Trial Run

By Carsen Taite

Lawyers
Courting Danger Romance | Book 3
Children / Families

Reggie Knoll imagined all kinds of new adventures after leaving her job at the courthouse, but getting stuck on a jury for a boring bribery case is not one of them. Picked to serve against all odds, she’s determined to do everything in her power to coax the other jurors to a swift verdict so she start her new career. But a pushy, beautiful woman is about to send her life spinning in a direction she couldn’t have anticipated.

Brooke Dawson doesn’t want to be on a jury any more than the rest of the people summoned to the courthouse, but she’s one hundred percent certain that when the judge calls the names of the chosen few, she’ll be on the list. The ominous voice on the phone told her that much right before they threatened her. Now she must convince the eleven other jurors, including the infuriating but devastatingly attractive know-it-all Reggie Knoll, to agree on a verdict—the only verdict that will keep her and her family alive.

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Ghost of the Heart

By Catherine Friend

Ghosts aren’t real, time travel isn’t possible, and aliens do not live among us.

This has been Gwen Tucker’s mantra since childhood, but when she—completely without artistic skill—visits an old Spanish fort to sketch as part of a fundraising challenge, something invisible takes control of her hand and draws a series of stunning images: a man dressed as Hamlet, herself being held at gunpoint, and her wife Billie being attacked. Being possessed by a ghost was not on Gwen’s bucket list, but she must finally admit that ghosts might be real, and one is obviously trying to send her a message.

With the help of Billie and the local paranormal group, Gwen struggles to figure out why they’re in danger. Their progress is hampered by an unfriendly neighbor, an irritating colleague, and a stepbrother with a hidden agenda. Just as the confusion ramps up, Billie disappears.

Gwen and Billie must answer the question: Would you sacrifice everything to save the woman you love?

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The Curse

By Alexandra Riley

Diana Dillon and her eleven-year-old daughter, Ryder, are moving back to Diana’s father’s farm in rural Illinois hoping for a new start. There’s something mysterious about the Dillon farm that Diana can’t quite remember, not even as vague memories begin to surface after she encounters an ominous stranger on her way to the farm during a heavy snowstorm.

Deputy Melonie “Mel” Defoe has just returned home from military service in the Middle East. She’s new to the local sheriff’s office, joining at the insistence of her father, former sheriff Norman Defoe. Though it’s not exactly the job she’s dreamed of, she is drawn into the web of mystery surrounding the apparent attack on newcomers Diana and Ryder Dillon and the unusual occurrences at the farm no one can explain.

With Diana healing from the attack and Ryder trying to adjust to life on the farm with her grandfather, can Mel discover the mystery behind the Dillon farm before they all fall victim to the deadly and cursed land?

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The Devil You Know

By Ali Vali

Cain Casey Series | Book 8
Gangsters
Police / Cops
Federal Agents
New Orleans 
People of Color

Cain Casey has much to be thankful for—a loving wife in Emma, three beautiful children, and an ever-expanding family. Her business continues to grow, giving her the power to keep it all safe, but is it? Unknown federal agents are not playing by the government’s rules, and the Russian mob comes seeking revenge for the losses Cain’s inflicted. Cain and Emma have agreed to partner with the local feds to root out their rogue agents, but their goals for the endgame are completely different. Cain wants to remove the threat the way she knows is best—permanently. There is also Nicola Antakov, who she plans to handle the same way. 

Cain Casey is the devil you know. She loves her family and will do anything to keep them safe and whole.

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The Meaning of Liberty

By Sage Donnell

Bodyguard/Protection Romances
Close Quarters
Dystopian

TJ knows she doesn’t fit in the ultraconservative Crusade of the Redeemer Church, no matter that her father is their chief of security, but leaving is difficult to say the least. Still, she has a plan. Until it gets shot to hell when her secret ex-girlfriend is taken to conversion camp where she will absolutely spill the beans. With his job on the line, her father sends TJ away until the storm blows over.

