"Is true love hidden in the moments we can't stop remembering or in those we chose to forget? There is nothing like a high school reunion to bring the old times flooding back.
Old Passions . . . Handsome singer Loretta 'Rett' Jamison has built herself a successful career and a repertoire filled with romantic ballads and hot jazz. But her failing relationship with lover/manager Trisha York has left a growing emptiness in her heart. Trisha seems to have found what she needs in the arms of younger women. Can Rett find it on the lips of the classmate who gave her the first real taste of passion?
Old Secrets . . . Former head cheerleader Cinny Keilor is an All-American girl with an all-consuming secret. Still blonde and beautiful, leggy Cinny is looking forward to reliving those idyllic days of proms and pep rallies. But has she forgotten those steamy nights in the back seat of another girl's car?
Old Pain . . . National Science Award winner Dr. Angelica Martinetta is being honored by the reunion committee for her victories in the war against ovarian cancer. But the former outsider had returned to face a different challenge—can she win the heart of the woman she has pined for all these years?"
"Setting out on the 'vacation of a lifetime' Marissa Chabot is well-provisioned with sunblock, rum, and a stack of good books. Being one of the founders of Finders Keepers, the successful, high-tech 'soul-mate matching service,' she knows that vacation romances are hopeless.
When Linda Bartok—tall, dark, and beautiful—sweeps her off her feet anyway, Marissa yields to the magic of a storybook rescue, moonlit walks on the beach, and longed-for whispers of passion. Though it hardly seems possible that the Amazonian, adventurous Linda could be truly interested in a desk-bound computer geek, the most erotic encounters of Marissa's life complete her surrender.
Vacations end. Real life resumes. Waiting for the phone to ring, Marissa wonders if what she had seen in Linda's eyes could have possibly been true. Had it been a vacation romance? Was she going to end up 'losers weepers'?
Finders Keepers, the quest for the perfect mate in the twenty-first century, joins Karin Kallmaker's Just Like That and her other incomparable novels about lesbian love, lust, and laughter."
"The world is at Jennifer Lamont's feet—right where she wants it. She has made breaking hearts a blood sport, and the cool, calculated use of other people's backs has led to the stardom she has craved from the first time she heard applause. Lust or fear is all she has ever believed she could see in the eyes of others.
Suzanne Mason has built the enviable life she was always told smart geeks could never have. Fortune, fame, and the beautiful girls usually reserved for captains of football teams are all hers. She has everything she ever wanted, except the one woman who is no one's trophy.
Expert combatants in the games of life know there can only be one winner. Regardless of the scorching attraction between them, the game of love is no different, is it?"
"Lambda Literary Award Winner!
Sabrina Starling doesn't need love. She has fame as a brilliant violinist and unlimited options for female company. Nothing can shake her—except the memory of her very first love. Knowing that neither the teenaged nor adult Jorie will ever return her feelings, Sabrina has escaped into her music and the arms of other women.
When injury leaves her temporarily unable to perform, Sabrina finally finds the one woman who could free her forever from the memory of those stolen Hawaiian nights with Jorie. There's one problem. The object of Sabrina's desire, Diana, is deeply in love with Pam, the woman who has shared her life for the past eighteen years.
A family funeral calls Sabrina home to the islands, but she no long believes that the gentle breezes and possible welcome in Jorie's eyes can repair the lives she's shattered, including her own.
Karin Kallmaker's searing novel of innocent first love and dangerous seduction joins an unparalleled string of critically acclaimed bestsellers that earned her the title of Undisputed Mistress of Lesbian Romance."
"From a red-carpet Halloween costume to the fireworks of New Year's, Karin Kallmaker is adding a holiday layer to her literary cake with short stories inspired by her classics and recent novels. It's a baker's dozen buffet of pure holiday deliciousness.
Join her for a Car Pool family table Thanksgiving and Paperback Romance small town concert. A Warming Trend North Pole wonderland and Maybe Next Time Hawaiian Christmas. A reality show holiday bake-off with Wild Things. And Simply the Best ever New Year's Day. Every story will wrap you in family, friendships, and romance, all with a holiday bow on top.
Karin Kallmaker's delightful and moving short stories have won Lambda Literary and Golden Crown awards and are sure to have you falling in love with her characters all over again."
"A deep kiss and a single rule. Like most women in dead-end relationships, Holly Markham was used to finding substitutes for love. But throwing herself into the arms of a leather-clad stranger was never on her list.
When Holly's best friend Tori takes her to a dance for lesbians only, she realizes that Tori is gently trying to push her out of the closet. While it was true that Holly had been trying to come to terms with her growing attraction toward women, no one expected Holly to take one look at the mysterious Reyna and fall hopelessly in lust.
Unable to resist the purely physical appeal of Reyna's sensuous demands, Holly quickly succumbs to Reyna's delicious seduction. After a night of delirious passion, Reyna gives Holly a long kiss and single rule: Call whenever you want me to make love to you. There can be nothing else. Although sexually fulfilled for the first time in her life, Holly soon realizes that pleasure without emotion is no substitute for love—a love she knows she and Reyna could share.
