Professor Avery Hart’s life implodes spectacularly and publicly when her relationship ends in the worst possible way—messy, humiliating, and splashed across social media for all her colleagues and students to see. She needs to disappear, just for a little while, until the gossip dies down and she can face the pitying looks without wanting to crawl out of her skin. A few hours upriver from the city, she discovers Palmetto Grove, a forgotten corner of Louisiana countryside where Spanish moss drapes from ancient oaks and curious locals still measure newcomers with suspicious eyes. 🏚️The house she rents is a historian’s dream—a centuries-old manor that speaks to her academic soul with its weathered elegance and architectural details from another era. For someone who’s spent her career studying the past, having temporary refuge in a genuine piece of living history feels like exactly what she needs. The townsfolk are polite but distant, the property is peaceful, and she can finally think clearly without the constant buzz of city life and ex-relationship drama clouding her judgment. It’s supposed to be a retreat, a chance to heal and regroup before returning to her real life. 🌿
But healing is hard to do when you’re not entirely alone. Small things start happening—sounds that don’t quite belong, doors that won’t stay closed, cold spots in rooms that should be warm, and the persistent sensation of being watched. Avery tries to rationalize it all away with logic and historical knowledge. Old houses settle. Wind creates strange acoustics. Isolation plays tricks on the mind. Except these explanations stop working when the manifestations escalate and she realizes the house doesn’t just have history—it has secrets buried so deep that even centuries haven’t made them safe to uncover. 👻
The worst part? She can’t leave. Not won’t—can’t. What started as a voluntary retreat has become something far more sinister, and Avery slowly understands that she didn’t choose this house by accident. Something here has been waiting a very long time for someone like her—someone running from their problems, someone vulnerable, someone alone. The dramatic history she thought would be an academic curiosity turns out to be a deadly trap, and the possible stalker she fled from the city is nothing compared to what’s stalking her now within these ancient walls. 😱
What makes this essential: A professor escaping a messy breakup takes refuge in a historic Louisiana manor, only to discover she may not be alone on the property and that the house’s centuries-old secrets are far more dangerous than the stalker she fled from.
A galaxy-conquering alien armada stands on the brink of vanquishing the cosmos, their sights set firmly on every inhabited world across multiple dimensions. They’ve crushed countless civilizations, absorbed entire species into their war machine, and left nothing but scorched planets in their wake. Earth isn’t just next on their list—it’s the keystone to their ultimate conquest of the multiverse. The last line of defense? Not a crack military unit or a team of hardened space marines, but an eclectic crew of improbable champions who have absolutely no business trying to save the universe: a maverick starfighter pilot with OCD, a daredevil stuntwoman, a lethal super-assassin, and a cosmic prankster with alien tricks up his sleeves. 🚀Meet Jim, the quick-witted pilot whose obsessive-compulsive disorder makes him both a liability and a secret weapon—his need for precision and order translates into flying skills that border on the supernatural. He’s been planning the perfect moment to propose to his girlfriend, mentally rehearsing every word and gesture, when his carefully ordered life gets demolished by the sudden appearance of his friend Kurt, covered in blood and babbling about time travel. What starts as concern for a friend spirals into a chaotic vortex of impossible situations: visits from alternate timeline versions of themselves, temporal paradoxes that make his head hurt, and evidence that reality itself is far more unstable than anyone realized. 🌀
The crisis cascading toward Jim isn’t just about Earth’s survival, though that’s certainly urgent enough. The alien armada he’s facing has already conquered dozens of galaxies in dozens of parallel universes, and they’re systematically working their way through the multiverse like an unstoppable plague. Stopping them at Earth isn’t just about saving humanity—it’s about preventing the extinction of billions of intelligent lifeforms across countless realities. No pressure. Jim and his mismatched team must navigate not just enemy warships but also alternate timelines, hostile dimensions, and their own personal dysfunctions while racing against an enemy that has never lost. 🛸
Can this unlikely rag-tag group of heroes overcome their various neuroses, trust issues, and complete lack of proper training to shield first the galaxy and then the entire multiverse from relentless alien forces that have been engineered for nothing but conquest? Will Jim’s OCD give them an edge or get them all killed? Can a stuntwoman’s fearlessness, an assassin’s ruthlessness, and an alien comedian’s unpredictability actually work together to form a coherent strategy? And most importantly—if they somehow manage to save the multiverse, will Jim ever get a chance to propose properly, or will his perfect moment be perpetually interrupted by dimensional rifts and alien invasions? 💫
Why this delivers pure fun: A neurotic pilot with OCD teams up with a stuntwoman, an assassin, and an alien prankster to stop a multiverse-conquering armada—featuring time travel complications, alternate universe visitors, and the most inconvenient marriage proposal timing in galactic history.
