After a tornado drops a feisty fugitive into the arms of a steel-hearted warrior, she must convince him to help her and her not-so-little dog evade a wicked enemy.
When a tornado drops Thea Gale and her not-so-little dog Titan into the arms of a steel-hearted warrior, she has no idea the trouble she is in. Lucky for her, the battle-scarred Navy SEAL who comes to her rescue knows a few things about evading wicked enemies.
Nickolas Steele is certain the right thing to do is to turn the filterless fugitive and her overprotective canine in to the authorities. But is the captivating amnesiac really a threat or is she the one whose life is in grave danger?
Nik can’t shake the feeling Thea’s past has come back to claim her, and discovering who she really is might be more deadly than either of them is prepared for. In order to enlist Nik’s help, Thea must not only confront the trauma of her former life but also penetrate the carefully forged armor protecting what’s left of Nik’s heart.
ONE OF THE “MOST ANTICIPATED CRIME BOOKS OF 2021″—CrimeReads
ONE OF THE “MOST ANTICIPATED RELEASES OF 2021″—Book Riot
ONE OF THE “11 CRIME NOVELS YOU SHOULD READ THIS FEBRUARY”—CrimeReads
ONE OF “2021’S MOST ANTICIPATED NEW RELEASES”—Books in The Freezer
This horrifying retelling of the Pied Piper fairytale set in present-day Chicago is an edge of your seat, chills up the spine, thrill ride.
When Detective Lauren Medina sees the calling card at a murder scene in Chicago’s Humboldt Park neighborhood, she knows the Pied Piper has returned. When another teenager is brutally murdered at the same lagoon where her sister’s body was found floating years before, she is certain that the Pied Piper is not just back, he’s looking for payment he’s owed from her. Lauren’s torn between protecting the city she has sworn to keep safe, and keeping a promise she made long ago with her sister’s murderer. She may have to ruin her life by exposing her secrets and lies to stop the Pied Piper before he collects.
Cynthia (Cina) Pelayo is the author of LOTERIA, SANTA MUERTE, THE MISSING, POEMS OF MY NIGHT, and the upcoming CHILDREN OF CHICAGO by Agora/Polis Books. Pelayo is an International Latino Book Award winning author and an Elgin Award nominee. She lives in Chicago with her family.
Perfect for lovers of historical romantic mysteries.
Sir Henry, secret agent to the crown, must marry a lady above reproach to afford his illegitimate daughter entrance into society. After narrowly escaping marriage to a highborn bigot, he takes an assignment in Brighton, leading him to an abandoned abbey full of dark whispers, and a sinister secret society, the very one Henry has been investigating for three years.
Isabella is as beautiful as she is talented, but falling in love isn’t part of her plans. She only wants to paint, forget her painful past, and keep her overbearing mother at bay. But gaining one’s independence isn’t easy for a woman in 1823, so Isabella embarks on a fake courtship with Sir Henry. Soon, love and a painting career no longer seem so utterly incompatible.
But when the man Isabella fears most kidnaps her, all appears lost. Realizing the kidnapper is part of the same organization he is investigating, Henry chases after them. Entrapped in a web of secrets, both Henry and Isabella must face old enemies, and fight for their happily ever after.
About the Author
Bianca M Schwarz was born in Germany, spent her formative years in London, and lives in Los Angeles with her husband and teenage son. She has been telling stories all her life and holds a degree in English literature. Her first novel is THE INNKEEPER’S DAUGHTER. THE GENTLEMAN’S DAUGHTER is the second and most sweepingly romantic book in THE GENTLEMAN SPY SERIES.
She’s finally come home, but will she choose to stay?
Bailey Boone wasn’t like the other girls in Ministry, Alabama. Her creative soul drove her from home—and Seth McKay—at eighteen. Now she’s home with a film crew to save her current Christmas project—and maybe get that promotion. But will Seth, her ghost of Christmas past, give her a reason to stay?
Aiden Hughes never expected to return to Birdsong, but after a scandal rocked his professional world the former hard-hitting reporter needs a plan B. Covering local events for the small town newspaper after chasing down national news is a huge step backwards. But when he interviews the founder of a dog rescue whose heart is bigger than New York City, he wonders if there’s more to life than his byline in a prestigious paper.
Emily McLane has always had a sweet spot for animals. She plans an ambitious adoption festival to fund the expansion of her beloved dog rescue, but she needs publicity. When a former local boy offers to help her design a promotion, she finds herself falling in love for the first time. They both have big dreams, but Aiden’s will take him far from Birdsong. Will they follow their hearts or are they only falling in puppy love?
From Scottish lairds to billionaire businessmen, Kelsey McKnight will ignite your soul, no matter what century it lives in. Kelsey is a university-educated historian from southern New Jersey. She has married her great loves of romance, history, and literature to create her own tales of dashing heroes, sultry bad boys, and lovable heroines who have their own stories to tell. They will take you through the ballrooms of Victorian London, the hills of the Scottish Highlands, New York City penthouses, and into small towns with big hearts, all at the flip of a page. When she’s not writing, Kelsey can be found reading, drinking too much coffee, spending time with her family, and working for a nonprofit organization.
