Cozy Fiction

Welcome to Lemon Bliss, Louisiana, where an abandoned lemon tea factory is the most happening place in town and witches secretly rule the roost. Violet Broussard is busy, really busy. She's running her bakery with her bestie and spinning in circles trying to get up to speed on her, ahem, powers. Life has been a bit crazy all on its own. Throw in Gabriel who's too handsome and charming for his own good, and she's juggling a lot. Despite the madness, she's discovered Lemon Bliss just might feel like home.

After far too many years in the Los Angeles corporate world, Whitney Dagner has come home to Santa Catalina Island off the California coast to help her brother Nick run Nautically Yours, the family tourism business. Between gift shop shifts selling all manner of T-shirts and tchotchkes and keeping her feline Whiskers in fine fettle, she pilots the Sea Bounder, a glass-bottom boat showing tourists the underwater sights of aquatic plants, marine life - and a murder victim?

Most folks associate the city of Salem, Massachusetts, with witches, but for Lee Barrett it's home. This October she's returned to her hometown - where her beloved Aunt Ibby still lives - to interview for a job as a reporter at WICH-TV. But the only opening is for a call-in psychic to host the late-night horror movies. It seems the previous host, Ariel Constellation, never saw her own murder coming.

Agatha Raisin is bored. Her detective agency in the Cotswolds is thriving, but she'll scream if she has to deal with another missing cat or dog. Only two things seem to offer potential excitement: Christmas and her ex, James Lacey. This year Agatha is sure that if she invites James to a splendid Christmas dinner, their love will rekindle like a warm Yule log. But that fantasy will have to wait for now.

Lady Arianna, now the Countess of Saybrook, is settling into married life with her new husband. To celebrate his birthday, she finds the perfect gift: a rare volume of botanical engravings on Theobroma cacao - or chocolate - in an exclusive bookshop. But she is forced to fight off a stranger who tries to steal it way from her. Arianna forgets about the strange incident - until she and her husband attend an important government party on a country estate, where her assailant reappears and turns out to be a Russian diplomat.

Zombies...really? Things go from amazing to appalling for Brighton in the course of one evening. First, there's a marriage proposal. Then, there's a creepy thing at the edge of the woods. That's all followed up by a dead witch who was dabbling in necromancy. More than dabbling, actually. That crazy witch was rolling around in it like a pig in mud. Unfortunately, Brighton and friends will learn the hard way how tough it is to break a dead witches spell.

Despite the rumors, I'm definitely not a witch, my VHS tapes are not cursed, and renting one absolutely will not hurt anyone. Unless they forget to return it on time—late fees are killer. Kidding! As a werewolf, I can smell everyone's emotions. Guilt stinks like rotten fish, happiness is citrusy, and buttery popcorn...well, that's just my snack. But it's all too overwhelming. To make matters worse, a visitor ends up dead in front of my video rental shop and rumors spread fast. Gossiping ghosts and busybody vampires claim my movies magically murdered him.

Antique dealer Sarah Byrne has never unspooled the truth about her past to anyone. But the enigmatic Aussie finally has the one thing she's searched for all her life - family. And now she and long-lost half-brother, Ted Lawrence, a wealthy old artist and gallery owner in town, are ready to reveal their secret connection. Ted's adult children are suspicious of their newfound aunt Sarah - especially after Ted, in declining health, announces plans to leave her his museum-worthy heirloom paintings. So when Ted is poisoned to death during a lobster bake, everyone assumes she's guilty.

Just before two dueling book clubs are set to square off at Death by Coffee, one of the competitors turns up dead - bludgeoned with the silver teapot that was to serve as the prize. Suspicion immediately falls on Krissy, who was seen skulking around town in dark clothes on the night of the murder.

When mystery novelist Hazel Martin receives a secretive letter from an old friend who suspects her relatives have murderous intentions, she packs her bags and heads to the country. Tampered medications, symptoms of poisoning, and suspicious accidents all add up to attempted murder, and it's up to Hazel and her Siamese cat, Dickens, to sniff out the clues. But with a house full of relatives who all have a motive, will Hazel be able to unmask the culprit before things turn deadly?

