Editor's Pick Booklife Reviews: A fast-paced yet thoughtful romance of coming out and finding love in later life in Alaska
5 Star Clarion Review: A riveting novel . . . about love, courage, and solidarity
GOLD Medal IPPY Award
Trapped between a homicidal brother and a homophobic podcaster eager to reveal her lesbian romance novels, a seventy-year-old grandmother seeks help in Clear, Alaska.
Kirkus Starred Review
A moving and romantic coming-out story and a triumphant celebration of lesbian liberation.
Tracy should have been a boy. Even her older brother Spencer says so, though he wouldn’t finish the thought with, “And I should have been a girl.”
Though both feel awkward in their own skin, they have to face who they are—queers in the late 60s.
When both are caught with gay partners, their lives and futures are endangered by their homophobic father as their mother struggles to defend them.
While the Vietnam War threatens to take Spencer away, Tracy and her father wage a war of their own, each trying to save the sweet, talented pianist.
At seventeen, Tracy dresses as a boy and leaves her parents in turmoil, with only the slimmest hope of finding peace within herself. She journeys to a girl with a guitar, calling to her from a photo, "Come to Alaska. We'd be great friends."
Maybe even The MoonStone Girls.
Gold Medals:
IPPY in Young Adult Fiction
Readers' Favorite in YA Coming of Age
Literary Titan
Characters in Crystal's House of Queers
Bronze Medal
Readers' Favorite Int'l Book Awards in
LGBTQ Fiction
Three senior girls in rural Alaska escape their abusive pasts by
raising their dyke flag for themselves and their community.
Crystal Rose woke up at three in the morning today, drenched in sweat and breathless after another sex dream with Haley Carson. Later at school in the tiny town of Clear, Alaska, Crystal saves Haley from an assault by her abusive boyfriend.
The two girls renew a love started years ago that had to stay hidden until now. But with Crystal’s grandparents in the hospital with Covid and the possibility of her drug addict parents returning from a 14-year absence, Crystal needs Haley as much as she needs Crystal.
They connect with Payton Reed, a gun-toting artist who helps them feel proud to be gay and willing to stand up to anyone. Together they struggle to make Crystal’s house safe for those who are hated for their love.
"Epic in scope, Skipstone's stunning book is an unflinching conventional narrative of how queer women are viewed in today's world. It is a journey of gender and sexual discovery. It celebrates the beauty and complexity of queer lives without glossing over the trauma created by a transphobic society. It's the kind of queer narrative we badly need: honest, freeing, and vital. . . . Crystal's House of Queers is beautiful and painful and full of the kind of raw honesty that feels like a true gift." —Authors Reading
Listen to Chapter One of Audio Book
Laney’s world collapsed when she caught her dad cheating. He begged her not to tell, but she did. Her family fell apart and regret consumes her, especially when she learns every decision she makes spawns a new universe for the opposite choice.
If only she could skip sideways to the Laney who didn’t tell. But her only escape is through her imagination, until a news story blurs the lines between worlds. Two girls were murdered at the same time and same place as her father’s adulterous act.
Strange events lead Laney to believe their bones are connected to her and the sister she always wanted.
Laney now has another decision to make. Some Laneys say yes, while others say no; some live and some die. And some skip between worlds.
First Place Pencraft Award in Young Adult Fiction
Finalist in Cygnus SciFi Category in Chanticleer International Book Awards
Top Shelf Finalist
Hunter needs to remember. Jazz needs to forget. They need each other to heal in this teen thriller of survivor love.
Hunter's past is a mystery to him, erased by a doctor at the direction of his father. But memories of the secret trauma begin to surface when Hunter sees other people's memories--visions invading his mind with stories of abuse, teen self-mutilation, rape, and forbidden sex.
His best friend Jazz has dark and disturbing memories of her own that she hides behind her sass and wit. Hunter discovers he can rescue the victims, even though he risks adding their suffering to his own.
Hunter and Jazz kiss each other's scars and form a bond of empathy no two teens should ever need.
© Skipstone Publishing 2021