.

How often does a woman get to rewrite her past and stake a claim to her future in one fell swoop? Gorgeous Shondra Frazier gets that chance. It all starts at the “40 Under 40” reception for high achievers under the age of 40. Even though she really doesn’t want the attention, she is honored because she is the first African American woman to be named manager of one of the city’s top tourist attractions. At the reception she unexpectedly reunites with her still beautiful college ex-girlfriend who broke Shondra’s heart many years ago. Lynette Johnson is a former cheerleader who can still make male and female heads turn. As Lynette walks away promising to be in touch soon, Shondra spots Denyse Gabriel, one of the few African-American female PhD physicists in the world and a fellow “40 Under 40” honoree. Shondra realizes attention from Denyse, with her long black hair and high collar tweed jacket, is what she wants. This beautiful scientist, however, is heading to a months-long project in Antarctica, but Lynette is sticking around and is more than willing to keep her company. Shondra has to decide whether she will stay safe and start up again with her long lost college love or if she will wait for Denyse to return. Shondra can’t stop thinking about Denyse, but Shondra isn’t even that sure, after only one night of passion, whether the sexy physicist will want to see her when she comes back from the ice. Bodies in Motion is the fourth book in the Lesbian Light Reads series, but each book can stand alone. This lesbian contemporary love story includes graphic sex and is intended for adults only.

Can they stop running long enough to let love catch up with them? Chloe is a former runner turned wheelchair racer with MS who doesn’t want sympathy or to be saved. She just wants to fall in love. When she meets Rachel, a fellow runner with long hair and beautiful legs, they initially fall for each other, but Chloe is not a regular wheelchair user and is able to keep her disability a secret. Rachel senses that Chloe is holding something back, and this secret tears their relationship apart. For them to be together, Chloe has to let Rachel run past her denial and roll even closer to her heart. Roll With Me is the tenth book in the Lesbian Light Reads series, but each book stands alone. This lesbian contemporary love story includes graphic sex and is intended for adults only. Excerpt: Two months after the break up, I was ready for something more than hanging out with Joss and watching her pick up some girl almost wherever we went out. It wasn’t like she ever abandoned me. Some men followed the bros before hos philosophy, and Joss followed something similar, although we could never figure out a way to lesbianize that saying or make it less sexist. I was just starting to feel ready for my own girl. My memories of ponytail girl were fading, and the lakefront trail had not provided any recent late-night fantasy fodder. I’d been out a couple of times with Arturo pushing along the lakefront trail since that one Saturday, but I hadn’t seen that beautiful woman with the ponytail and the dimple again. I never had done a one-night stand unless I expected it to be more than that, and I didn’t see that changing, even though I was horny as hell. I had already moved through and past the no-one-will-ever-love-me-again phase. I was starting to feel lovable again. It was time for me to look for my next serious relationship. Joss and I agreed that something more serious was far more likely at a lesbian dining out social than a loud bar. She was willing to give up the Ace of Clubs event at Queen for one night to be my wingwoman for this weekend’s outing (a lesbian singles night) at a local Thai sushi restaurant. It wouldn’t have surprised me, though, if she hooked up there. She was that smooth. Over spicy tuna rolls and crab Rangoon, Joss chatted with a real estate agent who seemed more interested in selling her a condo than in going home with her and a woman who expressed harsh judgment on lesbians who hung out at bars and clubs and slept around. Joss smirked and blew her a kiss. “Don’t worry. You’re not my type anyway.” Then she turned to me and said loud enough for the woman to hear, “You don’t have to do what I do, but slut shaming is just plain wrong.” I liked Joss. She had a good point that I’d heard her make several times before. The judgmental woman disappeared into another conversation. Then I saw her. Her dark brown curls were no longer in a ponytail and hung down past her shoulders. She was wearing a pale pink sleeveless cotton dress with four buttons that ran down from the neckline. The first two buttons were undone, showing off the beginning of her cleavage. She smiled, and the dimple I wanted to lose myself in got a little bigger. “Well, look who just got hungry,” Joss said.

All Lila wants to do this winter is skate. She wants to land jumps, not love. Lila, a beautiful 20-something recreational figure skater, is done with dating until mini-skirt season, at least that’s what she tells her friends when she invites them to join her to visit every ice rink in Chicago. Then one crisp morning while skating at a new rink, Lila meets Ashley. Not only is Ashley stunningly good-looking with long ash blond hair, she can land an Axel, an advanced jump that has eluded Lila. Ashley agrees to coach Lila the following weekend. When Ashley doesn’t show, Lila realizes that she wasn’t that serious about taking a break from dating, and she doesn’t care if she ever lands an Axel. She cares about kissing Ashley, but doesn’t know how she will find her again. Landing Love is the sixth book in the Lesbian Light Reads series, but each book can stand alone. This lesbian contemporary love story includes graphic sex and is intended for adults only.

