FROWNS AND GOWNS

 

The Mischief Series, Book 5

 

By Amanda M. Thrasher

 

 

Children’s Chapter Book / Fantasy / Fairies

Publisher: Progressive Rising Phoenix Press

Page Count: 236

Publication Date: September 12, 2023

 

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Embark on a Magical Adventure with Lilly, Boris, and Jack!

Get ready to join Lilly, Boris, and Jack on an unforgettable journey filled with excitement, laughter, and a touch of mayhem. Brace yourself for a whirlwind of mishaps as these three fairies plan a magnificent magical ball, only to encounter an unforeseen disaster! Experience the magic of friendship with Lilly, the quick-witted and resourceful fairy, Boris, the mischievous fairy with a heart of gold, and Jack, the troublemaker with a curious, adventurous spirit on their latest adventure.

Throughout, Lilly, Boris, and Jack teach the true meaning of friendship and teamwork. Together with their friends, they’ll overcome challenges, learn valuable lessons, and create memories that will last a lifetime. Don’t miss out on this enchanting tale!

 

 

 

 

Progressive Rising Phoenix Press

 

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Award-winning author Amanda M. Thrasher was born in England and moved to Texas, where she lives with her family. She writes YA, general fiction, middle grade, early reader chapter, and picture books. She is the founder and CEO of Progressive Rising Phoenix Press.

 

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of all five books in The Mischief Series

 

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PORTER & MIDGE:

 

PAWS AND PLAYTIME

 

by

 

Jennie Chen and Giselle Nevada

 

 

 

Children’s Picture Book / Pet Care / Dog Training

Series: Porter and Midge series

Publisher: Raise the Woof Press LLC

Page Count: 32 pages

Publication date: December 12, 2023

 

 

 

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Discover the enchanting world of Porter and Midge: Paws and Playtime – a rhyming children’s book that follows the heartwarming bond between two furry friends, Mastiff Porter and Greater Swiss Mountain Dog Midge, and their devoted companions, CJ and Lora.

 

On a sunny day, CJ’s thoughtful idea sets the stage for a joyful exploration of new ways to make Porter and Midge’s days even brighter.

 

Through rhythmic verses, follow their journey as they uncover imaginative games, canine enrichment activities, and thrilling dog sports, all while strengthening their unbreakable connection.

 

 

 

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Giselle Nevada has owned several mastiffs, acquired both from reputable breeders and via rescue. Fostering rescued mastiffs and helping them work through their issues led to a keen interest in socialization as a means of preventing future issues. She loves working with her dogs and has dabbled in carting, conformation, agility, rally, trick dog, nose work, and many other canine sports. Her puppy Porter is a testament to early socialization – he has achieved many performance dog titles and has done commercial work. He also has a role in a movie called Match Me If You Can directed by Marian Yeager.

 

 

Jennie Chen is a homesick Austinite who founded Keep Austin Dog Friendly. Over the last 20 years, Jennie has owned Greater Swiss Mountain Dogs and Lowchen. She has earned numerous titles in conformation, competitive obedience, rally, herding, animal assisted therapy, and more. She is passionate about the relationship people build with their beloved canines, and she has been an advocate for people living with disabilities who need a service dog to live independently. She is active in various dog clubs and can be seen on AKC.TV from time to time.

 

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Pawtographed hardcover copy of Porter and Midge: Paws for Safety

 

+ a series water bottle

 

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THE KILLER ENIGMA

 

Magnolia Bluff Crime Chronicles

 

Book 16

 

by BREAKFIELD AND BURKEY

 

NOW AVAILABLE FOR PRE-ORDER!

 

Cozy Mystery / Suspense / Cozy Mystery Series

 

Publisher: ICABOD Press

 

Coming August 19, 2023

 

 

 

 

Enough is Enough – JJ rumbled when the paparazzi invaded dinner.

JJ and Jo realize privacy doesn’t exist for them. They return to Magnolia Bluff to check on their friends and recapture the small-town anonymity.  In Magnolia Bluff, no one suspects their fame.
They discount the status of urban legends in favor of acceptance and a quiet, peaceful life. After all, a supermodel needs time and space to recharge between jobs. A geek wants time to adore his wife.

