Spotlight: Shady Justice by Rena Koontz

/

Genre: Thriller, Romantic Suspense 

TV Crime Reporter Rylee Lapiz is determined to discover who murdered her best friend’s mother. When her confidential informant is also brutally killed, panic hits her like a tsunami wave. Will she be the killer’s next target?

It’s a horrifying fact that the two homicides are linked, and she knew both victims. What connects the socialite with the drug addict? Reporting these stories is no longer merely an assignment, it’s a personal quest to avenge their deaths. But uncovering the truth is dangerous. Dread drowns her in denial as she delves deeper into the crimes. She’s terrified that she might personally know a murderer.

Her dogged investigation uncovers critical evidence the police overlooked. But instead of listening, she’s astonished and frustrated when detectives begin to suspect her. Is there anyone she can trust?

Buy Shady Justice and follow Rylee Lapiz as she navigates a treacherous landscape of deceit and betrayal in search of the facts. Every reveal could be her last. Can she report the truth before becoming the next victim? 

Excerpt

Chapter 1

The woman was so badly beaten, Steel Chaney vomited his breakfast bagel in the grass at the side of the concrete driveway. So much for bragging that after twenty years on the job, he’d seen it all.

Christ, there was nothing left of her face to identify. Her mouth was a bloody hollow where teeth should be. The tips of all ten fingers were scorched black. Were they burned before or after she died? For her sake, he hoped it was postmortem. Someone sure as hell didn’t want her identified.

Chaney spit the last of the sour taste away, wiped his mouth on his coat sleeve, and turned back to the car. The poor woman was stuffed inside the trunk on her back, her legs pinned beneath her. They had to be broken. Blood soaked her clothes, seeping to the area rug underneath her body, turning it pitch black. Her killer had wrapped her in this piece of carpet to transport her from the murder site. Blood matted in her dirty blond hair where her skull was crushed. Caked strands knotted around gold circle earrings. Her eyes were swollen shut, a palette of eggplant purple and midnight blue. A bloodied gold chain fell toward the back of her neck. Robbery was not a motive for this act of violence.

He narrowed his focus to the interior of the trunk. Empty except for three forty-pound bags of cat litter shoved to the rear. What the fuck?

“Steel?”

He turned toward Parker Bentley, the rookie detective he mentored. As rookies go, she was smarter than most and still hungry to learn. He’d balked at taking on a trainee, assuming his seniority exempted him from babysitting. It hadn’t. His argument, that a three-month mentoring period was ridiculous given the years and experience most cops already had by the time they expressed interest in the detective bureau, fell on deaf ears, all because two years ago the mayor got his tit in the wringer over some detective new to the job who went rogue and then claimed lack of training. So now, they had training.

Buy on Amazon Kindle | Paperback | Bookshop.org

About the Author

Rena Koontz is an award-winning author who was a career journalist. She writes about real events she covered as a news reporter in Pittsburgh, PA. and Cleveland, OH., weaving them into intriguing love stories. Her passions are her husband and her dog. Not necessarily in that order. 

Website * Facebook * X * Instagram * Bookbub * Amazon * Goodreads

Cover Reveal: Armored Hours Reincarnated Souls by Stephanie Hansen

/

Genre: Historical Fantasy Mystery Romance 

Cable Girls meets Peaky Blinders meets Titanic

The girls had forged a bond together like iron that could not be broken. Claudia, Kiersten, Lina, and Florian were on the brink of making history with their powerful feminist movement, but then they suddenly disappeared without a trace. 

Alexander was a desperate bootlegger who was willing to risk it all to search for them. Not only were they in cahoots with him to help smuggle feminist contraband and forbidden booze, but Claudia had also unknowingly captivated his heart. He vowed to find them at any cost, but little did he know that their disappearance was part of a much bigger and sinister plot from the upper echelons of society. 

Set in 1920s Paris of the Plains, Armored Hours is a thrilling tale of love and mystery interwoven with hints of magical realism.

Buy on Amazon

About the Author

Stephanie Hansen is a PenCraft and Global Book Award Winning Author as well as an Imadjinn finalist. Her debut novella series, Altered Helix, released in 2020 (YA Urban Fantasy w/ thriller vibes). It hit the #1 New Release, #1 Best Seller, and other top 100 lists on Amazon. It is now being adapted to an animated story for Tales. Her debut novel, Replaced Parts, released in 2021 through Fire & Ice YA and Tantor Audio (YA Sci-Fi with thriller vibes). It has been in a Forbes article, hit Amazon bestseller lists, and made the Apple young adult coming soon bestsellers list. The second book in the Transformed Nexus series, Omitted Pieces, released in 2022. Her most recent novella, Ghostly Howls, released 2023 (Spicy Paranormal Romance with mystery vibes). She is a member of the deaf and hard of hearing community, so she tries to incorporate that into her fiction.

