“One kiss. I need to know if you feel this too.” Kayla Walsh has run thousands of miles to start her life over in Austin, Texas, escaping a past she’s desperate to leave behind. She’s built new routines, found a new rhythm, created a new version of herself that feels safer, more controlled. What she isn’t ready for is Duncan Mills—a sexy former MMA fighter who instantly sets his sights on her with the same focus and determination that once made him a champion in the cage 💪
Duncan makes Kayla feel dangerously alive again, awakening parts of herself she thought she’d successfully buried. Every smile, every deliberately casual touch, every heated glance chips away at the walls she’s so carefully constructed. He isn’t giving up without a fight, approaching her pursuit with the strategic patience of someone who knows that the best victories require planning, timing, and absolute commitment to the goal 🔥
For the first time in his life, Duncan is all in—not for a match, not for a title, but for this complicated woman who keeps trying to convince him she’s not worth the effort. He sees through her deflections, recognizes the fear beneath her resistance, and he’s determined to prove that she’s exactly worth fighting for. But Kayla has spent so long protecting herself that letting someone close feels more terrifying than any danger she’s run from 💕
The real question isn’t whether Duncan can break through her defenses—his persistence and genuine care are already working their magic despite her best efforts. The question is whether Kayla will finally let someone close enough to win over her heart, trusting that not everyone who gets past her armor will use that access to hurt her. Sometimes the bravest thing you can do is stop running and let yourself be caught 💚
Here’s what you’re getting: Anna Castor kicks off the Lucky Irish series with a steamy romance featuring a determined alpha hero, a heroine learning to trust again, and the kind of big Irish family dynamics that have made thousands of readers binge the entire series.
Jack Fogel had always wanted to work in television, not run the family business that smells perpetually of raw poultry and decades of tradition. He thought he’d escaped that fate, built a different life, created his own path far from the processing plant his grandfather established. Then his father’s heart attack changed everything, saddling him with Fogel’s Kosher Chickens—an operation built on old-world values and mired stubbornly in the past while the industry races forward 🐔
Years later, Jack’s life is a catalog of disappointments and obligations. His wife left long ago, having apparently decided that a future with a kosher chicken magnate wasn’t what she’d signed up for. His two teenage daughters are perpetually disappointed in him, rolling their eyes at his attempts to connect and sighing dramatically when he tries to understand their world. His mother insists he fund her increasingly expensive lifestyle, as if the chicken business is a limitless ATM rather than a struggling enterprise fighting for survival in a changing market 💔
Even worse, Jack finds himself in an all-out war with Lionel Gutterman, a former employee who’s nursing a grudge and prepared to use the most unethical tactics imaginable to exact his revenge. Lionel knows all of Fogel’s vulnerabilities, all the family secrets, and he’s willing to exploit every single one to destroy what Jack’s grandfather built. The attacks grow increasingly unpredictable and damaging, threatening not just the business but Jack’s sanity 🥊
Lonely and miserable, Jack meets Sonia Lewis on a blind date—and for the first time in years, feels a genuine spark of hope. She’s intelligent, funny, and breathtakingly beautiful. There’s just one small problem: when she reveals she owns a vegan cafe, Jack panics and doesn’t quite tell the truth about what he does for a living. As their relationship blossoms and deepens, the lie becomes more difficult to sustain. With Lionel’s attacks escalating and the truth about his chicken empire threatening to surface, Jack faces both personal and professional destruction unless he figures out how honesty might actually save him. The prize is either love or poultry—but can it possibly be both? 🌱
Why this deserves your attention: Adam Leigh serves up a deliciously quirky romantic comedy about accepting who you are and finding someone who loves you for it, proving that sometimes the path to happiness requires embracing the very thing you’ve been running from—even if it’s a kosher chicken empire.
