Desert Heat (Victor Loshak #4)


L.T. Vargus - 2022
    A human body draped over the limbs of a cactus. Sand scouring the naked flesh every time the wind blows.A shocking death launches Special Agent Victor Loshak on a new investigation with an ominous message: They know everything. He heads to Tucson, Arizona, where a recent murder spree seems to be linked to the human trafficking conspiracy he's been working in secret for months.Loshak still has dreams about the Kansas City case. Nightmares about the team of techs peeling up the floorboards in a suburban home. Finding the rotting bodies face down in the muddy earth of the crawlspace. A grisly discovery that ultimately led to more questions than answers.Now he may be closer than ever to solving the puzzle.If you follow the conspiracy rabbit hole all the way down, you eventually reach the bottom.The task force working the desert murders seems oblivious to the conspiracy link, and Loshak must tread lightly. He doesn't know who to trust, what information to share.The tendrils of the human trafficking ring lead in all directions outward from that Kansas City crawlspace. Their influence reaches the highest levels of government and law enforcement. They have eyes and ears everywhere.Even with the complications, the Tucson case slowly unravels the web of connections behind the crimes, both the murders and the conspiracy.Questions get answered. Names and faces are laid bare. Puzzle pieces snapping into place at long last.But the revelations bring about the gravest danger yet.

The Navigators


Dan Alatorre - 2016
    SOME SECRETS AREN'T MEANT TO BE KNOWN! A freak landslide at a remote mine site uncovers a strange machine to a group of paleontology grad students. Wary of corrupt school officials, team leader Barry takes the machine home to study it in secret, reaching only one realistic, and unbelievable, conclusion: it was designed to bridge the time-space continuum. It’s a time machine. Testing delivers disastrous results, sending one team member to the hospital and nearly killing another. When word leaks about the discovery, the ultimate power struggle ensues: the university wants it for funding, the power company wants its energy regenerating abilities kept under wraps, and a rival group wants to steal it for themselves. No one cares if Barry's team comes out alive. Fleeing for their lives, the students must fight the school, the police, and each other if they want to learn the truth about what they've discovered, a truth with more severe consequences than any of them can predict..

The Substance of All Things


Sam Harris - 2020
    Six years later, during the sweltering summer of 1968 in rural Oklahoma, Theo meets Frank, a Native American outcast, and learns that he has the ability to heal through his disfigured hands.As he explores the extraordinary, Theo desperately attempts to remain an ordinary boy. But when word of his gift spreads, Theo is shunned by the church for doing “the devil’s work.” He is immediately swept away by his Auntie Li, and into a world which ultimately threatens his life as he saves others’.Told from Theo’s perspective some fifty years later, it is through his work as a therapist with a broken woman that he musters the courage to relive the summer that haunts him.The Substance of All Things is the gripping, heart-wrenching, and often humorous tale of mentors and mothers and fathers, love and redemption, prophets and charlatans, miracles and faith._________________From The Substance of All Things...Suddenly, I felt a twitch in the palm of my left hand. Just the slightest tingle, a prickling really, so that I couldn’t quite discern if the feeling was painful or stimulating—like when water is so hot on the skin that it might be cold, the distinction cannot be made. Then my right hand twitched, sparkling to a tickle that felt like a fortune-teller following the lines of my destiny with a fingernail. The current splayed to my fingers, tiny jolts of something—something charged, even voltaic. But there was something more—a feeling inside of me that couldn’t be located in my physical body, as if a door which had always existed but had always been locked suddenly opened, slowly, to a secret place, and whatever was within engulfed me like a color I’d never seen; a feeling almost too large for my body, and my knees buckled at its enormity, but I would not fall. I knew that something beyond myself was happening like a dream and I dared not peek for fear that it would end.

Snowed In at the Winter Palace


Lucy McConnell - 2021
    

The Summer Place


Jennifer WeinerJennifer Weiner
    When her twenty-two-year-old stepdaughter announces her engagement to her pandemic boyfriend, Sarah Danhauser is shocked. But the wheels are in motion. Headstrong Ruby has already set a date (just three months away!) and spoken to her beloved safta, Sarah’s mother Veronica, about having the wedding at the family’s beach house on Cape Cod. Sarah might be worried, but Veronica is thrilled to be bringing the family together one last time before putting the big house on the market. But the road to a wedding day usually comes with a few bumps. Ruby has always known exactly what she wants, but as the wedding date approaches, she finds herself grappling with the wounds left by the mother who walked out when she was a baby. Veronica ends up facing unexpected news, thanks to her meddling sister, and must revisit the choices she made long ago, when she was a bestselling novelist with a different life. Sarah’s twin brother, Sam, is recovering from a terrible loss, and confronting big questions about who he is—questions he hopes to resolve during his stay on the Cape. Sarah’s husband, Eli, who’s been inexplicably distant during the pandemic, confronts the consequences of a long ago lapse from his typical good-guy behavior. And Sarah, frustrated by her husband, concerned about her stepdaughter, and worn out by challenges of life during quarantine, faces the alluring reappearance of someone from her past and a life that could have been. When the wedding day arrives, lovers are revealed as their true selves, misunderstandings take on a life of their own, and secrets come to light. There are confrontations and revelations that will touch each member of the extended family, ensuring that nothing will ever be the same. From “the undisputed boss of the beach read” (The New York Times), The Summer Place is a testament to family in all its messy glory; a story about what we sacrifice and how we forgive. Enthralling, witty, big-hearted, and sharply observed, this is Jennifer Weiner’s love letter to the Outer Cape and the power of home, the way our lives are enriched by the people we call family, and the endless ways love can surprise us.

