Ford Merrick is a softhearted
detective in a sleepy southern town, Opelika, Alabama—a “one-eyed, blinking
sort of place.” A provoking visit from beautiful Rachel Gunner complicates his
work and his life. This stunning woman asks Ford to tail her uncle and discover
what he is up to. Taking the case, Ford quickly finds himself swamped in
mysteries: Who is Rachel's uncle, and what is his secret business? Then there’s
the mystery of an earlier death at Noble Hall where Rachel and her uncle now
live. But the greatest mystery may be Rachel Gunner herself. Mired, Ford
struggles to find his way, unearths tragedies old and new, and exposes his
heart to a hard test.
Today I'm featuring David Michael Slate's just released WWII novel, The Vanishing as an added benefit I had the pleasure of chatting with David about the novel. So sit back and read all about this unique read. Enjoy!
To save her best friend from the horrors of Nazi Germany, an invisible girl must embark on an utterly unforgettable journey of redemption and revenge. The Vanishing is fierce and loving, devastating and compelling, a breathtaking blend of history, fiction, and magical realism.
Those of you who visit the blog regularly know what a fan of the Orphan X series I have become and having started it late in the game am going back to the beginning to learn what makes Evan Smoak tick. The Nowhere Man is book 2 in the series. Enjoy!
Spoken about only in whispers, the Nowhere Man can only be reached by the truly desperate, he can He will do anything to save them.
Evan Smoak is the Nowhere Man. Taken from a group home at twelve, Evan was raised and trained as part of the Orphan Program, an off-the-books operation designed to create deniable intelligence assets i.e. assassins. Evan was Orphan X. He broke with the Program, using everything he learned to disappear and reinvent himself as the Nowhere Man. But his new life is interrupted when a surprise attack comes from an unlikely angle and Evan is caught unaware. Captured, drugged, and spirited off to a remote location, he finds himself heavily guarded and cut off from everything he knows. His captors think they have him trapped and helpless in a virtual cage but they don t know who they re dealing with or that they ve trapped themselves inside that cage with one of the deadliest and most resourceful men on earth. Continuing his electrifying series featuring Evan Smoak, Gregg Hurwitz delivers a blistering, compelling new novel in the series launched with the instant international bestseller, Orphan X.
Well it's that time of year again, the weather is cooling off and pumpkin spice is everywhere and it's the perfect time to settle down in your favorite chair and open the pages of a Harlequin romance. Here is the Harlequin Fall Romance Recommendations.
Mercy Thompson, car mechanic and shapeshifter, must face
her greatest fears in this chilling entry in the #1 New York Times
bestselling series.
The vampire Wulfe is missing. Since he’s deadly, possibly insane, and his
current idea of “fun” is stalking me, some may see it as no great loss. But,
warned that his disappearance might bring down the carefully constructed
alliances that keep our pack safe, my mate and I must find Wulfe—and hope he’s
still alive. As alive as a vampire can be, anyway.
But Wulfe isn’t the only one who has disappeared. And now there are bodies,
too. Has the Harvester returned to the Tri-Cities, reaping souls with his
cursed sickle? Or is he just a character from a B horror movie and our enemy is
someone else?
The farther I follow Wulfe’s trail, the more twisted—and darker—the path
becomes. I need to figure out what’s going on before the next body on the
ground is mine.
Today is my stop on The 13th Hour: Chaos by Richard Doetsch be sure and visit all the other stops and don't forget to enter the tour wide #Giveaway Enjoy!
The 13th Hour: Chaos
by Richard Doetsch
September 5 - 30, 2022 Virtual Book Tour
Synopsis:
A Mesmerizing Thriller Told in Reverse
On a warm Fourth of July in the quiet town of Byram Hills, Nick Quinn watches as his wife and daughter die in an unprecedented terrorist attack. Amid the disaster, Nick is approached by a dying friend who hands Nick an antique pocket watch.
Emotionally shattered and desperate, Nick takes the watch and is shocked to find himself propelled back in time to where he was an hour ago, before the attack on his town. Quickly stopping the course of events, his relief is shattered as life spirals in an even more tragic direction.
At the top of each hour, the watch sends Nick back two hours to live one hour again, a backwards march to relive each hour of his day. A twelve-hour journey providing precious but limited time to protect Julia and Katy and uncover the source of the ever growing threat.
