Category: Contemporary fiction

Review: The Hitman’s Guide to Stately Fences and Killer Defenses (The Hitman’s Guide Book 8) by Alice Winters 

Rating: 4.75🌈

The Hitman’s Guide to Stately Fences and Killer Defenses is the eighth book in the suspense filled , violent, and often hilarious series by Alice Winters. 

It’s followed the tumultuous path that Leland “The Sandman”, a lonely contract hitman,  finds himself on when he meets an equally lonely PI named Jackson who’s caught on a backyard fence while on a job. Book after book, they find themselves together, working through deep issues (and criminal investigations) towards a complex relationship. One that brings them a strange wonderful future of odd mixture of friends, found family, scary happenings and hilariously funny stories.  It’s found them engaged then happily married, with dogs and an illegally adopted teenage son. 

Book eight brings in all the many characters from their multiple stories when Waylon, 15 yr old illegally adopted son of Jackson and Leland, is threatened along with his new best friend.  

Who is behind the newest danger to Leland and Jackson’s family and life is one of the best elements of this story. There’s so much to it. It’s all the various characters, their partners coming to help. And a new police officer who’s highly suspicious of Leland and his past to add additional tension and drama to the already established growing suspense and anxiety about the situation. 

Winters has written a fantastic novel. It’s a fast paced, white knuckle roller coaster narrative ride that keeps the reader on the edge of the seat. With her dialogue that has elements of pain, hilarity and life’s deepest realities. Guns, dogs, friends , love and family. Maybe blow up dolls. And a car. And now a cat. 

And with those final reminiscences from Jackson as he watches his “boys” walking ahead, if this is where Winters leaves them, I’m happy. 

There’s no indication that this is the finale but somehow it feels like it. While there’s a few things where the author could return to this universe to open up a new chapter, that last sentence feels like a closing scene. 

I’m good with that. They are in a wonderful place. 

A great story in a highly recommended series. 

Cover by Natasha Snow Designs

The Hitman’s Guide series:

The Hitman’s Guide to Making Friends and Finding Love 

The Hitman’s Guide to Staying Alive Despite Past Mistakes 

The Hitman’s Guide to Tying the Knot Without Getting Shot 

The Former Assassin’s Guide to Snagging a Reluctant Boyfriend

The Hitman’s Guide to Righting Wrongs While Causing Mayhem 

The Hitman’s Guide to Codenames and Ill-Gotten Gains 

The Mercenary’s Guide to Mishaps and Romance 

The Hitman’s Guide to Stately Fences and Killer Defenses #8

Buy link 

 Book 8 of 8: The Hitman’s Guide 

Blurb 

Leland

Life is normal… suspiciously normal.

During my long, lonely years as a hitman, I never realized that one day, I would have a family to call my own.

Now, instead of stalking my targets and taking down people with a flick of my wrist, my specialties lie in things like planning sleepovers (why does Waylon look terrified?), The Fence hour (those are screams of joy), and involving others to help our child succeed (no, of course I didn’t abduct anyone).

But for a guy like me, things can’t stay good for too long. Someone seems to think that I should still be the ruthless hitman I used to be. They want to draw me back into the limelight and prove to me that what I’m living now is a lie.

But they don’t realize how much they’re going to regret meeting the Sandman–especially once they threatened my family.

Jackson

This person seems to be obsessed with an image of Leland from the past, and because of it, we now have a crime boss on our tail and a bounty on Leland’s head. The stalker has no idea that Leland comes with multiple ex-assassins, a sketchy Scotsman, and the chief of police who likes to pretend he doesn’t want to be involved. 

I adore my life with Leland just the way it is (someone, please burn down The Fence), and no one is going to ruin that (I will pay well).

They’d better be afraid to sleep because the Sandman is coming (and if they took down The Fence while they were at it, I wouldn’t mind).

