Showing titles in Literature & Fiction

For almost four decades Armistead Maupin's Tales of the City has blazed its own trail through popular culture - from a groundbreaking newspaper serial to a classic novel, to a television event that entranced millions around the world. The first of nine novels about the denizens of the mythic apartment house at 28 Barbary Lane, Tales is both a sparkling comedy of manners and an indelible portrait of an era that changed forever the way we live.

A 40-something single dad, a 20-something hockey star, and a whole lot of baggage. No, this couldn’t possibly blow up in their faces. Officer Geoff Logan has his plate full. His cop’s salary and Marine retirement aren’t enough to make ends meet. He’s got war wounds and demons that are in it for the long haul. His teenagers are, well, teenagers, plus they’re pissed that he left the boyfriend they loved. Can’t a guy catch a break?

Evelyn's deeds are coming back to haunt her. Free to travel among the stars, the former warlord is enjoying her freedom, even if she’s occasionally exasperated by the women who’ve attached themselves to her. They accompany her as she encounters wonders, from dryad terraforming ships to the orcish arenas of Skaloth. Yet Evelyn has enemies, and they have not forgotten her. They target one of the few people she truly cares about, knowing that Evelyn will come. When she does she may be drawn into a trap from which even she can’t escape.

Here to curdle your blood, chill your bones, and maybe even warm your heart, are eight short, queer stories set in a world you may already have come to know...a world of LESSER KNOWN MONSTERS. The LESSER KNOWN MONSTERS series is a dark queer fantasy featuring diverse characters on a found family adventure. Perfect for fans of horror and paranormal romance who seek LGBTQ+ heroes.

Isaac Frost is an assassin. Raised in the Graveyard of the cruel and mysterious Undertaker, he has mastered the deadly art of the knife and the skill of survival, together with scores of others just like him—young men taken from their families to become the most infamous killers throughout the realms of elves and humans. But Isaac is unique: a single drop of another’s blood can confer upon him the knowledge and power of friend and foe alike.

The lonely life of fifteen-year-old Theron David Alden is transformed when he meets Jake. Older, cooler, more confident and startlingly beautiful, Jake likes the same bands, the same drugs, and has the same drive to oblivion. Over the course of two decades, Theron and Jake get high, drift apart, and are brought hurtling back together, until a final collision tears them apart forever.

Princess Natasia is the eldest child of the Emperor Andreth, ruler of the Four Realms. If she was a boy, she’d be the unquestioned heir to the throne. But as a girl, her main duty in life is to marry someone her father can shape into his successor. Everything changes when an unknown, would-be assassin nearly takes Tasia’s life. Someone wants to destabilize the Empire - but who? Unsure of whom he can trust, the Emperor realizes that his daughter might be his best option for an heir.

Naomi Alderman's The Lessons reflects the truth that the lessons life teaches often come too late. Hidden away in an Oxford backstreet is a crumbling Georgian mansion, unknown to any but the few who possess keys to its unassuming front gate. Its owner is the mercurial, charismatic Mark Winters, whose rackety trust-fund upbringing has left him as troubled and unpredictable as he is wildly promiscuous.

Yorkshire anatomy lecturer Ruby Clark considers her life low-maintenance. She teaches at the local university, has two well-behaved teenage daughters, and what she doesn't know about human anatomy isn't worth knowing. Being a paramedic doesn't do Melissa Jackson's joints any favors, so she's looking into university courses to try a less strenuous line of her work. But the brash, proudly out, down-to-earth woman's biggest challenge is keeping her dyslexia a secret. A university open day throws the two women into each other's orbits.

Brilliant ice queen Amelia Duxton is a hotel vice president who thrives on control, truth, and efficiency. All she wants is to buy the coveted Mayfair Palace. Fiery Kai Fisher is charming and chaotic and renowned for closing ambitious deals. Her sights are set on snatching the Mayfair Palace out from under the nose of her hated arch rivals, the Duxton family. But when secrets emerge and everything starts to fall apart, how can either of the warring women win - especially when they’ve just met their match?