But each time Nick thinks he’s solved the crime and secured the future, he uncovers new levels of deception, agony, and betrayal, ultimately revealing a far more sinister plot with unexpected players and grim, global consequences.
If Nick hasn’t set things right by the 13th hour, not only will his wife and daughter be lost forever to the chaos, but an even greater catastrophe will be unleashed upon the world.
In times of Grand Celebration and Great Sorrow readers reach for Royal Romances so my friends at Harlequin are sharing some Royal themed and a few Modern Romance Retellings Enjoy!
Today Sophia Rose is here taking readers to the scenic Blue Ridge Mountains as she reviews Diane Kelly's A Trip With Trouble #2 in her Mountain Lodger Cozy Mystery series. Enjoy!
GoodReads Blurb:
The second in a charming and engrossing cozy series from Diane Kelly, A Trip
with Trouble proves that in the Blue Ridge Mountains, life in the fast lane
could end in a crash.
When the ladies of the Dangerous Curves Motorcycle Club take over the
Mountaintop Lodge for their annual autumn ride along the Blue Ridge Parkway,
Misty Murphy couldn’t be more thrilled. Every room is full and the adventurous
women even invite Misty and her assistant Brynn to join them on a ride to
admire the colorful fall foliage. Hotel handyman Rocky Crowder is happy to keep
an eye on the lodge for the day, and the ladies set out for a fun ride on the
scenic road.
The skies are clear, the air is crisp, and the leaves are gorgeous. But what
starts as a perfect ride turns worrisome when the tail gunner – the last rider
in their group – fails to show up at the Craggy Gardens overlook. Cell phone
service is spotty in the remote, mountainous area, and the group is unable to
connect with their friend. Might the missing woman have simply run out of gas?
Or is something far more sinister afoot?
The ladies are determined to locate their ride or die, and Misty is equally
determined to help them. But will they be able to solve the mystery when the
scenic route seems intent on hiding its secrets?
LaQuette's debut sexy romantic comedy Vanessa Jared's Got a Man tells the story of a woman getting her groove back and getting a second chance at love.
Vanessa Jared, a 40-something divorcee, decided that the best way to pull herself out of their post-divorce slump was to form The Savvy, Sexy, Singles Club and start the "Do Me" portion of her and her friends' lives.
But on the two year anniversary, a sexy sheriff shows up on Vanessa's doorstep wanting her to help him keep his little sister from marrying her no-good ex. Vanessa is not down for this at all. She wants nothing to do with her ex...until she spots a photo of her ex's new fiancee wearing her grandmother's ring--which he clearly stole from her. So now it's on. Vanessa is ready to take this trifling (fill-in-the-blank) down. What she does not expect is to fall in love along the way.
Today is my stop on the Woman on the Wall tour during my stop you'll read an excerpt, my review plus a Q&A with the author. I hope you'll take the time to read all about it and order a copy for yourself. Tour sponsor Pacific and Court Publcity
For 500 years, the once powerful Order of the Sibylline has kept the identity of its future prophetess hidden in the most famous painting in the world. Amid the chaos of post-World War II France, one woman discovers their ancient secret and its ability to transform a fragmented world.
PARIS 1945 A BRILLIANT, DEVOTED, AND DRIVEN PALEOGRAPHER … After 480 days as a Nazi political prisoner, Dr. Marie Guerrant returns to Paris to repatriate the Mona Lisa and find her daughter. When a British Colonel arrives claiming he needs her French Resistance connections to find the lost painting, which she helped hide seven years earlier, distrust is high. Tipped off about her daughter's involvement and the Colonel's obsessive belief that the Mona Lisa contains the identity of a modern-day Sibyl prophetess, Marie must risk her life to save her daughter and the masterpiece from men consumed by controlling destiny.
AMBOISE, FRANCE 1519 A BRAVE, BOLD, AND POTENT PROPHETESS … On the eve of rising as the Sibyl of Amboise, Aesmeh de la Rose must rely on her visions to find Leonardo da Vinci after he and the Mona Lisa disappear from his workshop at Clos Lucé. The precious painting and its creator cannot be lost or the ancient Sibylline Order faces extermination after more than 1000 years of rebuilding their powerful matriarchy. Torn between duty and love, Aesmeh must tap into an ancient alchemy in a race to keep the Order safe. But, an unspeakable betrayal forces her to make an unfathomable choice to secure the future of the Sibylline.