Does Magnolia Bluff hold the answers to their prayers?

Will their desires get clouded by a hidden secret?

Past, present, and future collide in a perfect storm no one expected. JJ and Jo take action to uncover the truth. Chief Tommy Jager likes them but feels they’re a lightning rod for trouble and disruption.

Who will live or die to prevent the truth from being exposed? The answers may be in the graveyard with fresh flowers on the gravestone.

Their friends are targets   –   Their dreams are broken   –   They must fight

 

 

Preorder on Amazon

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Charles Breakfield is a 25+ year technology expert in security, networking, voice, and anything digital. He enjoys writing, studying World War II history, travel, and cultural exchanges. He also enjoys wine tastings, wine-making, Harley riding, cooking extravaganzas, and woodworking.

Rox Burkey is a 25+ year applied technology professional who excels at optimizing technology and business investments for customers worldwide with a focus on optimized customer experiences. She writes white papers and documents with a marked preference for fiction.

Together they create award-winning stories that resonate with males and females, young and experienced adults, and bring a fresh new view to technology possibilities today.

 

 

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Hot Pot Murder (L.A. Night Market)
Cozy Mystery
2nd in Series
Setting – California
Publisher ‏ : ‎ Berkley (June 6, 2023)
Mass Market Paperback ‏ : ‎ 288 pages

 

Synopsis

 

Trouble is brewing for cousins Yale and Celine Yee after a hot pot dinner gets overheated and ends in murder in this second novel of the L.A. Night Market series by Jennifer J. Chow.

Yale and Celine Yee’s food stall business is going so well that they’ve been invited to join an exclusive dinner with the local restaurant owners association. The members gather together for a relaxing hot pot feast…until Jeffery Vue, president of the group, receives a literal shock to his system and dies.

Everyone at the meal is a suspect, but the authorities are homing in on family friend Ai Ho, owner of the restaurant where Jeffery was killed—and Yale’s dad is a close second on their list. Yale and Celine step up to the plate and investigate the dinner attendees: the association’s ambitious VP, a familiar frenemy, a ramen king, a snacks shopkeeper, and a second-generation restaurateur. It’s up to the detecting duo to figure out what really happened before their friends and family have to close their businesses for good.

 

 

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About the Author

 

Jennifer J. Chow writes cozies with heart, humor, and heritage. Her newest series is the L.A. Night Market Mysteries. The first book, Death By Bubble Tea, was nominated for both an Agatha Award (Best Contemporary Novel) and a Lefty Award (Best Humorous Mystery). It hit the SoCal Indie Bestseller List multiple times and was one Aunt Agatha’s Best of Cozies 2022, Kings River Life Staff Favorites of 2022, and one of the 2022 Bestsellers at Bel Canto Books. It’s been featured in Book Riot, BookBub, Bustle, CrimeReads, Goodreads, and Mystery Scene Magazine. The New York Times Book Review said of the novel: “Yale and Celine’s growing loyalty to each other, coupled with the warmth of Chow’s prose, adds extra depth, just like the tapioca balls nestled in a glass of bubble tea.” Jennifer currently serves as President on the board of Sisters in Crime and regularly blogs at chicksonthecase.com. She is also an active member of Crime Writers of Color and Mystery Writers of America.

 

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STOLEN OBSESSION

 

Annalisse Series, Book 1

 

Updated for 2022!

 

by

 

MARLENE M. BELL

 

 

Genre: Romantic Mystery
Publisher: Ewephoric Publishing
Date of Publication: March 20, 2018, Revised 2022
Number of Pages: 284

 

 

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PEOPLE DIE, BUT LEGENDS LIVE ON.

Manhattan antiquities appraiser Annalisse Drury dreams of a quiet life on the family farm among the sheep she loves, when her best friend is murdered. The police assume robbery is the motive because her friend’s expensive bracelet is missing. But the 500-year-old artifact is rumored to carry an ancient curse, one that unleashes evil upon any who dare wear the jewelry created for the Persian royal family—and Annalisse believes her friend is the latest victim.

