Here’s my pick of this week’s new hardback/paperback fiction titles. In some cases the eBook might already be available. My source is primarily The Bookseller, but I’ve started to include other sources to broaden the selection.
Just a reminder, I don’t have access to a complete list of titles being published, and, as I don’t see any advance copies, my choices are based on the cover, blurb, gut instinct and what takes my fancy at the time.
(NB This post features Affiliate links from which I earn a small commission on qualifying purchases)
Index
Crime, Thriller and Mystery (includes Historical Crime/Mysteries)
Historical (I tend to take this as pre 1960’s ie not in my lifetime!)
Crime, Thriller & Mystery
Midnight Streets by Phil Lecomber
A pacy, evocative dark historical thriller about a working-class private detective in 1920s London’s Soho, who has grown up alongside the morally dubious characters who are key to cracking the cases he investigates, for fans of Laura Shepherd Robinson and the TV series Peaky Blinders.
When Cockney private detective George Harley saves a young girl’s life on a dark London night in 1929, he doesn’t realise it marks the beginning of an investigation which will change his life forever. The incendiary book which inspired the girl’s abduction also seems to be linked to a series of grisly murders that are taking place on Harley’s patch, and though he’s delighted to be asked by Scotland Yard to help find the killer before they strike again, he could do without the local razor- and cosh-wielding mobsters thinking he’s in the police’s pocket.
Set during the Golden Age of Crime Fiction, Harley’s world is a far cry from the country house of an Agatha Christie whodunnit. This working-class sleuth does his ‘sherlocking’ in the frowsy alleyways and sleazy nightclubs of Soho – the city’s underbelly – peopled with lowlife ponces, jaded streetwalkers, and Jewish and Maltese gangsters: a world of grubby bedsits, all-night cafés, egg and chips, and Gold Flake cigarettes.
Here, the midnight streets are black as pitch and, as Harley finds himself embroiled in the macabre mysteries of a city in which truth is as murky as the pea-souper smog and the sins are as dark as stout porter beer, he begins to realise he may never find a way out.
Husband Missing by Lisa Regan
Fear prickles her skin. “Noah?” Photos and trinkets from their simple but perfect life together litter the carpet. The coffee table is cracked, blood along its edges. She should be taking in details, but her heart is racing too fast. A strangled cry works its way from Josie’s chest. Where is her husband?
Detective Josie Quinn’s world shatters when she returns home to find her house ransacked, and her husband, Noah, missing. When she kissed him goodbye hours earlier, called to the discovery of a woman’s body at a protest, they were putting the finishing touches to a nursery for their first adopted child. But now the house is empty, Noah’s bloodied handprints trailing the walls.
Every fiber of Josie’s being screams to investigate. But her team warn her to keep her distance as they follow a connection to a recent robbery in Denton. But Josie can’t quiet the voice telling her the handprints Noah left are leading her somewhere, and the trail ends at an upturned box of her long-dead abusive mother’s possessions: faded photos, jewelry, a lock of hair, and a few old newspaper clippings.
Beside herself with worry for Noah, and unexpectedly confronted by the trauma of her past, Josie throws herself into work. The woman’s body found during a demonstration outside a children’s hospital belongs to Gina Phelan, daughter of the powerful and influential Phelan family. Trawling the CCTV is a welcome distraction, but everything changes the moment fingerprints from the knife that wounded Gina match to prints found in Josie’s own home.
Her head spinning as the two cases collide, Josie’s only option is to delve into the life of the monster who terrorized her as a child. The key to everything is hidden in the box of her mother’s mementoes. But is Josie strong enough and fast enough to find it in time? And at what devastating cost to those she loves most?
An Extremely Unlikely Death by Hannah Hendy
Murder is the only paw-sible explanation…
During a routine welfare check, the police find local shop owner Mr Fitzgerald at the foot of his stairs, dead. There is broken glass over the floor of his shop, his dog has been locked in the kitchenette cupboard, and on the counter is an envelope addressed to Mrs and Mrs Margery and Clementine Butcher-Baker – The Dinner Lady Detectives.
