Showing results by author "Denise Grover Swank" in All Categories

It’s been nearly three years since the fall of the Hardshaw Group, and Rose is living a low-key life in Fenton County. She’s happily married to Joe Simmons, raising her own two children along with her niece and nephew, and running her landscape business. Everything is coming up…well…roses! And still, when she and her best friend Neely Kate unearth a peculiar wooden box in a client’s yard, she finds herself yearning for the good old days of solving mysteries. Be careful what you wish for.

Celia Burrows thought she had it all - a handsome husband, two successful children, and a gorgeous beach house on the northern coast of Maine. But her perfect life cracks apart when her husband of 30 years informs her that he's leaving. In a note. And since problems come in threes, her adult children reveal they've both been struggling with issues of their own.

Anna Sullivan has spent the last 30 years traveling solo around the world as a nature photographer, and she's loved every minute of it. But suddenly, the nights seem long and lonely, and she looks forward to her trips away from Bluebird, Maine, and her sisters, Cee-cee and Steph, less and less. When a cruel twist of fate brings her back home, Anna reevaluates everything in her life. Can she find happiness in the town she's spent a lifetime running away from?

Megan Vandemeer meant to tell her parents about her broken engagement, but a month and a half later she finds herself boarding a plane home to her wedding. Having stretched avoidance to its limits, it's time to come clean - a terrifying prospect since her mother is sure to blame her rather than her cheating, emotionally frigid ex. A couple of drinks and two Dramamine later, Megan finds herself spilling her sob story to the tall, dark, and handsome stranger in the seat next to her.

Ten years ago, Magnolia Steele fled Franklin, Tennessee, after an incident that left her with hazy memories and a horror of the place where she had been born and bred. Though her abrupt departure destroyed most of her treasured relationships, she vowed never to return...until she has no choice. When Magnolia's breakout acting role in a Broadway musical ends in disgrace, there's only one place she can go. She finds herself on her momma's porch, suitcase in hand.

For centuries, Phoebe Whelan’s family of witches and mages has guarded the Book of Sindal, a tome filled with spells so evil it could destroy the world. After their parents’ death six years ago, it’s up to Phoebe and her older and younger sisters - Rowan and Celeste - to guard the book with their magic and their supernaturally fortified land. But Celeste’s expression magic is wild and untamed, and without their mother’s calming influence, Celeste is slowly going mad.

Romance isn't an option for Holly Greenwood. With her wedding planner career on the line, she needs to stay focused, and that means pleasing her demanding boss, not getting distracted by her mind-alteringly hot neighbor.... Ex-marine Kevin Vandemeer craves normalcy. Instead he has a broken-down old house in need of a match and some gasoline, a meddling family, and the uncanny ability to attract the world's craziest women. At least that last one he can fix.

Ten years ago, Summer Butler was television's most popular teenage sleuth. Since then, she's hit - what gossip sites just love to call - the gutter. Nearly bankrupt, betrayed, estranged from her greedy mother, and just about unemployable, she's coaxed into that desperate haven for has-beens: reality TV.

Rose Gardner is trying to build a new normal. One that leaves the Fenton County crime world - including James "Skeeter" Malcolm, the current king - behind. Her best friend and roommate is a big part of that effort, but Neely Kate is busy building her own life anew. She disappeared for a few days, scaring the spit out of Rose - which is why Rose finds it impossible to deny her when she suggests they look for a missing parrot. Only this time Neely Kate isn't interested in the reward money - she's set them up to work with a cranky private investigator.

When Joe walks out of Rose's life, she can't imagine life without him. But with support from her friends - and an unexpected person - Rose finds her way to climb out of her despair. After his father's blackmail forces him to leave the love of his life to protect her, Joe is thrown into the race for Arkansas State Senate. But while Rose has people to help her grieve, Joe finds himself completely alone - except the one person he detests is the only person who's offering comfort.

For Rose Gardner, working at the DMV on a Friday afternoon is bad even before she sees a vision of herself dead. She’s had plenty of visions, usually boring ones like someone’s toilet’s overflowed, but she’s never seen one of herself before. When her overbearing momma winds up murdered on her sofa, instead, two things are certain: There isn't enough hydrogen peroxide in the state of Arkansas to get that stain out, and Rose is the prime suspect.

The only woman I need in my life is my eight-year-old daughter, Jane. As a widowed brewery owner, I don’t have the time or inclination for anything more serious than a one night stand. Running the brewery is a big job, and being a parent is a bigger one, especially since my in-laws keep trying to prove I’m an unfit guardian.

Carly had every intention of heading to Dallas to bring down her father, but not as Wyatt Drummand’s hostage. After Wyatt kidnaps her at gunpoint and threatens to turn her over to her father—the man she’s spent the past nine months hiding from—she explains that his plan will get them both killed. But then, he has a surprising revelation she’s not sure she should believe.

Rose Gardner feels like she’s up a creek without a paddle. Her sister is dying, her secret boyfriend, James Malcolm, is struggling to protect the county underworld from an upstart drug dealer, and her ex has moved back to town with a bee in his bonnet and a mission to root out corruption in the county.

Blogging about bad dates used to be fun, but a girl can only take so much foolishness. So I broke up with my job. Okay, full disclosure, I was fired. It’s a long, sordid tale, involving my sourdough starter - RIP, Fred! - and my ex-boss’ serious lack of humor. Newly funemployed and in need of a break, I go to Asheville to dogsit for my sister…and stumble onto a scoop big enough to put my fake-dating days behind me forever.

Rose Gardner hates seeing her normally flamboyant best friend Neely Kate struggle with depression. So when Rose stumbles onto a piece of evidence indicating her birth mother might have been involved in a crime, she does the one thing guaranteed to cheer Neely Kate. She convinces her friend to help her solve a mystery. Though their penchant for investigating has gotten them into plenty of pickles in the past, what can go wrong?

After learning his best friend and boss is selling the brewery they built together to a soulless corporation, River quits on the spot, only for Georgie Buchanan to offer him a job the very same night. Helping her turn Buchanan Brewery around is his dream job, the perfect homage to the man who taught him everything and helped give him roots. There’s one problem: His new boss is his dream woman, and she’s not the type to mix business and pleasure.

Disgraced ex-detective Harper Adams has traded her badge for a desk job at her father's law firm, a move as dull as the small town she's returned to. But things take a turn when a local woman wants to declare her missing husband dead, five years after his mysterious disappearance. With her father’s firm representing the missing man's wife, Harper seizes the opportunity to delve back into her investigative roots. Her search leads her back to James Malcolm, a former crime boss turned tavern owner, who has his finger on the pulse of every shadowed corner.

Piper Lancaster is a ghost whisperer and a skeptic. Piper helps her clients settle their inner demons, and that's good enough for her, even if ghosts aren't real. But the astonishing reappearance of the ruins of the Lost Colony of Roanoke turns her world upside down. She's soon confronted with undeniable evidence and discovers Asheville's new resident demon intent on killing her and a handsome stranger who says she's the only one who can destroy it. Barely able to accept the complete reversal in her convictions, Piper must embrace her true identity before it's too late.

One wrongly accused man. Twenty-nine reasons for Rose to clear his name. When Rose reports for Fenton County jury duty, she figures she’s lucky to get out of a morning working at the DMV. Instead, despite a disastrous encounter with the new assistant district attorney, Mason Deveraux, she’s picked as a juror on a murder case. As the trial progresses, she realizes an ominous vision she had in the men’s restroom proves the defendant is innocent. And there’s not a cotton picking thing she can do about it. Or is there?