Spotlight: Just A Little Desire by Carly Phillips and Erika Wilde

Release Date: December 16

I wasn’t the type of woman who indulged in one-night stands, but the irresistible Liam Powers managed to charm me right into his bed—then disappeared before sunrise. I convinced myself the night was nothing more than a reckless lapse in judgment…until he walked into my office weeks later, looking every bit as sexy and confident as I remembered.

Only this time, Liam wasn’t just the man who’d wrecked my self-control. He was the wealthy investor interested in saving my family’s struggling tech company.

I told myself I could handle working with him. That I could ignore the spark between us and the way he looked at me. Like he still remembered every place on my body that he'd touched. I warned myself not to fall for that flirtatious smile a second time. Liam Powers didn’t do relationships. And I didn’t do heartbreak.

But partnership has a way of breaking down defenses. Late-night strategy sessions turned into banter and stolen glances. A business trip together had me falling into bed with him once more. Because Vegas revealed a softer, unexpected side of him—one that made me question everything I thought I knew about love, trust, and taking risks.

Then came Liam's secrets. His betrayal. And his revelation about someone I loved. And I had to decide whether to walk away…or believe in the man who was fighting for us with everything he had.

Because somewhere between enemies, lovers, and second chances, Liam Powers became the one thing I never expected...My future.

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Meet Carly Phillips

Carly Phillips is the NY Times, Wall Street Journal, and USA Today bestselling author of over eighty sexy contemporary romances featuring hot men, strong women, and emotionally compelling stories her readers have come to expect and love. She is happily married to her college sweetheart and lives in Westchester County, NY. She is the mother of two adult daughters and three crazy dogs who star on her Facebook and Instagram pages. She loves social media and is always around to interact with her readers. Way back in 2002, Carly’s book, The Bachelor, was chosen by Kelly Ripa and was the first romance on a nationally televised book club. Carly loves social media and interacting with her readers. For more information on upcoming releases, sign up for her newsletter (below) and receive two free books!

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Meet Erika Wilde:

Erika Wilde is a Bestselling author and is best known for her super sexy Marriage Diaries series and The Players Club series, and has also co-written multiple series with Carly Phillips, her best friend and writing buddy for the past twenty years. She lives in Oregon with her husband, and when she's not writing you can find her exploring the beautiful Pacific Northwest. For more information on her upcoming releases, please sign up for her newsletter (below).

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Connect with Erika Wilde: http://www.erikawilde.comcontact@erikawilde.com

Spotlight: Asylum Murders by Michael G. Colburn

In the shadowed halls of power and madness, only the bold dare search for the truth.

1890's Melbourne. In the flickering gaslight of Victoria Parliament's inner chambers, a prized symbol of government-the ceremonial Mace-disappears following a night of decadent indulgence involving parliamentarians and officials. Lady Edith Black, a former thief turned Melbourne's most unconventional investigator, is drawn into the mystery. Though her past remains hidden, her talent and determination is unmatched-and her instincts tell her the Mace is merely the tip of something far darker.

The night the Mace disappears, a young woman is discovered near death. The two crimes intertwine and lead Edie to the foreboding gates of Kew Asylum, where her closest friend, Britina-a novice nun assigned to care for patients-has made a disturbing discovery: patients are vanishing without explanation. When Britina becomes a risk to a sinister plan, she is swiftly silenced, declared criminally insane, and locked away among the very souls she sought to protect.

To rescue her friend, Edie must step into the asylum's grim world of medical secrets, patient abuse, a chilling conspiracy...and enemies willing to kill to keep their secrets buried.

But exposing the truth could cost more than her freedom.

It could cost her life.

Asylum Murders is the second Lady Black mystery-a richly layered historical thriller where madness masks murder, and justice must be stolen from those who believe themselves untouchable.

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About the Author

Michael G. Colburn’s Lady Black Mystery series is back with its second twisty installment, "Asylum Murders." In the gaslit streets of 1890s Melbourne, Lady Edith “Edie” Black has reinvented herself. Once a notorious London thief, she now poses as a widowed aristocrat while secretly establishing herself as a private investigator. When Parliament's ceremonial mace disappears during a night of debauchery involving high-ranking officials, Edie is hired to recover it discreetly. Meanwhile, Edie's friend, a novice nun assigned to the infamous Kew Asylum, witnesses disturbing disappearances among the patients. When the nun is framed for murder, Edie must infiltrate the asylum and find the true murderer to save her.