As the town mourns Mr Fitzgerald’s death as an unfortunate accident, Margery and Clementine cannot shake the sense that there is something suspicious about the scene. They are convinced this was no accident. But why would anybody want to harm an elderly shopkeeper? And with the culprit still at large, and determined to cover their tracks, can they get to the bottom of the case before there is another victim?
Killer Potential by Hannah Deitch
Decisions were made: I made them. Violence was done: I did it. Crime scenes were fled: I fled them. People were hurt: I hurt them. Someone was loved: I loved them. Not everything I did was bad. Just most of it.
A scholarship kid with straight As and massive potential, Evie Gordon always thought she was special, that she’d be someone.
But after graduating from an elite university, she finds herself drowning in debt and working as a private tutor to the children of Los Angeles’s super-rich.
Everything changes when Evie arrives at the Victor family’s lavish mansion for her weekly lesson to discover, not the bored teenager she excepted, but pure carnage: the bloody remains of Mr and Mrs Victor sullying their beautiful back garden, and a woman crying for help from within the walls of the house.
Within moments, Evie and the woman go from bystanders to suspects to fugitives.
Suddenly at the heart of a nation-wide manhunt, Evie finds that her mysterious companion, who refuses to speak, has quickly become the most important person in her upside-down life. Meanwhile, the press runs wild with Evie’s story – anointing her the new Charles Manson, a blood thirsty ninety-nine percenter looking to start a class war.
Evie is – finally and disastrously – someone.
Droll, dark and deeply insightful, Killer Potential is an edge-of-your-seat break-neck ride, a queer love story, and a darkly funny critique of the horrors of late capitalism and how the stories we’re sold about our potential can shape the course of our lives.
Acts of Malice by Alex Gray
DSI William Lorimer first meets Meredith St Claire when he is giving a careers talk at his goddaughter’s school. The popular and glamorous drama teacher is distraught, begging him to investigate her fiancé’s recent disappearance, but with a report already made to the relevant authorities, there’s nothing more Lorimer can do.
But then a body is discovered on the outskirts of Glasgow.
Guy Richmond was a wealthy and charismatic actor, adored by everyone. Or so it first seems. But as Lorimer and his team are drawn deeper into the peculiar world of professional theatre, they find themselves caught in a web of confidences and rivalry, thwarted dreams and ruthless ambition.
For it seems the finest actors of all are those with the darkest secrets to hide.
The Cambridge Siren by Jim Kelly
Autumn, 1941. The third year of war and still the siren sounds, driving the people of Cambridge from their beds to trudge to one of the city’s crowded bomb shelters. At dawn, the body of a young man is found in a shadowy corner. Everything points to suicide, but Detective Inspector Eden Brooke has his doubts given the unidentified man has a suspiciously tropical suntan and the detective’s office telephone number scrawled on the back of his hand. Did the victim know his life was in danger?
Brooke’s caseload doubles when a local factory making submarine periscopes discovers it has a saboteur on the workforce. The city’s police are at full-stretch. Then two more men are found dead in the city’s shelters. A blackout killer is on the loose. The trail leads Brooke to the university, a laboratory which hides a brutal secret, and the key to a startling mystery.
Miss Burnham and the Loose Thread by Lynn Knight
South-east London, 1925.
Talented, ambitious designer-dressmaker Rose Burnham knows well both the strains of her profession and the secrets it can yield. Newly established in her own business, she and her sisters are privy to the hushed conversations that unspool behind the fitting room’s closed doors.
So when a major client finds herself the victim of a deception, it is Rose she tells. Driven by the shortage of men following the Great War, Miss Holmes had engaged the services of a matrimonial agency, only to be cheated out of her inheritance by a fake suitor.
Rose is determined to bring the swindler to justice. To begin with, playing the detective is a grand adventure, but as pressures mount and an old friend receives a troubling string of poison-pen letters, Rose discovers there is more to investigating – and these investigations – than she’d bargained for.
