Book picks similar to
Dead Cereus by Kira Seamon
fantasy
romance
reviewed
200-300pg
Men or Paws
Rich Amooi - 2022
Piece of cake, right?Wrong.First, I have to stay in my client’s guesthouse while he’s in the main house working on an important project. That may not sound so bad, but HE is Hollywood’s Bad Boy, Rocco Romano, voted “Sexiest Man Alive.”The guy could charm the pants off a mannequin.Luckily he’s not my type.Seriously.A rich, sexy, generous man? Pass. Ten-pack abs? Whatever.My heart palpitations are obviously caused by something else.As for the dog, he’s sweet and adorable, but he’s named Houdini for a reason.Then I accidentally kiss him.Rocco, not the dog.Then he escapes.The dog, not Rocco.Things can’t get any worse, right?Wrong, wrong, wrong.Men or Paws is a hilarious, opposites-attract, closed-door romantic comedy with sizzling chemistry and a guaranteed happy ending.
Blessed King
Karen Tomlinson - 2019
A princess with a damning secret. And an army of phantom witches intent on destroying them both. Returning from war, King Jack Oden and Princess Lyana vow to rebuild the starving kingdom of Rhodainia. When innocent children are found murdered, Lyana must risk all and enter the world of outlawed spell-weavers to seek the culprit. As Jack fights for the survival of the kingdom, Lyana’s own secret threatens not only her chance to bring the killer to justice but more bloodshed and war. With every life in the kingdom hanging in the balance, will Jack and Lyana lose themselves and their love in the coming battle? After all, the phantoms are coming and they will annihilate everything to get what they want... Dive into this romantic fantasy and join a cast of fabulous characters who will steal your breath, set your heart pounding and leave you yearning for more as they battle for a better world, a better future and a love that will transcend adversity. Note: The Eight Kingdoms novels are standalone and duology stories set after the events in The Goddess and the Guardians series. As such they are best read after that series but can also be read seperately. It is a YA fantasy series aimed at older YA readers with some cursing and sex.
Don’t Trust Me
Jessica Lynch - 2017
Population: 192.You can't find it on any map, GPS or directions site. A small village tucked between a mountain and a valley, Hamlet is the sort of place where everyone knows everyone -- and their business, too. There's no television. No phones. Only one way in and, for the locals, barely any way out. The sheriff is the law, the only doctor moonlights as the coroner, and outsiders rarely come to town.Murders are even rarer.A treacherous storm, a flat tire and a touch of serendipity causes Tessa Sullivan and her husband Jack to stumble upon the narrow strait that leads into Hamlet. It was supposed to be a one night stop until the rain let up and Jack could figure out how to fix the tire -- until Tess lands herself in the local jail cell overnight and Jack is found dead in their hotel room the next morning. There's no doubt it was murder, but with his gentle wife having an airtight alibi, the sheriff has to wonder: who had any cause to kill the outsider?And was he only the first victim?Dr. De Angelis doesn’t think so. Neither does Deputy Walsh. With Tess looking more and more like the killer’s next target, both men take the time to comfort and protect the young widow. But only one of them is sincere. The other just wants her to himself now that her husband is out of the way.Alone and afraid, who can she trust?
Camp Chaos
Anne Fox - 2019
A foul-mouthed woman with a gun on her hip and a badge on her belt. And she's good with a gun. Very good. She's dying to be a member of the unit - literally. Meet Special Agent Kathryn Hanko as she joins the clandestine law enforcement team known only as "the unit" and faces her first mission with them against the terrorist group Camp Chaos.
Whispering Pines Mysteries Books 1-3: Family Secrets / Kept Secrets / Original Secrets
Shawn McGuire - 2017
Family Secrets
— Book 1Sixteen years after a family feud drove her from the cozy Northwoods village of Whispering Pines, Wisconsin, former detective Jayne O’Shea returns to prepare her grandparents’ lake house for sale. Once there, not only does she find that the house has been trashed, her dog discovers a dead body in the backyard. Jayne intends to stay out of it, but when it becomes obvious the sheriff isn't interested in investigating the death, Jayne can't stop herself. Her list of suspects grows faster than the plants in the commons’ pentacle garden. Could it be the local Wiccan green witch with her stash of deadly plants? The shopkeeper who slips into trances and foretells death? The visitor determined to practice black magic? What Jayne knows for sure is that the closer she gets to solving this crime, the more the sheriff wants her to back off. And when a local fortune teller provides a crucial clue, Jayne knows it’s up to her to solve this murder.
