Bribery, murder, and a missing painting… Julia must solve the puzzle before time runs out for her entire village. 🎃
When the leader of the Peridale Preservation Society is found murdered at a Halloween party dressed as a particularly ironic witch, cafe owner Julia South-Brown immediately suspects the killing is tied to dark secrets surrounding a controversial local development project that threatens to destroy everything the village holds dear. A cryptic letter left by the victim hints at long-buried truths connected to a lost portrait that’s been missing for centuries, and as Julia and her family race to locate the painting before a pivotal council vote that could change Peridale forever, they find themselves on a dangerous collision course with powerful forces who will stop at absolutely nothing to keep hidden agendas buried under layers of corruption. 🔍
From the rolling hills of the Cotswolds where sheep graze peacefully and tourists flock for cream teas, to the shadowy corridors of power where deals are made behind closed doors and threats are delivered with polite smiles, Julia must navigate a tangled web of lies, bribery, and systematic corruption to uncover the shocking centuries-old secrets that could forever change the fate of her beloved village. The missing portrait isn’t just valuable art—it’s evidence of something that powerful people thought was safely hidden in the past. 🎨
But sinister threats loom larger with each day as Julia gets closer to the truth. Anonymous notes warning her to back off. Suspicious accidents that aren’t accidents at all. Pressure on her cafe business and her family. The people behind this conspiracy have money, influence, and absolutely no conscience about eliminating problems, including nosy cafe owners who ask too many questions. The more Julia investigates, the more she realizes the murder at the Halloween party was just the beginning—there are secrets in Peridale going back centuries, and people have been killing to protect them for just as long. 😱
With an ominous deadline fast approaching as the council vote draws near and developers circle like vultures ready to swoop in and destroy the village’s character forever, Julia faces an impossible choice that tears at her conscience. Back down from the fight, accept the bribery and intimidation, let her beloved community be destroyed by greedy developers who see Peridale as nothing but profit margins? Or risk everything—her cafe, her family’s safety, her life—to stand against the forces that have Peridale trapped in their lethal grip and have already killed once to keep their secrets? ⚖️
The key to victory might lie in the secrets hidden within that lost portrait and in the centuries-old conspiracy it exposes, but will Julia solve the mystery in time to save the village she loves? And more importantly, will she survive long enough to see Peridale rescued from the corrupt forces trying to destroy it? Because exposing powerful people’s secrets tends to be hazardous to your health, and Julia’s already attracted too much attention from people who solve their problems with murder. 💀
What makes this gripping: Agatha Frost continues the Peridale Cafe series with a cozy mystery combining Halloween atmosphere, village preservation battles, a missing portrait revealing centuries of corruption, and a cafe owner risking everything to save her community—perfect for readers who love their British cozies with genuine stakes and corruption that goes all the way to the top.
Trish Ackerly never expected to cross paths with Ian Rafferty again, but revenge frosting has a way of bringing people together. 🧁
When she spots the former bully of her childhood years through her bakery window looking impossibly handsome and successful, Trish thinks she may just have been given the best Christmas gift ever: the opportunity to finally give Ian the comeuppance he deserves for making her elementary school years absolutely miserable. She’s spent years imagining this moment—the perfect revenge served cold, or possibly baked into cupcakes with strategically harsh messages written in frosting. This is her chance for justice, vindication, and maybe some petty satisfaction. 😈
But clearly Trish does not have a knack for this whole revenge thing, because before she can make good on her elaborate plans to humiliate him, Trish gets inadvertently drawn into Ian’s life in an unexpected way that completely derails her schemes. He doesn’t recognize her (which is both insulting and convenient), he needs help with a Christmas project, and somehow she agrees to assist him without revealing her identity. Suddenly she’s spending time with the enemy, and it’s letting her see just how different the man is from the boy he used to be. The boy who teased her mercilessly has become a man who volunteers at shelters, helps his elderly neighbors, and treats service workers with genuine kindness. 🎄
In fact, much to her utter astonishment and growing horror, she actually starts to like the guy. A lot. More than a lot. The kind of liking that involves thinking about him constantly, looking forward to seeing him, and wondering if his lips taste like the peppermint mochas he’s always drinking. He’s funny, thoughtful, clearly haunted by regrets from his past, and treats her bakery creations with the reverence they deserve. Ian Rafferty, childhood nemesis, is becoming someone she could potentially fall for, which is inconvenient timing given the whole revenge plot. 💕
Trouble is, Ian doesn’t know who she really is behind the friendly bakery owner persona she’s been maintaining, and explaining her true identity to him is going to be a little difficult now that they’ve become friends and possibly more than friends. How do you tell someone “hey, remember that girl you tormented in third grade? Surprise, it’s me, and I’ve been planning your humiliation while simultaneously developing feelings for you”? That’s not exactly a conversation that ends well. And the longer she waits, the worse the deception gets. 😬
Which is bad news, because Trish is starting to realize that all she really wants for Christmas this year isn’t revenge or vindication or even an apology. What she wants, more than anything, is Ian—the real Ian, the man he’s become, not the boy he was. But can she reveal her identity and her initial revenge plans without destroying this fragile thing growing between them? Or will the truth about who she is and why she initially sought him out ruin any chance they have at a real relationship? ⚖️
Here’s what you’re getting: Christine S. Feldman delivers holiday romantic comedy featuring a baker seeking revenge on her childhood bully, accidentally falling for him instead, the crisis of identity reveal, and discovering that sometimes the best Christmas gift is forgiving the past—perfect for readers who love their romance with humor, holiday charm, and redemption arcs.
