Quinn Delaney’s empty nest was supposed to mean freedom and fresh starts—a new lakeside café in Bookend Bay, spiced lattes, carefully selected feature scones. Instead, she’s being followed. Not by a regular stalker, mind you, but by a conniving ghost who makes demands Quinn can’t ignore: an exchange of favors that could either save or sink her café before she serves her first customer. Oh, and the police want to question her about a murder. Midlife was not supposed to include ghosts, murder investigations, and existential crises about both her marriage and her sanity. ☕
Clare Lockhart taps into the growing midlife paranormal cozy subgenre with a protagonist facing the kind of transitions that resonate with readers navigating similar life stages. Quinn’s empty nest timing and second-act café dreams ground the supernatural elements in relatable life circumstances. The ghost isn’t there for atmosphere—she’s got an agenda and leverage, creating genuine conflict beyond the murder mystery itself. 👻
The Bookend Bay setting promises both small-town cozy charm and the kind of close community where everyone notices everything, making Quinn’s secret ghost problem even more complicated. Lockhart understands that paranormal cozies work best when the supernatural elements create problems rather than solving them—Quinn can’t exactly tell the police she’s getting information from the deceased. The best friend Toni provides the necessary confidant role. 🌊
The title’s wordplay establishes Lockhart’s lighter tone while the series name “Midlife is Murder” promises ongoing adventures for Quinn and her problematic ghost. The café business provides a sustainable setting for future books while offering natural opportunities for community interaction and amateur sleuthing. The questioning of Quinn’s sanity adds psychological depth to what could otherwise be straightforward paranormal cozy territory. 🔮
What makes this work: It’s paranormal cozy mystery that acknowledges midlife as transformation rather than ending, with a ghost who’s more complication than helper. The café setting and lakeside location create cozy atmosphere while the ghost’s demands add genuine stakes. Perfect for fans of Adele Abbott or Angie Fox’s Southern Ghost Hunter series. 🎃
Tanya Bowe’s life hits the cozy mystery starter pack: divorced, broke, struggling vintage furniture shop, and one genuinely malevolent rescue cat. Just when her tech-savvy stepson and new business partner start turning things around, an old schoolfriend is found dead at the foot of the stairs in her family mansion. The police—led by Tanya’s ex-husband, DI George Carter—call it an accident. Tanya’s journalist instincts scream murder. Armed with her nose for lies and Mouse’s tech abilities, she digs into the Conrad family’s secrets, uncovering betrayal, jealousy, and resentments that have festered for decades. 🏴
PJ Skinner crafts a British cozy that balances quaint setting with genuine edge—that malevolent cat isn’t just quirky pet humor, it signals Skinner’s willingness to add teeth to the cozy formula. Tanya’s background as an investigative journalist provides believable motivation and skills for amateur sleuthing, while her vintage furniture business offers a sustainable setting for future investigations. The Seacastle location promises small-town charm with dark undercurrents. 🔍
The ex-husband detective dynamic adds natural conflict without requiring contrived romantic tension—George’s skepticism becomes an obstacle Tanya must overcome through evidence rather than charm. Skinner understands that family secrets make the best British mysteries, giving the Conrad mansion layers of dysfunction to peel back. The “bodies pile up” promise suggests this isn’t a gentle puzzle but a series with escalating danger. 🏰
The tech-savvy stepson Mouse provides both modern investigation tools and intergenerational appeal, acknowledging that contemporary cozies need to embrace technology rather than pretend smartphones don’t exist. Skinner’s voice balances the cozy genre’s lighter tone with Tanya’s harder-edged journalism background, creating a protagonist who can navigate both quirky locals and serious criminal investigation. The series setup promises recurring characters and evolving relationships across Seacastle. 📱
Why this hits: It’s British cozy mystery that doesn’t sacrifice substance for charm, with a journalist protagonist whose background actually matters to the investigation. The malevolent cat alone suggests Skinner isn’t following every cozy convention blindly. For readers who want their British villages with a side of genuine menace. 🐱
He was the boy she loved. Now he’s the mafia king who wants her dead. Nero Barretti is ruthless, revered, and completely in control of her fate. For ten years she’s been running from their shared past, but escape is no longer an option—to save her family, she’ll have to risk everything. An impossible bargain. An unstoppable passion. And the thinnest possible line between hate and desire. 🔥
