Overview

Escaping the past is hard. Living in the present is harder.

Monti Schroeder is on a quest for peace. She has been since the moment she was born, but peace has remained elusive. Living as a nomad, she takes work where she can get it. When her sister calls with a favor for her neurotic boss, Monti agrees for a few extra bucks. What Monti finds when she arrives is a woman just as broken as she is. And no matter what, she can't leave Athena to flounder on her own.

Athena Pruitt has made it through the last twenty-two years with one rule. Avoid everything uncomfortable. Her house has become her prison, and she is desperate for respite. Unable to handle physical touch, she's wary when her personal assistant hires a "special" masseuse who can help. But Monti isn't a typical massage therapist.

Each day, each massage, each moment Monti and Athena spend together they unravel just a little more. With wells of trauma and pain filling both to the brim, just what will happen when their vessels break?

Will Monti find peace? Will Athena learn to live without shame? Will they both mend their brokenness beyond repair?

Shameless Expectations is a book that crosses boundaries to find healing. An age gap, sapphic novel that explores deep trauma and the potential for healing decades later. If you're looking for a book that touches on hope and explores PTSD through the lens of a romance, this is the book for you. Read it today.

Audible Audiobook – Unabridged

Narrator: Quinn Riley, Lori Prince

Listening Length: 11 hours and 21 minutes

Audible.com Release Date: September 10, 2024

Publisher: Podium Audio

About Adrian J. Smith

Adrian J. Smith has been publishing since 2013 but has been writing nearly her entire life. With a focus on women loving women fiction, AJ jumps genres from action-packed police procedurals to the seedier life of vampires and witches to sweet romances with a May-December twist. She loves writing and reading about women in the midst of the ordinariness of life. Two of her novels, For by Grace and Memoir in the Making, received honorable mentions with the Rainbow Awards.

AJ currently lives in Cheyenne, WY, although she moves often and has lived all over the United States. She loves to travel to different countries and places. She currently plays the roles of author, wife, and mother to two rambunctious kids, occasional handy-woman. Connect with her on Facebook, Twitter, or her blog.

About Quinn Riley

Quinn Riley (a.k.a. Jeremy Carlisle Parker) is an actor and singer working in New York City. She started her career as an opera singer (and has since transitioned to musical theater) and her training has afforded her a facility with many accents and foreign languages. Quinn has a profound love for storytelling and firmly believes that books can change lives. She is an out and proud queer woman and is deeply committed to amplifying queer voices whenever she can. When Quinn isn't in the booth, you can find her tie-dying t-shirts in her kitchen sink while listening to true crime podcasts and catching up on RuPaul's Drag Race.

Quinn's love of narration began when she was a little girl - demanding that her father read Dr. Seuss every night, using only his best character voices. Books have been some of her best friends since childhood - in fact, she still holds the first-grade class record for most books read in an academic year at 650!

About Lori Prince

Lori Prince is a classically trained actor with a BFA from Syracuse University. She has performed Off-Broadway as well as at top regional theaters, including The Denver Center, Alliance Theater Company, and PlayMakers Repertory Company, among others. She has also appeared on television in Law & Order, Law & Order: SVU, and Are We There Yet? Her voice work includes various characters in the feature film Epic, as well as additional dialogue recorded for over fifty feature films and TV shows.