Outside the pale of the Abbey of Saint Peters and Saint Paul, in September of the year of our Lord 1140, a priestly emissary for King Stephen has been reported missing. But inside the pale, what troubles Brother Cadfael is a proud, secretive 19-year-old novice. Brother Cadfael has never seen two men more estranged than the Lord of Aspley and Meriet, the son he coldly delivers to the abbey to begin a religious vocation. Meriet, meek by day, is so racked by dreams at night that his howls earn him the nickname the Devil's Novice. Shunned and feared, Meriet is soon linked to the missing priest's dreadful fate. Only Brother Cadfael believes in Meriet's innocence, and only the good sleuth can uncover the truth before a boy's pure passion, not evil intent, leads a novice to the noose.

In the summer of 1923, the Honorable Daisy Dalrymple makes what should be an uneventful research trip to the Museum of Natural History quite an eventful day - with her nephew, Derek, and her soon-to-be stepdaughter, Belinda, in tow. But as she interviews the various curators for her article on the museums of London, she soon discovers that the Museum of Natural History is a hothouse of professional rivalry and jealousy.

April 1928: Daisy Dalrymple Fletcher is visited in London by her young cousins. On the list of must-see sites is the Crystal Palace. Discovering that her children's nanny, Nanny Gilpin, has never seen the Palace, Daisy decides to make a day of it - bringing her cousins, her three-year-old twins, her step-daughter Belinda, the nurserymaid, and Nanny Gilpin. Yet this ordinary outing goes wrong when Mrs. Gilpin goes off to the ladies room and fails to return. When Daisy goes to look for her, she doesn't find her nanny but instead the body of another woman dressed in a nanny's uniform.

The family of Adam Nichols shows up in Frederickport when Marie ends up in a nursing home with a broken hip. Yet unlike Adam, who is trying to get his grandmother home, the new arrivals are more concerned with selling off her assets and keeping her in the questionable facility. While Danielle tries to help her dear friend, she begins wondering, maybe not having a family has its good points, after all. And it's not just Marie's family causing problems; Walt's distant cousin begins making his own demands.

The Winter Carnival always brings holiday cheer to picturesque Shady Creek, Vermont. At the center of the glittering decorations and twinkling lights is booklover and pub owner Sadie Coleman, creating original cocktails, hosting a literary trivia night, and cheering on loyal employee Melanie "Mel" Costas as she competes in the ice carving competition. But holiday cheer can't compete with former resident and renowned chef Freddy Mancini showing off his sculpting skills. During the contest's artists' break, Mel's tools disappear...and Freddy's found dead with Mel's pick in his chest.

Romance is in the air on Harrington Street, Oxford. Detective Inspector Ian Chisholm is finally showing interest in Lucy, though the members of the vampire knitting club aren't too thrilled to have the police hanging around so close to Cardinal Woolsey's yarn shop. Up the street at Frogg Books, shop assistant Alice is in love with her bookish boss, Charlie, who doesn't seem to notice.

Former English professor Cat Latimer is back in Colorado, hosting writers' retreats in the big blue Victorian she's inherited, much to her surprise, from none other than her carousing ex-husband. Now it's an authors' getaway, but Cat won't let anyone get away with murder. The bed-and-breakfast is open for business, and best-selling author Tom Cook is among its first guests. Cat doesn't know why he came all the way from New York, but she's glad to have him among the quirkier - and far less famous - attendees.

New York Times best-selling authors Rita Mae Brown and her cat, Sneaky Pie, have captivated fans around the world with their Mrs. Murphy mysteries. In this fourth entry, the residents of Crozet, Virginia, find their summer slumbers interrupted by a pair of newcomers. When one of the visitors is found dead and $2 million goes missing from the Crozet National Bank, it falls to Mrs. Murphy and her four-legged pals to save the day.

Steve Wheeler is enjoying retired life. He still does the odd bit of investigation work, but he prefers his familiar routines: the pub quiz, his favorite bench, his cat waiting for him at home. His days of adventure are over. Adrenaline is daughter-in-law Amy’s job now. Amy Wheeler thinks adrenaline is good for the soul. Working in private security, every day is dangerous. She’s currently on a remote island protecting mega-bestselling author Rosie D’Antonio, until a dead body and a bag of money mean trouble in paradise. So she sends an SOS to the only person she trusts . . .

Katherine Hamilton's goal in high school was to escape from her dead-end hometown of Asheboro, Maryland. Fifteen years later she's got a degree in hospitality management and a great job at a high-end boutique hotel in Baltimore. Until, that is, the hotel is acquired by a chain, and she's laid off. When Kate's high school best friend calls with a mysterious invitation to come talk with the town leaders of Asheboro, she agrees to make the trip, curious about where this new opportunity might lead.