Talia’s life was mapped out—she was born to become Luna of the powerful Northwood pack, her future beside Maddox, the Alpha’s heir. Then her father goes rogue on a mission and wolves die because of his betrayal. The pack demands blood. The Alpha delivers it. Talia watches her father’s execution and is immediately stripped of everything she’s ever known: branded a traitor’s daughter, banished under threat of death, given seventy-two hours to disappear before the pack hunts her down. She turns to Maddox—the man she was fated to since birth—and he rejects her bond without mercy. Amelia Shaw opens the Shifter Rejected series with the slow-burn paranormal romance built on one of the genre’s most devastating opening sequences. 🐺
Within hours of leaving, Talia is captured by Galen—the heir to the rival Long Claw pack, the pack her father tried to destroy. He believes she’s still Maddox’s mate, which makes her a valuable bargaining chip. She doesn’t correct him. It’s the only thing keeping her alive. The clock is running: her own pack is hunting her, the rival pack is using her, and the longer the lie holds, the more complicated everything becomes. Shaw delivers the betrayal, danger, rival Alphas, and the slow-burn tension her readership comes for. 🔍
Shaw writes paranormal romance with fast-paced action and guaranteed happily ever afters. The Shifter Rejected series runs six books, all following Talia’s story to its conclusion. Fans of Jaymin Eve, Callie Rose, and Avery Stone are consistently recommended this series. ⭐
Why this captivates: Rejected by her mate, hunted by her pack, captured by her enemy, and keeping a secret that is the only thing standing between her and death—free.
AJ Beckett is a paramedic and single mother doing everything she can to raise her seven-year-old autistic daughter Parker while keeping herself emotionally at arm’s length from everyone around her. Melanie Cooper is a famous actress on her last film before retirement—perceived as cold and difficult by the world, though the people closest to her know that’s not the whole story. They collide—literally—when Melanie is fleeing paparazzi and stumbles onto the wrong person at the worst possible moment, sending Parker’s ice cream to the sidewalk. What follows, after a series of increasingly improbable encounters, is something neither of them planned for. Violet Morley opens her debut novel with the f/f celebrity romance that steals your heart with its kid sidekick before the romantic tension even develops properly. 💕
Parker is the specific miracle of this book—a seven-year-old on the autism spectrum rendered with the authenticity of an author drawing on personal experience, who manages to be simultaneously the source of AJ’s greatest challenges and her greatest strength, and who develops a quietly moving bond with Melanie that gives the romance its emotional core. The communication between the two leads is refreshingly direct and healthy—a conscious choice that makes the relationship feel genuinely earned. 🔍
Morley is a debut novelist who drew on personal experience to portray both Parker’s autism and the possibility that Melanie may also be on the spectrum. The Lesbian Review praised the book’s authenticity. Goodreads readers describe it as “warm and fuzzy, perfect reading for a rainy day.” ⭐
Why this moves you: A paramedic, a famous actress, one chaotic ice cream incident, and the seven-year-old who brings them together in spite of themselves—free.
Dr. Kep Woodhead is a brilliant, irascible forensic toxicologist with a supersensitive nose and a dark past. Bernadette Becker is a disgraced federal investigator with one last shot at redemption after a botched sting operation destroyed her career. They are both assigned to a deeply strange case: a graduate student found dead in a fifteenth-century university chapel, a needle full of a controversial hallucinogen sticking out of his arm. The suspect list is long—the priest, the professor, the piscary president, the protestor, the protégé—and at least one of them wants to silence Becker. Paul Austin Ardoin opens the Woodhead & Becker series with the forensic thriller that introduces one of mystery fiction’s most distinctive odd-couple pairings. 🔍
As Woodhead and Becker press deeper into the case, the resistance they meet escalates—from inside the university and well beyond. Someone is watching their every move. And if they’re not careful, the next body found in that chapel might be one of their own. The forensic science drives the plot with the rigor that readers of Kathy Reichs and Patricia Cornwell will recognize, while the dynamic between the two leads—abrasive genius and determined investigator—gives the series its specific energy. 💙
Ardoin is a USA Today bestselling author whose Fenway Stevenson Mysteries series preceded this one. One reviewer called Woodhead and Becker “the new Booth and Brennan.” For Kathy Reichs fans, the book delivers the same forensic depth and emotional intensity. ⭐
Why this grips you: A hallucinogen overdose in a medieval chapel, a toxicologist with a nose for lies, and a disgraced investigator with nothing left to lose—free.
