Metro Girl


Janet Evanovich - 2004
    Number one New York Times bestselling author, Janet Evanovich, is moving into the fast lane with Metro Girl, a thrilling, high-octane misadventure with high stakes, hot nights, cold-blooded murder, sunken treasure, a woman with a chassis built for speed, and one very good, very sexy NASCAR driver who’s along for the ride."Wild" Bill Barnaby's dropped off the face of the earth and big sister Alex heads for Miami, Bill's last known sighting, on a harrowing hunt to save her brother ... and maybe the world. Truth is, Alex has been bailing her brother out of trouble since they were kids. Not that Bill's a bad sort. More that he acts first and thinks later. Unfortunately, this time around, Wild Bill will be Dead Bill if Alex doesn't find him in time.Alex blasts through the bars of South Beach and points her search to Key West and Cuba, laying waste to Miami hit men, dodging Palmetto bugs big enough to eat her alive, and putting the pedal to the metal with NASCAR driver Sam Hooker.Engaged in a deadly race, Wild Bill's "borrowed" Hooker's sixty-five foot Hatteras and sailed off into the sunset ... just when Hooker has plans for the boat. Hooker figures he'll attach himself to Alex and maybe run into Bill. Maybe Hooker can salvage what's left of his vacation. And maybe Hooker'll get lucky in love with Bill's sweetie pie sister. After all, Hooker is NASCAR Guy. And NASCAR Guy is good at revving a woman’s engine.The race to the finish is hot and hard, taking Alex and Hooker into international waters, exposing a plot to grab Cuban gold and a sinister relic of the Cuban missile crises.Creative cussing and sexual innuendo included.

Bobbie Faye's Very (very, very, very) Bad Day


Toni McGee Causey - 2007
    Instead, she discovers that her trailer’s flooded, her no-good brother’s been kidnapped, and the criminals are demanding her mom’s tiara as ransom.Soon Bobbie Faye is committing (unintentional) bank robbery and (fully intentional) car jacking to retrieve her family heirloom. The one bright spot comes in the hard-muscled, impossibly sexy form of Trevor, the guy whose truck she just took hostage. Luckily, Bobbie Faye knows how to outsmart angry bears, drive a speedboat, and handle a gun. As for handling Trevor? No gun-shyness there. Now, if only that pesky state police detective, who also happens to be a pissed-off ex-boyfriend, would stay out of her way . . .

Head Over Heels


Susan Andersen - 1999
    From his place behind the bar, the former Special Forces Marine sees everything. And his undercover agenda has made the feisty boss-lady's troubles his own.And her troubles are considerable, what with a family in turmoil, a pseudo-bartender with dangerous secrets, a murder investigation and death threats. Though the town surprisingly rallies in support, it's still a good thing that Cooper will be there to catch Veronica if she stumbles—if he doesn't start falling himself.

'Scuse Me While I Kill This Guy


Leslie Langtry - 2007
    And those knitting needles aren't just for craft projects. To most people, Gin Bombay is an ordinary single mom. Then again, they don't know she's from a family of top secret assassins. Somewhere between leading a Girl Scout troop for her kindergartner--would nooses count for a knot badge?--and keeping their puppy from destroying the furniture, Gin now has to take out a new target. BUT YOU CAN PICK THEM OFFExcept this target has an incredibly hot Australian bodyguard who knows just how to make her weak in the knees. But with a mole threatening to expose everything, Gin doesn't have much time to let her hormones do the happy dance. She's got to find the leak and clear her assignment...or she'll end up next on the Bombay family hit list.

Hero at Large


Steffie Hall - 1987
    Still, single mom and ice skating coach Chris Nelson is committed to keeping her sexy, scruffy, new “house husband” around. After all, she did break his arm…and his toe…and she can’t just turn him out into the cold…It seemed like luck when this gorgeous stranger first stopped to help Chris with her car, but suddenly her peaceful life turns topsy-turvy as tender, long-suffering Ken Callahan enlists the sympathies of her 7-year-old daughter and her meddlesome Aunt Edna. And even Chris can’t deny the excitement his magnetic blue-black eyes spark deep within her…But who is he?

