Book picks similar to
Petrified Wood (Layna Wood Book 1) by Allison O'Shea
mystery
contemporary-romance
fiction
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By Sea
Carly Fall - 2014
When the mysterious Joe Smith approaches him with an incredible job offer, Brody thinks it’s too good to be true. His life-saving need and his desire to be near the ocean while earning a living are rolled into one perfect job. Rayna Lopez lives a quiet life as she tries to climb her way up the CIA ladder, always in fear the government will learn of her family lineage. When her father asks for help getting her famous and belligerent half-sister out of trouble, Rayna reluctantly agrees to travel with her and they board a yacht where they will be protected. Brody and Rayna realize they’ve met before, and despite a significant lack of trust between them, they face an attraction neither can deny. As they fight to keep Rayna’s sister alive, lies are revealed and secrets are told. They must both learn to trust each other, and—if they live through their voyage—figure out what to do about their whirlwind romance.
Burned
Jennifer Youngblood - 2014
Sydney Lassiter has the perfect life—glamour, wealth, and all the high-society status to go with it. But something is tell her that she needs to return to the sleepy little town of Stoney Creek, Alabama where she grew up. She hasn’t been there since her father was killed in a boating accident—or was he murdered? She takes a job as a safety consultant at the local sawmill—the same place where her father worked—and sets out to discover the truth about his death. In Stoney Creek, you don’t ask the kinds of questions Sydney is asking. There are too many secrets—secrets that someone will do anything to keep hidden. To complicate matters, Sydney becomes enmeshed in a confusing love quadrangle involving two men, and the other woman, who seems to want both of them. And both men seem to have some connection to the death of her father. The closer Sydney gets to the truth, the more it seems that her quest could destroy not only her but the people and town she has come to love.
Agent Raeann O'Riley
Susie McIver - 2020
But her fantasy is shattered after a jealous rival for his affection drugs and seduces him, and worse, becomes pregnant. Feeling betrayed and heartbroken, Raeann slams the door on her heart and throws away the key, dedicating herself to her career as a criminal profiler for the FBI.Seven years later, when a missing person’s case crosses her desk, Raeann must reopen the wounds that destroyed her life so that she may save the life of a child - and not just any child, but Max, Nick’s only son.But there are worse terrors than a broken heart, and when Raeann’s mission becomes a battle for survival, she finds herself up against an enemy so evil and cunning that her own will to survive might not be enough to save her.
Seeker’s World
K.A. Riley - 2019
Prove yourself worthy, and you may just save the world.”
On her seventeenth birthday, Vega Sloane receives a strange and puzzling gift: a key in the shape of a dragon’s head, along with a note that claims she’s destined for greatness. When the handsome and mysterious Callum Drake enters her life, she finds herself inextricably drawn to him, and more questions begin to arise. Who is the boy beyond the exquisite façade and charming smile? Is he an ally, or the very enemy she needs to fight off? Vega soon discovers that she’s being recruited to attend a magical Academy in a world beyond her own—a school where those known as the Blood-Born train and compete to see who comes out on top. The only problem? Everyone seems to want her dead.
Carbon-14: The Shroud of Turin
R.A. Williams - 2020
Only one test says otherwise—the carbon date performed in 1988. A serial killer with a fetish for fire targets the faithful of Tucson, Arizona. Homicide detective, Pete Johnston, works to catch the killer before more clergy are killed, before more churches are burned. His daughter, Amari, is a criminal justice major at the University of Arizona. When the Shroud is carbon dated at her university, the results reveal that the relic is a medieval forgery. Amari investigates this ancient cold case file for a class project and makes a shocking discovery that could alter the fate of Christianity. She teams up with Dr. Kevin Brenner, a brilliant young experimental physicist, and together they gather evidence so they can plead their case to the Vatican—unless the killer can stop them first. Her father desperately tries to protect her and catch the killer before she becomes his next victim.
If Ted Dekker and Christy Barritt collaborated on a mystery/suspense novel, it would read like this. .
Cowboy's Cupid
Niki J. Mitchell - 2018
Cami Calypso receives her first assignment on Earth just in time for the Valentine season. As a newbie Cupid archer, her life is perfect until her arrow accidentally strikes the wrong man. She has sixty days to secure a job as the confident cowboy’s housekeeper and find him his soul mate—not keep him for herself. Rhett Holloway needs a housekeeper and cook. He doesn’t need an adorable blonde to distract him. He doesn’t need her to fix his love life. But here she is, and he finds her irresistible.
