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The Holdouts (Detective Buddy Lock #2)


James Tucker - 2018
    Homicide cop Buddy Lock knows there isn’t a chance in hell that this is some tragic accident. But as soon as his investigation begins, so do the warnings to back off. They’re not only coming from within the NYPD; they’re hitting close to Buddy’s heart: his new family has become the killer’s target.When people start disappearing from Chinatown, Buddy finds himself on the trail of a killer whose motives are more twisting and far-reaching than the detective imagined. A killer who knows just how to get to him—by pursuing everyone he loves. Now Buddy can trust only himself—even as his relentless pursuit of justice plunges him into the most brutal waters of his career.

My Remarkable Little Monkey


Mark Lages - 2017
    It is a decision that will soon change his life. The capuchin monkey he purchases turns out to be more than just an ordinary little tree-swinging pet. This monkey, named Shakespeare, is exceptionally bright. Marty does everything he can think of to accommodate his furry brilliant friend, but it just doesn’t seem to be enough. Join Marty and his group of unforgettable friends as they try to give Shakespeare a proper upbringing in an unpredictable human-oriented world. In My Remarkable Little Monkey, the outlandish becomes a reality and the status quo becomes unbelievable. Once you are done reading, you’ll put this book down while scratching your head and wondering what just happened.

The Talented Miss Farwell


Emily Gray Tedrowe - 2020
    Dressed in couture YSL, drinking the finest champagne at trendy Balthazar, Reba, as she’s known, is the picture of a wealthy art collector. To some, the elusive Miss Farwell is a shark with outstanding business acumen. To others, she’s a heartless capitalist whose only interest in art is how much she can make.But a thousand miles from the Big Apple, in the small town of Pierson, Illinois, Miss Farwell is someone else entirely—a quiet single woman known as Becky who still lives in her family’s farmhouse, wears sensible shoes, and works tirelessly as the town’s treasurer and controller. No one understands the ins and outs of Pierson’s accounts better than Becky; she’s the last one in the office every night, crunching the numbers. Somehow, her neighbors marvel, she always finds a way to get the struggling town just a little more money. What Pierson doesn’t see—and can never discover—is that much of that money is shifted into a separate account that she controls, “borrowed” funds used to finance her art habit. Though she quietly repays Pierson when she can, the business of art is cutthroat and unpredictable. But as Reba Farwell’s deals get bigger and bigger, Becky Farwell’s debt to Pierson spirals out of control. How long can the talented Miss Farwell continue to pull off her double life?

Believe Like a Child


Paige Dearth - 2011
    Unable to live there, she runs away.Alone on the streets of North Philadelphia, she encounters more people who hurt her. About to hit rock bottom, Alessa breaks free from her new tormentors and finds refuge in a shelter for homeless and abused women.Wherever she goes, however, trouble keeps seeking her out, until she meets three people who change the course of her life. Though Alessa's bittersweet journey is fraught with challenges, she does, nevertheless, find fleeting moments of joy. Then, as she settles down, a ghost from the past comes to haunt her, threatening to destroy the very foundation of her small world and plunging her back into an abyss of despair, until she makes her final bid for escape.**WARNING** 18+ Readers Only. Graphic content and subject matter. (This is a standalone novel)

The Girl Who Cheated Death


Alan Baker - 2018
    Ironically, recovering from her emotional and physical scars is not her biggest challenge. She is also haunted by Azrael, the angel of death. On the morning of the accident, Alex watches as Azrael takes the souls of her family. And the visions keep coming. A man with oily black hair in a pinstripe suit appears to Alex in the hospital, outside her high school, and in the woods near her campsite. She worries that she’s crazy, though Azrael appears to be just as threatened by her ability to see him. She confides in her doctor and friends and, while they appear to believe her, they are unable to help Alex banish death. Midway through the book, the narrative takes an unexpected twist and Alex’s recovery is overshadowed by the realization that she could bring her family back to life. But Azrael is determined to stop Alex’s meddling and she must enlist the help of her remaining family and friends if there is any hope for success.The Girl Who Cheated Death placed as a Semi-Finalist in the 2018 Faulkner Wisdom Competition

The Forgotten Girl


David Bell - 2014
    Now she’s clean and sober but in need of a desperate favor—she asks Jason and his wife to take care of her teenage daughter for forty-eight hours while she handles some business in town.But Hayden never returns.And her disappearance brings up more unresolved problems from Jason’s past, including the abrupt departure of his best friend on their high school graduation night twenty-seven years earlier. When a body is discovered in the woods, the mysteries of his sister’s life—and possible death—deepen. And one by one these events will shatter every expectation Jason has ever had about families, about the awful truths that bind them and the secrets that should be taken to the grave.

