Book picks similar to
Faith, Hope, and Murder by Elise M. Stone


christian
first-in-series
christian-fiction
future-reads

City of Angels


Tracie Peterson - 2001
    Yet under the care of her socialite aunt, Kit quickly comes to realize that few understand her burning desire to seek justice and practice a profession known only to men. When her aunt adamantly refuses to support her unconventional career aspirations, Kit questions whether she is truly following God's will. And when her growing love for a man pledged to another threatens scandal, Kit knows her days might be numbered in Los Angeles. A chance meeting with Earl Rogers, the city's most prominent criminal lawyer, garners Kit an apprentice position. And work on a notorious murder case. Someone has been killing prostitutes in Los Angeles, but Kit is certain it is not Rogers' client. Determined to find the truth, Kit runs full on into forces that want to stop her, forces that stretch all the way to the citadels of power in the City of Angels.

Shattered Image


Stacy Monson - 2015
    Now she forges a quiet life helping teens understand their eternal value in a world saturated with the distorted messages of society. Peter Theisen is on the fast track to everything the celebrity life promises with every step of his meteoric rise in the music world orchestrated by his ambitious manager. Their sweet, unexpected romance is threatened by her past and his future, a life-changing diagnosis, and financial devastation. As they struggle to find their way back to each other, and to the One who matters most, the allure of wealth and fame may jeopardize everything.

Diamonds and Cole


Micheal Maxwell - 2013
    In the past, Cole a Pulitzer Prize winning journalist, worked for The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and Time Magazine. Now, he’s returned to the paper where he started his career, The Chicago Sentinel. Instead of writing the big stories, he’s doing the work of a rookie reporter. His “big story of the day” is a cat caught in a tree. During its rescue, the cat’s owner takes her Good Samaritan neighbor hostage. Cole witnesses something so disturbing it reawakens the journalist’s desire to write again.Returning to the paper, Cole finds a desperate message asking for help from Ellie, one that got away. The one that has continually haunted his life. Cole drops everything and flies to California. He must find what would make her so desperate, she would call him after so many years. Cole finds her terminally ill, and abandoned by her husband. He discovers while Ellie was heavily medicated, she mistakenly signed a Power of Attorney. Now her estranged daughter Erin’s inheritance, won’t go to her, but her abusive step-father. Cole vows to find the girl and right the situation.The path to keeping his word is blocked at every turn by the husband who abandoned her, his shady real estate deals, violent con men, street thugs and the lure of a fortune in diamonds that unite them. The anger, sorrow, and crippling guilt of twenty years fires Cole's drive to keep a promise, that in the end, will heal and return the soul to the great journalist.Beaten, bloody but determined, Cole Sage conquers greed and hatred with a strength that only love, and a will as hard as diamond, can achieve.

Lightning Strikes


Carlene Havel - 2012
    Forced to unite, will their animosity for each other crash like thunder or will they discover love as lightning strikes?

Missing Melissa


Alretha Thomas - 2015
    Raised by two loving parents, adored by her grandmother, protected by her dog, Pepper, and supported by her best friend—Madeline has it all. There’s only one thing missing—literally missing—her identical twin, Melissa. When Madeline and Melissa were three-years-old, their mother was carjacked in broad daylight while taking them to a doctor’s appointment. She was able to get away with Madeline in tow, but the assailants left the scene before she could rescue Melissa. A long and massive search ensued, but Melissa was never found and is believed to be dead. However, a dream Madeline has on her twenty-second birthday, wherein Melissa appears to her as a grown woman pleading for help, convinces her Melissa is still alive. Against her parents’ wishes, Madeline vows to find her twin. However, in doing so, she unknowingly stumbles upon a series of startling clues that point to her parents’ possible involvement in Melissa’s disappearance. Paralyzed by fear, Madeline doesn’t want to face what could possibly be the ugly and grim truth about her parents. However, her desire to find Melissa propels her forward—but nothing could prepare her for what she discovers.

