Tranquil Reader

My Copy of the Book Year Published: 2018 Genre: Chick Lit; Crime Blurb: When two hot, haute heroines team up to solve a murder, neither can afford to be fashionably late. No one expected to find a dead girl in the Royal Suite at the Babylon’s posh London club. Who would kill her? And why? With little to go on and no friends to rely on, Lucky O’Toole, the Babylon’s Chief Problem Solver, is dispatched to…well, to solve the problem. But she needs to be in Paris. Her fiancé—and, worse, his mother—are counting on her presence at a party in her honor in seventy-two hours, more or less. With a personal-life time-bomb ticking, Lucky hopes for a quick solution. A mystery woman, seen leaving the Royal Suite just before the girl’s body is discovered, attracts Lucky’s attention. She has to be the key… On loan to the CIA, assassin Donna Stone Craig and her crack black-ops team have stepped into a viper’s nest. First, they darn near get out-bid and overwhelmed at an auct...

Book Cover Year Published: 2018 Genre: Chick Lit; Women's Fiction Blurb: Kristy Martin is twenty-something, single and living it up in Chicago. She has a crew of close girlfriends to keep her social calendar active, and is celebrating finally securing employment in her chosen field. While always free-spirited, Kristy is getting tired of the revolving door – or more accurately, bed – of random guys and failed dates, and comes up with a plan to get her act together when it comes to the opposite sex. That idea is quickly shot down by her bestie Breely Laver and replaced with a bet she can’t refuse – a free trip to Paris with her yoga instructor BFF if she can go six months without sex. Enter in charming, sexy, delicious Grey Grahl. Kristy tries to navigate a spicy new relationship without giving away her bet, while also dealing with an incredibly sensitive crisis at her job. Her first year as a full-time elementary school guidance counselor starts off with a devastati...

Book Cover Year Published: 2018 Genre: Literary; Contemporary; Mystery Blurb: Alison Bliss, celebrity model and critically acclaimed writer, walks into the sea one ‘bluethroat morning’. In death she becomes a greater icon than in life, and the Norfolk village where she lived is soon a place of pilgrimage. Six years later her husband Harry, a schoolteacher, is still haunted by her suicide and faithful to her memory. Until he meets Helen and they fall in love. Harry and Helen’s relationship initiates a return to the scene of Alison’s death where they meet ninety-eight year old Ern Higham, and a tale is revealed that has been generations in the making. As Harry pieces together a tragic history and finally confronts his own pain, he discovers that to truly move forward, first he must understand the past ... About the Author: Jacqui Lofthouse is the author of four novels 'The Temple of Hymen', 'Bluethroat Morning' 'Een Stille Verdwijning' and...

Book Cover Year Published: 2018 Genre: Crime; Humorous; Chick Lit Blurb: If Lucky O’Toole, chief problem solver for the Babylon, Vegas’ primo Strip property, knows one thing—where money goes, trouble follows. So, when the NFL announces it’s moving a team to Vegas, Lucky is left on the fence until the trouble she feared lands in her lap. Nolan Ponder, one of the key players in the negotiations to get the NFL to Sin City, staggers into the Babylon covered in blood and holding a knife. With the mountains of money and careers on the line, Lucky figured someone would try to kill the deal. But murder? Chasing down a murderer is the last thing she needs. Teddie, her former live-in lover is exploiting every angle to get back into her heart. Jean-Charles, her fiancé, is planning a trip to France to introduce Lucky to his family. Mona, her mother, still hasn’t named her twins. Lucky’s life is quickly becoming a game of murder and mayhem. She just hopes this game won’t g...

Book Cover Year Published: 2017 Genre: Military with a hint of romance Blurb: A Police Action is a gripping coming-of-age Vietnam War-era romantic novel. It is the story of two lost and confused young adults. It is love at first sight when nineteen-year-old Samantha Powers meets James Coppi at the Country Honky Tonk in Colorado Springs. There are just two problems to a storybook ending for Samantha's passion. She is pregnant with someone else's child and James, a young solider, is heading for a war in Vietnam.  Will this instant attraction be enough to form a lasting bond? What will happen after James is deployed? Will he return home safely, and, if so, will it be to Samantha? Follow along as the young lovers mature through their individual hardships and those that they share. About the Author: A. A. Freda is an award winning author who writes about life experiences he's had or people he's met along the way. His first novel, Goodbye Rudy Kazoo...

My Copy of the Book Year Published: 2017 Genre: Drama; Women's Fiction Blurb: It’s 1958 and Shona Jackson, a twenty-something tomboy, is on the run from the neighborhood in Louisiana where her dark secret has been exposed.  Arriving in Alabama, Shona convinces the kind Jeffrey Ellis, wealthy co-owner of Ellis and Bruce Machinery, to give her a job and heads to the site with hopes of becoming invisible while she saves up the money to continue her journey to safety. There, she strikes up a bond with Cuban, who is on a similar path to her, but is racially abused on a daily basis by the workforce and by Jeffrey Ellis’s brutal business partner, Larry Bruce. Shona also meets Elbie, the elderly tool room supervisor, who has been covertly keeping a diary of all the horrific acts that have been carried out over the last five years by Bruce and his associates. As Elbie helps Shona and Cuban settle into their jobs, they are introduced to Chloe Bruce, Larry’s daughter, re...

