National Network for Equitable Library Service

A Novella in the Delectable Series A week before Christmas, Alex Bancroft’s bakery goes up in flames. When he runs back inside after a dog, firefighter Kevin Flint has to rescue Alex—and Quincy—from the smoldering building, endangering them and inflaming Kevin’s resentment. Now Alex can’t create the elaborate gingerbread house he donates to a foster-kids charity each year. Fire Station 7 again comes to his rescue, offering their kitchen and their manpower. Everyone but Kevin Flint, that is. A third-generation firefighter, he’s fearful of stepping too far out of the closet.

“Daddy” is not a title Rue Murray wanted, but he never thought he’d have sex with a woman either. Now he’s the unwitting father of a newborn named Alice. Between bartending and cosmetology school, Rue doesn’t have time for babies, but he can’t give her up. What Rue needs is a babysitter, and he’s running out of options. He’s on the verge of quitting school to watch Alice himself when he remembers his reclusive new neighbor, Erik. Erik Van Nuys is a sci-fi novelist with anxiety issues to spare. He doesn’t like people in general, and he likes babies even less.

It’s 1919, and Frank Huddleston has survived the battlefields of the Great War. A serious head injury has left him with amnesia so profound he must re-learn his name every morning from a note posted on the privy door. Gerald “Jersey" Rohn, joined the Army because he wanted to feel like a man, but he returned from the trenches minus a leg and with no goal for his life. He’s plagued by the nightmare of his best friend’s death and has nervous fits, but refuses to associate those things with battle fatigue.

Cole Kenjiro McGinnis, ex-cop and PI, is trying to get over the shooting death of his lover when a supposedly routine investigation lands in his lap. Investigating the apparent suicide of a prominent Korean businessman’s son proves to be anything but ordinary, especially when it introduces Cole to the dead man’s handsome cousin, Kim Jae-Min. Jae-Min’s cousin had a dirty little secret, the kind that Cole has been familiar with all his life and that Jae-Min is still hiding from his family.

Photographer Dade Faber keeps hoping for assignments on a big city beat, but time and again he’s sent into the wild. This time, he’s half the world away from London shooting the Australian bush. When Dade is nearly attacked by a crocodile, it leads to a shouting match with Elliot Harris, who owns Dade’s hotel. Elliot is both hot and persuasive, and when he offers to play tour guide, Dade accepts. After a week spent mostly together in the bush, Dade begins to fall for Elliott. The attraction is mutual, and when circumstances lead both men to London, they find they have much in common.

When Allan Song’s ex, Mac, shows up to model for the life drawing class Allan teaches, he turns everything upside-down. Mac is still as infuriatingly attractive as when Allan first met him—and still trying to figure out where he fits on the gender spectrum. He’s more than a little out of control, and he’s taken some stupid risks that have come back to haunt him. If they’re going to get back together, Allan wants a real relationship—but for that, he and Mac will need to look below the surface.

Detective Eric Geller just saw his case against crime boss Victor Kroger thrown out of court. Convinced there’s more to the dismissal than contaminated evidence, Eric shifts from investigating Victor to investigating the judge, determined to bring Victor to justice. But when a package of photographs appears on his doorstep, it sets into motion a series of events that begins to threaten his personal life as well as his professional career. T.J. Briscoe has been married to Eric for seven years, and he knows the stress of the job can lead to jumping at shadows.

Prequel to Houseboat on the Nile It’s 1996, and Mark Vincent, senior special agent of the Washington Bureau of Intelligence and Security, has been assigned the task of assassinating the head of a terrorist organization in Europe. When the mission goes south and he’s ordered to take a vacation, he reluctantly goes to Paris, where, in a little bar called Le Petit Homme, he sees a man who intrigues him. However, like ships passing in the night, they go their separate ways, only to meet again the following morning, and over breakfast, the man introduces himself as Louis.

North Star: Book One In their small-town high school, Hugo and Kevin became closeted lovers who kept their secret even from parents. Hugo didn’t want to disappoint his terminally ill father, and Kevin’s controlling father would never tolerate a bisexual son. When college took them in different directions, they promised to reunite, but that didn’t happen for seventeen years. By the time they meet again, Hugo has become an out-and-proud actor and director who occasionally performs in drag—a secret that has cost him in past relationships.

When Scott Alan gets a phone call that his brother was hurt on a logging job, he rushes to Brian’s side, only to find that his injuries are minor—but not before he meets Hank Ballam, an adrenaline-seeking logger who's an outcast among his co-workers. Hank is a study in contrast: he lives for the rush of climbing and cutting trees almost as much as he loves the peace he finds exploring the mountains he calls home. Scott’s attraction to Hank is immediate and mind-blowing, and it’s what Scott has always wanted: to know what it’s like to love someone he can’t live without.