 England, summer of 1812. Lucien, Viscount Ware, a secret spy for the Crown, is asked by his grandmother to use his skills in locating a missing country girl. She had taken a governess’s position near London almost a year ago and not been heard from for months. With the Prince Regent safely in Bath and Whitehall’s attention on the war with Ameria, Lucien has the time and agrees to make a few inquiries. The girl’s employers tell him Lucy vanished one night ten months ago with all her belongings. Convinced there is more to the story, he obtains an invitation—through his friend Lady Anne Ashburn—to a houseparty in the neighborhood in order to continue his inquiries. With the help of Lady Anne, the houseparty hosts, and others around the village of Blinkers Marsh, Lucien and his friend/fellow agent Sherbourne learn of a second missing girl, make a grisly discovery in a pond, and hear whispers of a deadly plot to unleash terror and disruption upon London. They soon realize they are all in danger, along with hundreds or thousands of London citizens, perhaps the Crown itself—and a wild race begins to unmasks the culprits and cut off the deadly plot before time runs out. Buy Links: Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Dead-Cannot-Hide-J-Buck-ebook/dp/B0B6M4WK1R Kobo: https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/dead-cannot-hide Barnes&Noble: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/dead-cannot-hide-j-l-buck/1141782465?ean=9781684920648 IndieBound: https://www.indiebound.org/book/9781684920631 AppleBooks: https://books.apple.com/us/book/dead-cannot-hide/id6443160238 GoogleBooks: https://www.google.com/books/edition/Dead_Cannot_Hide BookShop (PB only): https://bookshop.org/p/books/dead-cannot-hide-j-l-buck/18644835 Blackwell’s (UK/PB): https://blackwells.co.uk/bookshop/product/9781684920631 Waterstones (UK/PB): https://www.waterstones.com/book/9781684920631 The Dead Cannot Hide (Viscount Ware Mystery #2) releases next Tuesday, February 14, and I decided to post a sneak peek of the opening pages a week early (which I'm cross-posting to both my blogs). I hope you enjoy it! The Dead Cannot Hide (Viscount Ware Mystery #2) Genre: Historical Mystery/Regency England England, summer of 1812. Lucien, Viscount Ware, a secret spy for the Crown, is asked by his grandmother to use his skills in locating a missing country girl. She had taken a governess’s position near London almost a year ago and not been heard from for months. With the Prince Regent safely in Bath and Whitehall’s attention on the war with Ameria, Lucien has the time and agrees to make a few inquiries. The girl’s employers tell him Lucy vanished one night ten months ago with all her belongings. Convinced there is more to the story, he obtains an invitation—through his friend Lady Anne Ashburn—to a houseparty in the neighborhood in order to continue his inquiries. With the help of Lady Anne, the houseparty hosts, and others around the village of Blinkers Marsh, Lucien and his friend/fellow agent Sherbourne learn of a second missing girl, make a grisly discovery in a pond, and hear whispers of a deadly plot to unleash terror and disruption upon London. They soon realize they are all in danger, along with hundreds or thousands of London citizens, perhaps the Crown itself—and a wild race begins to unmasks the culprits and cut off the deadly plots before time runs out. Pre-order and buy links available now at online sellers, including: Amazon: www.amazon.com/Dead-Cannot-Hide-J-Buck-ebook/dp/B0B6M4WK1R EXCERPT: Chapter One London, July 1812 Lucien Grey, Viscount Ware, doffed his hat to a gentleman on a passing phaeton and stepped up to the front entrance of the Salcott London mansion. The time was exactly half four. The summons from his grandmother Augusta, the Dowager Countess Salcott, had arrived hours earlier, but he had put off his call until the Earl would be in session at the House of Lords. Lucien had every hope of avoiding a quarrel with his father. The viscount and Salcott had been at odds…well, all of Lucien’s life really. The less they saw of one another, the better they got on—especially now. When his father’s worst beliefs about his only surviving son had proven false last winter, Salcott’s resulting embarrassment had made him more intractable than ever. And Lucien was in no mood to be polite or tolerant. The War Office at Whitehall was in disarray, and in recent weeks, Lord Rothe had laden Lucien and his fellow intelligence agent Andrew Sherbourne with too many private, clandestine assignments— some frivolous or even foolhardy. Lucien rapped the knocker twice, keen to get out of the stifling July heat. The door opened promptly, and the elderly butler, a family retainer since Lucien’s childhood, greeted him with a smile. “Your lordship.” “Good afternoon, Jeffers. You look in the pink of health,” Lucien said, stepping inside. “I trust the gout is not giving you too much trouble?” “Not bad, my lord. Just now and again.” The butler bowed, showing proper deference overlaid with the familiarity of long acquaintance. Only in the last few years had he given up referring to the viscount as Master Lucien. Jeffers’ hair was showing