Flower Among the Ashes
Genevieve St-Yves - 2020
This was the Elven Kingdom’s most ironclad rule. They are about to defy that law.When her parents cast her out for possessing a power they could not understand, Arshé learned the world was cruel. When her lover betrayed her, it taught her happy endings were a lie. On the run with a bounty on her head, the elven oracle vows never to let anyone exploit her ability to see the future—or her heart—ever again.As her enemies close in, Arshé finds an unlikely ally in Rekki, an ogre mercenary on a mission to retrieve a priceless treasure stolen by the elven king. Offering protection in return for her aid, Arshé has no choice but to accompany the handsome warrior on his perilous quest.But Rekki has no intention of parting ways with her when the treasure is back in ogre hands. For he was born under a prophecy foretelling he will become king of the ogres and unite his people’s fractured clans. When Rekki looks at Arshé, he sees the queen destined to rule at his side. If he cannot teach her reluctant heart to trust again, they will not survive the dangers ahead.
Vengeance
Vanessa Kier - 2013
Vengeance. She vows revenge on the men behind the attack, including her once beloved older brother, Kai. But Kai has disappeared with a microchip containing data on a top-secret government research program.Ten years ago, undercover agent Niko Andros sent a vicious Mexican crime lord to prison. Now the man has been released and he's kidnapped Niko's aunt. The price for his aunt's freedom is Kai and the microchip. Niko will do anything to save his aunt―including using Jenna as bait.As Niko dives back into the deadly criminal underground he'd barely escaped, Jenna discovers she's not as tough as she thinks. Teamed up to find her brother, Niko and Jenna fight to survive in a dangerous world of lies, betrayal, and hidden agendas. Only love can save them...if they'll let it.
The Hitman's Mistake
Sally Brandle - 2018
But can she find him in time?The last person Grant Morley expects to discover on his annual supply run to a Montana mountain hermit is alluring Miranda Whitley, nearly dead from a bullet wound in her side. An accidental witness or the cold-blooded accomplice to would-be assassins?Miranda must convince Grant of her innocence, evade the killers intent on preventing her testimony, and fight her unwanted attraction for the agent…an attraction which seems to be mutual. Fortunately, love thrives in Emma Springs. If you love sizzling chemistry, Montana’s mountain landscape, and fast-paced action, then you’ll love Sally Brandle’s galloping thriller, The Hitman’s Mistake.
Right Through Me
Shannon McKenna - 2016
Yet he's very much a man. When Caro Bishop shows up at his Seattle headquarters with a dangerous secret agenda, his ordered life is thrown into chaos. Caro is a woman like no other—and her luminously sensual beauty cloaks a mystery he must solve.Caro's lying low, evading a false charge of murder. She means to clear her name, and she'll do whatever it takes to survive—but seducing a man like Noah is more than she bargained for. His amber eyes have the strangest glow when he looks at her—she could swear he sees the secrets of her heart. The desire smoldering in Noah's eyes awakens her own secret hunger, but Caro has to resist his magnetic pull. Anyone close to her becomes a target. The only right thing to do is run, far and fast, but Caro can't outrun Noah's ferocious intensity—or deny the searing passion that explodes between them.Nothing else matters—until a vicious enemy bent on the ultimate revenge puts his murderous plan into play. Noah and Caro must battle for their lives...and their love...
Tides of Time
Luna Joya - 2019
Or at least as normal as a life in a family of witches can be. She can’t tell her sisters about her violent ex. Or that she broke the first rule of magic to “harm none.” When her youngest sister asks for help unraveling the death of a 1930’s star abused by those she loved, Cami can’t say no. A reformed bad boy who doesn’t know his own family’s secrets…Sam lives for his restaurant and coveted screenplay expertise of Hollywood history. He avoids the entanglements of relationships since even his own parents didn’t want him. But when the enchanting Cami needs his help to crack an unsolved mystery, he can’t resist. The closer they come to finding a killer, the more they crave each other. But someone is determined to stop them.Can they solve the mystery before history repeats itself?
The Lakeside Inn
Leeanna Morgan - 2021
When tragedy strikes, she returns to Sapphire Bay to say goodbye to her grandmother and comfort her parents.The last thing Penny or her sisters expect is to inherit the house her grandma called home. But there's a catch, and it could change their lives forever.Wyatt Johnson didn't move to Sapphire Bay to be harassed by four females and a dog of unknown pedigree. But when the Terry sisters become his neighbors, any chance of completing his latest collection of paintings disappears under a blast of plaster dust and never-ending banging.When Penny needs his help to solve an old family mystery, they're drawn into a web of secrets unlike anything Sapphire Bay has ever seen.This novel can easily be read as a standalone. Each of Leeanna's series are linked so you can find out what happens to your favourite characters in other books. Happy reading!
