Marrying Kind

Not the Marrying Kind is a new and comprehensive exploration of the contemporary same-sex marriage debates in several jurisdictions including Australia, Canada, South Africa, the United Kingdom and the United States. It departs from much of the existing scholarship on same-sex marriage, which argues either for or against marriage for same-sex couples. Instead, this book begins from a critical analysis of the institution of marriage itself (as well as separate forms of relationship recognition, such as civil partnership, PaCS, domestic partnership) and asks whether and how feminist critiques of marriage might be applied specifically to same-sex marriage. In doing this, the author combines the theories of second wave feminism with insights from contemporary queer theory.

A closeted small-town florist and a too-busy-for-a-relationship bakery owner mix up the perfect recipe for love in this delicious lesbian romance novel.

Wedding planner Adam More has an epiphany: He has devoted all his life’s energy to creating events that he and his partner Steven are forbidden by federal law for having for themselves. So Adam decides to make a change. Organizing a boycott of the wedding industry, Steven and Adam call on gay organists, hairdressers, cater-waiters, priests, and hairdressers everywhere to get out of the business and to stop going to weddings, too. In this screwball, romantic comedy both the movement they’ve begun and their relationship are put in jeopardy when Steven’s brother proposes to Adam’s sister and they must decide whether they’re attending or sending regrets.

In his fourth book of fiction, award-winning novelist and short story writer K. L. Cook explores marriage--not only to people, but to places and vocations--and how our lives are shaped by both the ideal and reality of lifelong commitments. A bride and groom discover secrets during their Las Vegas honeymoon and, years later, grapple with emotional and moral fissures in their relationship. A bankrupt academic flees to the Florida coast with his family and finds provisional hope in a big fish story. A fifteen-year-old boy sees Shakespeare's plays in the Colorado mountains, an experience that marries him for life to the theatre. A college dean and his attorney wife face unexpected changes that force them to re-envision their understanding of home. With insight, empathy, and humor, this collection of stories examines who and what we wed and what it means to be the marrying kind.

And then there's the other kind… THE WRONG KIND OF MAN Since her husband's death, there hadn't been any room in by-the-books Detective Tessa Hadley-Bryant's life for anything but police work—and that was exactly the way she wanted it. Especially right now, when she was handling the toughest case of her career—a murder investigation that reached into the highest levels of Philadelphia society…. So why did the department have to pick now to assign her a new partner who was everything she didn't want? John Gunner was a streetwise South Philly renegade with a reputation for breaking rules—and hearts. And he already had her questioning her sanity—not to mention her vow that she would never love again….

Sixteen years ago, world-famous artist Harriet P. Smith was the nerdiest girl at Doolittle High School, and Jake Porter was the new boy in town. Charismatic, handsome, and instantly popular, Jake was way out of her league. Harriet was shocked when he asked her to the graduation dance . . . and devastated when he left town for good the next morning. Only his father's remarriage could bring Jake, now a hot shot L.A. music exec, back to small-town Arkansas. His only consolation is the stunning woman with the mysterious green eyes he meets at a local bar. He's got no idea he was a part of one of the best nights of her life—or that he's about to fall for her as hard as she once did for him. Jake's never been the marrying kind, but another night with Harriet might make him change his mind.

Jane O’Hara has decided to take a sabbatical from her University teaching job in order to follow her bliss and work on a horse farm. Nora Hannon hires the self-effacing Jane instantly, hoping to match her up with her handsome, successful, but emotionally arrested son. Nora loves Mark, but she wants grandchildren! Upon Nora’s request, Mark Hannon returns home ostensibly to help with estate business, but also to evade his latest conquest, supermodel Veronica, whose innumerable phone messages and texts to Mark go unheeded and unreturned. Mark and Jane feel an immediate connection. However, Jane must overcome the sadness of her past, rooted in the untimely death of her father when she was ten and the consequent estrangement from her mother. Mark, who has never had to confront his irresponsible, cavalier nature, must deal with the fallout of having ill-used Veronica, who seeks to revenge herself. Only if Mark and Jane master themselves can they come together. Sensuality Level: Behind Closed Doors

Meet Zooey James, an attractive, brainy student and talented tennis player; Danielle Delacroix, the beautiful and wealthy child of an aristocratic French family; Patti Hammond, a funny, irreverent redhead and ex-cheerleader; Brenna Donovan, an Irish beauty who is sweet, loving and devoutly Catholic; and Elizabeth Riordan, brilliant but remote and aloof since the death of her mother. These five women stay in touch through marriages, affairs, estrangements and finally reconciliation over 35 years as their warm, funny friendships stay in tact in a changing world.

Travis Wayne Highgate has been dumped by his wife. He's decided that trying to do things the right way got him nowhere, so he's becoming a player. He changes like a chameleon for each of his new relationships. Once the good guy, now he's devious, conniving, sneaky, and underhanded. Travis is having the time of his life, until his plan is foiled in ways he never expected. He realizes his wife is the one he should have worked to stay with in the first place, as chance encounters with her and his new relationships teach him that the grass is not always greener on the other side. Monique Miller is a 1994 graduate of North Carolina Central University in Durham, NC. In 2003, she received an award from the Black Expressions Annual Fiction Writing Contest for the first chapter of her then titled manuscript, Saving the Best for Last, which is now a full length novel titled Secret Sisterhood. She currently lives in Cary, NC with her family.

A protesting Laura Seton is packed off to France in an attempt to uncover an art fraud and avert a family scandal. En-route she runs into wealthy bachelor, Finch Falconer, the new owner of the Seton family home. Usually easy-going, Laura has already crossed swords with him, in England, so the mutual attraction that springs in Paris causes complications, especially as Finch already has a fiancée.