significant white now, but age had neither slowed his step nor dulled the alertness in his eyes. Lucien handed him his hat. “Is the dowager countess receiving?” “She is, my lord, and will be as delighted to see you as I am. As the Smythes left not more than ten minutes ago, she is still in the drawing room.” “Excellent. I shall announce myself.” “Very good, my lord.” Lucien smoothed his hair, straightened his cuffs, and made his way across the marble hallway, hoping his grandmother’s summons wasn’t just another opportunity to lecture him. Despite her blatant manipulation to get whatever she wanted, he was quite fond of the old lady and admired her strong-minded spirit. He had no wish to offend her, but any attempt to press him regarding Salcott or his duties to the family name would sorely try his patience. Frankly, he was tired. A respite from both family and political intrigue was in order. In the six months since a French spy had been unearthed inside Whitehall, the Home Office and its War Office division had moved from one crisis to another. The war with Napoleon continued to swing back and forth, giving the populace little to cheer about. Discontent, even revolution, was whispered loudly on the streets. In the midst of it all, Prime Minister Spencer Perceval was assassinated in the very heart of Westminster by a madman, and a month later, War Secretary Jenkinson, the 2nd Earl of Liverpool, was appointed Prime Minister and his former position filled by Henry Bathurst, 3rd Earl of Bathurst. As if those events had not caused sufficient upheaval in the upper levels of British government, sixteen days ago, on June 18, America had declared war on Great Britain. Fortunately, Lord Rothe, the man Lucien reported to in Prinny’s secret spy unit, had remained unscathed by the turmoil and still enjoyed a favored position with the Prince Regent. But even that had its downside. As the prince grew less trustful of others, he had relied more often on the Marquess of Rothe and his aristocratic spies to solve the least little problem that annoyed him, including indiscreet scrapes and scandals among his friends or other members of the haute ton that were a potential threat to Prinny’s peace of mind or the smooth conduct of government. Rothe, in turn, had reached out to Lucien and Sherbourne more often than not. They had been putting out political fires way too often. Upon reaching the drawing room, Lucien found his grandmother absorbed in a book, a pair of spectacles perched on the bridge of her nose, her back straight, not a white curl out of place. She was still a grand lady, aging with indomitable elegance. As he strode toward her, she looked up, hastily put her novel and glasses on the table, and held out both hands. “Lucien! I had begun to wonder if you were coming. I have waited all day, naughty boy.” Despite the scold, her eyes twinkled as he bowed and took her hands, leaning down to kiss her cheek. “I beg pardon for my tardiness, Grandmama. I did not realize your request was urgent.” “Fustian. We both know why you dallied until this hour, but rest assured, I did not ask you here to box your ears. Do take a seat, my boy. You look fagged. Shall I ring for fresh tea?” “Not for me. I feel the want of something stronger.” Crossing to the sideboard, he picked up a crystal decanter of port, pulled out the stopper, and turned, cocking his head. “Will you join me?” The dowager’s eyes gleamed. “Need you ask? Surely you did not think I would leave you to drink alone.” He chuckled, handed her a half-filled glass, and settled into a wing-backed chair. After taking a reviving swallow of the excellent port, he picked up the conversation again. “I am surprised to find you in London. I thought you were permanently settled these last few years in the dower house at Salcott.” “Oh, I am. Very comfortably, I might add. Country life suits me at my age, and I would not normally travel so far, but I had business with my London solicitors. They could have come to me, of course, but I also wished to speak with you.” “I gathered that.” He leaned forward and studied her face, a flash of unease bringing a frown. “Is something wrong? You are not ill?” “Do I look ill?” The dowager appeared startled. “On second thought, do not answer that. I am afraid what your answer might be.” “Nonsense. You are as beautiful as ever.” “Now who is talking nonsense?” she said with a smile. “I am well, Lucien, as well as one can be at seventy.” Her mood visibly shifted as she pursed her lips. “However, I shall not deny I am disquieted. I came to town because I need your help.” “You shall have it. What can I do for you?” “A girl from our village, a young woman, I should say…Lucy Drayton is missing.” The dowager’s hand fluttered in the air. “Oh, I doubt you know her. She must be twenty…or one and twenty by now. Her great-aunt, a dear lady, and I are close acquaintances. Lucy’s mother married beneath herself, you see, and the child was brought up in the impoverished but gentle home of an estate agent.” She stopped abruptly as though realizing she had drifted off course. “Well, never mind all that, the long and short of it is at her age and still unmarried, Lucy took