January 20, 2026

Language

‎English

Print length

355 pages

Book 8 of 8

The Hitman’s Guide

Review: To Claim a Ghost :The Ghost Protectors Book 2 by Annabella Stone

Rating: 4.5🌈

The second book in The Ghost Protectors series, part of a larger military suspense romance universe created by this author, I found To Claim A Ghost a hit, full of characters and elements that make Stone so successful in this trope. 

This was especially well written in the dynamic between the two characters who were torn apart by their respective families and political factions, then eventually reunited under the worst conditions. 

To be a Ghost, a member of a secret paramilitary unit, is to be “dead”. To everyone who knew them, to have been “buried” and mourned by those who loved them.  Even their own teammates don’t know each other’s stories. 

So the burden and trauma of seeing the past before you and everything that entails is emotionally detailed in the scenes here and within the characters themselves. Angelo, now a Ghost and his former husband, Toro, and a sketchy undercover mission in Afghanistan that involves both the Ghost team and his former husband’s current situation. 

It’s an investigation that’s involves current events, layered political realities, and multiple battle scenes. Fast paced, gritty and unpredictable. 

At its length, there’s still a few elements that feel unresolved. I have a feeling they will be picked up in later books and storylines.

This is a terrific series and a very engaging read. One I’m happy to share. 

Cover Design: LK Graphics 

Cover Photo: David Wills Photography Models: Christopher John & David Wills

The Ghost Protectors :

To Love A Ghost #1

To Claim a Ghost #2

To Tame A Ghost #3

Buy link

 Book 2 of 3: The Ghost Protectors 

Blurb 

A dead man tells no tales—or so they say—but can he find a happy ever after?

After being declared dead by his country and recruited to an elite team of Black Ops Operators, former Italian Special Forces Consubin Angelo Selvaggio has never fully embraced the life offered to him by The Ghost Protectors. His heart has always yearned for the one he walked away from. Now the only remaining member of his blood family is missing in one of the worst hell holes on earth, to save him, Angelo needs help from the same man he swore he’d stay away from. The man who’s heart he destroyed when he walked away to save both their lives. Is Angelo willing to risk it all to find his brother? Is he willing to cross every line and break every rule for the one he loves? Hell yes, there is no price too high for one last shot at love with the man who owns his heart.

After the loss of his husband in a roadside bomb on the sand strewn streets of Kandahar, Vittorio *Toro* Gambino took refuge in the Tribal Lands of Afghanistan. Using his intelligence skills to be Italy’s eyes and ears on the ground in the Middle East. A phone call from a dead man sends his world spiraling out of control. Everything he believed in —destroyed. Everything he knew as truth—gone. Everything he’d dreamed of is once again at his fingertips if he can get past the hurt and betrayal which burns in his soul. He’s about to find out if he has what it takes to Claim a Ghost?

Embers Romance LLC

Publication date

January 30, 2022

Language

‎English

Print length

288 pages

Book 2 of 3

The Ghost Protectors

Review:  A Cowboy Holiday: MM Grumpy-Sunshine Romance by Lane Hayes 

Rating: 4.5🌈

“There’s a little cowboy in all of us, a little frontier.” —Louis L’Amour

Of course, Lane Hayes starts this heartwarming Christmas romance with a quote from one of my favorite authors, Louis L’Amour.  Perfect.

And the story that follows it is just as heartwarming and seasonally satisfying for all readers, those who are familiar with this author and those new to her stories and this holiday universe.

Written so that it’s in the same location and includes many of the characters from Hayes’ previous Christmas story, Moody’s Grumpy Holiday, this year we get a single veterinarian dad and his adorable daughter who end up helping settle in a dairy herd to a local ranch and find more than they expected. 

Tanner, who’s co owner of Oak Ridge Ranch, finds himself drawn to the large, quiet vet who is marvelous with his animals and protective of his daughter. 

Let me say the characters are excellently written, the relationships between each one feels grounded and believable and the town as well was a joy to revisit.  The men, the children, and the animals! Heartfelt and emotionally charged. And so joyful. 

I’m hoping that Hayes makes returning to the town and ranch in whatever way possible an annual story.  

Two down. Hopefully more to come. 