Love after age 40 means skating on air.... Gigi Darnell, a beautiful African American physician, has reached her early 40s with a fabulous job, a beautiful home, and a bevy of nieces and nephews who love her. But being the best daughter, sister, and aunt doesn’t make her life complete. She wants a special woman to love who will love her in return. Then she meets Lyndsey Falk, a much younger skateboarding instructor with pale white skin and eyes the color of amber. The attraction the two women feel for each other is immediate and strong. Gigi falls hard for Lyndsey, but she fears being cut off from her nieces and nephews if she makes it clear to her family that, yes, she is indeed a lesbian and not just the reliable spinster aunt, sister, and daughter her family has come to expect. Lyndsey has an ex-girlfriend following her around who threatens to interfere. Together, Gigi and Lyndsey learn that skating on air and being in love will require them to be more honest with those around them than they have ever been before. Excerpt: She led me down the hallway at the end of which was a door that opened up to a winding, narrow wooden staircase. She gave my hand a gentle squeeze, and I closed the door behind us. We walked up into the darkness at the top of the stairs; only it wasn’t completely dark once we got there. The ceiling and walls of the attic were covered with wallpaper and paint depicting a starry night sky. The stars glowed. I gasped. “This is beautiful,” I whispered. “Isn’t it? Elena calls it the Junebug Planetarium. Junebug is her mom’s nickname for her. She designed the wallpaper and painted the ceiling herself. She’s such a wonderfully creative person.” The planets and stars on the ceiling had a three-dimensional realness to them that was astounding, aided by the deep blues and blacks that served as the background. Lyndsey pointed out a nebula painted on one of the walls. I felt that we had stepped into space. A small window was at the center of the wall that angled down at the front of the house. I stepped to that window and looked out at the real night sky. Then I looked back at Junebug’s planetarium and Lyndsey. “I helped paint the ceiling, too,” Lyndsey said, the soft light filtering in through the window and the painted stars casting delicate shadows on her face. “Did you? It looks wonderful. There should be a telescope here.” “She does have one. She takes it out occasionally to stargaze, but I think I use it more than she does. I love this room.” She came and stood next to me at the window. I felt her close to me. Her breath hit my ear and the right side of my neck. I could smell her faintly floral scent, maybe from a moisturizer or hair product, and, when I turned my head, she was watching me. She didn’t look away like she had done that time at the skate park when I caught her looking at me. She was an inch or two taller than me, and I leaned toward her. She leaned down a little. Our lips met, hesitantly at first, and then we were off to the races. We alternated between soft, delicate kisses and rougher, hungrier kisses. My breath came faster, in gasps, as I embraced her with one arm while I caressed her cheek and ran my fingers through her hair with my other hand. I felt her hands holding my head. Then, she slid one of her hands from the back of my head and down my back.

The past can cast a long shadow on a relationship. Susan Hay just wants to find a nice girl. Is that too much to ask? Susan thinks it is until she meets Ali Sams. To no one’s surprise, Susan, a long-haired femme, falls hard and fast for the cute and sexy soft butch who looks strangely familiar. Ali falls just as fast, but Susan realizes that the familiarity she feels is linked to a painful childhood incident that sends her running away. Ali doesn’t remember the incident, but that doesn’t stop her from wanting to make things right. All Ali needs to do is get Susan to see her as more than who she was in the past, but Susan is not about to make that easy. Nice Jewish Girls is the twelfth book in the Lesbian Light Reads series, but each book stands alone. This lesbian contemporary love story includes graphic sex involving sex toys and is intended for adults only.

Can two women be too different to fall in love? Nera Booker and Squeak McFadden are beautiful African American women in their early thirties, but that’s where the similarities end. Nera, college educated with an upbringing in a comfortable suburb, makes a good living in health care IT systems. Squeak, with several small businesses on the go, grew up in a rough city neighborhood and has hustled for every dime she’s ever made. They’re madly attracted to each other from the start. Nera admires Squeak’s entrepreneurial spirit, although she thinks Squeak could do even better. Squeak envies Nera’s suburban childhood, but wonders if maybe this accomplished woman is out of her reach. Together they learn that it’s not enough to accept differences. They must embrace them if their love is to flourish. Someone Like Her is the ninth book in the Lesbian Light Reads series, but each book can stand alone. This lesbian contemporary love story includes graphic sex and is intended for adults only. Excerpt: “Is your mom a good cook?” I was still hungry, but food could wait a few minutes. “The best.” She leaned in closer to me. The warm skin of her arm brushed mine as we continued our stroll through masses of shiny happy people. “I’m glad to see you.” “I’m glad to see you, too. Last time I saw, you were wearing this really pretty knit cap. Today’s a little warm for something like that, though.” Not the smoothest thing to say, but I couldn’t come up with anything else. Squeak looked thoughtful for a moment. Winter was, on the one hand, months ago, but it also felt like it was only yesterday that I had bought a cookie from Squeak and saved it for my Monday lunch. Then she smiled. “ That cap. Yeah. My Auntie Darinda made it for me. She’s married to my Uncle Del.” I filed the information away for whenever there came a time when I might meet this Auntie Darinda. We talked about this year’s Pride and how it compared to last year. We talked about the lovely summer we had been having and how it was so wonderful to have so many opportunities to be outside. And I asked the burning question to which I needed an answer. “Ever since we met at the salon I’ve been wondering if Squeak is your real name,” I said. She walked in silence next to me with an enigmatic smile on her face. The park became more crowded as the parade wound down, and more people made their way here. “It feels like my real name.” And then I realized it really didn’t matter if Squeak was the name on her birth certificate or not. It didn’t matter because being around her was effortless. I didn’t feel like I had to say the wittiest thing or make sharp observations. We were just two women strolling, and we were clearly attracted to each other. I had no explanation as to why. Maybe it was the way her hair cascaded over her forehead, barely brushing her eyebrows. Maybe it was the rich darkness of her skin. Maybe it was because she said yes to me so easily even though I hadn’t asked for anything. She just knew that the right thing at this moment was for us to be walking together. I felt a level of comfort with her that I had never felt with Zoe or any other woman I’d dated, even though I didn’t really know Squeak. I just knew I wanted to hold her hand.

