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Amoret, Texas, 1982. Life along the border is harsh, but in a world where cultures work together to carve a living from the desert landscape, Blaine Beckett lives a life of isolation. A transplanted Boston intellectual, for twenty years locals have viewed him as a snob, a misanthrope, an outsider. He seems content to stand apart until one night when he vanishes into thin air amid signs of foul play.
Noah Grady, the town doctor, is a charming and popular good ol’ boy. He’s also a keeper of secrets, both the town’s and his own. He watches from afar as the mystery of Blaine’s disappearance unravels and rumors fly. Were the incipient cartels responsible? Was it a local with a grudge? Or did Blaine himself orchestrate his own disappearance? Then the unthinkable happens, and Noah begins to realize he’s considered a suspect.
Stalked Justice (Fractured Minds Series Book 1) (affiliate link)
After shooting the man who kidnapped her sister, Lucy Bray finds herself in a psych ward, with no way of knowing when or if she’s getting out.
Until … the FBI comes calling with a unique proposition. They’ll let her out IF she agrees to their conditions:
She’ll be tethered to a tracking device and have no weapons at her disposal.
She agrees to be used as bait.
What could possibly go wrong? One-click today and find out.
A Juicy Murder (A Stoneybrook Mystery Book 5) (affiliate link)
They’ll squeeze out every last clue…
A new juice bar in Stoneybrook has the town on a delicious health kick. When a woman is found strangled outside the shop, the townspeople swear they’ve never seen her before.
But someone among the locals is lying. They not only recognize the woman but had motive to silence her.
Hadley and her twin have three mysteries to solve. Who is the mysterious woman? Why did someone want her dead? And will finding these answers put their lives at risk too?
Twenty-year old Julia Wade, a young woman tragically widowed, is in the middle of a bizarre bid between two mythical species who are vying for the unique properties she offers; her blood. The vampires need her to balance the food load of the human species and give them their coveted “Lightwalkers.” The Were wish to be moonless changers; a Rare One can make that a reality.
Julia wants to belong to herself.
Can she free herself and begin a new life?
BLOOD SONG:
Julia has been ripped from the escape she’d planned for herself. When she awakens to discover that her reality has shifted to include a supposed soul-meld with a man she hates, and who hates her… she rebels. Julia doesn’t want to be captive in a gilded cage.
Broken from the horrific events surrounding her friends, Cynthia migrates to the very city that Julia resides, determining to find her as the police follow the bread crumbs she’s left in her wake.
Condemned (Julian Mercer Book 1) (affiliate link)
What will it take to stop a hitman from carrying out his contract?
His business card reads security specialist, but Julian Mercer can do just about anything. As a former SAS operative, he has training and skills few possess. But after his wife was viciously slain, Mercer gave up his commission and joined the private sector.
While visiting Chicago on a job, Mercer stumbles upon the scene of a botched assassination. A man is bleeding out in his fiancée’s arms. Mercer searches for the shooter. But he’s too late. The attacker has disappeared. And no matter what the police say, this wasn’t a mugging gone wrong. It was a hit.
Mercer vows to put an end to the contract, but to do that he’ll need to stop the hitman and the person responsible for ordering the execution. Getting answers isn’t always easy. In fact, most of the time, it gets kind of messy. Just how far will Mercer go to make the city safe again?
Everyone wants to be the chosen one.The job’s perks often involve overpowered abilities, world-breaking equipment, and an eager line of bodacious partners.But due to a Goddess’s clumsy meddling, a struggling musician named Perry ends up accidentally transmigrated alongside her true chosen one with none of the above.Demanding a portal home or reparations for his bereaved family doesn’t win him respect either. Instead, he finds himself thrust into a world of magic, monsters, and a wise cracking System. His courage wins him nothing but severely diminished proportions and a brand that severely limits his combat potential.Little does the Goddess know that nothing can stand in the way of Perry’s sheer will. If brute strength and arcane powers won’t get him the justice he desires, bardic wit, musical talent and creativity will.
The Metronome (The Counterpoint Trilogy Book 1) (affiliate link)
When Pavel follows his father’s footsteps trying to solve the mystery of his death, he turns up some inexplicable clues. The investigation draws him deeper and deeper into his family’s past – and his country’s future. From starving 1941 Leningrad to free-wheeling Moscow of the mid-1990s to bubbly 2006 Wall Street, Pavel uncovers a web of money, murder, revenge and evidence of a plot involving the world’s superpowers. The choices of right and wrong don’t look as clear cut as in newspaper headlines. But is he just a pawn in someone else’s game?