Another winner.

Cover Design by Reese Dante

Buy link:

Amazon.comhttps://www.amazon.comA Cowboy Holiday: MM Grumpy-Sunshine Romance – Kindle edition by Hayes, Lane. …

Blurb 

The cowboy, the rancher, and a little holiday magic… 

Tanner 

I meet the grumpiest man on the planet, and I’m head over heels in lust. No joke. Oak Ridge Ranch’s new part-time-vet-slash-ranch-hand is a bear, and he’s built like one too. If I were smart, I’d keep my distance. 

In a twist, I’m not so smart. 

But I can tell that under his hard-as-nails exterior, the cowboy is a gentle giant. Axel is a devoted single dad, a dedicated vet, and…I think he likes me. Or he wants me. 

I can work with that. 

Axel

 I need the job at the ranch through December; then I’m out of here. I have a kid to think of, and it’s time to settle old scores and build a new life. But Tanner complicates things. He’s smart, intuitive, charming, and⁠— 

Whoa! This is temporary. I’m not Tanner’s cowboy.  

But I am attracted to him…and there’s nothing wrong with a little holiday fun, is there? 

A Cowboy Holiday is an MM, bisexual romance featuring a single dad-cowboy-grump, a sweetheart of a rancher, and some holiday sparks.

Review: Temptation’s Tango: MM Romantic Suspense (Delta Force: Team Lynx Book 3) by Annabella Stone   

Rating: 4🌈

“Delta Force: Team Lynx is the US Governments newest weapon in the battle against former military personal gone rogue. Led by former Delta Force Team Lynx’s Castello Moran and his team, they have recruited members from the CIA, FBI, NSA, ATF, and other Law Enforcement Agencies.”

I’ve read and really enjoyed other books by Annabella Stone.  She focuses on military/black ops characters stories and their relationships. Primarily contemporary but with the occasional exception of a fantasy or paranormal twist. 

And there’s multiple series set within the same connected law enforcement universe. This is one of them. 

I picked up Temptation’s Tango primarily due to the inclusion of a K-9 main character, Balas, and the accuracy of the relationship between handler,Rafe Anderson, and his WMD/working military dog. 

For me, this was the absolute best thing about the book. From his commands in the language used in every scene (Schutzhund) with Balas that not only enforces the depth of training but their own understanding of each other from years together.  It’s a credible, deep and genuine relationship between a man and his canine partner. 

Same goes for the team when they assemble in Rafe’s old home in Pine Bush due to the criminal activity he’s encountered and the seriousness of the situation that needs further investigation.  They have the feel of a field team, which has been together a while and is found family. 

Aspects of the story that I feel needs further exploration or more depth towards the ending are with the villains of the plot. And the romantic lead. 

He’s cute and it helps that there’s some prior history as children growing up. But the timeline feels rushed. 

And without giving away any spoilers, there’s no confrontation with the “real culprits” here. The boo hiss baddies. And that leaves the ending feeling less than satisfying. 

The reader sorta “listens” into a gunfight that happens. Then there’s drama. Then a romantic relationship HEA. 

So the story is sweet but military wise or law enforcement wise, not great. As I said, the partnership between Balas and Rafe for me stood out from everything else here as the best written and well defined. 

And the teamwork is well done as well. 

Haven’t read the other books but I’m sure I’ll get to them eventually. 

Cover Art: Golden Czermak

Delta Force: Team Lynx (4 book series)

Salvation’s Sinner #1

Redemption’s Rebel #2

Temptation’s Tango #3

Absolution’s Assassin #4

Buy link

        Temptation’s Tango: MM Romantic Suspense (Delta Force: Team Lynx Book 3)

    