When chefs Charly and Cliff Harding divorce, the settlement is unusual to say the least. She gets custody of their upscale restaurant and its beloved namesake, Felix the cat—a feline with opinions about everything from the daily specials to customer behavior. Cliff gets custody of their dog Oscar, who’s considerably more diplomatic about the whole situation. But what both of them still seem to have custody of is each other’s hearts, and they’re apparently the only two people in the small ski resort town of Snow Lake, Nevada who don’t realize this obvious truth 👨🍳
Cliff doesn’t just move on—he opens his own restaurant in direct competition with Charly’s, setting up shop practically across the street in what everyone recognizes as either the most romantic gesture or the most hostile act imaginable. Maybe it’s both. The culinary rivalry heats up quickly, with each trying to outdo the other with innovative menus and superior service. Their “if-you-can’t-take-the-heat-then-get-out-of-the-kitchen” battles become legendary in Snow Lake, providing endless entertainment for the locals 🍽️
But then bad things start happening—things that go far beyond competitive business practices. Death threats arrive, mysterious accidents plague both establishments, and the tension that was merely professional and romantic suddenly becomes genuinely dangerous. When murder lands on the menu, suspicion naturally falls on the two chefs who’ve been waging such a public war against each other. Their battles have been so visible, so intense, that to outside observers they look like people capable of violence 🔪
Through all the chaos, accusations, and genuine danger, they’re forced to work together to clear their names and find the real killer. But can they navigate the criminal investigation while also finding their way back to each other? Or will they spend the rest of their lives in prison, unjustly accused of murder, having never admitted that the divorce was the biggest mistake either of them ever made? Sometimes it takes a murder investigation to realize that the person you’re fighting with is actually the person you’re fighting for 🎄
What makes this special: Heather Haven whips up a cozy mystery romance that’s equal parts culinary competition and murder investigation, served with a generous helping of second-chance romance and small-town charm in a holiday setting.
NEW RELEASES
The bells are back—and so is the mystery that silenced them a decade ago. With Christmas just around the corner, Ainsley and the rest of the Gooseberry Bay crew are embracing the holiday season in the best small-town tradition: volunteering at the local tree lot, spreading cheer, and helping families find the perfect evergreen. It’s supposed to be simple, wholesome, exactly the kind of community activity that makes this coastal town feel like home 🎄
But during a snowy late-night shift when the lot is empty except for volunteers, a strange and completely unexpected sound cuts through the winter air—church bells, long silent, suddenly ringing out across the bay with haunting clarity. The sound stops everyone in their tracks because those bells haven’t rung in ten years, not since the night they fell silent under tragic circumstances. The bells weren’t broken; they were deliberately stilled, and nobody in town had the heart to ring them again 🔔
The haunting chime sparks a chilling memory for Jemma and Josie, two longtime residents who remember that terrible Christmas Eve a decade ago. A pastor’s daughter disappeared without a trace, vanishing on what should have been a night of celebration and joy. Her only trace was a jacket left behind in the belltower, abandoned as if she’d simply stepped out and never returned. The discovery left the entire town shaken, searching desperately for answers that never came. The bells fell silent that night in mourning—and hadn’t rung since, becoming a symbol of the town’s unresolved grief 🌨️
Now, ten years later, with a new pastor at the helm who knows nothing of the tragedy and the bells ringing once more after their long silence, something has been set in motion. The sound seems to pull Ainsley and her friends into a mystery rooted deep in the past yet somehow echoing through the present holiday season. What made the bells ring after all these years? Is it coincidence, or is someone sending a message? And what really happened to the pastor’s daughter on that long-ago Christmas Eve? The answers might be hidden in plain sight, waiting for someone brave enough to look 🕵️
Why I’m including this: Kathi Daley blends cozy mystery with holiday atmosphere in this Gooseberry Bay installment, delivering small-town charm alongside genuine intrigue as past and present collide in the shadow of those mysterious bells.