Bailey split her childhood between Portland with her mom and Tulsa with her Patriot Army dad. But she’s stayed out of Oklahoma ever since they decided together it was too risky for her to be there. She strongly prefers the blue state culture of Oregon anyway. But when her dad calls her with a job offer she can’t refuse, she risks going back into the red to protect her childhood crush, TJ.

When TJ and Bailey get caught in the political crossfire, escape is the only plan. On the run and fighting for their lives is not the time to be falling for each other. But the danger is closer than either of them knows, and when TJ is betrayed by those she loves the most, it could spell the end of their chance at forever.

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Undercurrent

By Patricia Evans

International Setting
Magic
Close Quarters
Enemies to Lovers Romance
Federal Agents
Non-Binary Gender
People of Color

When bodies start washing up on the shore in Salem Harbor, Massachusetts, an elite task force of FBI agents, profilers, and detectives join forces in a remote log cabin to decode the clues and stop the killer from targeting another victim.

Agent Tala Marshall overcame a childhood of deep generational wounds to become the country’s best criminal profiler. Now she faces her most challenging case yet, racing against the clock to profile the elusive killer before they strike again. She must partner with Wilder Mason, a local detective convinced that the murders are connected to the Salem Witch Trials of 1692, and Tala builds a connection to the task force that helps her come to terms with her tumultuous past. But Wilder wants more and is determined to find the key to both the case and Tala’s guarded heart.

Can they find the undercurrent that connects Salem’s past and present before another victim washes to shore?

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And Then There Was One

By Michele Castleman

Friends & Community
Amateur Sleuths
Bisexual
Friends to Lovers Romance
Blue Collar
Police / Cops
Lawyers
Children / Families
College Life
Financial gap/Class disparity
People of Color

Six weeks after Lyla Smith dragged her sister’s dead body onto the Lake Erie shore, she escapes her small Ohio town to work as a nanny for distant relatives on their remote private island. Plagued by strange memories and drowning in the guilt she tried to leave behind, Lyla struggles to break up with her boyfriend and forget her feelings for her sister’s girlfriend. Especially now that she has met another girl on the island who seems to be flirting with her.

Lyla’s first family dinner is a tense affair, and mid-argument the matriarch, Crystal Payne, takes a sip from her wineglass and dies. Suddenly everyone is a suspect. From rival interests in Crystal’s corporation to family secrets that won’t stay hidden, there are too many people with a motive for murder, and Lyla’s trapped with an unknown killer.

The only way to save herself is to be free of the secrets that drag her down. But when the killer strikes again, it’s only a matter of time before Lyla drowns.

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The Land of Death and Devil’s Club

By Bailey Bridgewater

Police / Cops
Medical Romance
Louisa Linebach Mysteries | Book 2

Special Liaison to the FBI Louisa Linebach may have defied all odds by identifying the bodies of three missing men in the Kenai Peninsula, but she won’t be satisfied until the man she’s sure is responsible for their murders is behind bars.

Mr. Drew is secretive, smart, rich, and well-connected, and it’s going to take more than regular police procedure to catch him. Louisa has a plan—a stakeout with Kenai Fjords National Park as home base. As Louisa watches Mr. Drew’s crew coming and going, she begins to put together how the operation works with the help of Seward Police Chief Mikey Harper; Louisa’s love-interest, medical examiner Anna Fenway; and National Parks Service ranger Dolly Agapov, who has a very personal reason for wanting the mysteries surrounding Mr. Drew solved.

The case is turned upside down when Dolly’s grandchild, Ryne, goes missing—and it’s not clear whether Ryne’s been ensnared by the crime ring, or if they’re risking their life to help Louisa. Only one thing is for sure. If Louisa doesn’t catch Mr. Drew soon, the body count will rise.

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The Rewind

By Nicole Stiling

Friends & Community
First Responders

Some choices break hearts. Others leave a body count.

Police detective Cami Lyons is finally doing okay following the devastating breakup of her relationship with crime reporter Alicia Flynn. Her work is mainly petty theft investigations and chasing down vandals, until a body is found in a nearby forest and everything changes. She has no choice but to pivot to homicide detective, and she’s in way over her head.