Blurb 

It was only supposed to be one kiss…

After his K9, Balas, took down an intruder on the White House lawn, former Secret Service agent, Rafe Anderson, didn’t count on his life changing quite so much. With Balas now the face of MWDs across the globe, Rafe lost his faith in the people he worked with when they decided Balas would be better off with a handler who wanted to be in the public eye and not one who shunned notoriety at every opportunity. He swore he’d never serve his country again, and he kept that promise for nine long lonely months until Delta Force Team Lynx offered him a job, using the one thing Rafe could never refuse to sweeten the deal. A chance to have Balas back in his life. Rafe agreed—Lynx delivered—he and Balas are once more a family, a team, and nobody is going to separate them again. With a month of leave in his back pocket, Rafe and Balas are going home to finally buy the house his mother sold before he could afford to buy it. His grandparents’ home in sleepy Pine Bush will make the perfect retreat from the ravages of working in war zones and the horrors of the dirty side of chasing former military members gone rouge…right?

Parker Frost loves his hometown, and unlike his brother, he doesn’t want to shake the dust of Pine Bush off his shoes. He’s happy living over his mom’s garage and working at The Hoot Owl. Slinging beer, running karaoke night, and making people laugh is his jam. If only he could avoid the unwanted advances from the man who keeps asking him out. Seriously, who offers you a thousand bucks a week just to date you? With that insult ringing in his ears, he takes matters into his own hands and begs the hottest man he’s ever seen to pretend they are a couple. Kissing Mr. Sexy Stranger will prove he’s not available, even for that much money…right?

It was only supposed to be one kiss—then one sleepover—now Rafe and Parker must figure out why their hometown is in the crosshairs of a drug lord. But before either can act on the desire pulling them together, Rafe really needs to figure out if his Temptation can really be a Tango.

Embers Romance LLC

Publication date

September 3, 2022

Language

‎English

Print length

248 pages

Book 3 of 4

Delta Force: Team Lynx

Review:  Mildew & Murder (Willowmere Cozy Mysteries Book 1) by Corrine Winters 

Rating: 4.75⭐️

“Willowmere had secrets—buried in moss, whispered by roots, and now one of them just turned up dead.”

If ever there was a perfect example of the phrase “don’t judge a book by its cover “ it’s the haunting, beautifully crafted Mildew & Murder (Willowmere Cozy Mysteries Book 1) by Corrine Winters.  

The cover, a brightly colored, almost whimsical comedic Candyland of a piece, complete with a cat that bears no resemblance to the highly intelligent familiar inside, gives a reader a totally different feel than what this novel is about. 

The expectations might be for some lighthearted funny cozy mystery. Because that is what the cover infers. 

However what author Corrine Winters delivers is entirely different. We immediately get Maeve Everhart and her familiar, Whim, returning to Willowmere after a long absence. She’s not been back since her beloved great aunt died, her grief still very strong, along with other aspects that kept her away, secrets that are buried deep within her and the town.

Winters builds up the town , the atmosphere and tension within it continually throughout the story.  It’s a beautifully crafted element of the book, creating the suspense as well as crafting a mystical foundation for the characters and setting. 

This is a place where the deep woods and actual dirt talks, it remembers, the mystical nature of the forest breathes here, through moss and mycelium. And it’s sometimes threatening. There’s murder and more threats from many sources. 

It’s layers of intrigue, fascinating characters and landscapes that feel simultaneously sinister and ancient.

Winters’ Willowmere, Oregon, a small town famous for its mushroom festival, and its inhabitants has so many hidden secrets and journeys ahead that I can’t wait to read more of these books. 

Highly recommended. Just a fabulous read. Just not sure why the disconnect between the book and that cutesy cover. Very jarring.

Willowmere Cozy Mysteries (17 book series):

1 Mildew & Murder (2025) 

2 Moss & Murder (2025) 

3 Marigolds & Murder (2025) 

4 Mulch & Murder (2025) 

5 Magnolias & Murder (2025) 

6 Morning Glories & Murder (2025) 

7 Milkweed & Murder (2025) 

8 Mulberries & Murder (2025) 

9 Mint & Murder (2025) 

10 Moonflowers & Murder (2025) 

11 Marjoram & Murder (2025) 

12 Mandrake & Murder (2025) 

13 Meadowfoam & Murder (2025) 

14 Mayapple & Murder (2025) 

15 Mallow & Murder (2025) 

16 Mist & Murder (2025) 

17 Mosswine & Murder (2025)

Buy link:

 Book 1 of 17: Willowmere Cozy Mysteries 

Blurb 

Willowmere had secrets—buried in moss, whispered by roots, and now one of them just turned up dead.