Knowing too well the high cost of living in shadows and denial, Holly risks everything and sets out to pierce the deep shroud of mystery surrounding the woman she has come to love."
"Two very different reasons brought Laura Izmani and Helen Baynor to the Beach Boardwalk for a symbolic ride on the biggest wooden roller coaster on the west coast. They part strangers, but only after sharing an experience that shifted both of their lives onto new tracks.
Their paths cross again decades later when Laura interviews with Helen to become the private chef for the Baynor household. Given what Laura revealed during that fateful coaster ride, she's relieved that Helen seems to have forgotten her.
Fiercely protective of her children, Helen—now a famous stage actress and widow with teenage twins—divides her time between home in a sleepy California enclave and the bright lights of Broadway. Continuing her carefully managed life until her children leave for college is all she wants.
Their first roller coaster ride together may turn out to be only a prelude . . ."
"Ninety minutes, twice a day. Five days a week. And they hate each other.
Car pool heaven turns into car pool hell when Anthea Rossignole realizes her lover is having an affair with the other woman sharing their daily commute. Anthea's corporate career as a cost analyst is the only thing keeping her together. Now she's looking for someone to share the long drive in the Bay Area's notorious traffic.
Shay Sumoto desperately needs a car pool. Though wildly overqualified, the environmental biologist takes a job testing well samples to keep body and soul together. The debt from her father's terminal illness and the loss of their company have left her with no money and no sense of humor.
When Shay and Anthea begin carpooling together, their instant antipathy gets even worse. But when Shay uncovers alarming test results in her work—information that could cost both of them their jobs—Anthea is the only person she trusts for advice."
"Syrah Ardani tried independence—but the call of the Napa Valley hills and rolling vineyards of her family's winery have brought her home again. She is content with her ordered world until she learns that her father's feckless management has put Ardani Vineyards into receivership.
Corporate turnaround specialist Toni Blanchard's arrival is preceded by tales of her slash-and-burn techniques. Determined to meet this soulless corporate raider head on, Syrah proudly prepares to do battle for her home and family business.
Toni has reason to retreat from a high-pressure Manhattan lifestyle, not the least of which is a bitter breakup. She's been told that Syrah Ardani is attractive and single, but Toni never mixes business and pleasure.
Creditors clamor for a quick sale and payment. The beautiful—and hostile—Syrah wants Toni off her land and out of her life.
Their clashes smolder with distrust and resentment, but also threaten to light a completely different kind of fire. Most dangerous of all is the one thing Toni can't control—the way her heart reacts when Syrah looks at her . . . just like that."
"For Kip Barrett, a secret commission from her boss's boss's boss, CEO Tamara Sterling, shows that the respect she's earned for her integrity and intelligence as a fraud investigator is justified. All she has to do is what she's done successfully before: follow the cyber-trail, find the high-tech thief, and document it so that justice prevails.
This time, however, the embezzler is one of their own. Sterling Fraud Investigations has an unblemished reputation for ethical conduct and security. Kip must find out who and how, as soon as possible, and no one but Tamara can know what she's doing.
As Kip gets closer to discovering the embezzler, her clandestine meetings with Tamara grow more frequent. It doesn't help that her admiration for Sterling's work is compounded by an undeniable physical chemistry. But SFI has an iron-clad no fraternization rule, and Sterling investigators never break the rules. She needs to wrap up her findings before anyone—including her emerging prime suspect Tamara Sterling—realizes Kip is not above temptation."
"Marian Pardoo, reference librarian for the Iowa City Public Library, would be happy if the woman she's loved for years wasn't already married. Annoyed by the thoughtless out-of-town Liddy, she isn't prepared for the seething passion that erupts when Liddy careens into her meticulously controlled life.
Liddy has run two thousand miles from a devastating love affair. Now the idea of spending the sweltering summer watching the corn grow is driving her mad. Finding herself lusting after Marian the librarian seems like yet another cosmic jest at her hopeless love life. The only thing that keeps her sane is the coffee.
In a town where everybody knows your name, the names of your exes, pets, and your third grade teacher, Marian is thankful that she and Liddy at least don't have an ex-girlfriend in common.
One degree of separation is too close for comfort."
"A one-way stage ticket to the frontier leaves a young woman penniless and alone in Long Grass, Wyoming. With no other hope than to survive another day, she takes up the only profession open to her. Years later she encounters the cowboy she can love, and her first taste of pleasure - and happiness.
Cowboys, however, are born to wander, and their kisses are as brief as the lives of young women without family or means. Accepting that her days will be numbered too few, Darlin' escapes into her scribblings where her dreams of freedom can soar over the limitless prairie.
When she recognizes her own truth and a chance for love in the longing gaze of a townswoman, will she finally find kisses she can trust?
Two determined women in a hostile world save themselves — and each other — in a lyric, sensual love story as only Karin Kallmaker can tell.
'It’s an astonishing story, beautifully told. And Darlin’s voice is enchanting. The close first-person narration works like a charm – she feels like a living, breathing person. Somebody with grit and heart. It’s impossible not to cheer Darlin’ on. Never has a fictional character’s Happily Ever After delighted me more.' - Lou Morgan's Reviews"
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