Paula Boyd is the five-time award-winning author of the Jolene Jackson Mystery series, which features the mother-daughter anti-team of Lucille and Jolene. Book 1, Hot Enough to Kill, tops today’s Buffet. One reviewer called it “a classic whodunit in the spirit of Agatha Christie or even Nancy Drew … with larger-than-life characters and enough surprises to keep you guessing until the very end.”
Paula grew up in a small town in Texas that resembles Kickapoo, the setting for Hot Enough To Kill. Paula also, coincidentally, lived in Colorado for about 20 years, but unlike her alter ego Jolene, she now resides in Arkansas.
Paula worked as a self-employed corporate consultant for 17 years while developing her writing career, defining her passion and transforming herself. Writing as Paula Boyd, she and her mystery novels have been featured in Redbook, Mountain Living, San Antonio Woman, Romantic Times, Colorado Homes and Living and many others.
Paula began writing her first novel in 1993. With only three chapters written, her historical western, Maddie, won a writing contest. However, that book — and the two that followed — never made it into print. But Paula hit her stride in the mystery genre in 1999, and the rest, as they say, is history.
Writing as Paula Renaye, she’s author of Living the Life You Love: The No-Nonsense Guide to Total Transformation.
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Hot Enough to Kill
Mystery > Women Sleuths
Author: Paula Boyd
The mayor is dead, your mother’s in jail, and you’d rather be anywhere but Kickapoo, Texas.
Welcome to Jolene Jackson’s world.
It’s bad enough that her 72-year-old mother’s boyfriend got himself murdered, and even worse that she had to pluck her mother from the county jail because of it. But just as sure as the mesquites have thorns, Jolene knows things are going to get worse. A lot worse.
Bullets are flying, chicken’s frying, and there’s a lunatic on the loose in the mesquites with a shotgun who’s Hot Enough to Kill.
The Dragon Hour
Science Fiction > Time Travel
Author: Connie Flynn
A Scottish paradise lost in time is invaded by 21st century thugs. It was a robbery gone terribly wrong ending in Luke Slade carrying his wounded cousin through a window of light, sweeping them back in time. The killers chase behind them just as the window is closing, trapping them all in 1672.
Caryn McLaughlin rules Lochlorraine and deals daily with a terrible threat. When Luke appears she knows her worries will soon be over. She’d seen his face all her life, on a tapestry now hanging in her bed chambers. He is none other than Luke, the legendary Dragon Slayer, and his duty is clear. What a pity he doesn’t see it that way.
DEAD OF WINTER
Mystery, Thriller & Suspense > Crime Fiction
Author: P.J. Parrish
In the quaint tourist town of Loon Lake, Mich., a killer is taking his vengeance. One by one, the bodies of cops are found, brutally executed, with mysteriously coded death cards placed with each corpse – the gruesome signature of a psychopath. And the only sound louder than doors being locked against evil is the sound of hearts beating in terrors. Louis Kincaid came north looking for refuge, a place to forget his past. But now he’s landed in the middle of an investigation that’s a terrifying journey through a town’s fiercely protected heart of darkness.
Waterfall: A Novel
Teen & Young Adult > Religion & Spirituality > Science Fiction
Author: Lisa T. Bergren
Most American teenagers want a vacation in Italy, but the Bentarrini sisters have spent every summer of their lives with their parents, famed Etruscan scholars, among the romantic hills. In Book One of the River of Time series, Gabi and Lia are stuck among the rubble of medieval castles in rural Tuscany on yet another hot, boring, and dusty archeological site … until Gabi places her hand atop a handprint in an ancient tomb and finds herself in fourteenth-century Italy. And worse yet, in the middle of a fierce battle between knights of two opposing forces.
And thus she comes to be rescued by the knight-prince Marcello Falassi, who takes her back to his father’s castle—a castle Gabi has seen in ruins in another life. Suddenly Gabi’s summer in Italy is much, much more interesting. But what do you do when your knight in shining armor lives, literally, in a different world?
A Death On The Wolf
Religious Fiction > Historical
Author: G. M. Frazier
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For Nelson Gody, the summer of 1969, the summer he would turn sixteen, began as all his past summers had. Life on his family’s small farm outside Bells Ferry, Mississippi, was safe and routine: chores, taking care of his little sister, working at a local gas station, swimming in the Wolf River with his best friend–his world was familiar and predictable. All that would change as young Nelson experiences his first love, wrestles with the secret his best friend has been hiding, and meets a mysterious stranger who appears one day on an exotic motorcycle called the Black Shadow. Capped by the devastating effects of hurricane Camille, the events of that summer ensured that life as Nelson knew it would never be the same again.
