Jessica is an honor-student, track star, and all-around good kid. So how could that same teenager be responsible for the death of the high school’s beloved football coach? This is Texas, where high school football ranks right up there with God, so while the legal battle wages, the public deals its own verdict.Desperate for help, Liz turns to a lawyer whose affection she once rejected and attempts to play nice with her ex-husband. Jessica faces her angry peers and her own demons as she awaits a possible prison sentence for an accident she doesn’t remember."One of the few books in recent memory I was completely unable to put down, yet still wished I could read more slowly so it would never end. Achterberg writes with a seamless combination of aching sensitivity and a page-turning urgency. Easily one of the best books of any genre I’ve read this entire year." -C.H. Armstrong, Author

    Her only ally is a recuperating PI who unfortunately is the owner's best friend. Soon she is caught between a blossoming romance and a far-reaching conspiracy...where misplaced trust can be deadly.

    Edvardsson's A Nearly Normal Family and lauds it as a "page-turner" that forces the reader to confront "the compromises we make with ourselves to be the people we believe our beloveds expect." (NYTimes Book Review Summer Reading Issue)When the teenage daughter of responsible, upstanding parents is accused of murder, a family realizes that it isn't love that will keep them together: it's lies.Eighteen-year-old Stella Sandell stands accused of the brutal murder of a man almost fifteen years her senior. She is an ordinary teenager from a respectable local family. What reason could she have to know a shady businessman, let alone to kill him?Told in an unusual three-part structure, this gripping, domestic drama pushes a family to its limits. The father, a pastor, believes his daughter can only be innocent, despite mounting evidence. The mother, a defense attorney, believes no one is telling the truth. And the daughter, desperate for her dreams of the future, believes no one understands how far she is willing to go.In this complex, multi-layered novel, every character's loyalty and morality is tested. Are we duty-bound to defend our family, even with the evidence against them? Is anyone who they seem on the surface? And what are we willing to compromise to keep our lives, as we know them, intact?

    It’s a dangerous job, but I live for the thrill. I can’t get close to anyone. Women get one night and that’s more than enough.Until I go on a mission to take down a sex slave ring. That’s when I’m first given Riley. She’s innocent and gorgeous, and I know she’s never been touched like this before.She’s mine to train, bend, and break. I don’t want to hurt her. But to keep my cover, I’m going to have to push her limits.And she’s going to love it. She’ll learn to stay down on her knees, obeying my every command.I go easy on her at first, until I realize that she needs it hard almost as much as I do.The mission is complicated. Danger threatens to rip her away from me.But I won’t allow it.I can’t stop until I get everything I want, including her.Ruined is a dark romance with steamy scenes and bad language. It’s only recommended for readers 18+.Ruined is a STANDALONE, full-length novel. No cliffhanger. Guaranteed HEA. Includes bonus content!

    Now, with his twin sister, Robin, they work together taking on cases that others have ignored, running their business from an internet-funded page. When a grieving mother in Marquette, Michigan hires them to find the truth about what happened to her daughter who drowned in Lake Superior, Max and Robin are at first skeptical. After all, when the gales of November come early to the big lake, nearly anything can happen to young people who get too close. But it doesn’t take long before things don’t add up. And not everyone likes the idea of outsiders poking their noses around in Yooper business. Truth is not always a wanted commodity in a world where justice can be hard to come by, leaving Max and Robin in a precarious predicament of life or death. "Akin to Ludlum and Higgins. . .”—Dale Brown, New York Times bestselling author “A damned good writer.”—David Hagberg, New York Times bestselling author

    Instead, the victim turns out to be a woman he'd had an affair with before breaking it off to save his marriage. But there's a bigger problem: Liam has no memory of where he was or what he did on the night of the murder.Panicked, Liam turns to his brother, Sean, a homicide detective. Sean has his back, but incriminating evidence keeps piling up. From fingerprints to DNA, everything points to Liam, who must race against time and his department to uncover the truth - even if that truth is his own guilt. Yet as he digs deeper, dark secrets come to light, and Liam begins to suspect the killer might actually be Sean ...When the smoke clears in this harrowing family drama, who will be left standing?

    Summer is for growing, not for dying. So when the body of a beautiful young woman is found on the autobahn, dressed in a glittering party dress and bathed in June rain, Franza is determined to give her justice.Revealing victims’ hidden lives is part of the job, but as Franza and her partner, Felix, peel back the layers shrouding the girl’s disturbing past, darker mysteries emerge. Everyone has something to hide—even Franza, who must face her own secrets to reveal the truth.

    A sexy stranger paid to protect her. Alone and shut off from the world, Elise Halliwell is simply going through the motions, waiting for the next step in her pre-destined life. Until a chance meeting with the dark-haired, blue-eyed Brax James shakes her to the core, achieving what everyone else before him has failed to do; he makes her feel again. As much as Brax wishes things were different, fate has not brought him into Elise’s life. His job is to keep her safe, not fall for the very woman he’s supposed to protect. Elise has no idea of the threat she faces and Brax wants it to stay that way. Unfortunately for both of them, they’ll have no say in the matter. Full of twists, turns, and revelations no-one sees coming, you won’t be the only one lost in distraction.*This book contains adult situations and explicit content/language.*

    She was allergic to everything, used a wheelchair and practically lived at the hospital. Neighbors did all they could, holding fundraisers but no matter how many doctors, tests, or surgeries, no one could figure out what was wrong with Rose Gold.Turns out her mom, Patty Watts, was just a really good liar.After serving five years in prison, Patty begs her daughter to take her in. The entire community is shocked when Rose Gold says yes. And Rose Gold is no longer her weak little darling...And she's waited such a long time for her mother to come home.

    A boy running for his life. A town defending them both.From award-winning USA TODAY Bestselling Author BETTE LEE CROSBY, the first book of a gritty, small-town, family saga in the tradition of the finest Southern fiction.Small-town gossip never much bothered Olivia Westerly. As a single career woman, she's weathered her share. It's easy to ignore the raised eyebrows over her late-in-life marriage to Charlie Doyle. But after he drops dead on their honeymoon, the whispers are salt on her raw grief. Especially when an orphaned, eleven-year-old-boy shows up on her doorstep, looking for the grandfather he never met.Behind Ethan Allen Doyle's wary blue eyes lie heavily guarded emotions that unexpectedly tug on Olivia's heart, and she finds herself wanting to win his trust. But when his murderous secret comes looking for him, the entire town embraces the lonely widow and desperate child to show its true heart when danger threatens one of its own.A heartwarming tale of love, loss and unexpected gifts, featuring a woman you'd like to call friend, a boy you will ache to hug, and a town you wish you could call home. USA TODAY BESTSELLER AND WINNER OF FIVE LITERARY AWARDS - Royal Palm Literary Award, Reviewer's Choice Award, FPA President's Book Award, IAN Outstanding Fiction Award, Eadon Contemporary Fiction Award

    When young, vibrant Alison Simms rents the cottage on her property, the two women strike up a fast friendship -- and Terry is swept into a fantastic new life: dinners out, shopping, makeovers, even flirting with the handsome son of one of her elderly patients. But nothing about her newfound companion is as it appears, as Terry discovers when Alison's closely guarded past comes to light. Now Terry is locked into a race to reclaim her own life -- before she opens the door any further to the stranger she thought she knew...