When Maeve Everhart returned to the fog-draped Oregon town she once called home, she expected grief. She didn’t expect the body of a celebrated truffle forager to be discovered during the festival meant to crown him king of the forest. The town whispers “accident.” Maeve, whose magic stirs beneath her skin like the soil under stormlight, knows better.

With her sarcastic familiar cat as unwanted backup and a reluctant handyman-turned-ally watching her back, Maeve digs into the mystery growing in Willowmere’s woods. The deeper she goes, the more tangled it gets—false trails, altered spores, and someone rewriting the land’s memory for reasons that could turn deadly.

And the moss? It’s not just remembering.

It’s watching.

Get ready for a whirlwind mystery and cozy thrill ride in this paranormal cozy mystery. Get under a blanket and be prepared to be immersed!

May 9, 2025

Language

‎English

Print length

142 pages

Book 1 of 17

Willowmere Cozy Mysteries

Review:  Snake-Eater by T. Kingfisher 

Rating: 4.5⭐️

Selena ,with her dog, Copper, has fled an abusive relationship after the death of her mother. Broken and desperate with dollars to her name, she’s bought a train ticket and traveled days to a small desert town of Quartz Creek in search of an aunt she barely knows. 

Kingfisher’s novel pulls us immediately into the character of Selena, as it’s her voice that’s telling her story.  Quietly contained, tense, and worried as we watch through her eyes, her journey to a town so dry , so small that there’s nothing to see when she’s deposited at her final destination with her few belongings and gentle old lab, Copper. 

We’ve no idea exactly how broken Selena is or how horrific a relationship and past she’s fled. That is slowly revealed throughout the narrative as she starts to find her own way and new foundation in this quirky community. 

Snake-Eater by T. Kingfisher is a richly woven, beautifully written tale of a broken woman who finds in small dusty desert town full of secrets, small Gods both frightening and dangerous and some benign a refuge and home, along with a found family. People who are ready to support her, give her comfort and the space she needs to recover and develop her own strengths. 

It’s a remarkable journey. Full of humor, compassion, joy and yes, horror.  

All the characters are remarkable in their design and detail, human and otherwise.  The mythology and mystical elements are incredible. 

And I appreciate that even in the “horror “ aspect of this tale, there is a grey area attached to the “villain” here. Yes, its actions now are wrong but all the characters can see their origin came from a very different place.  I really like having a broader perspective on subjects like this. Nothing is ever black and white. 

T. Kingfisher  or author Ursula Vernon is a writer whose work is quietly thoughtful and insightful. Her love for this desert and its beauty is apparent here, it flows through the landscape of the narrative in every sentence. 

As does her approach to life and wildlife. Roadrunners are indeed far more than the cartoon characters would have you believe. Authors notes are a delight. Check them out. 

Highly recommended. Both author and book. 

Exquisite cover that carries major themes of the story.

Cover design by Logan Matthews Cover illustration by Tristan Elwell

Buy link

Amazon.comhttps://www.amazon.comSnake-Eater: Kingfisher, T.: 9781662525094

Blurb 

From New York Times bestselling and Hugo Award–winning author T. Kingfisher comes an enthralling contemporary fantasy seeped in horror about a woman trying to escape her past by moving to the remote US desert—only to find herself beholden to the wrath of a vengeful god.

With only a few dollars to her name and her beloved dog Copper by her side, Selena flees her past in the city to claim her late aunt’s house in the desert town of Quartz Creek. The scorpions and spiders are better than what she left behind.

