Between the Lines
by Meredith Spies
When the love of his life runs away to join the circus (okay, fine, a circus arts troupe), Wendell McCandless walks away from his hometown of Dumbarton, Texas with the intent of never coming back. Eyes on a future as an investigative reporter, Wendell spends the next twelve years struggling to make a name for himself while working freelance jobs at small town papers and big city rags before being drawn back to Dumbarton one more time.
Davis Alameda didn’t know how to fix what he’d broken. When he left Dumbarton to follow his dream of being a performer, he thought Wendell would follow, or at least send a freaking email. Instead, he got twelve years of silence broken only by the occasional news from home about Wendell’s faltering career as a journalist. When the time comes for his family’s annual Thanksgiving baseball tournament and fundraiser, Davis finds himself back in Dumbarton at the same time as Wendell for the first time since their parting as teenagers. This time, though, they’re drawn together by a mystery almost a century old: What happened to Martin Green and Joseph Alameda?
Woven in with the contemporary second chance, small-town romance is the story of Martin and Joseph, two men who disappeared from Dumbarton a century before. Rumors of murder and of violence haunt their families decades later, including Davis Alameda, great-nephew of Joseph, and Wendell McCandless, great-grandson of the man believed to have murdered one or both of the men.
Spark & Tether
by Lilian Zenzi
Working odd jobs across the Outer Ring gets a little lonely sometimes—not everyone loves having a synchronist with supraliminal perception around. But all Sacheri wants, he tells himself, is to wander the stars.
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Then he takes a salvage run to an abandoned moon where he meets the wry, reserved, strictly-by-the-rules archivist Jin. Mesmerized by their confidence and charm, Sacheri can’t resist showing off his abilities–and instead of the damaged ai he was tracking, he stumbles onto a signal left by a synchronist who went missing decades earlier.
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Sacheri knows from previous experience that pursuing the truth—never mind justice—could destroy everything he loves. He would defy his employers, the institution responsible for the myconeural networks that make him a synchronist, and the leadership of several worlds.
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And it would complicate his new, passionate, and impossibly sweet relationship with Jin. They might be the best thing that’s ever happened to him, but they work for the very entities that ended Sacheri’s last investigation.
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He knows better than to risk it.
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But he’s never been able to turn away from someone in need, and there’s a voice in the void calling for aid…
Three Meant to Be
by MN Bennet
Telepathic high school teacher Dorian prepares teen witches for professional casting because going in unprepared is what killed one of his partners. But new state mandates on magical proficiency make it nearly impossible, and Dorian worries he can’t give his students the education they really need. Seeking a distraction from work, Dorian kisses his still-living on-again off-again clairvoyant boyfriend, Milo. Instead of a distraction, Dorian glimpses Milo’s vague vision involving the murder of Caleb—one of Dorian’s new students.
Already devastated by the loss of his partner, Dorian refuses to stand aside and let Caleb die. He searches for clues by delving into Caleb’s mind. Rooting through Caleb’s memories alongside teaching classes leads Dorian to two more students: Caleb’s ex-best friend turned rival and the prodigy with connections to dangerous warlocks. However, each step further into his students’ minds forces Dorian to confront his deteriorating relationship with Milo.
After discovering a link involving illegal casting, Dorian resolves to work with Milo to prevent the impending vision. To succeed, Dorian will have to explore the potential of a future with Milo and find closure on their third partner, whose loss looms between them. But meddling with fate to save Caleb inadvertently draws the warlocks near, putting all his students in danger. Dorian will have to risk his life and gamble his second chance with Milo to keep his students alive.
X Marks the Spot
by Kit Barrie
Where there is gold, there is also blood.
Beset by bad luck and alone in the world, young Jamie Davis is taken in by widowed antiquities dealer, Squire Harrington. Trapped in debt, the squire decides to risk everything to find the buried treasure of the notorious pirate, Captain Charles Locke, and he and Jamie set off on a whirlwind adventure on the high seas!
Entranced by the handsome Captain Ambrose and befriended by the mysterious one-legged cook, Silas Cross, Jamie wonders if good fortune has finally smiled on him. But there is more to their hired crew than meets the eye. Jamie learns that not every cloud has a silver lining, and trust can be worth its weight in gold.
X Marks the Spot is a retelling of the classic tale Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson. It is a gay adventure story with a happy ending, though not a romantic HEA.
