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Nora Newberry moved back to her hometown of Milburn, Wyoming after ten years to open The Madness Diner with her lifelong best friend Raquel—the diner they had been planning since high school. Three days before opening, Raquel is found murdered. With no clear motive and little cooperation from the townspeople, Nora is pulled into a murder investigation that could cost her job, her diner dream, and her life. That is Book 1. By Book 12, Nora has survived a dozen Milburn murders—weddings, a zoo, an ice cream factory, a bed and breakfast, social media, bingo night—and is still standing, still cooking, and still considerably more useful than the local police. This complete box set collects all 12 original stories in the A Murder In Milburn culinary cozy mystery series, along with 12 recipes from Nora’s Madness Diner Cookbook. Over 2,000 pages of whodunits—plus 2 bonus books and a sneak peek at another series. 🔍
McGovern writes with the warm, quick-read energy that made her the most prolific cozy mystery author in Milburn, Wyoming—a town that has, at this point, seen roughly one murder per major community event and somehow keeps repopulating. Each story stands alone and features a new location, a new cast of suspects, and a new recipe. The complete series ends with Nora’s story fully resolved. 🍳
McGovern is the author of more than a dozen cozy mystery series. A Murder In Milburn was her first, and remains the one her readers return to most. ⭐
Why this charms: Twelve murders, twelve small-town settings, twelve recipes, and one unflappable diner owner who keeps solving them anyway—complete series, all in one collection.
Days have passed since the devastating crash, and Jessica White still holds out hope that her husband survived—the bodies of Juliet and Mr. White have not been recovered. Her brother-in-law Vera Callaway has a disturbing theory as to why no bodies have been found, one that offers the thinnest possible chance that survival is still on the table. But reality has a way of crashing down regardless of what theories comfort us. Jessica must confront the possibility that the man she loves is gone—and then figure out what comes next in a life that was built entirely around a partnership that has always felt, until now, indestructible. Remington Kane delivers Book 4 of the Taken! series with the relentless emotional stakes and fast-paced action his readership has come to depend on. 💙
Kane writes with the lean, momentum-forward style that makes his series so compulsively readable—short chapters, high pace, and the specific question of whether Mr. White will find a way back. The Taken! books work best read in order, and Book 4 delivers significant emotional payoff for readers who have followed the series from the beginning. 🔍
Kane is the pen name of Donald Wells, one of indie fiction’s most prolific action thriller authors. The Taken! series runs 20 books. ⭐
Why this grips you: The crash happened. No bodies recovered. Jessica still hopes. But hope and reality are about to have a very uncomfortable conversation.
Three gripping thrillers in one volume, all featuring the irreplaceable Deuce Mora—fiery, tough, athletic, a dirty fighter when she has to be—the Chicago journalist who treats “investigative reporter” as a minimum standard rather than a professional ceiling. Ill Wind wakes her before dawn to identify the body of a dear friend, an FBI agent on the verge of taking down one of Chicago’s biggest organized crime figures, hanging from the window of a downtown federal building in what the police are calling a suicide. It is not a suicide. Black Marsh pulls Deuce into an international crime ring embedded in corrupt government that requires her particular approach to getting the story or dying trying. And Maximum Impact—the standalone thriller that serves as an important prequel—follows a Watergate-style cover-up of a massive passenger plane crash with the specific loop-and-careen plotting that Kirkus called “a compelling package that actually adds up.” 🔍
Heller spent 35 years as a journalist at the Chicago Sun-Times, the Associated Press, and other major outlets, and the insider authority she brings to Deuce’s world gives the series its specific texture. Kirkus praised the “nicely twisty” storytelling. Publishers Weekly called the plot “well-crafted.” 💙
Heller is a multiple award-winning journalist turned crime novelist. The Deuce Mora series runs five full novels. ⭐
Why this grips you: A Chicago investigative reporter, a mob murder disguised as a suicide, an international crime cover-up, and a plane crash conspiracy—three complete thrillers in one collection.