a position as governess in a respectable household near London. That was a year ago. Her family had one letter, telling them she had arrived safely, but nothing since.” “What makes you think she is missing? She may be busy, involved in her new life.” His grandmother shook her head. “She was ever a polite and considerate child. Her family and I agree Lucy would write and not worry them in this way. Something has happened to her, Lucien. I want you to find her, and if she is not well situated, I hope you can bring her home.” Lucien tapped his fingers on the chair arm. Young servant girls, even governesses, went missing in London all the time, swallowed by a city that could be heartless. Some were later found to have runoff with young men; others turned off their positions for a variety of reasons, including accusations of loose morals, disappeared into the seedier parts of town, surviving in any manner they could. Finding her might not be easy, especially if she didn’t want to be found. “What does her employer say?” “Not enough. That is what makes it so concerning.” The dowager’s frown deepened, exaggerating the age wrinkles around her mouth. “The family wrote to Mr. Harwick, twice, but received no response. Three weeks ago, Lucy’s cousin David made the trip to Harwick House and was told she had left without notice late last autumn. And yet nobody told her family…not even Lucy. Is that not strange?” “I do not disagree, but it is not alarming.” He went on, condensing his earlier thoughts. “Girls are let go or lured away by false promises and end up with lives they won’t divulge to friends and relatives. She may not thank me for finding her.” “No need to mince words, Lucien. You mean she may be working in a brothel.” “Well, there are other possibilities, but yes, that is one.” “Very doubtful.” The dowager spoke with decisiveness. “I know the girl. But if she has sunk that low, her family will want to help her. They at least need to know whether she is alive or dead. Will you look into it?” Lucien smiled. As though he could say no. She knew he would not refuse her. “For you, anything. I shall do what I can. As you know, Lord Rothe has priority on much of my time.” The dowager was one of the few who had known, even during his four years of seeming frivolity in the ballrooms and courts on the Continent, that he worked as an agent for the Crown. He had sworn her to secrecy, and she had kept her pledge. Family ties notwithstanding, he owed her. He unfolded his long length and stood. “Speaking of Rothe, I have an appointment with his lordship that I must keep.” “Must you go so soon? Yes, of course, you do.” She sighed and gave him an earnest look. “Thank you, my boy. The Draytons— and I, of course—shall be eternally grateful for anything you can discover. I shall not detain you longer, for I know how important your work is, but I hope to see you soon with news of her. I shall remain in London at least another week or two.” “If today’s meeting goes as expected, I may be able to look into this right away.” Rothe’s message had implied he and Sherbourne might be getting a break from assignments. If so, he would be at leisure to do what he could for the Drayton family. “Oh, excellent.” “No promises the answers will be what you want,” he cautioned. “But I shall do my best to learn the truth.” He kissed her cheek good-bye and walked toward the door. The old woman sighed audibly this time. “Oh, Lucien, I am sorry to vex you, but I cannot let you leave without urging you to speak with your father. I mean truly talk with him. I know he should have had faith in you, trusted your character…but now that he knows of your secret work for the Crown, I am convinced he wants to make amends.” Lucien had stiffened the moment she sighed. Now he turned. “You know our differences go back well before my years in the war. Discovering I have not been the care-for-nothing rake he thought I was changes nothing. He will ever hold me responsible for the death of my mother.” “Oh, Lucien, no…” “It is no matter, truly. I understand. But that does not make it easier.” “No one is to blame for your mother dying in childbirth, least of all the babe. She was always delicate. These things happen in life.” “Try telling that to my father.” He saw the pain in her eyes and wondered if it was a reflection of his own. It was not as though this was an easy or new conversation. “My darling boy, he knows… deep in his heart he has always known, but he could not get past his grief. Theirs was a true love match, and, well… When he finally began to recover, I think he felt it was too late and pride stood in his way.” Lucien shrugged. “It is too late. My father and I will never have a normal father-son relationship. Too many bitter years of misunderstandings are behind us.” “I cannot accept that as true, dear boy, but if it is, could you not make something new? A friendship, perhaps. Surely it is not too late for that.” “You make it sound as though we are uncivil. I strive to always show proper respect.” Lucien sounded defensive to his own ears and cut himself off. “I must go, or I will be late.” She gave a resigned nod. “Yes, I am sorry. I do not mean to plague you.” “I know.” Lucien’s face softened. “Just as I know the distance between my father and me causes you grief, but it is a lost cause. You must accept it, Grandmama. I have.” He turned back toward the door. “I shall let you know what I learn of Lucy Drayton’s fate.”  