Michael G. Colburn has studied and written about the creative process for several decades. His books include the bestselling "Invent, Innovate & Prosper," and "How Julia Found Happiness and Financial Success." He now devotes his time to writing The Lady Black Crime fiction series. He lives with his wife in Vermont. When he is not writing, they like to travel and take long-distance walking trips, exploring paths and cultures worldwide. Learn more at: www.michaelgcolburn.com

Spotlight: Jack London and Murder on Nob Hill by Ray M. Schultze

Publication date: December 2, 2025
Genre(s): Mystery, murder mystery, historical fiction, historical mystery, literary fiction, biographical fiction

The erasure of a murder becomes the central question in Jack London and Murder on Nob Hill by Ray M. Schultze, where Jack London’s report is dismissed and he must seek answers beyond official channels.

In 1898 San Francisco, Jack’s investigation leads into narrow districts where missing girls and quiet power arrangements define local dynamics. Chinatown’s internal spaces reveal subtle shifts pointing toward deeper networks of influence. A woman connected to these operations adds complexity to Jack’s efforts, challenging his assumptions about the event. As he observes how different elements intertwine, he encounters figures who safeguard their authority through silence. The broader landscape emerging from his search highlights a city shaped by unseen forces and unspoken agreements.

Excerpt

CHAPTER 1

San Francisco

Fall, 1898

Jack London was drunk.

Ingloriously, outrageously, irredeemably drunk.

It had been a long time since he had been so demolished. This was the day he committed himself to make up for lost time. It was a clear, moonlit evening, the city’s gaslights blazing, but his disorientation was so intense that for all he knew he could have been wrapped mummy-like in the fog.

At the age of twenty-two, he had been drunk innumerable times in innumerable places. One could fairly say he had earned an advanced degree in inebriation at the school of John Barleycorn. Truth be told, he had never cared for the taste of liquor, but that was hardly the point. He cradled the glass to grease the wheels of camaraderie or to establish his manly credentials among hard-drinking men. And if not that, to ameliorate the bouts of depression he was prone to or simply to escape the hardships of growing up poor and being forced to become a work beast from a very early age. This day, he was intent on doing a deep dive, swimming down into the current of forgetfulness, stealing a glimpse of oblivion, even while knowing that it was a transitory experience, that he must at some point rise back up and burst painfully onto the surface. With his head pounding and body wracked, he would once again have to face the reminders of failure: the stream of rejection letters, the dashed-off notes declaring his writing unfit for public consumption.

Had these editors embraced so much hackwork that they could no longer discern honest, robust writing? Did they really favor gross sentimentality over impassioned realism? Yes, he was of a raw age, but he knew he had experienced more of the world—and discovered more of its truth—than many men over a lifetime. He had slaved in the factories, processing jute, canning fish, shoveling coal. He had pirated oysters along the bay before switching sides to enforce the marine law. He had ridden the rails west to east, seen the fat Iowa farm country, marveled at Niagara Falls in the moonlight, endured the living hell of jail as a convicted vagrant and walked the slums of New York City. He had braved the Pacific on a seal hunter, stepping ashore in Japan. And he had met the ultimate physical and mental challenges prospecting for gold in the unforgiving wilderness of the Yukon.

Yet these smug literary gatekeepers kept themselves cloistered in their offices, stooping to consider the supplications of someone they surely regarded as a lesser mortal. Would they care to know how hard Jack had labored since returning from the goldfields in midsummer, how he had disciplined himself to sleep no more than five and a half hours a night and chained himself to the writing desk except for brief meals and the occasional odd job? How he had churned out short stories, essays, poems, even jokes, any kind of writing he could think of, desperate to make the handful of dollars that would allow him a decent living and help support the family? No, of course they wouldn’t care. He would have taken soulful satisfaction in reaching out, grabbing them by the lapels and shaking them until their brains rattled. Since that was not feasible, he had sought solace in the bottle.

