Spotlight: Songs, Sails & Silly Dating Schemes by Cindy Kehagiaras

(A Love In Destiny Romance)

Publication date: September 2nd 2025

Genres: Adult, Contemporary, Romance

Synopsis:

Shay Lazar was a childhood TV star and a 1990s “It Girl,” but left the spotlight to raise her two kids and be the supportive partner to “America’s Sweetheart,” Jack Cole…for almost thirty years. Now she wants back into the Hollywood Machine at fifty-two but the producer for show she wants to do called her Jack’s “Doormat”. Now she’s reassessing her life by hiding at her aunt’s house in Destiny, Florida, after a very publicized and possibly a career-ending incident.

Drew Slater wants to be left alone. The former ‘One-Hit-Wonder’ will never play his song again. He’s pretending his life is settled, but when a star falls out of the sky and onto his boat, he knows a hurricane is coming, and her name is Shay Lazar.

Songs, Sails & Silly Dating Schemes is a steamy over-40 romance set in the magical town of Destiny with Yacht Rock vibes and a Fake Dating Trope gone right with a stunning Hollywood Ending. SS&SDS is the fourth book in the Destiny Romance Series.

Excerpt

He drove straight out onto the runway of the small airport, then came to a stop next to another police cruiser with its lights off, a big black Lincoln Navigator sat at the base of an impressive private jet. The stairs were down and the light inside glowed behind the sheen of the early morning mist. A peach illumination in the distance reminded me how much I hated sunrises these days.

I used to love them. Seeing a sunrise meant I’d spent an entire night with friends and lovers talking and partying all the way to the next day. It meant I was living, really living. Not waisting too much time asleep but being awake and free to create music and memories. That was long ago. Three lifetimes ago. Now it meant I couldn’t sleep. That the memories kept me awake. That I was still living and forced to be a functioning human. I was surviving enough for my daughter and her insistence that I stay in her life, when she wasn’t mad at me. And the music, always the music, but other people’s music. Not mine, never mine.

“Alright.” Kurt met me at the top of the stairs. “Now, this is strictly confidential. I’ve had explicit instructions to deny any goings on here for the safety of the passenger,” he stated gravely.

“What in the hell are you talking about?” 

He used to work for Bernie and Sandy when they lived at BernSand full time. But they let his crew go when they left on their cruise and Kurt wasn’t too happy about it. I wasn’t sure  why he was involved with this mystery person or who was paying him.

Kurt turned his bulky body sideways and placed his hands on his hips. My view of a heap on the floor in the middle isle of the plane was still slightly obscured by his massiveness. I pushed past him to get a better look. I’d seen women passed out on the floor before, maybe too many times to have any strong emotions about it. I only wanted to know who it was that was so important that the police needed my sorry ass in the middle of the night.

“I’m not sure how many of these she took,” The airplane captain in his white uniform held out a prescription bottle to me on the far side to the body. I didn’t take it. I needed to see who the woman was.

I knelt at her bare feet. She wore ivory silk pants and matching blouse, almost like pajamas making her look ethereal in the way she lay on her side like a Botticelli painting. Her dark hair lay across her face. I heard a gasp from Stewie when I brushed the hair way from her face. The bandage across her forehead and large yellow and purple bruise on her swollen cheek almost made her unidentifiable, except for the dark beauty mark next to her right eye, long luscious lashes, and full pink lips. 

I looked back at Kurt. “This is Shay Lazar.”

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About the Author

"The Perpetual," my over 40-second chance romance, has won the coveted "Stiletto Award" by Contemporary Romance Writers in the Mid-length Contemporary Romance category.

BIO: My writing journey began after my 50th birthday, and the pandemic lockdown allowed me to write. Some of my stories have haunted my dreams for decades. When the characters shouted day and night, I knew I had to write about them. These days I love to read and write stories about second chances with GenX characters in over 40, later in life, and mature steamy romances.

My previous lives have been in advertising, fashion, and small business owner. I've made it my life’s ambition to push through the challenges of dyslexia to consume novels, poetry, and articles and tell my stories.

A proud native Californian, I live in Hermosa Beach, CA, with my husband of 17 years, two beautiful kids, and two spunky-rescue kitties.

