To escape a public scandal, jilted soap actress Sabrina Swift packs up her life and heads to Cornwall, where she finds herself running a gift shop in the quaint and quirky Ferry Lane Market. Changing her looks and identity to maintain anonymity, the newcomer starts making both friends and enemies as she walks a frosty path through the established marketplace community. Not everyone’s happy to have a famous face (even a disguised one) disrupting their small-town dynamics. 🎭
As rumors circulate that the outdoor market faces shutdown, Sabrina finds herself ensconced in an unexpected love triangle while facing a difficult decision that could alter both her life and those of Hartmouth’s inhabitants forever. The stakes rise as she becomes genuinely invested in the market’s survival and the community she’s joined—but can she save it without revealing who she really is? 💕
Nicola May crafts uplifting romance with beautifully written Cornish setting and charming characters exploring themes of self-discovery, belonging, and following your heart. The marketplace setting provides built-in community dynamics, daily interactions, and the kind of small-business camaraderie that makes readers want to visit. Sabrina’s dual identity adds tension—she’s hiding from scandal while trying to build authentic connections. 🏖️
The threatened market closure gives the story external stakes beyond romance, uniting the vendors in common cause. Sabrina must choose between protecting her anonymity and fighting for the community she’s come to love. The love triangle complicates matters romantically while the marketplace politics create professional challenges. This is escapist romance that balances light drama with genuine heart. ✨
Why I’m including this: Heartwarming Cornish romance where a scandal-fleeing actress finds fresh start, new identity, unexpected love triangle, and a marketplace community worth fighting for. 🌊
Alessio is cold, ruthless, a killer—respected and feared by all. He wasn’t put on earth to love or be loved but to wipe out every last member of the Abandonato mafia and avenge his mother’s death. When he finds a strange girl hiding, beaten, under his bed, he doesn’t let her live out of compassion. She’s a trinket, his plaything, something to control in a world built on violence and revenge. 🖤
Ayla thought Alessio was just one more man who wanted to use her, hurt her, and throw her away. She doesn’t know what trust means anymore, can’t find her heart under all the pain. But Alessio found it—touched it, brought it alive again in ways she never expected. The problem? If he discovers just how dangerous she actually is to him, she’ll lose her life. Their connection is built on secrets that could destroy them both. 💔
Lylah James delivers dark mafia romance with the intensity and moral ambiguity the subgenre demands. The power imbalance is extreme—he literally owns her, considers her property—but the emotional stakes complicate the traditional captor/captive dynamic. Both characters are damaged and dangerous in different ways, creating unstable ground for any relationship to develop. ⚔️
The “Part 1” designation indicates this is a serialized story, likely with major cliffhangers and continued plot threads. The mafia vendetta against the Abandonato family provides ongoing external conflict while Ayla’s hidden danger to Alessio creates ticking-clock internal tension. This is dark romance for readers who want morally gray characters, high stakes, and relationships forged in dangerous circumstances. 🔥
What makes this special: Dark mafia romance where a ruthless killer seeking vengeance finds a beaten girl hiding under his bed—and discovers she’s more dangerous to him than he knows. 🌹
Three retired ladies who volunteer at Dogs Need Nice Homes charity shop can’t believe their favorite customer is dead. Eighty-six-year-old Sarah Brown was found murdered in her hallway by her delivery man, clutching a domino with a name scratched on it. When another person is found dead with a domino in their hand and police make no progress, Fiona, Sue, and Daisy decide they need to help unmask a serial killer. At least they have Fiona’s scruffy-haired terrier cross to assist them. ☕
With plenty of tea and cake along the way, and despite squabbles with their rivals at the Cats Alliance charity shop across the street, the Charity Shop Detective Agency is born. The dominoes suggest a pattern—someone’s working through a list, marking their victims. The three ladies combine their local knowledge, customer relationships, and surprising investigative instincts to track a killer the police are overlooking. 🐕
Peter Boland creates cozy mystery gold: retired ladies, charity shop setting, scrappy dog sidekick, tea and cake, rivalry with the cat charity across the street. The dominoes-as-calling-cards detail adds serial killer stakes to what could have been a simple village mystery. Each victim gets marked with their name scratched on a domino, suggesting premeditation and a specific list of targets. 🎲
The charity shop provides perfect amateur detective cover—they interact with the whole community, hear all the gossip, and can ask questions without arousing suspicion. The rivalry with Cats Alliance adds comedy alongside the crime-solving. The ladies’ age and volunteer status mean they’re consistently underestimated, giving them investigative advantages. For readers who love British cozy mysteries with genuine heart and humor. 🔍
Why I’m including this: Delightful British cozy where three retired charity shop volunteers (and a scruffy terrier) must catch a serial killer leaving dominoes with victims’ names scratched on them. 🇬🇧
Writing Screenplays That Sell: The Complete Guide to Turning Story Concepts into Movie and Television Deals