Where the hell am I? That’s the existential question, isn’t it? There was nothing more existential than struggling to put one foot in front of the other, to keep from falling down and possibly being trampled by the carefree souls out for an evening of entertainment or being kicked or robbed by those malevolent ones looking for a sadistic thrill or profit. He took a tiny measure of relief in realizing he was staggering along the sidewalk and not in the street where a horse-and-carriage might thunder over him, pounding him into the cobblestones. So, where? Washington Street? Montgomery? Likely one or the other, since he had just tried to gain admission to the Bank Exchange Saloon, with its crystal chandeliers, marble embellishments and elegant oil paintings. It wasn’t really his sort of place—too refined, too welcoming to the lawyers and well-heeled capitalists that he disdained. But he fancied invading it just for amusement’s sake. Not surprisingly, the saloonkeeper ejected him. Just as well, he told himself, since the taste of the bar’s renowned Pisco Punch would have been lost on him.

He had begun his odyssey in late afternoon at his favorite watering-hole, Heinold’s First and Last Chance Saloon, which teetered on pilings on the Oakland waterfront, not far from his home.

“What’s up with you, Jack?” asked Johnny Heinold, who was used to seeing him huddling with a dictionary at a side table rather than elbow-bent at the bar. “You got writer’s block?”

Writer’s block? Jack had to laugh. The spigot of his creativity was gushing. The problem was, the magazines and newspapers weren’t thirsty for it. “No, just need something to warm the blood in my veins after writing about all those freezing nights in the Klondike.”

But after downing a few whiskeys, Jack ferried across the bay and took to the trough at a

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About the Author

Ray M. Schultze is the author of six novels, five of them works of suspense—The Last Safe Place, Combustion, The Devil in Dreamland, Decatur’s Dig, and Beranek’s Stand. His most recent novel, Russian River, is historical fiction. His interest in writing began in childhood with a handmade, folded-paper “magazine” that his mother encouraged. After graduating from the University of California at Riverside, he pursued newspaper reporting as a practical way to support himself while writing fiction. Over a twenty-five-year career, he covered politics, the legal system, and education for newspapers in California, Florida, and Arizona. When he turned to fiction full-time, he drew inspiration from authors such as Alan Furst and Ken Follett. Ray now lives in Santa Rosa, California, with his wife, Judi. They enjoy tennis, hiking, exploring the region’s beaches and headlands, and international travel—experiences that often shape his novels’ settings. He is also an award-winning woodworking artist. Visit him at his website.

Spotlight: The Two Birds by Hal Glatzer

Teddie (nicknamed “Ducky”) and Herman (“Drakey”) are friends with benefits, but they aren’t spending much time, lately, billing and cooing. Teddie has been cast as Lady Macbeth in the local community theater troupe; and she and her husband George have to practice to stay competitive in their tennis club. Herman has been drawn into pursuing a decades-old cold case; but his wife Sylvia needs his help fighting off a challenge to her professional life.

The spouses, who long ago gave up sex, are willing to tolerate the arrangement, as long as it doesn’t become public knowledge. But that’s a big risk, since Ducky and Drakey have flown into mysteries before [see below], uncovering murder and mayhem in Grand Lake City. Fortunately, police homicide detective Sarah Larson has, by the summer of 2019, come to accept their help and to help them in return.

The cold case revolves around an urban legend that somewhere in the city there is a warehouse of vintage motorcycles that were stolen from the factory—still in their shipping crates—back in 1948. Felix Long, an aspiring writer, brings this story to Herman, who is a retired magazine editor, hoping that, together, they can write a book about it. That would mean locating the con man Don Reynolds who, in 1986, claimed to have found those stolen bikes. He sold them, then ran off with the money, never having produced any bike but the one he drove around town.

Sylvia’s need for Herman’s help is more pressing. She chairs the local college’s School of Forestry and runs its research lab about 100 miles away in the mountains. The owners of the acreage just uphill from the lab are a 93-year-old man named Homer Gilley and a corporation called Harvest Gold, LLC. They are asking the state’s Department of Land Management to issue a logging permit. At a public hearing, Gilley says he wants to sell the timber to give a nest-egg to his daughter Agnes, who’s in her 70s. But logging would wreak havoc on the forest land around the lab.

To prioritize Sylvia’s dilemma, Herman sidelines Felix by introducing him to Irwin Duteriane, who has a local true-crime podcast; and to Shirley McKenzie, who writes a local true-crime blog. Each of them promises to help Felix, but after a week Irwin disappears; and two weeks later Shirley disappears too. So Herman feels he has to pick up the ball again.

Teddie is being whipsawed between the theater troupe’s more experienced leading ladies: Susie Warriner and Margo Boyd. Both are trying hard to be Teddie’s new best friend, even though each of them wanted—expected—to play Lady Macbeth herself, until Teddie came along. And her shoulder is giving her trouble, so she might not be able to compete in the tennis club’s upcoming tournament.

