New York Times bestselling author Christie Craig tops today’s Buffet with her suspenseful romantic comedy Divorced, Desperate and Delicious. Readers who enjoy Jenny Crusie and Janet Evanovich will enjoy this one.
Christie grew up in Alabama, where she caught lightning bugs, ran barefoot, and regularly rescued potential princes, in the form of bullfrogs, from her brothers. Today, she’s still fascinated with lightning bugs, mostly wears shoes, but has turned her focus to rescuing mammals and hasn’t kissed a frog in years. She now lives in Texas with her four rescued cats, one dog—who has a bad habit of eating furniture—a son, and a prince of a husband who swears he’s not, and never was, a frog.
Christie writes humorous romance novels for Grand Central, as well as the bestselling “Shadow Falls” series, under the pen name C. C. Hunter.
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Divorced, Desperate and Delicious (Divorced and Desperate Book 1)
Ever since photographer Lacy Maguire caught her ex playing Pin the Secretary to the Elevator Wall, she’s been content with her dog Fabio, her three cats, and a vow of chastity. But all of that changes when the reindeer-antlered Fabio drags in a very desperate, on-the-run detective who decides to take refuge in her house—a house filled with twinkling lights and a decorated tree. (Okay, so it’s February, but she has a broken heart to mend, a Christmas-card shoot to do, and a six-times divorced, match-making mother to appease.) For the first time in a looooong while, Lacy reconsiders her vow. Because sexy Chase Kelly, wounded soul that he may be, would be an oh-so-delicious way of breaking her fast. Now, if she can just keep them both alive and him out of jail . . .
The Proposition
With her thirtieth birthday looming, Emma Harrison finds her biological clock clanging and the elusive knight in shining armor yet to appear. She’s running out of options, especially after her gay best friend backs out from being her sperm donor. Of course, there’s always a sperm bank, but Emma fears a donor mix-up might impregnate her with the spawn of Satan.
Resident company womanizer, Aidan Fitzgerald, is used to always getting what he wants, especially in the bedroom. When Emma spurns his advances at the company Christmas party, he’s determined to have her no matter what it takes. After Aidan learns of Emma’s predicament, he is quick to offer a proposition that will benefit them both. He will father Emma’s child, but she must conceive it with him naturally. Not one for hook-ups or casual sex, Emma is reluctant to take him up on his offer, but his charm, coupled with her intense desire for motherhood, wins out.
Soon their baby-making sessions become more than just physical. Aidan can’t seem to walk away from her while Emma begins to wonder if Aidan could be the one. But can Aidan leave his past behind to become the man Emma needs him to be?
Deep Blue (Blue Series Book 1)
When Cali Morgan kicks off her perfect post-college summer in Lake Tahoe, she has everything she ever wanted: acceptance into a top law program, a gorgeous boyfriend, and an incredible summer planned with her best friend.
Confident about her place in the world, Cali makes it her mission to be her friend’s wingwoman and help her meet guys. What Cali doesn’t count on is running into Jaeger Lang, one of her older brother’s high school friends, or the sparks that fly when she’s around him.
Jaeger has changed, and it’s not just the added height and muscle. There’s something about him that’s deep and a little scarred. In spite of the changes, Jaeger becomes a top pick for her friend—if Cali can keep her hands off him.
But when Cali’s boyfriend dumps her and her carefully laid plans begin to unravel, she finds herself questioning what it is she truly desires. In the midst of doubts about her future, one thing is very clear: she wants Jaeger for her own. The question is, has her friend already fallen for him?
Head Games
Successful Park Avenue psychiatrist Dr. Jonah Hoffman leads a fairly normal life–a good practice, a loving wife and children–until he takes on a dangerous new patient. At first Robert Kolfax, CEO of a Blackwater-like private security firm with secret ops all over the world, seems like a powerful but troubled man in need of Jonah’s help. But Jonah soon discovers that Kolfax is a sociopath. A mass murderer. And what’s worse, he’s untouchable, operating in a jurisdictional bubble.
In an effort to aid his country, Jonah becomes a secret government operative, answering to the shadowy Mr. Price. But Jonah’s undercover operations quickly begin taking over his life, putting himself and everyone close to him in danger. To survive he must leave the safe confines of his Manhattan office and plunge himself into a world of terrorists, mercenaries and spies, and outwit them at their own game.
Cheese Wrestling: A Lt. Jack Daniels/Chief Cole Clayton Thriller
Cole Clayton is a small town cop used to small town crime. But when a girl goes missing, it leads him from his small town to Chicago, where he teams up with a tough Homicide cop named Jack Daniels.
What is the meaning of cheese wrestling? Hint: You probably don’t want to know. And neither does Jack. But sometimes you have to deal with the worst of humanity to bring out the best in humanity.
Very Wicked Beginnings (Briarcrest Academy)
Reckless – [A Dangerous Game] (The Forever Series)
Everything about him warned me to stay away.
I’d seen bad boys before, but he had it all and more. The rippling muscles covered in tatts, the piercing eyes hiding dark secrets, the silky voice that could make a girl come with just a whisper . . .
He was exactly the type of guy that would get me in trouble, but when he jumped off the stage, inked skin glistening with sweat and breathed his seductive words into my ear, I couldn’t resist the temptation.
