Publication Day – Page 27

Happy Publication Day – 15 November 2024

Playing The Game By Sasha Lace

She dominates on the pitch. But he’s the boss in the bedroom.

Miri

I’ve always dreamed of playing professional football, so when the new director of Calverdale Ladies wants to sign me, I should be ecstatic. But renowned billionaire playboy Gabe Rivers doesn’t just want me as his new striker…

I need to get to the top because of my talent on the pitch, not in the sack. So I can’t be another prize for Gabe. Even if he is infuriatingly gorgeous.

Gabe

Do I care that the press have decided I’m a heartless womanizer? Not one bit. I’ve never given up anything I want, and that includes Miri Forster.

She’s the most talented player I’ve ever seen, and sexy as hell. I know I can get her out of my system—I just need one night. And I don’t care what it costs me…

Playing The Score By Sasha Lace

He’s wanted her for years…but they’re professionals now. Who will cross the line first?

Skylar

I’ve fought my way to the captaincy of Calderdale Ladies, and it means everything to me. So when my toxic boyfriend breaks my heart, I bottle it up. The team comes first.

Dr Reece Forster is supposed to be getting the team in the right head space for victory, not counselling me through heartache, but I can’t help opening up to him.

The hot doc is off limits, but the chemistry between us is off the charts…

Reece

I’ve longed for Skylar Marshall since we were in school, when she was prom queen and I was eating lunch with the librarian. She never even knew I existed.

And now? I’m good at my job because I’m in control. The professional boundaries are there for a reason.

But when Skylar confides in me, it’s all I can do not to abandon my principles completely. If I tell her how I feel, I could lose everything. But, how can something that feels this right be wrong…?

Playing For Keeps By Sasha Lace

She’s breaking all his rules.

Lana

The press say I’m the wild child of women’s football, and now a tabloid journalist’s blackmailing me. No wonder I needed distraction in the shape of Alex, the men’s team’s new Scottish goalie.

It was a one-night stand: fun and done. I don’t do commitment – and he’s old enough to be my dad. But there’s something different about Alex…

Alex

Lana is like a tornado. Fierce. Devastating. Just passing through. My son, Brodie, is my world, and he needs someone who’s sticking around.

But Lana’s made me feel alive again for the first time in years, and I can’t get her out of my head. Is a future with this party girl too much to hope for…?

Playing To Win By Sasha Lace

She only wants a winter fling with no promises. But rules are there to be broken.

Madison

After being jilted in Kentucky, playing for Calverdale Ladies in England was a chance to escape and spend Christmas alone, avoiding my feelings.

Which is how I’ve ended up snowed in at a Welsh pub with a retired rugby player who’s hot enough to thaw me out.

But when the snow’s gone, so am I. I won’t let another man in, not even one as gorgeous as Geraint…

Geraint

Running the pub, I’ve had flings with guests, but never one as sexy as Madison.

Too bad she’s so closed off. For both our sakes, we’ve agreed to keep our relationship physical. No attachments. No regrets.

Which is good, because I promised my dad I’d hold on to the Dragon Inn, no matter what. So I’m fine with no commitments, because I can’t ask a woman with a brilliant career in London to give everything up to be with me, in the middle of nowhere. Can I?

Don’t You Want Me Baby? By Rachel Dove

Amber Fitzpatrick is about to hit thirty and has achieved none of the things she hoped to have done by now. Her dreams of owning her own business seem out of reach. Her boyfriend has just dumped her and now her biological clock is clanging in her head.

But maybe Amber doesn’t need a man for the next stage of her life? Maybe as an independent woman she can have a baby all by herself?

There’s only one problem. Handsome but excruciatingly annoying best friend Tyler Williams. Tyler thinks Amber’s motherhood plans are plain crazy! She just needs to wait for Mr. Right to come along…and maybe he’s closer than she thinks?

But with Amber hellbent on doing it alone, Tyler sets out to prove to her that being her best friend could also come with excellent benefits…if only she’s brave enough to take the chance.

Happy Publication Day – 12 November 2024

Someone Like You By Sandy Barker

What do you do when you realise you’ve fallen for your best friend, but he sees you as the sister he never had? And to make things worse, you’re stuck in the middle of a matchmaking scheme to find him someone else!