Hell's Key
Linzi Baxter - 2019
Magic, Wolves, and a Kick Ass Heroine. At the age of eighteen, I was banned from my pack. It wasn’t what I wanted. Nobody could explain the magic which coursed through my body. Although I’ve worked hard to forget what happened ten years ago, I needed to face my past. It’s time to take down the person responsible for erasing my memories. Plus, I must deal with the sexy Alpha of the Mystic Ash Pack who swears I’m his mate. Then the devil makes my life harder by appearing whenever he wants, wrecking my plans to kidnap the adorable pandacorn. On top of everything, I must figure out who my birth mom is, even if it means risking the lives of my loved ones. If I don’t figure out my powers soon, I might accidentally open the gates of hell to the human world.
Too Quiet In Brooklyn
Susan Russo Anderson - 2013
It's too quiet, at least for Brooklyn, so twenty-two-year-old Fina Fitzgibbons is not surprised when she stumbles upon a throttled woman in the heart of Brooklyn Heights and discovers that the dead woman's four-year-old grandson is also missing. She begins a wild hunt for the strangler-kidnapper, Ralph. During the chase, she resists falling in love with her boyfriend, Denny, an NYPD patrol officer, steps on the toes of Detective First Grade Jane Templeton, and uncovers secrets about her own past. In the end, Ralph has a deadly surprise for Fina.
Tuesday's Child
Dale Mayer - 2011
Shunned and ridiculed all her life for something she can’t control, Samantha Blair hides her psychic abilities and lives on the fringes of society. Against her will, however, she’s tapped into a killer—or rather, his victims. Each woman’s murder, blow-by-blow, ravages her mind until their death releases her back to her body. Sam knows she must go to the authorities, but will the rugged, no-nonsense detective in charge of tracking down the killer believe her? Detective Brandt Sutherland only trusts hard evidence, yet Sam’s visions offer clues he needs to catch a killer. The more he learns about her incredible abilities, however, the clearer it becomes that Sam’s visions have put her in the killer’s line of fire. Now Brandt must save her from something he cannot see or understand…and risk losing his heart in the process. As danger and desire collide, passion raises the stakes in a game Sam and Brandt don’t dare lose. Length - 90,000 words. Excerpt Agony. Pain. Terror. A voice whispered through the blackness of her mind, so odd, so different it caught her attention. She strained to hear the words. “Let go. It’s time to let go.” Sam stared through the flames, stunned. Let go of what? She couldn’t hear over the roaring fire and could barely see, but knowing that someone was there stirred her survival instinct, and she fought with the seatbelt buckle jammed at her side. She was saved. Just another minute and they’d open the door and pull her free. She’d be fine. “Please hurry,” she cried out. “Let go. You don’t need to be in there. Let it all go, and come with me.” She peered through the golden orange windshield to see a strange male face peering at her through the flames. He smiled. “Come with me.” “I want to, damn it. Can’t you see I’m trapped?” she screamed, her vocals crisping in the heat. “Release yourself. Come with me. Say yes.” The pain hit a crescendo. She twisted against it, hearing her spine splinter. The car seat melted into her skin. So much pain, she couldn’t breathe. Blackness crowded into her mind, blessed quiet, soothing darkness. She reached for it. “Let it go. You don’t need to go through this. Hurry.” She started. Why wasn’t he opening the door or getting others to help? He should be trying to save her. Shouldn’t he? Sam, so confused and so tired, she could barely feel the pain overtaking her body. Where had he gone? She tried to concentrate. His face was now only a vague outline that rippled with the heat waves. A soft smile played at the corner of his mouth. The flames burned around him, weird as they centered him in the warm glow. She wanted to be with him. To live. “Here, take my hand.” Dazed and on the brink of death, Sam focused on the hand reaching for her. She struggled to raise the charred piece of flesh that had been her arm and reached out to grasp his. She was free. Overwhelmed, she turned to hug her savior, her head just reaching his shoulder. He stood beside her, the same radiant beaming look on his face. His blond hair glowed, and he had the brightest teeth. She sighed. This beautiful man pointed to her right arm. Confused, Sam glanced down at her burned arm, realizing she could feel none of her injuries. Just like her other one, her broken arm had miraculously healed – whole, smooth and soft. Her skin hadn’t looked this good in ten years. She spun around to find a massive fireball below. What the hell? She had to be dead.