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Murder, Curlers, and Cream: A Valentine Beaumont Mystery (The Murder, Curlers Series Book 1) (affiliate link)
She’s a beautician with a plummeting reputation. Can she catch a strangler before her salon is financially frizzed out?
Valentine Beaumont is desperate to revive her dying business. Trying to recover from an infamous incident where she defended herself with a perm rod to her attacker’s privates, the last thing she needs is another scandal. So when a wealthy socialite is strangled with a steamer cord while awaiting her facial, Valentine has no choice but to start combing through clues.
Battling a sexy, hard-headed detective who can’t tell pigtails from a pompadour, Valentine is convinced he’s pursuing the wrong suspect. And despite his warning not to meddle, the gutsy stylist vows to clear her name before the killer claims another client.
Can Valentine tie up the culprit before more lives are cut short?
Partners in Crime (Partners in Crime Chronicles Book 1) (affiliate link)
A string of brutal murders. An international conspiracy that includes the highest seats of power. A ruthless, sadistic killer who’s intent on terrorizing women.
It’s tough out there for a super spy who needs to save the world on the regular.
In the first book of the Partners in Crime Chronicles, Peter Bolton is a spy, but he’s up for a career change. He makes Jack Reacher look like an amateur, and he’s saved the world more times than James Bond. But now Peter is ready to retire and live a normal life without underworld figures trying to kill him every day and without a cyanide capsule hidden in his molar in case he gets caught.
Piper Landry walks out of the redwood forests of Northern California in the middle of the night with no memory and no clothes. She knows only two things. The first is that her name must be Piper Landry because that’s what’s written on a tag bolted to her ear. The other is that she’s richer than Midas.
A code only she can break…
A man only she was made for…
Julie Trueblood’s name is found alongside an encrypted message in the safe deposit box of a dead man, bringing Navy investigator Hank Jared to her door, looking for answers. The daughter of the most infamous spy of the twenty-first century, Julie denies any knowledge of the man or the cipher and sends Hank away.
Hank is supposed to be in the Adirondacks walking his sister down the aisle, not chasing leads on a John Doe murder investigation that doesn’t even appear to be Navy-related. He’s a military man through and through, and while an order is an order, he hasn’t given up hope of finding a way to make the ceremony. When Julie contacts him and says her life is in danger, Hank finds the perfect place to hide her, right by his side, pretending to be his girlfriend at his sister’s wedding. Now he just needs to remember their relationship is all an act.
An Unlikely Match (The Match Series Book 1) (affiliate link)
Morgan Holbrook has a PhD in jet propulsion, a plum research position at CalTech and a sexy, new neighbor who is way out of his league. He’s got all the confidence in the world where it comes to applied physics, but he’s never been the guy who gets the girl.
Cheerleader Amelia Camden has sworn off boyfriends, focusing instead on her budding acting career. But when her nerdy, next door neighbor passes up his high school reunion, party enthusiast Amelia is determined to change his mind.
Wanting his former classmates to appreciate Morgan the way she does, as a brilliant, compassionate, engaging man, she goads him into a haircut, a great suit and a pair of contact lenses. Morgan plays along with the sexy Amelia. Who wouldn’t? But when her flattery turns to flirtation, he knows it’s all part of the act.
Don’t Marry the Duke (Wedding Trouble Book 1) (affiliate link)
What’s the worst that can happen at a wedding?
A meddling brother…
When Hamish Montgomery learns his older brother—a duke, no less—is about to marry the wrong woman, he vows to stop the wedding. A dramatic intervention is entirely reasonable in the face of a social calamity.
A determined bridesmaid…
Georgiana Butterworth is stunned when a handsome Scotsman barges into her bedroom and attempts to bribe her not to marry his brother. Never mind that she isn’t the bride. Georgiana has no intention of letting anyone—least of all an infuriating intruder with far too much confidence—ruin her sister’s chance at happiness.
A wedding that must not be stopped…
Hamish is certain the match must be prevented. Georgiana is equally certain he needs distracting. And she’s just the woman to do it.
Poison Pen (Claudia Rose Forensic Handwriting Mysteries Book 1) (affiliate link)
Forensic handwriting expert Claudia Rose has learned from painful experience not to trust notorious Hollywood talent agent, Lindsey Alexander. So when Lindsey is found dead and her business partner wants Claudia to prove the supposed suicide note is a fake, Claudia wants nothing to do with it.
Then fate takes a dark turn. A brutal attack compels her to navigate the twisted threads of Lindsey’s past. The deeper Claudia digs into the secrets and lies surrounding the talent agent’s life, the more they are obscured by layers of betrayal and duplicity involving the rich and powerful.