The Dead Cannot Hide (Viscount Ware Mystery #2) Genre: historical mystery/Regency England, summer of 1812. Lucien, Viscount Ware, a secret spy for the Crown, is asked by his grandmother to use his skills in locating a missing country girl. She had taken a governess’s position near London almost a year ago and not been heard from for months. With the Prince Regent safely in Bath and Whitehall’s attention on the war with Ameria, Lucien has the time and agrees to make a few inquiries. The girl’s employers tell him Lucy vanished one night ten months ago with all her belongings. Convinced there is more to the story, he obtains an invitation—through his friend Lady Anne Ashburn—to a houseparty in the neighborhood in order to continue his inquiries. With the help of Lady Anne, the houseparty hosts, and others around the village of Blinkers Marsh, Lucien and his friend/fellow agent Sherbourne learn of a second missing girl, make a grisly discovery in a pond, and hear whispers of a deadly plot to unleash terror and disruption upon London. They soon realize they are all in danger, along with hundreds or thousands of London citizens, perhaps the Crown itself—and a wild race begins to unmasks the culprits and cut off the deadly plots before time runs out. Pre-order/buy Links at regular online bookstores, including: Amazon: www.amazon.com/Dead-Cannot-Hide-J-Buck-ebook/dp/B0B6M4WK1R  Welcome to Matter of Inquiry! This week's guest is Robbie Jordan, the main character of author Maddie Day's Country Store Mysteries. It's nice to have you here, Robbie. Tell us something about yourself. Character bio: Robbie Jordan is the owner and chief chef of Pans ’N Pancakes, a country store breakfast-and-lunch restaurant in southern Indiana. She’s a native mid-coast Californian but loves living in the Midwest – until murder hits. She recently married her boyfriend of several years and combined households with him and his son in their town of South Lick in Brown County. INTERVIEW: JLB: Tell us, Robbie, are you happy with your name or would you have picked something else? RJ_ When I was growing up, I didn’t much like the name Roberta, but I always went by Robbie, so that was fine. I discovered only after my single mom died – suddenly and too soon in her fifties – that my father is a professor in Italy named Roberto. Now I love my given name, although only he and my mom’s sister Adele address me as that. JLB: Did your author give you any hobbies or pets? RJ: I guess my hobby is the same as my exercise practice – long, hard bicycle rides. I also do crossword puzzles. I have a darling adopted tuxedo cat named Birdy. Since I’ve been married to Abe and become step-mom to his teen son Sean, we also have Sean’s chocolate Lab, Cocoa, in the house, plus a sweet black cat named Macedo. Luckily they all get along. JLB: Do you like the profession your author chose? Is there a career that would have been better? RJ: I love it. I’d wanted to be a chef from way back, and owning my own restaurant is even better. I’m good at carpentry, but that was my mom’s profession, not mine. JLB: Are you hoping the series will continue? RJ: Gosh. Four Leaf Cleaver is book #11 in the series and my author said we’re going through at least #13. Hey, it’s my life. I want the series to go on forever! JLB: Were you satisfied with the ending of your featured book? RJ: I was delighted to tie up the murder as well as something in my personal life. It’s all good. JLB: Who was your favorite supporting character? RJ: I’d have to say my seventy-something Aunt Adele. She’s a tough lady and a tender one, too. As my only relative on this continent, I feel so lucky to have her. She seems to feel the same way, although once in a while she gets in over her head in an investigation and takes it places I wish she wouldn’t. Still, as a sheep farmer she knows how to shoot and owns more than one weapon. She can take care of herself. JLB: Name three of your favorite things (whether mentioned in the book or not). RJ:
RJ: Heck, she never warns me about anything. Yes, this book involved me being in danger, but I rescued myself. I don’t warn my author, either, and she’s the one following me around and writing down what I do. Sometimes she’s definitely surprised by what happens. JLB: I think our time is up for today, Robbie. Thank you for coming. Before you go, please show us your featured book, the latest Country Store Mystery.  