Wild Irish Ride
Romance > Mystery & Suspense
Author: Jennifer Saints
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A couple’s sensual journey from the strictures of their lives to explore the passion they left behind and discover a love they never thought they would have.
Twelve years ago wrong side of the tracks bad boy, Jesse Weldon, was framed for a crime he didn’t commit by the blue-blooded Jordan family. Now he’s back in Savannah with his highly successful security company to put the Weldon name on the right side of the tracks. Unfortunately, before he can even make a move in that direction, he runs into Alexandria Jordan and ends up making the same mistake he did before. He succumbs to her allure, but this time, he plans on getting her out of his system for good and walking away.
Except for a few wild moments with Jesse at seventeen, Alexi Jordan has followed the life expected of her. But a Wedding Day betrayal from her blue-blooded fiancé has her running from her life and right into the arms of the man she’d never forgotten, Jesse. Yet as she forges a new future for herself amid the scandal of her aborted wedding, Alexi finds herself the target of a twisted killer and both her and Jesse’s days are now numbered.
A Beginners Guide to Companion Planting
Gardening & Landscape Design > Vegetables
Author: Mel Jeffreys
Companion planting involves strategic location of the veggies and fruit that you plant to maximize space available, deter or distract pests and to take advantage of the nutrients available in the soil where you live.
Topics covered in this book include:
— History, reasons & benefits for companion planting
— Planning your garden including garden bed ideas and soil management
— Guides to beneficial companion plants including flowers and herbs
— Combinations of plants that work well together or to avoid
— Companion plants to encourage beneficial bugs into your garden
Warrior’s Bride
Historical Romance > Medieval
Author: Gerri Russell
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The Seer’s Stone. Locked away in a tower, young Isobel had watched its power slowly drive her mother mad. And now, years later, the Stone’s secrets threatened to be the death of Isobel as well. Douglas Stewart, known as the Black Wolf of Scotland, had no intention of taking a wife, despite his father’s demands. But the moment he saw Isobel, he was spellbound by her fiery defiance and delicate beauty. They were united by destiny yet beset by betrayal. Only by opening her heart to love and living up to her legacy could Isobel become a Warrior’s Bride.
this I know – Sarah’s Confession
Christian Fiction > Suspense
Author: Reba Ponder Weiss
A recluse emerges from the backwoods on the eve of his son’s romantic, southern wedding. Dinner spirals into chaos when the self-proclaimed prophet announces he hears spiritual messages straight from God. The voices tell him to prepare the way for the end of the world. His disturbing words find foothold in undeniable facts as disbelief dissolves into terror. Those who gathered to celebrate are suddenly faced with an unthinkable dilemma. They must follow him into a remote, secret sanctuary, prepared exclusively survival… or they can die. As apocalyptic events begin to unfold, the ancient battle of darkness and light quickly becomes a modern reality.
Shattered Rose
Christian Fiction > Romance
Author: T L Gray, Tammy Gray
Set in the beautiful Blue Ridge Mountains, nineteen-year-old Avery Nichols embarks on a journey of love, loss and recognition that perfection is often an illusion. Avery finds herself drawn to two men — one troubled, one committed to the truth. To choose between them, she must learn about unconditional love and self-worth.
It is the beginning of her sophomore year at Winsor University, and Avery is determined that nothing will stop her momentum, not even the internal battle she has fought for four years. Forced to live on campus because of her alumni scholarship, Avery is thrilled when she is placed in the coveted University Apartments and is swept away by her roommate’s cousin, Jake, whose charm and charisma touches every part of her soul and shatters every piece of her heart. Broken and lost, Avery meets Parker, a man who not only offers her hope, but also teaches her to love in ways she never thought possible.
Grishma
Teen & Young Adult > Science Fiction & Fantasy
Author: Kelly Blount
As a young boy, Ryder lived with his family, deep in the caves underneath the Kadin Forest, unaware of the horrors of the world. His simple world was turned upside down one horrible night when Grishma attacked his family, killing his father and kidnapping his mother and younger sister.
From that night on, Ryder devoted his life to killing Grishma. He tracked the monster from Necoh, to our world, and back again. Unfortunately, during his quest, he accidentally transported Brooklyn, a high school junior into his tumultuous world, where she is mistakenly identified as Princess Sophie, the missing princess of Sumner.
Days after Princess Sophie’s return, Grishma plots and manipulates the King into drugging and marrying off his only daughter to Prince Algid of Dratun. Desperate to save Brooklyn, who now believes she is the long lost princess, his mother, and his little sister, Ryder embarks on the deadliest part of his quest.
… See the rest of today’s Editor’s Picks here on page 2