The Post-it Note Affair: A Romance Novelette of Love Lost and Found


Justine Avery - 2015
    Is that too much to ask? Emily really can't complain. She's married to a wonderful man, her high school sweetheart, who still dotes on her as he did when he first laid eyes on her. They have a beautiful home together, and they each enjoy successful careers. On the outside looking in, Emily has what any woman would be perfectly happy with. But it's just not enough. Emily can't help wishing for just a bit more—for that special spark, for that thrill of something new and surprising, for the shivery tingles running down her spine. For real passion—for true romance. She never expects to find it during the workday and definitely not in the form of a sticky note. Just one square slip of paper with a few handwritten words, tucked mysteriously into the contents of her purse and dropped right into her small world, marks the first of a slew of sexy surprises Emily couldn't have anticipated no matter how hard she wished for them. She's desperately sought after every one of the special moments in store for her, and there's no question that she deserves them. Even as Emily eagerly anticipates and thoroughly savors all of the excitement and mystery of what may come, she just can't guess the roller coaster of emotions she's soon to experience—or just how much it will change her. And she may never guess just who—is leading her on the romantic adventure of her dreams. Just when she feels she's lost the life and love she most wants to have, she finds them—in the last place she'd ever think to look. ♦ Bronze Award for Best Romance (Feathered Quill Book Awards) ♦ Silver Award for Best Short Story (Feathered Quill Book Awards) ♦ Official Selection for Romance (New Apple Summer E-Book Awards) ♦ Finalist for Adult Fiction (The Wishing Shelf Independent Book Awards) ♦ B.R.A.G. Medallion Award ♦ Enjoy the Read... If you delight in new love, romantic mystery, secret admirer, second chances romance, passion renewed, office romance, romantic affairs, romantic marriage, and workplace romance, you'll relish reading The Post-it Note Affair.

The Templar Map: A Jason Dalton Mystery Thriller


Kevin R. HillKevin R. Hill - 2017
    Killer for Uncle Sam. Ex-army Ranger. Labelled KIA to protect his family after a data breach. Now, believed dead, he waits in LA for the cartel killers he once hunted to come for his fiancée.When the discovery of a priceless treasure map heats up the streets of LA, Dalton sees a beautiful widow threatened and followed by professional no-necks. He has to help. Who better to fight killers than a killer?Cinematically written, The Templar Map is a fast-paced, mystery thriller full of underworld crime and edge of the seat action from K.R. Hill.Fans of Tom Clancy's Jack Ryan, Lee Child's Jack Reacher, Vince Flynn's Mitch Rapp, and Robert Ludlum's Jason Bourne will enjoy this mystery thriller.

Warning Light


David Ricciardi - 2014
    But for undercover intelligence analyst Zac Miller, the CIA-staged crash landing is the only part of his assignment that goes right.What was supposed to be a simple surveillance mission quickly heads south when the Iranians apprehend the smooth-talking American. Never trained to be a field operative, Zac's in over his head, especially when it turns out escaping from captivity is only the beginning of his problems. On the run across Europe from both Iranian agents and Western authorities who are convinced he's defected, Zac finds himself fighting for his life, with no guarantee he'll even have one to go back to...

Two Truths and a Lie


Meg Mitchell Moore - 2020
    Rebecca Coleman, widely acknowledged former leader of the Newburyport Mom Squad (having taken a step back since her husband’s shocking and tragic death eighteen months ago), has made a surprising effort to include these newcomers in typically closed-group activities. Rebecca’s teenage daughter Alexa has even been spotted babysitting Katie.Truth: Alexa has time on her hands because of a recent falling-out with her longtime best friends for reasons no one knows—but everyone suspects have to do with Alexa’s highly popular and increasingly successful YouTube channel. Katie Griffin, who at age 11 probably doesn’t need a babysitter anymore, can’t be left alone because she has terrifying nightmares that don’t seem to jibe with the vague story Sherri has floated about the “bad divorce” she left behind in Ohio. Rebecca Coleman has been spending a lot of time with Sherri, it’s true, but she’s also been spending time with someone else she doesn’t want the Mom Squad to know about just yet.Lie: Rebecca Coleman doesn’t have a new man in her life, and definitely not someone connected to the Mom Squad. Alexa is not seeing anyone new herself and is planning on shutting down her YouTube channel in advance of attending college in the fall. Sherri Griffin’s real name is Sherri Griffin, and a bad divorce is all she’s running from.A blend of propulsive thriller and gorgeous summer read, Two Truths and a Lie reminds us that happiness isn’t always a day at the beach, some secrets aren’t meant to be shared, and the most precious things are the people we love.

I Don't Like to Eat Ants


J.T.K. Belle - 2019
    He'll try anything else - a grilled cheese sandwich, a cinnamon bun, or a chocolate cake - but he's eaten his last ant. Anteater Two only wants ants to eat. And so they enter into a lively debate about the best food for an anteater, until (at the urging of two very relieved ants) they finally agree to go together to Anteater Three's Peanut Butter & Jelly Deli to try something new - a world-famous peanut butter-&-jelly sandwich. Sabine Mielke's beautiful, stylized illustrations accompany JTK Belle's rhyming, laugh-out-loud text, in this charming, relatable, story. A perfect read-aloud for picky-eaters and adventurous eaters alike.

