Shannon O'Connell is broken. She is sixty-five years old and looks twenty years younger - there's not much that makes her happy. Her partner of thirty years left her for a mutual friend offering only the cliché: "I love you, but I'm not in love with you." Her mother is disappearing before her eyes with dementia. And now, the death of her best friend - Linda - from metastatic breast cancer brings her to her knees.

Emily Janssen prefers to play it safe. At thirty-five, she’s still working at the inn her grandmothers own while dreaming of a day when she’s able to support herself fully with her art. And while her friends have all hiked to the summit of the mountain in their hometown of Crescent Falls, Vermont, something has always held Emily back. Diana Devlin has already made it to the top. Well, almost. She’s this close to securing the promotion that will put her in line to take over as CEO of her family’s hotel chain when her father retires.

Icy, aloof professor Vivienne Carter is too busy working and raising her teenage niece to have time for a relationship. When she discovers a business card for mysterious Selene, a local dominatrix, Vivienne is intrigued. Why not get her itch scratched? No feelings need be involved. But then she discovers her alluring dominatrix is actually the bossy new principal at her niece's high school.

Set in San Francisco's past, present and near-future, the stories in this anthology provide imaginative, urbane, and even humorous glimpses into Sapphic love and lust that will both arouse and entertain listeners. Those who have never heard M. Christian's erotica are in for a treat.

Ally Brenner, a driven project manager from Vancouver, boards a flight to Amsterdam, focused solely on landing a career-changing contract. Little does she know that her carefully planned world is about to be turned upside down by Candice Blackwater, a charismatic and successful investor. Candice, intrigued by Ally's infectious laughter and beauty, orchestrates a chance encounter that sets in motion a series of events neither of them could have predicted. As Candice's charm chips away at Ally's defenses, the two navigate a turbulent journey of desire and self-discovery.

Two women, one fake relationship & a fall they'll never forget. Bella Gold needs money for college, so when she hears of an agency that pays you to date people in return for large sums of cash she signs up. She knows what everyone’s thinking but she doesn’t take off her clothes, even if she wanted to. The only thing that happens is some hand holding and honest conversation. If she’s being honest, she feels bad for how lonely these people are.

Quirky, modern dance savant Kenna Grey's life is spiraling out of control with alcohol and depression because she is gay and terrified of coming out. Her life suddenly changes drastically after she almost dies in a loft fire in Chelsea, rescued by a fearless firewoman who fought her way through a fiery inferno, threw Kenna over her shoulder, and carried her to safety through the smoke and fire. In the aftermath, alone, dying inside from her denial and her sexual desires, she feels fate's finger touching her. So, she rides her bicycle to Staten Island on a journey of destiny.

Marilyn loved the power and prestige of being one of the most powerful women on Wall Street. However, there was something missing in her life that she couldn't put a name to...until she experiences her first orgasm and the thrill of sexual domination. After her life-changing sexual awakening, it's not long before she morphs from a virgin to a connoisseur of her own orgasms, and from a business leader to a dominatrix.

Tess and Kirk seem like a typical married couple with their house in the suburbs, lackluster love life and proverbial two children. But her life is growing harder and harder for Tess to take, because she has known all along that she is only truly sexually attracted to women. Though Tess has fought her attraction to women for years due to her strict religious upbringing, she finally succumbs when she meets the passionate, perceptive Diane. But her husband's anger, her family's dismay, her own self-doubts, are only the first barriers in the way of her love for Diane.

Julianna Bristol is on the brink of success as her fledgling video game design company goes after the opportunity of a lifetime. But her ex-husband is intent on making her fodder for late-night comedy. When she unexpectedly gains custody of her nine-year-old niece, everything in Julianna's exquisitely planned life changes in the blink of an eye.

Desire burns hot in these six sizzling tales by Lisabet Sarai. A high-powered executive and a Goth rocker collide on a rainy Manhattan night and succumb to the attraction of opposites. An unorthodox therapist rekindles the libido of a traumatized firefighter. A nun fights her forbidden lust for the voluptuous hooker resident at her women’s shelter.

After the death of her grandmother, reluctant heiress Madilyn Marak agrees to stay with her grandfather at the estate for the summer. There, she finds an old diary hidden in an antique desk in the attic—The Apple Diary—written by her great-grandmother Isabel. In there, she finds the love story of Isabel and Lorah, along with a photograph of the two young women from 1933. The diary, like the love affair, was short and brief, but rich and vivid enough for her to feel a true bond with the women despite the heartbreaking ending.

Camryn Durant plays it safe. Since losing her heart to the wrong woman ten years ago, the shy graphic designer focuses on work and never takes risks. But when a chance meeting in a bar with a beautiful stranger turns into a night of reckless passion, Cam struggles to go back to her cautious habits, even though falling for a straight woman is bound to lead to emotional disaster.

Finding her job at risk after an embarrassing mishap, Isabelle is forced to embark on a path to physical fitness, a path, she soon finds, she can't traverse alone. Seeking out a trainer to help her change her body she finds herself in the grasp of the dominant, mischievous, and oh so infuriating Rachel. Isabelle quickly learns that changing her body won't be her only challenge when she finds herself becoming attracted to Rachel, of all people.

Erotic spanking aficionados are in for a treat with this naughty anthology that features modern-day goddesses providing hands-on discipline to their female worshipers. There are no silly or tiresome tropes to be found in these stories, just sexy scenarios played out in the real world between women who have found partners to fulfill their erotic yin-yang needs.

Two little girls stand with their heads bowed in my living room. I’m told they’re my granddaughters. Daisy is nine, and Alice seven. Daisy is the spitting image of her mother. This is the first time I’ve met them since my daughter and I fell out after she married that waste of space, Vince. They’ve come to live with me because their mother — my daughter — was murdered. In her own home while they slept close by. I think Vince killed her. But the police can’t prove it. I’ve always known he was no good. He treated my daughter like dirt. I said he’d cheat on her — but she wouldn’t listen.

Who is Audrey Hoedemaker? It's a question her sister Maureen has heard more times than she can count, and she doesn't know what the short answer would be. Little sister, troubled teen, backpacker, musical theatre coach, con artist, childcare worker. Murderer. A tragic, traumatic childhood casts a long shadow on the Hoedemaker sisters. Maureen has worked hard to move beyond the violence of the past and build a good, honest life for herself. Audrey, however, just can't seem to do the same, careening from one state of chaos to another.

Lucas knows the perfect night entails just three things: video games, wine, and pad thai. Peanuts are a must! Other people? Not so much. Why complicate things when he’s happy alone? Then one day the apartment board, a vexing trio of authority, rings his doorbell. And Lucas’s solitude takes a startling hike. They demand to see his frying pan. Someone left one next to the recycling room overnight, and instead of removing the errant object, as Lucas suggests, they insist on finding the guilty party. But their plan backfires. Colossally.

It’s 1984, and life has changed beyond recognition. Airstrip One, formerly known as Great Britain, is a place where Big Brother is always watching, and nobody can hide. Except, perhaps, for Winston Smith. Whilst working at the Ministry of Truth, rewriting history, he secretly dreams of freedom. And in a world where love and sex are forbidden, where it’s hard to distinguish between friend and foe, he meets Julia and O’Brien and vows to rebel.

The 13 chapters of The Art of War, each devoted to one aspect of warfare, were compiled by the high-ranking Chinese military general, strategist, and philosopher Sun-Tzu. In spite of its battlefield specificity, The Art of War has found new life in the modern age, with leaders in fields as wide and far-reaching as world politics, human psychology, and corporate strategy finding valuable insight in its timeworn words.