From Vows and Villainy by Elizabeth Penney. Copyright © 2025 by the author and reprinted by permission of St. Martin’s Publishing Group. Chapter 2 “Molly, are you all right?” Daisy crouched down beside me, her face creased with concern. “Not really.” I rested my head on my knees and closed my eyes. “I think I heard . . . whatever happened to Sir Nigel last night. A shout, followed by the sound of something falling into the water.” “Oh, how awful.” Her blue eyes widened. “You definitely should tell the police.” “I plan to.” My laugh was dry. “And won’t they be surprised that I’m involved in another mysterious death? Not.” You might say that I’d been a thorn in the side of the Cambridge homicide team. And if this was murder, they’d certainly be called in. “You know what else is strange?” I said. “If I did hear Sir Nigel? No one reported him missing. You’d think his wife would have noticed he wasn’t in their room.” Sir Nigel’s wife, Belinda Stevens, was the other lead actor in the troupe. They oversaw the productions together. “Good point,” Daisy said. “Where is she right now?” “No idea.” By the time…

What is the title of your latest release?WATCH US FALL What’s the “elevator pitch” for your new book?WATCH US FALL is a psychological suspense novel about four best friends—Addie, Lucy, Penelope, and Estella—living their post-grad dream life in a shared house in trendy Georgetown, Washington DC. When Josh—Addie’s celebrity ex-boyfriend—disappears, police come calling, secrets spill, and things fall apart fast. How did you decide where your book was going to take place?My novels always take place in Washington, DC. I’ve lived in DC or the DC area since I was sixteen years old, and I love the city so much. For Watch Us Fall, it was a matter of choosing the right neighborhood. My narrator is a broke post-grad up to her ears in student debt, and I thought, no way she’d get very far from her alma mater, which were the best days of her life. So I tossed her and her friends in a very glamorous but falling apart Georgetown rowhouse, where the rent is super high but the social scene fantastic. Would you hang out with your protagonist in real life?Of course! Did I mention Lucy and their friends have great parties? Who doesn’t want to go…

This time of year, there’s a toy elf that surfs through houses, spying on unsuspecting children for Santa. Out of fear of the elf’s all-knowing gaze, my nephew would just fess up to his misdoings. I never used it on my children. I deputized myself to join the nice and naughty list brigade. As a child, I wondered about Santa. We had a fake fireplace in our house. Our dog slept in it. My dad painted it orange, it’s a long story. Back to my concerns, how would Santa get in? Where would the reindeer land? How come I got substantially less gifts than my well-crafted wish list enumerated? When I was five, shopping bags appeared under my bed. I checked all and they were full of boys’ clothes. Should I contact Santa’s staff about the wrong delivery and get moved up the nice list? I caught my mom putting more bags in my room. I didn’t realize my room had been her gift hiding place for years. I had declared my room a no boys allowed space, that included their undeserving presents. My mom fessed up to being Santa which explained so much. By eight years old, I was…

Ten years ago, an unsuspecting romance author sat down to write a charming Christmas tale. She imagined snow drifting over the Pocono Mountains, a lonely house sitter named Marcy, a mischievous little dog named Ginger, and an antique Christmas elf waiting on a shelf. It should have been a sweet holiday story.It was not. Instead, the elf in her book became the kind that watches with unblinking eyes—the kind that knows more than it should. Marcy can sense something is off. Ginger barks whenever the elf appears. And hiding inside that little toy? A modern camera planted by a stalker determined to claim Marcy as his holiday prize. That dark twist sparked the beginning of To Catch an Elf: Pennsylvania Fighter Pilot. And it sparked something else entirely— A decade of real-life elf mischief. The First Hint of Trouble Back then, the author planned an online party to celebrate the story—a fun event with decorative elves as prizes. Feeling festive, she left the elves at home while she set sail on a Christmas cruise with family. When she returned, her writing office looked as though a blizzard of books and candle wax had blown through. They’d gotten into the champagne…

Many current best-selling mystery series revolve around a married couple or a happily committed couple who solve crimes together. Does a romantic relationship add a whole new dimension to the plot? Is there an extra layer of emotional conflict when the marriage is threatened or turns rocky? Here’s what I found. True love can withstand the test of time. In EXPLOITED, a thriller by Pamela Callow, lawyer Kate Lange is reunited with Randall Barrett, her former boss and the managing partner of one of the top law firms in Halifax. Kate defended him in an earlier book in the series when he was accused of murdering his ex-wife. With limited criminal law experience, Kate performed brilliantly in a case that seemed unwinnable, while battling her own demons and resisting her white-hot attraction to Randall. Ten months later, they meet again in EXPLOITED, but much has changed. Kate is packing her office to begin a job at a different firm, when Randall appears at the door. She glances up, and “the gaze that met hers was the one she’d been waiting for all morning. In fact, it was one she’d been waiting for the past ten months.” In spite of the…