Payback Jack


Timothy Gene Sojka - 2021
    Why is Driskill determined to die on death row, and why have so many people pledged to stop him?

Like Me


Hayley Phelan - 2022
    For nineteen-year-old Mickey, Instagram offers a tantalizing portal into the world she wishes she inhabited. Though beautiful, cunning and privileged, Mickey finds herself with a stalled modelling career, an escalating drinking problem, few friends and next to nothing in the bank. To numb her growing despair, she spends her days frantically refreshing her Instagram feed, obsessively tracking the movements of Insta-famous model Gemma Anton.Gemma is a perfected version of Mickey, living a seemingly perfect life: a skyrocketing career, a famous photographer boyfriend and adoring followers--the life Mickey wants more than anything for herself. She studies every detail Gemma offers through the window of her phone, trying to absorb, learn, mimic, become the object of her growing fascination.Then, a chance encounter thrusts Mickey into a world of opportunity, and she is met with surprising, and immediate, success. But as her online persona begins to take over her life, Mickey finds it increasingly difficult to separate reality from the fa�ade of Instagram.Engrossing, sharp and astute, Like Me is a shimmering portrait of infatuation, disconnection and identity in the digital age--and a dazzling introduction to a brilliant new voice in contemporary literature.

Limbo.


Marko Pandza - 2016
    A place beyond time and space as we know it where psychopaths compete for perverse honour and status as they carry out their deathly duties. As Grim struggles to hold onto the memories of the life he’s lost, he discovers that the insane being who shaped him (and the course of existence itself) may have sinister plans for the one thing he values most.In Limbo, the end is only the beginning.

The Korean Word For Butterfly


Jamie Zerndt - 2013
    tank, The Korean Word For Butterfly is told from three alternating points-of-view:Billie, the young wanna-be poet looking for adventure with her boyfriend who soon finds herself questioning her decision to travel so far from the comforts of American life;Moon, the ex K-pop band manager who now works at the English school struggling to maintain his sobriety in hopes of getting his family back;And Yun-ji , a secretary at the school whose new feelings of resentment toward Americans may lead her to do something she never would have imagined possible. The Korean Word For Butterfly is a story about the choices we make and why we make them. It is a story, ultimately, about the power of love and redemption.*The author would like to note that this book deals, in part, with abortion. It tries, as best it can, to explore the issue with compassion rather than judgement.*"5 stars...full of fresh and original writing." -Kindle Book Review

The Devil's Wire


Deborah Rogers - 2015
    Lenise claims to have witnessed a disturbing incident involving Jennifer's husband, Hank, but as far as Jennifer is concerned, the forty-something single mother is a vindictive backstabber out to make trouble.But Jennifer soon discovers this is no sick joke. Hank has a dark side she knew nothing about.As Jennifer's life spirals out of control she has no one to turn to, apart from Lenise, who appears only too willing to help. But who is Lenise? What does she want from Jennifer? And just how far is she willing to go to get it?A tale about secrets and obsession, and what can happen when you forget to keep your friends close and your enemies closer.If you like fast-paced, gripping domestic thrillers, you love this dark tale of secrets and obsession from exciting new crime writer Deborah Rogers

Cruz Control


Susan Mills Wilson - 2017
    Alana’s abusive husband is Detective Mike Cruz of the Raleigh PD, a cop who knows how to hunt his prey. If she is to get free and stay alive, Alana’s escape plan must leave nothing to chance. Throughout the supercharged, suspenseful story, Alana must stay one step ahead of her husband before he realizes her disappearance was staged. To her horror, she learns the bikers she has agreed to go south with are members of a dangerous biker gang. She quickly realizes her decision to ride with them is as bad as staying with an abuser. Alana is forced to accept a ride with a mysterious biker named Fin. Ruggedly handsome and capable of random acts of kindness, Fin is still just another badass biker. But despite her inner voice telling her to keep her distance, Alana is drawn to him. However, she wonders if he is someone she can trust or will he betray her and put her life in more danger.

