Veterinarian Mitchell Brannigan gets off to a rocky start with his new neighbor when someone calls the town to complain about the noise. Mitchell runs a shelter for rescue dogs, and dogs bark. But when he goes to make peace, he meets Beau Pfister and his fussy baby daughter, Jessica… and starts to fall in love.
Beau moved out to the country to get away from his abusive ex-husband, but raising an infant alone, with no support network, is lonely and exhausting. The last thing he expects is a helping hand from the neighbor whose dogs he complained about.
Mitchell understands what it’s like to live in fear of your ex, and he’s determined to help Beau move on. But when an unseen menace threatens the shelter and Beau, it becomes apparent that he hasn’t dealt with his own demons.
With each other and a protective Chihuahua for support, Mitchell, Beau, and Jessica could make a perfect family. Mitchell won’t let anything happen to them.
Melody, a young single mother, discovers she’s descended from the last Tsar, Nicholas II. She becomes the best hope of a secret global society, Guardians of the Romanov Legacy, dedicated to restoring a Romanov to the throne of a New Russia. A diary and an heirloom necklace inherited from her murdered grandmother hold the key to her identity and to the location of the Tsar’s lost shipment of gold.
She must accept the sacrifices her birth demands and trust the machinations of the estranged father of her child. To refuse means turning her back on her heritage, her daughter’s legacy, and the long line of her family’s women who were keepers of the secret. Will her longing for true love have world-changing consequences?
Marilyn Baron writes in a variety of genres from women’s fiction to historical romantic thrillers and romantic suspense to paranormal/fantasy. She’s received writing awards in Single Title, Suspense Romance, Novel with Strong Romantic Elements and Paranormal/Fantasy Romance. She was also The Finalist in the 2017 Georgia Author of the Year Awards (GAYA) in the Romance Category for her novel, Stumble Stones, and
The Finalist for the 2018 GAYA Awards in the Romance category for her novel, The Alibi. Her latest novel, The Romanov Legacy, released June 14, 2021, is her 27th work of fiction. A public relations consultant in Atlanta, Marilyn is past chair of Roswell Reads and serves on the Atlanta Authors Series Committee. To find out more about what Marilyn writes, visit her website at: www.marilynbaron.com/
Risk-averse ER nurse, Alyssa Beckman, is about to lose her job because of yet another bad decision. In order to put her life back on track, she books a week at a rustic mountain resort to ponder her next steps and rejuvenate. But when she arrives, she learns she’s enrolled in boot camp, an adventure program far out of her comfort zone.
While there, she meets Gabriel Sutton, a world-travelling high-fashion photographer who is in danger of losing his clients as well as his status if he doesn’t start following the rules. While hiking, kayak racing, and participating in team challenges, sparks fly between Alyssa and Gabe as they encourage each other to take different life paths. But will those paths lead them farther apart or bring them closer together?
Maria Imbalzano is a retired matrimonial lawyer who now writes full time. Instead of drafting motions, legal memoranda, and briefs, although fascinating, she now spends her days creating memorable characters and taking them on their emotional journeys through her contemporary romance novels.
In addition to writing fiction, Maria is on the Friends of Thomas Edison State University Foundation Committee and is still involved with Dress for Success Central Jersey, having been a founding Board member. She also serves on the finance committee for The Present Day Club. She has received the distinguished Family of Edison Award for her work with The Thomas Edison State University Foundation, the Iron Mike Professional Achievement Award from Trenton Catholic Academy and was inducted into the Italian American National Hall of Fame.
Her novel, “Unchained Memories,” won the Wisconsin Romance Writers Write Touch Readers’ Award and the ACRA Readers’ Choice Heart of Excellence Award. “Sworn to Forget,” the first of the four-book Sworn Sisters Series was a finalist for the illustrious RONE award as well as the Book Buyers Best Award.
Everyone wanted her dead…but who actually killed her?
The last thing swimwear sales exec Holly Schlivnik expected was to discover ruthless buying office big wig Bunny Frank’s corpse trussed up like a Thanksgiving turkey with a bikini stuffed down her throat. When Holly’s colleague is arrested for Bunny’s murder, the wise-cracking, irreverent amateur sleuth jumps into action to find the real killer. Nothing turns out the way Holly thinks it will as she matches wits with a wily killer hellbent for revenge. Get ready to laugh out loud as Susie Black’s Death by Sample Size takes you on a rollicking adventure ride through the Los Angeles apparel industry.
Bio:
Born in the Big Apple, Susie Black calls sunny southern California home. Like the protagonist in Death by Sample Size, Susie is a successful apparel sales executive. Susie began telling stories as soon as she learned to talk. Now she’s telling all the stories from her garment industry experiences in humorous mysteries.
She reads, writes, and speaks Spanish, albeit with an accent that sounds like Mildred from Michigan went on a Mexican vacation and is trying to fit in with the locals. Since life without pizza and ice cream as her core food groups wouldn’t be worth living, she’s a dedicated walker to keep her girlish figure. A voracious reader, she’s also an avid stamp collector. Susie lives with a highly intelligent man and has one incredibly brainy but smart-aleck adult son who inexplicably blames his sarcasm on an inherited genetic defect.
Forbidden. Commanding. Mysterious. Beau Rochester has an
entire house full of secrets. And those secrets are putting Jane Mendoza in
danger.
