Dani Pettrey tops today’s Buffet with Submerged, an inspirational romantic suspense novel that will keep you up at night. It’s the first installment in her “Alaskan Courage” series.
Dani is a homeschooling mom. She enjoys writing romantic suspense because it incorporates so many things she loves–the thrill of adventure, nail-biting suspense, the deepening of one’s faith and plenty of romance. She’s a huge fan of dark chocolate, is always in search of the best iced mocha and her dream is to one day own a little cottage on a remote stretch of beach. She and her husband reside in Maryland with their two teenage daughters.
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Submerged (Alaskan Courage Book #1)
A sabotaged plane. Two dead deep-water divers.
Yancey, Alaska was a quiet town…until the truth of what was hidden in the depths off the coast began to appear.
Bailey Craig vowed never to set foot in Yancey again. She has a past, and a reputation–and Yancey’s a small town. She’s returned to bury a loved one killed in the plane crash and is determined not to stay even an hour more than necessary. But then dark evidence emerges and Bailey’s own expertise becomes invaluable for the case.
Cole McKenna can handle the deep-sea dives and helping the police recover evidence. He can even handle the fact that a murderer has settled in his town and doesn’t appear to be moving on. But dealing with the reality of Bailey’s reappearance is a tougher challenge. She broke his heart, but she is not the same girl who left Yancey. He let her down, but he’s not the same guy she left behind. Can they move beyond the hurts of their pasts and find a future together?
City of Beads: Tubby Dubonnet Series #2
New Orleans lawyer Tubby Dubonnet is bored. He wants to bill enough hours to pay his alimony and keep his daughter in college, with enough left over for an occasional drink and a good meal, but he longs for something different and exciting.
Sure, researching licensing law for the new casino will keep trout meunière on the table, but what could be more tedious? (Unless, of course, the client turns out to be connected.) Meanwhile, there’s the estate of an old friend who controls some dock leases on the wharf. And he agrees to help his daughter’s environmental group stop illegal dumping in the river.
Ho-hum, thinks our hero. But suddenly all three cases begin to converge in an entirely ominous way–the toxic dumping, the dock leases, and the too-good-to-be-true casino job. How is that possible? Could it be Tubby’s been set up as the fall guy in a Mob effort to expand its gambling empire?
In Between (Katie Parker Production Book 1)
Can we overcome our past?
Katie Parker is about to get a new life—whether she wants one or not. With her mom in prison, and her father AWOL, Katie is sent to live with a squeaky-clean family who could have their own sitcom. She launches a full-scale plan to get sent back to the girls’ home when she finds herself in over her head…and heart. When Katie and her new “wrong crowd” get into significant trouble at school, she finds her punishment is restoring a historic theater with a crazy grandma who goes by the name of Mad Maxine.
In the midst of her punishment, Katie uncovers family secrets that run deep, and realizes she’s not the only one with a pain-filled past. Katie must decide if she’ll continue her own family’s messed up legacy or embrace a new beginning in this place called In Between.
Running Scared: Fear, Worry, and the God of Rest
Edward T. Welch reveals God’s plan for encouraging those in the grips of fear. One of the haunting dilemmas of the human condition is that fear is “an inescapable feature of earthly life.” Every person who has lived on this earth has encountered fear. Tragically, for this reason our race for the good life finds us all too often “running scared.”
In his new release, Running Scared, Edward T. Welch investigates the roots of fear in the human soul and the ramifications of living in the grips of anxiety, worry, and dread. Welch encourages readers to discover for themselves that the Bible is full of beautiful words of comfort for fearful people (and that every single person is afraid of something). Within the framework of thirty topical meditations, Welch offers sound biblical theology and moment-by-moment, thoughtful encouragement for life-saving rescue in the midst of the heart and mind battlefield of rampant panic-stricken responses.
This comprehensive primer on the topic of fear, worry, and the rest of God will have readers retreating to scripture for invariable constancy, stalwart care, and robust comfort, instead of as Welch terms it, “hitting the default switch” by responding with characteristic human independence, control, and self-protectiveness.
The Undisciplined Bride
Throughout her 23 years, Peyton Prescott was used to running the show. That went into overdrive the minute she agreed to become a bride. Born into an affluent Southern family, she was expected to fulfill her social obligation to marry well, and found that unsuspecting groom in her pushover fiancé, Leland Goodreau. He, like the rest of her family, catered to her every whim to keep her happy, and she predicted a satisfactory, if not boring, existence as his missus.
In fact, the only real human to stand up to this bridezilla from hell is Mateo Bravo, one of the chefs she considers to cater the blessed event. Sparks fly the minute they meet and out of sheer defiance, she hires Mateo and his sister Naomi for every social gathering in the remaining months until she marries.
Mateo, unlike any other man she’s ever met, doesn’t put up with Peyton’s behavior. With a masculine energy that she finds alluring and exciting, he turns her entitled existence upside down by showing her she’s not always the boss. No one is more surprised than she is when she finds out that she kind of likes it.
Peyton decides to seduce, and then dump, the middle-class cook, just to get him out from under her skin. Instead she finds out that there are a few things in life even the great Peyton Prescott can’t plan.
Sons of Dust
Love’s Providence
Collegiate athlete Lily Brennon has always been the piece that doesn’t quite fit in the puzzle, especially in her fragmented family, and no amount of rule-following perfection seems to bring her any closer to the love and acceptance she desperately seeks. If not for Jackson Carter, her childhood best friend and the only boy she’s ever loved, she’s sure she would have run away years ago. But when Jackson loses his father and a future basketball career within months of each other, his faith is so shattered, he shuts out everyone, including Lily.