Best friends Gaby and Raff are inseparable and know each other inside out. But with Raff’s string of disastrous relationships and his newfound fame as Britain’s Best Baker, it’s time to enlist the Ever After Agency to help him find true love.

At first, Gaby is all in – Raff is a catch, after all. But as she secretly helps to find his perfect match, she’s hit with unexpected pangs of jealousy. And before she can act on her feelings, Raff falls for one of his dates.

Can Gaby keep her emotions in check, or will she risk ruining their friendship to find out if Raff feels the same way?

The Forgotten One By Catherine Bybee

Sarah McNeilly is a rare find in the tabloid industry. She won’t ignite gossip. She finds the truth. And for once, that’s what her boss wants. With her job on the line, Sarah’s latest assignment is to identify the elusive “Maximillian Smith,” unearth his connection to the billionaire Stone family, and dig up some dirt.

Yesterday Max was an ordinary workingman, concerned with little more than the price of gas. Now he suddenly has a family, jaw-dropping wealth, and an avid (if clumsy) reporter on his trail. With the press threatening to destroy his new life, he needs to release his real story strategically, and Sarah is the key—not to mention an adorable yet invaluable resource for finding his mother.

As Max and Sarah team up to peel back the ugly layers of Max’s past, they stumble heart-first into their fiery attraction. But when their research threatens their newly built trust, it’s their future that is on the line.

Rolling Toward Clear Skies By Catherine Ryan Hyde

Maggie Blount, divorced mother of two and California physician, puts her private practice on hold when disaster strikes. Doctors on Wheels takes her and Alex—Maggie’s professional and romantic partner—wherever they’re needed. After rolling into rural Louisiana in the wake of a category five hurricane, Maggie immediately bonds with two sisters and their puppy, all orphaned by the storm. It’s enough to break Maggie’s heart, and she’s not leaving them behind.

Feeling blessed and looking forward to their new foster home in affluent Vista del Mar—a world apart from the one they’ve known—Jean and Rose are polite, appreciative, and humble. Frankly, they’re the polar opposite of Maggie’s own self-involved teenage daughters, Willa and Gemma, who resist this intrusion by strangers into their privileged lives. Soon enough, Maggie’s new blended family is in chaos.

Teaching Willa and Gemma about gratitude and empathy will be hard enough. Maggie must also admit her own role in their entitled upbringing, undo the damage, and anticipate the needs of all four girls and a puppy, all amid faraway natural disasters and those closer to home.

I Do With You By Lauren Landish

Hope Barlowe is a vow away from a lakeside wedding to her high school sweetheart. Next, check off her follow-up dreams: two kids, a dog, a home, and a happy ever after. But suddenly, ever after seems like a very long time. Instead of saying I do, Hope thinks I can’t and bolts for the woods—right into the unpredictable life of a handsome tattooed hiker.

Days into a three-week getaway, struggling musician Ben Taylor is in search of inspiration. He never thought he’d find a bride stumbling through the bramble. Right away her sweet baby blues, confounding dilemma, and spirited independence strike a chord. Ben has found his muse, and he’s falling fast. Hope is finding something just as important—herself.

Soon enough Hope and Ben have all of Maple Creek talking—and divided. Where do they go from here? If Hope has learned anything, it’s that happiness is more than a checklist, and dreams can change in a heartbeat.

Happy Publication Day – 7 November 2024

Secrets Of Swanfield House By Elayne Grimes

When Marcie Mosse receives news that her grandmother is sick, she rushes back to her childhood village in the remote Scottish Highlands. Despite the tragic circumstances, returning to her family’s ancestral estate, a once grand and now crumbling farmhouse overlooking a crystal-clear loch, feels like a long-awaited homecoming.

Reconnecting with childhood friends, Marcie is flooded with memories of her life before moving to the city. Then, during a windswept horseback ride along the edge of the loch, she bumps into Ruaridh Balfour. With the same bear-like hug and dry wit that won her over all those years ago, Ruaridh still knows how to read her mind – and make her heart flutter. But Marcie has a life back in London, not to forget a fiancé.

While torn between her past and present, Marcie grows increasingly concerned about her uncle, who’s been like a father to her and seems to be fading before her eyes. Marcie’s instincts tell her something is wrong, and it’s connected to a mysterious new farmhand. As secrets rear their heads and family tragedy strikes, Marcie must decide where she truly belongs – and just how far she’ll go to protect those she loves.