Rose had the sense of a thread being pulled. One tug and everything could unravel . . .
General/Contemporary Fiction
Our Beautiful Boys by Sameer Pandya
I know my son. I know what he is and what he’s not capable of.
Revelling in the triumph of a high school football win, MJ, Vikram and Diego find themselves at an ill-fated party, on a night that ends with the school bully in hospital. When no one comes forward with the truth of what actually happened, all three teenage “all stars” are suspended for the rest of the season, their futures suddenly uncertain.
In the aftermath, the families gather to assess the damage to their children’s prospects, their reputations and their own relationships. As other secrets begin to bubble to the surface, each parent attempts to navigate the crisis at hand, confronted with their own inner turmoil and the question none of them want to face: how well can you ever truly know your own child?
Our Beautiful Boys is a page-turning and incisive novel about masculinity, race, education and privilege, and the conflict that arises when all these collide.
Stop Me If You’ve Heard This One by Kristen Arnett
Cherry Hendricks might be down on her luck, but she can write the book on what makes something funny: she’s a professional clown who creates raucous, zany fun at gigs all over Orlando. Between clowning and her shifts at an aquarium store for extra cash, she’s always hustling. Not to mention balancing her judgmental mother, her messy love life, and her equally messy community of fellow performers.
Things start looking up when Cherry meets Margot the Magnificent – a much older lesbian magician – who seems to have worked out the lines between art, business, and life, and has a slick, successful career to prove it. With Margot’s mentorship and industry connections, Cherry is sure to take her art to the next level. Plus, Margot is sexy as hell. It’s not long before Cherry must decide how much she’s willing to risk for Margot and for her own explosive new act – and what kind of clown she wants to be under her suit.
Equal parts bravado, tenderness and humour, and bursting with misfits, magicians and mimes, Stop Me If You’ve Heard This One is a masterpiece of comedic fiction that asks big questions about art and performance, friendship and community, and the importance of timing in jokes and in life.
Home Bird by Fran Hill
1979. Jackie Chadwick is 17 and living in a supported bedsit. She’s still close to her foster parents and friends with (aka unofficial minder for) Amanda, their irresponsible daughter, but she’s enjoying her independence – until a fire leaves her temporarily homeless. Jackie’s dad, widower and recovering alcoholic Dave, has just been released from prison and sees this as his chance to make amends. He offers her his spare room – but can their relationship survive him going back on the booze and the arrival of his gin-loving lady friend and her errant son? As things go from bad to worse, Jackie has to decide how many chances you give someone who keeps letting you down.
Everything Will Swallow You by Tom Cox
Have you ever been curious about how people live when nobody is watching? Have you wondered whether there’s more going on than meets the eye?
Eric and Carl live in Dorset in a small white cottage under the shadow of a big cliff. Eric sells old records and antiques. Carl cooks, cleans and crochets. Nearing seventy, Eric is a lifelong accumulator of obscure objects whose easygoing, chaotic approach to life masks some of the unaddressed sadness of his past. The significantly younger Carl is an old soul who has a sophisticated emotional intelligence and likes swimming, mid-century female novelists, fibre arts and Dolly Parton. If you passed them on a walk, you may not pay them much attention. Most likely you would see Carl’s long floppy ears, tail and fur and mistake him for a dog.
The story of Eric and Carl’s friendship spans twenty-one years: a constant anchor in a changing world. During that time they adopt an eccentric, unlikely gang of fellow travellers. Their wanderings through South West England unfold against a backdrop of lived, local folklore and hints at future apocalypse. All the while, Carl’s true nature remains a closely guarded secret.
The Venice Hotel by Tess Woods
When the lives of four very different women become entangled in a boutique Venice hotel, dark secrets unravel and not everyone who checked into the hotel will check out again.
