In no particular order, here are thirteen books on my TBR shelf.
1. Highland Wishes by Leanne Burroughs: With the Scottish War for Independence raging, a young laird heads to the Scottish/English border to avenge his father’s brutal murder. After kidnapping his enemy’s daughter, he whisks her away to his Highland castle, where they wage their own war - of strong wills and growing emotions - as strife intensifies between their countries. Seemingly doomed by their differences, can two people find happiness in each other’s arms with such enormous odds stacked against them - or is theirs a love to last through the ages?
2. Servant: The Awakening by L.L. Foster: Gabrielle Cody has the ability to see the demons among us as they really are-and the responsibility to destroy them. She can’t allow anyone to get in her way, even the magnetic Detective Luther Cross. Sensing a malevolent presence watching and stalking her, Gaby is drawn again and again to an abandoned hospital surrounded by an aura of sickness and suffering-and unimaginable evil.
3. Leading Her to Heaven by Kayleigh Jamison: As the eldest daughter of an English earl, Lady Susanna Cavendish has led a sheltered life of privilege and leisure. Notorious warrior Blair Ruthven is laird of the fiercest clan in Scotland. Forced into marriage by feuding kings to forge a political union between their countries, Blair and Susanna must find peace between themselves as they battle ages-old prejudices - and vie for one another’s hearts.
4. The Dead Room by Heather Graham: At the start of this chilling paranormal thriller from bestseller Graham (Kiss of Darkness), anthropologist Leslie MacIntyre eagerly accepts an invitation to work on an archeological dig near New York City’s Hastings House, a historic building that survived the explosion which a year earlier seriously injured her and killed her fiancé, Matt Connolly. As a temporary resident of Hastings House, Leslie, who has developed the ability to communicate with ghosts, sees Matt in her dreams, complete with convincing erotic love scenes. A secondary plot adds to the intrigue as Matt’s cousin, PI Joe Connolly, searches for a missing social worker, whose disappearance may be linked to that of local prostitutes. Leslie’s paranormal powers lead her to not only important archeological discoveries but also grave personal danger.
5. Dakota Home by Debbie Macomber: Buffalo Valley has found new life. People have started moving to this town—people like Lindsay Snyder, who came as a teacher and stayed, marrying local farmer Gage Sinclair. And now Lindsay’s best friend, Maddy Washburn, has decided to pull up stakes and join her in Buffalo Valley, hoping for the same kind of satisfaction. And the same kind of love…
Jeb McKenna is a rancher, a solitary man who’s learned to endure. Maddy—unafraid and openhearted—is drawn to Jeb, but he rejects her overtures. Until one of North Dakota’s deadly storms throws them together…
Those few days and nights bring unexpected consequences for Maddy and Jeb. Consequences that, one way or another, affect everyone in Buffalo Valley.
6. The Ring on Her Finger by Elizabeth Bevarly: Heiress Lucinda Hollander decides to get engaged — to a man who thrusts a rock on her finger and promptly disappears — leaving Lucinda to take the rap for a crime she didn’t commit.
Lucinda goes on the lam, and even though she’s never held — or used — a dust mop she goes “underground” as a housekeeper on a large estate. After all, she knows her way around big houses, and making floors sparkle is a whole lot better than making license plates.
She quickly figures there’s something suspicious going on in the servants’ quarters — especially with Max Hogan, “the car guy.” He’s strong, sexy — and sure knows how to work with his hands. But he’s more than a little silent about his past, which makes Lucinda wonder what he’s up to … and what will happen when her secret comes out. Still, she hopes they can have a future together …
If only she could get that darn ring off her finger.
8. Lady Sophia’s Lover by Lisa Kleypas: Why is Lady Sophia looking for a lover?
And
could she seduce the most marriageable man in London?
Lady Sophia Sydney would do anything to ensnare the unattainable Sir Ross Cannon. Her goal—to ruin his reputation and cause a scandal that would be the talk of all London. So she insinuates herself into his life by gaining his trust and living in his house.