Weeks later, Annalisse sees a necklace matching the stolen bracelet at a gallery opening. Convinced the necklace is part of the deadly collection, Annalisse begs the gallery’s owner to destroy the piece, but her pleas are ignored— despite the unnatural death that occurs during the opening. With two victims linked to the jewelry, Annalisse is certain she must act.

Desperate to keep the gallery owner safe, Annalisse reluctantly enlists the owner’s son to help—even though she’s afraid he’ll break her heart. Wealthy and devastatingly handsome, with a string of bereft women in his wake, Greek playboy Alec Zavos dismisses Annalisse’s concerns—until his parents are ripped from the Zavos family yacht during their ocean voyage near Crete.

Annalisse and Alec race across two oceans to save his mother, feared dead or kidnapped. As time lapses, the killer switches mode and closes in on the man who’s meant for Annalisse with the lifestyle she wants most.

But when it’s her turn as the hunted, will she choose to save Alec and his mother, or sacrifice everything to save herself?

 

Hold on for a heart-thumping adventure through exotic lands in this fast moving, romantic suspense mystery by Marlene M Bell.

 

 

Amazon US  ┃  Amazon UK  ┃  Amazon CA  ┃  Amazon AU

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Marlene M. Bell is an eclectic mystery writer, artist, photographer, and she raises sheep in beautiful East Texas with her husband, Gregg, three cats and a flock of horned Dorset sheep.

The Annalisse series — mysteries with a touch of romance —  has received numerous honors including the Independent Press Award for Best Mystery (Spent Identity) and FAPA (Florida Author’s President’s Gold Award) for two other installments, Stolen Obsession and Scattered Legacy. She also penned the first of her children’s picture books, Mia and Nattie: One Great Team! based on true events from the Bell’s ranch. The simple text and illustrations are a touching tribute of compassion and love between a little girl and her lamb.

 

 

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ONE GRAND PRIZE WINNER:

 

Tapestry overnighter bag, sterling necklace (handmade in Greece),

autographed copy of updated 2022 Stolen Obsession, $50 Amazon Gift Card

 

ONE RUNNER-UP:

 

Autographed copy of updated 2022 Stolen Obsession

 

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SWEET JANE,

 

JUST ONE LOOK,

 

&

 

I’LL BE SEEING YOU

 

by

 

Joanne Kukanza Easley

 

 

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Sweet Jane

 

Joanne Kukanza Easley’s debut novel

2019 Wisdom-Faulkner Award finalist

2020 Adult Fiction winner Texas Author Project

2020 Sarton Award Finalist

2020 Eric Hoffer Award Short List

A drunken mother makes childhood ugly. Jane runs away at sixteen, determined to leave her fraught upbringing in the rearview. Vowing never to return, she hitchhikes to California, right on time for the Summer of Love. Seventeen years later, she looks good on paper: married, grad school, sober, but her carefully constructed life is crumbling. When Mama dies, Jane returns for the funeral, leaving her husband in the dark about her history. Seeing her childhood home and significant people from her youth catapults Jane back to the events that made her the woman she is. She faces down her past and the ghosts that shaped her family. A stunning discovery helps Jane see her problems through a new lens.

 

Family Saga / Women’s Fiction / Historical Fiction

Publisher: Red Boots Press

Pages: 279 pages

Publication Date: September 17, 2022

 

 

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Just One Look

 

May 2022 Pulpwood Queen Book Club Pick

Shelf Unbound 2021 Notable 100 Best Indie Books

Recommended by the US Review of Books

In 1965 Chicago, thirteen-year-old Dani Marek declares she’s in love, and you best believe it. This is no crush, and for six blissful years she fills her hope chest with linens, dinnerware, and dreams of an idyllic future with John. When he is killed in action in Viet Nam, Dani’s world shatters. She launches a one-woman vendetta against the men she seeks out in Rush Street’s singles bars. Her goal: break as many hearts as she can. Dani’s ill-conceived vengeance leads her to a loveless marriage that ends in tragedy. At twenty-four, she’s left a widow with a baby, a small fortune, and a ghost—make that two. Set in the turbulent Sixties and Seventies, Just One Look explores one woman’s tumultuous journey through grief, denial, and letting go.