Website * Facebook * X * Instagram * Bookbub * Amazon * Goodreads

Spotlight: Hold Me If You Can by Cheryl Terra

/

Genre: RomCom  

Nellie Belanger and JP Marchand have the perfect arrangement:

1. She comes to Montreal

2. He makes sure she comes when she’s in Montreal.

3. That’s it.

Despite missing out on her life-changing internship and committing herself to a summer of social obligations and stuffy events so she can afford to finish her final year of university, Nellie’s feeling pretty lucky. Between regular rendezvous with her former professor, Ben, and the sweet arrangement with JP, Nellie’s busy, satisfied after finding not one but two friends-with-benefits who are into her no-strings-attached philosophy.

When Anne-Marie—Nellie’s best friend and JP’s sister who wants nothing more than for Nellie and JP to add strings to their arrangement—catches Nellie returning home red-faced and sweaty one night, it sets off a series of events involving a charity fun run and an unexpected betrayal, leaving Nellie scrambling to meet her father’s unreasonable expectations.

But after her brilliant solution offends the wrong person and leads her father to issue a devastating ultimatum, Nellie must do something she swore she’d never do again: ask JP Marchand for a favour.

And JP knows exactly what he wants in return.

Buy on Amazon Kindle | Paperback

About the Author

Cheryl Terra writes romantic and adult fiction with drama, sass, and a whole lot of... spice. Emotional and humorous, her books focus on contemporary relationships, inclusive characters, and happily ever afters. Living with her husband in northern Alberta, Canada, Cheryl relies on the heat between her quirky and memorable characters to help keep the gas bill down in the winter.

Connect with the Author: Website | Facebook | Instagram | Twitter | Tiktok | Patron

Enter Cheryl’s Release Giveaway! 

Spotlight: Breaker by AK Nevermore

/

Genre: Dystopian Sci-fi Romance

On an alternate earth, a cataclysm has altered a subset of the population. Talents are persecuted for their psychic and physical mutations, giving rise to two conflicting societies based upon maintaining genetic purity. And the Source, a shadowy corporate entity dependent upon the exploitation of captive Talents, is hunting them…

Self-exiled to the Outside, Flynn Scot is oath-bound to a life of strict penance.

Cursed with a vicious temper and haunted by the blood-stained debauchery of his past, Flynn’s sworn off women, whiskey, and violence, and doesn’t give a damn about whispers of the coming war. He sure as hell isn’t in the mood to make good on a debt when it’s called in, especially when playing white knight outs him as a Talent, and the damsel in distress as his soulmate.

On the run from her future as a broodmare for the Source, escaped Talent Kara Jester is no distressed damsel.

And the last thing she wants is to be trapped in a blizzard with a surly—and frustratingly captivating—thug. Without the suppression meds holding her libido in check, her biology’s primed to procreate, and Flynn’s growled assurances that he won’t touch her doesn’t match the hunger in his eyes.

It doesn’t align with what fate has in store for them, either. 

With elite troops hot on their heels and the border set to close, it’s a race to the North, away from Kara’s horrific future and towards the dark past Flynn wants to keep buried. Clinging to the shreds of his oath, he’s forced to choose between protecting the woman he’s afraid to love and letting out the animal he swore he’d never be again. Either may destroy him, if Kara’s secrets don’t get them killed first.

Buy on Amazon Kindle | Hardcover | Paperback | Bookshop.org

About the Author

AK Nevermore enjoys operating heavy machinery, freebases coffee, and gives up sarcasm for Lent every year. A Jane-of-all-trades, she’s a certified chef, restores antiques, and dabbles in beekeeping when she’s not reading voraciously or running down the dream in her beat-up camo Chucks.

Unable to ignore the voices in her head, and unwilling to become medicated, she writes Science Fiction and Fantasy full time. 

AK pays the bills writing a copious amount of copy, along with a column on SFF. She belongs to the Authors Guild, is an RWA chapter board member, volunteers for far too many committees, teaches creative writing, and on the rare occasion, sleeps. 

