As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.
The Bookstore on Marco Island (Scott Sisters Series Book 1) (affiliate link)
Nicole aches to be a mother and, after countless IVF treatments and years of infertility, she’s ready to adopt.
But her husband is far from ready and ends up dropping a bombshell: for the past seven years,
he’s been living a separate life with a younger woman.
While Nicole has been struggling with IVF and infertility, her husband has been raising kids with another woman right under her nose.
Overwhelmed, she leaves her publishing job in the city to move back home to Marco Island, hoping that her family and the familiar beaches will soothe her fractured heart.
Things didn’t stay the same while she was away. The bookstore from her childhood has closed, and Nicole puts her savings into purchasing it, hoping for a fresh start.
Deadly Sommer: Nora Sommer Caribbean Suspense – Book One (affiliate link)
One missing girl. Two lives on the line. Four treacherous challenges.
Nora Sommer’s first case for the Royal Cayman Islands Police Service is one she’ll never forget – if she survives.
When the daughter of a wealthy businessman is taken, Nora is first on the scene and unwittingly ‘chosen’ by the kidnapper. With the crime live-streamed across the internet, the eyes of the world are upon her as she faces a sequence of difficult challenges with the life of the kidnapped girl hanging on Nora’s success – or failure.
Deadly Ambition (affiliate link)
A sexy blonde with a network of computer geeks. A quirky sidekick with an axe to grind. A deadly chase through a retirement community.
Susie Jones spent years building an online shopping business. She’s content with her thriving free-spirited life until her love-life hits rock bottom, leaving a hole she can’t fill.
When the FBI offers her an exciting new life, which includes a sexy supervisor, Susie seizes the chance despite her misgivings.
As the nosy neighbor grates on her last nerve, she stops and realizes bodies are piling up, and her first assignment could be her last!
If you’re a fan of quirky characters, fast-paced action with a touch of snark, Deadly Ambition is the perfect roller-coaster read. A spin-off from the Kate Anderson Mystery Series.
Palmer Girl (The Historic Hotels Collection) (affiliate link)
When insurance tycoon, Cornelius Nordeman, is recruited to work for the Exposition Corporation, the New Yorker brings his family to live at the Palmer House Hotel, far away from any reminders of a recent tragedy. He’s hopeful this move will offer respite from his family’s grief.
Elizabeth Nordeman, his daughter, has something to prove, which leads her to seek work as a florist at Marshall Field’s, Chicago’s finest department store.
John Lewis knows something is different and intriguing about the new florist he hired. When his boss, Marshall Field, informs him that Elizabeth is the Nordeman heiress, his job suddenly becomes more complicated–especially when he finds himself falling for her.
Torn Away From Her Highlander (Highlands’ Partners in Crime) (affiliate link)
She has loved him for years. Now she must let him go.
Grace Gibson travels to Inverleck castle for her wedding, expecting it to be the happiest day of her life. Fergus has been her sweetheart since she was a young lass, but the spark between them is not there anymore. For some reason, her beloved will not even look at her.
Instead, Laird MacAndrew, Fergus’ brother, approaches Grace telling her that he has news for her. When he explains the situation, the lass feels like an avalanche is coming her way, and there is nothing she can do to stop it… The plans have changed: she will not be marrying Fergus.
Grace begins to wonder why Fergus changed his mind and if he ever cared for her in the first place. But she soon learns that there is more to the story. As the motives behind this arrangement are revealed, Grace wants to fight for her true love. But was it ever true love?
The Girl Behind the Gates (affiliate link)
1939. Seventeen-year-old Nora Jennings has spent her life secure in the certainty of a bright, happy future – until one night of passion has more catastrophic consequences than she ever could have anticipated. Labelled a moral defective and sectioned under the Mental Deficiency Act, she is forced to endure years of unspeakable cruelty at the hands of those who are supposed to care for her.
