Sixteen-year-old Susan Smithson is pretty but poor, clever but capricious, and utterly impossible to ignore despite her lack of fortune. She’s just been expelled from a school for young ladies in London for reasons involving inappropriate behavior that horrified the headmistress—though Susan maintains she was simply being honest about the ridiculous rules governing young women’s conduct. Either way, her educational prospects are ruined and her reputation damaged beyond easy repair. 🎭
At the grand mansion of the formidable Lady Catherine de Bourgh—that intimidating grande dame who terrorizes everyone in her orbit with opinions delivered as commandments—Susan attracts the attention of a raffish young nobleman who finds her spirit refreshing in a world of simpering debutantes. But at the first hint of scandal involving stolen kisses and unchaperoned walks, her guardian dispatches her immediately to her uncle Collins’ rectory in Kent, where her sensible cousin Alicia lives in peaceful obscurity and “where nothing ever happens” according to local wisdom. 🏛️
Here in supposedly sleepy Kent, Susan mischievously inspires the local squire to put on a theatrical play as entertainment, insisting that rural life needn’t be boring just because it’s provincial. Her enthusiasm proves infectious despite initial resistance from the more conservative members of the community. But the production leads to consequences no one could possibly have foreseen—rehearsals that blur the lines between performance and reality, emotions that transcend scripted lines, and complications that threaten several reputations simultaneously. 🎪
What with the unexpected arrival of the charming Frank Churchill whose presence electrifies the neighborhood, Alicia’s falling deeply and hopelessly in love with someone who may not return her affections, and a tumultuous elopement that scandalizes everyone for miles around, rural Kent will surely never seem safe or boring again. Susan’s talent for creating chaos wherever she goes has transformed the quiet countryside into something resembling a theatrical production itself—one where the stakes are real hearts, real reputations, and real futures hanging in the balance of decisions made in moments of passion rather than prudence. 💕
What makes this delightful: Alice McVeigh’s Jane Austen prequel follows sixteen-year-old Susan Smithson—pretty but poor, clever but capricious—expelled from her London school and sent to formidable Lady Catherine de Bourgh’s mansion where she attracts a raffish nobleman, then dispatched to uncle Collins’ rectory in Kent where her mischievous inspiration for a theatrical play leads to unforeseen consequences including Frank Churchill’s arrival, cousin Alicia’s hopeless love, and a tumultuous elopement.
Two states from his daughter, and the missiles have been launched. Jack Archer is a train wreck of a human being, barely holding himself together through a combination of prescription painkillers and cheap whiskey. Stripped of his medical license after a devastating mistake that haunts him nightly, his marriage destroyed by grief and recrimination, hollowed out by guilt over failures that can never be undone and pain from an injury the surgeons insist is all in his head despite the agony shooting through him constantly. He’d have to climb for days just to reach the gutter from where he’s fallen. 💊
And then a call from an old friend changes everything in the space of a heartbeat. Something terrible is happening on the west coast that defies comprehension. A nuclear blast has sent the nation into chaos and panic, with reports of multiple detonations and conflicting information about whether this is an attack or an accident. The government has triggered CONDITION BLACK—a chilling secret contingency designed to be the absolute last resort after every other last resort has failed, protocols developed for scenarios too terrible to discuss in polite company. 💣
Jack’s ex-wife Karen and seven-year-old daughter Emily are standing directly in the line of fire two states away where the explosions occurred, trapped in an evacuation zone that’s collapsing into violence and chaos. If Karen and Emily are to stand any chance of surviving this disaster, pursued by enemies unknown—whether foreign attackers, domestic terrorists, or something worse—and facing a government that has already marked them as expendable collateral in whatever contingency plans CONDITION BLACK entails, they need someone to fight through hell for them. 🔥
Jack will have to cast his demons aside and summon a strength he never knew he possessed beneath the wreckage of who he used to be. The doctor who lost his license might be their only hope of survival in a world where medical skills matter less than the ability to navigate chaos and protect the people you love from threats you can’t fully understand. Redemption doesn’t come from climbing out of the gutter—it comes from protecting your daughter when civilization falls apart around you. 💪
What makes this explosive: Keith Taylor’s post-apocalyptic thriller follows train wreck Jack Archer—stripped of his medical license, marriage destroyed, hollowed by guilt and pain—when a call reveals something terrible on the west coast, a nuclear blast triggering government’s CONDITION BLACK protocol, with ex-wife Karen and daughter Emily two states away in the line of fire, forcing Jack to cast demons aside and summon strength to protect them from enemies unknown and a government marking them expendable.