She fell in love with the one man she can’t have. She should
leave Maine to protect her heart, but the thread refuses to be severed. The
brooding Mr. Rochester and his grieving niece are more than her job. They’re
her new family.
She races against time to find answers and protect the
people she loves. The cliffside grows dark with the misdeeds of the past. Her
heart and her sanity fight a battle, but they are both at risk.
Will Mr. Rochester learn to trust Jane? And will that trust
destroy her?
Under “Romance”: Sworn to Fly by Maria Imbalzano – only three sparklers for this one, but even though there were some issues I had with the story, it’s still a good read by a really good author.
Under “Nonfiction”: A five sparkler review for “Meditation Journal for Anxiety” by Peter Economou – a definite must-have.
Under Theresa’s Movie/book reviews, she has two new ones: “The Man in the Brown Suit, 1989” and “The Adventure of Johnnie Wavery, 1989”
Several new books and books-to-movies to tell you about today.
First, Teresa has two new reviews up in her Agatha Christie movie/book series: The Mirror Crack’d From Side To Side (1992) Joan Hickson
EndlessNight (2013) Julia McKenzie
Under books, I have one in mysteries, one in LGBTQ+ for adults, and a children’s chapter book under YA (put there because I don’t have a specific children’s section). I don’t often get children’s books, so this was a new adventure.
Under YA: A 4 Sparkler review for the children’s fantasy “Frederick the Fly-Catcher” by Helen C. Johannes. A cute story about friendship and acceptance.
Under Mystery: “Death by Sample Size” by Susie Black. A 4 Sparkler cozy mystery with a quirky cover that made me look.
Under LGBTQ+ for Adults: “Fate’s Attraction” by Dirk Greyson – a 5 Sparkler wolf shapeshifter romance.
Blurb: A FATAL FIRST NIGHT The return of swashbuckling Gilded Age diva Ella Shane, an Irish-Jewish Lower East Side orphan who found fame and fortune singing male “trouser roles,” opens with a backstage murderon premiere night. Ella and friends aren’t at all sure about their colleague’s guilt, though it seems obvious. Meanwhile, newspaper reporter Hetty MacNaughten has finally escaped hats to cover a sensational murder trial. And then Ella’s British aristocrat beau shows up with more than romance on his mind. Before it’s over, the cast will have to sort out several interlocking mysteries…and find another Richard III. Will everyone survive to the final curtain?
BIO: Kathleen Marple Kalb grew up in front of a microphone, and a keyboard. Now a weekend morning anchor at 1010 WINS New York, she started out as a teenage DJ in Brookville, Pennsylvania. She worked her way up through newsrooms in Pittsburgh, Vermont and Connecticut, developing her skills and a deep and abiding distaste for snowstorms. While she wrote her first (thankfully unpublished!) historical novel at age sixteen, fiction was firmly in the past until her son started school and she decided to try again. She, her husband, the Professor, and their son, the Imp, live in a Connecticut house owned by their cat.
Ella’s beau, Gil, the Duke, originally trained as a lawyer. Over tea with Ella and the cast, he explains a major problem with the evidence in the murder trial reporter Hetty MacNaughten is covering, sparking a lively discussion:
“And so, Miss MacNaughten, however much you don’t like this Mrs. Van Vleet, you may not get to watch her hang,” Gil finished in an apologetic tone.
“It makes sense,” she admitted, with a frown.
“Anyway, the method is wrong,” Yardley said. “Women don’t stab people to death like that.”
“What?” Hetty wheeled on him. “A woman can’t kill?”
“Not at all.” Preston smiled wryly. “They do every day. But women like poison. Knives are messy.”
“I lean toward the gentlemen’s view on this,” Gil added. “Very rare for a woman to kill in such a grisly fashion.”
“See?” Yardley crowed. “You tell ’em, Barrister.”
It was clear by now that the nickname was going to stick, since it was, after all, appropriate, respectful, and a good deal easier in company than “Your Grace.” If we’re going to have a duke in the house, we have to call him something.
“Well, no insult intended to present company,” Gil began with a chuckle, “but women aren’t really made for killing.”
“What?” I asked. Speaking of bosh.
“You are the mothers of the race, after all, whether or not you ever actually raise children.” His eyes met mine with a terrifying intensity. “You are made for caring for others, protecting them. Made for love, if you will.”
For a measure or more, it was no longer a discussion of crime and politics in company. It had become a private moment between the two of us, each watching the other’s reaction, barely breathing.
Vladimir Corelia is the second son of the pack alpha. He’s happy with his role in the pack, but it seems the fates have other ideas. When the man he finds living in a cave, caring for a shifter baby and a litter of wolf pups, turns out to be his mate, it begins a chain of events that puts the whole pack in jeopardy.
Frankie Bowers can’t remember anything except a powerful sense of danger. He only knows he can’t go home. With no way to defend himself, he has to rely on Vladimir, a perfect stranger who happens to be his mate, to protect him and the young he’s looking after.
While Vladimir and Frankie’s attraction as mates grows stronger every day, so does the threat to their relationship—and to the pack. As Frankie regains his memory, the threat grows more and more ominous. Vladimir and Frankie must rise to the challenge if they hope to have any chance at the future the fates might have in store.
Sparkling Book Reviews 