Faith Franklin, her best friend Laura, and her beloved Grandma Bessie have made it to the final round of the Cynthia Rochford Cupcake Marathon—and after the disasters and investigations of Books 1 and 2, they have more than earned it. Fifty thousand dollars sits at the end of this baking competition, and they can practically taste it. Then their competitor for the final round turns up dead. Not only does the contest look finished, but the police immediately suspect Faith and her team—there’s a lot of money at stake, and the evidence is pointing in a very inconvenient direction. Now Faith has to clear her own name, find the real murderer, and figure out if all the work she has put into winning was going to be for nothing. The Blackmail Flour Trail is the third Slice of Paradise Cozy Mystery, set in beautiful, sunny Florida with a recipe for Chocolate Tamarind Cupcakes included. 🍰
McGovern and Bruce write with the light, fast-paced energy that has made the Slice of Paradise series a beloved entry in the Florida cozy subgenre—Grandma Bessie continues to be the comic heart of every installment, and Faith’s determination to find justice even when she’s the suspect gives the mystery its specific momentum. Each book stands alone while rewarding readers who follow the series. 🔍
McGovern is the bestselling author of over a dozen cozy mystery series. The Slice of Paradise series runs five books, all completed. ⭐
Why this charms: She made it to the cupcake marathon finals, her competitor turned up dead, and suddenly the evidence is pointing directly at the baker with $50,000 at stake.
Ren Wild was eight years old when he learned that love doesn’t exist—not really, not when the person who was supposed to adore him sold him. He spent two years living in terror before he ran. On the night he escaped, he accidentally took something with him: a toddler named Della McLary, the daughter of the couple who had bought him. He tried to get rid of her. He couldn’t. And so Ren—who has never been loved, who doesn’t believe in love, who has learned to survive in the wild on the margins of society—becomes the sole guardian of a little girl he calls Della Ribbon, after her obsession with a blue ribbon he finds in his pack. They grow up together. They become each other’s entire world. And then she becomes something more. What do you do when you meet your soul mate—and have to spend a lifetime loving him in secret? Pepper Winters delivers the coming-of-age dark romance that Alessandra Torre called her favorite Pepper Winters novel and S. Reads gave six stars. 💕
Winters writes with a depth of characterization and emotional complexity that sets this apart from standard dark romance—the origins of Ren and Della’s bond, the years of survival, and the specific impossibility of what they feel for each other are given real weight rather than used as aesthetic. This book contains significant dark themes and an age-gap dynamic that develops over many years; it is intended for adults only and is not for all readers. 🔍
Winters is a USA Today, New York Times, and Wall Street Journal bestselling author. The Ribbon Duet runs two completed books. ⭐
Why this captivates: He accidentally took her when he escaped slavery as a child, raised her in the wild as the only family either of them had, and never expected her to grow up and become everything else.
Miss Florence Ellsworth has had more than enough of her family’s notoriety. Her widower father is already on the hunt for his fourth wife—a fourth scandal waiting to happen—and Florence’s response is to do the sensible, practical thing: accept an engagement to a perfectly sober, perfectly dull clergyman and secure herself a blessedly uneventful future. It is an excellent plan right up until her father hires a new attorney who is young, sincere, handsome, and entirely too easy to talk to. Robert Fairchild is aware that his modest background puts him at a social disadvantage, and he is careful not to let his growing feelings for his client’s betrothed daughter make him dishonorable. Florence, meanwhile, works harder at finding something appealing about her intended husband. And then a meddlesome widow with schemes of her own complicates everything. Christina Dudley opens The Ellsworth Assortment with the traditional Regency romance that Mary Kingswood called “a wonderful book, beautifully written on every level.” 💕
Dudley writes with the kind of sparkling wit and character-first approach that Austen readers specifically look for in traditional Regency fiction—the novel is “rich in historical detail, finely crafted characters, and subtle humor on every page,” said bestselling Regency author Jennie Goutet. Clean throughout; no explicit content. 🔍
Dudley is the author of two award-winning Regency series and the Kirkus-starred contemporary novel Pride and Preston Lin. The Ellsworth Assortment runs four books. ⭐
Why this charms: She got engaged to a dull clergyman to escape her family’s chaos—then her father’s handsome new attorney made dull look considerably less appealing.