Roxy Sloane delivers straight-up mafia romance heat with a second-chance enemies-to-lovers framework that promises maximum angst. The childhood connection turned deadly opposition creates built-in emotional complexity—these aren’t strangers discovering attraction, they’re former lovers who’ve become enemies, which means every interaction carries history and betrayal. The life-or-death stakes elevate this beyond simple romantic tension into genuine danger. 💔
The “ruthless mafia king” archetype is romance catnip for readers who want their alpha males dark and dangerous, while the heroine’s decade of running suggests she’s not simply falling into his arms—she’s got survival instincts and backbone. Sloane’s positioning of family salvation as the motivation creates noble stakes beyond just personal desire, giving the heroine agency even when she’s in Nero’s power. 👑
The hate-to-desire trajectory is enemies-to-lovers romance at its most intense, promising explosive confrontations and even more explosive reconciliations. Sloane writes in the dark romance tradition where moral ambiguity and dangerous men are features, not bugs. The bargain framework suggests negotiation, power dynamics, and the kind of forced proximity that accelerates romantic tension. 🌹
What makes this sizzle: It’s dark mafia romance that doesn’t apologize for its alpha hero or soften its dangerous edges. The childhood sweethearts to mortal enemies arc provides emotional depth to the darkness, while the impossible bargain creates immediate conflict. For readers who want their romance dangerous and their redemption hard-won. 🖤
Fatally Flaky: Goldy Schulz Undercover at a Spa with a Killer Watching
It’s been a long, rainy summer in Aspen Meadow, and caterer Goldy Schulz is drowning in wedding receptions. That would be manageable if she only had reasonable clients, but Billie Attenborough—the bride from absolute hell—has changed her menu six times, altered the event date twice, and is now demanding the venue be moved to the Gold Gulch Spa just two days before she ties the knot. Goldy’s patience is wearing thin, but she’s a professional. She’ll make it work. Then things get significantly worse ☕
Doc Finn, the beloved local physician and best friend of Goldy’s godfather Jack, is killed when his car tumbles into a ravine. At least, that’s what the initial investigation suggests—a tragic accident on a winding mountain road. But Jack suspects something darker. He believes Doc was murdered because of research he was conducting at the Gold Gulch Spa, allegations that seem far-fetched until Jack himself is attacked. Suddenly this isn’t paranoia; it’s a pattern 💀
Goldy makes a decision that’s either brave or foolish, depending on your perspective: she’s going undercover at the spa. Donning her chef’s whites, she infiltrates a world where coffee is outlawed in favor of calming smoothies, where the fruit cocktail contains no actual fresh fruit, and where “wellness” apparently means deprivation and strange dietary restrictions that make Goldy’s professional soul weep. It’s the kind of place that gives healthy living a bad name 🥗
Add in the spa’s obstreperous owner—who, years ago, tried to sabotage Goldy’s fledgling catering business—and you’ve got a recipe for disaster. Goldy has her hands full navigating spa politics, maintaining her cover, preparing food that violates every culinary principle she holds dear, and trying to figure out who killed Doc Finn before the killer realizes she’s asking dangerous questions. All while still trying to pull off Billie Attenborough’s impossible wedding. Just another week in Aspen Meadow ⚡
Why I’m including this: Diane Mott Davidson delivers another satisfying entry in her long-running culinary mystery series, blending humor, suspense, and Goldy’s signature exasperation with difficult clients. The spa setting provides fresh fish-out-of-water comedy as Goldy navigates wellness culture with her practical caterer’s sensibility. Perfect for cozy mystery fans who love food-focused sleuths, Colorado mountain settings, and protagonists who solve crimes while managing the chaos of running a small business. Comfort reading with genuine stakes and a heroine you’d want to be friends with 🌟
Super Shortcut Instant Pot: The Ultimate Time-Saving Step-by-Step Cookbook
Jeffrey Eisner’s flavor-bomb recipes are simpler than ever, and that’s saying something given his reputation for accessible Instant Pot cooking. Every recipe in this book uses no more than ten ingredients total—and that count includes salt, pepper, and oil. Often recipes use far fewer ingredients than that magic number. But here’s the critical point: these shortcut dishes never skimp on flavor. They deliver the same delectable satisfaction that keeps home cooks coming back to Eisner’s recipes time and time again 🍲