FOUR LEAF CLEAVER (A Country Story Mystery) Genre: Cozy mystery There’s no mistaking Saint Patrick’s Day at Pans ’N Pancakes, where the shelves of vintage cookware in her southern Indiana store are draped with Kelly-green garlands and her restaurant is serving shepherd’s pie and Guinness Beer brownies. The big event, however, is a televised Irish cooking competition to be filmed on site. Unfortunately, someone’s luck has run out. Before the cameras start rolling, tough-as-nails producer Tara O’Hara Moore is found upstairs in her B&B room, a heavy cleaver left by her side. Now, not only does Robbie have a store full of festive decorations, she’s got a restaurant full of suspects . . . Amazon Buy Link: Four Leaf Cleaver Note: Check out the excerpt with the Book Spotlight on my Ally Shield' blog: allyshields.com/blog/book-spotlight-on-four-leaf-cleaver-by-maddie-day  About the Author: Maddie Day pens the Country Store Mysteries, the Cozy Capers Book Group Mysteries, and the new Cece Barton Mysteries. As Agatha Award-winning author Edith Maxwell, she writes the Quaker Midwife Mysteries and award-nominated short crime fiction. Day/Maxwell lives with her beau and cat Martin north of Boston, where she writes, gardens, cooks, and wastes time on Facebook. Find her at EdithMaxwell.com, Wicked Authors, Mystery Lovers’ Kitchen, and on social media: BookBub,Twitter, Facebook, Instagram  This week we're welcoming historical mystery author A.D. Price to the blog for a guest article on writing mysteries in an ever-changing world and a peek at her debut mystery novel, AFTER THE BLUE, BLUE RAIN. The blog is all yours AD! Oh, Technology by A. D. PriceBefore setting pen to page, or fingers to keyboard, mystery writers have likely settled on a few basics of their story: When the story takes place – contemporary or a particular historical period – and where it takes place. Once the choice between city and country, real place and imaginary, has been made, the writer starts to build the physical world of the mystery, its milieu. And for better or worse, within that physical world, technology is a key element. Technology – defined vaguely as the ways by which people provide themselves with material objects – is a big part of everyday life but it's rarely the stuff of great art. For the mystery reader, descriptions of technology can be soporific. (I recently read a mystery in which the author felt compelled to explain, in detail, how to send and print an email attachment. Ooof!) And for the writer, deciding when and how to describe gadgets and gizmos can be challenging. Fiction is expected to be technologically accurate, but always presented in a "user friendly" way. I chose to write a historical mystery in part because I wanted to avoid the burden of these Information Age details. I knew I'd never be comfortable describing how TikTok works or how Facetune came to be. Forget Crypto or NFTs. And most important, I worried that even if I could master these details, by the time my book came out, they'd already be dated. Fast-moving research and development and the far reach of social media have, I think, altered the landscape of evergreen writing. Not that long ago, a piece of fiction could be evergreen for 50 years as long as the writer avoided specific dates and events. Except for science fiction writers, I suspect few authors back then gave much thought to changing technology, mainly because everyday technology changed very little. Telephones had receivers and cords, letters were delivered by postal workers, kids played with toys, money was kept in pockets and wallets, and books had spines. Nowadays, however, the form and function of our basic tools change almost daily. Not long ago, home security systems with cameras and live video feed were gadgets of the rich. Today, they are ubiquitous in most of America. Come tomorrow, however, they're likely to be taken over by drones and robots. A writer wouldn't need to mention the year or a current event to lose the timelessness of their mystery. Just by including a certain common tool or a popular website, they could be dating their story to a particular year. Does it matter if a contemporary mystery is evergreen? It depends. Some successful authors, like Michael Connelly, embrace the temporal. They literally date their stories, trying to capture in real time society's goings-on. Most contemporary mysteries, however, exist in a vague present, only hinting at current events. The intention, I think, is to be evergreen, but technology sometimes undermines the effort. Even slightly outdated tech references can take the reader out of the story and make them wonder, when was this book written or, worse, how old is this writer? Writers of historical mysteries, of course, don't have that problem. Period technology has the advantage of being knowable and finite. A mystery can be built around its limitations, without worry that a more powerful, smarter device is waiting in the wings, ready to make the impossible, suddenly and uncomfortably possible. Of course, working within the period’s limitations can also be a creative challenge for a writer. What happens when the hero can't pick up their cellphone and text their partner? Or shoot an urgent email request for INTERPOL documents? Or get a DNA profile from a licked stamp? Whether they’re writing about monks in medieval Rome or flappers in 1920s New York, historical mystery writers still have to get their characters from point A to point B, no matter how low-tech the machinery may be. On the other hand, when it comes to climatic suspense sequences, going low-tech is often easier for the writer and more effective for the reader than high-tech options. The more technologically