Enid is many things: lesbian, serial dater, deaf in one ear, space obsessive, true crime fanatic. When she's not listening to grizzly murder podcasts, she's managing her crippling phobia of bald people and trying hard not to think about her mortifying teenage years—which is hard, when she's lost the password to her old YouTube account and the (many) vlogs that her teen self once uploaded. She's worried about herself, her depressive mother, and what the deal is with gender reveal parties.

In the late summer of 1913, George Sawle brings his Cambridge friend Cecil Valance, a charismatic young poet, to visit his family home. The weekend will be one of excitements and confusions for everyone, but it is on George’s sixteen-year-old sister Daphne that it will have the most lasting impact. As the decades pass, Daphne and those around her endure startling changes in fortune and circumstance, and as reputations rise and fall, the events of that long-ago summer become part of a legendary story.

Felix and Lane are struggling with just how boring a "normal" life is, so when they get a chance to jump into action, they do so without a second thought - especially since they're offered a lot of money. The request is simple: find a way to retrieve a watch from police custody. But things are never as easy as they seem. Suddenly, they're caught in the middle of a family feud that could turn deadly. But no matter what, through kidnappings, car chases, and cooking mishaps, Felix knows that as long as Lane is by his side, they will find a way to set things right.

'Piercing the shadows of the naked stage was a single shaft of rosy limelight, and in the centre of this was a girl: the most marvellous girl - I knew it at once! - that I had ever seen.' A saucy, sensuous and multi-layered historical romance, Tipping the Velvet follows the glittering career of Nan King - oyster girl turned music-hall star turned rent boy turned East End 'tom'.

Mei loses her Japanese mother at age six. Growing up in suburban Surrey, she yearns to fit in, suppressing both her heritage and her growing love for her best friend Fran. Yuki leaves the Japanese countryside to pursue her dream of becoming a concert violinist in London. Lonely and far from home, she finds herself caught up in the charms of her older teacher. Haruka attempts to navigate Tokyo's nightlife and all of its many vices, working as a hostess in seedy bars. She grieves a mother who hid so many secrets from her, until finally one of those secrets comes to light.

On an unseasonably warm autumn day, an American teacher enters a public bathroom beneath Sofia's National Palace of Culture. There he meets Mitko, a charismatic young hustler, and pays him for sex. He returns to Mitko again and again over the next few months, their relationship growing increasingly intimate and unnerving. As he struggles to reconcile his longing with the anguish it creates, he's forced to grapple with his own fraught history.

Want to know the fastest way to get screwed out of a football career? Get photographed in a compromising position in a gay bar. Yep, welcome to my life. My agent says he can fix my image. He wants me to become the poster boy for gay football players. Me? I just want back on the field. I'll do anything to play for the NFL again, even pretend to have a steady boyfriend. If only my fake boyfriend wasn't Noah Huntington III - the most arrogant, entitled rich guy in the world.

A year ago, Kelly Cannon couldn't imagine he'd end up with his formerly straight best friend. It's hard to believe he can finally kiss Blue anytime he wants...as long as they're in private. And there's the rub. Despite Kelly's promise to wait until Blue is ready to come out, he's tired of sneaking around. The cracks in their relationship are starting to show, and there might not be enough Spackle in the world to fix them.

Diane Thompson is happy enough. Her successful accounting firm allows her plenty of time to play all the golf she wants and enjoy her life in small Sussex village Tynebury. She's finally over the divorce from her husband, but potential suitors are few and far between for a 50-something woman in the English countryside. Tamsin Foxley is determined to keep matters of the heart separated from her new teaching job at the Royal Tynebury Golf Club after a disastrous romantic experience put an end to her previous employment. She has also vowed to no longer fall for women almost half her age.

Reese nearly had it all: a loving relationship with Amy, an apartment in New York, a job she didn't hate. She'd scraped together a life previous generations of trans women could only dream of; the only thing missing was a child. Then everything fell apart, and three years on, Reese is still in self-destruct mode, avoiding her loneliness by sleeping with married men.