Under the Boardwalk


Carly Phillips - 2004
    Then her twin sister, Zoe disappears and her Jersey roots tug hard. Soon Ari is back home, ducking bullets and, to her chagrin, getting rescued by a hunk in a black leather jacket. Detective Quinn Donovan takes one look at the windblown beauty-and then looks again. If this lady isn't Zoe Costas, it's someone who looks exactly like her. Suddenly, Ari's in trouble deeper than the Atlantic at high tide, and Quinn is trying to protect her without spilling his well-guarded secrets ... as deja vu just might become the love affair of a lifetime.

Don't Look Down


Jennifer Crusie - 2006
    But as soon as Lucy Armstrong arrives on set, she discovers that the staff is in chaos, the make-up artist is suicidal, and the stunt director just happens to be her ex-husband. That, and the temperamental lead actor has just acquired as an advisor a Green Beret who has the aggravating habit of always being right.HE thought that hiring on as a military consultant for a movie star was a to-die-for deal: easy work, easy money, easier starlets. But his first day on the job, Captain J.T. Wilder ends up babysitting a bumbling comedian, dodging low-flying helicopters, and trying to find out who's taking "shooting a movie" much too literally.

Dead End Dating


Kimberly Raye - 2006
    She prefers lively shades of pink to dismal black (soo not her color), plus she’s a hopeless romantic. In need of a steady paycheck to support a compulsive cosmetics habit, Lil starts Dead End Dating (DED), a Manhattan-based matchmaking service that helps smart, sophisticated singles like herself find eternity mates–and may even help her stake a claim to her very own Count Right!When Lil meets geeky vampire Francis Deville, she knows he’s the perfect first client. If she can hook up Francis–after a little revamping, of course–she will prove her skills to the vampire community and turn DED into the hottest dating service in the Big Apple. But just as her business takes off, Lil meets the (literally) drop-dead gorgeous bounty hunter Ty Bonner, who is hot on the chase of a serial killer. Instantly drawn to the luscious vamp stud, Lil really wants a taste. But as a made vampire, Ty can’t procreate–and Lil will settle for nothing less. Luckily, between “vampifying” Francis and helping Ty solve his murder mystery, Lil has no time for silly romantic entanglements . . . even if Ty is all that and a Bloody Mary chaser!

The Housewife Assassin's Handbook


Josie Brown - 2011
    Donna Stone has one…and it happens to be government-sanctioned. She earned it the hard way: her husband was killed the day she delivered her third child. To avenge his death, she leads a secret life – as an assassin. But espionage makes for strange bedfellows – and brings new meaning to that old adage, "Honey, I’m home…"

Bubbles Unbound


Sarah Strohmeyer - 2001
    Or that she’s a gum-snapping hairdresser with Barbie-doll curves pinched into hot pants and a tube top. Or that she’s saddled with a sleazy ex-hubby, a precocious daughter and a shoplifting mother. What can a beautician do to add new highlights to her image? For starters, trip over a corpse, and implicate a wealthy town socialite in the crime. Now, with a well-muscled photographer by her side, Bubbles is playing star sleuth. But as the investigation unravels, her shining moment grows as dark as a shopgirl’s roots. However dangerous her new career, at least the hottest graduate of Two Guys Community College is finally busting loose—and this time she’s really giving Lehigh, Pennsylvania something to talk about. Sarah Strohmeyer won the 2002 Agatha Award for best first mystery for Bubbles Unbound.