 

Family Saga / Women’s Fiction / Historical Fiction

Publisher: Red Boots Press

Pages: 293 pages

Publication Date: September 17, 2022

 

 

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I’ll Be Seeing You

 

The new release from Joanne Kukanza Easley, the multi-award-winning author of Sweet Jane and Just One Look

A saga spanning five decades, I’ll Be Seeing You, explores one woman’s life, with and without alcohol to numb the pain.

Young Lauren knows she doesn’t want to be a ranch wife in Palo Pinto County, Texas. After she’s discovered by a modeling scout at the 1940 Fort Worth Stock Show Parade, she moves to Manhattan to begin her glamourous career. A setback ends her dream, and she drifts into alcohol dependence and promiscuity. By twenty-four, she’s been widowed and divorced, and has developed a pattern of fleeing her problems with geographical cures. Lauren’s last escape lands her in Austin, where, after ten chaotic years, she achieves lasting sobriety and starts a successful business, but happiness eludes her.

Fast forward to 1985. With a history of burning bridges and never looking back, Lauren is stunned when Brett, her third husband, resurfaces, wanting to reconcile after thirty-three years. The losses and regrets of the past engulf her, and she seeks the counsel of Jane, a long-time friend from AA. In the end, the choice is Lauren’s. What will she decide?

Family Saga / Women’s Fiction / Addiction & Recovery / Historical Fiction

Publisher: Red Boots Press

Pages: 227 pages

Publication Date: August 28, 2022

 

 

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I’ll Be Seeing You Review

 

This complex and intriguing story follows the life of Ruby/Lauren from 1940 to 1985, from the young age of 16 to 61. We watch her grow, endure, falter, and finally succeed as she realizes that life isn’t always easy and we are in control of our destinies.

Lauren’s life isn’t easy, even though she has opportunities, from modeling at 16 to her aunt’s influence in her life. However, even though things may seem easy, she is still young and naive, and not worldly. She has to grow up quickly, and this might be a downfall for Lauren since she doesn’t have the luxury of time to learn about men and life.

One theme that runs rampant throughout this book is alcoholism. Lauren struggles with it as she gets older, including blackouts and behavior that is harmful to her. Many try to introduce AA to her, but it takes many years for her to be ready to take that step.

I found this story to be engaging, and I think I finished it faster than I expected since I couldn’t put it down. I enjoyed following Lauren’s life through careers, marriage, and family. I think we can all relate to various parts of this book and our own lives. I enjoyed hearing about all of the Texas based companies, such as Neiman Marcus and HEB, and the various settings of the story, including Mineral Wells. I felt that the story did justice to race relations based on the story’s timeframe. There are also mentions of WWII and rations that remind us that things weren’t great during that time.

I think there is a little something in this story that we all could relate to, whether it was her journey, career, relationship with her family, struggle with alcoholism, or marriage.

We give this book 5 paws up.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A retired registered nurse with experience in both the cold, clinical operating room and the emotionally fraught world of psychiatric hospitals, Joanne lives on a small ranch in the Texas Hill Country, where she writes fiction about complicated, twentieth-century women.

Her multi-award-winning debut, Sweet Jane, was named the adult fiction winner at the Texas Author Project and shortlisted for the Sarton Award and Eric Hoffer Award, among others. Just One Look, Joanne’s second novel was a May 2022 Pulpwood Queen Book Club Pick. I’ll Be Seeing You, her third novel, features characters from Sweet Jane. Her prize-winning short stories and poetry have appeared in several anthologies.

