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Truly Devious
Truly Devious by Maureen Johnson is $2.99! This book released in January and I bought it in a huge YA book haul, though I haven’t gotten to read it yet. Readers love the mystery and the setting, but warn that the ending feels like a cliffhanger. Have you read it?
Something is wrong at Ellingham Academy: Its murderous past won’t stay in the past.
Ellingham Academy is an American institution. Students can’t buy admission, they have to earn it: these are the brightest of their generation, the thinkers, inventors, artists, dreamers, and schemers who will change the world. Ellingham is the brainchild of philanthropist and tycoon Edward J. Ellingham, who happened on a remote, idyllic spot outside of Burlington, Vermont in the 1920s, the perfect setting for his “dream school of the future.” For Ellingham, the dream ended a decade later, when his wife and child were kidnapped, then murdered, in what would become the crime of the century. Ellingham pledged everything to find the killer—he ended up giving his life.
It was an empty sacrifice: For years, the killer remained at large. He taunted the police, signing his letters Truly, Devious. Eventually, someone was caught, found guilty, and executed for the heinous crimes… but questions lingered. Why, for example, did Ellingham write these words on the day he died?
Where do you look for someone
who’s never really there?
Always on a staircase
but never on a stair.
Every institution has its ghost stories; every school imagines itself haunted. Ellingham Academy is, officially, beyond such silliness: it is devoted to greatness, and everyone accepted achieves it.
This includes Stevie Bell, who gained her fame by solving a murder when she was thirteen years old. Clever murders don’t happen along very often, and Stevie has been struggling to find her place in the competitive atmosphere of Ellingham. Then she finds out about the decades-old Ellingham riddle: Problem solved. She’ll solve the riddle, name the real killer, and prove herself exceptional. True Ellingham material.
Her investigation into the cold case is interrupted by a fresh one. When one of her classmates, internet superstar Hayes Major, turns up dead, Stevie is the first to question the official explanation. An accident? Really? Everyone else is convinced that Ellingham’s murderous past is just that, which leaves justice up to Stevie.
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Keeper of the Heart
Keeper of the Heart by Johanna Lindsey is $1.99! This is the second book in the Ly-San-Ter Family series, which is an old school sci-fi romance series. There’s an alpha hero and bonkers level crazysauce. If any of you have read these, please leave your thoughts below!
In search of a true and gentle love, fiery Shanelle Ly-San-Ter flees the lustful advances of the blue-eyed barbarian who has been chosen as her lifemate, confused and frightened by the fevered yearnings the handsome brute has awakened in her innocent soul.
A warrior, virile and magnificent Falon Vanyer is overwhelmed with intense desire for the spirited beauty who has vowed never to be his. And though the heavens themselves conspire against him, he will pursue his sensuous prize, and brave any peril to conquer and claim the keeper of his heart.
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Good Earls Don’t Lie
Good Earls Don’t Lie by Michelle Willingham is $1.99 at Amazon! This is a Kindle Daily Deal. Check out the rest, because there are quite a few romances. This is the first book in the Earls Next Door series. Readers enjoyed the hero and heroine, but found the action stalled after the initial setup.
Lady Rose Thornton never expected to find a half-naked man in her garden. The handsome Irishman claims to be the Earl of Ashton, but was Iain Donovan truly robbed by thieves? Or is he merely an impoverished stranger lying to her?
After losing everything in the potato famine, Iain is searching for a wife whose dowry will save his estate. The beautiful and charming Lady Rose, unable to walk because of an illness that stole her strength, agrees to help him find a wife, but only if he will help her learn to take her first steps.
As their friendship takes root and blossoms into something more, secrets about Iain’s birthright threaten the growing feelings between them. He has no right to love a woman like Rose, who deserves a better life than he can give her. Rose believes that there is more to Iain than a broken past, and she brings light to his shadows.
Within the walls of a secret garden, sometimes miracles happen…
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The Duke’s Obsession Bundle
The Duke’s Obsession Bundle by Grace Burrowes is $3.82 at Amazon and $4.99 elsewhere! This series has three full-length historical romances, which is awesome considering you’re getting them for less than a dollar! The bundle collects the first trilogy in the Windham series. Do you have a favorite out of these three?
