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Rosa Larkin is down on her luck in London, so when she inherits a near-derelict corner shop in a quaint Devon village, her first thought is to sell it for cash and sort out her life. But nothing is straightforward about this legacy. While the identity of her benefactor remains a mystery, he – or she – has left one important legal proviso: that the shop cannot be sold, only passed on to somebody who really deserves it.
Rosa makes up her mind to give it a go: to put everything she has into getting the shop up and running again in the small seaside community of Cockleberry Bay. But can she do it all on her own? And if not, who will help her succeed – and who among the following will work secretly to see her fail?
There is a handsome rugby player, a sexy plumber, a charlatan reporter and a selection of meddling locals.
Strangers (paid link)
Eleanor and Jack Harvey just celebrated their 25th anniversary. On what should have been a perfect night, Eleanor receives a message from a voice from her past.
Over the course of a few months, the mysterious stranger ups his game to a deadly obsession and their happy life together takes a heinous turn for the worse.
Stalked, followed, threatened, tormented, Eleanor’s life spirals out of control while her elusive stalker gets closer and closer. He seems to know her only too well and is always one step ahead. Will Eleanor uncover the truth behind this obsessive stranger before it is too late? Or is he really much closer than she thinks?
The Victim Killer (A Sam Rader Thriller Book 1) (paid link)
Sam always knew she was different. Her morbid fascination with death has kept her isolated and alone from the world, shut away, by a protective father only too aware of the monster inside her. A direct descendent of one of the most notorious serial killers of the century, Sam harbors the kinds of demons that crave blood.
With her father’s navy-seal training, Sam is taught the mental strength to control an evil threatening her very existence. Now armed with a skill-set to kill and a thirst for blood, this girl is about to unload her wrath on an unsuspecting world.
After being recruited into a top-secret organization tasked with hunting active serial killers, Sam is finally given the green light to unleash the monster inside her, onto those who prey on the innocent. Will this hunter control her bloodlust and silence those she’s sent to kill, or will her own demons finally find the freedom to unleash their own kind of terror?
I Close My Eyes (Closed Book 1) (paid link)
The last thing The Duke of Greystone wants is a wife, until The Lady Jane Blackmore seeks out his quiet corner of Earl Braxton’s ballroom. But there she stands, attempting to shut out the rest of the world by simply closing her eyes, but the duke understands better than most that life is never that simple.
The last thing Jane wants is a husband, until she opens her eyes to find the scarred and much too handsome stranger secluded in her chosen quiet corner. Why can’t the obstinate man understand she just needs a brief moment of solitude before returning to face her tormentors? But no matter how many times she tells him to go away, he remains. So is it her fault that her father misunderstands the young duke’s intentions?
The Chief Resident (paid link)
Accidental Exposure: Where is Andy? (paid link)
Where’s Andy and why do the police and the paramedics and the firefighters ignore Annette as she begs them to disregard the thin trickles of blood running from her scalp. No one is listening as she pleads with them all to please, PLEASE, find her son. Brian is unconscious in the destroyed car, but Andy is still out there, somewhere, alone on the rough black highway. Andy must be nearby. He must be washed with the red and blue flashing emergency lights and accosted by the shriek of sirens. The smell of petrol is getting stronger, and Annette can see the panic on the other survivors’ faces.
All About Us (paid link)
If you could turn back the clock, would you choose a different life?
Ben’s always loved the month of December, but this year, with his relationship with Daphne on the rocks, it’s missing its usual magic. And then his old friend Alice gets back in touch. Ben’s always thought of Alice as the one that got away, and he can’t help but wonder: what if he’d done things differently all those years ago?
He never imagines he might get to find out… but when a stranger sells Ben a mysterious watch one freezing winter’s night, he’s astonished to wake up the next morning on 5th December 2005: the day he first kissed Daphne, leaving Alice behind.
Struggling to protect his heart… he must also protect his growing family.
Former FBI agent Riley Colton tends to keep to himself…except for the time he gave in to Charlize Kent. Now that single passionate night produced a surprise Riley never imagined—a baby! His paternal and investigative instincts kick in when their new family comes under fire. As sparks fly, Riley and Charlize work together to track and capture a criminal…who will stop at nothing to destroy everything they hold dear.