 

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Each receives an eBook of

 

SWEET JANE or

 

JUST ONE LOOK or

 

I’LL BE SEEING YOU

 

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The Meld: Magic, Please
Young Adult Paranormal
1st in Series
Setting – The fictional Mountain West town of Pinewood, Colorado
All Things That Matter Press (July 3, 2022)
Paperback ‏ : ‎ 143 pages

 

Synopsis

 

The Meld, an otherworldly group of six, has gathered in the past millennium to bestow gifts on the most interesting of all populations: adolescents. The Meld members comprise a yin/yang of deadly behaviors which qualified their membership: half took lives for noble reasons, half for selfish ones. They completed their circle with Delilah Mackley in 1962 and have since been operating at full strength to give a supernatural gift to their chosen charges. This time, they choose Colorado sophomore Millie Mahoney.

The murder of Millie’s mother and the resultant self-destruction of her father have rendered her life chaotic, which Millie fights by immersing herself in her great passion: words and their power. The Meld gives her the ability for her words to become real:
Everything she writes comes true.

While she’s too smart to bring her mother back to life, Millie does look for a way to heal her family … and maybe catch the loving attention of Derek Samson while she’s at it.

 

 

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Read for Free via Kindle Unlimited

 

 

About the Author

 

Kelley (Kelley Kaye, Kelley Kay Bowles, Kelley Gusich) taught High School English and Drama for twenty years in Colorado and California, but her love for storytelling dates back to creating captions for her high school yearbook. Maybe back to the tales she created around her Barbie and Ken. A 1994 MS diagnosis and many years of fertility struggles have (circuitously) brought Kelley, finally, to the life of writer and mother, both of which she adores. Death by Diploma, released by Red Adept Publishing in February 2016 and #1 for cozy mystery on Amazon in August that same year, is her debut cozy mystery, first in the Chalkboard Outlines® series. Book 2, Poison by Punctuation, was released on April 24, 2018, and the latest, Strangled by Simile, was released in March 2022. Her debut Young Adult Paranormal, Down in the Belly of the Whale, received the 2017 Indie Book of the Year from Aionios Books, which published the book on May 5, 2018. The first of The Meld YA Paranormal series: Magic, Please, was released July 3, 2022.

She’s also working with her husband to raise two active and busy teenage sons.

 

 

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DEADLY KEEPSAKES

 

A Tori Winters Mystery

 

by

 

ANITA DICKASON

 

 

NOW AVAILABLE FOR PRE-ORDER!

 

MYSTERY

Publisher: Mystic Circle Books

Coming July 10, 2022

Number of Pages: 360 pages

 

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The past becomes the future. Secrets that can kill!

 

After someone tries to kill her, Tori Winters is on the run. Looking for a place to hide, a mysterious phone call about a vague inheritance seems to be the answer. After all, who would think of looking for her in Granbury, a small quaint Texas town? Instead, her life is about to spin into an existence where nothing is as it seems. The historic house she inherits has secrets. Ones she’s been warned can kill. A stranger in a strange town, who can she trust? There is the kindly lawyer and his son, or the disinherited step-grandson. What secrets do they hide? Tori’s newfound fortune may not be a blessing. It could become her death warrant.

 

 

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Award-winning Author Anita Dickason is a twenty-two-year veteran of the Dallas Police Department. She served as a patrol officer, undercover narcotics detective, advanced accident investigator, tactical officer, and first female sniper on the Dallas SWAT team.

Anita writes about what she knows, cops and crime. Her police background provides an unending source of inspiration for her plots and characters. Many incidents and characters portrayed in her books are based on personal experience. For her, the characters are the fun part of writing as she never knows where they will take her. There is always something out of the ordinary in her stories.

In Anita’s debut novel, Sentinels of the Night, she created an elite FBI Unit, the Trackers. Since then, she has added three more Tracker crime thrillers, Going Gone!, A u 7 9, and Operation Navajo. The novels are not a series and can be read in any order.

As a Texas author, many of Anita’s books are based in Texas, or there is a link to Texas. When she stepped outside of the Tracker novels and wrote, Not Dead, she selected Meridian, a small community in central Texas for the location.

 

 

 

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Death Under The Perseids (A Havana Mystery)
Mystery
Hispanic American Literature & Fiction
4th in Series
Soho Crime (December 7, 2021)
Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 336 pages

 

Synopsis

 

There’s no such thing as a free cruise in Cuban American author Teresa Dovalpage’s addictively clever new Havana mystery.

