Spotlight: The Breakup Bucket List by Cassie Cross

Genre: Contemporary Romance 

Ever since Lindsay Castillo was a little girl, she dreamed about living in Port City. As an adult, she learns the difficult lesson that dreams aren’t always what they’re cracked up to be. With a broken heart, an apartment full of boxes and a moving company booked, Lindsay jots down everything she wants to do before she leaves Port City and heads back home to start over. 

She has a month to mark off everything on The Breakup Bucket List. 

Evan Roberts is doing his best to live up to the high expectations that come along with having his last name. As Port City royalty, he’s been following a strict path to success since the day he was born. He’s looking for a little fun—something to shake up the monotony of his life—when he runs into Lindsay. He’s captivated by her and welcomes the challenge of helping her complete her bucket list. 

It doesn’t take much convincing for Lindsay to agree; there are some things she wants to do before she moves that only someone with Evan’s access can help her with. What starts off as a simple partnership grows into more as Lindsay and Evan race against the clock and Lindsay’s moving day draws closer…

Exclusive Excerpt: 

The question startles me so badly that I kick my shoes right off my feet. I sit up quickly, pressing my hand against my chest to make sure my heart is still somewhere inside my body instead of flopping around on my blanket. 

Handsome impostor picks up my shoes, placing them neatly beside me. 

“I’m sorry I scared you,” he says with a smile that brings out this dimple in his cheek that makes him almost too cute to be mad at. “You scared me, too.” 

“That’s okay,” I say attempting to catch my breath and sound unaffected at the same time. “I guess I thought I was the only trespasser up here.” 

He laughs. “You are.” 

He tugs on the badge that’s attached to the lanyard that’s hanging around his neck. I lean in close enough to read it. It has the logo of the company on the background, along with what has to be the world’s best ID photo, and his name. 

Which is Evan Roberts. 

Okay, so my somewhat calmed heart is racing again. “Evan Roberts of the Roberts Industries? Or is that just a happy coincidence.” 

“Guilty as charged, I’m afraid.” 

He’s trying to be friendly, but I’m worried this is some kind of an act to get me booked on misdemeanor trespassing charges. 

“How do I know you’re you and not someone who’s just claiming to be you?” 

He grins, and that damned dimple comes rushing back. “You don’t think I’m me?” 

“I’m appropriately skeptical, I think.” 

“Would you like me to have a background check run on…myself?” 

It’s a tempting offer, but… “I think I would like a third party of my choosing to check up on you. To make sure you are who you say you are and also to make sure you’re not a creep.” 

That surprises a laugh out of him. He shoves his hands in his pockets. “Please do. I can provide references if you’d like.” 

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About Cassie

Cassie Cross is a Maryland native and a romantic at heart, who lives outside of Baltimore with her two dogs and a closet full of shoes. Cassie’s fondness for swoon-worthy men and strong women are the inspiration for most of her stories, and when she’s not busy writing a book, you’ll probably find her eating takeout and indulging in her love of 80’s sitcoms.

Connect with Cassie: 

Twitter: https://twitter.com/CrossWrites

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/cassiecrosswrites/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/cassiecrosswrites

Spotlight: Dharma: A Rekha Rao Mystery by Vee Kumari

Rekha Rao, a thirty-something Indian American professor of art history, is disillusioned by academia and haunted by the murder of her father. She believes police convicted the wrong person, and moves away from her match-making family.

She’s focused on managing her PTSD and healing her heart, broken by an abusive boyfriend. She gets entangled in a second murder, that of her mentor and father figure. The murder weapon, an idol of the Hindu goddess Durga, is left behind on the body. Detective Al Newton asks her to look into the relationship, if any, between the meaning of the statue and the motive for the murder.

Rekha is attracted to Al but steers clear of him because of her distaste for cops and fear of a new relationship. The two constantly clash, starting a love-hate relationship. Meanwhile, her family sets her up to meet a suitor, an Indian attorney. When police arrest one of her students and accuse her mentor of idol theft, Rekha is left with no other choice but to look for the killer on her own.

Despite admonitions from Al and bodily harm caused by an intruder, Rekha finds the killer, and in the process, emerges from the cocoon of a protected upbringing to taste the prospect of romance and discover her true identity.