Because in Quartz Creek, there’s a strange beauty to everything, from the landscape to new friends, and more blue sky than Selena’s ever seen. But something lurks beneath the surface. Like the desert gods and spirits lingering outside Selena’s house at night, keeping watch. Mostly benevolent, says her neighbor Grandma Billy. That doesn’t ease the prickly sense that one of them watches too closely and wants something from Selena she can’t begin to imagine. And when Selena’s search for answers leads her to journal entries that her aunt left behind, she discovers a sinister truth about her new home: It’s the haunting grounds of an ancient god known simply as “Snake-Eater,” who her late aunt made a promise to that remains unfulfilled.

Snake-Eater has taken a liking to Selena, an obsession of sorts that turns sinister. And now that Selena is the new owner of his home, he’s hell-bent on collecting everything he’s owed.

Review:  Out Of A Fix (Torus Intercession Book 7) by Mary Calmes

Rating: 4.75🌈

Out Of A Fix brings an end to Mary Calmes wonderful Torus Intercession series with the last of the original fixers, 52 year old Nash Miller takes a job in a small town in Washington state where the family she left behind of a woman who is now in WITSEC program resides. Her brother is concerned their safety isn’t a priority for the FBI and wants Torus to insure they are protected during this trial. 

Seems simple enough. However, that’s not the case that Nash finds out when he enters the town. The ex-husband is absent on a job site. The kids are in trouble and he’s desperately needed there as a fixer. On many levels. 

Calmes quickly turns this last story into a heartbreaking then finally heartwarming tale of a family rescued . Which  turns into an engaging emotional story about a family that has finds their hearts and home rebuilt into a new beginning, including their own fixer. 

The children are so well written. They grab at the readers hearts just as they do Nash’s. Whether’s Tatum, the youngest child or the oldest son, whose behavior has brought him into the worst possible situation, these are kids who are fragile and need help immediately. And get it. 

The issues are slow to be revealed and are addressed as needed. This includes issues of the dad’s too. Luke Duchesne doesn’t get an immediate pass on his behavior but there’s also an effort made to understand and address it. And to do better. 

Therapists have a prominent role here and that’s a positive element of the story. For each of these characters have issues to overcome. 

The plot moves forward swiftly, the romance is not always the center of the story but the forming of the family which folds in the newly created dynamic of Nash and Luke.  That feels very realistic and seated in the story. 

It’s fantastic to see all the characters from the Agency and the couples reunite here at the end. We see where each of them are in their own lives and relationships as well.

This is just an outstanding sendoff to one of my favorite series. 

I’m highly recommending it and have starred my favorite stories below. I’m sure we each have our own. 

Cover art Copyright © 2025 Reese Dante

Torus Intercession series: 7 books complete:

No Quick Fix #1

In A Fix #2❤️

Fix It Up #3 ❤️

The Fix Is In #4

The Big Fix #5

Get A Fix #6

Out Of A Fix #7

Buy link

        Out Of A Fix: Torus Intercession Book Seven

    

Blurb 

If you put a family back together, how can you ever leave them? 

Through the years, Nash Miller has watched all his buddies fall in love and get married. It was romantic, and he’d wondered when he himself would find the one. Now, older, wiser, he realizes that what he’s always wanted—a husband and a family—just isn’t in the cards for him. And that’s all right. He has wonderful friends, a good life, and he gets to help people, which has always been his true calling. So when the time comes to protect a family in a tiny town in Washington State, he’s more than willing to get on his white horse and ride.

The family needs a bodyguard, but it goes beyond that. The mother abandoned them for a new life, and the father is absent, stuck on a work project he took on to keep his family afloat. What Nash finds are three kids in need of a fixer, and lucky for them, that’s exactly what he does. Providing support and structure is second nature to him, and he’s on solid ground, confident…until their father, Luke Duchesne, gets home. He’s nothing like Nash assumed he’d be, and with each passing day, the lure of the man, and his great kids, gets harder to resist. But he can’t stay there. He’s a fixer, after all, and what they’re all feeling is simply gratitude. Isn’t it…? Though when Luke kisses him, it starts to feel like so much more. Nash hopes he’ll be able to explore a life with Luke—he just needs to make sure his own isn’t cut short.