Breaking The Ice By Amy Andrews

A bookshop face off!

NHL hot shot, Nick Hawkeye Hawke has 4 months to recuperate from a potentially career ending injury. All he has to do is take it easy and keep things low key. So, looking after his grandmother’s beloved second hand romance bookshop and working very closely with the ruthlessly efficient Samantha Evans is just what he needs right? Wrong!

Career driven Sam has impulsively decided to swap her highly stressful corporate job for a slower pace in her favourite bookshop at the exact time her biological clock has started to tick. And she wants absolutely none of that. But when your boss is a hot hockey superstar and you can’t stop daydreaming of him being your baby daddy, forced proximity takes on a whole new meaning.

With temptation around every book shelf, Nick and Sam find themselves skating on thin ice until they put themselves firmly in the friend zone. But the more they try to resist their slow burn, the more they want each other. How long can they stay in the zone until one of them breaks the ice?

Happy Publication Day – 5 November 2024

The Party Line By Carolyn Brown

Returning home to Ditto, Texas, is bittersweet for Lila Matthews. Her dear and feisty aunt Gracie has passed away, leaving Lila her estate. That includes a centuries-old house, a field of the freshest strawberries in Atascosa County, more money than Lila can count, and a secret Aunt Gracie took to her grave. All the angels in heaven won’t be able to pry it out of her.

For more than eighty years, generations of folks in Ditto have whispered and gossiped about what the secret could be. When Lila inherits Aunt Gracie’s legacy, ears perk up and tongues start wagging. As Lila reacquaints herself with locals, finds warmth in family—extended and otherwise—and cozies up to a handsome new neighbor, she begins collecting clues to the past. They’re revealing an Aunt Gracie nobody knew—and a life of rebellion, broken hearts, and selfless love that affected more people than anyone realized.

Whatever reason Aunt Gracie had for leaving Lila the secret, will it now be Lila’s secret to keep?

My Darling Jane By Ilsa Madden-Mills

On an ordinary day, Jane Darling wouldn’t be caught dead in a sports bar wearing a toga with angel wings. But she’s desperate to launch her matchmaking business to secure her young daughter’s future. Her mission: to attract new clients at any cost.

Her Cupid outfit catches the eye of New York’s beloved star quarterback, Jasper Jannich. She and Jasper have always clashed, but when a pushy admirer goes too far, he steps in as an unexpected knight in shining armor.

He offers a tantalizing proposal: to be Cupid’s Arrow’s premier client. Reluctantly, Jane agrees, aware of the business potential despite her reservations about Jasper and his playboy reputation.

As she sets him up on date after date, it grows clear that Jane’s the only woman he wants.

She is his goal, his endgame.

She’s not not interested…but her heart has been burned before. To get anywhere, they’ll need courage and faith, not just sizzling chemistry.

He’s ready to make the pass. Is his darling ready to catch it?

Happy Publication Day – 31 October 2024

Lost And Found In Venice By Joanna Knowles

Rosie Redbrush, a travel agent working for Wanderlust Wishes travel agency, is someone who sells holidays but never takes them. At twenty-nine, she lives a quiet, comfortable life in the town she grew up in. But then, just a few days before Christmas, a problematic customer tricks Rosie into becoming a tour guide for a group of ten disgruntled old-age pensioners in Venice! And suddenly, Rosie’s quiet life is thrown into disarray.

Escorting an elderly group through the streets of Italy’s most romantic city is hard enough, but throw in a neurotic aquaphobe, an accidental Santa race, a regrettable selfie, and a missing backpack, suddenly Rosie finds herself extremely lost in Venice, without a penny or a passport to her name.

Rosie can’t go home. And as she travels Italy looking for a solution, what she doesn’t expect to find are a loving family, a group of eclectic new friends, and the possibility of true love in the most unlikely of places…

Happy Publication Day – 30 October 2024

A Very Irish Christmas By Debbie Johnson

One part American sugar, two parts Irish spice. Cassie O’Hara is about to discover the recipe for the sweetest Christmas…

When New York-born Cassie O’Hara decides to use the money her sassy Irish nana Nora left in her will to book a month-long stay in a quaint country village, she’s expecting a cozy cottage, steak-and-ale pie and plenty of Christmas cheer. Instead, she gets a draughty disaster covered in dust, a temperamental stray dog and two devastatingly handsome men vying for her attention…

There’s Charles, the dashing English aristocrat with an enormous manor house and a heart of gold. And Ryan, a curly-haired Irish handyman with a past he won’t talk about and an accent that makes her weak at the knees.

