Fiona Red is a brilliant but quirky FBI loner who spends most of her time in the lab or at crime scenes rather than playing politics at headquarters. She comes from a family used to being around death and bodies—her parents ran a funeral parlor, and she would have run the family business if not for a tragedy in her past: **her sister was abducted when she was a teenager and never found.** Blake Pierce launches a new FBI series with a protagonist whose professional expertise in forensic entomology (bugs are the first visitors to dead bodies) is matched only by her obsessive need to solve the one case that destroyed her family. 🐛Fiona remains determined to crack her sister’s case, but in the meantime, as an FBI agent, she applies her brilliance to catching killers and cracking cases that no one else can. With her FBI partner out in the field doing the glamorous detective work, Fiona expects to stay behind the scenes analyzing evidence and providing scientific support. That’s her comfort zone—the lab, the microscope, the careful analysis of insect life cycles that can pinpoint time of death when other methods fail. But Fiona, obsessed with catching killers, takes it one step too far. 🔬

Pierce understands that the best FBI thrillers feature agents whose personal demons drive their professional obsessions. Fiona’s missing sister isn’t just backstory—it’s the wound that never healed, the case that turned her into a forensic specialist who sees every victim as someone’s sister, someone’s daughter. When she crosses the line from lab analyst to active investigator, **she may just find herself in the crosshairs of a killer herself.** The funeral parlor background gives Fiona an unusual comfort level around death that most agents lack, making her fearless in situations where normal people would be horrified. That fearlessness, combined with her analytical mind and personal mission, makes her dangerous to criminals—and possibly to herself. 💀

What makes this a compelling series start: Pierce creates an FBI protagonist with a unique specialty (forensic entomology), a tragic backstory that drives her investigative zeal, and the kind of brilliant-but-socially-awkward personality that makes for great detective fiction. For readers who love forensic detail, FBI procedurals with personal stakes, and series protagonists who bring unconventional skills to crime-solving, this launches Fiona Red’s story with both scientific intrigue and emotional depth. 🕵️‍♀️

Peter Maxwell is perfectly content with his routine: by day, inspire students and, if lucky, annoy the headmaster and governing body. By evening, return home to explain the finer points of classic films to his long-suffering cat, Count Metternich. M.J. Trow introduces us to a delightfully eccentric British schoolteacher whose greatest pleasures are irritating school administrators and delivering film lectures to a feline audience. It’s a comfortable, predictable life—until Leighford High student Jennifer Hyde is murdered. 🎓The victim’s body is discovered at a derelict house in Kissing Tree Lane in the quaint seaside town. She’d been strangled. The police have very few leads and even less motivation. But for Maxwell, **students are late for class. They are not murdered.** And Jennifer was one of his students. Trow captures the shift from cozy routine to grim reality with this simple observation—Maxwell’s world operates on certain principles, and murdered students violate those principles fundamentally. The police may see this as just another case in their workload, but Maxwell takes it personally. 💔

But this is not a textbook case. The title works on multiple levels—Maxwell’s house (his home with Count Metternich), Maxwell’s “house” (his classroom and students), and the derelict house where Jennifer died all become settings for an investigation that draws an amateur sleuth into dangerous territory. Trow writes British mystery with a light touch, giving us a protagonist who’s more interested in classic cinema than modern detection techniques, but whose knowledge of his students and their world makes him see connections the police miss. 🔍

What makes this an engaging series launch: Trow creates a memorable amateur detective in Peter Maxwell—a schoolteacher with a cat named after an Austrian diplomat, a talent for annoying authority figures, and an unexpected knack for solving murders. For readers who love British cozy mysteries with eccentric protagonists, school settings, and the amateur sleuth tradition, this introduces the Schoolmaster series with charm, wit, and a murder that transforms Maxwell’s comfortable routine into something far more dangerous and compelling. 🇬🇧

