Release Date: April 5, 2021
Cover Design: Christine Coffey
After being rejected one too many times, Chelsea makes a bold vow: No more men. Her friends doubt a boy-crazy party girl can handle not dating for a year, but that only makes Chelsea more determined.
Tara has made a vow, too. After growing up in foster care and suppressing herself to please others, she's going to live her truth. When she sees a beautiful woman, she'll make her attraction known.
Chelsea appreciates Tara's flirtatious compliments, not to mention her androgynous beauty. There's a loophole in Chelsea's vow, and it's more tempting every day. Could swearing off men lead Chelsea to the perfect woman?
Excerpt
I put the barrel under the bar and went back for the second one.
“I’m impressed by the fact that you do that all day, every day,” Tara said.
I shrugged, standing up straight. “It was hard at first, but you get used to it.”
“You don’t even break a sweat.” She gazed at the neckline of my shirt, then back at my face. “You’re amazing.”
Heat rose to my cheeks. “Flattery gets you nowhere.”
“Is that right?”
My heart hammered, and I lowered my voice. “Not if you’re already where you want to be.”
We had a date on Friday. It was pretty much guaranteed that we were going to rip each other’s clothes off and have our fill of each other. That was only two days from now. Fifty-three, maybe fifty-four hours. There was no reason for us to be standing here staring at each other with unrestrained lust, the air between us thick with sexual tension.
But Tara stepped toward me, close enough that I could feel her body heat. “Where do you think I want to be, exactly?”
I gulped. Men weren’t this straightforward with me unless we were both wasted. Even then, we quickly established that we were both on the same page, and then we went and did it. There were none of this complexity, this need to pursue as well as be pursued. Tara claimed she was a relationship person, and that she was going outside of her norm to do this with me. If I said the wrong thing, I might spook her and make her lose interest altogether. And that was the last thing I wanted to do.
I decided to be direct—but not too direct. “I think you want me,” I told her.
“You know what?” She leaned in, and the heat of her breath tickled my ear. “You’re right.”
“Friday?” I breathed.
She stepped back, leaving me gasping. The moment was over—or was it? She was still giving me that lustful look, her eyes dark and heavy-lidded. “Meet me in the restroom.”
Was she serious? My pulse was skyrocketing. I stared at her, looking for some sign that she was joking.
She gave me a tiny smile, then the smallest, subtlest nod toward the restrooms. Then she was gone, and I found myself unable to breathe.
Were we really doing this? I’d been dreaming of it for weeks, and now it was actually happening. I practically ran into the restroom, where Tara was waiting. “So here we are. The benefit of same-sex relationships.” She locked the door with a key from her pocket. “Works extra well when you’re dating an employee.”
Dating. Oh my God. My knees were ready to buckle, and my mind was barely functioning.
Before I could think of words to respond, she’d pushed me up against the sink. Her lips were on mine, hard and aggressive, and I responded with equal fervor. My body had been longing for hers ever since the last time we’d kissed. It’d only been a few days, but it was far, far, too long.
The space between my legs tingled in a whole different way. My panties were drenched, and my nipples cried for attention. Tara swept back my hair so she could go for my neck, her teeth digging in painfully. This was going to leave a mark, but it felt so—damn—good. I couldn’t have stopped her even if I’d wanted to.
“What have you done to me?” she murmured under her breath.
“Me? I should be asking you the same question.”
What I thought about Flipcup
After another night spent not finding the relationship she's looking for, Chelsea has sworn off men. She decides to take a year off from party pickups to focus on herself and what she wants. Yeah Chelsea!! It's too bad that none of her girl gang believes her, especially when she starts to talk about one of the customers on her route who works in the bookstore side of Vino & Veritas.
Tara has just moved to Burlington from Boston where she has left her chosen family. After years in foster families, Tara wants to build her own life with a clean slate and ends up working at V & V. She sees Chelsea delivering beer a few times a week and catches her eye with some serious flirting.
Tara's flirting has Chelsea's feelings in a stir and she struggles with what it means. Should she flirt back? Take their budding friendship to a new place? There's a nice build-up to Chelsea's dating Tara, and Tara wears a lot of emotional armor that has her seeming more experienced with sex and love than she is.
It was great to revisit with Chelsea who readers met in Speakeasy. She did strike me as having some self esteem issues, and there were times that the situations brought back from cringe-worthy moments from my own twenties. I thought it was interesting that Chelsea acted more like a man when she approaches Tara, straddling a line between date and hookup. But in the end it was all good.