Please find me on all social media platforms. https://linktr.ee/cindykehstories

Songs, Sails & Silly Dating Schemes Blitz

Spotlight: White Flight by Bill Hillmann

Chicago’s western suburbs. Young Joe Walsh, the youngest in a large, mixed-race family, is attempting to make a go of it at a new school, still haunted by his rough-and-tumble city upbringing. 

He’s got some great opportunities—a summer seminar at one of the world’s top physics laboratories, a mentorship with a hard-hitting Catholic clergyman and boxing instructor who thinks he’s got talent in the ring, and a beautiful girlfriend who’s giving him some much-needed love and support. But the challenges of Chicago have followed him to its outskirts; his sister’s struggling to recover after being shot by one of Joe's former friends, his mom’s unvarnished ways are rubbing their wealthy neighbors the wrong way, and his brother’s fresh out of prison and falling into old habits. Like many young men before him, Joe’s taking out his frustrations in the boxing ring, and dreaming of a triumphant career—but will that, too, become a prison?

This follow-up to Bill Hillmann’s The Old Neighborhood connects like  a 1-2 punch. It’s another modern classic from one of the city’s best authors, a powerful story unlike anything you’ve read before.

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About the Author

Dr. Bill Hillmann is a professor of English and Communications at East-West University in Chicago. He is the author of the autofiction novel The Old Neighborhood, and the memoirs Mozos and The Pueblos. His writing has appeared on CNN, NPR, and VICE, and in the Chicago Tribune, the Daily Mail, the Toronto Star, and more. He created the National College Story Slam competition, where students from across the country compete, telling five-minute personal stories. Hillmann is a former Chicago Golden Gloves boxing champion and union construction laborer. A Chicago native, he is married to Paula Andion Zabalza. 

Spotlight: Illusionist by Laurie Buchanan

A Sean McPherson Novel, Book 5

Mystery/Thriller/Private Investigator

Date Published: 04-15-2025

Publisher: SparkPress

A contemporary crime thriller perfect for Louise Penny and Robert Dugoni fans, Illusionist presents PI McPherson with an impossible dilemma: kill an author at a writing retreat in the Pacific Northwest, or let a college student die.

When an illusionist arrives at Pines & Quill, one of the retreat’s owners vanishes—right in front of witnesses who see nothing. Meanwhile, crime boss Georgio Gambino tightens his grip, blackmailing a writer into murder and framing Sean McPherson. His threat is clear: obey, or your daughter dies.

As McPherson investigates, he uncovers a brewing power struggle—Carmine Fiore, Gambino’s second-in-command, is staging a coup. While Gambino’s network traffics drugs, weapons, and humans, Fiore manipulates the Sureños gang, planting evidence to shift blame.

Desperate to turn the tide, McPherson seeks a dangerous alliance. But when deception is the game, only illusion can outmaneuver the truth. Enlisting the retreat’s eclectic writers—including a NASCAR driver, a triathlete, a house-flipping architect, and a magician with secrets of her own—McPherson sets the stage for the ultimate trick: survival.

Excerpt

Mick takes backroads to the airport because he hates driving under freeway overpasses. They open old wounds and cut fresh ones, triggering a grim reminder of what happened. It doesn’t matter that five years have passed. When Mick closes his eyes, the memory is as fresh as if it had happened today:

A bullet explodes between his partner’s eyes. The amount of blood that hits Mick is small compared to what covers the back of the cruiser.

Sam slumps forward; the shoulder belt prevents his weight from hitting the steering wheel, but not from gunning the accelerator. The cruiser surges onto the right shoulder, and Mick braces himself for the inevitable impact of metal against the concrete abutment.

The snap of shattering glass mixed with the high-pitched scrape of steel fills his ears. He chokes on the scream lodged in his throat as the cruiser collides with the bridge’s unforgiving underpinning.

It hurts to open his eyes. Mick’s aware that the underpass is lit by flickering red and blue lights shimmering on cement. He hears people shouting. “This one’s alive, the other one’s dead. We’re going to have to cut him out. Get the Jaws of Life,” one of them yells. “Hurry—I smell fuel!”