For more than twenty years, *Writing Screenplays That Sell* has been required reading for all screenwriters—hailed as the most complete guide available on the art, craft, and business of writing for movies and television. Hollywood story expert and script consultant Michael Hauge has fully revised and updated this edition to reflect the latest trends and scripts, walking readers through every step of writing and selling successful screenplays. If you read only one book on the screenwriter’s craft, this must be it. 🎬
The book’s longevity speaks to its fundamental value: Hauge covers timeless storytelling principles alongside industry-specific practical advice. He addresses structure, character development, dialogue, and formatting—but also query letters, pitching, agents, and deal-making. This comprehensive approach makes it invaluable for both aspiring screenwriters learning the craft and working writers navigating the business side. 📝
What sets Hauge apart is his dual expertise as both story analyst and script consultant. He’s read thousands of screenplays professionally and worked with writers at all levels, giving him insight into what actually works versus what theoretically should work. His emphasis is on commercial viability without sacrificing artistic integrity—he teaches how to write screenplays that studios will buy while maintaining creative vision. 🎥
The updated edition incorporates changes in the industry (streaming, limited series, changing distribution models) while maintaining focus on core craft principles that transcend format or platform. Hauge uses examples from successful films and scripts to illustrate concepts, making abstract principles concrete. For serious screenwriters, this book provides both foundational knowledge and advanced techniques. ✍️
What makes this essential: The definitive screenwriting guide for over two decades—comprehensive coverage of craft and business from a Hollywood story expert who’s seen what sells. 🌟
Both of them loved him. One of them killed him. Louise has spent four years watching her ex-husband Andrew start a new family with Caz, the “other woman” who’s now his wife. Louise isn’t ready to let Caz enjoy the life that was once hers, and she’s definitely not ready to let go of the man she still loves. As Louise digs into Caz’s past, their pretense of civility crumbles—but their mutual investigation reveals more about Andrew than either woman expected. 💔
When Andrew is murdered at a family party, both women are found standing over the body. It’s always the wife—but which one? The setup is deliciously twisted: the ex-wife who never moved on and the current wife trying to build a life both have motive, both have opportunity, and both are covered in his blood when police arrive. The investigation forces them to confront not just who killed Andrew, but who Andrew really was. 🔪
Tess Stimson constructs a domestic thriller that subverts expectations about victim and villain. As Louise and Caz undermine each other, they accidentally uncover truths about the man they both married—truths that complicate the simple narrative of jealous ex versus homewrecking new wife. The alternating perspectives show how the same events and the same man can be experienced completely differently. 🕵️
The “it’s always the wife” tagline is cleverly deployed here because technically both women ARE wives—one former, one current. Stimson plays with domestic thriller conventions: the unreliable narrators, the seemingly perfect husband with secrets, the women who compete over a man who may not deserve either of them. The family party setting adds witnesses and complications, ensuring the murder investigation won’t be simple. ⚖️
Why I’m including this: Twisty domestic thriller where the ex-wife and current wife both loved him, both had reason to kill him, and both were found standing over his murdered body. 🎭
Dahlia Easton has few solid clues to find her sister, who’s been missing for a year: a mysterious family tree, a man thought long dead, and Wyoming’s unforgiving backcountry. But she’s in danger the moment she reaches town. To protect her, cold case investigator Grant Hudson must confront his town’s unresolved nightmares—even as an unspeakable threat from the past closes in to silence them both for good. 🏔️
Nicole Helm launches the Hudson Sibling Solutions series with a western mystery that balances romance with genuine suspense. The Wyoming backcountry setting provides atmospheric isolation, making Dahlia vulnerable while Grant’s local knowledge becomes essential to survival. The mysterious family tree and supposedly dead man suggest secrets that someone is willing to kill to protect. 🔍
The cold case angle adds layers: Grant isn’t just investigating Dahlia’s sister’s disappearance but reopening wounds the town tried to forget. Small-town western mysteries thrive on buried secrets and long memories, and Helm uses both effectively. The threat escalating immediately upon Dahlia’s arrival suggests her sister got too close to something dangerous—and now Dahlia’s following the same path. 💕
As the first book in a series about sibling investigators, this establishes both the family dynamic and the kind of cases they’ll handle: cold cases with deep roots, where the truth has been deliberately hidden. The romance between Dahlia and Grant develops naturally from forced proximity and shared danger, while the mystery provides stakes beyond their relationship. The western setting distinguishes this from typical romantic suspense. 🌵
What makes this special: Western romantic suspense where a woman searching for her missing sister teams with a cold case investigator to uncover buried town secrets—before the past silences them both. ⭐
… See the rest of today ‘s Book Picks here on page 3Page 3