This rich alternate history binds two women beyond time, each fighting to restore sight to a world blinded by the power and control of men. The fate of the world rests on their courage to reclaim the ancient feminine powers of the Sibylline. Woman on the Wall is a sweeping fantastical tale of intrigue and hope for humanity that fuels imagination and curiosity.
Today I Welcome Sophia Rose back to the blog with her review of Forever Askole by Gail Koger. Now I don't know about you but after that title I can't wait to learn more about this novel. Enjoy!
GoodReads:My name is
Ella McAllister, I’m a psychic witch and a healer. My life is kinda nuts. Not
only do I have the Coletti hunters chasing me, but now I also have a very
determined Askole High Commander after me. Why? I shot his ship down and it
crash landed, and it blew up. Yep, itty-bitty pieces everywhere. My bad, but
his ship was a dead ringer for a Rodan Marauder, and it was my civic duty to
blow the enemy spacecraft out of the sky. Wasn’t it? Any hoo, I healed his
owies and boogied.
I thought that was the end of it, but oh no. For some unknown reason, Sariel,
the Askole High Commander, decided I would make him the perfect mate. As if. I
think the blow to his head made him completely bonkers.
Sariel informed me the mating dance had begun and there was nothing I could do
to stop it. The idiot had obviously never dealt with a witch before. I didn’t
have the time to play games with him, so I did a little abracadabra alakazam
and ran.
Sigh. The persistent Askole found me. Now I have a decision to make. Keep
running or surrender to the High Commander. He is a damn good kisser.
Would the mating dance bring two lonely souls together? Who knew?
Join author Kate SeRine and Kensington Publishing in celebrating the 10-Year Anniversary of the Transplanted Tales. Have you read them? Today I am sharing Grimm Consequences. This novella takes place after Red and gives us Nate Grimm's story. Read the excerpt and be sure to enter the fun giveaways!
The author of Red “takes urban fantasy, crime thrillers and fairy tale characters and creates magic" in this paranormal romance novella (Caffeinated Book Reviewer).
To put it lightly, Nate Grimm has a dark past. Fortunately, no one's bothered to look too closely at the Fairytale Management Authority's lead detective and part-time Reaper. And Nate wants to keep it that way. After centuries of torment and loneliness, he's finally found happiness with the hot and hard-charging love of his life, Tess "Red" Little.
Of course, his love for Tess is the reason there's a posse of Reaper judges after him, led by a sadistic bastard acquainted with Nate from once upon a time. Now, Tess will pay the price for Nate's transgressions unless Nate severs his ties to the transplanted Tales—and Tess—forever. His enemy has the advantage of speed, malice and brutality. But the Reapers have underestimated the depth of Nate's love. And the fury of his wrath.
Read An Excerpt
Ruthlessness was one of the defining characteristics of Reapers, one of the reasons we were selected for service in the first place. But even among Reapers, Demetrius was known for his sadism. Most of us went in and did the job we were given. Everyone and everything died eventually. We were just the instrument of that universal truth. But not Demetrius. He relished the killing. He reveled in it. It fed his soul, made him stronger and completely heartless. And I’d nearly followed the same path. Until the day a scheduling snafu had brought me to a patch of woods in Make Believe. Until Tess.
I shifted uncomfortably, my muscles stiff from sitting for so long. At least, that’s what I told myself. I’m sure it had nothing to do with the sins weighing heavily on my soul. Maybe I should’ve been in the AA meeting with Tess and Lavender, facing my demons with everyone else.
Hi, my name is Nate Grimm, and I have a problem—
I laughed out loud in the confines of the car. God, even my name was a lie. I couldn’t even tell the truth about something that basic. How in the hell was I going to tell Tess everything else? The last time I’d tried to come clean, things between us had nearly ended before they got started.
I ran my hand down my face, suddenly weary. I wondered how she’d see me, what she’d think of me, when I finally grew a pair and spilled my guts to her. I imagined the first thing she’d do was clock me. Then she’d probably spit in my face and tell me to go fuck myself. And I couldn’t blame her if she did. If I’d had even a modicum of integrity, I would’ve left her alone, stayed away instead of insinuating myself into her life and becoming an integral part of it. It would serve me right if she left me and never looked back.