  • Publication date: September 23, 2025
  • Edition: 1st
  • Language: English
  • Print length: 349 pages
  • Book 7 of 7: Torus Intercession

Review:  The Sinner’s Son (Sawyer and Royce: Felonies and Fatherhood Book Two) by  Aimee Nicole Walker

Rating: 4🌈

The Sinner’s Son is the second in the Sawyer and Royce: Felonies and Fatherhood series by Aimee Nicole Walker.  It’s a ongoing dramatic story about a couple who have traveled from their first encounter and police cases as police officers through the obstacles of a complicated process of their relationship and respective careers through the process of marriage and now fatherhood. 

With any long history and multiple series like this, there is going to be books that will hit on every level and some that will fall short. 

For me, The Sinner’s Son fell a bit short. Too much of repetition in terms of certain aspects of the storyline. I felt like I anticipated the plot and villain. Especially since the overall mystery going through to the next book seems clear. 

For me the best elements are those surrounding the impending birth, their emotional state about fatherhood, their friends and support. 

The mystery feels less well developed than usual. Or maybe I just read too many mystery novels. And listen to too many crime podcasts. 

Either way, I enjoyed the first novel more. And will look forward to reading Brokered Betrayals later this year.

Cover photo © Wander Aguiar 

Cover design © Natasha Snow 

Sawyer and Royce: Felonies and Fatherhood series: 

The Paternity Puzzle #1

The Sinner’s Son #2

Brokered Betrayals #3 – Dec 16, 2025

Preceding Necessary Locke and Key Series :

Zero Hour (3 books)

Sawyer and Royce: Matrimony and Mayhem (3 book series)

Related series:

Sinister in Savannah (3 book series)

Buy link

        The Sinner’s Son (Sawyer and Royce: Felonies and Fatherhood Book 2)

    

Blurb 

Can a sinner’s son outrun his father’s shadow, or will darkness follow him everywhere and taint everything? 

No one’s life should be reduced to random items in an evidence box, only to collect dust for decades. Seeking justice for the forgotten will bring a temporary partner into Sawyer’s life who threatens his carefully curated peace. Alec Bishop, the son of a serial killer, arrives in Savannah with an audacious ego, an unwillingness to accept boundaries, and an overzealous fan club. Calling it quits isn’t part of Sawyer’s character, but he might not have a choice when the circumstances surrounding the sinner’s son take a dark twist.

Nature versus nurture? The age-old question forces Sawyer and Royce to reevaluate the relationships with their fathers, and it influences the parents they aspire to be now that the countdown to Baby Locke has begun.

The Sinner’s Son is book two in the Felonies and Fatherhood trilogy, the third installment in the Royce Locke and Sawyer Key story arc. ** New readers should start with the Zero Hour and Matrimony and Mayhem trilogies before reading Felonies and Fatherhood. **The Sinner’s Son continues Royce and Sawyer’s happily ever after as they move into the most anticipated phase of their lives. Though some storylines span the trilogy, this book does not end in a cliffhanger. Heat, humor, heart, and homicide abound. You have been warned.

Review: Four Bears Construction Bonus Scenes by K.M. Neuhold 

Rating: 4🌈

Stories from the small town of Fall Crosse and Four Bears Construction include:

Happy Birthday Honey (Cole and Ren)

Baby Goats (Stone and Dare)

Stone and Dare’s Wedding – ditto 

Christmas Butt Plug. (Everett and Watson)

Tequila Wedding (Ollie and Daniel)

GOATS LIKE CAKE TOO – Four Bears Epilogue 

Each one is exactly what the author says, a short scene from the couple’s life. Cute or sexy or both. The stories are a terrific way to close out the series and say goodbye to these characters and their HEA’s.

If you love them and want to see more of their lives, this is just the thing for you. 

Four Bears Construction series- 8 books 

Related series:

Big Bull Mechanics series 

Ink Slingers series 

Review: Mornings by the Linden Tree (Love’s Journeys #3) by V.L. Locey 

Rating: 4.75🌈

V.L. Locey writes such amazing books. It’s actually hard to name a favorite among her many different books and series, considering the variety of themes and locations. And characters, of course!

