A genderqueer hillbilly and a haunted woman must break a generational curse that has entwined their lives in the abandoned coal-stripped mountains of the Pennsylvania Wilds. *** Desperate to flee a dark past, Finley drives off a cliff and prays to the ancient hemlocks below to catch her fall. But in the abandoned hollows of the Pennsylvania Wilds, everything comes at a price. Tasked by an undead Not-Deer, Finley must find the three talismans that mark the mountain's boundaries in order to break a century old curse, one that has not only haunted the women in her family for generations, but has also bound the supernatural beings to the mountain, including the dead. Fortunately, the handsome genderqueer hillbilly up the road, River Hawthorne, is just as eager [maybe too eager] to break the curse. Together, they navigate the woods where hungry trees walk and other demonic haunts roam, growing closer every moment. But breaking the curse also comes at a price and Finley must decide what freedom is worth when her past comes crawling back through the woods to haunt her. HEARTWOOD blends gothic folk horror with cabincore sapphic romance. Rated Mature for violence, gore, sex, language Content Warnings: body horror, alcohol/drug use, transphobic attack, animal death/hunting, DV/abusive relationships, generational trauma, mentions of suicide & infant death Rankings: 1 in #appalachia 1 in #folkhorror 1 in #transmasc 5 in #gothicromance 8 in #sapphic

Hired by an infamous art collector, an art historian must decide whether to expose a painting's truth or risk everything for the woman who may be deceiving her. * * * * * When Michelina "Mikey" Amato, a struggling art historian, catches the eye of an alluring art collector at auction, sparks instantly ignite between the two women. But Mikey learns the collector is none other than Domenica Fiori, a woman with no maximum bid whose name is synonymous with scandal. Hoping to restore her reputation, Domenica offers to hire Mikey to authenticate a painting in her collection. Mikey sees it as an opportunity to make a name for herself and accepts despite all the whispers of forgery. Working closely alongside Domenica in her secluded Sicilian villa, Mikey starts to see beyond the collector's tarnished and guarded past. But inconsistencies with the painting---and Domenica---create more questions than answers. As Mikey's suspicions begin to grow, so do her feelings for Domenica, threatening to cloud her integrity. When the forgery rumors start to look true, Mikey must decide whether to expose the painting's truth or risk losing everything for the woman who may be deceiving her. #wlw

Beverly Bale spent her entire adult life wrapped in luxury-mansion halls, glittering parties, designer labels, and friends who praised her as long as the champagne flowed. She never imagined how quickly it could all disappear. But when her husband is arrested for a long list of financial crimes, Beverly's world collapses in a single day. Her accounts are frozen. Her mansion is seized. Her so-called friends vanish. And for the first time in her life... she has nowhere to go. The only door left open belongs to the woman the Bale family threw away years ago: Kimmy Walters-Jonathan's younger sister, the outcast daughter who was disowned at sixteen for being gay, and the owner of a small, steady bar built from grief, resilience, and the memory of her late girlfriend. Beverly and Kimmy were never close. They were never meant to be. But desperation pushes Beverly into the tiny apartment above Kimmy's bar, forcing two women with nothing in common to live under the same roof. As Beverly learns how to survive without wealth-how to work, how to try, how to be real-Kimmy starts to see a different woman beneath the designer surface. And Beverly begins to discover a life she never knew was possible: simple, honest, filled with people who care without conditions. But closeness is dangerous. Both women carry wounds, fears, and a past that threatens to pull them apart. And yet... something undeniable grows between them, slow and fragile at first, then impossible to ignore. Beverly may have lost her fortune- but in the ruins of her old life, she might be on the verge of finding something far more priceless. A new self. A new home. And a love she was never supposed to want... yet can no longer imagine living without.

Sometimes the person you've been waiting on... is the one you've been waiting for. "Maybe being seen isn't about who's looking, it's about who never looks away." Jamie Lawrence never planned to spend her twenties waiting tables for Hollywood's elite-especially not serving her biggest crush, Oscar-winning actress Catherine Lane. But one chaotic night, a paparazzi incident turns a polite routine into a secret connection neither of them saw coming. Now Catherine keeps finding excuses to visit the restaurant alone, and Jamie can't tell if she's imagining the sparks... or if the woman she's been waiting on might just be the one she's been waiting for.

