Exceeding Expectations


Lisa April Smith - 2011
    Next, meet his daughter Charlotte (Charlie), an over-indulged 23 year-old struggling to cope with the traumatizing loss of her beloved father, her sister’s resulting mental breakdown and the discovery that she’s suddenly penniless. Fortunately Raul, an admiring young attorney, appears to offer assistance. As terrified as she is about daily survival, Charlie soon realizes that she has to learn what drove her father to kill himself. With Raul’s much needed ego-bolstering, the drive of necessity and unforeseen determination, Charlie finds a practical use for her annoyingly lean 5’ 11” frame. In time, this career finances her hard-wrought independence, her sister’s costly treatment and an emotional eye-opening journey to Paris.Jumping back in time to romantic pre-WWII Paris readers meet young Alan Fitzpatrick – aka Jack Morgan – lack-luster artist, expert lover, irresistible rascal, and the bewitching girl who will become the mother of his children. Not even Charlie’s relentless detective work will uncover all Jack’s secrets, but in a fireworks of surprise endings, she discovers all that she needs to know and more: disturbing truths about her father, hew own unique talent, crimes great and small and a diabolical villain.

The Guernsey Novels :Books 1-3: (The Guernsey Novels Box Set No. 1)


Anne Allen - 2018
    DANGEROUS WATERS - Tragedy seems to follow Jeanne Le Page around . . . Can she really go through it again and survive? She is lucky to be alive … at sixteen Jeanne was almost killed in a boating accident which brought heart-breaking family tragedy. Now, fifteen years later, Jeanne returns reluctantly to the island of Guernsey following the death of her beloved grandmother. Struggling for breath as the ferry nears the island; she is overwhelmed by a dark foreboding as hazy memories of that terrible day resurface… Only returning to sell her inheritance - her grandmother’s old cottage - Jeanne has no intention of picking up her old life. But the cottage holds a secret, dating back to World War II and the German Occupation, and Jeanne becomes drawn into discovering more. Then, soon after her arrival, a chance meeting with an old teenage crush leads her to thoughts of love. Jeanne is forced to face her demons, reliving the tragedy as her lost memory returns. When the truth is finally revealed, her life is endangered for the second time… FINDING MOTHER - Three women. Three generations. Sacrifices for love… Who is she really? Nicole is about to find out as she searches for her real mother; the woman who gave her away at birth. With her marriage in tatters, she sets out from England: travelling to Spain, Jersey and Guernsey before the extraordinary story of her real family is finally revealed. Nicole becomes an unwitting catalyst for change in that family. Two women are forced to reveal long-buried secrets. One going back as far as the Second World War. Lives are transformed as choices have to be made and the past laid to rest… GUERNSEY RETREAT - Two violent deaths. Separated by time, but with a fatal connection… A man loses his father. A young woman loses her mother. Both in tragic circumstances that lead, when they meet, to surprising revelations from the past. Louisa needs to find the father she has never known, to warn him of possible danger - for them both. Her search takes her from England to Guernsey. Malcolm's journey is more complicated: conceived in Guernsey, his bereaved mother emigrates with him to Canada. Many years later he arrives in India, and from here he is led back to Guernsey to open a health centre at La Folie. This was his father's home and where he was killed at the start of the Second World War. At the heart of the two deaths lie stolen jewels. Valuable enough to kill for. Twice. Finding her father brings Louisa more than she bargains for, and her life is transformed, while Malcolm learns that life is, after all, for sharing… REVIEWS "I regard Anne Allen's Guernsey novels as an indulgent treat: they're seriously easy to read, with some great characters and a brilliant island location which is used to full advantage: you really feel as though you're there. Allen has a subtle insight into the dynamics of dysfunctional families - the ones with quirks in their history - and the independent people they give birth to." Bookbag "The island of Guernsey is so vividly evoked, one feels as if one is walking its byways. An atmospheric and tantalising read." -- Elizabeth Bailey, author of The Gilded Shroud. "A sensitive, heartfelt novel about family relationships, identity, adoption, second chances at love… With romance, weddings, boat trips, lovely gardens and more, Finding Mother is a dazzle of a book,

The Family Shadow: A historical mystery with long-buried secrets and dual timeline suspense