In a town this small, one reckless kiss can start a wildfire that everyone will notice. The first time I meet Madison Glen, I kiss her—which is completely out of character for me, a man who carefully weighs every decision and never acts on impulse. But there’s something about her that short-circuits my usual caution, and before I know what I’m doing, I’ve crossed a line with a complete stranger. The second time I encounter her, she’s breaking into my neighbor’s house with a corgi under one arm and zero shame on her face. She insists she’s not a criminal, just helping a friend. I say she’s a disaster waiting to happen. 🔥Madison Glen is pure city sparkle—designer heels that are completely impractical for Alaska’s terrain, enough sass to power a small town, and zero idea how to survive in a place where “driving to the store” means a forty-minute round trip and your nearest neighbor might be a moose. She’s fled to small-town Alaska to prove to herself and her doubting family that she can make it on her own terms, without their money or connections. What she didn’t count on was me: the grumpy firefighter next door who keeps pointing out everything she’s doing wrong. I don’t have time for chaos, not with a precocious daughter who keeps me on my toes and a job where people’s lives depend on my ability to stay calm under pressure. 💕
But Madison is stubborn in ways that both infuriate and intrigue me. She refuses to admit she’s in over her head, even when she’s clearly freezing in those ridiculous shoes and has no idea how to winterize her cabin or where to buy firewood that won’t smoke out the entire valley. She keeps bouncing back from every small-town catastrophe with that bright smile and unshakable optimism, as if being completely unprepared for Alaska is somehow charming rather than dangerous. And our chemistry? It’s a slow-burning barn fire—hot, dangerous, and impossible to ignore even when we’re arguing about proper snow shovel techniques or whether her city-slicker ways are going to get her killed. 🌲
She’s everything I don’t want: impulsive, impractical, and a walking advertisement for why city people should stay in cities. She might also be exactly what I need—someone who makes me remember that life isn’t just about safety checklists and controlled burns. But figuring that out means both of us letting down our defenses: she has to stop trying to prove she doesn’t need anyone’s help, and I have to stop assuming that chaos equals catastrophe. In a town where everyone knows everything, can two people from completely different worlds find common ground? 🏔️
What makes this irresistible: A grumpy Alaska firefighter with a protective streak clashes with an impulsive city transplant who’s hilariously unprepared for small-town wilderness life—but their undeniable chemistry might just prove that opposites really do attract.
Ripple Effect (Bear Logan Book 1)
One shot. One kill. A simple plan for a straightforward operation. Bear Logan and Jack Noble are seasoned professionals who’ve executed countless missions with precision and efficiency. The assassination of a corrupt U.S. Senator visiting a foreign country should be textbook—identify the target, take the shot, extract cleanly. It’s the kind of operation they could practically do in their sleep 🎯Except it didn’t take much to completely derail everything. Not once the cartel got involved, bringing with them layers of complication, violence, and double-dealing that transform a clean operation into a chaotic nightmare. Suddenly nothing is simple, nothing goes according to plan, and Bear and Noble find themselves navigating a minefield of competing interests where everyone has their own agenda 💰
Tasked with the job of eliminating their assigned target, Bear Logan and Jack Noble quickly realize they’ve been embroiled in a conspiracy far more complex than a simple assassination. They’re not the hunters in this scenario—they’re pawns being moved around a board by unseen players with unknown objectives. Someone is using them, manipulating the operation for purposes they can’t yet see, and the corrupt Senator is just one piece of a much larger puzzle 🔫
Can Bear and Noble fight through the cascading waves of betrayal and misdirection to uncover who’s really pulling the strings before a traitor embedded in their own organization gets to them first? L.T. Ryan delivers an espionage thriller where a routine hit becomes a desperate fight for survival, where trusted allies might be enemies, and where the ripple effect from one compromised operation threatens to expose secrets that powerful people will kill to protect. The mission was supposed to be simple. Instead, it’s become the fight of their lives ⚡
What makes this compelling: An espionage thriller where assassins Bear Logan and Jack Noble’s simple senator hit gets derailed by cartel involvement—discovering they’re pawns in a conspiracy while racing to expose traitors. Perfect for readers who love military thrillers, black ops gone wrong, protagonist partnerships tested under fire, international intrigue, and operatives realizing the mission was never what it seemed. First in Bear Logan series. 🌟