Alicia made a terrible mistake. When her existential crisis spiraled out of control, she left everything behind—her home, her family, her job, her longtime girlfriend—and ended up on the other side of the world. Time hasn’t healed her wounds and now she’s back. But the truth of all she’s lost may be too much to face.

With the captain, the mayor, the public, and the media breathing down Cami’s neck, her priority is figuring out who’s terrorizing their town, and fast. Sorting out her lingering feelings for Alicia? Definitely not a priority.

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Eyes on Her

By Eden Darry

Psychological Thriller
Small Town Romances

Hoping to leave her past behind after ending her emotionally abusive relationship, Cally Pope moves to Halesbrook, a sleepy town in Gloucestershire. Content with her plans to open a glamping business in the forest and live a quiet life, she’s sworn off any kind of romantic entanglement.

Laurie Flanagan has lived in the forest all her life and has her dream job working for the forestry commission. She longs for the kind of relationship her parents have, but she hasn’t met someone who fits the bill. When she meets Cally, she feels an instant connection, only it seems Cally doesn’t feel the same way at all.

When increasingly violent acts of sabotage threaten to derail the opening of Forest Glamping and put Cally in grave danger, Laurie is the only one who believes the violence isn’t random. Together, Laurie and Cally try to figure out what’s going on, but the closer they get to answers the more Cally can’t shake the feeling her ex, Jules, has something to do with it. But Jules is dead. Isn’t she…?

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The Murders at Sugar Mill Farm

By Ronica Black

Age Gap
Food

Danica Wallace, one of southern Louisiana’s top detectives, must solve a series of missing person cases in the small town of Sugar Mill Farm, and the lack of progress has her seeking answers from a bottle. Bones are discovered in a nearby sugar cane field and Danica fears the worst. 

When Lyra Aarden, a beautiful and accomplished bioarcheologist, stumbles upon the remains, she’s sure the bones belong to more than one person.

Desperate for answers, Danica asks her former lover, forensic anthropologist Dr. Eleanor Stafford, to consult on the case. As Danica, Lyra, and Eleanor work to uncover buried secrets, they’re set on a dangerous collision course with a serial killer.

Can they solve the case, or will unexpected feelings and unwelcome jealousies lead them straight into the crosshairs of a killer?

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I Know About You

By Erin Kaste

Elementary school teacher Cary Smith thinks she has finally outrun her secrets. She’s avoided attention all her life, but the moment beautiful Tina Flores joins the faculty, Cary wants to be noticed. Although the school has a zero-tolerance policy toward anything “immoral,” Cary dares to pursue Tina, and they begin a relationship nobody can know about—not Cary’s friends, co-workers, or ex-girlfriend.

But then strange things begin to happen, and before long, Cary isn’t sure who she can trust. When someone begins leaving ominous messages and finally breaks into her apartment,   Cary fears losing her job or even her life. With her stalker inching closer to the truth, she’s forced to face the past she’s tried desperately to forget.

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A Calculated Risk

By Cari Hunter

First Responders

Detective Jo Shaw has it all worked out. She’s good at her job, she has loads of mates, and she likes being single. She doesn’t need complications, but an emergency call to the stabbing of a young woman brings plenty of those. Jo has to risk her career to save the woman’s life, and a bad night gets worse when the trauma surgeon turns out to be Isla Munro, Jo’s only real love, who walked out on her fifteen years ago and never came back.

With the victim’s children missing and the husband the prime suspect, Jo’s investigation is stonewalled by a community living in fear. As one dead end leads to another, she and Isla are forced to put their differences aside and work together. But the case is far more dangerous than Jo realizes, and her determination to sort the truth from the lies may put her own life on the line.

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Cold Case Heat

By Mary P. Burns

Friends to Lovers Romance
Amateur Sleuths
Big City
Children / Families

Forty years ago, Sydney Hansen’s best friend was murdered. His killer left her a menacing note. Now the man Syd suspected was behind the killing has died—and she receives another threat, attached to a photo of her thirteen-year-old great-niece. Terrified but angry, she turns to the NYPD and Detective Gale Sterling to reopen the case.