deprived and vulnerable a character is, the harder they have to work to figure out the clues and perhaps save themselves. Dramatic tension builds naturally when hero and villain are reduced to their own wits and bodies for defense. The sophistication of the technology hardly matters. For all its bells and whistles, modern technology rarely, if ever, adds to the drama. In fact, in many contemporary mysteries, suspense-building depends on the characters being deprived of technology: A storm knocks out the electricity, and with it, the Internet; a chase leads to a remote area where cellphone coverage doesn't exist; the GPS tracking device, designed to reveal the bad guy's location, is discovered and removed. Even in spy tales where state-of-the-art technology allows for dazzling espionage, there often comes a point in the plot where the gadgets fail or the villain discovers the dead spots in the satellite feed. The truth is, the power of mysteries usually comes down to the primitive and the instinctive, the will to survive and the innate skills to defeat the odds. In the end, raw brain power and raw brawn, not technology, always win the day.  About the Author: A native of Washington, D. C., A. D. Price lives in Los Angeles with her husband and two dogs. After the Blue, Blue Rain is her first novel, and if there's truth to the old saw about writing being a journey not a destination, then she’s been a happy wanderer for decades. Over the years, she’s worked as both a freelance and staff writer (under her real name, Amy Dunkleberger) penning everything from biographies and historical pieces to publicity material and study guides. She’s also the author of the Emmy-winning screenplay Other Mothers. She looks forward to finishing the next installment in her Comfort & Company detective series. Please visit her website to sign up for her newsletter “Price Writes Monthly.” Website: http://adpricebooks.com Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/adprice22/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100088827713435 Mastodon: https://toot.community/@LASilverlaker (This is equivalent, alternative to Twitter)  AFTER THE BLUE, BLUE RAIN Genre: historical mystery L.A. 1946. The client is desperate, the target has disappeared into thin air. And what began as a routine missing person case is about to take a dangerous turn for P.I. Kit Comfort and partner Henry Richman, the LAPD's most infamous ex-cop. While on the hunt for a veteran who's gone missing from an L.A.-bound train, detectives Kit and Henry come face-to-face with an underground network of enemy sympathizers. The duo's discovery sets off alarms with the U.S. Army, and soon, the pair are in a race against the clock, battling both a deadly cabal and dodgy government agents. The wounds of war come full circle in this devastating conspiracy between "good and evil." https://www.amazon.com/After-Blue-Rain-D-Price/dp/B0BDBB9GKX Coming to Audible in March, the audiobook version of After the Blue, Blue Rain, narrated by Elizabeth Schmidt. Book Two in the Comfort & Company series, The Birthday of Eternity, arriving fall 2023. Book excerpt can be found HERE in the book spotlight on my Ally Shields blog. Ballroom Blitz Genre: romantic suspense/ cozy mystery PG-13 In the glamorous world of ballroom, love and dancing do not always mix. Professional dancer Anita Goodman has learned that lesson the hard way. With her studio and her reputation on the line, she has to take a chance on the last person she ever wanted to partner with: her best friend. Patrick O’Leary has loved Anita since high school, but he has languished in the Friend Zone for long enough. He will take this last chance to prove to her that love is greater than winning. Neither of them realize that conquering their rising attraction won’t be their biggest obstacle. Someone does not want them to be together, and will stop at nothing to get their way. Love, dance, and danger. It’s a Ballroom Blitz. Buy Links: books2read.com/u/3yV6r6  About the Author: Natalie Cross writes romances and cozy mysteries featuring main characters who accept each other as they are, and love deeply. She lives in Los Angeles, where writing is an acceptable way to avoid sunburn. Natalie is mom to two lovely young munchkins who despise brushing their hair and eat way too much cake. She is unapologetically terrible at taking selfies. Something unique/unusual that isn't in your regular bio: “I love musical theater. I can sing/recall a sizeable portion of the Sondheim musical catalog, as well as most musicals released in the late 90s/early 2000s. My aunt and I once saw the original Scarlet Pimpernel musical three times in one weekend…” Author Contact Links: Website: www.nataliecrosswrites.com Facebook: www.facebook.com/nataliecrosswrites Instagram: www.instagram.com/nataliecrosswrites Tiktok: www.tiktok.com/nataliecrosswrites For more information about this author and her books, follow this link to her guest author interview on my Ally Shields blog: |
AuthorJ L Buck writes in the mystery genre, currenty enthralled with Regency-era England. She is multi-published in paranormal 
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