Kept Secrets
— Book 2One month after arriving in the Northwoods, former detective Jayne O’Shea has settled comfortably into small-town life and is making good progress with her task of getting her grandparents’ house ready for sale. Then the shocking death of one of the carnies rocks the community, and the villagers look to Jayne for help, placing her in an impossible middle ground of not wanting to get involved and needing to ensure justice is served. When a second carney turns up dead, and the newly hired sheriff—more concerned with ticketing tourists than catching the killer—dismisses the death as an accident, Jayne has no choice but to step in. Can she uncover the truth before the murderer strikes again?
Original Secrets
— Book 3Exhausted from being the only law enforcement official on duty, while also trying to open a bed-and-breakfast, Jayne O’Shea welcomes the escape she finds in her grandmother’s journals. Each entry gives her a deeper understanding of why her grandparents moved to the secluded spot so long ago. But as questions are answered, deeply hidden secrets are unearthed. If Jayne can put all the pieces of this puzzle together, she’ll not only learn the truth behind her grandmother’s death, she’ll catch a killer who's been wandering the village for forty years.
The Althea Rose Mystery Set: 3 Novels and 2 Novellas
Tricia O'Malley - 2019
Turquoise blue water and the best margaritas this side of Mexico make it hard to leave. I'm Althea Rose, co-owner of Luna Rose Potions & Tarot Shop, and I've just stumbled into a love triangle while trying to save my best friend from being accused of murder. Tequila For Two When a radical Pagan group blows into Tequila Key to celebrate the autumnal equinox, Althea Rose’s psychic senses start tingling. She goes on full alert after meeting Horace, a Gandalf wannabe who reminds Althea of an old man playing dress up. Soon, Althea is in way over her head as the full moon starts to rise and the clock counts down on the killer wandering Tequila Key’s quiet streets. Tequila Will Kill Ya (Novella, 106 pages)Tequila Key’s local white witch, Luna Lavelle, has been looking forward to celebrating All Hallows’ Eve with her new Wiccan group for months now. Little does she know that her perfect weekend is about to be ruined by a strange curse that descends upon Tequila Key. Together with voodoo priestess Miss Elva, Luna must work against the clock to save the residents of Tequila Key. When handsome Dr. James gets involved in the fight, Luna realizes that it isn’t just her life that is in danger – her heart is on the line too. Three Tequilas It’s hard to resist a good old-fashioned treasure hunt. When an esteemed institute in London hires Althea and her dive master buddy, Trace, to document a high-stakes treasure expedition, they are pulled into a game that neither of them had realized they were playing. In a race to find a rare Aztec emerald lost on a sunken pirate ship, Althea is forced to use every trick in her book to stay alive. Even magick.Tequila Shots & Valentine Knots (Novella, 67 pages) Valentine’s Day has arrived in Tequila Key and Miss Elva, the resident Voodoo Priestess, has been asked to concoct a love potion for a couple that needs some extra spice in their marriage. When her pirate ghost, Rafe, sees the potion and thinks it is for Miss Elva – all hell breaks loose. Get swept along on a fun Valentine's Day story in quaint Tequila Key.
Broken Ice
J.R. Rain - 2019
Rain and Matthew S. Cox! Mina Barrett is the CIA’s best defense against the Dominion. She’s young, charming, intelligent, motivated… and she’s a vampire. Twenty years ago, vampires revealed themselves to the world. Society hadn’t expected them to be real at all, much less a species entirely separate from humans. The government feared hostile foreign powers would also seek to exploit their psychic talents, and put out a call for recruitment. After a childhood spent in isolation, Mina saw a chance for adventure and signed on the dotted line. Unlike the Dominion, she doesn’t feel humans are inferior creatures and works to stop others of her kind from enslaving them. A deep cover asset discovers information that vampires want to keep out of human hands. The CIA sends Mina in to bring him—and his information—out alive. But the Dominion has their sights set on the secrets buried for centuries beneath a Siberian glacier… secrets that could reshape the world.
