Month: March 2023

Spotlight: Hotel of Secrets

Mary Diana Biller, Historical Romance, Spotlight, St. Martin's Griffin

 

Happy Publication Day to Diana Biller!

 

Hotel of Secrets by Diana Biller

Expected pub. date:  March 28, 2023 – St. Martin’s Griffin

Description:

It’s ball season in Vienna, and Maria Wallner only wants one thing: to restore her family’s hotel, the Hotel Wallner, to its former glory. She’s not going to let anything get in her way – not her parents’ three-decade-long affair; not seemingly-random attacks by masked assassins; and especially not the broad-shouldered American foreign agent who’s saved her life two times already. No matter how luscious his mouth is.

Eli Whittaker also only wants one thing: to find out who is selling American secret codes across Europe, arrest them, and go home to his sensible life in Washington, DC. He has one lead – a letter the culprit sent from a Viennese hotel. But when he arrives in Vienna, he is immediately swept up into a chaotic whirlwind of balls, spies, waltzes, and beautiful hotelkeepers who seem to constantly find themselves in danger. He disapproves of all of it! But his disapproval is tested as he slowly falls deeper into the chaos – and as his attraction to said hotelkeeper grows. (publisher)

About the author:

DIANA BILLER is the author of The Widow of Rose House, The Brightest Star in Paris, and Hotel of Secrets. When she isn’t writing, she enjoys snuggling her animals, taking “research” trips abroad, and attending ballet class. She lives with her husband in Los Angeles.

Praise for Hotel of Secrets

“Uniquely charming! With her delightful characters, Biller builds an irresistible world inside a Viennese Victorian-era hotel that is equal parts screwball comedy, epic love story, and thrilling mystery. An utterly captivating novel about the power of fate.” – Joanna Shupe, USA Today bestselling author of The Fifth Avenue Rebels series

“With prose to match the sumptuous setting of 1870s Vienna, Hotel of Secrets is an exquisite and decadent read. Diana Biller breathes new life into historical romance with writing that is singularly lush, deeply romantic, and transportive. Readers will get swept away by the combination of nail-biting intrigue and whole-hearted passion.” – Rosie Danan, bestselling author of The Roommate

“Hotel of Secrets is dazzling. It will carry you through its pages as if in a glorious, heart-stirring dance, making you laugh, and spin, and come away feeling exhilarated. A delightful must-read for lovers of historical romance.” – India Holton, bestselling author of The Wisteria Society of Lady Scoundrels

“Biller’s lush and atmospheric escape is dolloped with romance and the deep, complicated and sigh-worthy characters that always shoot her to the top of my auto-buy list.” – Rachel McMillan, author of The Mozart Code

 

Spotlight: Curds of Prey

Mary Cozy, Korina Moss, Spotlight, St. Martin's Paperbacks

Curds of Prey by Karina Moss

Cheese Shop Mystery, #3

Pub. date:  March 28, 2023

Content courtesy of the publisher

Description:

In Korina Moss’s Curds of Prey, murder again comes to Yarrow Glen, and cheesemonger Willa Bauer must be the predator… before she becomes the prey.

Yarrow Glen’s favorite cheese shop, Curds & Whey, gets to be a part of the social event of the season: Summer Harrington’s wedding. Cheesemonger Willa Bauer is going all out for the wedding shower’s cheese bar. But the eagle-eyed Harrington family is proving to be a pain in her asiago. A last-minute tasting ends in disaster when one of Willa’s potential beaux, Roman, gets in a fight with the groom. Then the shower arrives, and while there’s anything but love in the air, there is plenty of cheese. Oh, and Roman… again. The day officially ends in disaster when Willa finds the groom—who also happens to be the mayor’s nephew—in the stable, dead as a dodo. At the mayor’s request, Willa must follow the trail of cheese curds to find a killer while continuing to walk a tightrope between two of Sonoma Valley’s most powerful families.

About the author:

KORINA MOSS is the author of the Agatha Award nominated Cheese Shop cozy mystery series set in Sonoma Valley. She loves creating quirky characters who live in idyllic small towns. Korina grew up on a healthy dose of Nancy Drew and Agatha Christie novels, which developed her passion for solving mysteries and eventually writing her own. She lives in a small New England town with its own share of quirky characters.

