Addy really needs a raise, like yesterday. Thanks to a mountain of school debt, she’s heartily sick of being broke. So when she discovers she’s being considered for a promotion? **She’s GIDDY.** Until she finds out that she needs to bring in accounts of her own, or she doesn’t stand a chance. Unfortunately, the only person she knows who might need a PR company is her ex from high school. She’d almost rather die than ask for his business, especially given the mess he’s created. B.E. Baker launches The Finding Home series with a rom-com premise built on desperation, pride, and the ex-boyfriend who represents both her professional salvation and personal nightmare. 💼But when she finally steels up her nerve and asks Ben if her company can help, she’s in trouble. Many things have changed since high school, but **their chemistry hasn’t. It’s as explosive as it ever was.** Can Addy remember all the reasons things didn’t work the first time around? Or is history doomed to repeat itself? Baker understands that second-chance romance works best when the obstacles that broke them up originally still exist—adding professional complications where Addy needs Ben’s business to get promoted creates perfect conflict. She can’t afford to mess this up professionally, but getting close to Ben again threatens to mess her up personally. 💕
The setup is deliciously awkward: Addy needs this account desperately (student debt isn’t going to pay itself), Ben apparently needs PR help (he’s created some kind of mess that requires professional damage control), and they have unresolved romantic history that makes working together extremely complicated. Baker writes romantic comedy that understands financial stress isn’t romantic but is very real for millennials drowning in student debt—Addy’s not being superficial about wanting a raise, she’s being practical about needing to survive. The ex-boyfriend complication adds both humor and genuine tension. 😅
What makes this a fun series launch: Baker delivers contemporary rom-com with relatable financial stress, second-chance romance, and workplace complications. For readers who love enemies-to-lovers adjacent dynamics (exes forced to work together), heroines juggling career ambition with romantic feelings, and chemistry that never died despite all the reasons it should have, this launches The Finding Home series with humor, heat, and the question of whether Addy can get the promotion without losing her heart to Ben all over again. 💖
Was Jeri Howard’s grandmother a murder suspect? **That’s a mind-boggling prospect.** The Oakland private investigator has a chance encounter in a movie memorabilia shop, where the odd little man behind the counter drops that bombshell. Now Jeri is on a quest to find out the truth. Back in 1941, Jerusha Layne was an actress in Hollywood—her dreams of movie stardom never came true, but she worked as a bit player speaking a few lines while big stars emoted in front of cameras. She shared a tiny cottage with three other aspiring stars, talking about parts over meals in the MGM commissary. Janet Dawson delivers cold case investigation with deeply personal stakes—Jeri’s investigating her own family history. 🎬British expatriate actor Ralph Tarrant had the reputation of a ladies’ man. He put the moves on Jerusha, but she rebuffed his unwanted advances. Then the actor is found dead, shot in his Hollywood bungalow. The cops have few suspects, but rumor and innuendo lead police to question Jerusha and her housemates. Jeri’s determination leads her to Los Angeles, where she reads the file on the cold case. **Tarrant’s murder was never solved,** she discovers when she delves into the seamy side of Golden Age Hollywood. Is the killer still out there? What really happened? 🔍
This anthology collects books 10-13 of the Jeri Howard series, giving readers four complete novels of Oakland PI investigation. The grandmother-as-murder-suspect storyline shows Dawson’s willingness to dig into her protagonist’s family history, making cases personal in ways that go beyond professional interest. The 1941 Hollywood setting provides glamorous backdrop for sordid reality—the cottage full of aspiring actresses, the predatory actor, the studio system that chewed people up. Jeri investigating her grandmother’s past means confronting family secrets and potential scandals that have been buried for decades. 📚