As I sat there waiting for the meeting to end, I hardened my heart with resolve, vowing I’d tell Tess everything, share every ugly secret I harbored. And suffer the consequences. Because there was no doubt I’d suffer one way or another.
At that moment, the doors to the cathedral opened and my beautiful Tess emerged into the evening sunlight, breathtaking in her loveliness even from where I was parked across the street toward the back of the lot. She briefly lifted her face to the summer breeze, inhaling deeply, her lips curving into a contented smile. She loved the wind on her face, I knew. I’d seen her lift her face this way on many occasions over the years when she thought I wasn’t looking.
Tess was so afraid to be seen as weak, vulnerable, that few people ever got a chance to glimpse that softer side of her—the side that ached when her friends were hurting, that wept when she’d failed to protect the ones she loved, that would say a few kind words to a woman struggling with her guilt and grief and give her hope on a night when years of being buried in a bottle could no longer numb the pain.
But I saw it all, had witnessed it that day in the woods when I’d seen the depth of her love for her fellow Tales. And I wanted to feel that love, to wrap it around me, immerse myself in its healing warmth. Over the years I’d seen Tess save more lives than I could count. And I prayed that maybe—just maybe—she could save me, too.
Kate SeRine (pronounced “serene”) is a hopeless romantic who firmly believes in true love that lasts forever. So it’s no surprise that when she began writing her own stories, Kate vowed her characters would always have a happily ever after. She’s the author of the award-winning TRANSPLANTED TALES paranormal romance series as well as two romantic suspense series: PROTECT AND SERVE and DARK ALLIANCE.
Kate lives in a smallish, quintessentially Midwestern town with her husband and two sons, who share her love of storytelling. She never tires of creating new worlds to share and is even now working on her next project — probably while consuming way too much coffee.
Join Kate SeRine’s newsletter for the chance to win a US Amazon eGift Card. Winner will be selected at random from her active subscriber list on December 16, 2022. Enter here ➡️ https://www.subscribepage.com/w8n0q1
Giveaway
Help us celebrate the new cover and enter for a chance to win a $25 US eCard from Amazon, B&N, Kobo or Apple. Winner's choice. Ends September 30, 2022.
Today is my stop on the Sanctuary by CL Tolbert blog tour, be sure and visit all the stops listed below and don't forget to enter the tour wide #Giveaway sponsored by Partners In Crime Virtual Tours. Enjoy!
Sanctuary
by C.L. Tolbert
September 12 - October 8, 2022 Virtual Book Tour
Synopsis:
A Thornton Mystery
In SANCTUARY, the third book in the Thornton Mystery Series, Emma is back again. This time she’s agreed to represent a former client accused of killing the leader of a suspicious cult in New Orleans.
James Crosby, the charismatic leader of the Japaprajnas, is found dead one late afternoon, his body draped over an iron fence in the courtyard of the nineteenth-century house where he and several cult members work and live. Although police initially presumed his fall was an accident, they quickly discover that James received a lethal dose of a drug before he was pushed from his office balcony.
The next day the police discover a syringe and a substantial amount of the drug which killed James in Stacey Robert’s bedroom. The nineteen-year-old cult member is brought in for questioning, which leads to her arrest. Emma, who had represented Stacey when she was a sixteen-year-old runaway, agrees to take the case.
Convinced she is innocent Emma begins an investigation into the cult and its members. Emma’s questions uncover dangerous secrets, illicit activities, and the exploitation of innocent victims. Emma’s suspicions lead her to the killer’s trail and the case’s final resolution.
Praise for Sanctuary:
“Brace yourself. Deadly personalities, hidden agendas, and long-buried secrets threaten law professor Emma Thornton, after she agrees to defend a terrified young woman accused of murdering the charismatic leader of an oppressive cult. The dark heart of New Orleans has never felt so dangerous.”
Roger Johns, Author of the Wallace Hartman Mysteries
Book Details:
Genre: Mystery Published by: Level Best Books Publication Date: July 2022 Number of Pages: 280 ISBN: 9781685121464 Series: The Thornton Mystery Series, Book 3 Book Links:Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Goodreads
The Revenge is the taut, edgy, sexy, explosive conclusion to The Insiders trilogy by New York Times and USA Today bestseller Tijan!