Ex-FBI Agent Carolyn Ryder returns to her hometown of Willow Falls, Iowa seeking refuge, perhaps redemption, maybe just quiet after years of chasing the worst humanity has to offer. She arrives with no gun, no badge, no official authority—just her training, her instincts, and the hope that coming home might help her heal. What she doesn’t know, what nobody in Willow Falls suspects, is that the #1 Most Wanted Serial Killer in the entire country has also decided to visit their small Iowa town. And he’s not passing through ❄️It’s winter, and a new kind of predator has just emerged from hibernation. All summer long he’s been dormant, resting, conserving energy just like bears do during the cold months. Throughout fall he spent his time meticulously preparing, planning, making certain this winter season would be his best hunting period ever. His most productive. His most satisfying. And now that winter has finally arrived with its brutal cold and early darkness, he’s ready to hunt 🎯
The winters in Willow Falls are notoriously cold, brutal, and utterly unforgiving. The town essentially shuts down, people stay inside, and the frozen landscape becomes isolated and dangerous. And the town’s newest visitor is every bit as cold and merciless as the weather. Except he’s not just visiting—he’s here on vacation, planning to stay for a while and have some fun. His particular brand of fun leaves bodies skewered to tree trunks with hunting crossbow bolts ⚔️
They call him “Robin Hood”—a winter serial killer who has left a gruesome trail of horror and death across four Midwestern states over multiple seasons. His grisly trademark is unmistakable: victims pinned to trees like macabre decorations, crossbow bolts through their bodies, left to be discovered by horrified locals. He’s eluded capture for years, moving from town to town, hunting when the snow falls and vanishing when spring arrives. Now he’s in Willow Falls, and Carolyn Ryder—despite having no official standing—is the only person in town with the training and experience to recognize what’s happening 🔍
JK Ellem delivers women’s detective fiction where an ex-FBI agent’s quiet homecoming becomes a deadly cat-and-mouse game with one of America’s most wanted killers. Carolyn may not have a badge anymore, but she has something Robin Hood doesn’t expect: intimate knowledge of Willow Falls, stubborn determination, and absolutely nothing left to lose. The question is whether she can stop him before winter claims more victims 🌨️
Why this deserves your attention: Women’s detective thriller where an ex-FBI agent returns home without badge or gun only to discover the #1 Most Wanted serial killer “Robin Hood” has chosen her Iowa town for his winter hunting season. Perfect for readers who love female protagonists, serial killer cat-and-mouse games, small-town settings, winter atmospheric horror, and agents operating outside official authority. First in Killing Seasons series. 💫
Three women arrive at La Cucina di Nantucket, a renowned island cooking retreat that promises to serve up far more than just authentic Italian cuisine and culinary techniques. Each guest carries their own burdens, their own questions about life and purpose, their own quiet desperation masked by polite smiles. They’ve come seeking something they can’t quite name—perhaps transformation, perhaps peace, perhaps just a brief escape from lives that have become unrecognizable 🏖️Grace comes hoping the retreat will help her finally come to terms with a devastating reality: she may never become a mother. After years of trying, countless disappointments, and the slow death of hope, she needs to find a way forward that doesn’t involve the child she’s mourned before ever having. The cooking retreat represents a chance to rediscover joy in something besides the family she can’t create 🌊
For Christine, the trip is a thoughtful birthday gift from her grown children who recognize that their mother has lost herself since they flew the nest. With the family gone and nobody left to fuss over, cook for, or organize around, Christine feels purposeless and invisible. She once defined herself through caring for others, and now that those others have moved on, she hopes to rediscover some of her lost zest for life, to remember who she was before motherhood consumed her identity 👩🍳
Travel writer Nicole arrives with an ostensibly professional agenda: she’s been assigned to write a feature article on this popular culinary getaway hosted by Italian chef Sofia at her beautiful seaside cottage. But beneath the professional excuse, Nicole is genuinely intrigued by what makes previous guests rave about La Cucina di Nantucket with an enthusiasm that seems disproportionate to a simple cooking class. What are they really finding here? ✨
Is it merely the breathtaking island scenery—pristine beaches, charming cobblestone streets, dramatic coastal vistas? Is it the mouthwatering Italian food and the immersive taste of authentic island life? Or is there something deeper about Chef Sofia and her seemingly instinctive way of knowing that her guests need far more than culinary knowledge and spectacular Nantucket sunsets? Perhaps they need a balm for their souls, healing they didn’t know how to ask for, permission to become themselves again 🍝
Melissa Hill delivers women’s friendship fiction where a Nantucket cooking retreat becomes group therapy disguised as culinary education, where three strangers discover that the most important recipe Sofia teaches isn’t for pasta—it’s for rebuilding lives that somewhere along the way got lost 💕
What makes this essential: Women’s friendship fiction where three women at different life crossroads attend a Nantucket cooking retreat that serves soul healing along with Italian cuisine—childless grief, empty-nest purposelessness, and searching for what makes this place transformative. Perfect for readers who love women’s fiction, culinary settings, found family, transformative retreats, island atmospheres, and protagonists rediscovering themselves. 🌟
… See the rest of today ‘s Book Picks here on page 3Page 3