women’s fiction

April Showers Bring Dead Flowers by Krista Lockheart

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A powerful new cozy mystery series from award-winning and bestselling author Krista Lockheart. Join greenhouse expert Heather Moore and her sassy chihuahua as they uncover something unexpected in her new estate garden in this buzz-worthy fresh novel.

There’s something growing in the garden . . . and it’s not a flower. A mystery is growing in the garden!

Greenhouse expert and horticulture Professor Heather Moore gets a new lease on life when she inherits her grandparents’ estate in New England. But the garden she loved as a child has seen better days. Determined to restore her grandfather’s garden to its former beauty, she’s accompanied by Ant, her charming chihuahua, and two of her favorite former students.

But wait, what? Ant suddenly digs up an even bigger challenge when he finds some human remains buried in an old potting shed. As she discovers clues and follows the evidence, a few suspects cross her mind, but ultimately they point to one wily and clever killer. Suddenly in danger herself, can Heather solve this puzzling mystery, restore her family’s legacy, and bring about justice?

April Showers Bring Dead Flowers is the first novel in the Murder on the Vine series. Join Heather and Ant as they explore the seedy underworld of gardens, greenhouses, and flower shops in this ‘unputdownable’ murder mystery!
Extremely funny, with a fast-paced plot and appealing characters, this adorable and ingenious story will embed itself in your heart and grow into one of your favorite reads.
Perfect for chick-lit fans and with a dash of sweet romance as well, this will appeal and be highly accessible to many readers.
Don’t miss this breakout novel in the cozy genre and pick up a copy today!

Targeted Age Group:: 18-90

What Inspired You to Write Your Book?
Krista Lockheart has a passion for humor and cozy mysteries. Her first book earned seven book awards, including a First Place from the BookFest in humorous. She loves making readers laugh with her zany characters, witty dialog, puns and wall-to-wall humor. Krista also has a passion for botany, horticulture and plants, and uses the setting of a magnificent greenhouse and gardens as the backdrop to a charming cozy mystery. She hopes the plant and food description will inspire readers to go to farmer's markets, nurseries and the produce department of their local stores and investigate new plants and foods to enjoy.

All the Colors of My Soul by Leta McCurry

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All the Colors of My Soul by Leta McCurry

What could drive a loving wife and mother to commit cold-blooded murder?

Growing up in the 1930s Santa Clara Valley, California, Neva Holiday wanted nothing more than to reach eighteen, have a beau, get married and mother a houseful of kids. Simple, quiet, peaceful.

As she blossoms into a young woman during high school, she finds herself torn between a life-long bond with the boy next door and her growing love for a handsome newcomer escaping the destitution of Dust Bowl Oklahoma. Before she can discover the desire of her heart, WWII tears her world apart, plunging her into years of fear and dread of receiving the telegram beginning, “We regret to inform you.”

A son brings joy, purpose and focus to her life until an insidious influence creeps into the family unawares, creating an unspeakable tragedy, forever shattering Neva’s dreams of quiet happiness, and forcing her to confront whether she will turn the other cheek or deliver cold-hearted retribution.

In a dizzying exposé of the human spirit, Leta McCurry weaves a riveting tale of a young woman’s descent into darkness. Emotionally gripping and magnificently crafted, this rich and heart-wrenching novel will keep you on the edge of your seat as you race to its extraordinary conclusion. — Heidi Thomas, Award-winning author of the “Cowboy Dreams” series.

All the Colors of My Soul is a sweeping twentieth-century historical fiction. If you like captivating character studies, poignant moral quandaries, and vivid snapshots of the past, then you’ll love Leta McCurry’s mesmerizing story. — Sally Bates, Award-winning author of Western fiction and poetry.

Targeted Age Group:: 18+
Heat/Violence Level: Heat Level 4 – R Rated

What Inspired You to Write Your Book?
Two tragic family incidents. The situations were similar but the responses of the individuals involved were vastly different. All the Colors of My Soul is not the story of either of those incidents, but was inspired by the different reactions of the human spirit to an unspeakable tragedy.

How Did You Come up With Your Characters?
Characters are always influenced to some degree by people we have known, particularly in childhood for me. Additionally there are those people who appear for an instant and then are gone, the slouched old man sitting on a park bench, his face a road map of life, the thin woman with a smelly infant slung on her hip, the child with the haunted eyes. They speak to me on a primal level and I remember them. I don't pattern characters after any one person, but exposure to all these are the bits and pieces of the mosaic that becomes a new identity in my stories. Beyond that, the stories themselves are a big factor in character development – kind of like the character rises to the occasion.