New York Times and USA Today bestselling author Grace Burrowes delivers remarkable characters, intriguing plots, and freshly imagined Regency settings in this unforgettable trilogy about three noble brothers. A Regency era battle of wits, wills, and the sexes, with a wily old duke determined to see the succession of his line secured, and his three headstrong sons equally determined to resist the bonds of matrimony.
THE HEIR: The Earl of Wyndham, weighed down by responsibilities, is determined to avoid the summer rounds of matchmaking mamas, so he stays in his London townhouse for the summer. There he discovers a potentially perfect duchess in his lovely, mysterious housekeeper.
THE SOLDIER: Devlin St. Just, the Duke’s oldest, but illegitimate, son, arrives at his new estate weary in body and spirit. There he finds that the previous owner’s bastard daughter and her beautiful cousin are his responsibility and are making his life almost unbearably complicated.
THE VIRTUOSO: Gifted pianist Valentine Windham, youngest son of the Duke of Moreland retreats to the country after an injury robs him of his musical ability. There he learns from beautiful young widow Ellen Markham that he can be loved even when his music falls silent.
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OMG the description of that Johanna Lindsey is just…*chefs kiss*
The first Ly-San-Ter book by Johanna Lindsey (Warrior’s Woman) is absolutely the best sci-fi crazy sauce I’ve ever read. Although the second does have bickering to canoodling AI personal assistants. Again, crazy sauce!
I saw ‘Earl of Wyndham’ & had a Twin Peaks flashback.
OMG Joanna Lindsay wrote a soulmate AU. Marvelous!
I honestly couldn’t pick a favorite from the Grace Burrowes _The Duke’s Obsession_ bundle because they’re all some of my most read favorites from my keeper shelf. As I’ve wrote elsewhere, I love Burrowes because her books feature adults who treat each other with respect and kindness and work together to tackle real, thorny problems. With a smidgen of drama for spice. But all the books feature both found family and a hugely supportive, wonderful clan and if any of these things are your catnip this is the perfect price to dip a toe into the Wyndham world.
Also, of note: the hero of The Soldier has what would today be easily diagnosed as PTSD. This is handled respectfully, sensitively, and realistically by Burrowes and made her an auto-buy for me.
I can report that the Lindsey trilogy (yes, trilogy) is super crazy sauce. Friends and I read them in HS, and I remember a lot of ‘OMG’ and ‘No way’ when we discussed them.
I adored Truly Devious and its sequel. They are my favorite school stories since Harry Potter. Both books DO end on a cliffhanger, but the third one is available for preorder!
I’ve read just enough Johanna Lindsey that when Stranger Things Season 2 opens with a mom at the pool reading a Johanna Lindsey paperback, I knew *exactly* what kind of mom she was.
I am also a huge Burrows fan, for the reasons NomadiCat so eloquently stated above. The dialogue in her books is outstanding. I was a Lindsey fan in my younger days and she was my “go to” before I guess I just read one too many. Anyway, be aware that Keeper of the Heart was written long ago (early 90s, most likely). Alpha heros then and now are a different breed.
I absolutely remember those books from the late 80s-early 90s (Fabio covers!)
At the time, they were “strong” heroines, but I’m pretty sure that it didn’t age well.
I read ALL the Lindsey books back in the day and loved every single one. Now, I’m not so sure. This set of books was my first steps in to a sci-fi romance which I thought was the craziest, yet greatest thing. It makes me want to read it again to see what I think.
I read the first book in that Johanna Lindsey series when I was about twelve. To this day, I still have a thing for the giant alien barbarian trope.
If you love crazy sauce and hulking barbarians read Wildest Dreams by Kristen Ashley. OMG!
I agree with The Other Kate. Truly Devious and its sequel, The Vanishing Stair, are absolutely phenomenal! I’ve been recommending to literally everyone. The mysteries are intricate and complex, and I never guessed any of the twists. Both books do end in a cliffhanger (with book 2’s cliffhanger even more cliffhanger-y), but I personally don’t think the book 1 cliffhanger was too awful.
Do the Johanna lindsey’s need to be read in order?