A Wrong Way Home: Riverton Road Romantic Suspense Book 1


Alice Orr - 2015
    But she doesn’t know anything about that. She only knows she vowed never to come back to Riverton, New York or to see Matt Kalli – the man she once loved and still lusts for. Matt has made a vow of his own. He’ll never forgive Kara, the woman who loved him then betrayed him nine years ago. And he can’t forgive himself for the way she’s stuck in his heart – and in other parts of his body too. All these two have in common is their undeniable sexual attraction for each other and their hatred of Anthony Benton. Now Benton’s dead and they could be suspects. People they care deeply about could be suspects too. That gives Matt and Kara something else in common – a dangerous search for the real killer before he murders again. A Wrong Way Home is the 1st book in the Riverton Road Romantic Suspense Series set in and around Riverton, New York, a town in the remote North Country. Danger and romance featuring the Kalli family, the four Kalli brothers and the fortunate people who find safety and a warm welcome at Kalli Corner on Riverton Road. A Year of Summer Shadows is the 2nd book in the series.

Buried


C.J. Carmichael - 2012
    Now someone with inside knowledge is feeding clues to true crime writer Dougal Lachlan, promising him the best story of his career. Pursuing the leads means returning to Twisted Cedars, where his sister Jamie, is about to marry a man he deeply dislikes.Local Twisted Cedars librarian Charlotte Hammond prefers her mysteries - and her romances - between the covers of a good book, especially since the disappearance of her older sister, Daisy, eight years ago. But then the dark and tortured soul who is Dougal Lachlan walks into the Twisted Cedars Library asking for her help.Before long Charlotte realizes there is no safe zone. Not even in libraries...and especially not in Twisted Cedars.Twisted Cedar MysteriesBuried, Book 1Forgotten, Book 2Exposed, Book 3

The Gifted Ones: A Reader


Maria Elizabeth Romana - 2014
    After Ellie’s frightening encounter with the new boy in town, however, Grace can no longer hide the truth. At first, Ellie is thrilled with her new life and her new, Gifted friends, and even Grace starts to reconsider her lonely existence with so many Gifted men around. But when it becomes clear that Grace’s original fears were not unfounded, Ellie learns that “different” isn’t always better. And sometimes, it means running for your life. The Series The Gifted Ones is an episodic series, with each book running 65,000 to 95,000 words in length (250 to 350 paperback pages). Each episode is a complete story in itself, but leaves “dangling threads” to be resolved in later episodes. The stories are chronological and connected with recurring characters, so you will want to read them in order, similar to many action/adventure/mystery series on television. Content The Gifted Ones series is intended for an audience that is 16+. It is NOT intended to be YA fiction, as it does/will contain some violence and sexuality, but nothing graphic, gory, or explicit. The entire cast consists of characters from late teens to centenarians, whose thoughts, words, and actions are not always "squeaky clean", but the series should be acceptable reading material for anyone from 16 to 106.

The Way Down


Danielle Stewart - 2020
    A substantial one. It’s a fair exchange. His expertise in security for their money. Socialites. Diplomats. Famous athletes. He doesn’t ask questions once the check clears. No matter how screwed up the job gets, it’s still less stressful than his days as a homicide detective in Detroit. Roark had blurred the lines between right and wrong too many times to pick up his badge again. But his past won’t stay buried for long.

Demi Kay finds herself choking on a cloud of body spray in a bar crawling with college-aged kids. It was meant as a night of celebration but turns quickly to a nightmare she can’t wait to escape. The only silver lining is the attractive bodyguard who looks equally disappointed with the establishment.

Roark and Demi find they have far more in common than their mutual distain for the party scene. When Roark realizes Demi is a victim from a case he’d consulted on a decade ago, he knows trouble is just around the corner. Mysterious threats turn to violence and Roark is the only thing standing between Demi and danger. But will he be enough?