Gale has been handling cold cases for over a decade, burying herself in her work and caring for her elderly father, a former detective himself. But this case isn’t like the others. Maybe it’s Sydney Hansen—she finds her beauty captivating. Or maybe it’s the bullet she takes for Syd one night when their date turns into an impromptu stakeout.

Syd and Gayle just want to protect the innocent and bring a killer to justice, but as their feelings for each other grow the once cold case turns dangerously hot.

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Transitory

By J.M. Redmann

Multicultural 
Transgender
Big City
Micky Knight Mysteries | Book 11

The cops blow it off, another Black transgender woman who surprised a customer with what was under the dress—bad luck she was pushed out of the car and then hit by another vehicle. But Micky Knight witnessed it, crossing the street at the right—or wrong—time, only yards away from what didn’t look at all like an accident to her. The woman was dressed more like a librarian than a sex worker. It’s not her case, she was just walking home from a local bar. No ID was found on the victim, and the only clue is an appointment card with cryptic initials, CJ at CC. Micky has a good idea what they mean—Cordelia James at CrescentCare, a local health clinic that sees many transgender clients. Cordelia, a doctor and her ex. Micky doesn’t want to get involved, but there will be no justice if she doesn’t. As she investigates, she uncovers a family in turmoil and ugly secrets—ones people will kill for.

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A Degree to Die For

By Karis Walsh

College Life
Women in Uniform
University Police | Book 2
Police Procedural 
Friends & Community
Police / Cops

Tig Weston’s beloved classics department is evolving, expanding its course offerings to entice a new and more diverse generation of students. Not everyone is willing to accept these changes, though. Tempers flare, and when the body of a prestigious alum turns up outside Denny Hall, Tig doubts she can bring her department through the crisis.

Sergeant Adriana Kent always pictured classical scholars as tweedy bookworms, but suddenly her campus police officers are being called to Denny on a near-daily basis. Arguments in the halls, threatening emails, and even a fistfight, for God’s sake. What should have been the most sedate department on campus seems to be going through a volatile transformation. And the most visible proponent of that transformation? The decidedly unstuffy and very sexy Professor Antigone Weston.

Kent and Tig seem to be on opposing sides in this battle until the stakes become more personal. But before they can even think about a future together, they’ll need to fight to protect the campus from a killer.

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Curse of the Gorgon

By Tanai Walker

The Gorgon | Book 2

Cassandra Hunt is the Gorgon, an assassin/spy. She was programmed via mind control by Thora, her handler, for Olympicorp, a shadowy, cultish conglomerate bent on world domination. Everything changed when she met reporter Elle Pharell. They survived Olympicorp’s mass experiment gone awry and fell madly in love.

Now, in exchange for Elle’s safety, Cass works with a global intelligence collective seeking to apprehend members of Olympicorp. But things don’t go as planned when Elle is abducted. Untangling Olympicorp’s sinister intentions is Cass’s only chance of seeing Elle alive again, and Thora offers to help, for a price. 

Elle wakes up at a secret medical facility with no recollection of how she got there, and the staff won’t answer questions about her lost memories. The one question she can’t get out of her head? Who is the mysterious woman she only remembers as the Gorgon?

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Made for Her

By Carsen Taite

Age Gap
Gangsters
Enemies to Lovers Romance

Newly-made capo Neal Walsh has devoted her life to protecting the powerful Mancuso crime family, but when a crisis crushes connections within the organization, she must carefully navigate shifting alliances to ensure her loyalty is not misplaced—a task made even more complicated when she begins falling hard for the reclusive wife of her boss’s sworn enemy.

Anastasia Petrov surrendered to her fate as the trophy wife of powerful mob boss Mikhail Petrov long ago, but their marriage of convenience has become increasingly less so since his reckless power grabs have put their fortune in peril. Taking matters into her own hands, she secretly seeks out new allies. But what starts as strictly business turns into a dangerous attraction to the striking younger woman on the other side who awakens a desire she’s long denied and ignites a fire that could either burn them all down or save her soul.

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