A cartel made it personal. Now he’s coming for them. Jason Mulder wasn’t prepared for another loss—after years of elite Air Force Pararescue training, he built his life around one mission: protecting his family at all costs. But when his younger brother dies under suspicious circumstances in the pine forests of northern Arizona, Mulder uncovers something far worse than a tragic accident: **a ruthless cartel expanding its empire where law enforcement can’t reach.** Robert Goluba launches an action thriller series with a protagonist whose military training meets family tragedy, creating the perfect storm of skills and motivation. 💪Tracking down the killers becomes his new objective. But the La Palma cartel doesn’t just eliminate threats; they erase them. When Jason disrupts their operation, cartel lieutenant Victor Romero sends professional assassins to his doorstep with orders to burn everything he loves to ash. Goluba understands that the best revenge thrillers escalate quickly—what starts as investigation becomes survival, and survival becomes war. The cartel’s response to Jason’s interference isn’t proportional; it’s total. They don’t just want to stop him; they want to erase him and everyone he cares about. 🔥

Now Jason must take the fight into the unforgiving Arizona wilderness, hunting Romero and his sicarios before their next shipment floods the Southwest with narcotics and the morgues with bodies. **The cartel has turned his home into a battlefield.** Jason plans to bring every one of them to justice. The Arizona wilderness setting provides tactical advantages for someone with Pararescue training—Jason knows how to survive, navigate, and fight in terrain where the cartel’s urban advantages disappear. Goluba writes action thriller that combines military expertise with personal vendetta, giving readers both technical authenticity and emotional stakes. ⚔️

What makes this an adrenaline-fueled series start: Goluba delivers military action thriller with a protagonist whose elite training (Air Force Pararescue) combines with personal loss to create an unstoppable force. For readers who love Jack Reacher-style lone wolf justice, military tactics applied to cartel warfare, and Arizona wilderness as battleground, this launches Jason Mulder’s war against organized crime with relentless pacing and high body count. The cartel made it personal. Big mistake. 🎯

Nora Newberry’s big day is coming! And with just weeks to go before her wedding, there is still so much to do! Getting it all done while running her diner seems like an impossible feat. Thankfully, she has Tina—her support, her positive outlook, her… **what!? Tina has just signed them on to cater another wedding at the same time as Nora’s!?** Nancy McGovern delivers cozy mystery chaos where planning your own wedding while running a diner is stressful enough, but catering someone else’s wedding simultaneously? That’s asking for disaster. 💒And it’s whose wedding??? How could this get any worse??? Well, for starters, **the bride’s sister could be found dead, poisoned.** And Nora could be blamed for the grisly crime! That would certainly put a damper on things… McGovern understands that cozy mystery protagonists can’t catch a break—Nora’s trying to plan her dream wedding, keep her diner running, help Tina with this insane double-booking situation, and now there’s a murder investigation with her as the prime suspect. The poisoning angle is particularly problematic when you’re the one who prepared the food. 💀

Will Nora actually be suspected of the murder? Who, in fact, is responsible? And will Nora’s dream wedding come to an end before it’s even had a chance to begin? McGovern structures the mystery around escalating wedding chaos—every bride worries about things going wrong on their big day, but most don’t have to worry about murder charges. The culinary cozy mystery format means food preparation, catering disasters, and poisoning all intertwine, while Nora juggles being both bride and murder suspect. The seventh book in the Murder in Milburn series finds Nora facing her most personal case yet. 🔍

What makes this delightful cozy chaos: McGovern combines wedding planning stress with murder investigation, creating maximum comedic and dramatic potential. For readers who love culinary cozy mysteries with small-town settings, protagonists who can’t stay out of trouble, and mysteries that hit close to home, this delivers both the comfort of the cozy genre and genuine stakes. Nora’s dream wedding hangs in the balance while she races to clear her name and find the real killer. No pressure! 🎂