After months of heartache, Lily begins to piece together a life without Jackson, and while vacationing on a beautiful island off the Georgia coast, she begins a long-distance romance with Alex Walker, a police officer with a quick wit and a cocky grin. He revives her hope in love again, but their intense attraction and his devastating secret test Lily’s values, stretching them until they break.
Silence (Faces of Evil)
Ten years ago…
Special Agent Jess Harris has closed another tough case and now she’s determined to make it home to spend Christmas with her only family, her sister. Jess needs a break and taking it far away from work is the only way to keep her mind off the many faces of evil waiting in the stack of case files on her desk.
Running into the past wasn’t part of the plan…
Daniel Burnett was Jess’s first love. She’d fallen hard for him in high school. Together they’d gone off to college with big dreams. But not all dreams come true. Jess hasn’t seen Dan in ten years when they run into each other on Christmas Eve night…yet no force on earth can keep them apart.
How Dogs Love Us: A Neuroscientist and His Adopted Dog Decode the Canine Brain
The powerful bond between humans and dogs is one that’s uniquely cherished. Loyal, obedient, and affectionate, they are truly “man’s best friend.” But do dogs love us the way we love them? Emory University neuroscientist Gregory Berns had spent decades using MRI imaging technology to study how the human brain works, but a different question still nagged at him: What is my dog thinking?After his family adopted Callie, a shy, skinny terrier mix, Berns decided that there was only one way to answer that question—use an MRI machine to scan the dog’s brain. His colleagues dismissed the idea. Everyone knew that dogs needed to be restrained or sedated for MRI scans. But if the military could train dogs to operate calmly in some of the most challenging environments, surely there must be a way to train dogs to sit in an MRI scanner.
With this radical conviction, Berns and his dog would embark on a remarkable journey and be the first to glimpse the inner workings of the canine brain. Painstakingly, the two worked together to overcome the many technical, legal, and behavioral hurdles. Berns’s research offers surprising results on how dogs empathize with human emotions, how they love us, and why dogs and humans share one of the most remarkable friendships in the animal kingdom.
SALT: A Post-Apocalyptic Thriller
In 2014 humanity didn’t stand a chance.
A series of fatal climatic disasters struck, entirely drowning the planet. Now, just one hundred and twenty-five souls remain, surviving on a flotilla of damaged ships. But their survival isn’t guaranteed. Facing severe threats to their numbers by a fatal bacterium and increasingly warring factions, they discover a serial killer within their midst.
When the murderer targets Eva Morgan’s friend, her investigations draw her into a deadly mystery and a race against time before the killer’s actions destroy the fragile existence on the flotilla. The further she digs, the more secrets she uncovers, and the truth becomes a pawn in a game for ultimate survival.
With humankind on the brink of extinction, the story of SALT will take you on a thrill ride of intense emotions and incredible revelations.
No Rest for the Dead
In this New York Times bestseller, twenty-six renowned thriller authors team up to create a first-rate serial novel—a collaboration that combines the skills of America’s greatest storytellers to produce a single gripping, spellbinding mystery.
When Christopher Thomas, a ruthless curator at San Francisco’s McFall Art Museum, is murdered and his decaying body is found in an iron maiden in a Berlin museum, his wife, Rosemary, is the primary suspect, and she is tried, convicted, and executed. Ten years later, Jon Nunn, the detective who cracked the case, is convinced that the wrong person was put to death. In the years since the case was closed, he’s discovered a web of deceit and betrayal surrounding the Thomases that could implicate any number of people in the crime. With the help of the dead woman’s friend, he plans to gather everyone who was there the night Christopher died and finally uncover the truth, suspect by suspect. Solving this case may be Nunn’s last chance for redemption…but the shadowy forces behind Christopher’s death will stop at nothing to silence the past forever.
The Great Alone
Best-selling and beloved author Janet Dailey captures the heart of the last American frontier in this rousing, passionate tale of splendid adventures and unforgettable loves.
Through seven generations and two-hundred years, the Tarakanov family will carve civilizations out of an untamed wilderness. In the 18th century, she is forced to choose between her beloved Cossack, Andrei, and the future of the Aleut tribe. Zachar, fated to love the gorgeous, dangerous Raven of the rival Tinglets, will betray his tribe’s greatest secret. Marisha runs away with a handsome Klondike prospector, but finds her fortune as Glory St. Clair, Alaska’s most beautiful and notorious madam. Wylie Cole is a man of courage and skill that harkens back to the fortitude of his Indian forebears, will play a vital role in the defense of his homeland during World War II–and the glories in the birth of the Alaskan state. These and other fascinating characters will play out a drama epic in scope, as captivating as Alaska itself. Glorious and grand, THE GREAT ALONE is an astounding achievement in storytelling.
Dead Spots (A Scarlett Bernard Novel)
Scarlett Bernard knows about personal space: step within ten feet of her, and any supernatural spells or demonic forces are instantly defused—vampires and werewolves become human again, and witches can’t get out so much as a “hocus pocus.” This special skill makes her a null and very valuable to Los Angeles’s three most powerful magical communities, who utilize her ability to scrub crime scenes clean of all traces of the paranormal to keep humanity, and the LAPD, in the dark.
But one night Scarlett’s late arrival to a grisly murder scene reveals her agenda and ends with LAPD’s Jesse Cruz tracking her down to strike a deal: he’ll keep quiet about the undead underworld if she helps solve the case. Their pact doesn’t sit well with Dash, the city’s chief bloodsucker, who fears his whole vampire empire is at stake. And when clues start to point to Scarlett, it’ll take more than her unique powers to catch the real killer and clear her name.
… See the rest of today’s Editor’s Picks here on page 2