As she uncovers clues that spell out motives for murder, will Claudia be writing her own obituary?
No Place Like Home: A Novel (affiliate link)
A young woman is ensnared into returning to a place she had wanted to leave behind forever—her childhood home.
At the age of ten, Liza Barton shot her mother, trying desperately to protect her from her estranged stepfather, Ted Cartwright. Despite his claim that the shooting was a deliberate act, the Juvenile Court ruled the death an accident. Many people, however, agreed with Cartwright, and the tabloids compared the child to the infamous murderess Lizzie Borden, pointing even to the similarity of their names.
To erase her past, her adoptive parents change her name to Celia. At age twenty-eight, a successful interior designer in Manhattan, she marries a childless sixty-year-old widower, Laurence Foster, and they have a son. Before their marriage, she reveals to him her true identity. Two years later, on his deathbed, he makes her swear never to tell anyone so that their son, Jack, will not carry the stigma of her past.
Two years later, Celia is happily remarried. Her peace of mind is shattered when her new husband surprises her with a gift—the house where she killed her mother. And it soon becomes clear that there is someone in the community knows Celia.
Pick-Up (affiliate link)
Sasha Rubinstein is not on her game. Parenting with an absent (and objectively douchey) ex has never been easy, but, lately, the judgmental side-eye from people at school pick-up feels extra. It doesn’t help that some entitled dad—with his perfect t-shirts and perfectly punchable (yet adorable) face—keeps stealing the last after-school spots and school hoodies out from under her.
Ethan Jones is not trying to trip Sasha up… at school or otherwise. In fact, ever since they met (which she promptly forgot), he’s been hoping for the exact opposite…or at least to stop thinking about her.
When a game-changing job lands them trapped together on an exclusive private island, they resolve to stop sniping at each other and keep things professional. But with tension building between them and the permeating intoxication of island time, temptation blows in on every tropical breeze.
The Moment of Truth (affiliate link)
The Moment of Truth… Laney Cochrane loves her life. With her friends Millie and Tash, she runs a proposal agency, organising the perfect setting for their clients to pop the question. Finding that forever love is something Laney knows all about. Her marriage to Cameron is blissfully content and she has never doubted they’ll live happily ever after. Then Cara Deacon walks into their office. When Cara enlists their help to set up a romantic engagement to her boyfriend, they visualise a breathtaking scene under a moonlit Manhattan sky. Laney’s excitement rises, until she realises that the man Cara intends to marry has the same name as her own husband. Cameron Cochrane. A bizarre coincidence? Identity theft? A cruel joke? Or is Cara’s dream about to become Laney’s worst nightmare? The only way to know for sure is to plan the proposal and see it through to the end. But whose heart will be left intact after… The Moment of Truth?
THE COMPLETE TOM CHATTO ADVENTURES (affiliate link)
Someone Like You (Wild Widows Series Book 1) (affiliate link)
After I suddenly lose my husband, Patrick, in a senseless shooting, I’m lost in a sea of well-meaning people trying to make the unimaginable seem possible. How am I supposed to go on without the man who’s been at the center of my life for nearly a decade? My friends and family do what they can for me, but I quickly realize that surviving this loss is going to be on me. One day to the next, I have to make the decision to go on, but life isn’t done throwing me ringers, and just when I think I’ve got this young widow game figured out, I find out how wrong I am.
When a friend of my sister’s connects me to the Wild Widows, I find a group of fellow travelers who understand my new reality in a way no one else in my life ever could. The Wild Widows have one requirement for membership to their group—I must be open to the possibility of a Chapter 2, which is what they call a second chance at love. While I’m not in any way looking for or ready for a Chapter 2, if I’ve learned anything it’s that I’m not in control of where this journey will take me.
Susan, You’re The Chosen One: Welcome To Midlife Magic: Book One (affiliate link)
Starting over isn’t easy when your whole world is a pile of rubble and everyone thinks you’re insane.
One moment, Susan Moore had the perfect life—a handsome husband, a fabulous career, wonderful friends, and a gorgeous home in Pacific Heights, San Francisco.
The next minute, it was all gone. And Susan found herself in a straitjacket, locked in a padded room.
An optimist at heart, Susan’s clawing her way back, rebuilding her life brick by brick—not an easy feat when you’re over the hill and it feels like the whole city hates you.
But when a group of ridiculously gorgeous models in Fae cosplay barge into her tiny apartment and declare her to be the chosen one, Susan decides to play along. She’s off to save the world.
Except they’re not in cosplay.
… See the rest of today ‘s Book Picks here on page 2Page 2