Small town Texas is my fresh start. A big city girl living on a ranch. It doesn’t take me long to discover this new job is more than I ever bargained for, and not just because of the horses. 🤠
Within a week of what I thought was a stable life, I find myself spectacularly without a boyfriend who cheated, a home because it was his apartment, or a job because I worked at his company and staying would have been professionally and emotionally devastating. Now I’m left to pick up the pieces of my shattered existence in New York City, which is dramatically expensive when you’re suddenly unemployed and couch-surfing. My life is sinking faster than the Titanic, and I’m the orchestra still playing while everything burns. 💔
Just when I’m certain my entire world is collapsing beyond repair and I’m about to move back in with my parents in suburban mediocrity, I receive an unexpected job offer on the other side of the country from a woman I met at a conference months ago. Granted, I’d have to leave New York and everything I know, but it’s a glimmer of hope in the darkness, actual employment with actual pay, and I’m not about to say no to the only lifeline being thrown my direction. Texas can’t be worse than unemployment and humiliation, right? 🌟
Little did I know when I accepted the position, one unbelievable opportunity hides another that’s even more unbelievable. My new boss lives on a majestic Texan ranch that looks like something out of a movie, complete with sprawling landscapes, horses that cost more than my student loans, and accommodations that are nicer than my old apartment. The ranch is owned by her billionaire older brother who somehow manages to look like a cologne ad even while doing actual ranch work, and his billionaire best friend who has the kind of smile that should come with a warning label. ⚡
Suddenly I’m navigating a world completely foreign to a city girl—learning about horses (they’re bigger than I expected and have opinions), adjusting to the heat (Texas summer is not a joke), and trying to maintain professional boundaries when my bosses are two absurdly attractive men who keep finding excuses to be around me. The older brother is all intensity and smoldering looks. The best friend is charm and playful flirtation. Both of them seem interested. Both of them are absolutely off-limits because mixing business with pleasure is how you end up unemployed again. 🔥
Being too greedy for both their attention could put me at risk of losing everything I’ve just rebuilt—the job, the security, the fresh start I desperately need. But Texas nights are long, the ranch is romantic, and resistance is becoming increasingly difficult when both men are making it very clear they’re interested in more than just employer-employee dynamics. Sometimes indulging in what you want is exactly what you need, even when it’s complicated, potentially disastrous, and definitely not part of the professional plan. 💕
Welcome to Summerville, Texas, where small-town living has never been this enticing, this complicated, or this full of billionaires who look exceptional in cowboy hats. Saddle up, because this ride is going to get interesting. 🌵
What makes this tempting: Scarlett Avery delivers small-town romance featuring a big city refugee, two billionaire ranchers, Texas charm, and a heroine discovering that sometimes the best fresh starts involve cowboys, complications, and letting yourself be greedy—perfect for readers who love their romance with heat, wealth, and western settings.
Only Temporary
**Kellan**
She’s gone. And I don’t care. At least that’s what I tell myself on repeat, but she also left me with a really big mess to clean up that I’m in no way prepared for. 💔
My siblings hate me, and honestly, they should. I’m twenty-four years old but no part of me feels remotely up to the task of taking care of my four younger siblings who range from teenagers to elementary school. I barely have my own life under control—still fighting addiction demons I thought I’d beaten, working a job that barely pays rent, living in an apartment that’s held together by duct tape and hope. But it doesn’t matter now what I’m ready for. I have temporary custody after our mother abandoned them, and I’m going to do everything I possibly can to make sure it’s not only permanent, but also the best thing for these kids who deserve way better than what they’ve been dealt. 👨👧👦
**Phillip**
I haven’t been a social worker long, barely two years into a career that’s already breaking my heart on a weekly basis, but I already know, without a doubt, this case has the ability to shatter me completely. Four minors left with their oldest brother—a brother still actively fighting with addiction and so much bitterness about his own childhood that it’s stifling to be in the same room with him. The kind of bitterness that makes you wonder if he can be the parent these kids desperately need or if he’ll just perpetuate the cycle of abandonment and neglect. 😞
But I won’t give up on them like the rest of society already has, like the system is poised to do the moment Kellan makes one mistake. No matter what, I’m going to find a way to make sure this arrangement isn’t merely temporary—these kids need stability for once in their chaotic lives. I just need to make sure I don’t lose my head or my heart in the process, which is getting harder every time Kellan looks at me like I’m the only person who’s ever believed in him. 💕
As Kellan struggles to be the parent he never had while battling his own demons, and as Phillip crosses professional lines he swore he’d never cross, they both discover that sometimes family isn’t about biology or perfection. It’s about showing up even when you’re terrified, about choosing to stay when running would be easier, about building something permanent from pieces that were only supposed to be temporary. And maybe, just maybe, falling in love with your social worker isn’t the worst thing that could happen when you’re trying to keep a family together. 🌟
What makes this powerful: Nicole Dykes delivers bisexual romance exploring found family, addiction recovery, and a social worker falling for his client in ways that complicate everything—perfect for readers who love their romance with genuine stakes, flawed protagonists, and emotional depth that goes beyond the relationship.