Signora Loretta Bianchi, the world famous cook at Venice’s Hotel Il Cuore, is forced to choose between once-in-a-lifetime passion and her devoted husband. Sophie, on assignment in Venice as a food writer, finds a lot more than Signora Bianchi’s secret recipes to love, but what is the charming Rocco hiding?
Law graduate Elena is sinking just like the endangered city she’s returned home to, and she’ll stop at nothing to be free from her marriage. Grandmother Gayle’s dream Venetian holiday turns sinister as she finds herself embroiled in a life or death escape. Set against a backdrop of the romance and tragedy of magical Venice, The Venice Hotel explores the powerful bonds that develop between women in times of crisis, and the healing power of female connection.
Historical
The Map to Paradise by Susan Meissner
1956, Malibu, California: Something is not right on Paradise Circle.
With her name on the Hollywood blacklist and her life on hold, starlet Melanie Cole has little choice in company. There is her next-door neighbor, Elwood, but the screenwriter’s agoraphobia allows for just short chats through open windows. He’s her sole confidante, though, as she and her housekeeper, Eva, an immigrant from war-torn Europe, rarely make conversation.
Then one early morning Melanie and Eva spot Elwood’s sister-in-law and caretaker, June, digging in his beloved rose garden. After that they don’t see Elwood at all anymore. Where could a man who never leaves the house possibly have gone?
As they try to find out if something has happened to him, unexpected secrets are revealed among all three women, leading to an alliance that seems the only way for any of them to hold on to what they can still call their own. But it’s a fragile pact and one little spark could send it all up in smoke…
The Story She left Behind by Patti Callahan Henry
In 1927, eight-year-old Clara Harrington’s magical childhood shatters when her mother, renowned author, Bronwyn Newcastle Fordham, disappears off the coast of South Carolina. Bronwyn stunned the world with a book written in an invented language that became a national sensation when she was just twelve years old. Her departure leaves behind not only a devoted husband and heartbroken daughter, but also the hope of ever translating the sequel to her landmark work. As the headlines focus on the missing author, Clara yearns for something far deeper and more insatiable: her beautiful mother.
By 1952, Clara is an illustrator raising her own daughter, Wynnie. When a stranger named Charlie Jameson contacts her from London claiming to have discovered a handwritten dictionary of her mother’s lost language. Clara is sceptical. Compelled by the tragedy of her mother’s vanishing, she crosses the Atlantic with Wynnie only to arrive during one of London’s most deadly natural disasters—the Great Smog. With asthmatic Wynnie in peril, they escape the city with Charlie and find refuge in the Jameson’s family retreat nestled in the Lake District. It is there that Clara must find the courage to uncover the truth about her mother and the story she left behind.
The Wartime Chocolate Maker by Gosia Nealon
Poland, 1943. I inhale the rich caramel scent as I carefully tuck a folded slip of paper under the delicate chocolates. My heart races as the door opens, and I lock eyes with my childhood sweetheart. If he found one of the secret messages hidden in every box of my creations, my life and my family would be in terrible danger…
Working in her father’s chocolate factory, Kasia risks her life every day hiding notes vital to the Polish resistance in the carefully packaged boxes. The information tucked beneath the truffles is crucial to freeing her country and her family from the Nazis. But each of her recipes is sent out under the watchful eyes of her boss, Sebastian—the man who broke her heart.
She has never been able to reconcile the kind, sweet boy she once adored with the man now allied with the Germans. Yet the more time she spends around him, the more he seems to hint at sympathizing with the resistance. And the risk of revealing everything to him seems to shrink day by day.
Until one coded message hidden among the rich chocolate makes her fear for her mother and brother’s lives. And though she’s on the factory floor with a group of fellow resistance women, she can’t let on what she knows. Because her network has been betrayed.
As she searches the faces of those closest to her for any sign of guilt, her eyes meet Sebastian’s, full of care and concern. With time running out, Kasia wonders if she can trust him with this deadly secret? Or are the soldiers already on their way to arrest her?