Book Sample
Inside my chest, my heart slowly expanded until it pushed against the constraints of my ribs and into my throat as if it would flow out and fill the room with something sparkling and golden, but warm and soft. I held my breath, wanting to extend the moment, to fill my hands with the manifestation of my love for him, to smear it on my face and arms, and his, where it would forever color our skin with a lasting testimony of my unspeakable love for him.

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Angel of Mercy by Melina Druga

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Angel of Mercy by Melina Druga

She had her entire life planned until the Great War began and everything changed.

April 1914. Barrie, Ontario. Hettie Steward is feisty, educated, ambitious and stubborn. Her fiancé, Geoffrey Bartlette, the love of her life since childhood, has been a patient man. He waited while she attended nursing school and worked a year, but now it is time to wed. While Hettie is thrilled to be starting her life with Geoffrey, she laments that marriage means sacrificing her beloved nursing career, and domestic life brings her nothing but drudgery and boredom.

When the Great War begins a few months into their marriage, Geoffrey enlists and persuades Hettie to join the Canadian Army Nursing Service and follow him overseas. After all, everyone says the war will be short, and it will be their opportunity to have a proper honeymoon. Returning to work is exactly what Hettie was craving, and she eager accepts.

The war, however, does not end quickly. Soon tragedy strikes, proving true the old adage “be careful what you wish for, you just might get it.” Geoffrey is killed at the Second Battle of Ypres, and Hettie is faced with a choice. Return home or stay in Europe and continue nursing? Moreover, will she discover the person she is meant to be now that her life has been steered onto a new path?

Angel of Mercy is the first in a trilogy following Hettie and her family as they navigate the challenges and heartbreak World War 1 brings. Each novel is a standalone story.

Also available: Those Left Behind, the home front story. Adjustment Year, the homecoming story.

Tree of Lives by Elizabeth Garden

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Tree of Lives by Elizabeth Garden

Based on true events, Tree of Lives is a riveting two-track story of a horrific public murder in 1930 that became a long buried family secret. The lost ghost of the murderer, Raymond, roams the earth until his abused great niece, Ruth, a promising artist, confronts her deeply troubled family. It is a story of unfolding forgiveness, survival and triumph over unaddressed trauma as this determined woman navigates her thorny life path. Illustrated.

The Devils’ Cradle by Darcy Daniel

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The Devils’ Cradle by Darcy Daniel

GRAND PRIZE WINNER – TopShelf Magazine’s 2018 Indie Book Awards!

“An exquisite exercise in psychological suspense, a dark tale cut from the cloth woven by the likes of Lisa Gardner and Harlan Coben. Timely, tumultuous and terrific.” – Jon Land, USA Today bestselling author

On Australia’s island state, more than one species of Tasmanian Devil exists…

Beneath the surface of Nina Holt’s perfect marriage lurks a life of terror inflicted upon her by her politically powerful husband Michael and his brother Greg, a sadistic detective. For over a decade they have managed to keep Nina imprisoned, using her to satisfy their every whim.

Worse still, the only light in her life—her 9-year-old son, Sam—considers Michael a hero. When Sam imitates Michael’s violence by lashing out at her, Nina knows it’s time for both of them to escape before Sam truly turns into the monster Michael is grooming him to become.

After crashing her car in her haste to escape, kind motorist Case Herder offers her help. Unaware that he has his own plans for her, Nina accepts, igniting a deadly game of cat and mouse as they flee across Tasmania with Sam.

As Michael and Greg relentlessly hunt them down to Cradle Mountain, Nina finds herself with nowhere left to run. Cornered, she has no choice but to face evil head-on.

Featured Book: Miss June’s Judgement by Harper Harris

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Take a bite out of Appleton, North Carolina!

Kari Jacobs starts a new life 3,000 miles away from her hometown, but it’s not by choice. Her aunt, who was also a judge and Kari’s mentor, won’t see her anymore and she doesn’t know why. She has lost her job and her law career is in tatters. She never imagined herself practicing law in a small Southern town like Appleton. But it’s the only place that would hire her.

Taste the sweetness of quiet, country life.

What she finds in Appleton surprises her: a new friend named Ashley, who is accused of a murder no one wants to solve, a gang of mean old ladies, the perfect cup of coffee, and the cutest Great Dane puppy ever to stumble over four paws.

You’ll come for the delicious Southern flavor but you’ll stay for the hospitality!

In finding justice for her friend, Kari discovers the truth can be elusive. Even here, in idyllic Appleton, where the people are friendly, the living is easy, and the city officials are…corrupt?

Could there be something rotten at core of this apple?