“Be the biggest, baddest witch in town so no one ever dares bully you again.” That was her grandmother’s advice, delivered with the fierce protectiveness of someone who knew exactly how cruel the magical community could be. And it’s been Emberlyn’s guiding law since childhood, a philosophy she’s lived by with absolute commitment. The approach has worked brilliantly for years, keeping the local coven at a respectful—or at least fearful—distance. Until now, when everything changes 🔮
The coven is absolutely furious that Emberlyn won’t give up Black Willow Manor, her grandmother’s prized ancestral home and the seat of considerable magical power in the region. They want the property, they want the influence it represents, and they’re not accustomed to being told no by anyone. Making matters infinitely worse, the land beside the manor and Emberlyn herself have been left in her grandmother’s will to Jax “Ripper” Stone—a rugged, brooding Alpha werewolf with a reputation that precedes him and eyes that see far too much 🐺
The chemistry between them has always been white-hot, the kind of attraction that crackles in the air and makes rational thought nearly impossible. But Ripper knows enough to be careful around witches, especially one with Emberlyn’s formidable reputation and legendary temper. Witches are dangerous, unpredictable, capable of turning a man’s life inside out with a word or a gesture. Now they’re forced into an alliance neither expected, bound together by her grandmother’s final wishes and the threats mounting against them both 🔥
Being allies makes ignoring their attraction exponentially harder with each passing day. Emberlyn calls to him on levels he doesn’t fully understand, drives him to claim her in ways that go beyond the physical. The pull between them feels inevitable, destined, absolutely right. But danger’s closing in from multiple directions—the coven plotting revenge, dark forces sensing opportunity, enemies who see Emberlyn’s distraction as weakness. Threats are multiplying, threatening to take her from him before he can fully claim what’s his. Not that Emberlyn can’t handle whatever comes her way—she’s no damsel waiting for rescue, doesn’t need a hero charging in to save her. She’s a powerful witch who’s been fighting her own battles since before Ripper knew she existed. Sometimes it takes a wicked witch to get things done properly, and Emberlyn has always excelled at being deliciously, dangerously wicked 🌙
Here’s what you’re getting: Suzanne Wright delivers a sizzling paranormal romance featuring a powerful witch who refuses to be anyone’s victim, an alpha werewolf who meets his match, and the kind of explosive chemistry that makes playing with magical fire absolutely worth the burn.
Christmas and he aren’t on speaking terms anymore, haven’t been for years. Not since he got left at the altar in front of his entire small town, standing there in his tux while everyone watched his humiliation unfold in real time. Now December hits him like a personal attack—an assault of twinkle lights that seem to mock him, carols that feel like salt in old wounds, and an endless parade of casseroles from well-meaning women who think he needs “checking in on” and probably more than casseroles 🎄
Save it, he wants to tell them all. He’s a firefighter who runs directly toward flames when everyone else is running away—he doesn’t need their pity or their matchmaking attempts. He doesn’t jingle, doesn’t deck halls, and absolutely does not fall in love at Christmas or any other time of year. That part of him died on the altar, and good riddance to feelings that only lead to public humiliation 🔥
Except there’s a massive problem arriving just in time to ruin his perfectly grumpy holiday season. His sister’s best friend—pure sunshine and absolute chaos incarnate—is back home for the holidays. She’s perpetually in his way, disrupting his carefully maintained emotional distance with her relentless cheerfulness and that smile that somehow manages to get under his skin despite his best defenses. And in what feels like a sick twist of fate orchestrated by a universe with a terrible sense of humor, she’s running the entire Yuletide Fest this year 🎅
Which means he gets assigned as her safety officer, because apparently the fire department thinks forcing him to shadow the human embodiment of Christmas spirit is appropriate torture. Now he’s stuck following her through holiday parades where she accidentally creates disasters, cocoa stands where she somehow summons small fires, Christmas markets where chaos follows her like a devoted puppy, and every other holiday mishap she accidentally manifests like it’s her supernatural gift. The more they’re forced together, the harder it becomes to pretend she’s not still lodged under his skin after all these years. Her smile absolutely wrecks him. Her relentless optimism makes him crazy in ways both infuriating and intoxicating. Her lips—yeah, he remembers exactly what they taste like, and the memory haunts him ❄️
He swore years ago he’d never get tangled up in tinsel or feelings again, that he was done with love and all its accompanying disasters. But the way this woman sets him on fire with just a look, with her laugh, with her stubborn refusal to let him wallow in his Grinch routine? That’s one blaze he absolutely refuses to put out, even if it burns down every wall he’s built 💕
What makes this special: Weston Parker delivers a holiday romance that proves even the grumpiest hearts can thaw when the right person refuses to give up—firefighter steam meets Christmas charm in a story about second chances and learning to believe in love again.