Can a childhood crush become grown-up love? Krista Sutter has taken herself out of the dating pool after a bad breakup and moved from the American Midwest to Southeast Asia. The beautiful brunette wants to heal her heart and enjoy everything Laos has to offer. She expects nothing more than a few extra temple trips when Yancy Douglas, her childhood crush, comes to visit her. Yancy has never deprived herself when it comes to love, sex, and relationships, but she thinks she wants to get off the dating merry-go-round she’s been on for a while. Visiting Krista, her best friend’s kid sister in Laos, is just the break she needs. She didn’t expect to find her irresistible. The attraction they feel for each other is the easy part, especially when they are both so far from home. The hard part is seeing each other as who they really are and navigating love, sex, and dating once they both get home. Stop and Go is the eleventh book in the Lesbian Light Reads series, but each book stands alone. This lesbian contemporary love story includes graphic sex and is intended for adults only.

Is it too much to ask for life to be more like a romance novel? When Melissa attends her ten-year high school reunion, all she wants is to tell her longtime crush how much she’s always loved her. They will then ride off into the sunset and live happily ever after. Alas, the woman has a wife. She has a child, and she isn’t interested. In walks T.J., a beautiful woman with long braids and a lovely smile. They barely knew each other in high school, but it may be time for them to get to know each other better. And then there’s Hayley, another old high school friend. She seems to have her sights on Melissa, too. Melissa may not get the woman she thought she wanted, but, if she can put aside the story she’s already written for herself, she may just get the love she’s always deserved. Love Most Likely is the thirteenth book in the Lesbian Light Reads series, but each book stands alone. This lesbian contemporary love story includes graphic sex and is intended for adults only.

A Roman holiday can be so much more when it’s the beginning of a love story that travels around the world. While attempting to recover from a failed relationship, Andrea treats herself to a vacation in Rome. There she meets Celeste Jamison, an American who has traveled to Italy to restore classic artwork for a museum. The sparks fly fast and hot between the two women, but all too soon Celeste announces she must return to New York. Before long Andrea also goes home to California, unsure if she will ever see Celeste again. After all, their lives are on different coasts and their careers keep them moving in circles that would never connect under ordinary circumstances. But then again, the magic between them is far from ordinary.... Journey to Passion is the second book in the Lesbian Light Reads series, but each book stands alone. This lesbian contemporary love story includes graphic sex and is intended for adults only. Excerpt: “It’s important to be happy,” I agreed. I had to admire her for knowing herself so well and for using her college education to secure herself a dream career. I sure hadn’t been half that self-aware in my student days. Briefly I wondered where I might have ended up if I’d been less focused on making money and more interested in doing work I considered meaningful. Did it really matter, though? It was too late to turn my life upside down. Dull as my insurance work was, it paid the bills and kept me from spending my days lamenting Toni’s perfidy...not that I’d even spared Toni a single thought over the course of my day with Celeste. It felt good to realize that. “My career does make me happy,” she agreed, “or at least content. How could I not be, filling my days and thoughts with beautiful things?” To my surprise, she suddenly reached out and touched my hand, which was resting on the edge of the table. “I don’t just mean the artwork I restore, either. I can take pleasure in many different kinds of lovely things.” I felt my body go hot all over as her thumb idly massaged my knuckle. I swallowed. I certainly didn’t pull away. “There’s...uh... something you should know,” I stammered. “I didn’t mention it before because it didn’t seem important. But...uh...my ex, Toni...that stands for Antonia, you know. Not Anthony.” Celeste didn’t seem at all surprised. Her soft pink lips curved into a little smile as she nodded. “Yes, I had more or less figured that out. It was just a sense I had, though I didn’t want to press for details. I’m glad I wasn’t wrong.” “No. You weren’t wrong.” Before I could blurt out my delight, her other hand also slid around mine. She continued in a perfectly frank, but hopeful tone. “In fact, I was hoping I could persuade you to end this lovely day in my room back at the hotel. I thought we could get to know one another even better.”