 

Cuban-born Mercedes Spivey and her American husband, Nolan, win a five-day cruise to Cuba. Although the circumstances surrounding the prize seem a little suspicious to Mercedes, Nolan’s current unemployment and their need to spice up their marriage make the decision a no-brainer. Once aboard, Mercedes is surprised to see two people she met through her ex-boyfriend Lorenzo: former University of Havana professor Selfa Segarra and down-on-his-luck Spanish writer Javier Jurado. Even stranger: they also received a free cruise.

When Selfa disappears on their first day at sea, Mercedes and Javier begin to wonder if their presence on the cruise is more than coincidence. Mercedes confides her worries to her husband, but he convinces her that it’s all in her head.

However, when Javier dies under mysterious circumstances after disembarking in Havana, and Nolan is nowhere to be found, Mercedes scrambles through the city looking for him, fearing her suspicions were correct all along.

 

 

Amazon – On sale in June for $2.99 for the eBook

 

 

 

Praise

 

 

Excerpt

 

Surprise Tickets

 

The cruise ship Narwhal, all twelve decks of her, towered above the terminal building. It had a festive air, with the hull painted white and bright ribbons of red, yellow and green splashed all over. From a distance it looked like a giant tropical bird that had inexplicably landed on water.

August in Miami was, as usual, ninety-four degrees with a devilish mix of heat and humidity that made you want to crawl inside a refrigerator. The Nautilus instructions said to be at Terminal B before noon, but it was well past one and the line to enter the building wasn’t moving. It was worse than being at an airport, por Dios! Then I remembered that we had no right to complain. After all, we had gotten the cruise for free.

I was still scratching my head about the whole thing. It all began when a young woman showed up at Pretty and Pampered, the pet grooming salon where I worked part-time, asking for me. She looked like a teenager, but dressed professionally in a beige suit, and introduced herself as a Nautilus representative. I was getting ready to give a summer cut to a standard poodle when she presented me with an embossed envelope and cooed, “Congratulations, Ms. Spivey! You’ve just won two cruise tickets to Havana!”

I was born and raised in Havana. After marrying Nolan in 2008, I had returned many times to visit my grandmother but never thought of taking a cruise back. And in July 2017, sailing to Cuba was the last thing on my mind. “I’ve won what?” I asked.

The poodle took advantage of my surprise to get away and hide under a chair.

“A couple of tickets!” the girl chirped, perky as could be. “Aboard the Narwhal, our most popular ship! The cruise’s departing on August the tenth.”

Nautilus Cruise Line had started to offer short cruises that included Cuba in their itineraries, she explained. They were carrying out their biggest ever promotional campaign with many giveaways. I was one of the lucky winners. Cool, eh? What that chick didn’t say was how and where I had signed up for the raffle or whatever it was that I had won.

I used to enter sweepstakes that promised everything from five hundred dollars a week for life to a grand prize of a million, or a Porsche, or a weekend in Paris, but that was a long time ago. It had finally dawned on me that most were a waste of time, if not outright scams. I didn’t know how these Nautilus people found me either, but I guess everybody’s information is online nowadays.

Besides, the idea of winning something, anything, was appealing. I kept my mouth shut and accepted the “gift.”

As soon as the girl left, Candela hugged me. She smelled of patchouli, sandalwood incense and, faintly, wet dog hair.

“I’m so happy for you!” she said. “That’s the start of the hot streak I told you about. ¿Viste?”

I didn’t “see” anything clearly, but went along with her.

Candela and I had met at a Starbucks in 2011. Nolan and I had been in Gainesville for around five months, and I already missed Miami and the friends I made there. Not that there were many.

Since I didn’t drive yet, I couldn’t go out on my own to meet new people, and my husband’s colleagues wouldn’t have anything to do with me. I needed someone to talk to. To vent, actually. In my own language.

