Monthly Archives: September 2021

Craks in a Marriage (The Mah Jongg Mysteries Book 1)by Barbara Barrett

When Sydney Bonner overhears a fellow mah jongg player arguing on the phone with her husband, she realizes the couple’s “perfect marriage” isn’t all it appears to be. A few days later, the husband is found dead, his head bashed in. Fearing she’ll be considered the most likely suspect, the widow prevails upon Sydney and her three friends–Marianne, Kat and Micki–to find out who really killed him.

Though none of these four fun-loving, take-charge retirees has any training as detectives, the women agree to launch a secret investigation. As they dig under the happy veneer of their community’s social life, they find more than enough suspects, from shady ladies to resentful golf buddies, to keep them looking over their shoulders.

Could the murderer be lurking among the talent in a chaotic production put on by Sydney’s husband, who will do anything to keep busy in retirement? Could the sheriff, who may have more than a professional interest in chanteuse Kat, end up pinning the crime on the women instead? Each discovery during their investigations and their weekly mah jongg game keeps them running as they close in on the killer–but the killer may also be closing in on them.

This cozy mystery, the first in the Mah Jongg Mystery series, features four retired amateur sleuths who live in the small Florida town of Serendipity Springs, all female and all friends who play the game of mah jongg together. Though they don’t set out to investigate murder, after their first experience in this story, others start looking to them to help investigate subsequent homicides and questionable accidents. In this first book, Sydney Bonner takes the lead, although she turns to her three friends for help. Though this series features four protagonists, the others will take the lead in subsequent stories. Two are married, one is divorced and the fourth, who has been single all her life while she tended to her ailing mother, now finds herself the object of the sheriff’s attention in this series.

The four don’t seek out murder; somehow the circumstances and those affected drag them in. Meanwhile, as they attempt to gather information, life goes on in their community in such activities as a women’s club, a social group for those over 50, real estate transactions, numerous stops at the local coffeehouse, and even a shopping trip to Naples. Sydney’s husband, Trip, and her friend Marianne Putnam’s husband, Beau, are golf buddies who spend many a day on the course. When not there, Trip is busy seeking to build a new post retirement life, and Beau is often prevailed upon to join in Trip’s latest activity, which in this first book is a town follies. Kat Faulkner has lived a frugal life until winning big in a lottery shortly after her mother’s death; suddenly, Kat has money and doesn’t know how to spend it. But her divorced friend and freelance writer, Micki Demetrius, does, even if it’s to guide Kat through a makeover and wardrobe change for her lounge act.

This cozy mystery is the first book in the Mah Jongg Mystery series.

Summer of Fire (The Black River Chronicles Book 1)by L.G. Surgeson

It is a Time of Legends,
It is a Time for Heroes,
It is Time for Last Stands

To speak of a time before the Summer of Fire, a time truly before the cacophony of events that chose to confluence in those short months, is to speak of a time more than four hundred years gone by.

Very few have a genuine understanding of what lead to the time known as the Summer of Fire, of the rising powers that had grown with the patience of mountains, over centuries. Only in looking back could scholars completely understand the full scale of events that preceded it.

It is particularly difficult to distinguish what came ‘before’, as this is a relative term. Each individual will have a point in time that they consider to be the time ‘before’, after which their life will have irrevocably changed. General consensus suggests that by 1099 AC it was already too late.

But for some, it started long before that. For some of them will live, some of them will die, and some of them will last forever.

WolfeLordby Kathryn Le Veque

It’s William de Wolfe’s (The Wolfe) eldest grandchild and namesake, William “Will” de Wolfe in an unconventional romance that is going to break your heart… and then put the pieces back together again. Welcome to the greatest de Wolfe Pack generation!

William “Will” de Wolfe has the weight of the entire de Wolfe empire weighing on him. Perfection is key. Living up to the grandfather he was named for has been something he’s had to deal with his entire life. But Will is strong, noble, true, and powerful… everything a man named William de Wolfe should be. Except he’s living through a personal tragedy no man should have to live through.

Will was very young when he married his wife, Lily de Lohr. As the great-granddaughter of Christopher de Lohr, the marriage forever linked the Houses of de Wolfe and de Lohr. The children born of the marriage are considered to have some of the finest bloodlines in England. But tragedy strikes when pregnant Lily is diagnosed with a terminal illness. And she wants to pick her husband’s next wife.

More than that, she wants him to fall in love with her.

When his dying wife plays matchmaker, how successful can the relationship be between Will and Adria de Geld, the daughter of a de Lohr ally? Lily is determined that Adria should replace her in Will’s heart and in his bed, something Adria is reluctant to do but she cannot help but feel the attraction to the handsome, tortured knight. She soon finds out that his torment is not only because of his dying wife, but because of a terrible secret that Lily hides. Will only found out by accident and it is that, more than anything, tearing him to pieces. A terrible secret that could tear apart two of England’s greatest families.