The Midsummer Treasures
Harry Fox acquires rare artifacts for the Italian mob—it’s morally complicated work, but it’s the only world he knows how to navigate. When a cryptic ancient tablet surfaces pointing toward a treasure that could rewrite Ireland’s early history, Harry is sent to chase it down. He’s the right man for the job: resourceful, relentless, and accustomed to operating in the gray zones where history and danger intersect. What he isn’t prepared for is how many other people already know about the tablet—and how far a mysterious Irish society is willing to go to ensure that Ireland’s lost past stays lost. Andrew Clawson opens the Harry Fox Origin Stories with the pulse-pounding archaeological adventure that readers are already comparing to Indiana Jones and Clive Cussler. 🔍
Outnumbered, outgunned, and running out of time in a country that doesn’t want him there, Harry races to decipher the truth behind the cryptic tablet while dodging bullets and deciding in real time who he can trust. What he uncovers isn’t just a lost treasure—it’s the deadly truth behind Ireland’s ancient throne, and the people who’ve been protecting that secret for centuries aren’t done yet. 💙
Clawson is an Amazon bestselling author of multiple thriller series, including the Parker Chase mysteries and the TURN novels. Fans of Indiana Jones, Clive Cussler, and Ernest Dempsey are consistently pointed to this series. ⭐
Why this grips you: An artifact hunter for the Italian mob, an ancient Irish tablet pointing to a lost throne, and a secret society that will bury him alongside the treasure—for $1.99.
Drake Merrick learned the hard way that aristocratic women care more about a title than they do love—losing the woman he loved because he was a mere groom proved it. Then a twist of fate makes him the new Duke of Burwood, and he refuses to repeat that mistake. His solution: switch places with his man of business at a house party and test the women of the ton without them knowing who he really is. Lady Honoria Bell, meanwhile, has spent years fending off suitors her father forces her toward, heart still locked away after a wound she’s never healed. She couldn’t care less about the new Duke of Burwood. The only person she’s ever felt genuinely herself with was a groom she was never allowed to have. Trisha Messmer opens the London Ladies’ League series with the Persuasion-inspired Regency romance built on the specific heartbreak of two people who lost each other once already. 💕
The deception Drake sets in motion backfires the moment Honoria walks in, and he realizes his heart will always be irrevocably hers. But his lies may destroy the very trust he’s trying to earn. Messmer develops the slow-burn second chance with the longing and quiet angst she describes as deliberately drawn from Austen’s Persuasion—”because some loves are worth waiting for.” The London Ladies’ League subplot, in which Honoria leads a group of women investigating a malicious gossip column, gives the story an additional layer of wit and momentum. 🔍
Messmer is a Regency historical romance author praised for staying true to the period’s nuances while delivering genuine romantic payoff. The London Ladies’ League series continues across multiple books. ⭐
Why this charms: The groom she was never allowed to love has become a Duke—and he’s testing the ton in disguise—but his heart already knows the answer, for $2.49.
After discovering her husband in a compromising position with his yoga instructor, Josie Janglewood needed a fresh start. What she got was Huckleberry Hollow Wonderland—a struggling theme park that has seen significantly better days—and a dead body in the funhouse on her very first day as manager. The victim is a notoriously cruel food critic with a long list of enemies, which makes the suspect pool uncomfortably large. It also makes the travel writers’ conference being hosted at the park a particularly tense place to work. Addison Moore opens the Huckleberry Hollow Theme Park Cozy Mysteries with the mystery that is, frankly, as fun as it sounds. 🐱
Josie navigates the investigation with the help of two feline sidekicks: Fish, an elegant cat who considers everyone guilty until proven innocent and has strong opinions about her social life, and Chip, an orange cat who is food-obsessed and considers crime scenes primarily from a snack logistics perspective. She also has a handsome detective whose presence keeps making her drop things, which is inconvenient when there are mysterious footprints, missing collector pins, and old park secrets pointing toward a frame-up. Moore delivers “humor with a side of homicide” at exactly the right ratio. 🔍
Moore is a New York Times, USA Today, and Wall Street Journal bestselling author whose work has been featured in Cosmopolitan. The Huckleberry Hollow series runs multiple books, all standalone. Readers consistently describe it as “impossible to put down” and “laugh-out-loud funny.” ⭐
Why this charms: A struggling theme park, a dead food critic, two opinionated cats, and a new manager who did not sign up for any of this—for $2.99.
… See the rest of today ‘s Book Picks here on page 3Page 3