Then You Happened by J. S. Wood

 After finding out his friends find his nonstop quest for love to be a little excessive. Derek has decided to put a stop to dating altogether.

Now, he's stuck in a no-go zone just in time for someone new to enter the friend group.

Elizabeth is a single mom who has been out of the dating pool for a long time, but when she meets Derek, the sweet and caring friend of a friend, she thinks things are about to change.

When things don’t go quite as she expects, she accepts his friendship and begins a journey to help him reinvent his father’s failing hardware store to keep the legacy alive.

Spending hours together working, they begin to see that their feelings are not so easily brushed aside and when push comes to shove, their friendship blossoms into a romance they’ll never forget.

But when things get hard for the hardware store, and real life starts to butt in to their relationship, they have to decide if they can weather the storm, or if things will end for good.

Pick up your copy here...

Then You Happened: A Single Parent Romance (Average Gents Book 5) - Kindle edition by Wood, J.S. . Literature & Fiction Kindle eBooks @ Amazon.com.

J.S. Wood is the author of the Average Gents series. After coining the phrase "Nice Guy Romance", she has used this to make a brand for herself to represent the underrated nice guy. Originally from Colorado, she now resides with her husband and children in Wyoming, writing anything that inspiration strikes. Her next series, The Three Rivers Trevors Ranch, is inspired by her horse training upbringing and will bring a slew of 'touch her and ---" cowboys. You can connect with her on Instagram @authorjswood, TikTok, @authorjswood, or her website www.jswoodauthor.com

What to Do When You Feel Broken by Laura Williams

 You’re not broken. Learn how your past impacts your present and develop the mindset you need to break damaging patterns.

Clinical psychologist Dr Laura Williams’ life turned upside down when her husband suddenly died at the age of 37, when they had three young children. This trauma forced her to reconsider the psychological teachings she’d used professionally to help hundreds of others and apply them to her own life.

Dr Laura uses her own personal story to illustrate key psychological concepts we can all benefit from applying to our own lives. You'll learn how to:

• Get to know yourself fully and understand what drives your behaviour and how it impacts your relationships
• Examine your early conditioning to gain new insight into destructive feelings that you may have repressed for years
• Use Dr Laura’s four-step HEAL framework to move forward consciously on a new path

The toolbox of knowledge and techniques in this book will empower you to pick up your ‘broken parts’ and put them back together to live life with resilience, wisdom and fortitude.

Pick up your copy here...

What to Do When You Feel Broken: How to Let Go of Negative Patterns, Heal Your Relationships and Find Freedom: Williams, Dr Laura: 9781401979003: Amazon.com: Books

Dr Laura Williams is a clinical psychologist, author and speaker specialising in the treatment of trauma, anxiety disorders, eating disorders and obsessional compulsive disorder. After losing her husband suddenly in 2018, she began writing about loss to help others process the emotions of grief. Laura's writing has been featured in national newspapers and magazines. Laura has also contributed to Channel 4 and ITV documentaries focussed on the treatment of morbid obesity. You can tune in to her psychological knowledge and expertise on the 'Know Your Own Psychology' podcast. Living in Edinburgh, Scotland, Laura works in both the NHS and in private practice. Laura is passionate about using 'blue mind' and embodiment practices through taking people to water therapeutically.

Preorder All Booked Up by Melody Carlson

  All Booked Up by Melody Carlson is available for Preorder! Preorder your copy today from your favorite book retailer.

When preserving precious memories means welcoming unexpected changes, Riva finds that her heart has room for so much more than she imagined.

Widowed empty nester Riva Owen lives in the Victorian house that's been in her family for three generations, but finances have become a challenge she can no longer ignore. Her daughter is pushing her to move, and after considering all her options, Riva knows selling would be the smartest course. But she just can't bring herself to leave decades of memories--and her cherished library filled with hundreds of books.

When she pursues an alternative--opening her home to women like her who need a room to rent--Riva is unprepared for the mix of personalities and peculiarities of her new housemates. She is even more unprepared for Marcus, the handsome and handy older brother of one of her new tenants. The possibility of finding love again feels overwhelming, even as her tenants seem to have romantic schemes of their own.

Warm your heart with a story of found family, book lovers, and a second chance at love.

#preorder #mustread #Romance #fiction #themaryreader

Pick up your copy here...

All Booked Up: A Small Town Contemporary Clean Romance with Bookish and Literary Themes: Melody Carlson: 9780800747251: Amazon.com: Books

Melody Carlson has written more than 200 books (with sales around 6.5 million) for teens, women and children. That's a lot of books, but mostly she considers herself a "storyteller." Her novels range from serious issues like schizophrenia (Finding Alice) to lighter topics like house-flipping (A Mile in My Flip-Flops) but most of the inspiration behind her fiction comes right out of real life. Her young adult novels (Diary of a Teenage Girl, TrueColors etc.) appeal to teenage girls around the world. Her annual Christmas novellas become more popular each year. She's won a number of awards (including Romantic Time's Career Achievement Award, the Rita and the Gold Medallion) and some of her books have been optioned for film/TV. Carlson has two grown sons and makes her home in the Pacific Northwest with her husband and yellow Lab dog. To find out more about Melody Carlson, visit her website at http://www.melodycarlson.com/

Finding Beauty by Ann Penny

 Sometimes, the greatest love stories begin with a second chance.

Starting over in New York City is Melanie Warren’s chance to prove she doesn’t need her parents’ wealth, high-society status, or her ex-fiancé, Grayson. Determined to stand on her own, she refuses to look back, until her new job brings her face-to-face with the one man she swore never to forgive.

Scott Blackwood is no longer the reckless boy with a troubled past. Now, he’s wealthy, powerful, and everything he once dreamed of becoming. But to Melanie, he’s still the man who shattered her seventeen year old heart and never looked back.

