From terraformed outposts to magical realms, journey to worlds where deadly plants, rampant biodiversity, or failed colonies have created irresistible opportunities for those brave enough to seize them. New worlds, found family, mystical secrets, and deadly science weave together in this lesbian-centric anthology focusing on a very different kind of first time - a first encounter with a world, or being, entirely unlike our own.

Lena has just moved to a new city with her cat, Scully, so when she finds little gifts on her doorstep every day, she thinks they're from her neighbors. Caroline, who lives next door, can't figure out how her stuff keeps disappearing until she catches a cat in the act of stealing from her. She follows the feline felon home—and meets its cute owner.

For three thousand years, an ancient dragon god has protected the borders of the Sheltered Lands. In return, he makes only one demand: every one hundred years, the mortal ruler must send their heir to serve as his consort…for as long as they can survive. Sachielle of House Roquebarre is the thirty-first consort to be sacrificed to the monster who guards the mountain passes. She is young, beautiful—and she has three secrets.

Maxine Gardner is a rock-and-roll legend who hasn’t had a hit in years. She’s on a mission to get her old band back together for a once in a lifetime reunion tour that could save her floundering career. The problem? One band member is dead, and the other hates her guts. To get this tour off the ground, Max must put her fate in the hands of a younger woman who could easily steal the spotlight from her for good.

Eden Sands has been a star for twenty years, but it’s lonely at the top. Her mediocre marriage just ended, and her inner circle is smaller than ever. The stage is the only place she’s ever felt like she truly belonged, and yet, her last album flopped, and her upcoming tour hasn’t sold out. Eden’s desperate for her star to shine bright again, but when her team suggests a collaboration with an up-and-coming young star to give her a boost, she balks.

Reggie Hawkins is used to living a lie. As the closeted lesbian daughter of a billionaire media mogul, the only luxury she can’t afford is being herself. She yearns to escape the toxic grasp of her family's global news empire, but her father’s latest demands once again threaten to plunge her deep into the corporate politics she despises.

I was born a heresy, a girl with a man’s magic in a city divided by gender, with monks facing off against witches. I trained with the monks only under my father’s protection, head of the monastery. Rose to the top, despite everything set against me. Until he died. A suicide, they called it. Yeah, right. They killed him for his heresy. For me. My only hope to survive now is to find his killers before they come for me. To expose their lies as the real blasphemy.

Home from Afghanistan to surprise her mother, Milla Zajac doesn’t expect more than the best apple pie in the world, the bliss of unrationed hot showers, and a quiet, peaceful hometown Christmas. She’s not counting on futures or meeting anyone special. At a chance first meeting on Christmas Eve, soldier Milla and pastor Tyna discover plenty of differences – and unexpected possibilities. Unabridged and read by the author.

A fresh-faced newcomer arrives in an isolated, gang-run town and soon finds herself taking a job nobody else wants: bodyguard to a ghoul. Not just your average mindless, half-rotted shuffler, though. Lucille is a dancer who can still put on her own lipstick and whose shows are half burlesque, half gladiator match. But the stranger is no stranger to this particular ghoul. Both women are undercover in their own way. And both have something to lose if their connection comes to light.

Equipped with the entirety of human knowledge, a sentient ship is launched on a last-ditch journey to find a new home for civilization. Trillions of miles. Tens of thousands of years. In the space between, the AI has plenty of time to think about life, the vastness of the universe, everything it was meant to do, and—with a perspective created but not limited by humans—what it should do.