After ten hectic years in Seoul teaching English and slowly losing herself in the chaos of city life, burned-out expat Radley Asher is promised a change—working the fall season at an apple farm in idyllic Fox Isle, Maine. Hoping for solitude, peace, maybe some time to figure out who she is when she’s not performing competence for judgmental coworkers, Radley is instead welcomed by the effusive Clark family as one of their own. A loner like Radley finds it almost disarming how quickly they pull her into their orbit. 🍎
But what’s not to like? Beau and Livia are doting parents who seem genuinely happy, and their three children are absolute delights—the kind of kids who say please and thank you, who help with chores without complaining, who seem almost too perfect to be real. Still, Radley prefers to keep her distance and just watch the lives of the Clarks unfold from her window in the farmhouse. For Radley, as she’s pulled deeper into the family dynamics despite her best efforts to stay peripheral, watching becomes an obsession that she can’t quite explain or control. 👁️
Then one night the orchard is set ablaze in a fire that’s clearly arson, destroying years of work and throwing the family into chaos. Who would do such a terrible thing to people this seemingly perfect? When one of the Clark children suddenly goes missing the next day—vanishing without a trace in ways that don’t make sense—the veneer of the perfect family is set to shatter completely. And in the aftermath, too many secrets stand to be exposed, secrets that explain why someone would want to hurt the Clarks. Including Radley’s secrets, the ones she thought she’d left behind in Seoul. 🔥
As the investigation intensifies and Radley realizes she knows more about this family than she should after just a few months, she must decide: does she tell the police what she’s observed from her window, the things she’s seen that don’t match the family’s public image? Or does she protect the Clarks and protect herself, keeping quiet about the secrets that could destroy them all? Because it turns out, watching other people’s lives is fine until you realize you’re complicit in whatever happens next. 😱
Why this unsettles: Ellen Won Steil delivers domestic thriller exploring voyeurism, perfect families hiding dysfunction, and a protagonist whose obsession with watching others implicates her in crimes she didn’t commit—perfect for readers who love unreliable narrators and discovering that the observer is never truly innocent.
In 1920s Paris, Misia Sert is a patron and a muse to the most revolutionary artists of the era—Picasso paints her, Diaghilev consults her, Stravinsky plays for her. She is also profoundly in love with renowned muralist José María “Jojo” Sert, who prizes his wife’s iconoclastic vision and independence above conventional expectations. But in Misia’s rarified circle where affairs are expected and marriages are flexible, there is no greater kindred soul than designer Coco Chanel. Two women, two friends, for whom rules do not apply and whose bond transcends typical friendship into something more profound. 🎨
Then Misia finds herself challenged by the enigmatic Roussadana Mdivani, a Russian émigré and sculptress who solicits Jojo’s tutelage in service to a rising career of her own. It becomes evident quickly that Roussadana wants more from an increasingly enamored Jojo than artistic guidance—she wants him entirely, wants to replace Misia in his life and his art. Misia recognizes a disrupter when she sees one, having been one herself in her younger years. Misia, with Coco as her confidante and co-conspirator, is ready to fight to maintain her position—in marriage and in Paris’s artistic hierarchy—in the most unconventional ways that only women like them can devise. 💔
But the stakes are higher, and the fallout darker, than Misia and Coco can fathom in their plotting. What begins as social maneuvering and artistic rivalry escalates into something far more devastating, exposing the fragility beneath the glittering surface of their bohemian paradise. When love, art, and friendship collide with ambition and betrayal, nobody emerges unscathed. Not Misia, who must decide what she’s willing to sacrifice. Not Jojo, caught between two women who represent different versions of himself. Not Roussadana, who underestimates what she’s up against. And not even Coco, whose loyalty comes at a price she didn’t anticipate paying. 🌟
Set during Paris’s scandalous années folles—the crazy years when everything seemed possible and nothing was forbidden, when artists remade culture and society while their personal lives imploded spectacularly—Glorious Ruins is a sweeping novel about an indomitable friendship between two iconic women and the exquisite agonies of art and of love. About how the things we create often require us to destroy what we cherish most. About the price of being legendary. 🗼
What makes this captivating: Judithe Little delivers biographical fiction exploring the friendship between Misia Sert and Coco Chanel during 1920s Paris, revealing how artistic circles created glorious art from the ruins of their personal lives—perfect for readers who love historical fiction about real women whose unconventional lives shaped culture.
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