Connect with the Author: Website | Facebook | Twitter | Instagram | Tiktok 

Spotlight: Storm and Flame by Mallory Wanless

/

(Enchanted, #1)
Publication date: September 22nd 2022
Genres: Fantasy, Young Adult

Synopsis:

Elena has always been a disappointment. Her magic is practically non-existent and now, on her sixteenth birthday, she is expelled from magic school by the strict headmistress–also known as her mother. Cast out into the world of the magically inept with only her familiar for company, Elena feels lost and alone until she meets a strange boy in the woods.

Quinn is a thief, a hunter, and a hothead. His unexpected friendship with Elena awakens a fiery side in him–quite literally– and uncovers new and surprising magical abilities. Except men aren’t supposed to be capable of magic.

With Quinn’s help, Elena carves a safe new life as a barmaid, but when she is attacked, her powers awaken with shocking ferocity. Elena’s explosion of magic creates a power surge that attracts the attention of magical investigators, sent to uncover and contain the source of the power surge.

But the awakening of their powers kickstarts an ancient prophecy. Will they be able to escape those that hunt them? Can they fulfill the prophecy, destroy the turmio and save magic from being destroyed once and for all?

Content warning: the story mentions incidents of child abuse, sexual assault, and birth trauma. May not be suitable for some readers.

Storm and Flame is the first in a completed trilogy. A found family low-spice series perfect for fans of Stephanie Garber’s Caraval series, Margaret Rogerson’s Sorcery of Thorns, and Phillip Pullman’s Golden Compass.

Excerpt

“Come on. Just work, dammit,” Elena muttered to herself, trying for the millionth time to cast her spell. 

Agon had stretched his lithe, weasel-like body across a long, skinny patch of sunlight on the floor of the testing room. He’d spent the morning basking in the warmth of the sun-drenched stone and flicking his fluffy blue-black tail back and forth. As her closest, and arguably only, friend, Agon knew nothing he could say would make her feel better. She was in a mood, and the best thing he could do was to leave her be. 

Sparks flared and quickly sputtered out from Elena’s fingertips. 

“Dammit. Why can’t I get this stupid spell right?” It was a rhetorical question, but Elena was so frustrated by her own ineptitude that she would have traded everything she owned to successfully complete a spell on the first try. 

Elena was easily the worst enchantress in her class, probably the whole school. The other students mocked her mercilessly. It didn’t help that her mother, Madame LaBelle, was the most famous enchantress in the whole country, possibly the world, and the headmistress of their school. She could turn a seed into a centuries-old tree with the flick of her wrist. Elena could grow a seed into a sapling with twenty minutes of chanting, flicking, waving, and praying. Maybe. On a good day. 

Madame LaBelle was notorious for her skills with magic as much as her beauty. Unfortunately for Elena, she inherited her looks from her father. At least, she assumed that’s where she got her flat hair and dull brown eyes. She’d never actually met him. In Waverly, as far as enchantresses were concerned, men served one purpose: impregnating women. The men were used and released of all parental rights, whether they liked it or not. Most men didn’t even know the woman they had lain with was an enchantress, much less that they had fathered a child as a result. The women opted to disguise themselves—bar wenches, visitors lost in the big city, damsels in need of aid on the side of the road, etc.—just to get what they needed and be gone before the man even knew her name. 

It was crass and cowardly, but Elena had been raised to believe it was for the best. Men weren’t capable of raising children, especially magical ones, and an enchantress always gave birth to another enchantress. Never in the history of the world, had an enchantress given birth to a non-magical child. Or a boy, for that matter. Enchantress beget enchantress. End of story. 

Elena dreamed of love and happy endings when she was younger. All the girls did, but their time at Harbor Ridge taught them that magic was their top priority, followed closely by their loyalty to the school and Madame LaBelle. Elena always felt that it was a tad hypocritical how often her mother preached about loyalty to their family—the school and their classmates—when she never paid any attention to her own flesh and blood. What sort of mother neglects her own child to favor those who are more adept at magic? Not a good one, Elena mused glumly. 

Agon had been with her since before she was born, like all familiars. They were born together and stayed attached for an “unusually long time,” according to her mother. Typically, familiars disconnected from the baby’s umbilical cord within a few days before settling into their permanent animal form. Agon and Elena stayed connected for two weeks, all the while Agon remained a blob encased in the placenta. Her mother had many specialists, including a Therionology Enchantress, or an animal enchantress, come and inspect Agon and try to coax him into taking any form at all. Nothing worked. Baby Elena just spent her days cuddling “this disgusting blob of goo” and sleeping. Madame LaBelle often liked to remind Elena of how unusual that was, and how that should have been a sign that her daughter was going to be different, and not in a good way. 