The Riverside Maid by Annemarie Brear
From rags to riches… but will happiness follow?
Orphaned as a child, Fliss Atkins has spent her life working at her uncle’s pub, The Bay Horse Inn, nestled along the banks of the River Calder. Life has been anything but easy for Fliss. Her aunt is unloving, and her older cousin Gerald is cruel.
Then she meets Oscar Nolan, whose adventurous spirit makes her wonder if there might be more to life beyond the only home she’s known. Could Oscar and his dreams of travel be her chance at a fresh start? The thought is tempting, but leaving her best friends, Lorrie and Meg, and their beloved families behind seems unimaginable.
When tragedy strikes, Fliss is presented with an unexpected opportunity to shape a new life for herself. But will new riches bring her the happiness she longs for, or will it lead to even greater troubles for this riverside maid?
A compelling and emotional read set in Victorian
The Paris Express by Emma Donoghue
Autumn, 1895. Paris is as chaotic as it is glamorous, with industry and invention creating huge wealth and terrible poverty. One morning, an anarchist boards the ill-fated Granville to Paris express train, determined to make her mark on history.
Aboard the train are others from across the globe: the railway crew who have built a life together away from their wives, a little boy travelling alone for the first time, an artist far from home, a wealthy statesman and his invalid wife, and a young woman with a secret.
Truths are revealed and relationships forged as the train speeds towards the City of Light and a future that will change everything . . .
The Spanish Daughter by Soraya Lane
Argentina, 1939: “My darling Valentina, I beg you to not go through with this marriage. I know your duty to your family means the world to you, but I pray our love means more. Let us run away together, and never be parted again…”
London, Present day. Rose once thought she was alone in the world, having just lost her beloved mother a few months ago. So, when she is presented with a mysterious box containing a small figure of a horse, a scrap of glittering silk and the hope of a lost family being found, Rose will stop at nothing to find them.
When her search takes her to a sprawling and luxurious estate in Argentina, where the best polo horses in the world were once raised, Rose wonders if she’s mistaken. But when she meets a charming local, Benjamin, he takes her by the hand and encourages her to rediscover her roots.
As they spend long sunlit days riding horses, and cosy evenings eating dinner with his family, Rose wonders how she will ever return to the grey skies back home. But then she discovers a heart-wrenching story of two forbidden lovers: a wilful Spanish heiress and a hardworking stable hand, ripped apart by an arranged marriage and one of the largest inheritances in the country, which intertwines Rose and Benjamin’s families in ways she could never have imagined.
As Benjamin’s family grow wary of the stranger in their home dredging up the pain of the past, Rose finds herself at a crossroads. Will her great-grandmother’s story give her the courage to fly in the face of convention and follow her heart? Or will she too have to give up the one she loves most to heal family ties…
Romance
Undercover Billionaire by Amy Andrews
Cocktail waitress Kelsey Armitage needs her job on board the Callisthenes cruise ship. Nursing a broken heart and an empty bank account, her trust is destroyed and she’s vowed never to fall for a man again. Instead, she’s only in the mood for one-night stands. Not Happy Ever After’s.
But when a mysterious passenger orders a drink from her, she’s powerless to resist him. And soon one night turns into stolen and illicit moments at every opportunity. But romances with the passengers are strictly forbidden… and Kelsey is enjoying breaking all the rules.
Brooding billionaire Ari Callisthenes, heir to a Greek shipping line is undercover on his own cruise liner. His standards are impossibly high but his business is underperforming. He’s determined to find out why. However, he doesn’t expect the instantaneous chemistry with sexy cocktail waitress Kelsey or the whirlwind fling they find themselves entangled in. She awakens a part of himself he believed dead. But a future together is out of the question because he can’t tell her who he is…
Everything I’ll Say to You Tomorrow by Elisabet Benavent
If you could and rewrite your memories, would you do it? International bestselling author Elísabet Benavent explores doomed love, memories, and regrets in this sensational contemporary uplit full of witty humor, emotional catharsis, and a deeply emotionally satisfying ending.