It was supposed to be the best one-night stand of my life, but fate didn’t let it play out that way. Things happened. I got upset. I got hasty. And worst of all, I got reckless.
After that disaster, I thought it was the last I’d see of him. But what I didn’t know was that I’d started something.
The Education of Sebastian (The Education of… Book 1)
A friendship between the lost and lonely Caroline, and the unhappy Sebastian, leads to an illicit love that threatens them both.
Caroline Wilson is trapped in a cold and loveless marriage with an older man. When her husband finally wins a long sought-after promotion, Caroline feels she has little choice but to follow him to a new home in San Diego. There she meets Sebastian, a young man of 17.
For an all too brief summer, their happiness blooms.
But external pressures begin to bear down, not least from the overbearing David, and Sebastian’s parents begin to suspect that their son has a secret. Even Caroline’s new friend, Donna, realises that dark passions exist below the serene surface.
Afterlife (Afterlife Saga Book 1)
Afterlife… just some gothic nightclub where gossip is fuelled by the presence of a rich and unearthly, handsome family or Afterlife…the strange place where time seems to stand still and guests feel the presence of something more powerful held within the confines of the VIP.
Keira is new to this small, cold town and is running from a past that seems to feast on her darkest memories. She finds living with her sister away from English soil to be just the ticket to the new life she is trying desperately to find. So when the offer of a job at the infamous Gothic nightclub Afterlife comes along she thinks that lady luck has finally found her. That is until its seductively dark and forbidding owner Dominic Draven sets eyes on her. All at once she is captivated and plunged into a world she never knew existed but the deeper her obsession with Draven becomes, the harder it is to decide…should she stay and continue to work within the shadows of the supernatural or should she run from a madness she thinks may consume her?
Quite Contrary
The secret of having an adventure is getting lost. Who ever visited an enchanted kingdom or fell into a fairy tale without wandering into the woods first?
Well, Mary is lost. Mary is lost in the story of Little Red Riding Hood, and that is a cruel and murderous story. She’s put on the red hood and met the Wolf. When she gives in to her Wolf’s temptations, she will die. That’s how the story goes, after all.
Unfortunately for the story and unfortunately for the Wolf, this Little Red Riding Hood is Mary Stuart, and she is the most stubborn and contrary twelve year old the world has ever known.
Forget the Wolf’s temptations, forget the advice of the talking rat trying to save her – she will kick her way through every myth and fairy tale ever told until she finds a way to get out of this alive. Her own way, and no one else’s.
The French House: An American Family, a Ruined Maison, and the Village That Restored Them All
Shortly after Don and Mindy Wallace move to Manhattan to jump-start their writing careers, they learn of a house for sale in a village they once visited on a tiny French island off the Brittany coast. Desperate for a life change, the Wallaces bravely (and impulsively) buy it almost sight unseen.
What they find when they arrive is a ruin, and it isn’t long before their lives begin to resemble it—with hilarious and heartwarming results.
Redolent with the beauty and flavors of French country life, The French House is a lively, inspiring, and irresistibly charming memoir of a family that rises from the rubble, wins the hearts of a historic village, and finally finds the home they’ve been seeking off the wild coast of France.
The Lavender Garden: A Novel
An aristocratic French family, a legendary château, and buried secrets with the power to destroy two generations torn between duty and desire.
La Côte d’Azur, 1998: In the sun-dappled south of France, Emilie de la Martinières, the last of her gilded line, inherits her childhood home, a magnificent château and vineyard. With the property comes a mountain of debt—and almost as many questions . . .
Paris, 1944: A bright, young British office clerk, Constance Carruthers, is sent undercover to Paris to be part of Churchill’s Special Operations Executive during the climax of the Nazi occupation. Separated from her contacts in the Resistance, she soon stumbles into the heart of a prominent family who regularly entertain elite members of the German military even as they plot to liberate France. But in a city rife with collaborators and rebels, Constance’s most difficult decision may be determining whom to trust with her heart.
As Emilie discovers what really happened to her family during the war and finds a connection to Constance much closer than she suspects, the château itself may provide the clues that unlock the mysteries of her past, present, and future. Here is a dazzling novel of intrigue and passion from one of the world’s most beloved storytellers.
In the Land of the Long White Cloud (In the Land of the Long White Cloud Saga)
Helen Davenport, governess for a wealthy London household, longs for a family of her own—but nearing her late twenties, she knows her prospects are dim. Then she spots an advertisement seeking young women to marry New Zealand’s honorable bachelors and begins an affectionate correspondence with a gentleman farmer. When her church offers to pay her travels under an unusual arrangement, she jumps at the opportunity.
Meanwhile, not far away in Wales, beautiful and daring Gwyneira Silkham, daughter of a wealthy sheep breeder, is bored with high society. But when a mysterious New Zealand baron deals her father an unlucky blackjack hand, Gwyn’s hand in marriage is suddenly on the table. Her family is outraged, but Gwyn is thrilled to escape the life laid out for her.
The two women meet on the ship to Christchurch—Helen traveling in steerage, Gwyn first class—and become unlikely friends. When their new husbands turn out to be very different than expected, the women must help one another find the life—and love—they’d hoped for.
… See the rest of today’s Editor’s Picks here on page 2