What seem like separate threads, however, are actually woven into a tapestry of deception, poison and murder. If Ducky and Drakey try to unravel it, they could zero out their benefits and—if they don’t watch their backs—wind up dead.

The Two Birds is the third mystery in the Friends With Benefits series, which includes The Nest and The Office Wife.

The Nest is a breezy present-day cozy mystery introducing Herman and Teddie: witty, affectionate sixty-somethings who are friends with benefits. When the landlord of their trysting apartment is found dead under their balcony, the police suspect them of his murder. So they set out to prove their innocence, in the process uncovering a trail of suspects, shady neighbors, and a corporate cover-up. Their sleuthing leads to dangerous discoveries, forcing them to risk exposure of their own secret affair while convincing a skeptical Detective Larson of the real truth.

In The Office Wife, Teddie’s husband George is arrested and charged with killing his closest colleague at work. Determined to clear his name, Teddie and Herman offer to help Detective Larson find the real killer. But George has issues with that. (If you were in trouble, would you accept help from your spouse’s lover?) Racing against time, they’re up against a tangled skein of suspects, including the victim’s co-workers and former lovers. To uncover the truth, Teddie and Herman are forced to bend the rules and put their affair on the line.

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About the Author

Although the Friends with Benefits series takes place in the modern age, much of Hal Glatzer’s mystery fiction has been set in the past. His Katy Green novels—Too Dead to Swing, A Fugue in Hell’s Kitchen, and The Last Full Measure—are set in musical milieux in the years just before World War II. And his illustrated bildungsroman, Dead In His Tracks, chronicles the rise and fall of a family-owned streetcar line. 

In the 1970s, Glatzer worked as a reporter and bureau chief for newspapers and TV news stations; but in 1978 he began to cover the emerging high-tech industries of Silicon Valley. He contributed to and/or edited several “computer magazines” for general readers, and had three non-fiction books published about computers and telecommunications.

He debuted as a mystery novelist in 1986 with The Trapdoor, about a hacker who gets in trouble with organized crime. He is a longtime member of Sisters In Crime; and of Mystery Writers of America, currently serving as vice-president of MWA’s New York chapter.

Glatzer also writes Sherlock Holmes pastiches, set authentically in the Victorian and Edwardian era, which have been published in U.K. and U.S. anthologies, and reprinted in his own anthology: The Sign of Five. He is active in several “scion societies.” And every year, he produces a Sherlock Holmes play in New York, performed in old-time-radio style.

When he is not working as an author, he’s working as a musician, playing guitar and singing the “Great American Songbook” from Tin Pan Alley and Broadway.

There is more on his website: www.halglatzer.com

To contact him, please email info@halglatzer.com

Spotlight: The Flirting Game by Lauren Blakely

Revenge was the plan. Falling for the hockey star next door wasn’t.

My new neighbor is a hot, grumpy hockey player who works out shirtless on his porch every morning. But it’s not technically spying if I just happen to be on my patio at the same time … right?

Imagine my surprise when the sexy grouch turns out to be the client who just hired me to redecorate the house he’s giving his mom.

What’s a ray of sunshine like me to do? Pretend I’ve never noticed his abs while we pick out furniture—since I’d never date a client. And Ford’s made it clear this is his final season, and he wants zero distractions.

Which means I need to exercise some serious resistance …

To his cool blue eyes that track my every move.
To that deep voice that makes me shiver.
And to the mouth that shuts me up one night in our shared backyard with a scorching kiss.

We agree it’s a one-time slip-up—until my cheating ex invites me to a party, and Ford insists on being my revenge date. Our fake night out turns into a very real sleepover.

Now the press and fans think we’re a couple, so we keep it up. One fake date at a charity gala turns into another at a hockey game, and somewhere between fabric swatches and porch picnics, I stop pretending.

But how do I convince Ford that with me, he can have both love and hockey?

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About the Author

A #1 New York Times Bestselling, #1 Wall Street Journal Bestselling, and #1 Audible Bestselling author, Lauren Blakely is known for her contemporary romance style that’s sexy, feel-good and witty. Her books have been featured in US Weekly and People. Lauren likes dogs, cake and show tunes and she is the vegetarian at your dinner party. 