Fashion editor Miranda loves her work, and her high energy life in the hustle bustle of Madrid. Her boyfriend Tristan hates the fast pace, the noise and exhaust fumes, and wants only to get back to Galicia and the seaside, longing for kids and a white picket fence. As explosive as their mutual attraction is, and as deep their love, one of them is going to have to give up their dreams. Finally Tristan admits that even love isn’t strong enough to overcome their fundamental differences. The breakup is a shock to Miranda, and the next day she wakes up in the past on the day they met, and every day after that on a different momentous day in their relationship. At first she’s determined to avoid the heartbreak by stopping the relationship before it begins, but eventually she sees that she can rewrite the details of her past, but not the trajectory. So she sets out to do better, hoping that she can avoid the inevitable heartbreak, but she can’t change who she really is and what she really wants.
A Sky Full of Stars by Fay Keenan
Charlotte James prefers having her head in the stars to having her feet on the ground.
Moving around for her job as an astronomical archivist gives Charlotte plenty of opportunity to avoid putting down roots. When she accepts a post in the idyllic Somerset village of Lower Brambleton to archive an old observatory before its demolition, all that is on her mind is a chance to preserve the treasures of this remarkable place and another summer without having to settle down.
Tristan Ashcombe is managing the development of Observatory Field and as far as he’s concerned, the sooner the observatory is razed to the ground the better. The building holds complicated memories for him and his family, memories he’s ready to put behind him.
But as Charlotte’s work begins to unravel mysteries from a complex past, she realises that there’s more to Tristan and Lower Brambleton than first impressions would suggest. Will Charlotte discover more than she bargained for, will she manage to avoid losing her heart in the process or is her fate already written in the stars?
Spring Fling by Annie England Noblin
Spring is in the air and Mylie has everything she could ever want: her tackle shop is thriving and employs a third of Clay Creek, Arkansas, and she lives with her beloved Granny and little sister Cassie, who both keep her on her toes. As tourists pour into town for the annual fishing tournament, Mylie is in her element and ready to bring her all-women team to victory.
After moving to Chicago, Ben never thought he would return to Clay Creek. But with both his grandfather and mother gone, he’s left to deal with their estate. His plan is simple: come in quietly, fix up his lakeside childhood home, sell it quickly, and get out. He underestimates how quickly his arrival will stir up the local gossip, and how intensely his unresolved feelings for Mylie, his childhood best friend, will resurface.
Amid the buzz of competition and the rhythm of small-town life, Mylie and Ben find themselves unable to ignore their shared history. They tentatively explore a future together, despite the impending sale of Ben’s house and Mylie’s insistence on staying put in Clay Creek. Flings are easier said than done, and Mylie and Ben will have to address their clashing lifestyles before their feelings get away from them.
Beautiful Exile by Catherine Cowles
I’ve been running from the past for most of my life, hiding in a small town and hoping no one discovers who I truly am. Which was working just fine until my brother moved his best friend onto our property.
Now, I’m stuck trying to avoid the brooding billionaire’s probing questions and piercing stares. And it doesn’t help that I almost killed him the first time we met. Oops.
But I can’t ignore him forever. And when all my lies come crashing down, it’s Linc who steps in to shield me.
Only, it’s not just my safety at risk—it’s my heart. Because when Linc touches me, I lose all sense.
We might be building a life together. But Linc and I both have secrets and it’s only a matter of time until the forces from our pasts come back to tear everything apart. Forever.
Drive Me Home by Carly Robin
All is fair in love and racing.
Charlotte Walker isn’t sure of her plan after graduation, so she jumps at the chance to travel the world with her brother and his Formula 1 team.
What’s even better is being around Lucas Adler, AlphaVite Racing’s star driver and tattooed Greek god come to life.
He’s been her crush for years and their sizzling chemistry is undeniable.
