In My Mailbox: Week of October 6

Title: Diner Impossible
Author: Terri L Austin
Received: CLP Blog Tours
Synopsis: After shunning her overbearing parents’ wealthy lifestyle, waitress and part-time college student, Rose Strickland, is drawn back into their world when she tries to prove the impossible: the innocence of the town’s crooked police chief. He’s suspected in the gruesome death of Delia Cummings, his secretary and mistress, and all the evidence points to him. While she tracks down clues with the aid of her anime-loving bestie, Rose’s pal, Axton, and his Klingon gang are feuding with their Starfleet rivals. Things get hairier than a pile of well-fed Tribbles, so Rose gets involved. In between interrogating Trekkies and quizzing socialites at high tea, she discovers the secrets Delia Cummings took to her grave. Suspects abound, but when Chief Mathers threatens to bring down Rose’s criminally mischievous and maybe boyfriend, Sullivan, she makes it her mission to find the real killer before Sullivan finds himself in prison. Part of the Henery Press Mystery Series Collection, if you like one, you’ll probably like them all! Diner Impossible is the third in the Rose Strickland humorous mystery series.

Title: Bitter Pill
Author: Stacey Kade
Received: CLP Blog Tours
Synopsis: The truth is a bitter pill…

Rennie Harlow is having a bad year. She had a handsome husband, a good job, and a renovated condo in Chicago. Now, thanks to one “exotically beautiful” paralegal, she’s divorced, faking her way through a writing career, and living above her hypochondriac mother’s garage back in Morrisville, the small town she couldn’t leave fast enough at eighteen. On top of all of that, she just found Doc Hallacy, the local pharmacist, dead behind his counter. And the worst part is, he’s the third body she’s stumbled across this year.

Jake Bristol has lived in Morrisville his whole life. A former bad boy turned sheriff, he doesn’t believe it’s just Rennie’s luck or timing that’s the problem. He thinks she’s too nosy for her own good. The last thing he needs is her messing around with his murder investigation so that she can freelance for the Morrisville Gazette. But as they both delve deeper into Doc’s death, they find that things don’t add up. This isn’t a robbery gone wrong or the work of a desperate junkie. Someone has a secret they’re killing to keep. The only question is—who’s next?

Title: Won’t Last Long
Author: Heidi Joy Tretheway
Received: CLP Blog Tours
Synopsis: Can two people who are totally wrong for each other ever be right? She’s a feisty, sly marketing exec intent on hiding her small-town roots. He’s a laid-back engineer with a shaggy mutt and a pushy ex. When Joshua asks Melina out, she asks what kind of car he drives. She’ll do drinks, not dinner. She’s always in control. But with Joshua’s easy confidence and sharp wit, Melina is soon breaking the dating rules she made for herself. Opposites attract—but friends think Melina and Joshua can’t possibly last. When crisis throws their world off its axis, Melina must confront her childhood family, the people she’s come to care about, and the destruction of her pristine image.

Title: The Prostitute’s Daughter
Author: Juliet Philip
Received: Spark Point Studio
Synopsis: Kamada lives in a world of magic. A world of gremlins, fairies, and talking objects that shield her from a society where strange men act like they own the women walking down the street, and where her mother gives up her body in exchange for a life of luxury. The dirty streets of Bombay do not feel like home to Kamada. She knows she does not belong, and her mother’s house feels like a prison. To escape, Kamada wants to leave India and go study in America. Only her magical friends and a neighboring family know that her wish is getting closer to becoming a reality every day. Follow Kamada as she bucks tradition in her quest to pass the GRE and follow her dreams. Will she be able to leave the land of curries and rickshaws?

Title: The Paris Architect
Author: Charles Belfoure
Received: SourceBooks
Synopsis: In 1942 Paris, gifted architect Lucien Bernard accepts a commission that will bring him a great deal of money – and maybe get him killed. But if he’s clever enough, he’ll avoid any trouble. All he has to do is design a secret hiding place for a wealthy Jewish man, a space so invisible that even the most determined German officer won’t find it. He sorely needs the money, and outwitting the Nazis who have occupied his beloved city is a challenge he can’t resist.
But when one of his hiding spaces fails horribly, and the problem of where to hide a Jew becomes terribly personal, Lucien can no longer ignore what’s at stake. The Paris Architect asks us to consider what we owe each other, and just how far we’ll go to make things right.
Written by an architect whose knowledge imbues every page, this story becomes more gripping with every soul hidden and every life saved.

Title: Eat Your Heart Out
Author: Giulia Simolo
Received: Giulia Simolo
Synopsis: Why does death by spinning have to replace death by chocolate when the latter is so much more fun?

Last year Chloe Mackenzie was vibrant and skinny – and much to her chagrin, there’s a picture to prove it. This year she has put on weight and is desperate to lose it by the time she attends her boyfriend’s brother’s glamorous wedding where she’ll be meeting his parents for the first time.

No pressure. Bring on the cake!

But what’s really behind all that obsession with fitting into designer jeans and trying to be the woman she was last year?