Society Women by Adriane Leigh

 Some invitations are meant to be declined. . . .

Ellie works as an accountant at her father’s successful investment company in New York City. She enjoys all the comforts her privileged lifestyle affords—a two-bedroom apartment overlooking Central Park, a generous trust fund, and a devastatingly attractive if often absent husband who works long hours for her father as well. Yet the introverted young woman who wants for nothing feels aimless and untethered. Ellie lost her mother at a young age and still has nightmares about her death. She sometimes sleepwalks at night and finds herself stumbling through the days.

But Ellie’s life takes a turn when she receives an anonymous invitation in the mail, asking her to join an elite women’s club known only as “The Society.” Intrigued, she begins to attend their lavish gatherings where she meets her new close companion, Aubrey, and enjoys the benefits of belonging to the group—friendship, sisterhood, and support from other successful and glamorous women. Then Ellie makes a horrifying discovery about the society and its “philanthropic work.” The women of The Society harbor dark, dangerous secrets—secrets that may implicate Ellie’s own family.

Wickedly twisty, Society Women is a gripping story of prestige, power, and dirty secrets that will hook you with every surprising turn and leave you questioning every truth until the final, shocking end.

Pick up your copy here..

Society Women: A Gripping Psychological Suspense Novel - Kindle edition by Leigh, Adriane. Literature & Fiction Kindle eBooks @ Amazon.com.

Adriane Leigh is a USA Today bestselling author of multiple novels and novellas, including the psychological thriller series The Influencer, which is currently in development for television.

With appearances in publications such as Vogue Magazine and The Montreal Gazette, the award-winning author, in addition to writing, founded RARE: Romance Author & Reader Events, a community of internationally-renowned book conventions that draw thousands of readers and #1 bestselling authors to events around the world each year. 

She hosts a podcast, The Rebel Artist, and her books are translated into French, Spanish, Italian, and Portuguese.

She lives on Lake Michigan with her family.

Hart's Landing by Melanie Harlow

 

Four friends made a promise to live one night like it was their last.
That night changed everything.

Ten years ago, Mila Ferguson left behind a devastating fire, a stolen kiss, and a shattered circle of friends in her hometown of Hart’s Landing. But when a crisis brings her back, Mila just wants to get in and get out, unscathed by her mother’s constant criticism and unseen by her former crush, Everett McKean.

Only...Everett is everywhere. The town’s attractive, beloved mayor has resisted settling down, but he’s never stopped wondering about Mila. Having her back in Hart’s Landing is the second chance he didn’t know he was waiting for―and he’s not about to waste it.

As Mila slowly opens her heart to Everett and begins to rebuild her fractured friendships, she wonders if coming home was exactly what she needed. But old wounds threaten to open again when questions emerge about what really happened the night Mila left. Who’s really responsible for the fire that destroyed the bakery? And will knowing the truth free Mila from the past, or ignite a blaze that burns down the future she’s trying to build?

People say you can never truly come home again, but sometimes coming home isn’t about where you’ve been. It’s about who you’re brave enough to become.

Pre-order your copy here...

Amazon.com: Hart's Landing: 9781682816660: Harlow, Melanie: Books

USA Today and #1 Amazon bestselling author Melanie Harlow writes sweet, sexy, feel-good romance. She likes her martinis dry, her heels high, and her history with the naughty bits left in. If she's not writing or reading, she's probably at Orangetheory or watching Schitt's Creek again. She lifts her glass to readers from her home near Detroit, MI, where she lives with her husband, two daughters, and pet rabbit.

She is represented by Rebecca Friedman of Friedman Literary.

Keep up with all things Harlow here ➜ http://www.melanieharlow.com/subscribe/

And here ➜ https://www.facebook.com/groups/351191341756563/ 

My Thoughts...

I'm so sad this book ended, I fell in love with Everett is the most caring, forgiving book boyfriend ever. He is so swoon worthy and he has set the standards really high for my next husband. This was the best romance/ mystery I have read in a while.
I highly recommend this romance!
Mary Reader received this book from the publisher for review. A favorable review was not required, and all views expressed are our own.

The Roommate Rule by Georgia Stone

 Dylan is the kind of person who is always fifteen minutes early and never leaves things to chance--so she can’t believe she’s about to spend six weeks on a last-minute trip to Wales that she didn’t plan, living in a cabin with a man she’s only met once.

Max always goes with the flow, and after his plus-one drops out of his all-expenses-paid travel influencer trip, he’s happy for his sister’s friend to take the spot. After all, from what he remembers of their brief meeting a year ago, Dylan is the kind of woman he’d be more than happy to spend some alone time with.

Not that anything is going to happen between them, because Dylan knows getting involved with this reckless, irrepressible flirt is the last thing she needs. So she makes a house rule: they are roommates only, and under no circumstances can anything . . . untoward . . . happen between them.

