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NEWS


Cosmopolitan's Best Romance Novels to Read in 2024 list included THE BREAK-UP PACT by Emma Lord.

Cosmopolitan featured DUNGEONS AND DRAMA by Kristy Boyce in their 15 Best YA Books of 2024 list.

Booklist gave THE LADY WITH THE DARK HAIR by Erin Bartels a great review.

The Athletic’s “3 novels to read if you love romance and baseball” list included YOU SHOULD BE SO LUCKY by Cat Sebastian.

LOVE AND HOT CHICKEN by Mary Liza Hartong was a February Amazon pick for Best Romance.

BLOOD LIKE MAGIC and BLOOD LIKE FATE by Liselle Sambury were optioned for TV/film by Circle Blue Entertainment.

Amazon named THE BOY WHO CRIED BEAR by Kelley Armstrong as one of the Best Mysteries of the Month in the New and Continuing Series category.

BEGIN AGAIN by Emma Lord was one of Barnes & Nobles’ February Picks.

Barnes & Noble included TENDER BEASTS by Liselle Sambury in their most anticipated YA reads for February.

AUTHOR TIP OF THE MONTH

Originally from Nashville, Mary Liza Hartong graduated from Dartmouth College with a degree in English and Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies. She also holds an M.A. from Dartmouth in Creative Writing and an M.A. from University College Cork in British and American Literature. She is a Fulbright Scholar, an aunt, and a proud member of the queer community. When she’s not writing, you can find her hunting for treasures at the local antique mall. LOVE AND HOT CHICKEN is her debut novel.

Love-and-Hot-Chicken-A-Delicious-Southern-Novel-0

The best advice I can offer is to be a little weird, especially when it comes to verbs. As you revisit your first draft, pay attention to your "ises" and "wases". While some of them should remain, others might want to become colorful. A few of my favorite colorful verbs are festoon, fritter, filch, and fetch. And those are just the f's! If you're feeling bored with your draft, take a few minutes to make an A-Z list of exciting verbs.

Another reason to refresh, fluff, and bedazzle your verbs is this: verbs help communicate mood. Let's say a character walks to the kitchen. If she just walks, we have no idea what she's feeling. But if she waltzes across the floor or slumps across the floor or even trapezes across the floor, suddenly we have a world of information. Strong verbs are the workhorses of a good draft. So, go ahead. Festoon!

NEW CLIENTS ON THE BLOCK

Lexi LaFleur Brown

Lexi LaFleur Brown
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While Lexi LaFleur Brown’s official Ph.D. is in education, she is the unofficial, self-appointed expert in all things hockey romance. When she's not writing romance or watching hockey, she is chronically online cracking jokes and screenshotting memes. After following her husband’s career around the NHL, Lexi and her family settled in Seattle, Washington, where she continues to cheer him on, only this time he’s up in the Seattle Kraken broadcast booth.

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Remigiusz Mróz
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Remigiusz Mróz is one of Poland's most accomplished authors, with 10 million copies sold and four series made into TV shows, including Detective Forst on Netflix and The Disappearance on Max.

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K.D. Richards
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Two-time Daphne du Maurier Award finalist K.D. Richards writes pulse-pounding romantic suspense and thrillers. K.D. was born and raised in the Maryland suburbs just outside of Washington, D.C. A writer since a young age, after college she earned a law degree and worked as an attorney and legal instructor for fifteen years in DC, but never stopped writing fiction. She currently lives in Toronto with her husband and two sons.

NEW RELEASES

Tender Beasts

TENDER BEASTS by Liselle Sambury

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Sunny Behre has four siblings, but only one is a murderer.

With the death of Sunny’s mother, matriarch of the wealthy Behre family, Sunny’s once picture-perfect life is thrown into turmoil. Her mother had groomed her to be the family’s next leader, so Sunny is confused when the only instructions her mother leaves is a mysterious note: “Take care of Dom.”

The problem is, her youngest brother, Dom, has always been a near-stranger to Sunny…and seemingly a dangerous one, if found guilty of his second-degree murder charge. Still, Sunny is determined to fulfill her mother’s dying wish. But when a classmate is gruesomely murdered, and Sunny finds her brother with blood on his hands, her mother’s simple request becomes a lot more complicated. Dom swears he’s innocent, and although Sunny isn’t sure she believes him, she takes it upon herself to look into the murder—made all the more urgent by the discovery of another body. And another.