Mother Is a Verb
Three women. One island. More questions than answers. Gwen Fisher is suffering from postpartum stress she cannot quite name. Angeni Luna is thriving as a momfluencer with a Pacific Northwest commune and a devoted online following—and a considerable amount of private noise she has spent years learning to silence. Sasha Robinson is grieving the loss of her sister and searching for something she cannot define: connection, validation, closure. Any sign that she’s doing something right. All three find themselves on Bainbridge Island, where Angeni’s commune promises presence, peace, and the kind of clarity that social media keeps just out of reach. But peace, it turns out, is considerably harder to hand someone else when you haven’t fully given it to yourself. Kim Hooper delivers the bold, provocative exploration of modern motherhood that the Wall Street Journal describes as “refreshingly raw and honest.” 💙
Hooper writes with the unflinching emotional intelligence that distinguishes her catalog—the momfluencer premise gives the novel its specific contemporary texture, but the questions underneath it are universal: what does it mean to mother well, what does it cost, and what happens when the women doing it are barely holding themselves together. The three-protagonist structure gives each perspective genuine depth and prevents the novel from settling into easy judgment. 🔍
Hooper is the author of eight novels including People Who Knew Me and Ways the World Could End. Mother Is a Verb was published February 2026 by Lake Union. ⭐
Why this matters: A postpartum mother, a grieving sister, and the momfluencer who’s supposed to have all the answers—three women looking for something they can’t name, on an island that promises peace—for $1.99.
Seven years ago, the Announcement arrived: every person on Earth received a message confirming that their world is a digital simulation. The response has ranged from violent cults to research institutes to most people quietly going about their lives while trying not to think about it too hard. JP and Dulin have been best friends for decades. When JP’s cancer returns aggressively, Dulin proposes one last adventure: a week-long Canterbury Trails bus tour of North America’s Impossibles—the physics-defying glitches and geographic miracles that have been cropping up since the Announcement. Their fellow passengers are twenty-first century pilgrims, each on the tour for their own reasons. The bus goes off a cliff. What happens next is considerably harder to explain. Daryl Gregory delivers the Nebula Award finalist that Kim Stanley Robinson called “our America right now, seen with cosmic x-ray vision.” ✨
Gregory writes with the rare combination of genuine philosophical substance and laugh-out-loud comedy that only a handful of literary SF writers can pull off—”starts funny and stays that way, even after they fly off a cliff and crash hard into existential angst.” Lev Grossman called it “an addictive thriller packed with winning characters and big, brilliant ideas.” 🔍
Gregory is the award-winning author of Revelator, Spoonbenders, and Afterparty. His novella We Are All Completely Fine won the World Fantasy Award. When We Were Real is a standalone. ⭐
Why this captivates: Everyone knows the world is a simulation. Two best friends take a bus tour to see its glitches—and fly off a cliff. What they find afterward is the whole point—for $1.99.
Inflammation is at the root of most chronic conditions—heart disease, diabetes, arthritis, autoimmune disorders, even depression—and the science connecting what we eat to how our immune system behaves has become increasingly compelling. The question has always been how to translate that science into practical, sustainable daily eating without turning every meal into a research project. Yasmine Elamir and William Grist answer that question in a guide designed specifically for people who are starting this journey rather than already embedded in functional medicine. The book covers the core science of how inflammatory foods trigger immune responses, how anti-inflammatory eating shifts that chemistry, how to optimize gut health as the foundation of immune function, and how to reduce chronic pain through dietary intervention at any age. 📚
The practical structure distinguishes this from the typical nutrition book—rather than presenting general principles and leaving readers to work out implementation, Elamir and Grist build from science to specific actionable choices. The beginner orientation means the explanations assume no prior knowledge of nutrition science, and the gut health integration addresses one of the most significant recent developments in understanding the inflammation-immunity connection. 🔍
Elamir is a physician and Grist is a certified health coach specializing in functional nutrition. The Science-Backed Anti-Inflammatory Diet for Beginners has maintained strong Amazon rankings in the nutrition category since its release. ⭐
Why this helps: The inflammation-chronic illness connection laid out clearly, with a practical guide for people who want to eat their way toward better immunity and less pain—for $4.99.