Their chemistry is undeniable, their past impossible to forget. As old wounds resurface and the lines between them blur, Melanie is faced with a choice: hold on to her heartbreak or risk everything for a second chance at love. Because the biggest secret of all? She never stopped loving him.

Pick up your copy here...

Finding Beauty (Love, Beauty, & Soul): Penny, Ann: 9781923232129: Amazon.com: Books

Ann Penny is an empathetic daydreamer who escapes reality through her written words.

She loves to immerse herself in nature and creative arts, and heal trauma through writing heartfelt stories where she can truly embrace the light and shade of life and love.

Penny navigates her beautiful chaotic world with her amazing husband and their two mischievous boys while endeavouring to harness her hyperactive mind and quirky sense of humour.

The New Neighbors by Claire Douglas

 Unassuming neighbors may not be what they seem in this twisty, spine-tingling thriller from the internationally bestselling author of The Couple at Number 9 and The Girls Who Disappeared.

They seem like the perfect couple. But what are they hiding?
When Lena overhears a conversation between her next-door-neighbors she thinks she must have misheard.
The Morgans are a kind, retired couple who recently moved to their sleepy suburban street in Bristol where nothing ever happens. But to Lena it sounded very much like they were planning a crime.
Her family and friends tell her she must be mistaken. Yet Lena can’t stop thinking about that strange conversation. What if they really are about to do something terrible?
What if she can prevent it?

Especially when doing something might help ease her conscience about her own dark past . . .

Pick up your copy here...
The New Neighbors: A Novel: Douglas, Claire: 9780063354432: Amazon.com: Books

Claire Douglas is the Sunday Times number one bestselling author of eight stand alone novels: The Sisters (2015), Local Girl Missing (2016), Last Seen Alive (2017), Do Not Disturb (2018), Then She Vanishes (2019) and Just Like The Other Girls (2020). Her seventh, The Couple At No 9 (2021) was an Amazon number one bestseller, a number three Sunday Times bestseller and most recently hit number one on Germany's Der Spiegel paperback bestsellers chart. The Girls Who Disappeared was a Richard and Judy book club pick for Autumn 2022 and was an instant number one Sunday Times bestseller. Her books have sold over a million copies in the UK and have been published worldwide.

Her most recent, THE WOMAN WHO LIED will be published on July 6th 2023.

You can find Claire on Twitter at @DougieClaire, Instagram as clairedouglasauthor, or visit her Facebook page clairedouglasauthor.

Crimson Refuge by Sienna Judd

 I was done wanting love. Done with trust. Done with hope.

Then Freya Johnson walked into my life—curious, relentless, too young for me, and completely off-limits. I was her mentor. Her safe place. Her friend. And a man who knew better than to touch her.
And I didn’t.
Not until she left for the LAPD.
Not until one night blew straight through every line I’d drawn.
I never meant for that night to change anything.
But it changed everything.
The line I drew is now two pink ones, and when she comes back to Echo Valley—taking a quieter desk job while we try to figure out next steps—every boundary I’ve built starts to crack.
Because being her friend, her co-parent, her roommate… none of it touches the truth of what I want when I look at her.
When she becomes the lead officer on a case no one can quite explain, something dangerous starts circling closer than she realizes. It isn’t just instinct that locks tight inside my chest.
It’s fierce protectiveness.
The and there I realize she’s already mine, whether I’ve told her or not.
Wanting her is the fastest way to lose myself again.
But if this threat reaches her first, it won’t just cost me control.
It will cost me the one thing I never planned to risk again.

Crimson Refuge is the heart-racing story of a rookie and her mentor, a friends to lovers, accidental pregnancy with a hero who is all out touch her and d!e. This book is part of the Echo Valley series of interconnected standalones, better read in order, but it can be read on its own.

Pick up your copy here...

Amazon.com: Crimson Refuge: Accidental Pregnancy, Romantic Suspense (Echo Valley): 9798246792773: Judd, Sienna: Books

Sienna Judd is a small town, contemporary romance author who lives for all the spice and book boyfriends who are book husband material.

Sienna is an American girl married to her Prince Charming. She lives with her husband, three children, pony, dogs, guineas pigs and countless other animals on a small farm England. She thinks kitchens are for dancing, is everybody's hype girl and might be known for talking too loudly. Like every respectable woman she also loves drinking champagne and eating half of every chocolate in a truffles box.

Her spirit animal is a butterfly.

Hunt You Down by Elizabeth Knox

 I thought I escaped hell when I ran from the Sanctuary.

Hell found me on a Valentine's Day auction block, where men in black ties bid on virgins like livestock. Where the highest bidder owns you—body, mind, and soul.

Vaughn Sutherland paid more for me than most people see in a lifetime.

He put me in a room with silk sheets and locked doors. He touched me in ways that made me forget my own name. He made me want things I shouldn't want.

So, I ran.

I made it a few hours before he found me.

I expected punishment. Expected pain. Expected him to finally show me the monster beneath the patient facade.

Instead, he gave me pleasure.

Over and over until I broke. Until I begged. Until I couldn't remember why I ever wanted to leave.

Now I sleep in his bed, not the guest room. Now he watches my every move. Now every choice I thought I had is gone—except one.

Submit willingly to his training for the Consortium gathering, or he'll break me until I do. And the worst part? I'm starting to want to submit.

Pick up your copy here...

Amazon.com: Hunt You Down (A Dark Holiday): 9798244233360: Knox, Elizabeth: Books

Elizabeth is a USA Today Bestselling author who is most popular for her romantic suspense and dark romance books.

Please make sure you click the follow author button to ensure you're signed up for all of Elizabeth's latest releases.