Title: Death of a Dying Man Author: J.M. Redmann ISBN: 978-1-60282-075-3 Publisher: Bold Strokes Books, www.boldstrokesbooks.com Available From: SCP Books, www.scpbooks.com; and Bold Strokes Books, www.boldstrokesbooks.com Price: $16.95 - Pages: 288 Genre: Mystery

When feisty New Orleans PI Micky Knight first meets drop-dead gorgeous Damon LaChance, wealthy gay scion of a storied family, she’s not sure he isn’t an arrogant jerk. But when he hires her to track down the child he’s never seen, born of a long ago one-night-stand, she learns that he’s dying of a wicked one-two punch of HIV and
hepatitis C – and that he’s not such a bad guy.

The work is welcome; less so, the intrusive arrival of a pesky journalist, lesbian partner to a seductive doctor working with Micky’s increasingly aloof lover, Cordelia. Sleuthing for the missing child, now a teenager, is one-half
the mystery. The other is trying to discover who attempted to murder LaChance with a cocaine overdose – until Hurricane Katrina descends, interrupting Micky’s investigations.

Set with wrenching reality against the backdrop of a city whose soul has been ravaged by a massive storm and government neglect, Redmann's emotionally complex (and sometimes erotic) novel ... is a virtuoso literary whodunit.
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Reviewed by Guest Reviewer, Richard LaBonte
Richard Labonte has been reading, editing, selling, and writing about
queer literature since the mid-'70s. He can be reached at BookMarks@qsyndicate.com.

Title: In Keisha’s Shadow Author: Sandra Barret ISBN-10: 1934452092 - ISBN-13: 978-1934452097 Publisher: Bedazzled Ink Publishing Company, http://bedazzledink.wordpress.com/ Available From: SCP Books, www.scpbooks.com Price: $13.95 - Pages: 204 Genre: Young Adult/Lesbian Fiction

Tori Kahl can’t do anything right. At least that’s how she feels. Struggling with the pain of the loss of her half-sister, a mother who doesn’t understand or seem to support her, and recovering from a nasty break-up with her girlfriend over how “out” she should be, Tori is carrying a heavy burden. She’s also struggling with her freshman college classes and just trying to hold it together. All these problems lead to more issues—including drinking and cutting. The one place where Tori finds solace and relief from her challenges, if only for a little while, is at the stable where she boards her beloved horse.

When Tori meets a young woman named Ashley at the stable, she wants nothing to do with her and refuses to acknowledge an attraction for the apparently heterosexual woman. But as the two are thrown together by heartbreaking circumstances, Tori sees another side of Ashley, and finds out that the attraction is not one-sided—and both women learn that they can be for one another that which has been missing in their lives until now.

This young adult story is packed with the kinds of issues that young people grapple with—difficult issues that are hard to read about and hard to think about. However, Barret presents the topics with sensitivity and an awareness that will bring any reader to a better understanding of the emotional struggles involved in growing up in the modern world. Young women struggling with the same issues that Tori and Ashley do, will find In Keisha’s Shadow a story of redemption and hope. And while the story has appeal for young women, it will speak to and enlighten anyone of any age.
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Reviewed by Anna Furtado

Title: Justice For All Author: Radclyffe ISBN-10: 1-60282-074-0 Publisher: Bold Strokes Books Available From: www.boldstrokesbooks.com and SCP Books, www.scpbooks.com Price: $16.95 - Pages: 309 Genre: Mystery/Police Drama

Justice For All is the fifth novel in Radclyffe's Justice series. As always, the dialogue and characterizations are first rate, and include exciting, nail biting undercover scenes. Readers expect wonderful sex scenes from Radclyffe, and the armchair voyeurs will not be disappointed There is great passion, tenderness, and some very hot sex.

Lt. Rebecca Frye's unit is working to uncover the connection between a Russian human trafficking ring and Kratos Zamora, a very well connected, successful local businessman.

Frye has already lost two men, one of whom was her partner, and she's determined not to lose any more. Complicating matters for Frye's unconventional team is that they are expected to work hand in hand with the feds in solving this case.