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Spotlight: Puck Me It’s Christmas! by Alina Jacobs

(Maplewood Falls, #2)

Publication date: November 18th 2025

Genres: Adult, Comedy, Contemporary, Holiday, Romance

When you’re a blacklisted preschool teacher and somehow end up coaching the worst team in the NHL, it’s shaping up to be the crappiest Christmas ever.

We’re adding an NHL head-coaching job to the Yule log dumpster fire of my holiday season.
I lost my apartment and had to move back home for the holidays.
My mom sneaks into my bedroom to watch me sleep because she “can’t help it. I missed my little girl so much, Ellie!”
And my day-drinking granny has declared herself the team’s new equipment manager so she can ogle hockey butts in the locker room.
The last thing I need is twenty-two adult toddlers with blades on their feet and bad attitudes for Christmas.

Captain Fletcher Sullivan? He’s the worst, with his muscles and his sneer, turning every practice into The Grinch on Ice.
Between breaking up fights, hosting snack time, and bailing my goalie out of jail, I have no time for Christmas cheer—or for the cocky, absurdly ripped team captain who thinks I don’t belong in the NHL.

Yes, I played on the women’s national hockey team.
Yes, I lift weights.
And yes, I will pick up a six-four hockey player and put him in time-out if he doesn’t follow directions.
There’s no Christmas miracle coming to save us. We lose. A lot.

But armed with Goldfish crackers and juice boxes, I’m going to turn this team of ragtag hockey players into winners.
Even if it turns me into the Grinch.
Or worse—makes me fall for the enemy.

Excerpt

There’s a loud buzzing noise, then a metal gate opens, and two heavyset police officers are dragging out a barefoot, shirtless man covered in tattoos—yes, on his face, too—and missing a few teeth. “And I’ll take a piss on your mother’s grave as soon as I get out of these handcuffs!” he hollers.

The cop unlocks the cuffs. Ellie’s eye is twitching.

“Uh, the ankle bracelet…” Ellie points to the chunky bracelet. “We won’t be able to get his hockey boots on, let alone any of the goalie pads.”

“Where are my flip-flops?” Ren demands. “I have a constitutional right to have my things returned to me.”

“Not me.” The officer shakes his head. “You gotta talk to his parole officer.”

“Great. Well, we’ll talk to the equipment manager.” Ellie sighs.

“Your grandmother, who I’m pretty sure I saw doing shots with Murphy’s Law—that equipment manager?”

“It’s a team effort,” Ellie tells me through a gritted smile. “We’re all trying to make sure that we win.”

“Well, goddamn,” the goalie drawls in a thick Southern accent and looks Ellie up and down. “The rumors are true. I heard the guard gossipin’, but I ain’t believe a word I heard.”

“Watch your mouth,” I snarl at him.

“The boyfriend?” He raises one eyebrow, causing the tattoos crawling all over his forehead to wrinkle.

“Alternate captain.”

“Damn Yankee.” He spits on the ground. “And a shitty hockey player too.”

Fuck this guy.

“Guess this weather is a little different from Mississippi,” Ellie says as Ren makes a big show of getting the door for her and letting it slam in my face.

“Aw, shucks, ma’am, my birth daddy’s actually a damn Yankee. Piece of shit from upstate NYC.” Ren walks barefoot through the snow next to Ellie. “He played for Boston back in the day. That’s the only reason I took this goalie job. Free plane ticket up to New England, all so’s I can take a shit on his front lawn. Got arrested for public indecency, public intoxication—oh, and I stole a police car.”

Ellie giggles. Why the hell do women find men like him charming?

“Back seat, Yankee Doodle,” he barks at me when I reach for the door.

“Fuck you.” I shove him away from the front passenger door.

He shoves me back. Harder. “I’m important. You’re just some shithead call-up from the minors.”

“Fletcher, get in the back seat, please.” Ellie gives me a stern look.

I hate that goalie.

Ellie beams at Ren as I crawl in the back of the SUV. “We brought you a snack!”

“Thanks, darlin’.”

“The hell—don’t talk to our coach like that.”

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About the Author

I write the kind of books I love—romantic comedies featuring snarly guys with hearts of gold, kick-ass heroines, and a swoon-worthy happily ever after! Also wine. And cupcakes.

When I’m not writing I can be found drinking tea, surrounded by my massive to-be-read pile! So many books...

You can connect with me on social media or find information on my books at my website.

Sign up for my newsletter so that you can get information about new releases, giveaways, and more!

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Puck Me It’s Christmas! Blitz