Lucas knows his teammate’s younger sister Charlotte is off-limits. He’s learned the hard way that crossing lines can destroy relationships.
But as constant companions on the road, the gorgeous Charlotte, with her charm and infectious energy, challenges him at every turn in ways no one ever has.
As feelings grow, Charlotte and Lucas must decide if their happily ever after is a prize to be fought for at the finish line. . .
Code Word Romance by Carlie Walker
Rule number one: don’t fall in love with your bodyguard
Max is just your average girl. She works odd jobs, has a soul-crushing amount of debt and just happens to have an uncanny resemblance to Europe’s youngest female prime minister, Sofia Christensen . . .
So when the prime minister receives a credible death threat, the CIA approaches Max with a deal: a life-changing amount of money if she pretends to be Sofia on the prime minister’s annual Italian trip.
It would be a dream if it weren’t for those pesky assassins and Flynn, Max’s ridiculously hot handler – the man who broke her heart years and years ago.
With her life now on the line, Max knows she has no choice but to lose herself in the role. But losing her heart to Flynn again? Now that’s a risk that she isn’t willing to take…
Save Your Breath by Kandi Steiner
THIS JUST IN: HOCKEY BAD BOY AND POP STAR EXTRAORDINAIRE ENGAGED!
That was the headline Mia Love wanted. If only she had known the cost to get it.
Aleksander Suter has been Mia’s best friend since high school – and the only man who’s ever been able to truly get under her skin. With his reputation for trouble, searing dark eyes and a smirk that could melt ice, he’s also the NHL’s favourite bad boy.
When Mia’s career is threatened by tabloid drama and her publicist’s plan to fix her image collides with Aleks’s need to clean up his own, they find themselves in a fake engagement that feels too real from the start.
Now, Mia is putting on a show for the paparazzi and falling too fast for a man who never falls for anyone. Every stolen glance, every heated touch, blurs the lines between them until she’s wondering where the lies end and the truth begins.
Mia cannot afford to jeopardise everything she’s worked hard for. But as their past resurfaces and old feelings reignite, Mia realises the biggest risk isn’t losing her career – it’s losing her heart to the one person she thought would never be hers.
Playing for Keeps in Starr’s Fall by Kate Hewitt
Spring is in the air in Starr’s Fall, and for two people, love may be just a roll of the dice away…
As the frozen earth gives way to the first spring crocuses, pushing their way into the warmer air, Maggie arrives in Starr’s Fall. She’s looking for a new start, with her lovable but painfully shy teenaged son in tow.
It feels like the odds are against her, but she’s determined to come out winning this time, and to fulfil her dream of opening up a board game café. But not everything’s a game, and when she finds herself attracted to a man who’s known as a different sort of player, she worries she’s setting herself up to lose.
Zach is funny, surprisingly geeky, and, most importantly, bonds with her son. But Zach is also drop-dead gorgeous, has a reputation around town, and is also ten years younger than her.
When he asks her out on a date, Maggie is totally thrown. She can’t deny she’s attracted to him. But is she ready to risk her heart with another roll of the dice?
I Knew You Were Trouble by Sandy Barker
Don’t get mad. Get even.
Kate Whitaker has always believed in love, but when a stranger named Willem shows up on her doorstep, the news he has to share isn’t as exciting as his god-like looks might suggest. He’s come to tell her that Kate’s fiancé is also engaged to his sister.
Kate doesn’t know how she didn’t see the red flags: Jon’s work as an airline pilot having him flying around the globe, the postponed dates, the huge rock of an engagement ring that isn’t her style at all.
Overcome with fury – and entranced by the Nordic god’s piercing blue eyes and quiet allure – Kate agrees to accompany Willem to his hometown of Amsterdam to help break the news to his sister. Yet what begins as a simple gesture of support soon twists into a deliciously devious plan to get back at Jon.
