Not What He Thought He Would Do

A young body. A mysterious mark. An unsolved riddle.

When a body washes ashore on North Cornwall’s serene Summelreaze beach, a mark on the neck eerily echoes the signs found on two previous victims. DI Verity Zennor and her team face a chilling enigma: the victims hail from Eastern Europe, but the mark’s sinister meaning remains a mystery.

Who is behind these gruesome murders? And why were these lives cast into the sea?

NEW YORK TIMES bestselling author Kathryn Shay spent five years riding fire trucks with a large city fire department, eating in their firehouses and interviewing hundreds of America’s Bravest. Read the firefighter romance novels that resulted from her intense relationship with firefighters!

“Inspiring and emotionally invigorating… a true hero’s tale.” RT Book Reviews

Three firefighters from the Malvaso family are trapped in a burning building and almost lose their lives. After they are rescued, they decide to change the way they’ve been living. Mitch, the eldest, wants to make some decisions about his dysfunctional marriage and spend more time with his troubled teenagers. Jenn decides to have a baby — with her best friend, Grady. And Zach, the bad boy of the group, vows to make up for his past sins and become a better man. Read the whole family saga romance in these exciting stories.

It’s Eat Pray Love meets murder mystery in Lise McClendon’s deliciously cozy chronicles of sisterhood, international travel… and a soupçon of danger.
A dead husband with a secret life is always a winner (fictionally speaking, of course), but what about a secret past for a special treat? In fact, a past so secret even Harry the husband didn’t know about it. That’s the delicious underpinning of this sprawling, exuberant, generous-spirited cozy mystery series with a yummy side of international adventure.

A little bit chick lit, a touch of cozy mystery, a whole lot of humor, romance, suspense — all in one box set!

BLACKBIRD FLY – Book One

A dead husband might be sadder except that once Harry dies, his widow, Merle Bennett realizes almost immediately it was no wonder she didn’t know anything about him. They’d pretty much been leading separate lives — several of them, as it turns out. Still, the will’s quite a shock. And so is an intriguing surprise — Harry left her a family home in a tiny French village. Or maybe a family home. Because who was Harry’s family? Finding out is half the fun.

Merle sets out to claim her inheritance, adolescent son in tow, and thus begins a sojourn reminiscent of A Year in Provence mixed up with something by Carolyn Hart, maybe, or M.C. Beaton. Because Malcouziac, Merle’s tiny Dordogne town, is the quintessential village — just perfect for a murder. And a rollicking good time.

THE GIRL IN THE EMPTY DRESS – Book Two

Law practice is in the Bennett sisters’ blood — along with designer suits and stilettos. But they’ve decided to ditch the more predictable Caribbean cruise or spa weekend at a five star hotel to celebrate Merle Bennett’s 50th birthday hiking the French countryside of Dordogne. There’s just one catch: Merle’s little sister Francie has decided to bring along a sixth wheel: a work colleague named Gillian Sargent, whose utter aloofness wouldn’t be so bad. Except she seems to be hiding something…

GIVE HIM THE OOH-LA-LA – Book Three

It’s Bridget Jones does Christmas in the Big Apple, and this year it promises to be especially festive, as all five Bennett sisters are in town for a very special occasion: Annie, the oldest Bennett, is engaged at the tender age of fifty-five. But while Bohemian Annie is securely and happily in love with a devoted fiancé, Merle-in-the-middle is navigating the roller coaster of her own love life: Pascal, her one-time French summer fling, has unexpectedly flown to New York for the holidays. But why? A relationship ultimatum? Or is there something more mysterious in the works? Because a festive family outing to a drag revue at Pascal’s request just begs more questions to be answered… and the unfolding of dangerous connections to Merle’s own family.

THE THINGS WE SAID TODAY – Book Four

Annie is finally getting hitched to Callum Logan in the picture-postcard idyllic Scottish Highlands. The mother of the groom has generously put up the Bennett family in her Kincardie House estate, a gorgeous hunting lodge that’s been in the Logan family for generations. But Annie has reservations. Meanwhile, Merle and Francie are navigating relationship crises of their own. And amidst the Highlands’ signature fog, rain, sheep, and heather — not to mention the festivities’ decadent five course meals and family drama — a rare rainstorm with hurricane-force winds is heading right for the wedding party. And Jinty Arbuckle, the high-strung estate housekeeper, struggles to keep the Kincardie House in order and its brash American guests happy, all the while guarding secrets of her own.

She’s dead-set on giving everything to the war overseas…

Even if it means losing everything in a war of the heart.

A street orphan abused and abandoned by an alcoholic father at age five, Gabriella (Gabe) O’Connor has never let a man stand in her way yet. So when a handsome flight officer thwarts her plans to become a WASP — Women Air Force Service Pilot — she’s determined to join the war effort anyway she can. Her chance comes when she “borrows” foreign correspondent credentials from the Boston Herald — where her father is the editor — to stow away on a medical ship to the front.

Lieutenant Alex Kincaid pegs Gabe O’Connor as trouble the moment she steps foot on Avenger Field as a WASP cadet. As the eldest brother of a boy whose jaw Gabe broke in grade school, Alex is familiar with her reputation as both a charismatic ringleader and a headstrong hooligan who’s challenged every male and nun from grade school to college. As her WASP flight instructor, Alex eventually expels Gabe when she pulls a dangerous stunt. But when he is an evacuation pilot in France eight months later, their lives intertwine once again, exposing them to a danger as perilous as the German tanks roaming the Reichswald Forest: a love that neither expects.

Dogs are disappearing. Lucy Hickey-Rios, the Executive Director of Mercy Animal Shelter, is used to reuniting lost dogs with their owners. This is different. More than two dozen dogs have vanished in a matter of days. Lucy and her crew are desperate to find those responsible and return the dogs to their families. Why were they taken? Can Lucy get them back? Just how far will the dognappers go to stop her?

Aria Dempsey’s quiet life is shattered when her brother is sentenced to life in prison for a crime he didn’t commit. To make matters worse, a fire destroys their home, her father perishes in flames, and everyone thinks Aria died too. Using the fire to cover her tracks, Aria must play dead and take it upon herself to right the injustices…

Will she be helped or hindered by the law in her quest?

In an unlikely turn of events, Aria meets Edmond Snelling, a card player, whom she hopes might be able to help her brother. Ed, on the other hand, is certain that he’s met his match with Aria. She hires him to discover the truth but as they seek retribution, they’re plunged into a quagmire of corruption and wickedness.

Will they survive long enough to see her brother set free?

When Aria and Ed join forces, unexpected alliances are formed that will lead them to have a reckoning with the past and change their lives forever. With ruthless enemies after them and death just a heartbeat away, the stakes have never been higher. Will they open their hearts to one another while staying one step ahead of a dangerous scheme?