It’s all fun and games until someone gets murdered in front of a live audience and a million dollars vanishes into thin air. Nadia Wolf has one wish driving everything she does: Win the World Poker Tournament and collect the one-million dollar prize that would change her life forever and validate years of dedication to mastering the game. Beating Caleb—her long-time rival who constantly challenges her poker career and questions whether she has what it takes—wouldn’t hurt either. In fact, proving him wrong might be almost as satisfying as the money. 🃏
However, the tournament goes sideways in spectacular fashion when someone is murdered during a crucial hand, and the prize money disappears right in front of a live audience watching both in person and via broadcast cameras. Not a single witness sees where the money went or who killed the victim despite hundreds of eyes supposedly watching every move. The impossible nature of both crimes—a murder and a theft occurring simultaneously under perfect surveillance—baffles everyone from security to law enforcement. 💰
In a twist of fate that neither of them expected, Nadia teams up with the casino’s sinfully handsome CEO Greyson in an attempt to find the missing prize money and solve a perilous mystery that plagues the casino’s reputation. Working alongside Greyson proves challenging in ways having nothing to do with the investigation—with his overwhelming allure and the chemistry crackling between them, Nadia has to keep her head in the game and her hands to herself when what she really wants is to test whether his lips are as skilled as his business acumen. 💋
With both Caleb and Greyson claiming a stake in her future—one challenging her professionally and the other tempting her personally—Nadia’s career, life, and heart will never be the same again. Solving the murder and recovering the money requires her poker skills: reading tells, calculating odds, knowing when to hold and when to fold. But this time the stakes aren’t just chips on a table—they’re everything she’s worked for and everyone she’s come to care about in a high-stakes game where losing means more than just money. 🎰
What makes this engaging: Nicolette Pierce’s three-book cozy mystery follows poker player Nadia Wolf determined to win the World Poker Tournament’s million-dollar prize and beat long-time rival Caleb—until someone is murdered during a crucial hand and the prize money disappears before a live audience with no witnesses, forcing Nadia to team up with the casino’s sinfully handsome CEO Greyson to solve the mystery while keeping her head in the game as both men claim stakes in her future.
I Came Back for You
Ten years after her daughter Melanie was murdered in a crime that devastated their family and destroyed any sense of safety they once possessed, Bree Winter is finally moving on with her life. She has a new love who makes her smile again, a new home in a different state far from the memories, and a new beginning that doesn’t revolve around grief and trauma. The pain will never completely disappear, but she’s learned to carry it rather than let it crush her. 💔
Then a deathbed confession from the convicted killer—the man who’s been in prison for a decade serving a life sentence—throws Bree’s carefully rebuilt life into a tailspin all over again. He readily confesses to murdering four girls with disturbing detail that only the killer could know, describing their final moments with a casualness that makes Bree’s stomach turn. But not Melanie. He insists he didn’t kill her daughter, that someone else committed that particular murder and he took the blame either through coincidence or conspiracy. 🔍
At first, Bree and her ex-husband don’t buy a word of this manipulative confession designed to torment them one final time before death. Until inconsistencies about the crime begin emerging when they reexamine the evidence with fresh eyes—timeline discrepancies, forensic details that never quite fit, witness statements that contradict the official narrative. The dreadful feeling grows that the monster who shattered their family a decade ago might actually be telling the truth for once in his miserable life. 💀
The only way Bree can get to the truth and finally have real closure is to power through the trauma and return to the small town in upstate New York where Melanie’s life came to a brutal end—a place she swore she’d never visit again. Bree will do anything to find justice for her daughter and finish this nightmare forever, to finally put Melanie to rest properly. Instead, the nightmare is just beginning. Not only could the real killer still be living in their midst after a decade of freedom, but as Bree begins to dig through Melanie’s past with the determination of a mother who won’t stop, what she discovers calls into question everything she has believed—about the crime, about the investigation that followed, and most devastating of all, about Melanie herself and the secrets her teenage daughter kept. ⚠️
What makes this gripping: Kate White’s crime thriller follows mother Bree Winter rebuilding her life ten years after daughter Melanie’s murder when the convicted killer’s deathbed confession admits to four murders but not Melanie’s—as inconsistencies emerge, Bree returns to upstate New York where Melanie died, discovering the real killer might still be free and unearthing secrets that question everything she believed about the crime and her daughter herself.