The Vision
Wendi L. Wilson - 2020
Determined to break out of my reclusive shell and move past the trauma of my father’s unexpected death, I take a job at Camp Shadow Lake, a place where nothing is what it seems.Every counselor is beautiful and aloof, including Levi Kass—who is as hot as he is hostile. I don’t know what I did to make him hate me, but he seems to want to eat me alive. How can someone so gorgeous be so menacing?But hot-as-hell Levi, with his dark stares and spine-tingling glances, is the least of my worries. A year ago, someone or something killed my father, and the more time I spend at Camp Shadow Lake, the more clues I find.They say it was a bear attack. Bear attack, my ass. Something much more insidious killed my father, and it might be hiding out near Shadow Lake.When I go looking for answers, I experience a shocking vision—one that shows me my days are numbered.Someone is going to kill me, and I need to figure out who before it’s too late. Will Levi save me or will I have to save myself… from him?If you love The Twilight Saga and The Vampire Diaries, you’re going to have a great time at Camp Shadow Lake. Don’t piss off the counselors—they’ll eat you for breakfast.Shadow Lake Vampire Society contains scenes with violence and some mild language.
Devil's Lake
Aaron Paul Lazar - 2014
Like the rest of her family, Boone has never given up hope that Portia would return. But when she turns up battered, skinny as a twelve-year-old boy, afraid of everything and unable to talk about what happened, he does the only thing he can—try to help her heal. He summons the town doctor and Portia’s parents, and sets out to put this beautiful, broken woman back together again. Through her family's love and Boone's gentle affection, Portia gradually comes back to herself, and starts to fall for her old friend in a whole new way. But one thing threatens her fragile hope for recovery: The man who took her promised that if she ever escaped, he'd kill her. Slowly. And someone is definitely watching her...waiting to make his next deadly move.
Touched
A.J. Aalto - 2011
Twice-Touched by the Blue Sense--which gives her the ability to feel the emotions of others, and read impressions left behind on objects--Marnie also has a doctorate in preternatural biology and a working knowledge of the dark arts. She is considered without peer in the psychic community. Then her first big FBI case ended with a bullet in one shoulder and a chip on the other, a queasy heart and a serial killer in the wind, leaving her a public flop and a private wreck. When the FBI’s preternatural crimes unit tracks her down at a remote mountain lodge for her insight on a local case, her quiet retirement is promptly besieged by a stab-happy starlet, a rampaging ghoul, and a vampire-hunting jackass in tight Wranglers. Marnie figures the only real mystery is which one will kill her first. Too mean to die young, backed up by friends in cold places, and running with a mouth as demure as a cannon’s blast, Marnie Baranuik is about to discover that there’s no such thing as quitting time when you’re Touched.
American Gypsy Girl
Mary Zinda - 2014
The future looks bleak for the baby girl asleep on top of her father's boxer shorts in the laundry basket, but she doesn't seem to notice. At the moment, Charlene Rae Bucher is blissfully unaware that she will spend her formative years living inside an aluminum camper with a disinterested, dope-smoking father and a vacant, vodka-loving mother. Her extended family will consist of a bunch of equally uninspired adults who park their campers alongside the Buchers. She is truly an unlucky baby. But babies grow up, and the teenage Farrah Fawcett wannabe stuffs her bra and learns what she can about life within the chain-link fence of Creek's Edge Campground. A lesson learned inside a rubber tractor tire forces Charlene to grow up quickly-even when no one else around her will. With the help of the retired Methodist minister on site 11A and some eccentric people she meets outside Creek's Edge, Charlene begins to see that there's more to life than getting the high score on Donkey Kong. Traveling through a maze of misunderstandings, chance meetings, and new discoveries, eighteen year-old Charlene begins to build a life of her own that isn't on wheels. "American Gypsy Girl" is a humorous novel of the dysfunction, friendships, lies, and loves that make up one girl's pursuit of the American Dream.
Becoming Red
Jess Raven - 2012
You always said you would.’Ash DeMorgan, graduate, orphan, ice maiden, has long since consigned the fairytale nightmares of a troubled childhood to the realm of fantastical childish imagination.Now, lured back to Dublin, the scene of her tragic past, Ash encounters a city pulsing under the dangerous sexual influence of a new street drug the locals call Rave. Nothing is as it seems. Ash is about to discover that her nightmares are real, ancient Irish myths are larger than life and roaming the streets of the medieval city, and she has become the prey in their erotic hunt. A step back into her past is about to become a high adrenaline race for survival.Connal Savage, outcast, assassin, and living, breathing hunk of ancient mythology, has lived a thousand years servicing a debt of revenge. Dead inside. Until he encounters his boss’s granddaughter, an infuriating woman who threatens to lead him to hell with all his good intentions, who manages to chip away at the hard encrusted defences of a lifetime spent at war and burrow herself deep into a part of him that hasn’t breathed for centuries. He is about to discover that when it comes down to the wire, when you’re bargaining with the Grim Reaper for the life of the one you love, you will do anything... Book one of The Becoming series. A new voice in paranormal fantasy and romance.
