Murder By Design: ...a young girl dreams of topping haute couture!


Mary Jane Forbes - 2011
    Lack of money is a high hurdle. Living with her grandfather, and working as a casino barmaid, she saves her tips to take classes in Seattle. With her eye to one day having her own clothing label, the redhead, keeps her eye on the prize, leaving men smitten with her beauty in her wake—a preacher, an American Indian law student, and a NY fashion designer. It isn’t until a newspaper reporter appears on her door step that she pauses to take a second look. But reporter Skip Hunter has no time for women. He is driven to become a N.Y. Times best-selling mystery writer using his reporting of crime on the streets of Seattle as fodder. Will the New York designer who borrows Gillianne’s sketches end her dream? Will a heist of a billion dollars worth of gold bullion give the reporter his big break? Will the intersection of their lives drive the pair into each other’s arms? Or, will their life plans, force them apart?

Anything You Can Do


Sally Berneathy - 2013
    Bailey likes to win whether in the courtroom or on the 10K race track. So does Austin. When the two meet, sparks fly in all directions. Bailey Russell’s life is pretty much perfect. She has a dog, a condo, and she’s on the fast track to becoming a partner in the small law firm where she works. Then Austin Travers shows up with his electric blue eyes and electric touch. He beats her in a 10K race, almost overtakes her in an impromptu swim meet, and cooks a delicious meal while her cheesecake tastes like greasy cardboard. However, she takes him down in the courtroom and in a game of chess. The score is close to even. Then she learns he wants to change her law firm, merge it with a bigger one, disrupt Bailey’s life. To her chagrin, Bailey finds herself attracted to the annoying man, but she remembers only too well the painful days of being a skinny, awkward adolescent, the butt of jokes about red hair and freckles and brainy women. Men like Austin Travers reserved their interest for beautiful women with soft voices and bust line measurements that exceeded their IQs.Austin soon realizes that Bailey is the most frustrating woman he’s ever met, a tiger, a force to be reckoned with. She makes him crazy, but all other women are pale ghosts beside her. She makes him feel vital and alive. If only he can figure out how to be around her for five minutes without wanting to strangle her.

Good Intentions


Kathryn R. Biel - 2013
    But Ryan Milan, also starting his new life in Boston, is in the way of the low-key life that she has planned for herself.Ryan shows Maggie that, despite her misgivings, he loves her for her. Ryan and Maggie could have the perfect relationship—could—but tragedy pulls them apart after a fateful night, and a long-term separation leaves them at a cross-roads.When Ryan finds Maggie seven years later, he is shocked to find the life she is living. Now that Ryan's back, will her life take her in a direction she’s not willing to go? Can Maggie stay true to herself while finding true love?

Who Do I Run To?


Anna Black - 2011
    More than that; a love triangle with a married man. KP, the man of her dreams swept her completely off her feet before telling her he was married with two kids. Too deep in love to let go, she became accustom to being KP's other woman and didn't have a problem with her role as KP's mistress until she met Isaiah. Isaiah ready to commit and make Janiece his, he stops at nothing to win her over, even though Janiece is stuck on KP. Things spiral out of control when KP decides it's time to leave Kimberly, his wife to be with Janiece. Drama kicks into high gear when Isaiah fights to have Janiece and Kimberly also fights to keep KP. The ultimate decision has to be made by Janiece. Who will she run to when she is ready to love?

Unfinished Dreams


Amanda McIntyre - 2013
    When fate give Tess Graham a second chance at finding happiness after an abusive relationship, will it come unknowingly at the expense of the handsome cowboy she’s hired to do a few repairs on the farmhouse she’s renting? Gabe Russell knows the perky city girl isn’t going to last long living the country life, but he doesn’t expect that while he’s helping make her dreams a reality, that he’ll finding himself wanting more than getting his house back.