The book addresses a real challenge for modern households: not everyone is cooking for a family of six every night. Each recipe includes instructions to serve from 1 to 6 people, making it perfect for singles, couples, and small families who are tired of recipes that assume you’re feeding a crowd. No more halving recipes or dealing with a week of leftovers from one dinner. Cook what you need, when you need it 👨🍳
The 100 mouthwatering recipes span everything from comfort food classics to international favorites, all adapted for maximum ease without sacrificing taste. Creamy Tortellini Soup, French Onion Mac & Cheese, Dan Dan-Style Noodles, and Lasagna Risotto prove that shortcut doesn’t mean boring. Chicken Stroganoff, Chinese-Style Spareribs, Beef Birria Tacos, and Shrimp Scampi deliver restaurant-quality results from your countertop pressure cooker. Even desserts and appetizers get the treatment—Spinach & Artichoke Dip and Deep-Dish Chocolate Chip Cookie show that the Instant Pot isn’t just for main courses 🥘
What makes Eisner’s approach work is his focus on technique and flavor development despite the ingredient limitations. He’s not just throwing things in a pot and hoping for the best; he’s carefully engineering each recipe to maximize taste while minimizing shopping lists, prep time, and cleanup. The result is genuinely simple cooking that tastes like you put in far more effort than you actually did ⚡
Here’s what you’re getting: Jeffrey Eisner has streamlined Instant Pot cooking to its absolute essence without sacrificing the flavors that make pressure cooking worthwhile. The flexible serving sizes make this practical for any household configuration, while the ingredient limits keep shopping and prep manageable even on hectic weeknights. Perfect for Instant Pot owners tired of complicated recipes, busy households seeking genuine shortcuts, and anyone who wants restaurant-quality flavor without restaurant-level effort or ingredient lists. An essential addition to your Instant Pot cookbook collection 🌟
The Secret Life of the Universe: An Astrobiologist’s Search for the Origins and Frontiers of Life
We are living in a golden age of astronomy, standing on the cusp of breakthroughs that will fundamentally revolutionize our understanding of our place in the cosmos. New telescopes peer deeper into space than ever before. Rovers explore the surface of Mars. Probes investigate the icy moons of Jupiter and Saturn. We’ve discovered thousands of exoplanets orbiting distant stars. Yet despite all this progress, one profound question remains unanswered: Are we alone in the universe? 🌌
We have never been closer to answering this ancient question. Nathalie A. Cabrol—one of the world’s leading astrobiologists and director of the Carl Sagan Center at the SETI Institute—takes us to the frontiers of the search for life in The Secret Life of the Universe. This odyssey begins not in the stars but here on Earth, exploring how life began on our own planet in order to understand what’s necessary for its existence elsewhere. The journey through Earth’s early history reveals the conditions, chemistry, and cosmic accidents required for life to emerge 🔬
What role did our moon play in life’s emergence? Earth’s moon is unusually large relative to the planet—could this cosmic coincidence have been essential for stabilizing Earth’s climate and creating conditions for life? And here’s a mind-bending question: could life on Mars have actually seeded life on Earth? In the early solar system, Mars had water and potentially habitable conditions before Earth did. If life emerged there first, asteroid impacts could have sent Martian rocks carrying microbial hitchhikers to Earth. We might all be Martians 🪐
Cabrol guides us through the cutting-edge science being conducted today: the search for biosignatures in the atmospheres of distant exoplanets, the exploration of extreme environments on Earth that might mirror conditions on other worlds, and the technological innovations that are bringing us closer to detecting life beyond our planet. She examines where we should look—Mars, Europa, Enceladus, Titan—and what we should look for. Not just intelligent civilizations broadcasting signals, but any form of life, no matter how primitive or strange ⚡
What makes this a must-read: Cabrol delivers an accessible yet scientifically rigorous exploration of astrobiology’s biggest questions, written by someone at the forefront of the field. She balances speculation with evidence, wonder with rigor, making complex science comprehensible without oversimplifying. Perfect for readers fascinated by the search for extraterrestrial life, anyone who looks up at the stars and wonders, and science enthusiasts ready to understand where we actually stand in answering humanity’s most profound question. We may be closer to the answer than you think 🌟
… See the rest of today ‘s Book Picks here on page 3Page 3