He’s everything I never wanted in a place or a person. When people ask me what I love about living in the Pacific Northwest, my answer is brutally honest: absolutely nothing. The constant rain depresses me, the grey skies drain my energy, the obsessive coffee culture mystifies me, and don’t even get me started on the outdoor enthusiasts who think hiking in the drizzle constitutes a good time. But the mountain of debt my manipulative ex-boyfriend saddled me with before disappearing means I’m financially trapped here, unable to afford the escape I desperately crave 🌧️So I started a food blog thinking it would be my ticket out—building an audience, monetizing recipes, eventually earning enough to leave this perpetually damp corner of the country behind. Wrong. The blog’s going nowhere, my debt remains insurmountable, and I’m stuck in a city I can’t stand. Just when I think things couldn’t possibly get any worse, my eternally optimistic roommate drags me to a singles event where she hopes to meet Mr. Right 💔
Instead, I meet Mr. Wrong: Dustin Kelley, a diehard Pacific Northwesterner who embodies everything I hate about this place. He actually enjoys the rain, genuinely loves hiking, and speaks with evangelical fervor about the region’s natural beauty. We couldn’t be more different if we tried—he’s sunshine personified despite the clouds, I’m counting down the days until I can leave. We should have parted ways after that disastrous first meeting ☀️
But then I discover Dustin runs a wildly successful hiking blog with a massive following, and suddenly I see an opportunity. We can collaborate: he gets five tries to make me fall in love with the Pacific Northwest while I create recipes and food content for our joint adventures. It’s purely transactional, mutually beneficial, and temporary. Except Dustin turns out to be the sweetest, kindest, most genuine guy I’ve ever met—my unexpected ray of sunshine in this otherwise gloomy place. And falling in love was definitely never part of the plan 🥾
Lizzy Barlow delivers opposites-attract romantic comedy where location becomes character, where someone determined to hate everything about a place slowly discovers what makes it special, and where professional collaboration becomes personal connection. When my blog finally takes off and gives me enough money to move anywhere I want, I’m left with an impossible choice: stay for love or go for dreams? 💕
Why this deserves your attention: An opposites-attract rom-com where a woman who hates the Pacific Northwest teams up with a hiking blogger to boost her food blog—he gets five tries to make her love the region while she falls for him instead. Perfect for readers who love grumpy/sunshine dynamics, forced proximity during outdoor adventures, professional partnerships becoming romance, and impossible choices between dreams and love. First in Love in the PNW series. 🌲
Grumpy fireman, meet your Sunshine! Grace absolutely does not need saving, thank you very much. She’s perfectly capable of handling her own life, her own problems, and her own disasters—especially not from a guy whose nickname literally screams danger. So why is she so inexplicably, frustratingly drawn to Tox Ellis, the Darling Bay Fire Department’s hazmat guru who specializes in preventing volatile compounds from exploding? 🔥Tox has built his career on understanding chemical reactions, knowing precisely how to keep dangerous substances from going boom, and maintaining strict protocols that prevent catastrophe. He’s methodical, careful, controlled—in the firehouse, at least. But apparently, all that expertise in managing volatile compounds doesn’t help him one bit when it comes to resisting Grace, the vibrant, enthusiastic woman who’s absolutely convinced he needs fixing 💕
Grace sees Tox’s grumpy exterior and assumes he’s damaged, lonely, in need of sunshine and positivity to draw him out of his shell. She’s determined to help him, to make him smile, to show him life can be more than hazmat protocols and emergency responses. What she doesn’t understand is that Tox’s grumpiness isn’t depression—it’s self-protection, because he knows exactly what happens when you mix incompatible compounds. And he and Grace? They’re the definition of incompatible 😊
Will the small town of Darling Bay survive the sizzling chemistry when these two finally stop fighting their attraction? Who’s going to be there to extinguish the inevitable flames when the fire department’s hazmat expert combusts with the woman who won’t take no for an answer? Rachael Herron—a bestselling author and ex-real-life 911 fire dispatcher who knows exactly how firefighters think and talk—delivers sweet, hilarious romance where opposites don’t just attract, they ignite. One hot firefighter meets (and lights) his match. Combustible? Oh, absolutely 🚒
What makes this irresistible: A sweet romantic comedy where a sunshine woman determined to fix a grumpy hazmat firefighter discovers he doesn’t need saving—he needs her, and Darling Bay better have fire extinguishers ready. Perfect for readers who love grumpy/sunshine dynamics, small-town settings, firefighter heroes with specialized skills, and former 911 dispatchers who write authentic first responder romance. First in Firefighters of Darling Bay series. 🌟