Rachel Rowan yearns for a new start. So, ready for change and up for a challenge, she has decided to relocate to the beautiful coastal town of Swaddle, California to pursue her lifelong dream of opening her very own bakery! And as a self-professed **”Queen of Cakes,”** she can’t wait to show the world what she can do! Nancy McGovern launches the Comfort Cakes series with all the ingredients for cozy mystery success: new beginning, small coastal town, passionate baker protagonist, and a business venture that’s about to go very wrong. 🎂Sadly, not everyone shares her enthusiasm. While the majority of locals are thrilled with her new Comfort Cakes Bake Shop, Rachel soon learns that the owner of a local café is determined to ruin her. Of course, business is business, and a bit of competition may even make things interesting. But when Rachel **finds a dead body in her kitchen just before the Grand Opening** and she is accused of the murder, she quickly realizes that this is more than a little friendly rivalry! McGovern understands the cozy mystery formula: establish the protagonist’s dream, introduce opposition, then escalate to murder right when everything should be perfect. Finding a corpse in your kitchen before your grand opening is the ultimate “welcome to town” disaster. 💀

The setup is classic cozy: newcomer arrives in small town with big dreams, encounters local resistance, gets framed for murder, must solve the crime to clear her name and save her business. Rachel’s identity as the “Queen of Cakes” means she’s got pride and reputation on the line along with her freedom. The Comfort Cakes Bake Shop was supposed to be her fresh start, her chance to prove herself, her escape from whatever she left behind. Instead, it’s become a crime scene and she’s the prime suspect. 🔍

What makes this a sweet series start: McGovern delivers culinary cozy mystery with all the essential elements—baking expertise, small-town setting, murder mystery, and a protagonist fighting to save both her reputation and her dream business. For readers who love cozy mysteries with food themes, California coastal towns, and heroines who refuse to let murder charges ruin their grand opening, this launches Comfort Cakes with the perfect blend of mystery and baked goods. Rachel’s new start just got very complicated. 🍰

In the pediatric ward of a public hospital in the heart of Los Angeles, a group of sick children is gathering—kids who should be at home playing, at school learning, anywhere but here fighting illnesses that steal their childhoods. Surrogate parents to this band of stray kids, resident Richard Kraft and therapist Linda Espera are charged with an impossible mission: keeping the group alive on make-believe alone. Richard Powers delivers medical fiction that confronts the devastating reality of pediatric illness while exploring how stories become survival mechanisms when medicine isn’t enough. 🏥Determined to give hope where there is none, the adults spin a desperate anthology of stories that promise restoration and escape. These aren’t cheerful bedtime tales—they’re lifelines thrown to children drowning in hospital reality, narratives that offer alternate worlds where sick kids can be heroes, where pain has meaning, and where endings might be happy. Powers understands that for children facing terminal diagnoses, fantasy isn’t frivolous—it’s essential. The stories Richard and Linda tell become medicine of a different kind, treating despair rather than disease. But the inevitable is foreshadowed in the faces they’ve grown to love. 💔

Ultimately, Richard and Linda must return to forgotten chapters in their own lives in order to make sense of the conclusion drawing near. Powers asks whether the stories we tell sick children are for them or for us, whether hope is kindness or cruelty when cure isn’t possible, and how caregivers cope when every ending they’re writing leads to the same heartbreaking place. This is medical fiction that doesn’t offer easy comfort or miraculous recoveries—just the brutal truth of what it means to care for dying children. 📖

What makes this devastatingly powerful: Powers writes literary fiction that confronts pediatric terminal illness without sentimentality or false hope. For readers who appreciate profound examinations of mortality, the ethics of hope, and how storytelling functions as both escape and coping mechanism, this delivers emotional depth that lingers long after the final page. 🌟

