A high-risk pregnancy. A dangerous secret. When her case turns deadly, can this investigator avoid racking up a fatal debt?
​
PI Kelly Pruett’s search to locate a former classmate’s missing father ends in what appears to be a tragic accident. But putting the pieces together that led to that fateful night will require Kelly to play a high risk game of chance with a killer willing to gamble everything to win.

Private investigator stories are always fun to me—even more so when the lead is getting her sea legs & proving her instincts & mettle not only to herself but to those who don’t think she can handle it.

Denied is the second in Mary Keliikoa’s Kelly Pruett series. It’s entertaining, it’s layered, and the mystery is compelling, opening when lead Kelly takes on a case to look for a former classmate’s dad. When she arrives at his home she doesn’t find him but she does see lots of evidence of gambling & a severed finger in his trashcan.

Questions abound & the case is made more poignant to Kelly—& more interesting to the reader—by the parallels Kelly makes between this missing dad & her own complicated father who recently passed away & who owned their PI company.

Whereas Kelly had a rookie learning curve in the first book, in this one she’s obviously grown as an investigator & she hasn’t lost her tenacity or her bravery. She’s all too willing to pursue wherever the case’s leads take her to find her answers & that makes for a fun ride.

Romance readers: there is a romantic relationship in this series but it’s kissing only & not a real focus. The sweet spot of Denied for me is in offering a single mother heroine who isn’t afraid to take risks in order to give her clients the answers they’re seeking. A PI with integrity & a lot of guts.

4 ⭐️. Out now!

Mary Keliikoa is the author of the Lefty and Agatha award nominated PI Kelly Pruett mystery series and the upcoming Misty Pines mystery series featuring Sheriff Jax Turner slated for release in September 2022. Her short stories have appeared in Woman’s World and in the anthology Peace, Love and Crime: Crime Fiction Inspired by Music of the ‘60s. A Pacific NW native, she spent a part of her life working around lawyers. Combining her love of legal and books, she creates a twisting mystery where justice prevails.

When not in Washington, you can find Mary on the beach in Hawaii where she and her husband recharge. But even under the palm trees and blazing sun, she’s plotting her next murder—novel that is.
​
Find out more about Mary on her website, Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook.

It's up to a trio of adorable rescue huskies to make two lonely hearts in a coastal Alaskan town realize that true love is worth too much to turn tail and run.
​
Glaciers have nothing on Kelsey Porter when she decides to freeze someone out. After getting burned once, she's not about to let it happen again. And right now all that icy contempt is focused on one annoyingly attractive and entitled interloper: Ian Roth. Not only is he looking to take advantage of her quaint, coastal community, tainting the small-town charm of Helen, Alaska, but he has committed the one crime she can never forgive--he doesn't like her dogs.

Unlike what Kelsey believes, Ian loves Helen's charms as much as she does. That's partly why he's determined to open a brewery there, and he's not about to let anything or anyone stop his dream from coming true. But he didn't count on the beautiful, prickly woman getting under his skin. Or having to be within hand-biting proximity of her three huge huskies.

When Kelsey's family conscripts her into helping Ian get his brewery off the ground, she finds herself caught between a rock and a hard . . . muscular . . . man who has a fear of dogs. But the longer they work together, the more she can feel herself begin to thaw. Now she'll have to choose: let sleeping dogs lie to protect her heart, or mush head-on toward love.​

Alanna Martin’s Paws & Prejudice is a romance set smack in small town Alaska, where the biggest threat isn’t quite the local wildlife but instead a long-running, take-all-prisoners feud between two families.

Everyone’s expected to take sides, even new residents of Helen, like Ian Roth, hopeful brewery owner & transplant from Florida.

He’s a more laid-back type except he does get annoyed by self-described “ice queen” Kelsey Porter, who’s mastered the snarky behavior that keeps people from looking too closely.

She also doesn’t like outsiders. But when they’re made to work together, they both realize the other isn’t quite as they seem, & maybe Helen, Alaska is big enough for both of them.

There’s quite a lot going on here & on balance I found it entertaining with some enjoyable steam. The ice queen-“puppy” personality hero is a fun take, even if the heroine made me raise my eyebrows on a couple of occasions.

At the beginning of the book I had reservations about her & the feud she’s been part of for so long & it’s cool seeing her realize for herself that the feud is damaging & not necessary, that she can step out of it & achieve positive change using the power the feud has given her.

The fact that the heroine is a romance novel writer in secret—& the hero has a dog phobia & the heroine has three beloved huskies—gives them both more opportunity to grow emotionally.

I wanted more build up for their feelings before things between them really accelerate, though they do start establishing more of that intimacy—& the book has more thorough relationship development—after they sleep together the first time.

Paws & Prejudice has some sweet moments, some hot moments, & it’s 3.5 ⭐️ for me.

Out today!

​ Q: what’s one of your fave 2021 covers? I think this one is gorgeous!

Shout-out to Diana Quincy for writing a viscount/bonesetter couple in The Viscount Made Me Do It, a daring combo that was fun to read for the first time.

Hanna Zaydan is the bonesetter in question, a woman who faces discrimination on account of her profession, her sex, & her Arabic ancestry & culture. But she’s not bowing down to anyone’s idea of what she should do, not even her mother & grandmother, who want her to marry an Arabic man & stop practicing bonesetting.

Viscount Thomas Ellis “Griff” has spent the last couple of years in tremendous pain but that’s not why he visits Hanna. It’s because he sees her wearing his murdered mother’s necklace & wants to question her about its providence.

The fact that she heals his arm when others haven’t been able to garners his respect for life & her beauty & demeanor capture his more romantic admiration.

But there are big obstacles between them & tbh, I had my doubts about how it would all work out.

The characterization of Hanna is often delightful. She’s ambitious, skilled, & she really isn’t afraid of much. There’s a flower scene with Griff—where she really lets her feelings go— that I adore.

But Griff is frequently frustrating to me. One mark in his favor is his appreciation for Hanna’s skill, but I find his overall attitude toward her & their relationship to be not as romantic as I would like. There are a couple of moments where I feel like he’s somewhat cold.

Hanna is a compelling heroine but sadly the romance in this one is a little lackluster for me.

Serving Sin was my first time dropping into Angelina M. Lopez’s Filthy Rich series but as soon as I saw bodyguard romance I said helloooooo there.

Roman Sheppard & Cenobia (Cen) Trujillo met about 13 years ago when he was a former Army Ranger, newly turned private security CEO who rescued her after she was kidnapped.

Now, at a special celebration in Monte del Vino Real, Spain, where Roman now lives with his half siblings & serves as adviser to the king & a freaking prince, Cen reveals (1) that it was actually her who led the initiative to help their struggling country out of a financial bind, not her father as he thought & (2) she’s receiving violent threats as her huge car production company prepares to launch its first car.

Roman wants to keep her safe, even as he knows how challenging it’ll be to be around the stunning woman he’s spent the last several years avoiding.

Well, call me a Lopez fan because this book has so much of the good stuff:

⭐️ Cen knows her shit. Her business acumen🏻. Her drive, her stubbornness, her tenderness.
⭐️ age gap
⭐️ Roman is just in awe. Would also like to add that he doesn’t see himself as worthy of anything & while this is very sad that’s also my catnip.
⭐️ really interesting consideration of misogyny
⭐️ throughhhh sex scenes that aren’t clinical in the slightest.
⭐️ so much respect between leads
​
There are a couple of moments where I came out of the story a bit due to how those plot points are presented, but overall, Serving Sin has great steam, characterization, & heart, & I really enjoyed my time with it!