A contemporary queer romance that explores the risks and rewards of life in any landscape, and the freedom to lift the limitations we put on love.
Mae Kellerman is content. After forty years of ups and downs, she has a meaningful job at a queer community center in Portland, Oregon. She has an apartment full of plants, a ride-or-die group of friends.
Until the day her best friend actually does up and die. Leaving Mae with a hole in her heart—and a shocking amount of money.
But before she can think about that, she has to throw his perfect death party, followed by spreading his ashes on the Oregon Coast. It’s there that she stumbles upon an empty storefront for sale in the tiny whale-watching town of Greyfin Bay. Overnight, an old dream resurfaces…and Mae’s newfound inheritance could make it possible.
If only Dell McCleary didn’t stand in her way.
Dell only sells property to the folks actually invested in the best interests of Greyfin Bay. Not some Portlander with pink hair who breezes in on a whim. A Portlander who, irritatingly, refuses to take no for an answer.
As Mae upends her life for the pursuit of opening a queer-owned bookstore in a conservative coastal town, she and Dell are forced to work together, navigating prejudices and past traumas along the way. But as opening day of Bay Books grows nearer, Mae’s heart grows increasingly tangled with her landlord’s—even if his own heart might already belong to someone else.
If you’d like to buy a signed & personalized copy of the paperback, you can do so here!!
Otherwise, you can:
Order the paperback or ebook on Amazon
Order the ebook on other platforms
Want a sneak peak before you buy? Read the first two chapters here. 🙂
“Anita Kelly’s books always burrow deep into my heart and expand it in the most beautiful way. I’m so grateful for their thoughtfulness and care around topics like queer identity, found family, healing after grief and trauma, and how to live joyfully in a world that sometimes feels so hostile. But most of all I’m grateful for how fucking romantic their stories are, how many ways they give me to fall in love again and again and again. Heartwaves is such a special book and I’m jealous of every person who gets to read it for the first time.” – Alicia Thompson, USA Today bestselling author of With Love, from Cold World
Content Warnings:
• grief from recent death of a close friend; PTSD from a random act of violence, including triggers on page; malicious property damage; mentions of past cheating; illness of a parent, but no parent dies on page (nor is any dog harmed)
Polyamory/non-monogamy is also discussed, along with queer life in small American towns. While I always aim to explore my characters’ experiences with complicated topics as true to those characters as I can, everyone’s experiences are different. Please take care if any of these subjects are impactful to you.
Mae & Dell’s Playlist:
Jesús Herrera-Baptiste’s Death Party Playlist:
Anita Kelly 