Book Cover Year Published: 2017 Genre: Humorous; Action Blurb: Devious, ruthless, and loyal. Zenka is a capricious Hungarian with a dark past. When cranky London mob boss, Jack Murray, saves her life she vows to become his guardian angel – whether he likes it or not. Happily, she now has easy access to pistols, knives and shotguns. Jack discovers he has a son, Nicholas, a male nurse with a heart of gold. Problem is, Nicholas is a wimp. Zenka takes charges. Using her feminine wiles and gangland contacts, she will make Nicholas into the sort of son any self-respecting crime boss would be proud of. And she succeeds! Nicholas transforms from pussycat to mad dog, falls in love with Zenka, and finds out where the bodies are buried – because he buries them. He’s learning fast that sometimes you have to kill, or be killed. As his life becomes more terrifying, questions have to be asked: How do you tell a mob boss you don’t want to be his son? And is Zenka really ...

Book Cover Year Published: 2017 Genre: Humour; Contemporary Blurb: Gen X malcontent Conrad Jacoby is rapidly approaching the big 2-0. Although the rebellious scamp has skated by on minimum wage jobs throughout his teens, Conrad is now in search of a more meaningful pathway into his 20s to supplement the stagnant doldrums of mid ‘90s Minnesota. After landing a baggage-handling job at the airport, Conrad hits the ground running as the challenge of learning a new craft mirrors the struggles in his personal life. As he navigates difficult relationships with both his parents and long-time girlfriend—Minnie, Conrad uses his new trade to rise above the everyday frustrations and push forward into adulthood in this rollicking New Adult comedy. About the Author: CC Standish is an indie author based out of Seattle. As a college dropout and blue-collar worker, CC has learned a lot about the importance of a work/life balance, using his spare time to write on the side. Born into ...

My Copy of the Book Year Published: 2017 Genre: Women's Fiction; with a touch of romance. Blurb: Cat Mendoza needs a win. After a business failure and years of dating the wrong men, she’s ready to turn things around. First she must convince the residents of Sweet Lake, Ohio, that she’s taking her responsibilities seriously. As the events director of the newly restored Wayfair Inn, she has the support of her best friends, Linnie and Jada. But everyone else—including her overprotective mother and the well-meaning Sweet Lake Sirens—can’t help but chime in with advice about her plans, her apparently too-tight clothes, and her undeniable attraction to Ryan D’Angelo, the charming ad exec hired to promote the inn. Cat knows she should keep Ryan at a distance, but she’s drawn closer by the heartbreak he tries to hide. Will uncovering his secrets derail the new life Cat hopes to achieve…or will she gain something to cherish forever? About the Author: Award-winning author ...

My Copy of the Book Year Published: 2017 Genre: Romance; Western Blurb: Bronc rider Gunner Hardell never plans past the next stop on the rodeo. When he's home in Stampede, Texas, he's part-time manager of the run-down Moonlight Motel, to get his crotchety grandpa off his back. Then he meets interior designer Lydia Canter—hired to renovate the motel—and suddenly the gig gets a whole lot more appealing…   Lydia is looking for love, but there's nothing wrong with some Mr. Right Now while she waits for Mr. Right. But one steamy night with Gunner has unexpected consequences. And she would rather raise their baby alone than give the good-time cowboy a chance to break her heart. When Gunner learns he's going to be a daddy, he's determined to prove to Lydia he really is her Mr. Right! About the Author: Marin Thomas writes Women's Fiction for Berkley and western romances for Harlequin and Tule Publishing. To date she has contracted over 35 projects...

My Copy of the Book Year Published: 2017 Genre: Crime; Suspense Blurb: Oil—the currency of global economic power. Alter the supply a country controls; alter the power they wield.  Patrick Donovan, Texas wildcatter, sitting on a deep-water well, has tapped into a reservoir so vast it could totally alter the balance of economic power.  A software scatter-bomb planted in the trading software at the New York Mercantile Exchange. A software security engineer is killed. And the price of oil is dropping like a stone. Donovan goes missing, and an influential senior Senator from Texas is presumed dead. Sam Donovan, Patrick’s daughter, finds herself in the bullseye of a world scramble to gain control of her father’s well. A helicopter pilot operating between the rigs in the Gulf of Mexico, Sam knows how the game is played.  But this time, the stakes are life and death. As a hurricane bears down on the Gulf of Mexico, a man with everything to lose...

Book Cover Year Published: 2017 Genre: Chick Lit; Contemporary; Romance Blurb: She's a work in progress . . . Bailey Meredith has had it. As an assistant at a prestigious interior design firm, she’s tired of making coffee and filing invoices. She’ll do just about anything to get out from under the paperwork and into the field for real experience. Then she sees an ad for a job that seems too good to be true.  He's a fixer upper . . . Wilder Aldrich knew she would be perfect for the crew the moment he saw her. His hit home improvement show only hired the best, and Bailey had potential written all over her. It isn’t just her imaginative creativity and unmatched work ethic that grabs his attention. There’s just something about her.  With chemistry on screen, it’s only a matter of time before sparks fly behind the scenes as well. But with Bailey’s jaded views on romance and a big secret that could destroy Wilder and everyone he cares about are either of them ...

My Copy of the Book Year Published: 2017 Genre: Contemporary; Romance with a small dose of erotica Blurb: Mack Hamilton has spent a decade building Woolton Farm Estate into a thriving business with his brother, Miles. He's not used to failure. In fact, the only time he's ever failed was in marriage and understandably, he's not keen to go there again. Not if it means his daughter, Harriet will suffer.  Teacher, Layla Williams is the new girl in a town that's very set in it's ways. A city girl in need of a change, Layla's keen to become part of the small community, to build friendships and maybe make a home. Because a family who love each other, is the one thing she's always dreamed of. From the moment they meet, it's love at first sight for Mack and Layla. She's besotted to the point she'll deceive her housemates and risk her job.Mack wants Layla so much he's willing to consider the very thing he promised himself he'...