Fall from Grace


Ryan M. Phillips - 2006
    For a MOMENT she is LOST in thought, remembering WHAT IT HAS TAKEN to get TO THIS POINT..."Grace Cambridge is a young Black Christian with a new husband, old friends, and a shocking moral dilemma. A proverbial "cat fight" opens the story and draws you into a complex relational web. The book peels through layers of dysfunction between Grace and Trina and follows their individual, sometimes intertwining, lives to reveal how they find their way back to Christ and to each other. Grace is intelligent, determined, well-spoken yet vulnerable. You want her to be happy, you want her to succeed. Grace's Christianity isn't sugar-coated. Her faith is real and so is her life---riddled with plenty of twists, turns, and conflicts. As Grace's relationship with God is challenged she questions her identity and is faced with a life-changing decision. She deals with everyday issues, sometimes successfully; sometimes not. Grace's experiences are not much different than yours---how she handles them might be.

Second Chances


Riley Free - 2017
     I lost my husband to a tragic car accident two years ago. Since then, I've floated through life. The only thing keeping me going is my faith in a higher power. I prayed for answers and release from my grief. One warm autumn day the Lord delivered in the form of Tex, a NASCAR driver looking for a quiet small town to settle down in. I resisted Tex's advances, but he wouldn't take no for an answer. Just when I was warming up to the idea of a new life with Tex, life through me a curveball. Questions about my husband's death left me reeling. The more I discovered the more convinced I became that I didn't really know him at all. Through the power of God, love, faith and redemption I will figure out how to mend my broken heart, even if it kills me.

How Sweet It Is


Bonnie Blythe - 2008
    Delphine D'Arleux, traveling in Belgium for a candy-making class, doesn't expect to have the word demonstrated to her, especially by a stranger. Brad Larsen, an avowed chocoholic, knows he behaved badly by kissing the pretty French girl, but he can't quite regret his actions. Can he show Delphine that a longing fulfilled is sweet to the soul? (Christian romance)

A Caffeine Conundrum


Angela Ruth Strong - 2018
     Sassy city girl Tandy Brandt moves to the small town of Grace Springs to start a coffee shop, never imagining she'll be competing with local beauty queen Marissa Alexander and her dream of running a tea house. Unfortunately, the current store owner dies before selling the location to either of them, and they both become murder suspects. The unlikely pair team up in an attempt to discover the real killer, though with the secrets in Tandy's past and Marissa's infamous clumsiness, they could be their own worst enemies. Despite their differences, they follow clues to question a sweet, apple pie baking antique store owner, a GQ Santa in the retirement center, and a hipster millionaire with no social skills. Will they be able to figure out whodunit and prove their innocence before one of them goes to jail...or worse?

The Amish Heiress


Patrick E. Craig - 2015
    Her papa struggles with a terrible event from the past, and his emotional instability has created an irreparable breach between them. Rachel's one desire is to leave the Amish way of life and Paradise forever. Then her prayers are answered. Rachel discovers that the strange, key-shaped birthmark above her heart identifies her as the heir to a vast fortune left by her Englischer grandfather, Robert St. Clair. If Rachel will marry a suitable descendant of the St. Clair family, she will inherit an enormous sum of money. But Rachel does not know that behind the scenes is her long-dead grandfather's sister-in-law, Augusta St. Clair, a vicious woman who will do anything to keep the fortune in her own hands. As the deceptions and intrigues of the St. Clair family bind her in their web, Rachel realizes that she has made a terrible mistake. But has her change of heart come too late?

Solomon's Porch: A Christian Suspense Novel


Wid Bastian - 2008
    Federal prison camp, is given a vision by God to be shared with the world. The most unlikely of divine messengers, Peter is prophetically destined to provide the world with hope and miracles and to proclaim the Kingdom of God. Will the prisoner become a prophet?Backed up by divine intervention, Peter is surprisingly supported by inmates, as well as the warden and famous theologians. Astounding supernatural events begin to take place all around the world, involving even the president of the United States. But Satan is quick to strike back, doing everything in his power to stop Peter from executing God's plan. The world holds its breath as the unbelievable takes place. Will the message be heard?˃˃˃ An exciting fast paced read that engages the reader in the essential battle of good vs. evil.Solomon's Porch brings forward an eternal and universal truth as it is revealed in the most unlikely time and place. An important contemporary message in the form of a breathtaking novel, Solomon's Porch is Christian suspense fiction at its best. Scroll up to grab your copy of Solomon's Porch now!