Criminals. Murderers. Thieves. Traitors. That’s exactly what makes the Outcast Marines special—and completely expendable in the eyes of military command. These aren’t the elite soldiers featured in recruitment propaganda or the decorated heroes who get medals and parades. The Outcast Marines are the absolute worst of the worst, the bottom of the barrel, the ones society has already written off as irredeemable 🚀If you’re conscripted into the Outcast Marines, you can realistically expect to spend whatever remains of your days undertaking desperate, suicidal missions that no one else can do—or more accurately, that no one else is willing to do. These are the assignments where success is improbable, survival unlikely, and return near impossible. Command sends the Outcasts because their lives don’t matter in the grand calculus of military strategy 💀
For Solomon, Jezzie, Malady, and the other Outcasts, though, this nightmare scenario was actually the better option. They gladly took conscription into what amounts to a military suicide squad because the alternative was spending the rest of their lives rotting on a remote prison moon—a slow death of isolation and despair versus a quick death doing something that might actually matter. At least as Outcast Marines, they get to die on their feet rather than wasting away in a cell ⚔️
And here’s the thing about desperate people with nothing left to lose: sometimes it takes truly bad guys to save the day. When conventional forces fail, when elite units can’t or won’t take the mission, when the situation calls for soldiers who’ll do absolutely anything to survive because they’ve already been condemned anyway—that’s when the Outcast Marines prove their unexpected worth. James David Victor launches a space marine series where redemption comes through impossible missions, where society’s rejects become unlikely heroes, and where sometimes the worst humanity has to offer is exactly what humanity needs 🌌
What makes this essential: A space marine thriller where criminals, murderers, and thieves conscripted into the expendable Outcast Marines take suicidal missions—because prison moon death was the alternative and sometimes bad guys save the day. Perfect for readers who love military sci-fi, antihero protagonists, suicide squad dynamics, impossible missions, and soldiers with nothing to lose becoming everything humanity needs. First in Outcast Marines series. 🔥
What Comes of Attending the Commoners Ball
Hester Flanders went to the ball for the food, plain and simple. She’s hardworking but perpetually hungry, and when you’re raised in the country with a healthy respect for folk superstitions, you learn early that there’s no such thing as a free lunch—that’s how the Folk get you, binding you with debts and obligations you can’t escape. But the king’s annual Commoners Ball seems like the perfect loophole: a free meal that’s not technically a gift since it’s offered to everyone. Just grab some food, enjoy the spectacle, and leave before anyone notices you 🍽️The plan would have worked perfectly except for one problem: a pesky prince took a shine to her. Hester, who came specifically to avoid attention, somehow attracted the notice of royalty. Now she’s trying to extract herself from an increasingly complicated situation without accepting anything that could be construed as a gift, because even though no one else in the capital city seems to care about the old superstitions anymore, Hester knows better. The Folk may not have been seen in the city for generations, but that doesn’t mean they’re gone 👑
Crown Prince Inglebert Lucas Chesingwick—practical, responsible, and deeply annoyed—isn’t interested in Hester romantically. He’s just trying to manage his mischievous younger brother, who’s causing a scene at the ball by flirting with a peasant girl. Lucas can separate them for one night with careful intervention, but his brother is determined to see the poor girl again. And again. And for reasons Lucas can’t quite explain, he keeps running into Hester too, drawn into her orbit despite his better judgment 🎭
Elisabeth Aimee Brown crafts a humorous fairy tale where the princes genuinely mean well—Lucas wants to help Hester escape his brother’s attention and maybe improve her circumstances—but Hester knows something they don’t: you never accept favors from anyone, not even royalty, not even if it’s cheese, and certainly not even if saying no breaks your heart. Just because the Folk haven’t been seen in the city doesn’t mean they’re not around, watching, waiting for someone foolish enough to accept a gift. Hester’s country superstitions clash hilariously with urban sophistication, practical kindness meets stubborn refusal, and sometimes the most dangerous magic is the kindness of princes 🧀
What makes this irresistible: A humorous fairy tale featuring a peasant who crashes the ball for free food, accidentally attracts princely attention, and refuses all help due to Folk superstitions nobody else believes—practical princes versus stubborn country girl in a world where old magic might still exist. Perfect for readers who love quirky heroines, well-meaning royals, and fantasy comedy with heart. 🌟