Magical Cool Cats Mysteries Boxed Set Vol 2
Mary Matthews - 2013
Cool cat sleuths find clues as intoxicating as catnip, and help 1920s detectives solve crimes without missing a nap. In Meow Baby, a pregnant woman disappears and Grace and Jack discover a skeleton that carries the secrets of the heart that once beat within it. In Cupake Kitty, when a singer at their engagement party dies, Grace and Jack follow the trail of a bootlegger's dame to TiaJuana. EXCERPT: Magical white cat Tatania became impatient with her humans. She could smell a succulent sea bass on the other side of the door. To encourage her humans to open it, she meowed. Zeus, her black and white feline companion, responded to her meow by putting his paws over his head and his rear end up in the air. "How would you feel about spending a lot of time with me?" Jack asked. "I feel like I already have," Grace said. "It only gets better." He held up her hand and admired the emerald and diamond ring he'd bought her at Jessop & Sons jewelers last month. "Marry me?" "Of course." He opened the door to the Hotel del Coronado's Crown Room. A band played the Charleston. In the corner of the dance floor, there was an ice sculpture of two magnificent cats. "What's going on?" "Our engagement party." "Why were you so sure I'd say yes?" "I'm arrogant." In Meow or Never, they rush to find a wealthy stockbroker's missing wife. EXCERPT: Cats truly live their nine lives at night. Zeus, a cute and mischievous tomcat, kept following the tide in and out, letting the water sprinkle his nose, and acting surprised when the tide chased him back to the shore. Wet, he shook like a puppy. Then, he sniffed each front paw carefully. Tatania looked away. She was terribly fond of Zeus. But sometimes, he was a tad unseemly. He scampered exitedly towards their favorite humans, a slender woman in a sparkling dress, and a muscular man with black hair and skin kissed brown by the sun. Zeus rolled around on the sand. Maybe he had dog blood in him. Tatania shuddered at the thought of that mating. In Catty Corner, when an art heist happens during Grace and Jack's rooftop cocktail party, the cool cats pounce on the trail of a collector who finds art as intoxicating as catnip. EXCERPT:"Where have you been all my life?" A grey haired man asked a young flapper. "I don't think I was alive for half of it," she replied, blowing smoke from a six inch rhinestone cigarette holder. The Cool Cat Mystery Series can be read in any order. If you'd like to know the chronological order of the series, here it is for you: **Splendid Summer **Emeralds, Diamonds, and Amethysts **Cher Ami **Available exclusively in Grace, Jack & Magical Cats Boxed Set Vol I Meow Baby Cupcake Kitty Meow or Never Catty Corner Cat Dance 9 Lives to Live MEWOW The Fur Will Fly Right Meow
The Island Affair
Helena Halme - 2019
During their usual holiday to Åland, the Nordic islands where Alicia grew up, the rift between the couple deepens.Enter tall, blonde Patrick, with the most piercing blue eyes Alicia has ever seen. When Patrick confides in Alicia about the near loss of his daughter and the breakdown of his marriage, Alicia is surprised to feel an affinity with the Swedish reporter. He’s the only person who understands Alicia.But secrets held by people close to Alicia give her life another surprising turn and she finds there is a reason to live – and love – again.
Read this new family drama set in one of the most captivating holiday islands in Scandinavia today!
No Limit
Nicolette Pierce - 2013
Beating the arrogant and sexy Caleb Usher, who challenges her professional poker career and tempts the hell out of her, wouldn't hurt either. However, the tournament goes sideways when the million dollar prize disappears in front of a live audience. Not one witness sees what happened or where the money went. Sinfully handsome Greyson Miller, CEO of the Lost City Casino, teams up with Nadia in an attempt to find the missing prize and to solve a perilous mystery that plagues the casino. With Greyson’s overwhelming allure, Nadia has to keep her head in the game and her hands to herself. With Caleb and Greyson claiming a stake; Nadia’s career, life, and heart will never be the same again.