Kate is drawn into a world of retribution, revenge and – unexpectedly – romance. Because sometimes the best way to get over someone is to get under someone else…
The Love we Found by Jill Santopolo
FATE BROKE HER HEART …
It’s been ten years since Lucy Carter Maxwell lost her soulmate. Having hidden from love ever since, she’s stunned to find it pulling at her when she discovers an old, forgotten box of Gabe’s photographs.
Desperate to find the hope she has been searching for, Lucy begins to unravel the secrets that Gabe left behind.
… CAN NEW LOVE SET HER FREE?
The journey leads Lucy to Italy and into the path of Dr. Dax Armstrong. The pain in his sad, intense eyes, matches Lucy’s own – his touch reignites her in a way that no one has since Gabe.
Afraid of these newly awakened parts of herself, Lucy can feel the comfort of her old life tugging at her. But with an earth-shattering secret waiting in the shadows, can Lucy ever embrace love, if she doesn’t embrace the truth?
The Pucking Wrong Rookie by CR Jane
“You’re going to fall in love with me. It’s only a matter of time.”
Trapped in a life she never wanted, Sloane is subject to the whims of rich, powerful men. She survives by playing the part, but inside she feels nothing. Because having feelings is dangerous. She’s managed to stay numb for so long . . . until a rookie hockey player spots her and turns her whole world upside down.
When Logan York pulls Sloane into his arms after the first game of the Stanley Cup Finals, the crowd goes wild. But what’s wilder is the way Sloane finds herself kissing him back. Logan’s relentless pursuit has her feeling reckless and out of control, and she can’t afford to be careless.
She refuses to date him, but Logan’s not taking no for an answer. He needs Sloane to be his forever, and when he learns what kind of life she’s been living he’s determined to save her-even if it means hiring her for himself.
Sloane tells herself it’s just another job, that Logan is just another client. But a client has never wanted her for anything more than her body before. And Logan will break every rule to get Sloane’s heart in the game.
This edition features two character illustrations, a
Fake It Like You Mean It by Megan Murphy
Elle’s grandmother Lovie has always taken care of her for as long as she can remember. But remembering is just the problem. With Lovie’s Alzheimer’s progressing fast, it’s Elle’s turn to step up.
Leaving Chicago behind, the last thing she expects when she walks through the door of her childhood home is Adam Wheeler–in her bed. Live-in nurse and pain in the ass, Adam is here to do his job. Eat, sleep, nurse, repeat.
Thrown together to care for Lovie, tensions rise and lines are drawn, but there’s a bigger problem: in her Alzheimer’s riddled mind, Lovie’s convinced that Elle and Adam are madly in love.
Certain she’ll forget by morning, Elle and Adam play along. The only snag? She doesn’t forget.
Lovie is the only person who thinks this fake dating scheme is real…so why is Elle fantasizing about Adam when he’s not around? And why is it getting harder to pretend?
Something Borrowed, Something You by Vi Keeland
My relationship with Hunter Delucia started backwards.
We met at a wedding–him sitting on the groom’s side, me sitting on the bride’s. Stealing glances at each other throughout the night, there was no denying an intense, mutual attraction.
He suggested we explore the chemistry sparking between us. His blunt, dirty mouth should’ve turned me off. But for some crazy reason, it had the opposite effect on me.
We ended up back in my hotel room. The next morning, I flew home leaving him behind in California with the wrong number.
I thought about him often, but after my last relationship, I’d sworn off of charming, cocky, gorgeous-as-sin men. A year later, Hunter and I met again. Our attraction hadn’t dulled one bit. This time, he demanded a real phone number. So I left him with my mother’s. She could scare away any man with her talks of babies and marriage
But the following week he rang the bell at Mom’s house for Sunday night dinner. The crazy, gorgeous man had won over my mother and taken an eight-week assignment in my city. He proposed we spend that time screwing each other out of our systems.
Eight weeks of mind-blowing sex with no strings attached?
It was just sex, not love.
But you know what they say about the best laid plans…
Formerly published in a different form under the title Sex, Not Love in 2017.
So that’s all for this week.
Happy Reading!