When Charles enlists Cassie’s event-planning expertise to save his family estate, she finds herself working shoulder to shoulder with Ryan, breathing new life into Bancroft Manor. As village life weaves its spell, Cassie uncovers some intriguing secrets about Nana Nora’s past. With her return ticket looming and her heart pulling her in unexpected directions, can Cassie find the love and belonging Nana Nora always wanted for her?

Happy Publication Day – 29 October 2024

Stuck Together By Lily Joseph

The hate is real. So is the chemistry.

Annie is heading into the holidays alone. And as a confirmed singleton, she decides to open a shop selling the kind of treats every single woman would want to find under the tree. After all, who doesn’t like to get a ‘Premium Sensual Lifestyle Product’ for Christmas, right?

Penn is in a bind. He needs to come home for Christmas with a girl, or his parents will set him up with someone ‘suitable’. Nothing is too good for the Honourable Peregrine Burton-Edwards after all. But that’s not what Penn wants. He just wants to sell vintage records in his shop and meet a nice, normal girl.

The first time Annie and Penn meet, Annie feels a flutter in her chest – he’s tall, dark and handsome, with cheekbones you could sharpen a blade on. So when he offers to share the shop with her to save on rent, she gladly accepts.

Huge mistake… Annie and Penn are poles apart and butt heads at every turn. But with the holidays looming, Penn will soon need to ask for a big favour, and Annie, with no plans to speak of, is the only girl who can help. As the arguments get more heated, so do the sparks flying between them. Will they put their differences aside and come together? And could it be for more than just Christmas?

Holiday Hideaway By Mary Kay Andrews

Tilly Farriday isn’t feeling very jolly this season. Recently divorced and broke, she’s squatting in one of her rental agency’s properties until her new home is ready. The sprinkles on top of the burnt Christmas cookie that is her life? The new owner shows up early, forcing Tilly to hide in the attic to save her job…and what remains of her dignity.

George Holloway is here to sell his granduncle’s house—and to reconsider whether he and his fiancée are right for each other. Amid home repairs, George notices strange noises and missing food, but as much as he gets his rental agent on the phone, Tilly dodges every invitation to meet. He’s sure that someone’s here with him, and it’s certainly not the Ghost of Christmas Past, Present, or Future.

As Tilly and George circle each other, they both wonder where their lives are headed and if, maybe, meeting each other is just the Christmas miracle they need.

Happy Publication Day – 28 October 2024

The Bookshop At The Cornish Cove By Kim Nash

Dare to dream big…

When Nancy opened her dream bookshop overlooking the golden sands and shimmering waters of Driftwood Bay, she may have taken on a little too much. She might know all about books, but doesn’t know the first thing about business! She did however, want to do something meaningful with the inheritance money she got from her beloved Aunty Theresa.

When Dennis, visiting grandson of one of her dearest friends, offers to help, Nancy knows she can’t say no. Dennis is a high-flying businessman, with a fancy London job and a successful banking portfolio to prove it.

Trouble is, he makes the worst first impression. Nothing short of an insufferable know-it-all, Dennis takes every opportunity to remind her how out of her depth she is.

But Nancy knows her strengths, and just as much as she needs Dennis, he needs her too. There’s plenty she can teach him, and the more she shows off her world of Driftwood Bay, where the pace of life is slower and the morning sunrises are the most beautiful thing you can witness, perhaps they could become more than just business partners?

Happy Publication Day – 27 October 2024

About Last Night By Christy McKellen

Keeping it strictly professional…

Radio DJ Lula Lazenby isn’t often lost for words, but this time she’s speechless! The man she just shared an exquisite one night with turns out to be her new boss…and his first job is to fire her!

Executive Tristan Bamfield wasn’t planning to stay in London long. Turn up, handle his father’s business and leave. But his inconvenient and instantaneous attraction to Lula has really gone and complicated things!

