Donna McDonald published her first romance novel in March 2011 and already has 11 books to her name. She tops today’s Buffet with Carved in Stone, the first installment in her “Art of Love” series, a refreshing and unapologetic look at romance after 50.
Donna wanted to write about middle-aged characters, even through she realized that romances featuring younger characters usually sell better. “When I got the urge to write about older women and men, I did so with full knowledge some readers might not be interested in reading about mature characters in love,” Donna says. “I knew there was a possibility the stories might not sell, but in typical Baby Boomer rebellious fashion, I said ‘screw it, I’m not making the characters younger, they need to be older.'”
Donna lives in Lexington, Kentucky with her fiancée, Bruce. Her work history covers everything from housekeeper to business owner to college English instructor.
As usual, each book listed here has gone FREE within the past 24 hours. Warning: Kindle book promotions can end without notice, so before downloading click the link “See Kindle price at Amazon” to verify that the book is still free. (Prices and availability may differ outside USA.)
Carved In Stone
Contemporary Romance > Romantic Comedy
Author: Donna McDonald
- $0.99 List Price
- See Kindle Price at Amazon.com
Even though his sons tease him about not dating, and his ex-wife thinks he is still hung up on her, 53-year-old retired principal and stone sculptor William Everett Larson is glad he waited to date until he found 47 yr old high school art teacher, Jessica Anderson. He admires Jessica for her courageous art and for how she has dealt with her life.
As far as Will can tell, the only part of Jessica damaged by her past is her heart. Jessica assures Will she is incapable of lasting love, but Will refuses to believe it’s true.
Headaches can be Murder
Mystery, Thriller & Suspense
Author: Marilyn Rausch, Mary Donlon
Serendipity leads Chip Collingsworth into mystery writing and to the small community of Turners Bend, Iowa, where he intertwines his new life and local events into Brain Freeze, his second novel with hero and alter ego Dr. John Goodman and FBI Agent Jo Schwann. Two crimes are solved and two romances emerge.
Love Can Be Murder
Mystery, Thriller & Suspense
Author: Marilyn Rausch, Mary Donlon
Chip Collingsworth, a popular crime writer and newest resident of Turners Bend, Iowa, is working hard on his next thriller, Mind Games, when dead bodies show up. Soon Chip is caught up in the search for a real-life murderer, as he facing a looming publication deadline and navigates a bumpy road to romance with Jane Swanson, town veterinarian.
Pink Slips and Glass Slippers
Romance > Contemporary
Author: J.P. Hansen
Brooke Hart was beautiful, smart, and groomed from birth to deal with adversity.
Her widowed father did his best to raise his baby girl to be a strong-minded business woman. Then she found Tanner. Just when her world seemed perfect, everything turned upside down. Following Tanner’s tragic death, Brooke joins a start-up company that is developing a cure for the disease that killed the love of her life. Just before the treatment is ready to market, the company is gobbled up by a giant conglomerate. She moves to the acquiring company as its youngest VP and becomes enamored with CEO Chase Allman—only to be betrayed by him.
Bewitching Kisses
Romantic Comedy > Historical Romance
Author: Rainy Kirkland
Betrayed by a greedy half-brother who coveted her inheritance, then accused by her superstitious Salem neighbors of practicing witchcraft, Sarah Townsend found herself kidnapped, sold into bondage, and thrown into the hold of a ship bound for Williamsburg, Virginia. A Puritan who believes to show one’s bare arm is a sin, now finds herself in Williamsburg, where the residents strive to follow the latest fashions in London.
Scorned (Coke Dreams)
Literature & Fiction > African American > Urban
Author: Arabia
Love Is A Battlefield, and in every battle there are winners and there are losers. In this battle of hearts there are no rules and there’s no such thing as playing fair. But, how do you play to win when your heart is involved and how do you win when your heart betrays you? How far would you go to win and is winning worth the risk when you could lose everything including your life?
The Eve Tree: A Novel
Women’s Fiction > Contemporary Women
Author: Rachel Devenish Ford
- $2.99 List Price
- See Kindle Price at Amazon.com
When Molly’s ranch is threatened by a nearby forest fire, she realizes she will do whatever she can to save it, even at the cost of her fragile mental stability.
Jack, Molly’s husband, will do whatever he can to save Molly. He alone knows the real toll of the breakdown she had, sixteen years ago.
Catherine, Molly’s elderly mother, is caught between regrets of the past and the present fiery threat. She returns to the ranch and begins a project that she hopes will somehow bring Molly back to wholeness, a project that has nothing to do with fighting fires.
As the whole family waits out the four days that the fire continues toward them, they dig deeply into the past to find the healing that they need and reclaim their place on the earth.
Access to Power
Mystery, Thriller & Suspense
Author: Robert Ellis
- $0.99 List Price
- See Kindle Price at Amazon.com
Three weeks before a crucial senatorial election, a man is gunned down execution-style in a D.C. office. Police are quick to call it a case of robbery gone bad, but Frank Miles suspects something far more sinister behind the murder of his business partner.
Washington’s most feared image maker, Frank’s ruthless media manipulation has earned him countless admirers…and just as many enemies. Now, for the first time in his life, Frank’s met his match in a shadowy schemer as clever as himself–but far more lethal.
As the body count rises, Frank becomes the U.S. Attorney’s chief suspect–and a cunning killer’s next target.
Fifteen Minutes to Live
Mystery > Hard-Boiled > Thrillers
Author: Phoef Sutton
The woman he’s just had sex with has been dead for three weeks. It was good sex. Carl hadn’t seen Jessica in twenty years… not since high school… and they passionately ravaged each other as if it was yesterday. There’s just a couple of little problems with their hot encounter. For one thing, Jessica thinks that it is yesterday and that they are still teenagers. And Carl discovers that she was killed three weeks ago.
Is she insane? An imposter? A ghost? Finding the shocking answer could cost Carl and Jessica their lives.
Cloak and Dagger
Thrillers > Spy Stories & Tales of Intrigue
Author: Nenia Campbell
Michael Boutilier is a young assassin working for a mysterious organization of mercenaries called the IMA; an organization so powerful that government denies its existence. When a hacker breaks into their computer’s mainframe, they send Michael out to finish off the loose ends. But so far, there’s just one lead to go on. The hacker’s daughter, Christina Parker.
Christina seems like any other high school senior. And she is — until she gets kidnapped by a group of people who think she’s the key to the malicious code that has infected their mainframe system and she is plunged into a world where the lines between right and wrong are blurred beyond all recognition and terror knows no bounds.
Light The Hidden Things
Women’s Fiction > Contemporary Women
Author: Don McQuinn
With only his beloved dog Major for company, retired Marine Carter Crow has been wandering the country for years, denying and fleeing from the terrors of post traumatic stress disorder, PTSD. When he meets the strong and beautiful Lila Milam, he will soon be faced with a choice: accept the help and support being offered to him or let the trauma of his past finally destroy him.
The Measure of His Grief
World Literature > Jewish > Family Relationships
Author: Lisa Braver Moss
In Berkeley, at his father’s shiva, a Jewish doctor experiences a sharp groin pain for which he can find no explanation. So begins a series of events that will find Dr. Sandy Waldman railing against the one Jewish tradition that’s still observed even in the most iconoclastic of towns and among the most assimilated of Jews: circumcision.
… See the rest of today’s Editor’s Picks here on page 2