Sweet Revenge


Nora Roberts - 1988
    At twenty-five, Princess Adrianne lives a life most people would envy.  Beautiful and elegant, she spends her days dabbling in charities and her nights floating from one glamorous gala to the next.  But her pampered-rich-girl pose is a ruse, a carefully calculated effort to hide a dangerous truth.For ten years Adrianne has lived for revenge.  As a child, she could only watch the cruelty hidden behind the facade of her parents' fairy-tale marriage.  Now she has the perfect plan to make her famous father pay.  She will take possession of the one thing he values above all others--The Sun and the Moon, a fabled necklace beyond price.Yet just as she is poised to take her vengeance, she meets a man who seems to divine her every secret.  Clever, charming, and enigmatic, Philip Chamberlain has his own private reasons for getting close to Princess Adrianne.  And only when it's too late will she see the hidden danger...as she finds herself up against two formidable men--one with the knowledge to take her freedom, the other with the power to take her life.

Broken Pieces


Carla Cassidy - 2008
    Sixteen years later she returns with her daughter to make peace with her past. Just as she feels she is rekindling old friendships and even an old flame, she receives some shocking news; a girl has been killed in her town. Now, Mariah will have to confront the unthinkable—and reclaim the broken pieces of her shattered past.

What Looks Like Crazy


Charlotte Hughes - 2008
    She's divorcing her gorgeous firefighter husband, she has an eccentric secretary, her mother and aunt have erected a vaguely sexual sculpture in her front yard, and her psychiatrist ex-boyfriend won't stop calling to find out what color panties she's wearing. Now, Kate's being bombarded with mysterious threats, and the only person who can help her is the one man who always makes her lose her mind-and heart.

Long Time Coming


Sandra Brown - 1988
    In this classic tale, a woman is reunited with the man she has loved for years—and must reveal the secret that will jeopardize her chance for happiness at last. He arrived out of the blue—a flesh-and-blood phantom from the past in a sports car as sleek and sexy as Law Kincaid himself. The world-famous astronaut was as devastatingly attractive as the first time Marnie Hibbs had laid eyes on him, seventeen years before. But she well knew the perils of falling for a ladies’ man like Law. And this time she had someone besides herself to protect. Law is determined to discover who is sending him anonymous letters claiming he’d fathered a son he knows nothing about. Showing up at the Hibbs’s return address from the letters seemed like a step in the right direction. Marnie swears she isn’t the guilty party, but when Law meets her son, it’s like a one-two punch to his solar plexus. The boy is nearly the spitting image of Law. Law can’t remember sleeping with Marnie—then again, he can’t remember much about his crazy past. But there’s more to it than that: Marnie claims the boy isn’t biologically hers. As the tension between them becomes unbearable and the attraction undeniable, Marnie is forced to reveal a long-held secret...one that might cause her to lose both the boy she loves more than anyone—and the man she desires more than anything.From the Hardcover edition.

Confessions of a Bombshell Bandit


Gemma Halliday - 2010
    Instead she got an overbearing landlord, a booty-grabbing boss, and a repo man just waiting for her to park her car in the open. But Carrie's lifetakes a drastic turn for the worse when she's not only fired from her job at L.A. Mutual Bank, but also robbed by the sexiest bank robber alive and evicted from her apartment all in the same day. That's it. No more Miss Nice Chick. Carrie hatches a plan to take back her life - involving skimpy bikinis, semi-automatic weapons and one big bank heist. If Carrie can pull this one off, she just might realize her island dreams after all. That is, if Mr. Sexy doesn't beat her to the big score....AWARDS:Predators & Editors Readers' Poll Award - Best Mainstream Short StoryREVIEWS:"Gemma Halliday has a talent for blending humor with a sense of drama.'Confessions of a Bombshell Bandit' captures how far one will go whenthey are out of options...you will savor every word." - Zoë Knighton,Sensual Reads and Reviews"Gemma Halliday's story will leave the reader howling with laughter!This delightful tale is exceptionally clever as the reader is lulledinto accepting Carrie's viewpoint. Well done!" - Kwips and Kritiques"I also adore Gemma Halliday's 'Confessions Of A Bombshell Bandit',another short story that has me putting the author's name on the topof the list the next time I go bookshopping because I love thisauthor's voice! I love unrepetant Carrie in all her glory and I love this story." - Mrs. Giggles, Book Reviewer