A Bride to Soothe the Wounded Rancher (affiliate link)
Fern has always minded her own business and just wanted to start a new life on her own. But when the false accusations of a man in town make her drunk father demand that she gets married, she will have to find an immediate solution. With nowhere to turn, she flees to the West as a mail-order bride for a mysterious stranger. And as more pieces from her husband’s past and present turmoil come to light, Fern is not sure if what she feels deep inside is fear or love. Will she eventually be brave enough to see the man who is hidden behind the deformed face?
The Mutiny Girl (Gold and Courage Series Book 1) (affiliate link)
Working his way through law school as a cop during the Miami Vice era of lawlessness on the streets of Miami, Vance Courage kept his nose clean. But now he must reckon old ties to the most notorious drug cartel in U.S. history.
Today, when we imagine Miami, we think of a cosmopolitan city brimming with star-studded nightclubs, warm beaches, swanky hotels and international banking. But Miami wasn’t built on sand—it was built on white powder. Back in the 1970s and 80s from Tallahassee to Key West, the Cuban and Colombian cocaine cartels infiltrated every lever of power. Miami’s past is more terrifying and less known than the days when crime boss Al Capone used violence and intimidation to control the city of Chicago.
The Hotel Mutiny was the underground nerve center where an international entanglement of drug lords, DEA agents, Marielitos, FBI informants, arms dealers, CIA operatives, doctors, assassins, lawyers and anyone with a membership card rubbed shoulders.
Maneuver (Men of Inked: Southside Book 1) (affiliate link)
This isn’t how fairy tales typically begin, but it’s where mine starts…
No money, no phone, and abandoned on the streets of Chicago.
With my baby in my arms, I wander into a bar in a shady neighborhood and ask to use their phone.
When my father turns us away and completely disowns me, the bar owner, and total hottie, offers us a place to stay…no strings attached.
I’m leery at first.
Hot guy.
Down on her luck single mother.
I mean, who wouldn’t be?
Vegetable of the Day: 365 Recipes for Every Day of the Year (affiliate link)
Spectacular seasonal vegetable recipes for every day of the year that will leave you wondering why you don’t eat more of them.
Bursting with color, texture, and flavor, vegetables reflect the changing seasons better than any other type of food. Enjoy dishes like new potatoes with peas or grilled artichokes with lemon aioli in spring. Have some golden corn fritters or puffy corn soufflés, sautéed or grilled red and yellow sweet peppers, and tomatoes in summer. Savor winter squashes and mixed-vegetable braises in autumn. And winter is the time for Brussels sprouts with chestnuts, creamy scalloped potatoes, and braised fennel with saffron.
Black Silk (affiliate link)
As befitting her name, lovely Submit Channing-Downes was the proper, obedient wife of an aging Marquess—until her husband’s death left her penniless and alone . . . with one final obligation to fulfill. Entrusted with delivering a small black box to its rightful owner, she calls upon Graham Wessit, the notorious Earl of Netham, whose life has been marred by rumor and scandal. But Graham wants nothing to do with her gift. Fate however, has entwined these two lives in astonishing ways neither Submit nor Graham could ever imagine.
Inviting Disaster: Lessons From the Edge of Technology: An Inside Look at Catastrophes and Why They Happen (affiliate link)
Inviting Disaster delves into over fifty of history’s worst catastrophes in order to show how increasingly “smart” systems leave us wide open to human tragedy. Weaving a dramatic narrative that explains how breakdowns in these systems result in such disasters as the chain reaction crash of the Air France Concorde and the Bhopal chemical accident that killed thousands. James Chiles vividly demonstrates how the battle between human and machine may be escalating beyond manageable limits—and why we all have a stake in its outcome.
Included in this edition is a special introduction providing a behind-the-scenes look at the World Trade Center catastrophe. Combining firsthand accounts of employees’ escapes with an in-depth look at the structural reasons behind the towers’ collapse, Chiles addresses the question: Were the towers “two tall heroes” or structures with a fatal flaw?
… See the rest of today ‘s Book Picks here on page 3Page 3