Buy on Amazon Kindle | Paperback | Bookshop.org

About the Author

Mallory lives in Texas with her husband and their two young boys. She spends her days homeschooling and full-time parenting. Her nights, and any free time she manages to carve out during the day, are devoted to reading and writing.

Connect:

https://www.mallorywanless.com/

https://x.com/mwanless_author

https://www.instagram.com/mwanless.author

https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/22308366.Mallory_Wanless

Spotlight: Broken Fortune by Aly Mennuti

/

Publication date: July 16th 2024
Genres: Adult, Contemporary, Women’s Fiction

Synopsis:

Broken Fortune explores the unraveling of a wealthy, blended family forced to reconsider their future together as their world falls apart around them.

Elizabeth Sunderland—a forty-three-year-old wife and mother of two teenagers—is the oldest of five children in a blended family that never quite blended. The only thing that has held them together is the iron will of their wealthy parents: Benjamin Sunderland, a venture capitalist, and Kate Bernard, a partner of a hedge fund. Together, Benjamin and Kate create and rule over a Manhattan dynasty of which their children each bear their own unique scars.

Elizabeth has been trying to keep the family together since she was ten years old, hoping to convince everyone they have more in common than just their fortune. This stance will be put to the ultimate test when Kate dies with one final request: that the family travel together to the island of St. John and spread her ashes in the ocean. However, Kate’s plan to fix the family will involve more than just a family trip to the sea.

As the hidden secrets and quiet betrayals built up over thirty years begin to ripple and crash like the ocean surrounding the sinking family, Elizabeth not only faces each of her sibling’s personal inflection points—moments that could lead to reconciliation or ruin—but she has to face her own demons that have laid dormant. What happens next will shock Elizabeth into recognizing a reality she had no idea existed.

Excerpt

“How much money did you get?” Paul drops in, trying not to seem as outright aggressive as my other siblings but still trying to ferret out the information. 

“It was nothing,” I say, trying to shut this conversation down. 

“Oh, it wasn’t nothing,” Benjamin says. “It was over five million dollars.” 

Everyone at the table looks ready to either spill their drink, fall off their chair, or turn me upside down to try and shake the five million out of my pockets. 

“Can I have some?” Winnie says, shifting her attention for the first time this evening from my father to me. 

“No,” Benjamin says sternly to Winnie. “Your mother is giving that back.” 

“What about,” Paul says, daring to get between Benjamin and his money, “if you give us all five million dollars, so Lizzie doesn’t feel so alone. I mean…I’m sure my mother left something for all of us and Lizzie’s just came through first.” 

“No,” Benjamin says. “Lizzie won’t feel alone when I have it back. Because none of you are getting any extra money. Everything that was Kate’s is now mine. That’s what we decided. And

upon my death—which should be noted, won’t be happening anytime soon—you will all receive the entire inheritance split into five.” 

“Wait,” Paul says, clearly upset. “Wait. She’s our mother. Mine. I’m her son. I mean, no offense to your kids Benjamin, but me…and Julian, we should get something now. Not have to wait until you die. You’re not my father.” 

Paul’s words visibly cut through Benjamin, like an unexpected knife in the back. Even I can’t help but wince on his behalf—considering he’s spent the last thirty-three years trying to convince Paul he’s a reasonable, viable father. Meanwhile, he’s made not one corresponding overture in my direction, relegating me to the status of just an afterthought that will always linger…

Buy on Amazon Kindle | Paperback | Bookshop.org

About the Author

Aly Mennuti has always had two passions: philanthropy and literature. She satisfies one of those by being an executive at an international nonprofit consulting firm and has helped a diverse range of high-profile clients reach their philanthropic goals. However, she’s always had a desire to express herself creatively and carve out her own role as a writer in a writing family. Finally, in her forties (and with two children hitting their teens and deciding Mom is really uncool and not needed to hang out with anymore) she has the time and headspace to tell her own stories. She lives in Washington, DC, with her husband, Nicholas Mennuti, a novelist and screenwriter, their two children, Charlie and Lilly, and their eccentric Goldendoodle, Barry. 

Connect:

https://x.com/alymennuti

https://www.instagram.com/alymennutiauthor/

https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/20528842.Aly_Mennuti