Every morning, her lush presence tempts him beyond all reason…the way she bends over the table to serve him the meals she has prepared…the way her hands oh, so gently—yet sensuously—brush against him. Every night, she promises with her eyes—and her body— that the hours before dawn could be spent in unbridled passion instead of restless sleep—if only he’d let her share his bed.
She knows he is falling more in love with her each day. But she never counted on falling in love with him. And she never dreamed he might very respectably ask for her hand in marriage…
9. Shadow Magic by Karen Whiddon: It was said that when her people danced, powerful things happened. Thus, when the golden stranger appeared before her, demanding that which he believed she’d stolen, Dierdre was not afraid. She had spent many nights dreaming of this man on his white charger, this errant Faerie prince. He was everything she was not: light where she was dark. He burend like the fiery sun she was forbidden to see, that she longed to fell on her skin, and she wanted him in the same way. Would his touch be like flame, searing her instantly into dusty ash– or more of a benevolent caress, sensual like sunrays warming the morning star?
Yet Deirdre know true joy did not come just from emerging from the darkness to feel the sun. There was more. Like love and passion, light and darkness were two halves of a whole. In their joining was the magic she sought.
10. The Leopard Prince by Elizabeth Hoyt: Wealthy Lady Georgina Maitland doesn’t want a husband, though she could use a good steward to run her estates. One look at Harry Pye, and Georgina knows she’s not just dealing with a servant, but a man. Harry has known many aristocrats-including one particular nobleman who is his sworn enemy. But Harry has never met a beautiful lady so independent, uninhibited, and eager to be in his arms. Still, it’s impossible to conduct a discreet liaison when poisoned sheep, murdered villagers, and an enraged magistrate have the county in an uproar.
11. The Waterlord by Dawn Thompson: Lady Rebecca’s life changed forever in the blink of an eye. One moment she was fleeing her father across a storm-swept Bodmin Moor, in the next, her carriage overturned on a steep gorge. But she did not die. Somehow, she was pulled clear. There was an eerie luminosity about her savior, a fluid silver aura like the lightning filling the night sky. And while his voice was deep, mellow—comforting, like the music of the waterfall he haunted, it, too, held a hint of the Otherworldly. Who was this strange savior, this displaced foreign nobleman? Everything about the Count was an enigma. Becca had heard myths of the Fossegrim: creatures that traveled between the astral and the physical planes through waterfalls, driven to find ecstasy with human women then vanish forever. From their world, humans never returned. This man, Becca was willing to follow.
12. Winter Woman by Jenna Kernan: Her Prayer Was Simple: “Dear God, Let Me Die!”
But Cordelia Channing - preacher’s wife, preacher’s widow - lived and was born anew as Winter Woman, a woman of power who’d survived the deadliest season in the mountains alone.
She knew she could never do it again. Though perhaps there is no need, for Providence had sent her Thomas Nash, an enigmatic Mountain Man who stirred the deep places in her questing soul.
Nash had come west to lose himself, to rail at the fates that seemed ready to destroy his life at every turn. But somehow those same fates now saw fit to put Delia in his care… And though he was fighting it at every turn, Delia was transforming his life in ways he’d thought forever lost…!
13. 50 Harbor Street by Debbie Macomber: Dear Reader,
Considering that I’m married to Cedar Cove’s private investigator, you might think I enjoy mysteries. But I don’t — especially when they involve us! Roy and I have been receiving anonymous postcards and messages asking if we “regret the past.” We don’t know what they mean . . .
On a more positive note, we’re both delighted that our daughter, Linette, has moved to Cedar Cove to work at the new medical clinic. A while ago I attended the humane society’s “Dog and Bachelor Auction,” where I bought her a date with Cal Washburn, who works at Cliff Harding’s horse farm. Unfortunately Linette is less enthusiastic about this date than I am.
Speaking of Cliff, the romance between him and Grace Sherman is back on. But that’s only one of the many interesting stories here in Cedar Cove. So why don’t you drop by for a coffee at my husband’s office on Main Street or our House on Harbor and I’ll tell you everything that’s new!
Corrie
So… there you have it… which of these thirteen books do YOU think I should read next?
