Newsletter for March 2026

Featured Books

 

 

 

 

 

 

Holiday Spirit by John DeGuire

Can love conquer the darkness that threatens to consume the holiday season?

 

In John DeGuire's debut novel, Holiday Spirit, the quaint town of Killington, Vermont, is gripped by a chilling mystery: its children are vanishing. It all starts with a Halloween prank gone horribly wrong, invoking the ire of a local witch.

 

As Christmas approaches, strange and unexplainable events plague the town.  Ancient mummies, sinister lagoon creatures, and malevolent phantoms threaten the very essence of the holidays.

 

When the children disappear, panic spreads, and the townsfolk point fingers at the lurking monsters. But not all monsters are what they seem. Meet Saul, Frankenstein’s patchwork EMS captain, created by his scientist father.  Dr. Ralph Ellison, the invisible man, who blends into the shadows.

 

Aoife, a heroic werewolf who embraces her lycanthropy, and her husband, Count Dracula, a vampire with centuries of wisdom and a thirst for justice, not innocent blood.

 

As the witch Bridgett gathers her dark forces, this unlikely band of heroes must rise to the occasion. Holiday Spirit is a gripping werewolf romance, holiday bagg age, and holiday murder mystery all rolled into one thrilling novel.

 

Can these monsters save the children and rescue the holiday season, or will darkness prevail?

 

Join them in this heart-pounding battle for the most magical time of the year and discover that love truly never dies, not even for Dracula.

 

 

“When the treatment is worse than the disease, its maker better pay for all the lives destroyed.”

 

Dr. Mark Lin hates greedy drug companies, along with herbal supplements that can sometimes do more harm than good. Two medical mysteries force him to confront both.

 

First, a young man, only in his twenties, suffers from debilitating kidney failure. The only clue is his use of a mysterious herbal product for weight loss. Meanwhile, a patient has trouble breathing for unclear reasons, though Mark worries about the anti-obesity drug he started taking. Things truly get nightmarish when one of those pills strikes with lethal force, compelling Mark to take action.

 

Mark now finds himself navigating a web of deceit within the shadows of two rival industries: herbaceutical and pharmaceutical. He will uncover secrets about their so-called miracle cures, confront a company spokesman, and face a pair of aggressive salespeople. But once he puts everything on the line and discovers the true conspiracy, his only mission is to prevent catastrophic death, not just for the public but also himself.

 

Poison Pill is Anthony Lee’s medical thriller tackling dual methods of healing and the shady practices that do real harm to everyday people.

 

Coal Dust on Purple Asters by Jeffrey L. Carrier

 

Set in fictional Burfield County, Kentucky, these short stories unfold during the Great Depression, when coal mining was the dominant industry in the Kentucky mountains. The stories focus on three families caught between loyalty to the mines that feed them and resentment of the industry that devours them. In Appalachia during that period, families clung to each other despite poverty, tragedy, hardship and natural disasters.

 

In "Rain on Chinquapin Holler," Wiley Hicks’ heart is torn between his mountain-bred wife and a perfumed city woman who represents everything he both desires and despises. Meanwhile, bootleg whiskey offers both escape and enslavement. A devastating flood forces impossible choices that leave no one unscathed.

 

"A Sprig of Purple Asters" follows May Owens, whose unemployed miner husband vacillates between pride and despair while their sons' bellies grow hollow. When her opportunistic brothers arrive, May's desperate gamble saves her family by nearly destroying it.

 

The final story -- "Red Snow in the Kentucky Woods" -- follows young James Herald Gibson who, after losing his father and brother to a mine collapse, vows never to descend below ground himself, whatever the cost. His choice spirals into a decades-long mystery of family secrets and unbearable guilt.

 

Throughout, characters speak in the lilting cadence of mountainfolk whose poetic speech preserves the rhythms and phrases of their Elizabethan ancestors.

 

 

All good things must come to an end (for now, anyway). Here it is, the FINAL double-edition Maximo Morgan mystery of the month classic! Dive into two more side-splitting sleuthing sagas with the Heartland's favorite pear-shaped private eye!

 

 

When a man and a woman meet by chance, their unexpected connection blooms into a fragile, tentative romance. Each is drawn to the other’s gentleness, yet neither is prepared for the vulnerability that true intimacy demands. As their bond deepens, they discover that to be loved is also to be exposed—to another’s long buried wounds as much as to their affection.

 

His longing to cherish her is thwarted by her corrosive survivor’s guilt, a shadow that convinces her she is unworthy of tenderness. Her attempts to trust him are strained by his crippling fear of betrayal, a legacy of past abandonment he cannot outrun. Though they cling to one another in search of solace, their inability to articulate their needs leaves them mired in silence, misinterpretation, and quiet despair. Their romance flickers uncertainly, sustained by desire yet threatened by the very instincts meant to protect them.

 

Against all odds, a fragile hope emerges. Fighting the impulses that once kept them apart, they begin to imagine a shared future—one built on honesty, courage, and the possibility of healing. For a brief, luminous moment, they believe they have outrun their pasts.

Then they discover they are expecting a child.

 

The pregnancy forces them to confront the traumas they have never fully faced. Old fears resurface, testing the fragile foundation they have built. Each must decide whether they can break free from the past—or whether they will remain trapped by it.

 

The Malady of Love is a postmodern exploration of intimacy, miscommunication, and the psychological burdens carried by adults in the twenty-first century. Told through the shifting, contradictory perspectives of a nameless couple, the novel offers a raw and voyeuristic portrait of two people desperate for connection yet unable to articulate the truths that might save them.

 

Evocative, unsettling, and profoundly human, it brings the romantic tragedy into the modern era—capturing the exquisite agony and ecstasy of loving another person. 

 

Book Giveaways for March

Win a copy of Missing Sister by Joshilyn Jackson.  All you have to do is click on the book cover below.  It will take you to the main page.   Look for the giveaway on the left.  Follow the instructions listed.

Win a copy of Nice Girls Don't Get the Corner Office by Lois P. Frankel PHD.  All you have to do is click on the book cover below.  It will take you to the main page.  Look for the giveaway on the right.  Follow the instructions listed.

Book Giveaway Winners for February

 

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Reader's Choice Awards Winners - 2025

 

Reader's Choice Awards - 2026

 

The 2026 Reader's Choice Book Award nominations are now open. Click on this link for more information.  There are many package choices available.  

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