Suzanne Winterly - 2021
    A modern-day family researcher. Can she solve the century old puzzle of a racehorse trainer’s death and his wife’s disappearance?Ireland, 1891. Rosalind Thornton only wants to be a perfect mother and spouse. Happy at first to have given her husband the son he longed for, she begins to worry about his increasingly erratic spending and volatile moods. And when his body turns up in the local woods, her guilt remains in question for 130 years…2019. Fiona Foley needs to put her husband’s betrayal behind her. Offered a chance to get away and recover, the disillusioned history teacher travels to an old rambling house on the sweeping Wexford coast to assist an eccentric descendant of the Thornton family. Fending off a prying journalist intent on digging up dirt, Fiona finds herself in a race to uncover the truth.As the two women separately untangle a devastating plot, only an old journal full of riddles might be the key to solving the crime.Can Fiona figure out what really happened on the fateful night Rosalind disappeared forever?The Family Shadow is a gripping historical mystery novel. If you like long-buried secrets, dual timeline suspense, and surprising twists and turns, then you’ll love Suzanne Winterly’s evocative page-turner.

Powder Island: the Sherlock Holmes and Lucy James Mysteries, Book 26


Charles Veley - 2021
    A wounded ally. And the rise of a new and powerful enemy . . . When an unforeseen blast destroys part of England’s largest gunpowder factory, Inspector Gregson, a former ally of Sherlock Holmes, is put on the case. Holmes waits for a call to help Gregson investigate, but the call never comes. Soon Gregson will be demoted to a lowly beat patrolman, walking the streets of Whitechapel. Nine months later, the factory owner comes to Holmes for help. He has rebuilt the demolished structure and needs to resume operations. But he's received an anonymous note threatening another explosion.All known suspects have iron-clad alibis, and there are no other leads. If the culprit is not caught, the factory may never reopen, and the livelihoods of four hundred workers and their families will vanish permanently.Then Gregson is brutally stabbed in a Whitechapel alley. More mysterious circumstances unfold. Holmes realizes the Baker Street team is up against a powerful and complex enemy who will stop at nothing to avoid being caught. Can the team unmask the malefactor before more damage is done? Or will all their efforts go up in smoke?A thrilling and fast-paced take on a classic Sherlock who-done-it, complete with unexpected twists and turns, clever sleuthing, and diabolical villainy. Powder Island stays faithful to the spirit of the beloved original series, while adding fresh new mysteries and dynamic new characters. Get it today!

The Soul Summoner Series: Books 1 & 2


Elicia Hyder - 2016
    One of them would die for her; the other would kill to keep her safe.**Find out why The Soul Summoner series has been a #1 bestseller in Paranormal Suspense and has been downloaded over 100,000 times, earning hundreds of 5-Star ratings. Enjoy the first two books in the series in one convenient bundle at 50% off the cover price!**THE SOUL SUMMONER (Book 1)Blessed or cursed with a connection to the souls of others, Sloan Jordan can see the best in people...and the worst. With nothing more than a glance at a photograph, she can judge the living from the dead and the good souls from the evil ones. For twenty-seven years, she's kept her ability a secret, but eleven young women have been murdered in the mountains of North Carolina, and Sloan may be the only hope of finding their killer.She has just agreed to help Detective Nathan McNamara with the case, when a stranger--who is as alluring as he is terrifying--shows up at her doorstep with a dark past and another puzzling mystery: she can't see his soul at all.Now Sloan is on the hunt for a deadly psychopath with two irresistible men. One of them would die for her, and the other would kill to keep her safe.THE SIREN (Book 2)All the missing victims of North Carolina's deadliest serial killer have been found, all except Rachel Smith. When the FBI produces a photo proving Rachel is alive and well in Texas, one case is closed but another one is opened. Either this is a case of mistaken identity or there are more people than just Sloan Jordan and Warren Parish who seem to walk the earth without a soul.Along with Detective Nathan McNamara, Sloan and Warren travel south to find Rachel and solve the biggest mystery of all: determining who--or what--they really are.