To Probe a Beating Heart


John B. Wren - 2011
    She was last seen talking to a man as the clouds opened and a rain began. Th e only witness is an elderly woman whose description of the possible kidnapper could fi t any number of people. As police, friends and family search the immediate area for Annette, she is taken farther away and becomes one of the predator's early victims. Over the course of the next several years, along the interstate 90 corridor between Toledo, Ohio, and Albany, New York, a number of young girls disappear without a trace. Jim McLarry, Annette's cousin and a rookie cop with the Cleveland Heights police force, pursues his own investigation of the missing girls in hopes of finding his cousin. As he feeds information to the detectives assigned to the case, McLarry demonstrates his ability as an investigator. Years earlier, a boy, born and raised in difficult circumstances, determined that he will kill his adoptive mother and sister. Each summer a new victim is another rehearsal for his intended goal. As he plans and executes his annual killings, he leaves virtually no clues. Only little mistakes, the dogged determination of the Cleveland Heights cop and the intervention of Annette's extended family, the Clan, lead to Averell's downfall. To Probe a Beating Heart is a fi ctional, but realistic study in the creation of a killer. Th e monster that Averell has become must be stopped and if the authorities cannot make that happen, the Clan will.

Fire Point


John Smolens - 2004
    She is a solitary young woman who is given to long walks along the coast of Lake Superior. On a cold April day, she wanders into a dilapidated house and meets Martin Reed, who has moved to Michigan’s remote Upper Peninsula to renovate the condemned Victorian once owned by his aunt. Quickly Hannah realizes that Martin is an outcast, too, and unlike anyone she has ever met.Fire Point is the story of the summer Hannah and Martin attempt to rebuild their lives while restoring the house. But when Sean Colby returns to Michigan after being discharged early from military service, he cannot accept the fact that Hannah, his former girlfriend, is moving on without him—and commits a series of increasingly violent acts against Hannah, Martin, and the house. Written in spare, graceful prose, Fire Point is a thrilling and suspenseful story of love, vengeance, and renewal, set against the pristine beauty of one of America’s great inland seas.

Not Telling


Cindy Vine - 2010
    Someone from the past comes back into their lives. Jenny is faced with an enormous dilemma, should she tell?

Honky Tonk Angel


Abby Gray - 1998
    Ten years ago Clancy Morgan broke her heart and even though she’s made a successful life for herself, she’s never gotten over that pain. He made a big mistake… But maybe he can mend it, if only she’ll let him. Her friends cook up a crazy scheme to help her get over him once and for all, but his hopes are that he can use their plan to convince her that he still loves her. Then the hurricane hits… and all bets are off for everyone. If you liked any of the Honky Tonk series by Carolyn Brown such as: I Love This Bar, Hell Yeah, My Give a Damn’s Busted or Honky Tonk Christmas, you’ll enjoy this story of love and forgiveness.

Eleanor Rushing: A New Orleans Comedy of Erotomania (The Eleanor Rushing Series)


Patty Friedmann - 1999
    the reader is seduced by that willful voice, wavering between shock and grudging admiration at Friedmann's high-wire balancing act. And laughing all the way." -The New Orleans Times-PicayuneA tour de force whose heroine falls somewhere between the southern elegance of Walker Percy and the zany black comedy of THE CONFEDERACY OF DUNCES.Surrounded by the splendor and excess of old money in New Orleans, Eleanor Rushing is a wry and witty young woman who first locks eyes with the love of her life at a City Council meeting—or so we’re led to believe. What starts as an innocuous infatuation with Dr. Maxim Walters, a Methodist minister who just so happens to be married already, quickly turns into an outrageous and obsessive passion: she orchestrates an automobile accident outside his house, volunteers to stuff envelopes at his church, follows him to Nashville on a business venture, sets up camp in the toolshed in his backyard… Eleanor’s voice is both acutely perceptive and macabrely unhinged. She considers herself blessed with the ability to “remember everything,” except that her recollections and impressions seem to be at odds with everyone around her. As her “relationship” with Dr. Walters begins to spin frantically out of control, we can't help being her willing and faithful admirers. Magnificently showcases Friedmann's touted powers of psychological acuity and laugh-out-loud black humor. A fitting Kindle addition for fans of THE SILVER LININGS PLAYBOOK.Excerpt:I think it is impossible to change the world unless you are truly evil and so mad for control you never sleep. And it’s ridiculous to try to change yourself at all. Scientists have studied identical twins who feel pain in the gut at the same time, as if everything were laid out from the moment they were conceived. Sometimes I figure all you can do is watch yourself, as if you’re viewing a simple, dull film; eventually you find out what was going to happen. Unless death catches you by surprise.So I go to City Council meetings. I haven’t missed one in four years, not even for a case of B-type influenza, which I probably picked up from a crowd in the City Council chambers. Sitting in those meetings is the only way I can pretend to feel any breezes of serendipity. Somewhere between the global and the personal, they play out the grandest battles of silliness, and I like to guess at them. When I was twenty-three I lived in Washington, DC and sat in regularly on the proceedings of the U.S. House of Representatives. But they mumbled and shuffled a lot, and you couldn’t see their eyes unless they passed close by. It was good to learn about carcinogens in the Iowa corn after the drought and how the turnips in western Montana swelled like giant melons for years after Mount Saint Helens blew, and I believed money should be set aside to study such matters, but I couldn’t see the congressmen’s eyes.