​Korina also enjoys writing short stories and has two published in anthologies. She blogs on Writers Who Kill, and she’s a member of Sisters in Crime and Mystery Writers of America.

 

Blog Tour: A Tempest at Sea

Mary Berkley, Blog Tour, Historical Mystery, Sherry Thomas

A Tempest at Sea by Sherry Thomas

Published:  March 14, 2023 – Berkley

Review copy courtesy of the publisher and NetGalley

Description:

(Edited to avoid spoiling the previous book in the series).

Charlotte Holmes receives a tempting offer: Find a dossier the crown is desperately seeking, and she might be able to go back to a normal life.
 
Her search leads her aboard the RMS Provence. But on the night Charlotte makes her move to retrieve the dossier, in the midst of a terrifying storm in the Bay of Biscay, a brutal murder takes place on the ship.
 
Instead of solving the crime, as she is accustomed to doing, Charlotte must take care not to be embroiled in this investigation, lest it become known to those who harbor ill intentions that Sherlock Holmes is abroad and still very much alive. (publisher)

My take:

I love a locked-room mystery so when I discovered the newest installment of the Lady Sherlock series was set on a ship I knew I’d be all in. Charlotte and her friends Mrs. Watson, Lord Ingram and others are all on board the Provence sailing for Gibralter and points east. When a murder occurs the wheels of Charlotte’s brilliant mind are set in motion. Rest assured, with the help of Lord Ingram and Mrs. Watson the murderer will be found. This was an entertaining story, a bit convoluted at times, but ended as you might expect. As the novel wrapped I was smiling with all the romantic vibes that subtly appeared. Well done, Sherry Thomas!

About the author:

USA Today bestselling author Sherry Thomas is one of the most acclaimed historical romance authors writing today and a two-time RITA Award winner. Learn more online at www.sherrythomas.com.
Photo credit:  Jennifer Sparks Harriman

Saturday Night at the Lakeside Supper Club

Mary Fiction, J. Ryan Stradal, Pamela Dorman Books

Saturday Night at the Lakeside Supper Club by J. Ryan Stradal

Expected Pub. date:  April 18, 2023 – Pamela Dorman Books

Review book courtesy of the publisher

Description:

Mariel Prager needs a break. Her husband Ned is having an identity crisis, her spunky, beloved restaurant is bleeding money by the day, and her mother Florence is stubbornly refusing to leave the church where she’s been holed up for more than a week. The Lakeside Supper Club has been in her family for decades, and while Mariel’s grandmother embraced the business, seeing it as a saving grace, Florence never took to it. When Mariel inherited the restaurant, skipping Florence, it created a rift between mother and daughter that never quite healed.
    Ned is also an heir—to a chain of home-style diners—and while he doesn’t have a head for business, he knows his family’s chain could provide a better future than his wife’s fading restaurant. In the aftermath of a devastating tragedy, Ned and Mariel lose almost everything they hold dear, and the hard-won victories of each family hang in the balance. With their dreams dashed, can one fractured family find a way to rebuild despite their losses, and will the Lakeside Supper Club be their salvation?
    In this colorful, vanishing world of relish trays and brandy Old Fashioneds, J. Ryan Stradal has once again given us a story full of his signature honest, lovable yet fallible Midwestern characters as they grapple with love, loss, and marriage; what we hold onto and what we leave behind; and what our legacy will be when we are gone. (publisher)

My take:

This is a story about people finding their way in life – figuring out a path or simply following one that’s been laid out. A supper club is passed from one generation to the next which will hopefully keep it all going. But times change and not everyone shares the same dream. I grew up in the upper Midwest and that included going to supper clubs – something I didn’t realize was a unique experience. This novel brought back a lot of memories. It’s a satisfying story of family and all the ups and downs of life.

About the author:

J. Ryan Stradal is the author of New York Times bestseller Kitchens of the Great Midwest and national bestseller The Lager Queen of Minnesota. His writing has appeared in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Guardian, Granta, The Rumpus, and the Los Angeles Review of Books. His debut, Kitchens of the Great Midwest, won the American Booksellers Association Indie’s Choice Award for Adult Debut Book of the Year. His next novel, Saturday Night at the Lakeside Supper Club, is forthcoming. Born and raised in Minnesota, he now lives in California with his family.