Showing results by narrator "Erin Novotny" in All Categories

Florida's Tango Key has never been so hot. Especially now with multimillionaire and amateur archaeologist Doug Cooper turning up headless behind his beach house. It seems a number of people stand to gain from his demise, including a stunning young widow, an adulterous son, and two gold diggers from Cooper's South American exploits. Detective Aline Scott knows a scandal like this could turn the wealthy island paradise into a no-man's land.

Famous southern carriage-horse trainer Hiram Lackland, a handsome widower, dies mysteriously after retiring to a farm outside Mossy Creek. His estranged daughter, Merry Abbot, also a horse trainer, arrives to settle his estate. But Merry quickly plunges into bit-chomping dilemmas when her father's friend and landlord, mystery-novel maven Peggy Caldwell, insists he was murdered. Before Merry can so much as snap a buggy rein, a handsome and annoying GBI investigator, Geoff Madison, is on her case....

Largely set in the South, the 11 stories of Body Language guide us into the hidden worlds of the culture wars. The people in these stories belong to the fringes of society, struggling for an identity and a place to belong.

In the retail business, Christmas isn't a holiday, it's an endurance contest - and as manager of the Tyler-Royale department store in a major Chicago shopping mall, Brandi Ogilvie knows that surviving December will be a challenge. Merchandise is going astray and her staff is decimated by flu, but at least Brandi has a full roster of Santas. Then Zack Forrest shows up in her store, insisting he's the perfect candidate to fill Santa's red velvet suit.

"Give that man an inch and he thinks he's a ruler!" When the regular host of the Kansas City Morning TV show has a heart attack, the station manager brings in traveling feature reporter Quinn Randolph to fill in opposite co-host Emily Lambert. But soon Quinn isn't helping…he's taking over.

Why does she keep wishing she'd said YES? Erin Reynolds is already the perfect corporate secretary and personal assistant, so when her boss, Slater Livingstone, suggests they make their arrangement permanent through a marriage of convenience, the idea seems perfectly sensible - to him. Erin, on the other hand, thinks his offer is ludicrous... but the moment she turns him down, she can think of nothing but Slater.

When divorce attorney Justin Abernathy decides to get married, despite his disillusionment with love, his announcement that he's seeking a sensible and practical wife sends his secretary, Alisa McClenaghan, into whoops of laughter - until she discovers that she is the bride he's chosen...

When arson threatens an abandoned school in the center of a small antiques area, cookie merchant Heather DeMarco is determined to save the building. But the owner, tycoon Cole Dennison, plans to demolish the structure, and Heather's efforts to persuade him otherwise are going nowhere fast. So Heather tries a last, desperate stunt...

Sara Prentiss is not impressed when best-selling author Adam Merrill arrives on campus to team-teach her creative writing class. When Sara's elderly housemate, Olivia - Adam's biggest fan - invites him to move in, Sara is infuriated. But she can't bear to hurt Olivia. One summer isn't so long, after all - at least until Adam begins to investigate Olivia's painful past and the mysterious long-ago disappearance of her daughter. Is he searching for story ideas, or something more?

Patrick Houston has worked hard to make changes in his life so he can be someone his children and Angel Ridge will be proud of. But Frannie Thompson is back in town reminding him of a time when he'd been out of control and failing the people in his life. Can love and loyalty grow from such a rocky start? Was Mayor Patrick Houston actually going to pretend he didn't know her?

Stunned when her fiancé betrays her, Katherine Whitman reacts by seducing her boss - and when a single night of madness results in a pregnancy, she takes full responsibility. But Stephen Osborne insists they do as people always have - get married. Does he want her, or only his baby?

On this February morning it looks like winter is about to heat up on Tango Key. Sometime in the night, Judge Henry Michael, his wife, and two small sons were murdered. Butchered. The quiet little Florida island is reeling in horror. But clues are scarce. And the only thing for certain is that whoever did it - enjoyed it. Detective Aline Scott knows she's going to have to dig deep on this one. But when there's another brutal murder, she hits pay dirt.

Hey, ya'll. Dixie Ferguson here. I run Ferguson's Diner in Angel Ridge, Tennessee, population 345. It's a picturesque town in the valley of the Little Tennessee River, established in 1785. In the early days, its first families - the McKays, the Wallaces, the Houstons, the Joneses, and, of course, the Craigs - staked their claims on hundreds of acres of the richest bottom land anyone had ever seen. After all the years I've spent behind the counter at Ferguson's, I could probably tell ya'll a story about near everyone in town. But we only have so much time, so I'll narrow it down to just two for now....

One fateful night, a deadly accident at a Los Angeles intersection changes the lives and fortunes of three innocent women - Kathryn, Laurel, and Julia Peyton - destined to be caught in a tangled web of obsession, revenge, and unruly passion. Wealthy California oil magnate Victor Banning also lost his son and daughter-in-law that night, an accident caused by his own selfish actions and dark secrets. Afterward, Victor aspires to raise their sons Jud and Cale to be just like him: hungry predators in a dog-eat-dog world...until, years later, everything changes when they meet Laurel Peyton.

In Angel Ridge, Tennessee, not much goes on around town in the winter. After Christmas, folks usually hunker down and wait for spring to come to the Smoky Mountains. But given recent events, which included a bombing and newspaper publisher Jenny Thompson's disappearance, people in town are understandably on edge. Now Jenny's in hiding on a nearby mountain, waiting for trouble to catch up with her and none too sure it hasn't, when reclusive mountain man Cord Goins comes to her rescue.

Often compared to the novels of James Herriot, All God's Creatures follows the life of a woman veterinarian in modern Tennessee. From an unlikely start as a white-glove debutante in the 1960's to a sexism-defying launch in vet school to the adventures, sorrows, joys and oddities of a long veterinary practice, our heroine spins tales of the animals and people who share her life. By veteran romance author and dedicated horsewoman Carolyn McSparren, who also writes the Merry Abbot Carriage Driving Mysteries.

From the luxury of San Francisco's famous hills to the wild freedom of the majestic snow-covered Sierra Mountains, Bridge to Happiness is the intensely dramatic story of one woman's life, the idyllic moments, her humanity, her love, and finally, the difficult road she must walk alone...to discover the strong woman she is destined to become.

A very Southern mother-in-law's humorous advice to mothers-in-law everywhere. From the multiple New York Times best-selling author of The Red Hat Club. Best-selling author Haywood Smith and her pals have lots of personal experience in the joys, sorrows, pitfalls and flat-out hysteria of Mother-in-Lawness.

When high powered attorney Kane Forrestal abandons his career and takes up beach combing along the quiet north shore of Minnesota's Lake Superior, his firm reacts by sending fellow lawyer Alexandra Jacobi to talk him into coming back. But it isn't long before the question becomes who's going to end up persuading whom?

Miami in June: it's raining, it's pouring, but the life of criminal defense attorney Mary Magruder Katz is anything but boring - especially when she gets caught up in a whirlwind of three different cases. Judge Liz Maxwell's job, sanity, and reputation are at stake, and she needs Mary to ferret out wrongdoing in Miami's courts. Solving this case won't just mean going out on a limb; it will mean risking life and limb. Luis Corona, a family friend of Mary's boyfriend, Carlos, needs help with a legal matter....