Tristan is a professional and everyone deserves a second chance – especially when you can’t escape the red-hot memories so he quickly reinstates Lula. Until that leads to weeks of tantalizing torture working with Lula in the studio. Tristan’s not here for a happy ever after, but his challenge now is going to be figuring out how to keep their off-the-charts attraction under wraps until it’s time to leave.

Happy Publication Day – 24 October 2024

Snow Going Back By Emma Tallon

Everyone is heading home for the holidays. Everyone except Kate. Having just run away from her boyfriend Lance’s unexpected proposal (in front of her entire family), Kate was the only person in her office happy to take an unexpected last-minute work trip posting to Boston.

Arriving in the snow-covered, fairy-light-filled city, Kate feels immediately at home. That is until she meets Sam, a cross between a lumberjack and an Abercrombie model standing in the kitchen of her new place. Which also happens to be his home thanks to a work mix-up. Given that it’s Christmas and there is nowhere else to stay, they agree to make it work.

But pretty soon it’s clear that Sam is not the ideal house mate. From drinking all the milk, turning the hot water off whilst she’s showering, and insisting she stay in her room for the entirety of ‘game night’ with the boys, Kate thinks Sam is the absolute worst. And he thinks the same of her.

When Sam surprisingly comes to her rescue, his frosty exterior finally thaws and when they open up to each other, they realise they have more in common than they thought. But when Lance unexpectedly arrives, Kate’s heart is torn. Go home with Lance or spend the holidays with a man she hardly knows, but who could turn out to be the one…

Snowed In With You By Heidi Stephens

WHEN THINGS SNOWBALL, CAN FROSTY FEELINGS THAW?

Lucy hasn’t left the country in years. In fact, she’s barely left Bristol’s city limits. So, when the opportunity presents itself to join a work trip to the Swiss Alps, she’s wary, especially when she learns that it will coincide with that weekend – the one that, eleven years ago, tore her world in two.

But how can she turn down an all-expense-paid trip to the snow-capped Alps? Lucy knows what Leo would say if he were still with her, and besides, she’ll have her work husband, Jonno, there for emotional support.

What – or who – she didn’t bank on, however, was moody (read: rude) Natestepping in at the last minute. And what’s worse, they’re the only two in the group who don’t ski, so they’re stuck with each other . . . up the side of a mountain in the middle of a snowstorm.

With the weather closing in, an avalanche leaves them snowbound in an alpine bar with an eclectic cast of fellow refugees. But with roaring log fires and steaming mugs of glühwein (and maybe a shot or two of Jägermeister), it’s a chance for Lucy and Nate to discover there might be more to one another than meets the eye.

Where will their mountainside adventure leave them when the snow finally melts?

The Secret Christmas Bookshop By Cressida McLaughlin

Can their Christmas love story last a lifetime?

In a village by the sea, where wintry skies bring a dusting of sparkling snow, somebody is opening an unexpected gift…

When Sophie receives a surprise package, she’s intrigued to find a beautifully bound book inside.

Sophie is desperate to discover the mystery sender, and her hunt draws her to the enigmatic Harry. The subject of much gossip since his return from London, Harry keeps to himself in his crumbling manor house.

But they are both about to learn that the best stories can take on a life of their own.

Christmas With The Knights By Hannah Langdon

When event planner Fallon Honeywood collapses from overwork after a particularly punishing Christmas party, she reluctantly agrees to spend the holidays with her soap opera-star mother at Blakeney Hall, a grand English manor on the frosty Yorkshire moors. But what starts as an awkward family reunion soon becomes an unexpected adventure…

Fallon finds herself drawn into the charming world of the aristocratic owners of the estate – handsome widower Alexander Knight and his sensitive son Theo. As her eyes and Alexander’s meet across plans to launch his new artisanal gin business at the local Christmas Fayre, Fallon wonders if her chaotic city life might have been masking a deep loneliness she’s hidden all along…

With the help of eccentric aunt Constance Knight, a rescue donkey named Heathcliff and her adorably scruffy little dog Runcible, Fallon slowly begins to heal. But as Christmas draws near – pine needles and spicy cloves scenting the air and mistletoe festooning the doorways – Fallon faces a terrifying decision. Could this be the year she finally opens her heart? And will she choose to return to her old life in London, or find an unexpected home among the snowflake-dusted Yorkshire moors, where Christmas wishes just might come true?