Frank Sisson grew up in rural Oklahoma during the Great Depression. His father died young. At eighteen, in December 1944, he enlisted in the Army and was deployed to Europe as part of General George S. Patton’s famed Third Army. Over the next six months, he would be present at some of World War II’s most consequential moments: the Battle of the Bulge, the liberation of Dachau, and the final Allied push into Germany. At a traffic intersection in France, he caught his first glimpse of the man who would define the next half-year of his life. Published at age ninety-four, this is Frank Sisson’s firsthand account of serving under Patton—the general’s leadership style, his demanding standards, and the specific lessons that shaped the rest of Frank’s life. Robert L. Wise collaborates with Sisson to deliver the memoir that the Wall Street Journal called “poignant…well worth the read.” 📚
The most intriguing sections of the memoir cover Frank’s post-combat service as a military police investigator in Berlin in the war’s immediate aftermath—a period rarely covered in WWII firsthand accounts. His folksy Oklahoma vernacular gives the narrative its distinctive warmth and specificity, and Publishers Weekly praised “an eloquence that belies the fact that he left school at 15.” 🔍
Wise is the author of 34 books, including five covering the WWII period. I Marched with Patton was published by HarperCollins to commemorate the 75th anniversary of Patton’s death. ⭐
Why this matters: A 94-year-old Oklahoma soldier’s eyewitness account of the Battle of the Bulge, Dachau, and serving under Patton—told for the first time—for $1.99.
The war is over. The enemy won. The Egril struck with magic so devastating that Jia’s warrior caste was obliterated in hours—a surprise attack that ended centuries of protection before anyone understood what was happening. Now Egril soldiers patrol the streets, kings await execution in their own barricaded palaces, and the ordinary people of Jia have learned the fastest way to survive is to inform on each other. Tinnstra is a deserter. A failure. She ran when the battle came, and she knows it. She wants nothing more than to hide in the chaos and wait for it to be over. But she survives when others don’t, and the desperate remnants of Jia’s resistance drag her into a plot to retake their homeland against odds that make survival look generous. This time, hiding isn’t an option. Mike Shackle opens the Last War trilogy with the debut epic fantasy that Glen Cook called “likely the next Game of Thrones—the best book I’ve read in several years.” 🔍
Peter McLean described it as “Tarantino crossed with David Gemmell”—which captures the specific combination of relentless pacing, ensemble cast perspective, and the grimdark willingness to let consequences land without softening. The resistance-against-occupation framework gives the violence its moral weight, and the multiple POV structure—spanning warriors, civilians, and the occupied and the occupiers—gives the world genuine scope. 💙
Shackle is a British debut author published by Gollancz. The Last War trilogy is fully completed. ⭐
Why this captivates: The war ended on day one and the wrong side won—now a coward who survived is the resistance’s best hope—for $0.99.
1973. Apollo 18 is about to launch on what has been billed as a scientific mission. Houston flight controller Kazimieras “Kaz” Zemeckis—a former military astronaut who lost his shot at the Moon when a bird strike cost him an eye—knows what the mission really is: American intelligence has discovered a Soviet spy satellite, and Apollo 18 may be the only chance to neutralize it before it transmits secrets that could alter the Cold War’s balance. Three astronauts, a quarter million miles from home. An unexpected Soviet cosmonaut on the lunar surface. And something has gone badly wrong inside the mission that nobody at Houston was prepared for. Chris Hadfield—the former Commander of the International Space Station who once performed David Bowie’s “Space Oddity” in orbit—delivers the thriller that James Cameron called “nail-biting…I couldn’t put it down.” 🔍
What separates The Apollo Murders from every other space thriller is the absolute authority of its detail—G-forces, EVA procedures, Mission Control communication protocols, the specific claustrophobia of the command module—written by the only person on Earth who has actually experienced all of it and also happens to write beautifully. Frederick Forsyth called it “not to be missed.” The New York Times praised its “authoritative details.” 💙
Hadfield is a New York Times bestselling author and retired Canadian astronaut. The Apollo Murders series continues with The Defector. ⭐
Why this grips you: An Apollo mission with a secret agenda, a Soviet cosmonaut on the Moon, and a murder—written by someone who has actually been to space—for $2.99.
… See the rest of today ‘s Book Picks here on page 2Page 2