What makes this anthology essential: Dawson delivers four complete Jeri Howard novels exploring Cold War Hollywood, family secrets, and the seamy side of Golden Age cinema. For readers who love female PI fiction, Oakland setting, and mysteries that span generations, this anthology provides substantial reading. The grandmother murder suspect angle adds personal dimension to Jeri’s usual professional investigations. Four books of classic PI fiction from an acclaimed series. 🕵️♀️
Attorney Molly Evans would do anything for her best friends—and now one of them is missing. On a mission to find answers, she tracks Lila all the way to Firelight Ridge, Alaska, **a wild outpost where Molly sticks out like a sore thumb** in her designer duds and desperate search for Wi-Fi. Just days after arriving, she can’t resist getting sucked into the mystery surrounding a local’s death, a group of reclusive settlers… and a surly but undeniably attractive pilot. Jennifer Bernard launches the Firelight Ridge series with fish-out-of-water romantic suspense where a city attorney’s search for her missing friend leads to Alaska wilderness, mysterious deaths, and dangerous attraction. ❄️Sam Coburn has carefully cultivated a lone-wolf persona since moving to Firelight Ridge, necessary for a job he’s reluctantly agreed to take on. Then Molly Evans steps onto his plane, and he just knows the gorgeous redhead is about to make his life interesting. She’s as fierce as she is feisty… and it’s not long before she inadvertently provides him access to an isolated wilderness family he’s tried and failed to get close to for over a year. **But it turns out they are excessively interested in Molly**—a potentially dangerous turn of events Sam didn’t see coming. Bernard understands that romantic suspense works best when attraction and danger escalate simultaneously. 🛩️
The setup combines multiple mystery elements: Molly’s missing best friend, the local death that draws Molly’s attention, the reclusive settlers with secrets, and Sam’s mysterious job requiring access to an isolated family. Bernard uses the Alaska setting brilliantly—Molly’s designer clothes and Wi-Fi dependency make her vulnerable in wilderness where Sam thrives, creating both romantic tension (she needs him to survive) and suspense (she’s in over her head). The reclusive settlers’ excessive interest in Molly suggests she’s stumbled into something dangerous without realizing it. 🏔️
What makes this a compelling series start: Bernard delivers romantic suspense with Alaska wilderness setting, missing person investigation, mysterious reclusive settlers, and chemistry between city attorney and surly pilot. For readers who love small-town Alaska romance, fish-out-of-water heroines, and suspense mixed with attraction, this launches Firelight Ridge with multiple mysteries and genuine danger. Molly came to find her friend. She found trouble instead. 💕
The Storm: A Novel
Hurricane season can be murder. St. Medard’s Bay, Alabama is famous for three things: the deadly hurricanes that regularly sweep into town, the Rosalie Inn (a century-old hotel that’s survived every storm), and Lo Bailey, the local girl infamously accused of murdering her lover, political scion Landon Fitzroy, during Hurricane Marie in 1984. When Geneva Corliss, current owner of the Rosalie Inn, hears a writer is coming to research the crime that put St. Medard’s Bay on the map, she’s more interested in how a successful true crime book might help the struggling inn than in solving a forty-year-old murder. Rachel Hawkins delivers Southern gothic suspense where past and present storms converge. 🌀To Geneva’s surprise, August Fletcher doesn’t come alone—he brings Lo Bailey herself. Lo claims she’s returned to clear her name once and for all, but the closer Geneva gets to both Lo and August, the more she wonders if Lo is actually back to settle old scores. As the summer heats up and another monster storm begins twisting toward St. Medard’s Bay, Geneva learns that some people can be just as destructive and deadly as any hurricane, and that the truth about Landon Fitzroy’s death may not be the only secret Lo is keeping. 💀
Hawkins uses the hurricane as both literal threat and metaphor—the approaching storm building tension while past hurricanes provide cover for past crimes. Lo Bailey returning after decades is either brave victim seeking justice or calculating killer returning to scene of the crime. August Fletcher’s role becomes increasingly suspect as Geneva realizes that this true crime investigation might be staging ground for new crimes. The isolated coastal setting, century-old inn, and approaching hurricane create the perfect conditions for secrets to surface and bodies to disappear. ⛈️