As exciting and riveting as the case is, the scenes between the members of the unit and their partners are touching and real. Radclyffe gives her readers real women, in real relationships, struggling to keep their homes together while facing daily danger. Readers of Justice for All will find their fingers glued to the pages, and anxiously awaiting the sixth book in this series.
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Reviewed by RLynne

Title: Lake Effect Snow Author: C.P. Rowlands ISBN: 10-1602820686 - ISBN 13-978 1602820686 Publisher: Bold Strokes Books; www.boldstrokesbooks.com Available from: Bold Strokes Books, www.boldstrokesbooks.com; and SCP Books, www.scpbooks.com Price: $16.95 - Pages: 253 Genre: Intrigue/Thriller/Romance

Anyone looking for a book that comes straight off of the front pages of the newspaper or headline news doesn’t need to go any further. Lake Effect Snow is set in the middle of today’s war on terrorism and its far reaching consequences. It tells a story that’s chilling in its reality and starts with a scene that will keep the reader hooked until the final pages.

Annie Booker is an international correspondent famous for her reports from the Middle East, but when a good friend is murdered in front of her and then she is wounded in a suicide bombing, Annie is ready to return home to recuperate from her injuries. Unfortunately, the FBI discovers that her name is on a hit list and she is being hunted by a terror cell in the US. What Annie wants to do is to disappear on her own and think about why her partner of ten years walked out while she was overseas. Instead, she finds herself with twenty-four hour protection from a detail headed by senior agent Sarah Moore.

As Sarah tries to keep Annie alive, she discovers that the threat may be more related to a secret from several years ago than recent events in Annie’s life and it takes on frightening proportions when the only way to force the issue appears to be to send Annie right into the midst of the suspects. Sarah has another problem also. Despite every regulation in the book, she finds herself being attracted to Annie, who is more than willing to act on that attraction. Protecting Annie may not be enough to save her life, but it may be more than enough to destroy Sarah’s career.

Rowlands’ writing is fast paced and controlled. There aren’t any extraneous scenes that detract from the plot, but it does weave in more than one scenario which keeps the reader in suspense trying to determine what exactly the threat to Annie is. The characters are appealing and presented in a realistic manner. These are people who could easily exist and who would be interesting to meet. One particularly interesting part of the plot is the working of the terror cell, how the FBI uncovers it and the picture it all paints of the world we live in.

Lake Effect Snow is a page turner, one of those books the reader hates to put down. This reviewer highly recommends you give it a try.
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Reviewed by Lynne Pierce

Title: No Strings Author: Gerri Hill ISBN 987-1-59492-147-5 Publisher: Bella Books Available from: SCP Books, www.scpbooks.com; and www.bellabooks.com Price: $14.95 - Pages: 233 Genre: Romance

No Strings takes place in Lake City, Colorado, high in the Colorado Rockies. Lake City is a small town notable for its excellent fishing, cross country skiing, and snowmobile trails. Morgan, a forest ranger, was originally appalled when she was transferred to Lake City, but several years have passed, and she's grown to appreciate the town and its people.

Reese Daniels is the new sheriff in Lake City. She's signed on for one year, having been banished from Winter Park, after an unfortunate incident with the mayor's wife. Reese is not sure how she'll make the time pass in a quiet little town with only one other lesbian.

Hill has written a story filled with "laugh out loud" humor, excitement, great characters, warmth, and very hot sex. Morgan and Reese are bright, interesting women who grow and change as the story unfolds. The supporting cast is also three dimensional, with real people living real lives. No Strings is a good read, in a great setting, and there's even a dog.
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Reviewed by Anna Furtado

Title: Out of Left Field: Marlee’s Story Author: Barbara L. Clanton ISBN-10: 1935053086 - ISBN-13: 978-1935053088 Publisher: Regal Crest Enterprises Available From: SCP Books, www.scpbooks.com Price: $14.95 Pages: 172 Genre: Young Adult Romance/Lesbian

Out of Left Field: Marlee’s Story is a young adult work of fiction, but the appeal is universal. Marlee McAllister is a pitcher for her high school team, the Clarksonville Cougars. She’s working toward the All County pitching award, she has a boyfriend, a loyal best friend, and a decent relationship with a caring, though somewhat distant, mother. If there is sadness is Marlee’s life, it’s because she still misses her dad who died several years prior to the story’s beginning.

Tension in this story comes early on when we find that Marlee and her boyfriend just don’t seem to “click.” Eventually, the pair break up and, although Marlee is devastated by the event, initiated by her boyfriend, she just can’t seem to check her thoughts about a left fielder from a rival girl’s softball team named Susie Torres.