Ticker


Lisa Mantchev - 2014
    But soon it’s discovered that Warwick killed dozens of people as he strove to perfect another improved Ticker for Penny, and he’s put on trial for mass murder. On the last day of Warwick’s trial, the Farthings’ factory is bombed, Penny’s parents disappear, and Penny and her brother, Nic, receive a ransom note demanding all of their Augmentation research if they want to see their parents again. Is someone trying to destroy the Farthings...or is the motive more sinister?Desperate to reunite their family and rescue their research, Penny and her brother recruit fiery baker Violet Nesselrode, gentleman-about-town Sebastian Stirling, and Marcus Kingsley, a young army general who has his own reasons for wanting to lift the veil between this world and the next. Wagers are placed, friends are lost, romance stages an ambush, and time is running out for the girl with the clockwork heart.

Starflight


Ron Collins - 2016
     Lieutenant Commander Torrance Black, career is already on shaky grounds, finds himself facing questions. Did they just contact sentient life in the Centauri system? Will humankind sacrifice an entire alien species in their quest for the stars? Starflight, the first book of Stealing the Sun, a space based Science Fiction series from frequent Analog contributor and bestselling Amazon Dark Fantasy author Ron Collins. “Ron Collins is one of our best hard science fiction writers—a novel from him is a major event. Enjoy!” Robert J. Sawyer Hugo Award-Winning Author of Quantum Night

Underdead with a Vengeance (Underdead Mysteries)


Liz Jasper - 2013
    Why not?Who cares. She has everything under control.Except she's not sure Will is really dead dead. And Detective Gavin Raines, her vampire-hunting crush, has popped back in her life to investigate an odd string of murders...and maybe finally ask her out on a real date.At least her her teaching job is straightforward. Or rather it was before the world's most perfect teacher joins the staff and seems to be noticing that her vampire traits are, well, a lot more apparent than she'd like them to be.Caught between two worlds and fitting into neither, Jo must risk it all to take her own path--before the next person dead is her. Buy your copy today!

Ravensblood


Shawna Reppert - 2013
    Raven. The last heir of an ancient family of dark mages, he holds the secret to recreating the Ravensblood, a legendary magical artifact of immense power.Cassandra Greensdowne is a Guardian. Magical law enforcement for the elected council — and Raven’s former apprentice and lover. She is trying to live down her past. And then her past comes to the door, asking for her help.As a youth, Raven wanted to be a Guardian but was rejected because of his ancestry. In his pride and his anger, he had turned to William, the darkest and most powerful mage of their time. William wants a return to the old ways, where the most powerful mage was ruler absolute. But William would not be a True King from the fairy tales. He would reign in blood and terror and darkest magic.Raven discovers that he does have a conscience. It’s rather inconvenient.He becomes a spy for the council that William wants to overthrow, with Cassandra as his contact.Cass and Raven have a plan to trap William outside his warded sanctuary. But William is one step ahead of the game, with Raven’s life, his soul, and the Ravensblood all in danger.

Office Wars: The Mailroom Clerk


James G. Patton - 2017
    He sleeps in a real bed and eats real food and only jumps into Neuroma to work. All he wanted was to log in, work and log out and live in general obscurity. Getting the attention of a CEO, meeting a stranger in real life, and forced to play in a secret game of corporations were not penciled into his calendar. While that was bad, he started to question whether Odditek was still in control, or had their complacency created the noose tightening around their neck. Bran was not yet aware of the choice before him. He could no longer stand back and watch, and he had to pick a side and fight before he lost the ability to choose. Would he recognize the inevitable in time? Was it possible to make a ‘correct’ choice, or had the lines blurred so much that hero and villain were indistinguishable? This novel is part of an Odditek series and is a LitRPG novel. I realize it’s the first Odditek series, but more are coming. This series started as a companion series to a book called Lantern Online. I wanted a way to build up the world as it now exists, and to explain what Odditek is. Neuroma and Nerves are mentioned in Lantern Online, and I felt all that information was taking away from my story and is mostly not relevant, but good to know information. I took a lot of it out and added it to this series. Anyway, out of that came Office Wars. I hope it's different than most LitRPG you will read, and brings another dimension to the genre. Explicit language! I will not lie, there is a satirical nature to this story, and a lot of the language and scenarios are morally questionable on purpose. In this story and I use a lot of curse words and controversial commentary. Just look on Facebook or any half a dozen social media sites, and you will see similar language, conversations, and other nonsense. If we all moved into a digital world, this is how I view that world.