Tessa Blake likes things simple: clean layouts, crisp deadlines, and a boyfriend who's been her best friend since college. What she doesn't like? Camden Price-her boyfriend Noah's childhood best friend and living proof that loud, obnoxious energy drinks can take human form. So when Cam crashes their quiet weekend plans with a smug grin and a new girlfriend, Tessa prepares for another evening of pretending to tolerate him. She definitely doesn't expect Harper Rhodes. Harper is calm, self-assured, and infuriatingly observant. An independent photographer with a quiet voice and a sharper lens, she notices things most people miss-including the cracks in Tessa's carefully arranged life. What begins as forced double dates turns into long conversations, unexpected laughter, and a slow unraveling of everything Tessa thought she wanted. As her long-term relationship starts to feel less certain and Harper becomes harder to ignore, Tessa is forced to ask herself: What if the person she can't stand leads her to the person she can't live without? Sometimes your "plus one" is the one.

Lena Carver has everything under control-except her dream. As the no-nonsense manager of Rosebay Resort, one of the crown jewels in the Sinclair Hotels empire, Lena has dedicated the past six years to keeping five-star chaos in check. Between demanding guests, last-minute weddings, and her spirited four-year-old niece she's helping raise, Lena's got zero time for distractions-especially not the high-heeled, high-maintenance kind. Enter Avery Sinclair. She's the hotel chain's heiress and a walking HR warning with a trust fund and something to prove. After being sent to "oversee" Rosebay-aka get exiled from corporate HQ-Avery is determined to turn the location into the most profitable in the company. Her plan is simple: maximize revenue, impress Daddy, and earn the CEO title. Her plan does not include clashing with the sarcastic, infuriatingly competent hotel manager who seems allergic to authority and perfectly capable of running the entire empire on her own. What starts as a battle of wills quickly spirals into something much messier: unexpected teamwork, flirty banter, steamy tension in the linen closet, and the kind of feelings that don't come with a corporate playbook. In a place where professionalism is key and romance is strictly off the clock, falling in love might just be the biggest disaster of all. Welcome to The Last Resort-where ambition checks in, sparks fly, and hearts are the messiest rooms to clean.

Sometimes the best lessons aren't learned in class, they're felt in the heart. Riley Hale's life runs on caffeine, chaos, and cupcake batter. At twenty-eight, she's mastered the art of single motherhood, sarcasm, and pretending she's totally fine that her love life has been replaced by late-night cleaning montages and her eight-year-old's existential questions. Then one morning, a frosty stranger in a perfect beige coat walks into The Sweet Spot bakery and straight into Riley's list of "people I will never impress." After one spilled coffee and a mortifying apology later, Riley is convinced she'll never see the woman again. Until the next day, when she meets her daughter's new fifth-grade teacher... Miss Emerson Miller. What follows is a year of accidental flirtations, school-event disasters, and late-night bake-offs that blur the line between enemies, friends, and something sweeter. Because sometimes love doesn't show up when you plan it - it spills all over your shoes and dares you to start over. A slow-burn, small-town romantic comedy about second chances, messy mornings, and discovering that the best lessons aren't always taught in classrooms.

Being trans was never supposed to be a secret, but marriage, kids, career, and hormones have made this aspect of Xander's identity invisible. For the most part he's happy about this. It's comfortable. Then, a fourth grade student at the school where Xander works comes out as trans, causing him to reevaluate his identity and forcing him to confront the larger implications of just passing. (Slice of life, character driven story)

An art thief teams up with an unlikely ally in order to track down a bloodthirsty artist before she becomes the killer's next muse. * * * * * After serving time in a foreign prison for art theft, Kirby McKinley returns home only to be tempted by one last heist. And this time, the job is personal. But the simple heist goes awry when she pushes her luck and runs into the museum's gorgeous artist-in-residence, who is reconstructing a forensic facial sketch from a mysterious skull. Before the two can part ways, they stumble upon the rest of the body, posed as the subject in a painting Kirby knows far too well. More bodies begin to show up in twisted tableaus, entangling Kirby in a murder mystery that forces her to confront secrets that were never buried with her dead ex-girlfriend. But the forensic artist also has a few mysteries of her own and they must work together to track down the killer before Kirby becomes the muse in the final composition.

Wren's life takes an unexpected turn when she joins a roller derby team led by the elusive Corinne Fontaine. ***** Moving to Connecticut had never been in former figure skater Wren Wu's plans, yet there she is. She's there for her brother's sake, against her will, and is feeling like her whole world is slipping out of her hands. When she's offered an opportunity to try out for the university roller derby team, captained by the infuriatingly beautiful Corinne Fontaine, everything inside her tells her it's a bad idea, but she's never been one to make good decisions anyway. [[5X WATTPAD FEATURED STORY]] [[THE AMBYS 2023 TOP PICK IN ROMANCE]] © 2020 caterina george // all rights reserved