Reckless Beginnings


Tina Hogan Grant - 2018
    But with no leads and faced with turmoil in her own life, there wasn't much Tammy could do.After a forbidden secret love affair and a catastrophic dispute with her father, Tammy eventually meets Steven, settles down and has his child, only to discover he is a heroin addict. Thrown into a life of drugs and violence, Tammy lives in fear of what Steven might be capable of and struggles alone to provide for her young son.What consequences might she face if she leaves Steven? Is she ever going to find her sister alive? Will she have enough courage to conquer the impossible challenges of her twisted world and still come out on top?Reckless Beginnings is a story of fiction based on true events.

The Art of Danger


Stuart Doughty - 2020
    Three men are murdered to get a dull, forgotten painting. A crazy, pointless heist? Or something far more sinister?In this action-packed crime-thriller, the tough ex-cop and firearms specialist Kite is up against a foreign spy who’s planning havoc and mayhem, not an art show. To complicate matters, Kite’s being followed by a kooky – and sexy – young woman. Where does she fit in? Even worse, Kite’s got a shameful secret in his past that he thinks is well hidden – until he realises someone’s on to it and the odds stack up to produce an action-packed thriller.What Kite is chasing down isn’t just a painting: it’s the most explosive art in the world. Can he stop the impending cataclysm?

Wasted Pretty


Jamie Beth Cohen - 2019
    Alice has mixed feelings about her surprising transformation.On the plus side: Chris Thompson, the hot college guy she has a crush on, talks to her.On the minus side: Her dad's creepy friend, professional athlete Karl Bell, lets his eyes, and his hugs, linger too long.After a disturbing encounter in a dark hallway, Alice realizes the response some men have to her new body isn’t just disgusting, it’s dangerous. Her life is further complicated by her parents’ crumbling finances and the family’s entanglement with Karl.Set in Pittsburgh in 1992, Wasted Pretty is about a girl determined to protect her body, her future, and her heart.

Love for Two Lifetimes


Martina Boone - 2018
    Following a trail of clues to Halford Hall in England, Izzy steps into a world of royalty in search of her father and meets a young aristocrat who's as troubled as he is fascinating. Recognizing the brokenness in each other, the two become inseparable--only to discover too late that they may be brother and sister.Thrown together on a journey of discovery that spans two lifetimes and takes them from a grand estate in the Cotswolds to a hospital bedside in India and ultimately to the Taj Mahal, Malcolm and Izzy try not to fall in love. But some things are impossible.And some sacrifices are inevitable.Uplifting, funny, tragic, and unforgettably romantic, Love for Two Lifetimes is a tale of two generations of love, a lifetime of friendship, a history of sacrifice, and one last, heartbreaking and hopeful choice revealed in prose, texts, and love letters. If you enjoy the romance of the royal weddings or any story by Nicholas Sparks, Love for Two Lifetimes will have you turning pages late into the night."Heartwarming, lyrical, soulful, and with just the right amount of humor: this book sparkles with authentic, layered characters and beautiful, thoughtful prose." -- Jodi Meadows, NYT bestselling co-author of My Lady Jane and My Plain Jane★★★★★ PRAISE FOR COMPULSION ★★★★★"Skillfully blends rich magic and folklore with adventure, sweeping romance, and hidden treasure . . . Impressive." -- Publisher's Weekly"So swoon-worthy that it's ridiculous." RT Book Reviews, RT Editors Best Books of the Year"Darkly romantic and steeped in Southern Gothic charm, you ll be compelled to get lost in the Heirs of Watson Island series." -- #1 New York Times bestselling author Jennifer L. Armentrout"Charming and steamy on the surface, with cold-blooded secrets buried down deep." -- Kendare Blake, New York Times bestselling author"Haunting, atmospheric, and absorbing." -- Claudia Gray, New York Times bestselling author"Beautifully written, with vivid characters, a generations-old feud, and romance that leaps off the page...Not to be missed." -- Megan Shepherd, New York Times bestselling author★★★★★ PRAISE FOR LAKE OF DESTINY ★★★★★"Delightful, charming, and heartwarming!" -- New York Times bestselling author Wendy Higgins"I loved this!!! It reminds me of a Nora Roberts series, The Gallaghers of Ardmore . . . but a Scottish version with men in kilts!" -- Two Chicks on Books"Outlander-Lite Meets Gilmore Girls in Scotland. Sucked me in from the start and didn't let go until I'd laughed, shed a few tears and worked up an appetite. Fast. Fun. Romantic. Read it!" -- Jenuine Cupcakes"Endearing and alluring! Modern day mixed with history, truth, folklore, and just the right touch of the blarney! -- Thoughts on Your Words"AMAZING" "WOW!" "I honestly can't rave about this book enough" "An enchanted trip to the Scottish Highlands" "Found myself getting lost in the words and not wanting to return home" "Stole my heart" "Loved every page, every chapter" "Couldn't put it down" "Didn't want the story to end" "Makes me wish I could magic myself into this story" -- Amazon Customers