While Susie and Marlee tentatively begin a relationship, Marlee must figure out her own feelings for Susie, how she will deal with and acknowledge self-realizations, and how to respond to it all within the context of her relationship with her best friend, Jeri. The story centers on the struggles of teen girls coming to grips with their homosexuality and realizing how they must—or must not—relate to others within this framework.

While Marlee deals with her own internal feelings, she must also deal with a rivalry with the East Valley Pathers and their volatile pitcher, Christy Loveland. Christy has a temper and for some reason, she has targeted Marlee in her anger. In addition, Marlee has doubts about Susie’s sincerity in their fledgling relationship because Christy seems to have some sort of unexplainable hold on Susie. Only after Marlee is seriously injured, both physically and psychologically, does the real truth begin to unfold.

Out of Left Field: Marlee’s Story deals with several important teen issues. Clanton manages to bring an appealing tale of young love peppered with the realization of the importance of being true to yourself. Although the story is about teens and their struggles to mature and find themselves, the story will appeal to young and old. And if you’re a softball lover, there is plenty of added appeal in the play-by-play of portions of some of the games. Overall a stirring story and an engaging read.
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Reviewed by Anna Furtado

Title: Suspect Passions Author: VK Powell ISBN-13: 978-1-600282-053-1 Publisher: Bold Strokes Books; www.boldstrokesbooks.com Available from: Bold Strokes Books, www.boldstrokesbooks.com; and SCP Books, www.scpbooks.com Price: $15.95 - Pages: 221 Genre: Romantic Intrigue

Former police officer VK Powell brings her thirty years of experience to her writing, creating a realism and sensitivity that can only be found with someone who has "been there, done that." In Suspect Passions, her protagonist, beat officer Sydney Cabot, is struggling with the unresolved emotions surrounding a shooting. Syd has found that being forced to take the life of another is a difficult act from which to recover.

City Attorney Regan Desanto has been assigned to a wrongful death suit lodged by the family of Syd's shooter, and must defend her and the city. Regan left her previous job after losing a wrongful death suit, and she's eager to win this one. As the two women work together, sparks fly, and the sexual tension is almost unbearable. Unfortunately, Regan was badly burned by her last lover, and Sydney has never yet met a woman she couldn't bed and forget.

From the first chapter of Suspect Passions Powell builds erotic scenes which sear the page. She definitely takes her readers for a walk on the wild side! Her characters, however, are also women we care about. They are bright, witty, and strong. The combination of great sex and great characters make Suspect Passions a must read.
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Reviewed by RLynne

Title: The Veil of Sorrow Author: Crystal Michallet-Romero ISBN: 978-1-933720-52-4 Publisher: P.D. Publishing, Inc., www.pdpublishing.com Available from: SCP Books, www.scpbooks.com Price: $15.99 Pages: 145 pages Genre: Horror

Cecilia Dupuin has had a fortunate life. Though she was born an orphan, an anonymous benefactor paid for her to attend an exclusive girls school and now she has been hired to work for a wealthy woman who needs someone to help her record her memoirs. Cecilia finds herself living in a beautiful chateau with some odd people. Her employer is a charming elderly woman who has a harrowing tale to tell, but it’s when she meets the true mistress of the mansion that Cecilia comprehends the darkness into which she has stumbled. Cecilia is forced to confront what she has been told about vampires as opposed to the woman she meets and the woman who loves her. Ultimately, she must decide how much of their story she wants to be part of.

The Veil of Sorrow is written in the style of the Gothic novel with brooding characters, a suspenseful mood, supernatural events and high emotion. It departs from the usual formula by making the threatening presence a female, but that’s what makes it lesbian fiction. The book has a modern aspect in that the vampire is more misunderstood than evil, perhaps too much so.

Cecilia doesn’t seem startled at all to find herself the guest of a vampire and, instead of contemplating fleeing from the situation, she’s more interested in transcribing the stories that are being told to her and getting to know the women. Although there is an occasional show of the beast, most of the time the vampire and her servants are model citizens. Part of what draws the reader in is the way that vampirism is handled as so “normal,” comparable to having a chronic illness. If the reader is a fan of more traditional vampire novels, this one may seem very tame; however, it is a lesbian novel told in a different style and mood. It’s a couple of hours of escapist reading.
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Reviewed by Lynne Pierce