But as the days go by, Max starts to realize how much he enjoys chipping away at the walls Dylan hides herself behind, while Dylan begins to admit to herself that there may be more to Max than she first assumed. And before she knows it, she finds herself wondering if their “roommate rule” might be one rule she actually wants to break…

Pick up your copy here...

The Roommate Rule: A Novel: Stone, Georgia: 9780063434844: Amazon.com: Books

Georgia Stone is a London-based author of contemporary romance. She writes love stories that she hopes make people laugh out loud and clutch at their hearts in equal measure.

After dabbling in fan fiction as a teen growing up in rural Switzerland, she didn't write her own stories for years, until one fateful day, she had the idea that sparked her debut novel. She fell back in love with writing and now very much appreciates that being a fiction author is essentially just a socially acceptable way of having imaginary friends.

When she's not reading or writing, you can usually find her trying out DIY projects in her ridiculously colourful flat, spending far too much time feeding The Algorithm, or acting unhinged at gigs with her friends.

You can also find her at @georgiastonewrites on Instagram and TikTok.

My thoughts...

My second book by Stone and I was not disappointed. Max, yes please, I love how he tore Dylans walls down little by little. This book was everything and more. I am so happy I was included in the ARC run of this book. I highly recommend this one. Run don't walk and order your copy!

Mary Reader received this book from the publisher for review. A favorable review was not required, and all views expressed are our own.

The Best Little Motel in Texas by Lyla Lane

 After a childhood spent combing the dive bars of Sarsaparilla Falls to collect her fun-loving momma, Cordelia West now enjoys a simple, respectable life in Dallas. Then one phone call from the hometown she’s spent years trying to forget throws it into chaos.

Cordelia's great-aunt Penelope has passed away, naming Cordelia the sole heir to the Chickadee Motel. She has no memory of a great-aunt and no interest in hospitality, but the will stipulates that the motel can’t be sold until its residents leave or pass away – so she reluctantly heads back down to Sarsaparilla Falls to figure out who's living in the Chickadee, and how to get them out.

But upon her arrival, Cordelia discovers the Chickadee isn’t a motel—it’s a brothel, housing three women in their sixties known as the Chicks. For decades, Daisy, Arline, and Belinda Sue have entertained the men of Sarsaparilla Falls (with their wives’ blessings)—including the upright Pastor Reed-Smythe, who thunders against the town’s favorite sins when he’s not indulging. Cordelia doesn’t want to be a hotel manager or a madam, but she can’t just sell the only home the Chicks have known—especially not after the pastor is found poisoned in Daisy’s bed.

With the Chicks—and the town—on the verge of a breakdown, Cordelia steps up to mop up the mess. For a small town, there are plenty of suspects: could it be the obsessed nurse with access to arsenic? Developers eager to gobble up the land? The righteously angry town librarian? Things are heating up in Sarsaparilla Falls, and with the Pastor’s obnoxiously attractive son Archer—Cordelia’s childhood nemesis—investigating the Chicks and getting close, straightlaced Cordelia may just have to get a little dirty to make a killer come clean.

Pick up your copy here...                                                                                                                                  The Best Little Motel in Texas: A Novel: Lane, Lyla: 9780063469327: Amazon.com: Books

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Lyla Lane is a pen name for Sonia Hartl, author of the romcoms Rent to Be and Heartbreak for Hire, which has been optioned for television, as well as the YA novels Not Your #Lovestory, Have a Little Faith in Me, and The Lost Girls, also optioned for television. She lives in Grand Rapids with her husband and two daughters.

Faking Cinderella by Pippa Grant An Heiress In Disguise Rom Com

 A grumpy former bodyguard, an heiress in disguise, and an accidental roommate situation...

If I'd known a tall, broad mountain of a man would crash the one-bedroom cabin I'm borrowing, I might have handled things differently.

I still would've lied to him. He doesn't need to know all of my reasons for wanting to meet my surprise triplet half brothers while undercover as a housekeeper.

But if I'd known I was going to have a surprise roommate, I wouldn't have rigged a homemade security system in the cabin that left him...erm... Let's just call it easy to spot in a crowd.

And he wouldn't have tried to blackmail me when he figured out my real identity.

And I wouldn't have been so attracted to his audacity that I started looking deeper at the wounded man beneath the gruff exterior.

And then we wouldn't be here, with him making me scream his name for all of the good reasons every night.

But I can't keep faking Cinderella forever, and when it's time for me to come clean, he'll have to choose-loyalty to my half brothers or belief in me and the noble reason for the long game I've been playing.

Faking Cinderella is a swoony romcom featuring a mountain of a man with an even bigger wounded heart and an heiress determined to right a wrong. This opposites attract, secret identity romance stands alone and comes with a sweetly satisfying happily ever after. 