Eden Fox, an artist on the brink of her big break after years of struggling in obscurity, sets off for a run before her first exhibition opening that could change her career trajectory forever. When she returns to the home she recently moved into—Spyglass, an enchanting old house in the seaside village of Hope Falls that seemed too perfect when she found it—nothing is as it should be in ways that make her question her sanity. 🎨
Her key doesn’t fit the lock she’s used for weeks. A woman, eerily similar to her in appearance but claiming to be someone else entirely, answers the door with the confidence of someone who belongs. And her husband insists with absolute conviction that the stranger is his wife, looking at Eden like she’s a delusional intruder rather than the woman he married. One house. One husband. Two women. Someone is lying, but who? And more terrifyingly—why? 🏠
Six months earlier across the country, a reclusive Londoner called Birdy lived a solitary existence, reeling from a life-changing medical diagnosis that forced her to confront mortality in ways she’d spent decades avoiding. She inherits Spyglass unexpectedly—this mysterious gift from a long-lost grandmother she barely knew existed brings her to the pretty seaside village of Hope Falls and a house filled with secrets. But then Birdy stumbles upon a shadowy London clinic that claims to be able to predict a person’s exact date of death using cutting-edge technology, including her own rapidly approaching end. 💀
Secrets start to unravel like thread pulled from a sweater as the two timelines converge. As the line between truth and lies blurs until neither Eden nor Birdy can distinguish reality from deception, Birdy feels compelled to right some old wrongs before her predicted death arrives. But righting wrongs sometimes means committing new ones, and the past has a way of demanding payment for sins we thought were buried. The enchanting house called Spyglass holds more than just architectural charm—it holds the key to understanding how two women’s lives became entangled in ways that defy explanation, and why one of them might not survive the truth about who really belongs there. 🌊
What makes this chilling: Alice Feeney’s domestic thriller follows artist Eden Fox returning from a run to find her key doesn’t fit, an eerily similar woman answering the door, and her husband insisting the stranger is his wife—six months earlier, reclusive Birdy inherited Spyglass from a long-lost grandmother and discovered a clinic predicting death dates, forcing her to right old wrongs as two timelines converge revealing deadly secrets about who belongs.
Ready for her big break after publishing her first novel to modest reviews and disappointing sales, Lila Everwood has two fresh book ideas percolating and dreams of finally quitting her barista job to write full-time without worrying about rent. She’s genuinely hopeful about her future for the first time in years—until her writing catches her literary idol’s attention in all the wrong ways, leading to a situation she never could have imagined. 📚
Elizabeth Lancaster, the queen of regency romance whose books have sold millions and defined the genre for decades, hasn’t written a single word in three years despite contractual obligations and mounting pressure from her publisher. The well has run dry. The muse has abandoned her. Her publisher’s desperate solution? A ghostwriter to preserve the Elizabeth Lancaster brand and keep the money flowing. Specifically, their favorite coffee server who happens to write romance novels—a woman named Lila who makes Elizabeth’s daily latte and unknowingly captured the publisher’s attention. ☕
It’s either brilliance or madness pairing an established legend with an unknown barista—and Elizabeth’s literary agent son Grady thinks it’s definitely the latter. He’s protective of his mother’s legacy and reputation, convinced that this arrangement will either expose his mother’s creative decline publicly or result in subpar books that tarnish everything she’s built. He wants nothing to do with this scheme that feels more like exploitation than collaboration. 💼
As the ideas begin to fly between Elizabeth and Lila during their unlikely collaboration sessions, so do the sparks—between Lila and Grady who can’t seem to stay away from their meetings despite his initial opposition. What started as professional skepticism evolves into something more complicated as he watches Lila breathe new life into his mother’s creativity. And as Lila’s and Elizabeth’s worlds collide in ways neither expected, the two writers must lean on each other through publisher pressure and creative challenges, learning something vital in the process: In life, love, and publishing, sometimes you have to write your own happy ending rather than following someone else’s formula. The best stories come from authentic collaboration and taking risks on unexpected partnerships—both professional and romantic. 💕
What makes this charming: Kristy Woodson Harvey’s wholesome romance follows aspiring writer Lila Everwood dreaming of quitting her barista job after publishing her first novel when she catches literary idol Elizabeth Lancaster’s attention—paired as ghostwriter when Elizabeth hasn’t written in three years, ideas and sparks fly between Lila and Elizabeth’s literary agent son Grady as the unlikely collaboration teaches them to write their own happy endings in life, love, and publishing.