Excerpt

CHAPTER 9

Tuesday, April 4, 2017

Eagle Rock, Los Angeles, CA.

“Neil Anderson?” Patricia looked at her computer and said, “Oh, yeah, Davidson was his advisor. But three weeks ago, Davidson decided for sure he wanted to retire, one hundred percent as he put it, gave up his office and student counseling. So, yes, Anderson was adrift, but I believe Striker talked to your Chair before he assigned him to you.”

“It seemed so, but I wanted to check. Have you got a few minutes?”

“Sure, what’s bugging you?”

Today, Patricia was cheerful. Knowing her only for a short time, I wondered if she’d divulge any departmental secrets.

I asked, “You must miss Faust. How long had you worked for him?”

Her eyes lit up. “Since he moved to the Institute. He was such a great person, Rekha. Very patient with me as I developed the vocabulary for his manuscripts and memos. I’d have died for him. Don’t get me wrong. There was nothing inappropriate. I know where the line is.” I smiled, thinking of Ginny’s worry over Faust’s assistant.

I was making some headway with Patricia. “I heard there was some friction between Faust and Davidson. Was that true?”

“Oh yeah, they both went to Harvard. Fellow grad students. Then, Davidson went to teach somewhere in the Midwest, and Professor F went to UCI. When the institute got started, it was Striker who recruited him to join him here. But when the committee selected Professor F for the other co-directorship, Davidson went berserk.”

I noted that Patricia seemed to revere Faust in a way she didn’t accord the others. “What do you mean?”

“I overheard him yelling at the professor the day the committee announced the decision.”

“Davidson told me he patched it up with Faust.”

“Yes, they were back to being buddies. Men, they don’t hold grudges as we do.” Patricia laughed.

“Tell me about Striker. I just learned that he was unhappy he didn’t get the solo directorship. How did he treat Faust?” I sipped my coffee.

“I can’t tell you of a single person who held a grudge against Professor F. Poor man, he was too nice.” She cleared her throat. “Yeah, Striker was pissed when the Board suggested co-directors. He’d worked to get JPM built and wanted to be its sole owner, in a way. I sometimes laugh at what people value in their lives. Thank God, I’m not like that.”

“Do you think Striker would have arranged to get the Durga? Is he a collector of any sort?”

Patricia laughed. “He, a collector?  His wife died a few years ago, and he’s now married to JPM. Some of us were invited to his house after the Institute opened. I can tell you there was no collection of anything there. Except for dust.”

I couldn’t help smiling. “Tell me about Neil Anderson.” I peeked at my phone to check the time.

“Well, he’s a bit strange.”

I leaned forward to ask, “What do you mean? He’s brilliant, that much I can say. Very quiet in class but brilliant in his analysis and interpretation of data .”

Patricia smiled. “I guess his behavior goes along with his braininess. He wanted Professor F to read his proposal for the junior thesis. And he’s just finishing his sophomore year. The professor gave him a couple of meetings and suggested he talk to his advisor, Davidson.”

“Well, I think Neil was dead serious about getting into Faust’s next excavation. That must have been why he was so persistent.”

“Maybe, but he pestered the man with emails, sent his proposal to his home address, annoyed the heck out of him. Professor F told me to block his emails and tell him to work with Davidson or Striker. If it were up to me, I’d have reported him to the Dean for harassment.”  

Other than my Chair, Patricia was the only female at Oxy who paid me any attention. I could use a little solidarity. On an impulse, I hugged her and said, “Let’s do lunch some time.” She smiled and nodded. Before leaving, I asked for Davidson’s phone number and address. I wanted to talk to him about Neil and other things. “Patricia, I stopped by and saw Ginny, but wondered if Faust had more kith and kin in this area. Are his parents alive?

“No. Striker reached out to every relative we could locate. There’s a niece who lives in Pasadena. Want to go see her?” She handed me a hastily scribbled address on a post-it note.

It was clear to me now that Davidson had always been in Faust’s shadow. Faust got the accolades and the co-directorship. What was the tipping point that led Davidson to murder? Did Faust take Ginny away from him too?