Love and Hot Chicken: A Delicious Southern Novel

LOVE AND HOT CHICKEN by Mary Liza Hartong

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The Chickie Shak is something of a historical landmark. Red clapboard walls, thriving wasp population, yard-toilets resplendent with sunflowers. My best friend Lee Ray and I used to come after our softball games and snag a picnic table while our mammas ordered the home team special. Truth is, most people around here order the same thing until the day somebody throws their ashes off a roller coaster at Dollywood. The line snakes around the building as far as you can see, the grimiest bunch of Jessies, Pearls, and Scooters you ever did behold, hobnobbing in the parking lot from noon until night.

When PJ Spoon returns home for her beloved daddy’s funeral, she doesn’t expect to stick around. Why abandon her PhD program at Vanderbilt for the humble charms of her hometown, Pennywhistle, Tennessee? Mamma’s broken heart, that’s why. But truth be told, PJ’s own heart ain’t doing too good either. She impulsively takes a job as a fry cook at Pennywhistle’s beloved Chickie Shak, where locals gather for Nashville-style hot chicken. It may not be glamorous, but it’s something to do.

The Wrath: A Paranormal Romance (Rise of the Warlords Book 4)

THE WRATH by Gena Showalter

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For centuries, Rathbone the Only, King of Agonies, has existed for one purpose: recovering the enchanted bones of his slain wife to bring her back to life. He’s never been closer to success. But a new enemy has risen. A band of deadly war gods who have thirty days to destroy her or suffer the consequences. With time running out, Rathbone hires a maddening harpy-oracle, unaware she has an agenda of her own.

Neeka the Unwanted is a fierce warrior on a mission: stop Rathbone and the gods. She’s seen the future if either is victorious, and it’s horrifying. She’ll do whatever proves necessary to forge a new path, even seduce the ruthless royal from his purpose. What she can’t predict? How the intense male will shatter her hard-won defenses along the way.

The Uncharted Flight of Olivia West: A Novel

THE UNCHARTED FLIGHT OF OLIVIA WEST by Sara Ackerman

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This extraordinary novel, inspired by real events, tells the story of a female aviator who defies the odds to embark on a daring air race across the Pacific.

1927. Olivia "Livy" West is a fearless young pilot with a love of adventure. She yearns to cross oceans and travel the skies. When she learns of the Dole Air Race—a high-stakes contest to be the first to make the 2,400 mile Pacific crossing from the West Coast to Hawai'i—she sets her sights on qualifying. But it soon becomes clear that only men will make the cut. In a last-ditch effort to take part, Livy manages to be picked as a navigator for one of the pilots, before setting out on a harrowing journey that some will not survive.

The Boy Who Cried Bear: A Haven's Rock Novel

THE BOY WHO CRIED BEAR by Kelley Armstrong

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Haven’s Rock is a well-hidden town surrounded by forest. And it’s supposed to be, being that it’s a refuge for those who need to disappear. Detective Casey Duncan and her husband, Sheriff Eric Dalton already feel at home in their new town, which reminds them of where they first met in Rockton. And while they know how to navigate the woods and its various dangers, other residents don’t. Which is why people aren't allowed to wander off alone.

When Max, the town’s youngest resident—taught to track animals by Eric—fears a bear is stalking a hiking party, alarms are raised. Even stranger, the ten-year-old swears the bear had human eyes. Casey and Eric know the dangers a bear can present, so they’re taking it seriously. But odd occurrences are happening all around them, and when a dead body turns up, they’re not sure what they’re up against.

Star Trek: Picard: Firewall

STAR TREK: PICARD: FIREWALL by David Mack

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Two years after the USS Voyager’s return from the Delta Quadrant, Seven of Nine finds herself rejected for a position in Starfleet…and instead finds a new home with the interstellar rogue law enforcement corps known as the Fenris Rangers. The Rangers seem like an ideal fit for Seven—but to embrace this new destiny, she must leave behind all she’s ever known, and risk losing the most important thing in her life: her friendship with Admiral Kathryn Janeway.

A Flame in the North (Black Land's Bane Book 1)

A FLAME IN THE NORTH by Lilith Saintcrow

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The Black Land is a myth: Centuries have passed since that Great Enemy was slain. Yet old fears linger, and on the longest night of the year, people in the South still light ritual bonfires to banish the dark.

In her village, this duty falls to Solveig, a girl favored by the gods with powerful fire magic. But when her brother kills a Northern lord’s son during the ritual, it is Sol who faces punishment, by being weregild—part hostage, part guest—in the North for a year and a day.

As she journeys to her captivity, Sol starts to realize that the Black Land is no myth. The forests teem with foul beasts. Her travel companions are not what they seem, and their plans for her magic are shrouded in secrecy.

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