I loved Tara and Chelsea together, and found Chelsea's growth in her herself wonderful to read in Flipcup. She apologetically enjoys sex and I adored that about her. Tara is little harder to read and her difficult past is part of the focus on her in this story.
Flipcup is a quick, easy read without major hang-wringing conflict. I liked that about this F/F romance. Be sure to grab the bonus epilogue at the end, it's a terrific conclusion to Chelsea's and Tara's story.
Release Date: April 5, 2021
Cover Design: Christine Coffey
Blurb:
One woman’s hiding place is another woman’s home.
After becoming an inadvertent viral sensation—and losing her job and her girlfriend as a result— Phoebe Shaw retreats to Vermont. Renovating her late grandmother’s cabin into a vacation rental seems like the perfect way to lie low for a while. But the last person she expects to encounter on the property is the woman whose kiss was her teenage sexual awakening . . . and whom she’s never quite forgotten.
Taylor Donovan has been hiking on the trails behind the Shaw family’s cabin her whole life. As children, Taylor and Phoebe were best friends before sharing a secret summer romance when they were sixteen, which left Taylor brokenhearted when Phoebe fled at the end of the summer. Now the property has become Taylor’s home away from home, and she wants nothing more than to convince the Shaws to sell it to her. But Phoebe’s return puts a crimp in those plans--and brings back old feelings she thought she’d overcome.
Of all the things Phoebe regrets, leaving Taylor is at the top of the list, but Taylor is determined to protect her heart. Yet the pull between them is stronger than ever. This time around, will love stay hidden . . . or finally see the light of day?
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Excerpt
I sipped my cider, savoring its tangy, refreshing flavor. Over the hum of conversation, I could hear a woman singing, accompanied by the tinkling notes of the piano. I stared into the amber depths of my cider while I enjoyed the soulful quality of the singer’s voice. Whoever this was must be new, because I didn’t recognize her voice or her style.
I picked up my glass and spun my stool toward the stage, only to find myself facing Phoebe. I inhaled, and my glass tipped dangerously in my hand. Of all the people I’d expected to see on that stage…
Phoebe’s hair was pulled back in a loose bun , but a few dark curls had escaped, spilling down her back. She wore a slinky black dress that highlighted her curves and stood out in stark contrast against her pale skin. Her voice was low and smoky, hitting me somewhere in the vicinity of my solar plexus, a jolt that warmed my stomach and radiated outward, flushing my skin.
As I watched, Phoebe looked up, and our eyes met. I lifted my glass and took another sip of my cider, feigning indifference, because it was just unfair that she could still affect me like this after so many years. Phoebe dropped her gaze to the piano in front of her as her fingers danced across the keys.
I remembered sitting beside her on the bench at Margery’s piano, my arm wrapped around her as Phoebe sang. Her voice had been different then, lighter and sweeter, or maybe it just seemed that way, filtered through the blinds of my memory. Margery told me Phoebe had given up the piano—and singing—after she graduated from high school.
Maybe she was feeling nostalgic now that she was back in Vermont. Or maybe she was just trying to torture me with the allure of her voice. I gulped from my cider.
“Hi,” a female voice said.
I spun to find myself facing an unfamiliar blonde. “Hi.”
“I’m Rebecca,” she said. “Are you from around here?”
“Taylor, and yes. You?”
“Just in town for the weekend,” Rebecca told me.
“Ah.” I sipped my cider. Rebecca was pretty, although not exactly my type with her trendy dress and long, red-painted nails. She looked like she’d never hiked a day in her life. But when I glanced to the left, I saw Phoebe watching me from the stage, and it gave me an absurd thrill to let her watch me flirt with someone else. “Where are you from, Rebecca?”
What I thought about Hideaway
When Phoebe Shaw returns to Burlington after losing her job and her girlfriend, she's looking to put her life back together, not rekindle a teenage romance. But when she runs into Taylor Donovan, returning to Burlington takes on new importance.
Taylor Donovan may have been best friends with Phoebe, but Phoebe also broke her tender first-love heart when they were sixteen. This is a second chance romance with Taylor and Phoebe having to deal with their past feelings as well as new feelings that have developed. There are some trust issues along with the attraction that is coaxed back to life.
Hideaway is a sweet, low angst sort of story of rekindled first love.There's a nice cast of fur babies in Hideaway as well. This F/F romance has a lot going for it and it was easy to get invested in Phoebe and Taylor making something more permanent.
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