In this week’s Jen’s Jewels, author Sarah Monzon takes readers on a heartwarming ride in HEARTS IN CIRCULATION, a charming tale about a hopeful librarian, a reclusive hero, and the bookmobile affectionately named Cletus that brings them together. Blending humor, heart, and a touch of small-town magic, Sarah delivers a story filled with second chances, unexpected connections, and the quiet courage it takes to open one’s heart. Join me as Sarah shares the inspiration behind her beloved Checking Out Love series, the power of empathy in fiction, and why libraries, big or small, rolling or stationary, remain the heart of every community. Jen: I just love the premise of this story, a rundown bookmobile bringing two hearts together. What first inspired this idea, and did you always know it would center around a library on wheels?Sarah: I originally pitched a single story featuring a librarian and my editor came back and asked if I could come up with a couple more ideas to make it a series. Which of course I said absolutely! I wanted each book to be unique even though the main character in each would be librarians, and so decided to focus each book on a specific…

Book Title: LADY DARINGCharacter Name: Henrietta Wardley-HinesTime: May 1791 What brings you to London? This is your first Season, correct?It is my first Season, and I’m told I’m far too old to make a proper debut, but will please Lady Mama—that is my stepmother, Lady Clarinda. She is so terribly plumped that Jasper has been elevated with a knighthood—that is my father, Sir Jasper Wardley-Hines as he is styled now. What fun his suppliers and wholesalers are going to have with him when we return to Lancashire! Sir Jasper will be roasted everywhere, I don’t doubt. There’s been any number of comments here about mill owners who are plump in the pocket filling the King’s coffers in return for titles. They say that is how Jasper won Lady Mama, too—an earl’s daughter marrying a mushroom, that scandal still seems terribly current in some minds, I’m afraid. Still, I’ve agreed to make my curtsy to the Queen to do my duty by Wardley name, as my own dear Mama had a proper debut ages ago, and Aunt Davinia will like to think of me presented, though she won’t come to see it. But if you ask what brings me to London,…

Excerpt from NO MAN’S LAND by Simon Tolkien: The company left at midnight. Tallow-faced, unshaven, and exhausted, the soldiers marched with stony, expressionless faces along the moonlit road and then fell into single file when they reached the communication trench, picking their way slowly through the mud. Their uniforms were still wet and they shivered, grimacing with pain as the blisters on their swollen feet rubbed against the inside of their hard hobnailed boots. Frequently they had to stop, flattening themselves against the crumbling walls of the trench as stretcher-bearers came stumbling past with their burdens hidden under dirty blankets. And sometimes they fell, slipping on the unstable duckboards, but they didn’t have the energy now for more than a few muttered oaths as they picked themselves up and went on. The guns had been largely quiet as they passed, but a stray shell hit a dump of Very lights and set off a mad firework display that illuminated their surroundings in a blaze of fantastic colours just as they came to a break in the communication trench where it crossed a cart track used by supply vehicles. They could see that they were standing at the entrance to a…

Winter pulls the world in close. Streets glaze with frost, windows fog at the edges, and even loud hearts learn to whisper. It’s the perfect season for romances that swap battlefields for hearths, where the grand gesture might be a cup of tea handed across a counter or a handheld steady in lamplight. Cozy fantasy romance is not shy about comfort, and yet it never feels small. It trusts quiet stakes, gentle magic, and the steady bravery of people who choose kindness on purpose. These are books that smell like cinnamon and old paper, that cherish communities built one conversation at a time, that promise love can thrive in the soft hours between dinner and dawn. Stash a blanket by the reading chair, let the kettle hum, and settle in with stories that thaw the cold and light the room from within. EMILY WILDE’S ENCYCLOPEDIA OF FAERIES — Heather Fawcett Professor Emily Wilde leaves the university for a snowbound village at the far edge of the map, intent on cataloging the Folk with the rigor of a scholar. Her new neighbor, Wendell Bambleby, arrives in a swirl of charm and secrets, very possibly otherworldly, and very inconvenient to a woman…

by Candace Lynn Looking for a fictional villain you’ll love to hate? How about a whole raft of bad guys? Yes? Then I suggest Griffin Mordecai. One of the top rogues of my high fantasy series, Stoneslayer. It’s packed with human and non-human bad guys. Griffin is mean, petty, vicious, and spiteful with a mountain-size chip on his shoulder. And he acts accordingly, stirring up all manner of mischief and driving the plot in various ways. You may even know someone like him in real life. I, alas, knew Griffin in “real life” because Stoneslayer is based on four of my past lives, and the past lives of family and friends. Griffin was the second cousin (father’s side) of first-generation heroine Helen Andros (me in a past life). Griffin despises her because she is not of “pure” blood, whatever that means. And he hates Helen’s newfound father with a passion even though the man spared his life when the laws of Azgard would have allowed him to put Griffin to death. Big mistake. Writing the series, at times I really want to smack Griffin on the side of his head and say, “You have so much! What is your problem?”…