1981. When psychiatrist Janet Humphreys comes across Nora, heavily institutionalised and still living in the hospital more than forty years after her incarceration, she knows that she must be the one to help Nora rediscover what it is to live. But as she works to help Nora overcome her past, Janet realises she must finally face her own.
The Secret Ingredient (affiliate link)
It’s been three years, two weeks and one day since Kate Shaw’s life changed forever. Three years, two weeks and one day that Kate has been angry – with herself and life.
But today is different. Different because Kate has finally taken the step she’s been avoiding…back into the kitchen. Now, what begins as a (disastrous) attempt to make pancakes becomes a culinary journey that is not only a love letter to someone so important to her, but also an unexpected means of connection to a community she never knew she had…
The Scent of Hours: A Novel (affiliate link)
Nikki Bridges has it good. An enviable home in an upscale neighborhood, a heavenly-scented hobby making personal-blend perfumes, a cherished daughter, and comfortable rituals with a husband she loves. How was she to know it would all blow up with her husband’s affair, a blindsiding divorce, and an identity crisis she never saw coming?
With little money, less work experience, and a modest apartment, Nikki is tentatively moving on. Along the way: a waitressing job, a bond with an empathetic group of friends, and reentering the dating game at fortysomething. Luring her out of her funk is Niraj, an ex-Londoner with twinkling eyes and a hint of cinnamon and ginger. For the first time in a long time, Nikki feels a warm summer flush—and with it, a spark of inspiration.
A Familiar Stranger (affiliate link)
Such a quiet and ordinary wife and mother. Who will even notice what she’s done?
Lillian Smith leads an unexceptional life, writing obituaries and killing time with her inattentive husband and disconnected son. Then she meets David, a handsome stranger, in a coffee shop. Lured into an affair, she invents a new persona, one without strings, deadlines, or brooding husbands.
Lillian has never felt so reckless, unpredictable, or wanted. But as her affair with David intensifies, she withdraws from everything that’s real, even her closest friend. When evidence of her life as a secret lover finds its way onto her son’s social media, she risks ruining much more than her marriage or reputation.
As lies beget lies, Lillian’s two worlds spiral dangerously out of control. And betrayals run deeper than she imagines. Because Lillian isn’t the only one leading a double life.
One for the Blackbird, One for the Crow: A Novel (affiliate link)
Wyoming, 1876. For as long as they have lived on the frontier, the Bemis and Webber families have relied on each other. With no other settlers for miles, it is a matter of survival. But when Ernest Bemis finds his wife, Cora, in a compromising situation with their neighbor, he doesn’t think of survival. In one impulsive moment, a man is dead, Ernest is off to prison, and the women left behind are divided by rage and remorse.
Losing her husband to Cora’s indiscretion is another hardship for stoic Nettie Mae. But as a brutal Wyoming winter bears down, Cora and Nettie Mae have no choice but to come together as one family—to share the duties of working the land and raising their children. There’s Nettie Mae’s son, Clyde—no longer a boy, but not yet a man—who must navigate the road to adulthood without a father to guide him, and Cora’s daughter, Beulah, who is as wild and untamable as her prairie home.
The Last Protector (Clayton White Book 1) (affiliate link)
From the acclaimed author of the Pierce Hunt series comes a thrilling novel featuring a Secret Service agent who takes on a ruthless foe to protect the country he serves and the woman he loves.
Former air force combat rescue officer Special Agent Clayton White now works for the Secret Service performing routine escort missions for politicians. These missions may not be quite as exciting as his time in the military, but Clayton’s okay with that. It gives him more time to see his girlfriend, Veronica Hammond—an archaeologist who also happens to be the vice president elect’s daughter.
But Clayton’s seemingly manageable new routine takes a startling turn when South African mercenaries target Veronica at an awards gala celebrating her work. After this attempt on Veronica’s life, Clayton enters a complicated web of lies, betrayal, and dangerous government secrets.
… See the rest of today ‘s Book Picks here on page 2Page 2