So I was waiting for my iced caramel macchiato when someone said coño aloud. Coño is like the Freemasons’ secret handshake for Cubans. I looked up and saw a young woman, curvy and petite, with arms covered in jingling silver bracelets and a zodiac sign necklace.

“You Cuban?” I asked shyly in English.

“Kind of.” She smiled. “You are.”

Daughter and granddaughter of Cubans, Candela spoke fluent, if at times old-fashioned, Spanish. She was into esoteric stuff—astrology, the Law of Attraction, the Ascended Masters, the whole metaphysical enchilada. She said she liked my aura that first day. I just liked hanging out with someone who cursed in public. We became fast friends.

When she opened Pretty and Pampered, I joined her as a “pet stylist.” I didn’t know much about styling pets but enjoyed working with cats and dogs, and even the occasional rabbit—why anybody would want to groom a rabbit is beyond my understanding. The cochinos stink and bite, and I got three stitches after a Holland Lop tried to take off my finger.

The weekend before the ticket surprise, Candela had read the Tarot for me. I got the upright Wheel of Fortune, one of the most auspicious cards for money, according to her, and the Eight of Wands, up too, indicating a trip. I also drew the Star Reversed. “A warning sign, but you got two good cards out of three,” she concluded. “The Star Reversed just means you should be careful, now that so many wonderful things are bound to happen.”

Even if I didn’t believe in Tarot, the Eight of Wands card popped into my head when I opened the envelope with the Nautilus Cruise Line logo.

I thought of Nolan too. His job situation had him all stressed out. The cruise could be turned into something fun, a second honeymoon of sorts. We hadn’t had much intimacy, sexual or otherwise, for months. I hadn’t called him “papito,” my romantic nickname for him, in a long time. He needed a vacation, poor guy. So did I.

Candela passed me the poodle, who wasn’t happy to be back on the grooming table.

“You’re going to live la vida loca for a few days, Merceditas. It’ll do you good!”

Candela was the only person in Gainesville who called me Merceditas—the affectionate form of Mercedes. Everybody else called me Mercy; Merceditas was too long and difficult to pronounce for most Americans, including my husband. I had tried using Mercedes, but people kept asking why I had been named after a car.

I reread the letter. Though it seemed legit, that was the first time I had heard of the company. I knew Carnival—Nolan and I had taken one of their el cheapo Cancún cruises when we lived in Miami. Viking and Princess were familiar names from the ads. But Nautilus?

Candela said it was a small but well-established company that catered to “older people with disposable income.” Seeing that I didn’t fit into that category, I asked her to call their main office—my accent is a problem over the phone because I tend to drop the final consonants. They confirmed that there was a paid-for reservation in my name, a balcony stateroom for two.

“It’s all good, chica!” she said, her silver charms tinkling as she spun around. “Estate tranquila and don’t be so suspicious of everything. You have to start trusting the universe. Now let’s go celebrate!”

And so we did at La Margarita Bar and Grill. Nolan had a fit when I came home around midnight, tired and tipsy. But when I told him about the cruise the next morning, he got over it fast.

“It’s a godsend, Mercy,” he said. “Just what we need.”

In truth, he needed it more than I did. It had been a strange and difficult year for him.

The rough spell started in March when his daughter, Katy, who had moved to Albuquerque, disinvited him from her wedding, asking her maternal uncle to walk her down the aisle instead. She’d become incensed when Nolan wanted to include me in the invitation, though I had no desire whatsoever to be part of it. Katy had once been his favorite, and they had been close until he divorced her mother to marry “the Cuban homewrecker.”

A few weeks later, a certain Doctor Fernández, a Cuban professor, asked Nolan to give a lecture at the University of Havana in the late summer. The catch was, he discovered later, that Doctor Fernández couldn’t buy him a plane ticket “because of the embargo.” That was a lie the size of the Narwhal. He simply expected Nolan to pay for his own airfare and stay. That’s how things work in Cuba: you’re a foreigner, you pay for everything.

Nolan had accepted and was looking forward to the trip—it was an honor, he assured me, to be invited by my (almost) alma mater. But then, in May, he lost his job. Though Point South College didn’t actually fire him, they didn’t renew his contract, which was the same for all practical purposes. He didn’t have tenure, so there was nothing he could do.