Sarah Fischer works hard fighting the good fight in personnel security. She graduated with a degree in criminal justice and married the calm to her crazy. Then Sarah had a health scare and needed heart surgery. While recovering, she finally had the time to write the stories playing out in her mind. Her college romantic suspense series, Elton Hall Chronicles, is now available in its entirety on Amazon. First Semester, Second Snowfall, and Third Wheel remind you what you loved about college, show you what you missed, and make you yearn for what could have been. Sarah also has a contemporary short story in the Craving Bad anthology. In her spare time, you’ll find her with a book in her hand, at the movies, or watching just one more episode of reality TV.
Plus-sized Rachel Simon has settled into her life. But in a lifetime (so far) of not-quite fitting in, and battling demon food issues, she has given up on finding love, despite the well-meaning nagging of her close circle of friends.
Now, Rachel has received some big news: a fashion blog, which she secretly wrote on the side, has caught the eye of a major fashion magazine, who not only want her to write a column, but are giving her an award at an upcoming banquet. The problem? She used her best friend Lisa’s picture on her bio, and believes they expect a tall beautiful blonde to walk through the doors of the magazine.
She asks Lisa to pose as her at an upcoming meeting, as well the awards banquet, believing that she would lose everything if they knew someone who looks like Rachel was behind the writing. Then, she meets Nathan: cute, smart, and just a little bit weird, but she’s absolutely convinced men like that don’t ask out “fat girls” like her, and places him decidedly in the Friend Zone, and to her dismay, find that her best friend has decided to date him.
Along her journey toward love, self-acceptance, and being true to oneself, Rachel finds that sometimes, “Men Do Make Passes at Girls Who Wear Glasses.”
I hear that if you have kids at home, this is a wonderful YA sci-fi that teens will love!
Sixteen-year-old Bobby is the only human on a robot-inhabited planet. Aided by LINC, his cybernetic haywire task assistant, he must prove to the bots that the human race is worth restarting by passing his Programming, the training he receives to think and act in perfect precision-and without emotion. Failure will force him to upload his mind into the Tether, a robotic host, stripping him of his humanity and terminating his species’ last chance for survival. As he repeatedly falls short of the bots’ rigorous standards, he begins to question if the human race is even worth reviving. But when a beautiful girl named Jen crash-lands on his planet, she makes him question everything the bots have told him, including what it means to be human.
Today is the cover reveal for my good friend’s wonderful book – The Innkeeper’s Daughter by Bianca M. Schwarz. Isn’t it gorgeous?
Release January 12, 2021
In the twilight of a November evening, Sir Henry, a man of wealth and charm, comes across a badly beaten Eliza, desperate to escape her vicious stepfather. Realizing she has nowhere to go, Sir Henry takes her to his home in Mayfair.
There, as she recovers, Henry introduces the lovely Eliza to a world of art and literature she never knew existed. But Eliza’s brutal world follows her to London, where the salons of the aristocratic elite co-exist with the back alleys of the criminal underworld.
Thankfully, Henry, a secret agent to the crown, is able and willing to deal with the man Eliza’s stepfather had sold her to, and the pimp who plans to enslave her.
As romance blossoms between them, Eliza unearths an old secret that leads them into the dark sadistic world of sex trafficking, and finally allows Henry to identify the traitor responsible for selling military secrets to the French, causing the death of thousands.
A natural at the spy game, Eliza proves herself a worthy partner in their fight for truth and justice. But with time running out, and the fate of one girl hanging in the balance, Henry and Eliza must find a way to outwit a nasty pimp and eliminate a dangerous enemy agent.
This is the 3rd and final installment of the Memory Collector series. Our familiar characters are back, sort of. The detective is his usual stoic self, but Moira isn’t quite Moira. She is, but she has some internal stuff going on (trying not to be spoilery). Even with this, she makes familiar decisions that we’ve come to be both admirable of and infuriated at. Sometimes I really just want to shake her shoulders… really really hard.
The writing immerses the reader in the time period and era the author has built. She does a great job of being authentic – although this is a fantasy world, it is rooted in turn-of-the-century North America. I can imagine the clothes, the motor vehicles, and the demeanor.
The author is especially good at getting the reader to care about secondary characters where we even worry for them when they’re missing. Even the phoenix is multidimensional and when certain things happen, you have mixed feelings about it (again, trying not to spoil).
I would have liked to have more time with Keenan and Moira together, but I understand why that wasn’t really possible given the plot. I still missed their give-and-take though.
Overall, this was a great ending to the series where all questions were answered and the future set out for us. I would highly recommend this entire series for all lovers of fantasy or just a great story.
Great review for the latest anthology I have a story included in. My story, Summer Healing, is one of the titles specifically reviewed. Thanks to Kendra Olson for taking the time to review. The ebook version of this anthology is free btw (links in the review).