* INCLUDES ASHLEY’S SUCCULENT SOUTHERN BAKED FRIED CHICKEN RECIPE! *

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Buried Secrets by Elizabeth Meyette

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Buried Secrets by Elizabeth Meyette

When Jesse Graham almost runs over a “body” in the road one night, she is plunged into a labyrinth of secrets, lies and murder. All Jesse wants is a simple life teaching at St. Bart’s… and a chance at love with Joe Riley. She realizes that plan has been thwarted when puzzling occurrences at St. Bartholomew Academy for Girls get increasingly dangerous. The danger doesn’t just spring from the ghost who haunts the grounds of St. Bart’s, but from a sinister presence that is not ghostly at all. As she digs into the mystery, threats on her life and the life of her student escalate.

Which danger threatens her life the most? The ghost haunting her student or the secrets buried in the school?

Featured Book: Robin Unaware, #4 in the Birds in Peril Series by Mary Elizabeth Fricke

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About Robin Unaware, #4 in the Birds in Peril Series by Mary Elizabeth Fricke:

Life is constant change, sometimes planned, sometimes instant and devastating. For Stephanie Harvester-Garrett, life takes an abrupt curve when her husband is killed in a car accident.
Determined to secure a stable home for her three children, Stephanie returns to Missouri to be closer to family and to accept employment in her brother’s law office. A whole new world opens for Stephanie and her three children when they move into a log house owned by Hunt R&C employee, Todd Sellers.

Life appears to be too good to be true. Not only does living in the valley present the quiet, secluded existence Stephanie seeks for her children to heal their tragic loss; she finds means to face the world head on, the world where none of her family knew she and her husband were spiraling toward an ugly divorce. Much to her surprise she quickly finds herself in an intimate relationship with her new landlord.

Having been where Stephanie is, years before (when his wife died and he was left to raise their daughter alone), in the beginning, Todd only seeks to give Stephanie the support she needs to not only to survive but to embrace the future. Much to Todd’s astonishment, he falls as hard and fast and as deeply for Stephanie as she does him. Unfortunately, not all of Stephanie’s family approves of this new found relationship. The heartbreak comes from those she would have leaned on and trusted the most.
In midst of it all, several mysteries involving those of the Hunt-Harvester-Cromwell team begin to unfold. Pieces slowly begin to fall into place after Dan Pentherst’s accident the same night Dr. Ross Garrett was killed. When Todd’s home is broken into it becomes apparent someone embraces a sinister intent.

The dream of living a peaceful country life is interrupted by unexpected ghosts of the past, and hatred spawned in the name of love.

This fiction book is available in ebook format.

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Featured Book: The Book of Secrets by Sylvia A. Nash

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The Book of Secrets, a new release, will be $0.99 from 9/11 to 9/15. It will then return to its regular price of $3.99. (Cozy Mystery, Christian Fiction)

Someone had a secret to kill for. Now the secret keeper is dead, and the Book of Secrets is missing. Grief turns to fear and suspicion as six childhood friends try to protect their secrets. The task of protecting their lives falls to Millicent Anderson, professor turned sleuth. However, to do so, she must find the book and expose their secrets.

“Secrets are similar to seeds buried in the ground. They remain under but near the surface until the moment they burst through and become more than they were, whether weed or flower. What will you do then?”

Buy The Book of Secrets Here

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An Accidental Murder: A Yellow Cottage Cosy Mystery Book 1 by J. New

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Young widow, Isobella Bridges discovered and fell in love with The Yellow Cottage as a child. Many years later she returned to the Island, discovered it was for sale and bought it on a whim. Or so she thought.
She had no idea at the time how much it would change her life, nor that it was yet to reveal all it’s secrets. Ones that even Ella couldn’t imagine.
She purchased the cottage from an old lady, but this was no ordinary old lady. And she left her cat, but this was no ordinary cat.
Ella soon realises that this isn’t the only gift the old lady left.
Having only been in residence a few short weeks, and still unpacking boxes, she receives a telephone call from her brother, inviting her up to London for Sunday lunch.
This call sets in motion a series of events that puts Ella’s life, and those of the people closest to her in danger.

‘An Accidental Murder’ is a cosy amateur sleuth novella, with a difference. Set in 1930’s England, it is the first in the series of The Yellow Cottage mysteries.

Targeted Age Group:: 25+

What Inspired You to Write Your Book?
This book and the future books in the series, were spawned from a FREE short story called The Yellow Cottage, available on my website. I had several emails and messages on social media from readers asking (and in some cases demanding), there be more, because they loved it so much. Up until then, I hadn’t considered turning it into a series, nor in fact writing cosy mysteries. However during the writing phase, I fell in love with the whole process and the characters, but more importantly the genre. I’ve always been a fan of Agatha Christie: Marple and Poirot and of Arthur Conan-Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes, and it was a natural extension of a love for those works, that lead me to pen the short story in the first place. Inspiration came from those fans and readers that wrote and asked me for more. I’m very grateful to them.