His firing didn’t surprise me. Nolan was very liberal. Point South was a small private college with conservative views. He’d had disagreements with both his department chair and his dean several times over the years, and they finally decided to get rid of him. There had been warning signs, subtle and not so much, like the day he came home stunned because no one had asked him to be part of the hiring committee for a new literature professor. (Later he figured out that they were interviewing his replacement.) Or when they sent everybody in his department, except him, to a professional development conference in Las Vegas. He knew that his Point South days were numbered.

In truth, he had never liked his stuffy colleagues or the college’s conservative bent. He still pined for the status and privilege he had once enjoyed as a tenured and popular professor at Florida International University—until I showed up and turned his life upside down.

In any case, after he was let go, he panicked. He had made some inquiries and sent his resume to a few colleges in a frenzied flurry, but none had been answered yet. He talked about teaching Spanish at a local high school, but that wasn’t going to work either. I knew, because I had been an occasional sub, how sassy and plain disrespectful those kids were. They would eat him alive.
Suddenly, spending several hundred dollars on a trip to Havana to deliver an unpaid lecture didn’t sound like a good idea. He was ready to turn down the invitation, but the free cruise changed his mind. That, and the fact that the gig would fluff up his résumé. He was planning to attend the Modern Language Association’s annual convention in January to meet with future employers. In my non-scholarly eyes, the convention was a huge boring meeting where jaded or out-of-work professors and hopeful graduate students listened to dull presentations and nosed around for jobs.

–This text refers to the paperback edition.

 

 

About the Author

 

Born in Havana, Cuba, Teresa Dovalpage has a PhD in Hispanic Literature from the University of New Mexico and is currently a Spanish professor at New Mexico Junior College. She is also the author of twelve novels, three collections of short stories, and three theater plays. Her Havana Mystery series, published by Soho Crime, debuted with the culinary mystery Death Comes in through the Kitchen (2018). The second novel, Queen of Bones (2019) was chosen by NBC News as one of the top 10 books by and about Latinos in 2019. The third and fourth — Death of a Telenovela Star (2020) and Death under the Perseids (2021) — are set on Caribbean cruises. You can find more about her on her English blog or Spanish blog.

 

 

 

 

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TURN TO ME

 

A Misty River Romance

 

by

 

BECKY WADE

 

Contemporary Romance / Christian Fiction / Clean & Wholesome
Series: A Misty River Romance

Publisher: Bethany House Publishers

Date of Publication: May 3, 2022

Number of Pages: 416 pages

 

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His promise will cost him far more than he imagined.

 

Guilt has defined Luke Dempsey’s life, but it was self-destructiveness that landed him in prison. When his friend and fellow inmate lay dying shortly before Luke’s release, the older man revealed he left a string of clues for his daughter, Finley, that will lead her to the treasure he’s hidden. Worried that she won’t be the only one pursuing the treasure, he gains Luke’s promise to protect her until the end of her search.

Spunky and idealistic, Finley Sutherland is the owner of an animal rescue center and a defender of lost causes. She accepts Luke’s help on the treasure hunt while secretly planning to help him in return–by coaxing him to embrace the forgiveness he’s long denied himself.

As they draw closer to the final clue, their reasons for resisting each other begin to crumble, and Luke realizes his promise will push him to the limit in more ways than one. He’ll do his best to shield Finley from unseen threats, but who’s going to shield him from losing his heart?

 

 

 

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Becky Wade is the 2018 Christy Award Book of the Year winner for True to You. She is a native of California who attended Baylor University, met and married a Texan, and moved to Dallas. She published historical romances for the general market, then put her career on hold for several years to care for her children. When God called her back to writing, Becky knew He meant for her to turn her attention to Christian fiction. Her humorous, heart-pounding contemporary romance novels have won three Christy Awards, the Carol Award, the INSPY Award, and the Inspirational Reader’s Choice Award for Romance. Becky lives in Dallas, Texas with her husband and three children.

 

 

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