Bailey and Kash were used to living in the shadows. Now they are thrust into the public eye. Together, they can do anything, but undeniable danger and seemingly insurmountable challenges threaten the love and passion that binds them.
1. Bailey is reeling from the greatest loss she has ever suffered.
2. Enemies are closing in.
3. Even bigger secrets and twists are coming to light.
Win or lose, for Bailey and Kash, everything is on the line.
Today I'm excited to showcase Six Feet Deep Dish by Mindy Quigley, the first book in her new Deep Dish Mysteries, what's not to love when you mix murder and deep dish pizza. Enjoy!
Fresh mozzarella, tangy tomato sauce, and murder: the perfect recipe for a delicious first entry in Mindy Quigley's Six Feet Deep Dish, a delectable new series...
Delilah O’Leary can’t wait to open her new gourmet deep-dish pizzeria in Geneva Bay, Wisconsin—a charming resort town with a long history as a mobsters’ hideaway, millionaires’ playground, and vacation mecca. Engaged to a hunk with a hefty trust fund, Delilah is poised to begin a life that’s just about as delicious as one of her cheesy creations.
Just before opening night, though, Delilah’s plans for pizza perfection hit the skids when her fiancé dumps her and leaves her with a very large memento from their relationship—Butterball, their spoiled, plus-sized tabby cat.
Delilah’s trouble deepens when she discovers a dead body and finds her elderly aunt holding the murder weapon. Handsome local police detective Calvin Capone, great grandson of the legendary gangster, opens an investigation, threatening to sink Delilah’s pie-in-the-sky ambitions before they can even get off the ground. To save her aunt and get her pizza place generating some dough, Delilah must deliver the real killer.
What is a spy willing to do when both her heart and her country are at risk?
Life changes once again for British spy Miss Mary Bennet when Napoleon Bonaparte escapes from the Isle of Elba. Mary quickly departs England for Brussels, the city where the Allied forces prepare for war against the French. But shortly after her arrival, one of the Duke of Wellington's best officers is murdered, an event which threatens to break the delicate alliance between the Allies.
Investigating the murder forces Mary into precarious levels of espionage, role-playing, and deception with her new partner, Mr. Withrow-the nephew and heir of her prominent sponsor, and the spy with whom she's often at odds. Together, they court danger and discovery as they play dual roles gathering intelligence for the British. But soon Mary realizes that her growing feelings towards Mr. Withrow put her heart in as much danger as her life. And then there's another murder.
Mary will need to unmask the murderer before more people are killed, but can she do so and remain hidden in the background?
If you missed my interview with Katherine Click HERE to read it.
Humane, thought provoking, and moving, this hybrid literary portrait of a place makes the case for radical close readings: of ourselves, our cities, and our histories.
The Undercurrents is a dazzling work of biography, memoir, and cultural criticism told from a precise vantage point: a stately nineteenth-century house on Berlin’s Landwehr Canal, a site at the center of great historical changes, but also smaller domestic ones. The view from this house offers a ringside seat onto the city’s theater of action. The building has stood on the banks of the canal since 1869, its feet in the West but looking East, right into the heart of a metropolis in the making, on a terrain inscribed indelibly with trauma.
When her marriage breaks down, Kirsty Bell—a British-American art critic, adrift in her midforties—becomes fixated on the history of her building and of her adoptive city. Taking the view from her apartment window as her starting point, she turns to the lives of the house’s various inhabitants, to accounts penned by Walter Benjamin, Rosa Luxemburg, and Gabriele Tergit, and to the female protagonists in the works of Theodor Fontane, Irmgard Keun, and Rainer Werner Fassbinder. A new cultural topography of Berlin emerges, one which taps into energetic undercurrents to recover untold or forgotten stories beneath the city’s familiar narratives.
From New York Times and USA Today bestselling author Darynda Jones comes a
story in her Charley Davidson series…
When Donovan St. James’ precocious charge asks him—no questions asked—to
tail the doctor who keeps their ragtag team patched up, he wants to refuse. Not
because the saucy teen is getting too big for her britches, ordering him around
like a mob boss, but because the woman stirs feelings in him he would rather
not explore. However, when evil threatens the doc’s life, he realizes he has no
choice. Sia saved his life once. He will try to return the favor. He just prays
he can do it without losing his heart.