Mail Order Bride: A Convenient Escape (Winter Mail Order Brides) (affiliate link)
Charlotte Bennet’s life has been decided since the day she was born, but no more. Her father has demanded she marry a brute of a man, and for the first time, Charlotte takes her life into her own hands. With some help from her loyal maidservant, Charlotte escapes to the west to be the mail order bride of one David Parker. Certainly, he will be a better fate for her than her father’s choice.
To Charlotte’s relief, David Parker appears to be a kind man, though she is not quite what he expected. After being raised in luxury, Charlotte is ill-prepared to run a household in the wild and rugged West. In time, however, Charlotte begins to feel at home, and soon it seems a marriage of convenience could become one of love.
But some secrets cannot be hidden forever, and when Charlotte’s are revealed, will she lose the new home she’s come to love?
They Kidnapped His Daughter. It’s the Biggest Mistake They’ve Ever Made
When a caller claiming to have abducted ten-year-old Andrea Curren refuses to provide her father with “proof of life,” Blake Curren turns the tables on the kidnappers. If the girl is not returned within twenty-four hours, Curren offers the amount demanded to anyone who can return his daughter safely, or kill the people who have taken her.
>>>A Race Against Time
In this page-turning mystery, two local teens find themselves caught in the murky backwaters of a deadly hunt, as a professional killer and a retired newsman race the FBI to determine what has happened to Andrea Curren.
Hidden Part One: A Michael Sullivan Mystery (affiliate link)
Upon his return from combat, a wounded Marine faces brutal battles at home. Sully’s parents are estranged, his father is an invalid, and the family ranch is nearing bankruptcy. Murdering thieves are stealing champion horses and disappearing into the desert like ghosts.
While attempting to make peace with his abusive father, Sully discovers the shocking secrets that drove his parents apart. Deeply resentful, he works with his father solely for the survival of the ranch.
Sully finds comfort in Maggie, the mother of a young marine killed in action. Despite their age difference, he connects with her in a way he never thought possible.
When a close friend is murdered, Sully and his Paiute companion track down the renegades. The epic violence that waits in the desert will test their survival skills—skills they never thought they’d use on American soil.
Dirty Work (A Stone Barrington Novel Book 9) (affiliate link)
Stone Barrington gets a taste of New York City’s devious upper crust in this sleek and engaging mystery.
Hired to prove infidelity in an heiress’s marriage, Stone Barrington goes undercover. But the work turns dirty—and catastrophic—when the errant husband is found dead and the other woman disappears without a trace. Now, Stone must clear his own good name and find a killer hiding among the glitterati of New York’s high society.
Everything You Are: A Novel (affiliate link)
One tragic twist of fate destroyed Braden Healey’s hands, his musical career, and his family. Now, unable to play, adrift in an alcoholic daze, and with only fragmented memories of his past, Braden wants desperately to escape the darkness of the last eleven years.
When his ex-wife and son are killed in a car accident, Braden returns home, hoping to forge a relationship with his troubled seventeen-year-old daughter, Allie. But how can he hope to rescue her from the curse that seems to shadow his family?
Ophelia “Phee” MacPhee, granddaughter of the eccentric old man who sold Braden his cello, believes the curse is real. She swore an oath to her dying grandfather that she would ensure Braden plays the cello as long as he lives. But he can’t play, and as the shadows deepen and Phee finds herself falling for Braden, she’ll do anything to save him. It will take a miracle of forgiveness and love to bring all three of them back to the healing power of music.
Don’t Scream (affiliate link)
In a remote, heavily wooded area near the Berkshires of Massachusetts, Rachel Lorant died on her birthday. But she didn’t die alone. That night, her four sorority sisters make a solemn, trembling pledge. They will never reveal what has just happened in those woods. Instead, they will take their terrible secret to their graves . . .
Now, ten years later, their secret is coming back to haunt them as each receives a card in the mail from Rachel: “Happy Birthday to Me. xoxo R.” It’s clear that someone knows what happened that night. Someone is stalking them and sending mysterious, chilling gifts that only they can understand—deadly warnings of what is to come. For the sins of the past have come back with a vengeance, and a killer will see that they all pay in blood . . .
