Showing results by author "Denise Grover Swank" in All Categories

Summer Butler had no idea that Darling Investigations would be such a smash. But ratings don’t lie—fans love watching the former star solve real-life crimes in her hometown. With the first season wrapped, the reality-show PI is feeling the pressure to make the next one an even bigger success. It seems the town is harboring an arsonist, and all the smoldering signs point to the same culprit: her cousin Dixie.

For as long as Magnolia Steele can remember, the past has had its hooks in her. Her time as a Broadway actress in New York City was an escape that ended in public humiliation, but now that she's back home in Franklin, Tennessee, she's feeling the grip of the two incidents that stole her innocence. The first was the disappearance of her father when she was a teen, who left home for a meeting and never came back. The other incident...well, her memories have returned, but it's best left where it belongs - in the past.

She’s a hopeless romantic...for everyone but herself. Can the least romantic man alive convince her love isn’t just for other people? Willow: There are certain expectations when you’re born into a multigenerational family of matchmakers, which is why I fled my hometown and tried to build a life of my own. But it turns out matchmaking is hard to quit, and I can’t stop trying to match the customers at the bakery I manage - including my boss and the tea shop owner next door - even though I’m hopeless at love.

I’m usually the first person on my block to decorate for Christmas. This year? Humbug. My six-year-old son, Aidan, just had a meltdown after learning some hard truths from a drunk Santa impersonator, and I can no longer deny we both need help. Change is hard for Aidan, and right now he’s dealing with several big ones, including A) his father abandoning us, B) our move to Asheville, and C) the Santa snafu.

Rose Gardner collects secrets the way other people collect junk - and now she’s being asked to expose them. Special prosecutor Mason Deveraux has called a grand jury to investigate the corruption in the Sweet Branch police department, and he’s summoned Rose as a witness. Any topic is fair game, and the criminals in Fenton county are rightly scared of what she might share under oath. While trying to placate the lawless men, Rose is also caring for her dying sister, Violet.

Violet Gardner Beauregard is barely cold in her grave, but she’s still stirring up trouble. When Neely Kate Coulson accompanies her best friend, Rose, to Violet’s attorney for the reading of the will, they get the shock of their lives, one that leaves them both reeling. If that weren’t enough, special prosecutor Mason Devereaux is still calling witnesses for his grand jury, digging into the corruption in Fenton County. Neely Kate is approached by an unexpected source who reveals shocking news from the grand jury testimony - information about her wayward husband, Ronnie Coulson.

Neely Kate’s life is finally coming together. She’s living and working with her best friend, Rose. Her newly discovered brother, Joe, has decided he’s done hiding that she’s his sister, and her new boyfriend, Jed, is everything she could have dreamed of and more. Only things aren’t going as well as she’d hoped. Neely Kate is still keeping secrets from Rose.

Emma Thompson and Will Davenport may have escaped from the Vinco Potentia, but the secret political organization is far from their only problem. The trail to Jake is growing colder every day, but when Emma begins to display unusual powers of her own, Will wonders if her role in the prophecy is more significant than anyone ever believed. To find out, they delve into Emma's past while she struggles against a subconscious force - a force that takes the form of a man who knows too much.

Piper Lancaster is a ghost whisperer and a skeptic. Piper helps her clients settle their inner demons, and that's good enough for her, even if ghosts aren't real. But the astonishing reappearance of the ruins of the Lost Colony of Roanoke turns her world upside down. She's soon confronted with undeniable evidence and discovers Asheville's new resident demon intent on killing her and a handsome stranger who says she's the only one who can destroy it. Barely able to accept the complete reversal in her convictions, Piper must embrace her true identity before it's too late.

Crashing weddings is so not my thing. I’d much rather stay home and watch HGTV...and ignore the fact that my life is messier than those fixer-upper houses. Because my jerk ex left, and the only thing keeping a roof over my sons’ heads is my crappy telemarketing job. But then, I get a challenge from the Bad Luck Club, the group I joined to turn my luck around: Do something that breaks the rules.