The New York Times bestselling time management book from the author of The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. Stephen R. Covey’s First Things First is the gold standard for time management books, and this Interactive Edition remasters the entire text to include easy-to-understand infographics, analysis, and more—making it the efficient way to apply Dr. Covey’s tested and validated principles while retaining his core message. His principle-centered approach for prioritizing gives you time management tips that enable you to make the changes and sacrifices needed to obtain happiness and retain a feeling of security. ⏰This isn’t about squeezing more tasks into your day—it’s about ensuring the right tasks get done first. Covey’s philosophy challenges the tyranny of the urgent, helping readers distinguish between what’s important and what merely seems pressing. The guide will help you get more done in less time, develop and retain rich relationships, attain inner peace, create balance in your life, and put first things first. The Interactive Edition transforms Covey’s wisdom into a time-saving format designed for modern readers who need practical strategies they can implement immediately. 📊

The principle-centered approach means your time management aligns with your deepest values rather than just your to-do list. Covey teaches you to organize your life around what matters most—relationships, personal growth, meaningful work—rather than constantly reacting to whatever demands your attention loudest. This is time management that serves your life goals rather than just your calendar. ✅

What makes this essential self-help: Covey’s time management philosophy has influenced millions because it addresses the why behind productivity, not just the how. For readers overwhelmed by competing demands, struggling to balance work and personal life, or feeling busy without being fulfilled, this provides a framework for reclaiming control of your time and your life. 🎯

If confidence was a women’s size twenty, then its name would have to be Aspen St. Andrews. The thirty-one-year-old freelance journalist is living life on her own terms, except in one area: love. She’s stuck in an engagement to a man she once loved but who now treats her career like a hobby, arguing about her work constantly. As their engagement teeters on dissolution, Aspen takes a trip to the little town of Nome, Texas to interview ranchers about mysteriously dying livestock. What she doesn’t expect is to meet a man who threatens to change everything she found attractive—a tactless, rude stranger she couldn’t possibly have these sorts of desires for. No matter how pitiful her relationship is, she’s still engaged to be married. 💍Seven Storm Henderson is the youngest of seven children (yes, Seven is the youngest), used to getting his way, and living life exactly how he wants. He owns a full-service center and mechanic shop while his family pretty much owns the entire town. But he loves taking care of animals in their pastures, especially the cattle. Women throw themselves at his feet wanting only one thing from him, and even though he’s rude and nasty to most of them, they still chase the Storm. One day, what he feels is his destiny drops in his lap—but she’s not like most women he’s dealt with, and she’s definitely not available. 🤠

What makes this a captivating series start: Monica Walters delivers African American romance with a confident plus-size heroine who refuses to shrink herself for anyone, a small-town Texas setting, and an alpha hero who knows what he wants the moment he sees it. For readers who love size-positive romance, enemies-to-lovers banter, and heroines brave enough to question their safe choices when something real shows up, this launches The Henderson Family Saga with heat and heart. 🔥

Sophia just wanted a quiet life—a new academy, fresh notebooks, and maybe a chance to breathe without anxiety clawing at her chest. But the Thorn brothers have other plans. Arrogant, magnetic, and dangerously untouchable, they rule the campus with a game only they understand, and Sophia just became their newest obsession. Claimed as part of their secret “Pet Program,” she’s thrust into a world of desire, dominance, and deceit, where pleasure is a weapon and trust is a trap. The Thorns want to own her mind as much as her body. Maddison Cole delivers dark academia why choose romance with power dynamics that blur every line. 🎓But Sophia isn’t the fragile girl they think she is. In a school built on power and control, she’s about to turn their twisted game against them and make the brothers learn what happens when a pet bites back. Cole understands that the best reverse harem romances give the heroine agency even when she’s outnumbered—Sophia may be their claimed pet, but she’s nobody’s victim. The Thorn brothers rule the academy through intimidation and their mysterious program, but they’ve chosen the wrong woman to underestimate. 🔥

The “Pet Program” is simultaneously literal and metaphorical—a secret campus tradition where the powerful claim those they consider beneath them, but also a psychological game testing who truly controls whom. As Sophia navigates the dangerous world of desire mixed with dominance, she discovers that surrendering doesn’t mean losing and that sometimes the best way to win a rigged game is to change the rules entirely. The brothers wanted ownership; Sophia’s going to teach them about partnership. 💋