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About the Author

Vee Kumari grew up in India. She loved to read, and often used it to avoid her mother, who might want her to do a chore or two. It was her mother who directed her to use the dictionary to learn the meanings of new words and construct sentences with them. Vee wanted to become an English professor but went to medical school instead.

Upon coming to the US, Vee obtained a doctorate in anatomy. She became a faculty member at the UC Davis Medical Center, where she worked for over 35 years, and later worked for the Keck School of Medicine for five years. Teaching neuroanatomy to medical students became her passion. She published many scientific papers and won several teaching awards.

When she retired in 2012, she took classes from The Gotham Writers' Workshop and UCLA Writers Program. Dharma, A Rekha Rao Mystery is her debut fiction that incorporates her observations on the lives of Indian immigrants and Indian Americans in the US.

Vee lives in Burbank and is also an actor who has appeared in TV shows, including Criminal Minds and Glow, and produced and was the lead in a short film, Halwa, which garnered the first prize in HBO's 2019 Asian Pacific American Visionaries (APAV) contest.

She is at work on her next novel about an Indian immigrant family whose American dream shatters when one of their twin daughters goes missing.

Connect:

Facebook: @veekumari

Instagram:  @vee6873hollywood

Twitter: @veekumari1

Website: veekumari.com

Audio Spotlight: The Isle of Gold by Seven Jane

Series: Daughters Jones Trilogy, Book 1

Genre: Historical Fantasy

Release date: May 4, 2020

Synopsis: The year is 1716 - the Golden Age of the Pirates. An orphan who sleeps in the dusty kitchens of a quayside brothel, Merrin Smith is desperate to unravel the secrets of her past and find the truth about the events that brought her to Isla Perla as a child. Disguised as a sailor, she joins the crew of the pirate ship Riptide, helmed by the notorious Captain Erik Winters. Tenacious and rumored to be a madman, Winters is known as much for his ruthlessness as for his connection to the enigmatic and beautiful proprietress of The Goodnight Mermaid, Evangeline Dahl, who vanished from the island two summers before.

This book is an epic, emotional adventure of two women - one desperate to save herself, and the other determined to be rescued - and the secret which binds them together.

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About the Author: Seven Jane

Seven Jane is a bestselling author of dark fantasy and speculative fiction. Her debut novel, The Isle of Gold, was published by Black Spot Books in October 2018. Currently, Seven is collaborating as the lead author on a franchise project with a top veteran Hollywood director and an award-winning screenwriter.

Seven is a regular contributor to The Nerd Daily and Suspense Magazine. She is represented by Gandolfo Helin & Fountain Literary Management and supported by Smith Publicity.

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About the Narrator: Nicole B. Dolen

Nicole Dolen has always been fascinated with accents. As a child growing up in a Navy family, she spent most of her childhood overseas in various countries such as Italy, Spain, England, and Germany.  She is fluent in English and Italian.  Nicole has a B.A. in Art and Communications and a Masters in Education. When she is not spending her time with her family or narrating, she is teaching, and practicing accents by reading to her young students.

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Spotlight: The Marriage Game by Sara Desai

One of Oprah Magazine's Most Anticipated Romances of 2020

A high stakes wager pits an aspiring entrepreneur against a ruthless CEO in this sexy romantic comedy.

After her life falls apart, recruitment consultant Layla Patel returns home to her family in San Francisco. But in the eyes of her father, who runs a Michelin starred restaurant, she can do no wrong. He would do anything to see her smile again. With the best intentions in mind, he offers her the office upstairs to start her new business and creates a profile on an online dating site to find her a man. She doesn’t know he’s arranged a series of blind dates until the first one comes knocking on her door…

As CEO of a corporate downsizing company Sam Mehta is more used to conflict than calm. In search of a quiet new office, he finds the perfect space above a cozy Indian restaurant that smells like home. But when communication goes awry, he's forced to share his space with the owner's beautiful yet infuriating daughter Layla, her crazy family, and a parade of hopeful suitors, all of whom threaten to disrupt his carefully ordered life.

As they face off in close quarters, the sarcasm and sparks fly. But when the battle for the office becomes a battle of the heart, Sam and Layla have to decide if this is love or just a game.