Rose Gardner hates seeing her normally flamboyant best friend Neely Kate struggle with depression. So when Rose stumbles onto a piece of evidence indicating her birth mother might have been involved in a crime, she does the one thing guaranteed to cheer Neely Kate. She convinces her friend to help her solve a mystery. Though their penchant for investigating has gotten them into plenty of pickles in the past, what can go wrong?

Rose is called into action when Neely Kate's cousin goes missing and the police refuse to take it seriously. But while the authorities - Rose's ex-boyfriend, included - are certain the missing woman has run away, mounting evidence points to foul play. Rose agrees to help her friend, even if it means partaking in Neely Kate's shenanigans, including an impromptu trip to a strip club.

Adalia Buchanan has always poured her soul into her art, but after a horrible betrayal by her mentor, she can no longer bring herself to do it. Instead, she’s designing merch and marketing materials for her family brewery in Asheville, hoping it’ll satisfy her urge to create. It doesn’t, of course, and her worst nightmare comes to pass when an arrogant yet attractive acquaintance witnesses her tearing up one of her own paintings.

Darcie Weatherby has a full plate - a preteen and sixteen-year-old twins, a wayward grandmother, a nightmare boss, and a manipulative ex-husband. The last thing she needs are hot flashes. Especially ones that start fires. Burning her boss’s house down was a total accident. Honest. It doesn’t take long before Darcie realizes she’s running on borrowed time. Unless she figures out a way to get these hot flashes under control, there’s a very good chance she’ll spontaneously combust at the Founder’s Day Masquerade Ball and leave her children motherless.

Ten years ago, Magnolia Steele fled Franklin, Tennessee, after an incident that left her with hazy memories and a horror of the place where she had been born and bred. Though her abrupt departure destroyed most of her treasured relationships, she vowed never to return...until she has no choice. When Magnolia's breakout acting role in a Broadway musical ends in disgrace, there's only one place she can go. She finds herself on her momma's porch, suitcase in hand.

Lee Buchanan is a hot mess. Turning one’s father in to the feds can do that to a man. He had nothing to do with his father’s Ponzi scheme, but he’s blacklisted from commercial real estate all the same. Which is how he ends up in Asheville, working at the brewery he inherited with his siblings. He’s salty as hell, and he doesn’t care who knows it.

Maddie Baker hasn’t seen Detective Noah Langley since he ghosted her a month ago, but now she needs his help to find a missing woman. When Maddie Baker offers a self-defense course, a terrified young woman asks her for private lessons to escape a chokehold. Maddie readily agrees to meet Amy the next morning, but when she doesn’t show up, Maddie becomes concerned.

One night. Just one night. Or at least that’s what Maisie tells herself when she brings Jack Durand home. Because even though his arms are a thing of beauty and he can charm wild animals, she’s in no position to start anything with anyone. So she pretends she’s just scratching an itch. Jack is pretending, too. His little sister is moving to Asheville as his ward, and between getting her through her senior year of high school and working at the family brewery, he doesn’t have time for a girlfriend. Even a sexy, no-nonsense powerhouse like Maisie.

Romance isn't an option for Holly Greenwood. With her wedding planner career on the line, she needs to stay focused, and that means pleasing her demanding boss, not getting distracted by her mind-alteringly hot neighbor.... Ex-marine Kevin Vandemeer craves normalcy. Instead he has a broken-down old house in need of a match and some gasoline, a meddling family, and the uncanny ability to attract the world's craziest women. At least that last one he can fix.

No man wants to be nicknamed Cupid. My family’s run a matchmaking business for years, though, and my sister’s a romance novelist. You get the picture. To make matters worse, my narcissistic grandmother just sold a reality dating show to network television. Thanks to her, our small town is about to become a hotbed of tourists and opportunists. Her show needs to be stopped, and I’m exactly the man to do it. Cupid, reporting for duty.