Pick up your copy here...

Faking Cinderella: An Heiress in Disguise Romcom (Small Town Sisterhood): Grant, Pippa: 9781955930567: Amazon.com: Books

Pippa Grant wanted to write books, so she did.

Before she became a USA Today and #1 Amazon bestselling romantic comedy author, she was a young military spouse who got into writing as self-therapy. That happened around the time she discovered reading romance novels, and the two eventually merged into a career. Today, she has more than 30 knee-slapping Pippa Grant titles and nine published under the name Jamie Farrell.

When she’s not writing romantic comedies, she’s fumbling through being a mom, wife, and mountain woman, and sometimes tries to find hobbies. Her crowning achievement? Having impeccable timing for telling stories that will make people snort beverages out of their noses. Consider yourself warned.

My Thoughts...                                                                                                  I have read all the books in the Small-Town Sisterhood series. But this one was the one that I felt the most feels. It was so much fun, and the banter was the best. I loved that some of past characters made appearances in this book. Grant has really out done herself with this series. Mary Reader received this book from the publisher for review. A favorable review was not required, and all views expressed are our own. 

Shooting Star Above by Patricia Leavy

 Tess Lee is a world-famous novelist. Her inspirational books explore people’s innermost struggles and the human need to believe that there is light at the end of the tunnel—but despite her extraordinary success, she’s been unable to find personal happiness. Jack Miller is a federal agent working in counterterrorism. After spending decades immersed in a violent world, a residue remains. He’s dedicated everything to his job, leaving nothing for himself.

The night Tess and Jack meet, their connection is palpable. She examines the scars on his body and says, “I’ve never seen anyone whose outsides match my insides.” The two embark on an epic love story, but old traumas soon rise to the surface as Jack struggles with the death of a loved one and Tess is forced to confront her childhood abuse. Can unconditional love help heal their invisible wounds? Together, will they be able to move from darkness to light?

Pick up your copy here...

Amazon.com: Shooting Stars Above: A Celestial Bodies Romance (The Celestial Bodies Romances) eBook : Leavy, Patricia: Kindle Store

Patricia Leavy, PhD is a novelist, sociologist, and arts advocate (formerly Associate Professor of Sociology, Founding Director of Gender Studies and Chairperson of Sociology & Criminology at Stonehill College). She is widely considered the world's most visible proponent of arts-based research, which merges the arts and sciences. Patricia has published over 50 books, nonfiction and fiction, and her work has been translated into numerous languages. She has received over 100 book awards. She has also received career awards from the New England Sociological Association, the American Creativity Association, the American Educational Research Association, the International Congress of Qualitative Inquiry, and the National Art Education Association. In 2016 Mogul, a global women’s empowerment network, named her an “Influencer.” In 2018, she was honored by the National Women’s Hall of Fame and the State University of New York at New Paltz established the “Patricia Leavy Award for Art and Social Justice.” In 2024 the London Arts-Based Research Centre established "The Patricia Leavy Award for Arts-Based Research." In recent years, her passion has turned to penning romance novels. For more information, please visit her website.

The Book of Judges by Gary Fields

 For fans of Dan Brown, a debut contemporary thriller about a young lawyer thrust into a deadly search for an ancient secret—one that has the power to steer the course of destiny.

A beloved judge is murdered. His virus-infected laptop holds an ancient secret. Young lawyer Joshua Sutton, together with doctoral candidate Samantha Bollinger and tech wizard Mark Roth, are thrust into a deadly three-day quest for answers—a quest that leads them across millennia.

As Mark extracts clues from the computer, Josh and Sammi are chased around Florida by the hulking murderer and others who desperately want the laptop.

Josh and Sammi realize they’ve both been haunted by dreams about historical judges. In Mongol-ruled China, Imperial Rome, Byzantium, post-Renaissance Venice, Henry VIII’s England, and Charlemagne’s Frankish kingdom, judges heroically seek justice in life-and-death cases that come to define human rights. As they do, they are exposed to a startling secret.

Josh, Sammi, and Mark end up in a pulse-pounding race to New York City to stop the murder of another judge, one who could potentially save humanity.

Pick up your copy here...

The Book of Judges: A Novel (The Words Series): Fields, Gary: 9781684633487: Amazon.com: Books

Gary Fields earned his law degree from the University of Miami and his degree in mathematics/computer science from SUNY Albany. He has designed computer systems for Fortune 500 companies and built a law practice specializing in community associations. He’s written hundreds of songs, performed professionally as a solo acoustic artist, been a leader in civic activism in his community, and coached youth sports for 18 years. The Book of Judges is Gary’s first novel. He is currently working on a sequel. Gary and his wife, Debbie, now live in the Los Angeles area, close to the rest of their family