What makes this addictive dark romance: Cole delivers why choose academy romance with genuine power play, a heroine who fights back, and multiple love interests who underestimate her at their peril. For readers who love dark academia settings, reverse harem dynamics, and protagonists who refuse to be broken, this offers heat, conflict, and delicious revenge. 🖤

It was meant to be Caitlin’s perfect summer, but betrayed by her best friend and boyfriend, she finds herself hitchhiking home alone, heartbroken, and penniless. When a smiling family pulls up to help her on her way, she’s relieved—they seem so friendly, so safe. When they offer her a warm bed in their isolated house for the night, she’s grateful not to travel home alone in the dark. Besides, she’s in no rush to return home, where a grave secret is waiting to blow her family apart. Jane Bailey delivers psychological suspense where kindness becomes captivity and perfect families hide perfect lies. 🚗One night soon turns into two, then three. The increasingly spellbinding couple wants her to stay—their children need a tutor, and the longer Caitlin can avoid home, the better. But then an older household member warns her to leave immediately. When her phone suddenly goes missing, when she realizes this perfect family is a perfect lie, it might not be too easy for her to leave. Bailey understands that the most dangerous traps are the ones we walk into willingly, believing we’re being helped rather than hunted. 🏠

The setup is brilliantly insidious: a vulnerable young woman, grateful for rescue, slowly realizes she’s been collected rather than helped. Caitlin’s reluctance to return home—that grave secret waiting for her—makes her the perfect victim for a family skilled at identifying people with nowhere else to go. The spellbinding couple’s charm becomes sinister as Caitlin understands their kindness was recruitment, not generosity. 🔒

What makes this chilling: Bailey writes psychological thriller where isolation happens gradually, where victims participate in their own imprisonment because leaving seems worse than staying—until it’s too late. For readers who loved The Guest or any captivity thriller where hospitality becomes horror, this delivers mounting dread and the terrible realization that perfect families are often perfectly dangerous. 😱

The 1920s in Florida was a time of incredible excess, immense wealth, and precipitous collapse—a decade that produced the largest human migration in American history, far exceeding the settlement of the West, as millions flocked to grand hotels and new cities that rose rapidly from teeming wetlands. The boom spawned a new subdivision civilization and the most egregious large-scale assault on the environment in the name of “progress.” Christopher Knowlton explores how Florida’s speculative frenzy became a dress rehearsal for both the stock market crash and modern American suburban sprawl. 🌴Nowhere was the glitz and froth of the Roaring Twenties more excessive than in Florida. Here was Vegas before Vegas existed: gambling was condoned, drinking flourished since prohibition wasn’t enforced, and fortunes were made overnight in real estate schemes that defied logic and gravity. Tycoons, crooks, and celebrities arrived en masse to promote or exploit this dazzling American frontier in the sunshine. Land sold at astronomical prices based purely on speculation, with buyers flipping properties multiple times in single days without ever seeing them. The environmental devastation was staggering—wetlands drained, coastlines reshaped, ecosystems destroyed—all to create instant cities built on swampland and dreams. 💰

Yet the import and deep impact of these historical events have never been explored thoroughly until now. Knowlton traces how Florida’s collapse prefigured the Great Depression, how subdivision development pioneered in Florida became the American suburban model, and how speculative mania taught lessons that America promptly forgot. The Florida boom revealed how easily speculation becomes delusion, how quickly prosperity becomes collapse, and how environmental destruction in pursuit of profit creates problems that outlast the profits. 📉

What makes this essential history: Knowlton connects Florida’s 1920s boom to both the Great Depression and modern America’s suburban sprawl, environmental issues, and speculative bubbles. For readers fascinated by economic history, the Roaring Twenties, or how we keep repeating the same mistakes, this offers deeply researched narrative history with disturbing contemporary relevance. 📚