Big Love in a Small Town


Kate Goldman - 2015
    Three weeks later, Tessa meets Nate Wilder, a Hollywood star, at a restaurant where she waits tables on weekends, and he doesn’t hide his immediate attraction to her. Despite still being heartbroken, Tessa feels a spark and they begin secretly seeing each other. Tessa begins to fall in love with Nate and their relationship seems perfect until a miscommunication causes her to break things off abruptly. A little time passes and Tessa’s ex-boyfriend returns, asking her to come to Nashville so that they can be together again. She realizes that she definitely doesn’t want that – she has fallen for Nate, and she hopes that she hasn’t missed her chance. Now that Tessa finally realizes the truth about her feelings and what a mistake she has made, she hops on a plane for Los Angeles, but when she arrives, she isn’t prepared for what she sees.

Heathcliff Family Romances Books 1-4: A Sweet Billionaire Romance Boxset


Julia Keanini - 2019
    That is until she finds out their families are in an all-out war.His to MarryRafe needs a wife. Bailey's the perfect woman for the job ... except that she's in love with him. Faking a marriage with the man of her dreams isn't a bad idea, is it?His to ProtectEmma Heathcliff's life is in danger. Too bad the only person who can keep her safe is the one man she can't stand.Her Favorite RiskShe just needs a job. He needs her. But since they've both been burned by love is he a risk she's willing to take?

Alchemy of the Afterlife: A Memoir


Linda Kinnamon - 2015
    Being a hospice nurse she spends her days caring for and visiting the terminally ill. But in the pre-dawn hours, as her patients near death, they occasionally pay her a visit instead.Whether it's perfume drifting through a room or a touch on the shoulder, the strength of spirit displayed at the end of life is as unique as the individual. Alchemy of the Afterlife is a memoir of life AFTER death based on Linda's childhood as an orphan combined with her adult experiences as a hospice nurse. These encounters reveal both a glimmer of heaven and a flash of hell.This is a child's story about surviving abuse and neglect, only to be comforted by a visit from her mother, a visit that took place four years after her mother's death. It's a nurse's story about patients of all beliefs, and their evolution from life to afterlife minus the harps and halos. Most of all, it's an uplifting and universal story of the golden transformation we will all experience at death, a transformation with the heart of pure love.

Cat Got Your Tongue?


Rae Rivers - 2013
    Who better to help than the daughter of a cat burglar?When art collector Cole Anderson is targeted for his priceless Renoir, he reluctantly employs a bodyguard to upgrade his personal security. Imagine his surprise when she arrives--professional, capable, and sporting a ponytail and a gorgeous smile. Alex Foxley is all woman--sexy, feisty, and intimately familiar with the shady workings of the art underworld thanks to her mother's connections. While battling an explosive attraction for each other and thwarting thieves determined to have Cole's Renoir at any cost, Cole and Alex must work together to protect his life and property--and uncover a secret neither of them knows exists. Will they discover who is behind the deadly conspiracy before it's too late? Or will passion and lust blind them to what's right under their noses?

Christmas to the Rescue!


Anne Chase - 2016
    ' Twas the blizzard before Christmas.... Becca Jameson is a recent arrival in Heartsprings Valley, ready for a fresh start in life as the town's new librarian, three years after the death of her beloved husband.When a canine charmer named Bowzer captures her heart at an "Adopt-a-Pet" event, little does Becca realize that her furry pal will drag her into the Christmas adventure of a lifetime, complete with a fierce blizzard, a pregnant llama, and a very handsome veterinarian.With holiday mayhem thrust upon her, Becca must navigate a storm of snowflakes and hot cocoa to rediscover the romance of Christmas -- and embrace a future filled with life and hope. It's always Christmas in Heartsprings Valley!