Let's Not Do That Again


Grant Ginder
    Not that that’s her slogan, although it should be. This is what she’s worked so hard for over the years after her husband’s untimely death (which was definitely not her fault) and inheriting his seat in the House of Representatives. She’s said all the right things. Passed all the right legislation. Chapped her lips kissing babies. There’s just one problem: her grown children.Greta and Nick Harriman are adrift. Nick, recently heartbroken, is floundering in his attempts to write a musical about the life of Joan Didion (called Hello to All That). And then there’s his little sister Greta. Smart, pretty, and completely unmotivated by anything, allowing her life to pass her by like the shoppers at the Apple store where she works.But then one morning the world wakes up not to Nancy making headlines, but Greta. She’s in Paris. With extremist protestors. Throwing a bottle of champagne through a beloved bistro’s front window. In order to save her campaign, not to mention her daughter, Nancy and Nick must find Greta before it’s too late.Smart and poignant, funny and tear-jerking, Let’s Not Do That Again proves that like democracy, family is a messy and fragile thing that means more than any mother, or senator, could ever dream.

A Thousand Bayonets


Joel Mark Harris - 2011
    Now he must find a way to survive in this Canadian warzone-or die in the crossfire.John Webster has seen the terrible things human beings can do. He's an experienced investigative journalist, recently returned from the war in Afghanistan. John saw hell over there; he looked death straight in the face. He is glad to be back to the normalcy of his Canadian home-that is, until he realizes there is a war brewing in his own backyard, and "peace" is a word no longer spoken.John gets caught up in the battle between two of the most powerful and murderous criminal gangs in the city. Using what he learned on the foreign battlefields, he stays alive, despite the price on his head. The only way to save his own life is to find the man responsible for the brutal neighborhood bloodshed. When the police slap a subpoena on him, though, John finds his only solace on the streets.Suddenly, John is back in a warzone, fighting for his life. Will he be able to stop the bloodthirsty crime lords? The flashbacks to Afghanistan threaten to pull John into darkness. Soon, the past and present collide, and he can't tell which way is up or down. The need for redemption may be stronger than the need for survival as John Webster finds himself on his most dangerous assignment yet.

The Replacement Chronicles


Harper Swan - 2016
     Two Lives… separated by millennia but nevertheless linked irrevocably. What possible link could Mark Hayek, an introverted twenty-first century research scientist, have to Raven, a young healer who lived during the late Pleistocene? It has everything to do with an injured Neanderthal man taken captive by Raven’s band while he and his brothers were hunting bison. After Raven heals the captive, he leaves for his tribe, and she tries to forget him as she struggles to remain within the band. But it’s not possible to stay when several band members make her life with the group untenable. Seeking the Neanderthal man she’d helped and facing her fear of being alone on the dangerous steppes, she begins crossing that grassy land—but a woman like Raven isn’t destined to be by herself for long. In the future, Mark Hayek is forced into making his own journey when his uncle dies in the Levant. His travels place him firmly in the footsteps of his Neanderthal and Early Modern Human ancestors, crossing the same ancient lands as he struggles against the fate a wayward kinsman has imposed. He’s been made a pawn in a cruel game, but when he encounters a woman being held prisoner in a cave, he seeks a way to save her. Help arrives for the pair, flowing from an unexpected, ancient source, igniting a struggle deep within Mark to accept that the illogical as well as the logical make up existence. Peoples come and go, one group replacing another over time, and echoes from ancient events have always affected the future, but Mark and Raven discover that in certain environments echoes are able to bounce back and forth, blurring their origins.

The Girl Who Wasn't There


Vincent Zandri - 2020
    Not your best friend, not your wife, not the police—and certainly not yourself. Sidney O’Keefe just wants to spend a peaceful weekend alone with his wife and daughter in the vacation paradise of Lake Placid, New York—now that he’s been paroled after a ten year stretch in a maximum-security prison. But any illusion of a peaceful future is destroyed when his eleven-year-old daughter, Chloe, suddenly disappears from the iconic beach scene, leaving Sidney and his wife, Penny, stricken with fear and panic.          When it’s determined that his old crime boss, Mickey Rabuffo, might be behind the abduction, it becomes apparent that the past has not only come back to haunt Sidney, but it’s come back to kill the entire family. With the village police assuming that Sidney, an ex-con with a history of prison violence, is responsible for his daughter’s disappearance, Sidney is left with no choice—he needs to take the law into his own hands—not only to expose the truth about what’s developing into a conspiracy of Biblical proportions, but also to render his own particular brand of rough justice. Perfect for fans of Gillian Flynn and Paula Hawkins