Brynn Costello has never felt such pure fear. She didn’t want any part in what happened so long ago, but now, the mother of two will do anything to stay alive and protect her family—even if it means matching wits with a killer she can’t see . . .
Bliss Brain: The Neuroscience of Remodeling Your Brain for Resilience, Creativity, and Joy (affiliate link)
Award-winning author and thought leader Dawson Church, Ph.D., blends cutting-edge neuroscience with intense firsthand experience to show you how you can rewire your brain for happiness-starting right now.
Neural plasticity-the discovery that the brain is capable of rewiring itself-is now widely understood. But what few people have grasped yet is how quickly this is happening, how extensive brain changes can be, and how much control each of us has over the process.
In Bliss Brain, famed researcher Dawson Church digs deep into leading-edge science, and finds stunning evidence of rapid and radical brain change. In just eight weeks of practice, 12 minutes a day, using the right techniques, we can produce measurable changes in our brains. These make us calmer, happier, and more resilient.
When we cultivate these pleasurable states over time, they become traits. We don’t just feel more blissful as a temporary state; the changes are literally hard-wired into our brains, becoming stable and enduring personality traits.
Go Ask Ali: Half-Baked Advice (and Free Lemonade) (affiliate link)
New York Times bestselling author Ali Wentworth offers her hilarious and unique advice on surviving the absurdity of modern life in her third collection of laugh-out-loud comic vignettes.
Ali Wentworth’s first two books, Ali in Wonderland and Happily Ali After, were lauded by readers, critics, and fellow comedians alike. Entertainment Weekly included Happily Ali After on its “Must List” and hailed it as “hilarious. . . . Her glass isn’t half full—it’s “empty and cracked,” while Cosmopolitan praised it as “razor-sharp.” Chelsea Handler called Ali in Wonderland “truly hilarious,” and Kathy Griffin christened it, “Chicken Soup for the Vagina.” Alec Baldwin has described Ali as “funny and warm and crazy all at once. Like Barbara Eden. But on something. Like crystal meth,” and Jerry Seinfeld has raved, “Everything that comes out of Ali Wentworth’s mouth is funny!”
Cutie Pies: 40 Sweet, Savory, and Adorable Recipes (affiliate link)
Praised by Bon Appétit, DailyCandy, and Sunset magazine, the secrets behind Dani Cone’s signature handmade, all-natural miniature pies are revealed for the first time inside Cutie Pies: 40 Sweet, Savory, and Adorable Recipes. Whether you’re grabbing the perfectly portable Flipside on the way to work, enjoying a Piejar as a tasty afternoon treat, or looking for a fun and impressive dinner party dessert, Cutie Pies provides the perfect morsels to satisfy sweet and savory cravings alike.
Inside Cutie Pies, Cone presents 40 exclusive recipes inspired by the unique line of compact pastries she serves at her Seattle-based Fuel Coffee and High 5 Pie locations, which have received a Best of Seattle Weekly award. Sweet, one-of-a-kind treats like a Mango-Raspberry-Lemon Piepop mingle with savory recipes like Cone’s Curry Veggie Piejar, all in a distinct and delightful design.
Yule Log Murder (affiliate link)
Lucy Stone is thrilled to be cast as an extra in a festive period film—until the set becomes a murder scene. Returning to her role as sleuth, Lucy dashes to restore peace to Tinker’s Cove, unwrap a cold-hearted criminal’s MO—and reveal how one ornate Yule log cake could possibly cause so much drama.DEATH BY YULE LOG by LEE HOLLIS
Hayley Powell’s holidays aren’t off to a very merry start. Not only has her daughter brought Conner—an infuriatingly perfect new beau—home to Bar Harbor, but a local troublemaker has been found dead with traces of Hayley’s signature Yule log cake on his body. . . . And Conner is the prime murder suspect.LOGGED ON by BARBARA ROSS
Julia Snowden can’t make a decent Bûche de Noël to save her life, so she enlists the help of her eccentric neighbor, Mrs. St. Onge, in hopes of mastering the dessert for Christmas. But with everyone in the older woman’s circle missing or deceased, it’s up to Julia to stop the deadly tidings before she’s the next Busman’s Harbor resident to meet a not-so-jolly fate.
… See the rest of today ‘s Book Picks here on page 2Page 2