Running from the supernatural entity that has destroyed entire worlds to
have her, Sia thought she’d found a haven on Earth with a motley team of
warriors protecting the girl destined to save humanity. But when Sia’s found,
she realizes something on this plane is more scrumptious than her: that very
teen. So, she runs—and Donovan St. James follows. Nothing is more alluring than
a scruffy biker with a lacerating gaze. And she vows to tell him that…if they
survive.
**Every 1001 Dark Nights novella is a standalone story. For new readers,
it’s an introduction to an author’s world. And for fans, it’s a bonus book in
the author’s series. We hope you'll enjoy each one as much as we do.**
These three iconic authors have teamed up and produced yet another fantastic piece of literary fiction spanning a century and told by the three female stars. If you love either of these authors and have not tried one of their collaborations yet. Do not let this get by. Enjoy!
"An engrossing and sumptuous tale, this novel is a fantastic spring read." — Good Morning America
From the New York Times bestselling team of Beatriz Williams, Lauren Willig, and Karen White—a novel of money and secrets set among the famous summer mansions of Newport, Rhode Island, spanning over a century from the Gilded Age to the present day.
“Three stories elegantly intertwine in this clever and stylish tale of murder and family lies…This crackerjack novel offers three mysteries for the price of one.”--Publishers Weekly (starred review"
2019: Andie Figuero has just landed her dream job as a producer of Mansion Makeover, a popular reality show about restoring America’s most lavish historic houses. Andie has high hopes for her latest project: the once glorious but gently crumbling Sprague Hall in Newport, Rhode Island, summer resort of America’s gilded class—famous for the lavish “summer cottages” of Vanderbilts and Belmonts. But Andie runs into trouble: the reclusive heiress who still lives in the mansion, Lucia “Lucky” Sprague, will only allow the show to go forward on two conditions: One, nobody speaks to her. Two, nobody touches the mansion’s ruined boathouse.
1899: Ellen Daniels has been hired to give singing lessons to Miss Maybelle Sprague, a naive young Colorado mining heiress whose stepbrother John has poured their new money into buying a place among Newport’s elite. John is determined to see Maybelle married off to a fortune-hunting Italian prince, and Ellen is supposed to polish up the girl for her launch into society. But the deceptively demure Ellen has her own checkered past, and she’s hiding in plain sight at Sprague Hall.
1958: Lucia “Lucky” Sprague has always felt like an outsider at Sprague Hall. When she and her grandmother—the American-born Princess di Conti—fled Mussolini’s Italy, it seemed natural to go back to the imposing Newport house Nana owned but hadn’t seen since her marriage in 1899. Over the years, Lucky's lost her Italian accent and found a place for herself among the yachting set by marrying Stuyvesant Sprague, the alcoholic scion of her Sprague stepfamily. But one fateful night in the mansion’s old boathouse will uncover a devastating truth...and change everything she thought she knew about her past.
As the cameras roll on Mansion Makeover, the house begins to yield up the dark secrets the Spragues thought would stay hidden forever…
Welcome to my first stop on The Lady's Guide to Death and Deception blog tour. Today you'll enjoy an exclusive interview with the author about her series, her star and her reason for choosing Mary Bennett to star in her series. Then stop back by on Friday for my thoughts on this novel. Enjoy!
What is a spy willing to do when both her heart and her country are at risk?
Life changes once again for British spy Miss Mary Bennet when Napoleon Bonaparte escapes from the Isle of Elba. Mary quickly departs England for Brussels, the city where the Allied forces prepare for war against the French. But shortly after her arrival, one of the Duke of Wellington's best officers is murdered, an event which threatens to break the delicate alliance between the Allies.
Investigating the murder forces Mary into precarious levels of espionage, role-playing, and deception with her new partner, Mr. Withrow-the nephew and heir of her prominent sponsor, and the spy with whom she's often at odds. Together, they court danger and discovery as they play dual roles gathering intelligence for the British. But soon Mary realizes that her growing feelings towards Mr. Withrow put her heart in as much danger as her life. And then there's another murder.
Mary will need to unmask the murderer before more people are killed, but can she do so and remain hidden in the background?