First rule of being a nanny? Don’t fall for the single dad, especially when he’s smoking hot, grumpy, and happens to be the small-town sheriff. But that’s exactly what happens when Asher Whitlock reluctantly hires me to take care of his daughter for the summer. Neither of us is thrilled with this arrangement from the start—he’s a protective father desperate for reliable childcare, and I need the money for grad school this fall. It’s supposed to be a simple transaction: I watch his kid, he pays me, we maintain professional distance until August ends 👶All we need to do is keep our boundaries clear and remain professional. Turns out, that’s significantly easier said than done when you’re living in close quarters with a man who has a strong jawline that could cut glass, crystal-blue eyes that see right through you, and a rock-hard body maintained by physical work and discipline. Instead of focusing on my future and the graduate program I’ve worked so hard to get into, all I can see is what’s right in front of me. We try desperately to resist the attraction, establishing rules and maintaining distance, but we end up crossing every single line until I’m in his bed 🔥
I tell myself it’s just this once. A moment of weakness we can pretend never happened. Okay, twice. Two mistakes are still manageable. All right, fine—every night. We’re sleeping together every night now, and the professional arrangement has become deeply, irrevocably personal. But this has to end eventually, right? He’s fourteen years older than me, which creates a power dynamic we’re both aware of. He has a kid who’s starting to get attached to me. His job as sheriff is demanding and stressful. And have I mentioned that my dad is his boss? The complications are multiplying faster than we can manage them 😰
Corinne Michaels delivers a forbidden small-town romance where the age gap and professional boundaries are only the beginning of the complications. There’s also the past I’m trying to forget, secrets that are getting too big to hide, and the growing realization that what started as a summer job has become something neither of us can walk away from easily. In a small town where everyone knows everyone’s business, keeping this relationship secret is nearly impossible, and the consequences of discovery could devastate multiple lives. But sometimes the heart wants what it wants, regardless of how many rules you’re breaking 💕
What makes this compelling: A forbidden small-town romance featuring a nanny falling for her grumpy sheriff boss who’s fourteen years older, has a daughter, and reports to her father—professional boundaries shatter as secrets multiply. Perfect for readers who love age-gap romance, single-dad heroes, small-town settings, and relationships that break all the rules. First in the Whitlock Family series. 🌟
Jay Delp is a veteran Marine returning to Ocean Springs, Mississippi—the hometown he left years ago—to step into his new role as police chief while simultaneously caring for his ailing father. It’s a homecoming weighted with dual responsibilities: professional obligations to a community he once knew intimately, and personal duty to a parent whose health is failing. Jay thought he understood what he was walking into, believed his military experience and local knowledge would make the transition smooth 🎖️On the eve of his first official day as chief, two fishermen make a grisly discovery in Biloxi Bay: the body of a woman, submerged and hidden beneath the murky water. What should have been a routine transition into civilian law enforcement becomes an immediate trial by fire. The case lands on Jay’s desk before he’s even settled into the office, before he’s learned the names of his officers or understood the current dynamics of the department he’s now leading 🌊
As city officials push for a quick resolution—they want the case closed, the headlines managed, the tourism season protected from negative publicity—Jay finds himself uncovering dark secrets that have been hiding beneath the surface of his once-familiar town. Ocean Springs isn’t the place he remembers from his youth, or perhaps it always was this way and he was too young to see it. The longer he investigates the woman’s death, the more he realizes that solving this case means confronting uncomfortable truths about the community he’s sworn to protect 🔍
Douglas Pratt launches a serial killer thriller series with a protagonist caught between military discipline and small-town politics, between who Ocean Springs pretended to be and what it actually is. Jay’s investigation peels back layers of respectability to expose rot underneath, and his outsider-insider status—local boy who left and returned changed—gives him both advantages and vulnerabilities. The woman under the bridge is just the beginning, and Jay is about to learn that coming home doesn’t mean you can ever truly go back 🌙
What makes this essential: A Mississippi-set thriller featuring a Marine veteran turned police chief whose first case—a body in Biloxi Bay—exposes dark secrets beneath his hometown’s surface as officials demand quick closure. Perfect for readers who love small-town noir, military veterans confronting civilian corruption, and protagonists torn between duty and truth. First in the Jay Delp series. 🐊
… See the rest of today ‘s Book Picks here on page 3Page 3