Suspended by the seatbelt system, Mick hovers over Sam. He sees his eyes wide open and vacant, his mouth parted. And though Mick’s witnessed death many times in his career, nausea clenches his stomach. Sam isn’t only his partner; he’s Mick’s best friend. He shakes the all-too-clear vision from his mind.

Months after the accident, Mick’s sister, Libby, and brother-in-law, Niall, picked him up at the hospital and took him to Pines & Quill, their writing retreat in Fairhaven, Washington, to finish recovering in one of their four writers-in-residence cottages—Austen, the wheelchair-friendly one.

Swallowed by the unending tasks of groundskeeper and all-around handyman, Mick soon discovered that the Zen-like energy of the wooded acres breathed life back into his weary soul.

He taps his fingers on the steering wheel in time to the tune playing softly on the radio. Before Emma came into my life, my daily mantra was, “Just make it through today.” But now, my toes are on the edge of fatherhood. I’ll do well if I’m only half as good as Dad was. I’m excited at the prospect but scared out of my wits!

Mick pulls into a parking space at the airport—a single building with a stone and wood exterior. Man, is this different from the airport in San Francisco, where I grew up. Emma calls it a “gentle” airport. It reminds me of the airport in Missoula, Montana, where Dad and I used to fly into to go fishing.

He turns off the ignition, removes his hands from the steering wheel, and balls them into fists. His fingernails bite into the flesh of his palms. I miss him so much. Anything good about me came from my parents, but Gambino had one of his thugs kill Dad.

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About the Author

A blend of Dr. Doolittle, Nanny McPhee, and a type-A Buddhist, Laurie Buchanan is an active listener, observer of details, payer of attention, reader and writer of books, kindness enthusiast, red licorice aficionado, and lover of the Oxford comma.

As a novelist, photographer, and voracious reader, she never travels without three essentials—a laptop, a camera, and a book.

Growing up, she dreamed of being a magician, an international spy, and a mad scientist. There’s still time!

Her writing studio is the hayloft of a historic carriage house in the Pacific Northwest, where creativity thrives. Her husband, Len, a private pilot, and Henry, their not-so-standard Standard Poodle, join her on daily walks. She always carries a camera because sometimes, the best word choice is a picture.

A journey that left an indelible imprint on her was a 20-day, 211-mile trek across the majestic landscapes of Scotland. She, her husband, and their son hiked from the North Sea to the Atlantic Ocean, with the pinnacle being the climb of Ben Nevis at the midpoint of their adventure, the highest point in the British Isles.

"My writing goal is simple: to leave you wanting more." —Laurie Buchanan

Connect:

Website: https://lauriebuchanan.com

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

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Spotlight: Bees in June by Elizabeth Bass Parman

Uncle Dixon always told Rennie to tell the bees everything, but somewhere along the way, Rennie forgot. Now, with her life at its lowest, she begins to see the bees in a new light. Will she believe again in the magic of the hives, and will she listen as the bees try to guide her home?

It's 1969, and the town of Spark Tennessee, is just as excited about the moon landing as the rest of the country. Rennie Hendricks is grieving and trying to heal from the unimaginable loss of her infant son. She had hoped a child would repair the cracks in her marriage to her husband, Tiny, but the tragedy has only served to illuminate his abusive character. Trying to relieve some of the financial stress that inflames Tiny's anger, Rennie accepts a position cooking at the local diner. Hidden away in a kitchen making delicious food, she rediscovers the joy she finds in cooking for others, and as she spends more time with her new boss, she realizes there are more options for women than she thought possible.

One of the benefits of her new job is that she can bring meals to her beloved Uncle Dixon, the man who practically raised her along with her late Aunt Eugenia, a woman unkindly labeled as a witch by most of the town. What those people didn't understand is that Eugenia was a healer and connected to power they couldn't grasp.

Rennie thinks her elderly uncle is confused when he talks about communicating with his bees, but then she starts to see them glow, leading her toward safety time and time again. Could it be that these bees, discovered long ago by her Aunt Eugenia, are magical and trying to tell her something? And what about the new neighbor, Ambrose Beckett, who seems to understand the bees too. Is he being truthful about why he has moved to Spark, or is there more to him than meets the eye?