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About the Author

Sara Desai has been a lawyer, radio DJ, marathon runner, historian, bouncer and librarian. She lives on Vancouver Island with her husband, kids and an assortment of forest creatures who think they are pets. Sara writes sexy romantic comedy and contemporary romance with a multicultural twist. When not laughing at her own jokes, Sara can be found eating nachos. Visit Sara at www.saradesai.com.

Spotlight: Tales of Ming Courtesans by Alice Poon

From the author of The Green Phoenix comes a riveting tale of female friendship, honor, and sacrifice for love, set in 17th Century China and featuring the intertwined stories of three of the era’s most renowned courtesans, escorts skilled in music, poetry and painting who could decide themselves whether or not to offer patrons bed favors.

Inspired by literary works and folklore, Tales of Ming Courtesans traces the destinies of the three girls from the seamy world of human trafficking and slavery to the cultured scene of the famously decadent pleasure district of the city of Nanjing, evoking episodes in Memoirs of a Geisha.

The girls all existed – Rushi was a famous poet, Yuanyuan became the concubine of a general who changed the course of Chinese history by supporting the Manchu invasion in 1644 and Xiangjun challenged the corruption of court officials to try to save her lover. Rushi’s daughter, Jingjing, gradually pieces together the stories of the three from a memoir left to her by her mother.

Betrayal, tenacity and hope all come together in a novel that brings to life an important era in China’s history, and particularly highlights the challenges faced by independent-minded women.

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About the Author

Born and raised in Hong Kong, Alice Poon steeped herself in Chinese poetry and history, Jin Yong’s martial arts novels and English Literature in her school days. This early immersion has inspired her creative writing.

Always fascinated with iconic but unsung women in Chinese history and legends, she cherishes a dream of bringing them to the page.

Her new historical novel Tales of Ming Courtesans will be released by Earnshaw Books on June 1, 2020.

She is the author of The Green Phoenix and the bestselling and award-winning non-fiction title Land and the Ruling Class in Hong Kong. She now lives in Vancouver, Canada and devotes her time to writing historical Chinese fiction.

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Tales of Ming Courtesans

Spotlight: Spies by Ellie Midwood

Series: Metropolis, Book 2
Genre: Historical Fiction

Weimar Berlin, 1927

Having recovered from the hyperinflation, the decadent metropolis is prospering against all odds. Unbothered by the turbulent events of the previous years, Berlin plunges into an orgy of life, entirely oblivious to the dangerous signs of an upcoming catastrophe.

Much like the rest of Berlin’s artistic elite, Margot von Steinhoff is too preoccupied with her work on the set of the infamous Fritz Lang, to pay attention to the dark shadow of the nationalistic threat hanging over the city. When Ernst Weniger, her former lover and now an official NKVD officer, asks for her help in aiding the German communists, she refuses at first, choosing to stay apolitical, just like Lang. However, when the new Gauleiter of Berlin, Joseph Goebbels, arrives in the city and begins his relentless campaign of harassment and misinformation, Margot realizes that staying neutral is no longer an option. Playing on the wrong side can cost her not only her career but her freedom, yet Margot has never been more certain of her choice.

“I don’t read political newspapers, Margot. I only want to make my films… I don’t want to have anything to do with all those politics.”

“I don’t want to have anything to do with them either. But the sad fact is that sometimes politics wants to have everything to do with us, regardless of our desires. At some point, all of us will have to take sides. The good news, Fritz, is that I’ll always be on yours.”

Dark, gritty, yet full of hope, “Spies” is the novel of the doomed Weimar Republic and the last generation of free-thinking artists who lived and created their masterpieces in a city, on the verge of collapse.

Excerpt

On the roof, it was colder still. The wet chill penetrated even through the layers of her warm overcoat and scarf. Margot hugged herself with both arms. She saw Lang at once. He stood on the very edge of the roof, hands buried deep in his pockets, not a jacket in sight, seemingly oblivious to the gusts of icy wind that tossed his dark hair, tangling its longish threads. His gaze was riveted to the street at his feet. As Margot approached him, she had just seen Thea disappear into one of the cars. 

“You know she only did it for you, right?” Margot said softly, risking threading her arm through the crook of his. 