Queen Of The Dawn: A Love Tale Of Old Egypt


H. Rider Haggard - 2000
    It opens at an almost breakneck pace, with Pharaoh deposed and killed, his wife and child in hiding, and the goddesses stirring. A secret religious order raises the Pharaoh's daughter, and she meets and falls in love with the usurper's disguised son. The climax features traditional adventure-fiction excitement (battle and torture).

Resting Witch Face


Hazel Hendrix - 2017
    A mysterious murder that threatens to expose their way of life to the world. Flower farmer and average witch Gemma Iren has a big problem: a dead body. At first she thought it was a ghost, of course. Those are commonplace in Dewdrop, her magical hometown. Good luck explaining that to the police when they ask her why she didn’t call to report the suspicious death. The witches of Madison County don’t bat an eye when a dead boy turns up near the town square. Why would they? Not a single male family member has made it out of his twenties in countless generations. Her cousins briefly speculate about evil fairies and werewolves that may have killed him before their attention moves on to an upcoming annual celebration. Gemma doesn’t have that luxury. She’s a murder suspect now, with a mandate from beyond the grave to solve the crime. To make things worse, Dewdrop is overrun by tourists eager to rediscover their magical roots. Gemma already has enough cousins as it is! She’s related to everyone in town. And these witches are in hysterics about the clueless strangers who found their names on some annoying genealogy website listing the descendants of the family matriarch. Her ghost is scheduled to visit and bless the town, but this year Grandma is not very happy. Now it’s up to Gemma to solve a murder, appease an angry spirit, and convince these crazy witches to keep quiet about magic as two hunky police officers investigate their community. All this on top of her hexed, apathetic brother moving back home, a close cousin with a potion addiction and an anxiety disorder, and two bickering great aunts. Oh, and a magical flower business to run. Gemma is usually an optimistic girl, but it’s no wonder she’s got a bad case of Resting Witch Face. A full length paranormal cozy mystery novel, approximately 68,000 words.

Out of Time


Deborah Truscott - 2011
    Then her uncle dies, leaving her the family’s Revolutionary-era home and, she believes, an escape from her chaotic marriage. But one afternoon, while searching for a rake, she discovers a man in her garden shed — and a free fall through the centuries. As her life spins wildly out of control, Kathleen finds her heart and in the process, her own place in time.

Angst


David J. Pedersen - 2010
    Angst had longed to be a knight of Unsel, to make his mark in history, to be remembered for heroic deeds and wondrous acts. He grew up knowing he was destined for something great, but now it is too late. Not only is 40 far too old to become a knight, Angst is one of the few able to wield “the magics”.For 2,000 years magic has been outlawed, repressed, even outright destroyed throughout the world of Ehrde. By law, Angst is reduced to using his great power only to file papers. His marriage is on the rocks, his friends are bored with him, and he hates his job. The one person that makes him happy is the young Princess Victoria who seems to adore him. Unfortunately, that makes his boss, the Queen, hate him.Without warning, Unsel is besieged with dangerous monsters - birds with metallic beaks, monkey creatures that can dive through solid ground, mindless horse-eating giants. The world that shunned magic now turns to Angst for help, and he is happy to listen once his back stops hurting.On the edge of a mid-life crisis, Angst drags his reluctant friends along with him on an adventure into the heart of magic. He’s not sure where they’re going, what they’ll find, or even if they’ll survive. But he knows this is his one chance to be a hero because the only way to fight magic is with magic.

Big Jack Is Dead


Harvey Smith - 2013
    Controlled and calculating, his world begins to splinter when he learns - in the middle of a corporate meeting - that his father has committed suicide. Returning home to the Gulf Coast, Jack struggles with a host of unresolved feelings as he buries the man he hated most. Interwoven throughout the novel, chapters set in the 1970s depict Jack as a boy, chronicling his relationships with a storm-tossed mother and a menacing father, living in the shadows of the petrochemical plants scattered along the Gulf Coast. The novel highlights the differences between life in California at the end of the Dot-Com era and life in blue collar Texas during the 1970s, contrasting Jack as a man and as a child, and showing how the people who bring us into the world shape us forever.