Hope-filled and infused with magical realism, Bees in June captures Rennie's journey back to her true self, creating a rewarding life that the bees showed her was possible if she only believed in herself and the magic that surrounds her.

Excerpt

Spark, Tennessee

June 1, 1969

SUNLIGHT FLASHED AGAINST A BIT OF SILVER CLASPED in the enormous crow’s beak. The bird, black as a moonless night, soared in a lazy semicircle over the newly sprouted tobacco. A soft breeze stirred the oak leaves and ruffled the white blossoms on the climbing roses that had grown against the small farmhouse for the last fifty years. The bird landed on the porch with his offering of a can’s pull tab encircling his chipped beak like a ring. As he dropped the metal onto the enamelware plate, he cocked his head to eye Rennie Hendricks. She reached over her sleeping dog, picked up the ring, and deposited the scrap of metal into a mug filled with paper clips, bent nails, and foil gum wrappers.

“Thank you, Poe.” She set aside the worn copy of Jane Eyre she was reading and pointed to the enamel plate. “Some pumpkin and sunflower seeds and near the last of the peanuts today. I should have had all three planted at least a month ago. The sunflowers and pumpkins will catch up, but peanuts need time. Maybe—”

Shrieking in protest, the crow flew off in a rush of wings and feathers as Rennie’s husband, Luther, stepped onto the back porch. “Takin’ this to the barn,” he said.

Rennie’s eyes fell to the wooden cradle in his hands. “I’m not ready yet, Tiny. Please put it back in the nursery.”

“We don’t have a nursery, same as we don’t have a baby.” 

He set the cradle on the worn, wooden boards of the porch.

“It’s been almost three weeks. Time to get back to life.”

Rennie’s voice trembled. “Tiny, please. Try to be understanding.”

“Staring at an empty cradle all day isn’t gonna bring him back. Our son is gone—dead and buried. I’ve tried to be understanding, like when I drove you out to the cemetery yesterday. I thought you’d cry a little and say one of your prayers, but what do you do instead? Pull out a blanket and tuck it into the dirt around his grave. He’s not cold, the same way he doesn’t need this.” Tiny grabbed the cradle. “What if someone saw you singing that crazy lullaby about the moon and stroking the blanket you put over a mound of dirt? They’d be callin’ Doc Grisham and tellin’ him you’ve gone loony.”

Rennie’s voice shook. “Please put it back.” Losing Gabriel had devastated her, but after the funeral, Tiny had returned to his routine like nothing had happened, while she lingered in a gray pit that made even the smallest of tasks daunting. “I need more time.”

His jaw tightened, and without a word, he went back inside with the cradle. When he returned, he said, “It’s tough on both of us, but moping on the back porch all day isn’t doing any good.” Running his enormous hands through his sandy hair, he added, “How about cooking us a nice supper or mending that shirt I tore on the fence last month?” He stepped off the porch but turned around to add, “Maybe think about focusing on me for a change now that you’re not gonna be a mama.”

She swallowed her protest. She was a mother, and always would be, even if her child was already in heaven, and he was wrong to say otherwise.

Tiny glared. “You hardly even look my way these days, but if you did, you’d see I’m struggling too, losing my son and trying to farm this godforsaken land. Almost everyone we graduated with makes their living off tobacco, but I swear I don’t know how any farmer survives. Beb White says it takes a thirteen-month year to turn a profit in tobacco, and he’s right.” He looked at his wife. “I could use some encouragement and maybe a little appreciation while I’m out here working like a dog, trying to keep us fed and coming up with the damn rent my own parents are chargin’ us.

Rennie had been expecting the topic of money to come up. It worked its way into every one of their numerous fights, and with what had happened a few days ago, the topic was overdue.

Tiny’s father had crossed the field that connected the two houses earlier in the week, letting himself into the kitchen without so much as a knock, demanding to see Tiny. “Where is the bastard?” Wayne Hendricks had snarled. “He owes me a hunnert dollars rent. Said he’d bring it by this morning, but of course he didn’t.”

“He’s in Nashville getting supplies for the farm.”

“Is that what he calls his liquor store runs? Tell him to pay up or you and him both will be out on your sorry asses.” On his way out, he added, “How does it feel to be married to a loser?”