He didn’t pull away, only laughed vacantly and with great cynicism. There was a long pause, wind howling in the wires that stretched like a great spiderweb underneath. 

“You know nothing about Thea at all,” said Lang at length, with somewhat of an ironic look about him. 

“I know that she wishes only the best for you…” Margot’s voice lost its conviction after Fritz gave her a certain look. 

“Margot, my angel, sometimes I imagine you only say such things to give me pleasure. You don’t truly believe them, do you?”

“Of course, I do.” She grew progressively confused. 

“I know that you two became good friends. She is my friend as well and I don’t wish to say anything bad about her. At one point, we used to be very close. Very, very close.” He paused, staring pensively ahead. “But she’s not like us, Margot. We can come off as cynics and even misanthropes but deep inside, we’re the most ridiculous of idealists. We wish to see the world better than it is. We wish to see the good in the worst of people. We are hopeless optimists in this world that is going to the devil. Thea, she’s a pragmatist. She only thinks about her own skin. She knows where the wind is blowing from but unlike us, she’s not stupid enough to go against it.”

Margot began shaking her head. “She stood by you because—”

“She stood by me because I’m still useful to her,” Lang threw back. “That is her entire reason for standing by me. We’re making good money together. We’re Berlin’s golden couple, a team that is only successful because it’s still a team and she’s very well aware of that. Don’t try to make it out into something romantic.” 

“I wasn’t talking about anything romantic. But there’s simple human decency, after all—”

“Human decency,” he interrupted her once again, “showed itself when you refused to take over the filming when Klitzsch asked you to. That was human decency. That—” his hand shot out in the direction of the road, where the small procession had long since disappeared “—is betrayal and that’s all there is to it, Margot. I would have expected it from Klein-Rogge, he’s been a nationalist as long as I remember him – the reason why I have always cast him as a villain for my pictures. He has all the reasons to hate me. I did steal his wife from him, after all. But her… I didn’t expect it from her.” 

Suddenly, he pulled his hand out of his pocket and wrapped his arm around her shoulders. 

“My poor angel, you’re shivering something terrible.” She didn’t even notice that she was. “Let’s go back inside before you catch a cold.”

But Margot didn’t budge. “Fritz?” 

“Yes?” 

“Since we’re talking about betrayals,” her voice trailed off. Lang watched her keenly, waiting for the confession. “It was me. I brought all those leaflets here. The police were here because of me. It’s all,” she gestured vaguely around them, “because of me. All your troubles, are completely because of me.” 

For a few moments, he was silent. Then, a grin began growing slowly on his face. 

“Do you think I’m blind? I knew all about the leaflets.” With unexpected affection, he cupped her cold cheeks with his icy palms as he regarded her tenderly. “Just as I said, the most ridiculous of idealists.” He planted the softest kiss on her forehead and pressed her head to his shoulder. “Bring all that Bolshevist agitprop here. Plaster the walls of the set with it if you like. I’ll film it and release it with all that Red rot in the background just to give that sod an apoplectic shock on the day of the premiere. But don’t submit to them, Margot. I need at least one kindred spirit around. Else, I shall lose all hope in humanity altogether.”

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About the Author

Ellie Midwood is a USA Today bestselling and award-winning historical fiction author. She owes her interest in the history of the Second World War to her grandfather, Junior Sergeant in the 2nd Guards Tank Army of the First Belorussian Front, who began telling her about his experiences on the frontline when she was a young girl. Growing up, her interest in history only deepened and transformed from reading about the war to writing about it. After obtaining her BA in Linguistics, Ellie decided to make writing her full-time career and began working on her first full-length historical novel, “The Girl from Berlin.” Ellie is continuously enriching her library with new research material and feeds her passion for WWII and Holocaust history by collecting rare memorabilia and documents.

In her free time, Ellie is a health-obsessed yoga enthusiast, neat freak, adventurer, Nazi Germany history expert, polyglot, philosopher, a proud Jew, and a doggie mama. Ellie lives in New York with her fiancé and their Chihuahua named Shark Bait.

For more information on Ellie and her novels, please visit her website. You can also find her on Facebook, Amazon, and Goodreads.

Spies