Mornings by the Linden Tree , the third book in V.L. Locey ‘s Love’s Journeys series, is a marvelous example of how diverse her books are and how well she writes them. 

If there is one aspect of the story that’s made it slow to connect with, it’s with the beautifully crafted character of Wesley Barlowe.  He’s rich, rigid, so tightly controlled and self restrained that he’s emotionally unavailable, even to the reader. He’s absolutely believable, understandable, and not terribly likable. He’s a single gay divorce lawyer, in Boston, who doesn’t particularly like children, and loves a perfectly scheduled world.

Then his younger drug addict sister dies in another state, leaving him the guardian of a young child he wasn’t aware existed. 

Cue the upheavals on every level. 

Locey addresses many difficult topics here. Both in Aida’s case, the sister who had suffered from substance abuse for years and died of its effects to Wesley, who had abandonment issues that have plagued him, and now his niece who has, as a toddler who has suffered from the effects of her mother’s drug addiction and death, now has her own fears and nightmares.  The author slowly explores each of these characters pain and damage, with sensitivity and realism, and using a wonderful humorous and compelling therapist to help them navigate through their own journey together. With funny socks. 

And the romantic relationship, with a singer/performer , Lennon Cole , who helps them through their own initial experience and the upheaval of becoming a family. That too, is remarkable and real. 

I mean, all the various side characters are pretty much great personalities and make indelible impressions on the reader and in their interactions with the characters in the story.  

This includes Boston itself, it all it’s glorious magic. The buildings, the parks, people,and the legendary Red Sox!

The story ends as it should. A work in progress for the family. We see them happy together and going forward together with new plans, friends and family. 

Mornings by the Linden Tree (Love’s Journeys #3) by V.L. Locey is another fantastic book in a great series. One I’m highly recommending. 

Cover by Meredith Russell

Love’s Journeys:

Where the Pines Kiss the Sky #1 

Reflections of Cypress #2 

Mornings by the Linden Tree #3

Buy link:

        Mornings by the Linden Tree (Love’s Journeys #3)

    

Blurb 

When you think you have everything you need, fate will show you all you never knew you were missing. 

Wesley Barlowe has it all. He’s a highly successful divorce attorney at one of Boston’s most prestigious law firms. His name is on the rosters of many elite clubs, his clothes are from famed designers, and his historic duplex overlooks Boston Common. His lovers are few and far between by choice, his car is a sporty hybrid, and his bourbon is always aged in white oak barrels. There are no surprises in Wesley’s tightly structured life. Until his estranged sister dies, leaving her three-year-old daughter in his custody. With no other family to pass the child off to, Wesley has no other option but to take his niece into his home.

Instead of spending his days in court and his nights at home studying briefs while sipping on triple mash twenty-year-old whiskey, he now finds himself joining single-parent online groups, waffling about how to handle temper tantrums, and how to entertain a rambunctious preschooler. During a particularly rough morning, she spies a musician on the Common singing to a small group of children. At his wit’s end, he carries his niece across the street and discovers that not only do the children seated on rainbow blankets adore the handsome, funny, and charming performer, but Wesley does too. There is something incredibly calming and warm about Lennon Cole and his silly songs. Something that will show the workaholic that there is more to life than litigations, courtroom wins, and million-dollar settlements.

Mornings by the Linden Tree is a slow burn, age gap, rich man/poor man, single father, biracial MM romance with two incredibly different men, a city along a famous harbor, a precocious child, a housekeeper with plenty of sage advice, songs about frogs in baseball caps, an indecent amount of clam chowder, evenings spent slow dancing with the baby monitor on, and a wicked awesome happy ending. 

*Content Warning: This story has references to loss of a family member and substance abuse*

  • Publication date: August 22, 2025
  • Language: English
  • Print length: 259 pages
  • Part of series: Love’s Journeys