Can Adria and Will’s love take flight in spite of the dire circumstances? Or will Will’s torment overshadow a truly gifted, intelligent, and beautiful woman who has managed to fall in love with him?

De Wolfe Pack Generations/ Grandsons of de Wolfe series:
WolfeHeart (Markus de Wolfe)
WolfeStrike (Thomas “Tor” de Wolfe)
WolfeSword (Cassius de Wolfe)
WolfeBlade (Andreas de Wolfe)
WolfeLord (William “Will” de Wolfe)
WolfeShield (Ronan de Wolfe)

Keep Me In Your Heartby Lorhainne Eckhart

A Friessen family celebration turns tragic when the marriage of one daughter is preceded by the heartbreaking loss of another.

Three days before Sara Friessen’s wedding, her older sister, Chelsea, who is married to the son of a notorious criminal, disappears without a trace. The police have no leads, and her husband, Alaric Taft, has also gone missing. To find the couple, the Friessens must come face to face with the kind of deadly underworld they had never expected would touch their family.

Andy Friessen lives and breathes only one thing: protecting his family. He soon discovers the secret behind what has happened to his eldest daughter, and he’s plunged into a cat and mouse game, stonewalled at every turn by authorities who are supposed to be helping him. For the first time in his life, he’s forced to admit he’s in over his head. The Friessens are stronger together, so, in desperation, though he swore he never would, Andy ultimately calls for help from his cousins, Brad, Jed, and Neil.

As the cousins dig deeper into the days before the disappearance, they discover that Alaric was hiding a very dark truth, one that put a target on Chelsea’s back, and someone would have gone to great lengths to keep it from coming to light. The lines between good and bad have suddenly become blurred. All the Friessens want is a happy ending, but the more they search, the more the evidence points toward their worst fear–that their nightmare has become reality, and Chelsea could be lost to them forever.

The Wolven Markby Megan Linski

USA TODAY BESTSELLING AUTHOR Megan Linski conjures a fantasy shifter romance where fae bond with fated mates and royals rule a dark kingdom.

Thousands of copies sold! Discover why readers are calling this series their next book obsession!

Finding your soulmate can be deadly…

Emma

I never believed magic was real– until I used it to kill a werewolf.

Not long after, a letter arrived from a supernatural school, claiming I was a sorceress. I’m forced into a world where dragons breathe fire, griffins fly, alicorns battle and wolves hunt monsters. At this academy, sorceresses are bound to alpha shifter mates, and pagan rituals are used to connect with the gods.

I know my mate is somewhere within the school… along with those who want my blood. A cult of dark magic is following my every move, and I have to master my powers before they come for me…

Ethan

I never meant to kill my own father.

What happened led to the loss of my leg, and my reputation as heir to the throne. I found a way to pay for my sins by playing the role of Prince Ethan during the day, and a vigilante hunting cultists by night. Keeping my secret identity hidden has been far more difficult than I imagined.

But now my kingdom is at stake. A new leader will be chosen through the King’s Contest, a fatal competition where contestants battle for power and, more often than not, die in the process. Without a mate, I cannot compete for the crown.

I formed an unbreakable bond with Emma upon first sight. But I have to keep my love a secret. Emma can’t know she’s my true mate; otherwise, she’ll be in more danger than ever before.

But the King’s Contest is rapidly approaching, and if I don’t choose a mate soon, the fate of my country will fall into the wrong hands…

***

A Court of Thorns and Roses meets The Witcher in this fae academy series that’s haunted with sexy shifters and dark deception. Rejected mates and a fight for the crown come together in this supernatural love story of vigilantes, villains, and superheroes. Fall for alpha bad boy kings and find true love in this enchanting royalty romance addition to the Hidden Legends universe.

“Oh wow, now this is a novel worth waiting for. I honestly haven’t read something like this in ages.” – Jessica Mitchell, Reviewer ★★★★★

“Overall this was just what I wanted, and I have a terrible book hangover I am not sure how to recover from.” – Smada’s Book Smack ★★★★★

“Once I picked up The Wolven Mark I didn’t want to lay it down for a minute. I just wanted to keep on reading.” – Nancy Allen, The Avid Reader ★★★★★

Scroll up to join the royals today!

This series takes place in the Hidden Legends Universe, along with the Academy of Magical Creatures series, the College of Witchcraft series, and the Prison for Supernatural Offenders series. The Hidden Legends universe features college-aged protagonists attending magical academies, dual points-of-view, disabled and diverse main characters, and steamy, empowering romances. Each series stands on its own and can be read in any order.