When Tiny had returned, she dreaded delivering the message, knowing it would result in a fight that would end with Tiny driving to Putney to drink away whatever was left of the day or night at the Moonshine Lounge in nearby Caldwell County. She was right, even with leaving out the part about being married to a loser, and Tiny didn’t return until almost noon the next day. He was feeling the pressure, and so was Rennie. The farm wasn’t much, but it was the only home she had. She surveyed the small house she had lived in for the last four years, with its faded white paint and shingles curled enough from decades of sun and rain to flap like bird wings whenever the wind blew.

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About the Author

Elizabeth Bass Parman grew up entranced by family stories, such as the time her grandmother woke to find Eleanor Roosevelt making breakfast in her kitchen. She worked for many years as a reading specialist for a non-profit and spends her summers in a cottage by a Canadian lake. She has two grown daughters and lives outside her native Nashville with her husband.

Spotlight: Ashes and Echoes by Jo-Anne Van Gelder

Publication date: August 22nd 2025

Genres: Adult, Psychological Thriller

Synopsis:

A missing friend. A locked estate. A note that says, I know what you did.

Three friends. One is missing. The truth won’t stay buried.

Mara hasn’t seen Elise in years—until a handwritten invitation pulls her back to the crumbling estate they swore they’d never return to.

But Elise isn’t there.
Her handbag is.
So is the daisy.
And a note that reads: I know what you did.

Now Mara and Jodie—the third in their fractured trio—are trapped. No cars. No signal. Nowhere to run.

The house is full of locked doors and old ghosts.
Every secret points back to that night.

Elise’s absence is only the beginning.

Some friendships end in silence.
Some secrets refuse to stay dead.

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About the Author

Jo-Anne van Gelder is the pen name of a Dutch novelist based in the Netherlands. Ashes and Echoes is Jo’s debut psychological thriller—a dark, emotionally layered novel about memory, guilt, and buried truths.

Jo lives with her partner, who is also an author, and their cat. She spends most days surrounded by books, coffee, and the quiet thrill of untold stories.

Spotlight: Realm of Crows by Angelina J. Steffort

(Wings of Ink, 5)

Genre: NA Fantasy Romance

Cover Designer: Fantastical Ink

Publication Date: August 31st, 2025

“You know I will devour you, Ayna.”

Ayna has escaped Ephegos’s claws—but war is far from over.

As the rebel forces rise and the King of Tavras readies weapons that could shatter the fairylands, the battle for Askarea begins to burn. Crows and fairies alone won’t be enough to hold back the storm. And with ancient bargains unraveling and magic twisting loyalty into chains, not every ally will be free to stand beside their queen.

To save both her kingdoms, Ayna must do the impossible: unite fractured realms, survive betrayal, and outwit a tyrant with nothing left to lose. But as war threatens to consume the world she’s sworn to protect, one truth becomes clear—power always demands a price.

And this time, the cost may be everything.

Realm of Crows is the heart-racing finale to the bestselling high-stakes, heart-break epic romantasy Wings of Ink series—perfect for fans of Quicksilver, From Blood and Ash, and A Court of Thorns and Roses.

This series is part of the ALCUNAIRE.

Buy on Amazon | Bookshop.org

About the Author

"Chocolate fanatic, milk-foam enthusiast and huge friend of the southern sting-ray. Writing is an unexpected career-path for me."

Angelina J. Steffort is an Austrian novelist, best known for her Wings Trilogy, a young adult paranormal romance series about the impossible love between a girl and an angel. The bestselling Wings Trilogy has been ranked among calibers such as the Twilight Saga by Stephenie Meyer, The Mortal Instruments by Cassandra Clare, and Lauren Kate’s Fallen, and has been top listed among angel books for teens by bloggers and readers. Her young adult fantasy series Shattered Kingdom is already being compared to Sarah J. Maas’s Throne of Glass series by readers and fans.

Angelina has multiple educational backgrounds including engineering, business, music, and acting, and lives in Vienna, Austria with her husband and her son.

Connect:

Amazon: https://amzn.to/41XILSP

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/16604778.Angelina_J_Steffort

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