What makes this a must-read thriller: Hawkins combines Southern gothic atmosphere, true crime investigation, and mounting suspense as another hurricane approaches. For fans of Riley Sager or Ruth Ware, this delivers multiple timelines, unreliable narrators, and the creeping realization that the past isn’t past—it’s patient. 📖
A dark past. A fresh start. A new nightmare waiting to begin. Willow McAllister is desperate to start over—quiet town, blank slate, no attachments. When she meets friendly new neighbor Priya, it feels like a lifeline: the start of something good. Then there’s Gabe: charming, funny, easy to talk to. Maybe she’s allowed a little happiness. Maybe she can trust again. But Willow’s instincts have been wrong before, and when she discovers that Gabe and Priya share a past, the cracks start to show. Shalini Boland delivers domestic suspense where fresh starts bring old nightmares. 🏠Willow can’t help wondering if Priya’s arrival next door really was by chance—because coincidences like this don’t feel like coincidences at all. Is she imagining the tension between Gabe and Priya? Or ignoring something she shouldn’t? Someone is lying, and Willow can’t afford to get it wrong again. Boland understands that the most paranoia-inducing thrillers make readers question whether the protagonist is perceiving real danger or projecting past trauma onto innocent situations. Willow’s dark past means her judgment is already compromised—she knows she’s been fooled before, which makes it impossible to trust her instincts now. 😰
The setup is brilliantly claustrophobic: woman fleeing her past tries to build new life, meets new friend and potential romantic interest, then discovers they’re connected. Either this is genuine coincidence and Willow’s paranoia is sabotaging her fresh start, or someone has orchestrated this scenario for reasons that can’t be good. The shared past between Gabe and Priya could be innocent or sinister, and Willow’s inability to trust her own judgment means she can’t distinguish between reasonable caution and destructive suspicion. Someone is definitely lying—the question is whether it’s Gabe, Priya, or Willow herself. 🔍
What makes this chilling: Boland writes domestic suspense where the protagonist’s compromised judgment makes every interaction suspect. For readers who love psychological thrillers with unreliable narrators, neighborly menace, and the question of whether paranoia is protection or self-destruction, this delivers mounting tension and the terrible knowledge that Willow’s instincts have failed her before. 📚
Six weeks undercover. One wrong woman. Zero room for error. Ryan “Coop” Cooper has spent weeks infiltrating a deadly militia running weapons through Montana’s backcountry. He’s one meeting away from bringing them down when Mia Thornton—the woman from his past—walks straight into his operation. Now he has two choices: watch her die or claim her as his. To keep her alive, Coop must convince a compound full of killers that she belongs to him. Every rough touch, every possessive threat is meant to sell the lie. Josie Jade delivers romantic suspense where protecting someone means pretending to own them. 🔫But when the militia leader sets his sights on Mia, and members start questioning Coop’s loyalty, their dangerous charade becomes a deadly game of survival. Mia never thought she’d need saving by Ryan Cooper. Now she’s trapped in his violent world, unsure if he’s protecting her or if he’s become the monster he’s pretending to be. Every bruising kiss, every possessive touch feels too real. Jade understands that the best undercover romances blur the line between performance and genuine feeling—Coop claiming Mia as his to protect her, but discovering he actually wants her to be his. 💔
With enemies tightening the noose, Coop must risk his mission, his career, and his life for the only woman he’s ever loved. Some mistakes you can’t outrun. Some loves are worth dying for. The stakes escalate as the militia grows suspicious, the weapons deal approaches, and Coop must decide whether completing his mission or saving Mia matters more. Every possessive touch started as acting but became truth. Every rough display of dominance was supposed to be protection but revealed his real feelings. 🔥
What makes this pulse-pounding romance: Jade combines undercover operation with forced proximity and fake relationship that becomes real. For readers who love military romantic suspense, protective heroes who must pretend to be possessive, and heroines trapped in dangerous situations, this delivers both action and intense chemistry. The Montana militia compound provides isolated danger perfect for desperate romance. 💕