GIRL WITH A GUN is the first novel in the Annie Oakley Mystery Series by Kari Bovee. The historical mystery novel is Kari Bovee’s debut, and it will be published on June 19th 2018 by SparkPress.

SECRETS, LIES, & CRAWFISH PIES by Abby L. Vandiver (published June 12, 2018 by Henery Press) is the first novel in the Romaine Wilder Mystery series. 

CHERRY PIES & DEADLY LIES by Darci Hannah (published June 8, 2018 by Midnight Ink) is the first novel in the Very Cherry Mystery series. Main character Whitney Bloom rushes home to her small hometown of Cherry Cove after a dead body is found at her parents’ Cherry Orchard Inn. The murder took place just days before the annual Cherry Blossom Festival is about to begin, and Whitney’s father is the number one suspect. Whitney pitches in to help her parents handle the festival, do damage control for the Inn, and find the real killer.

HIDDEN, the debut romantic suspense novel by Kelli Clare, will be published by SparkPress on June 5, 2018. Main character, Ellie James, is an art teacher/bartender in a small Connecticut town on the coast. Her life is rather mundane but happy until she comes home from work one night and discovers that her grandmother and sister have been murdered. As if that isn’t shocking enough, Ellie discovers that her grandmother and sister were keeping secrets from her – secrets that trace all the way back to Richard III. These secrets place Ellie’s life in danger, and the sexy but dangerous Will Hastings is the only man who can protect her. The question is whether she can trust him.

Ever since I was a kid, I have been fascinated by Bonnie and Clyde, as well as other gangsters from the Roaring Twenties. I also have a thing for American West gunslingers and outlaws. To be honest, I have a fascination with all of the bad guys and gals of history. I’m not quite sure what that says about me… But I can say that I was very excited when I saw that Jenni L. Walsh had written a two part series about Bonnie Parker.

CONFESSIONS OF A RED HERRING by Dana Dratch will be published May 29, 2018 by Kensington Publishing Corporation. It is the first in the Red Herring Mystery series.

MURDER IN GREENWICH VILLAGE is a new cozy, historical mystery by Liz Freeland. The novel will be published on May 29, 2018 by Kensington Publishing Corporation. 

NEVER DECEIVE A VISCOUNT, the second novel in the Infamous Lords series by Renee Ann Miller, is a solid follow up to NEVER DARE A WICKED EARL. The novel will be published on May 29, 2018 by Zebra Shout.

THE ONES WE CHOOSE by Julie Clark (published May 8, 2018 by Gallery Books) is a beautiful and emotional novel about relationships and forgiveness.

I AM JUSTICE, the first novel in the Band of Sisters series, by Diana Munoz Stewart is a compelling, suspenseful, and thrilling romance novel. It will be released by Sourcebooks Casablanca on May 1, 2018.

Reviews of the first three novels in the Lilly Long Mystery series by Penny Richards.

You're definitely going to want to eat at least one cupcake after reading DON'T CALL ME CUPCAKE - especially if it is one of the special, magical cupcakes that main character Emma Holloway bakes. DON'T CALL ME CUPCAKE is a contemporary romance novel by Tara Sheets. It is her debut novel, and it will be published on April 24, 2018 by Zebra Shouts. The novel is the first in the Holloway Girls series.

THE WILD BIRDS, Emily Strelow's debut fiction/historical novel, was published March 13, 2018 by Rare Bird Books. Over a roughly 120-year span, the novel weaves together multiple overlapping stories about a diverse cast of characters who are all connected by an ornate silver box containing the egg shells of various birds. This is a novel about finding oneself and a place to call home.

SLIPPER by Hester Velman (published April 17, 2018 by Van Horton Books) is the retelling of Cinderella. And, trust me, it is nothing like the Disney version. This Cinderella suffers a lot more than a torn dress and dirty fingernails thanks to all of that cleaning she had to do. This Cinderella survives rape, a witch hunt, war, and massacres. Life teaches her some very hard lessons – yet it takes her a long time to learn anything from them. And, in the end, the glass slipper doesn’t even fit!

TEXAS TWO-STEP by Michael Pool (published April 2, 2018 by Down Out Books) is a wild romp involving criminals, lawmen (some are good, and some are crooked), and a whole lot of marijuana.

I have read a lot of great books so far in 2018 (according to my Goodreads Reading Challenge I’m up to 36 books so far this year), and I can honestly say that BETWEEN EARTH AND SKY by Amanda Skenandore is the best one I’ve read so far. Skenandore’s debut novel, which will be published by Kensington on April 24, 2018, is a compelling and heartbreaking historical fiction set in the 1880s and early 1900s. The novel alternates between the main character’s past as the only white child attending the Stover Indian School in Wisconsin, and her present as the wife of a lawyer in Philadelphia in 1906.

As of 2018, there are three novels in the A Taste of Texas Mystery series: HERE TODAY, GONE TAMALE (2015), THE GOOD, THE BAD, AND THE GUACAMOLE (2016), and CINCO DE MURDER (2018). Each of the novels place in Broken Boot, and all of them are focused around a festival or celebration that brings an influx of tourists to the small town in West Texas. In the first novel, Josie is basically just a Nosy Nellie sticking her nose into the sheriff department’s investigation because she wants to prove that the person that the sheriff arrested is not the killer. In the second and third novels, Josie is covering the crime beat for the Broken Boot Bugle, and, while that does make her an actual investigator, it does give her a reason to dig deeper into the investigations.

FICTION CAN BE MURDER is the first novel in the Mystery Writer’s Mystery Series by Becky Clark. The novel is Clark’s first, and it will be released by Midnight Ink on April 8, 2018.

Wow. I was just blown away by WHO SHE IS by Diane Byington. WHO SHE IS is Byington’s debut novel, and it will be released on March 20, 2018, by Red Adept Publishing, LLC.