Why Visit America: Stories (paid link)
The citizens of Plainfield, Texas, have had it with the broke-down United States. So they vote to secede, rename themselves America in memory of their former country, and happily set themselves up to receive tourists from their closest neighbor: America. Couldn’t happen? Well, it might, and so it goes in the thirteen stories in Matthew Baker’s brilliantly illuminating, incisive, and heartbreaking collection Why Visit America.
The book opens with a seemingly traditional story in which the speculative element is extremely minimal—the narrator has a job that doesn’t actually exist—a story that wouldn’t seem much out of place in a collection of literary realism. From there the stories get progressively stranger: a young man breaks the news to his family that he is going to transition—from an analog body to a digital existence.
Indulging her fascination for the Viking language and losing herself in an archaeological dig is just what Linnea Berger needs after her recent trauma. Uncovering an exquisite brooch, she blacks out reading the runic inscription, only to come to, surrounded by men in Viking costume, who seem to take re-enactment very seriously.
Lost and confused, Linnea finds herself in the power of Hrafn, a Viking warrior who claims her as his thrall and takes her on a treacherous journey across the seas to sell her for profit. Setting sail, she confronts the unthinkable: she has travelled back to the ninth century.
Linnea is determined to find a way back to her own time, but there”s a connection forming with Hrafn. Can she resist the call of the runes and accept her destiny lies here…
Shallow Ground (Detective Ford Book 1) (paid link)
Detective Ford has a cold-blooded killer to catch. But can he escape his own dark secrets?
Barely a month since his promotion to Inspector, DI Ford is called in to investigate the murder of a young nurse and her son in a small flat in Salisbury. There are few clues, and no apparent motive, but Ford can sense that there’s a serial killer at work. After all, he knows from brutal personal experience how killers cover their tracks…
It’s been six years since Ford lost his wife in a climbing accident—an accident he caused. He is desperate to keep the truth hidden, especially from his son, Sam. But Ford’s new partner, Dr Hannah Fellowes, is a crime scene investigator with a ruthlessly analytical mind, and as they work together to track down the killer, his crippling guilt is compounded by fear of exposure.
Ordinary Hazards: A Novel (paid link)
It’s 5pm on a Wednesday when Emma settles into her hometown bar with a motley crew of locals, all unaware that a series of decisions over the course of a single night is about to change their lives forever. As the evening unfolds, key details about Emma’s history emerge, and the past comes bearing down on her like a freight train.
Why has Emma, a powerhouse in the business world, ended up here? What is she running away from? And what is she willing to give up to recapture the love she once cherished? An exploration of contemporary love, guilt, and the place we call home, and in the tradition of Ask Again, Yes and Little Fires Everywhere, Ordinary Hazards follows one woman’s epic journey back to a life worth living.
Chasing Starlight (paid link)
1938. The Golden Age of Hollywood. Palm trees and movie stars. Film studios pumping out musicals and gangster films at a furious pace. Everyone wants to be a star—except society girl and aspiring astronomer Kate Hildebrand. She’s already famous after a childhood tragedy turned her into a newspaper headline. What she craves now is stability.
But when Kate has to move to Hollywood to live with her washed-up silent film star grandfather, she walks into a murder scene and finds herself on the front page again. She suspects one of the young men boarding in her grandfather’s run-down mansion is the killer—or maybe even her grandfather.
Now, Kate must discover the killer while working on the set of a musical—and falling in love. Will her stars align so she can catch the murderer and live the dream in Old Hollywood? Or will she find that she’s just chasing starlight?
Eight-year-old Finn is the first kid born in space and he spends his days looking for a new planet to call him with his three best friends and his robot, Foggy.
He’s used to wild, galaxy hopping adventures. But when Explorer Troop 301 gets stuck on a planet that’s about to explode, Finn and his friends will have to face giant aliens, a leader with mind control powers, and one evil, fluffy bunny rabbit in order to save the planet . . . and themselves.
Blast off into a brand-new adventure inspired by the popular award-winning kids’ podcast! Like the podcast, the books are sort of like Scooby-Doo meets Buffy the Vampire Slayer in space. The story centers on Finn Caspian, an 8-year-old boy aboard The Famous Marlowe 280 Interplanetary Exploratory Space Station.
… See the rest of today ‘s Book Picks here on page 2Page 2