Murder Uncorked

If you like tantalizing culinary cozies, you'll enjoy this one in the Wine Lover's Mystery Series. Nikki Sands is a waitress done on her luck and quits her job. When the handsome Derek Malveaux acquires her for a job in Napa Valley, working for his winery, she jumps at the opportunity, since she knows a lot about wines. But just her luck, when there's a murder on her doorstep and an interesting cast of characters who works at the vineyard. Nikki's on the scene to get to the matter, when someone's out to get her, and someone else gets killed. That's when she learns the truth and hidden secrets of who wanted to do Derek in, who's she's quite attracted to. When she think she gets the person, the person is out to get her, before it's too late. Bon appetite!

Close Enough to Kill

If you love steamy romantic suspense novels, you'll love this one from the late Beverly Barton, who passed away almost a year ago this April. In Adams Landing, Alabama, there's a serial killer on the loose, who's admiring women from afar, leaving presents and ghastly sketches. Once he kidnapped them, he tortures and raped them for a week to two weeks ago, and kills them. It's up to Bernadette "Bernie" Granger, the new Sheriff, and her new deputy sheriff, Jim Norton, formerly from the Nashville PD. Jim has some excess baggage from his ex-wife and estrangement with his son, while Bernie is competing with her younger sister for Jim's affections. But when the serial killer targets the women, they realized that there's a connection to him and who's in the fold that's been breaching their security, especially when it's closer to Bernie's family. Together they discover who it is and find the happiness they need.

All the Pretty Girls

If you love thrillers, you'll enjoy this one. Keep your lights on and lock your doors. Taylor Jackson is the lieutenant for the Metro Police in Nashville, when a serial killer strikes in her jurisdiction, leaving dead bodies and missing hands in other states. And then snatches someone else. But that's not all who he's leaving behind with him. John Baldwin is Taylor's lover and works for the FBI on the Southern Strangler, while Taylor also works on the Rainman case, a serial rapist who rapes women on rainy nights. They're very busy. But for both of them, things turn up the heat with the connection to the death of a local journalist, Whitney Connolly, who died in a car accident, and discovered the truth of hidden family secrets and the serial killer himself. 

Farm Fresh Murder

If you great culinary cozies, you'll enjoy the first installment in the Farmers Market's series, Farm Fresh Murder.  Becca Robins is a farmer who makes berry and pumpkin preserves at Bailey's Market. When word comes down that Matt Simonsen is murdered, everyone's a suspect, including herself and her twin Allison. She butts head with Sam Brion, the police officer on the scene, and has feelings for Ian Cartwright, an artist who's a decade younger and clad with tattoos. There's chemistry between them. But for Becca, one of her friend is accused for murder. So now it's up to figure it out, one by one. After a couple of close calls, she's closer to the truth that she thinks, when she uncovers an old history of family secrets and former friendship. A great cozy with yummy recipes.

Deep in the Valley

If you love the Virgin River series, you'll love this earlier trilogy set in Grace Valley. This story is about Dr. June Hudson and her small clinic, when she encountered marijuana drug growers, mountain families, and people with deep secrets. She's in her late thirties, craving for a man of her own and a baby, when Dr. John Stone comes to her clinic. When one of her patients causes trouble and complaints about him, she investigates the matter with her own concerns. When two people raid her clinic, she falls for one of them, who's ends up being an undercover agent, and changes her life while keeping her own secrets. It's a great cross of a great medical drama and contemporary romance.

Bait

In this novel, Karen Robards puts us right in the middle of danger. Someone is after Maddie Fitzgerald, who started her own advertising company, and have a secret of her own. When there's a hit on her life, she meets FBI agent, Sam McCabe, who's in charge of protecting her, while other people have been killed and taunted by the killer by phone. When she meets McCabe, they butt heads. Later, they fall in love, knowing they're right for each other. When the truth comes out in the open, it puts a kink into their relationship, when he discovers her real name and story, running and hiding from the mob, who are also after him. In the end, her past meets  up with her, until McCabe saves her. What a great read.

The Ripple Effect

If you love great adventurous thrillers on the water, you would love the Ripple Effect.  It's one year after 9/11, and Aiden Page is presumed dead from the Twin Towers crash, along with his brother. Little did they know, that both of them escaped and hiding out--AIden's in trouble with the law, while Charlie's in paradise. And when Aiden accidentally called his daughter Morgan, it sent her on a sailing mission to find and reconnect with her dad, while they were other people after him for different reasons. And when they meet, their reunion is more than bittersweet. What a great suspense novel!