Böcker utgivna av Lake Country Press & Review

Professional pitcher Ethan Ford plays the loner to keep his eye on the ball and his demanding coach off his back. His family is legendary in the world of baseball, and Ethan longs to make a name for himself. If he can prove his worth, this season might finally be his chance. When he slides into Ivy Johnson and her two foster children's lives, Ethan may strike out before achieving his dreams. As a foster mom with a tragic past, Ivy Johnson only wants to give her kids what she never had--stability and a loving home. Their first meeting is less than ideal, but when Ethan Ford makes a connection with Ivy's shy, baseball-obsessed foster son, she falls head over cleats for the awkward, sweet pitcher. Sparks fly, but life throws curveballs. With Ethan's career on the line and Ivy's future in flux, can the two hit a home run and become the family neither of them have but desperately need?

Frankie rolls into autumn by practicing her affinity--which drives her crazy--growing herbs for the coven garden-with a tiny bit of cheating--and building muscle tone--in case she stumbles across a dead body that needs lifting. Living with Ben and Cleo in her mother's old house is comfortable and she's the happiest she's ever been, but someone is missing.When Frankie receives a message hinting at Jessamae's whereabouts, the coven--with the help of a familiar face--ships off to Las Vegas in hopes of finding Jessamae and prying her from the clutches of The Strip's ruling class.After Frankie makes an enormous and violent mistake, she is taken by the Las Vegas Sovereignty and forced into servitude--fighting in the witch pits against opposing affinities. Ben hurls himself in harm's way to save her.The coven's been blown apart, no one is safe, and Frankie blames herself. Maybe she should.

"We are all starving hearts."Viola is a sea witch cursed by Triton. Cast aside from the glittering city of Atlantis, she starves for power and a real life above the surface-two hungers her curse will never allow her to satiate. She patrols the sea she's claimed for her own and the nearby human city, feeding on unjust men and oceanfolk alike.When she meets Aric, Triton's firstborn son and heir to the throne, she decides to forge her own future from his suffering. She could finally be free of her curse... if she can only manage to trick the heartless siren out of his soul.

Ember Clarke is on the fast track to becoming the Chicago Supernatural Police Department's best detective. Her biggest strength is her intuition, a power which allows her to sense another's essence and intentions. Her biggest weakness? Trauma from her childhood that's left her with a fear and distrust of vampires. When the girl she's just broken up with is kidnapped and taken to an underground city of the nasty bloodsuckers, Ember knows it was her fault-And she'll do whatever it takes to save her. Even if it means teaming up with a powerful, handsome leech who makes her question everything she knows.

Farren puts on a good front, feigning confidence despite literally not fitting into society's narrow ideas of beauty and success. Inside, she's stuck, afraid to put herself and her ideas out there, especially the board game design she's kept a secret. She keeps things light and temporary-both at work as a substitute teacher and in her relationships.Overworked Sebastian abhors anything that gets in the way of his goals, including procuring the perfect pastry. The two meet when Sebastian accuses her of stealing his pastry in an amusing and awkward café incident. When Farren gets in the way of his coffee order with her huge personality she turns out to be even more than he bargained for.Instead of shrinking beneath his usually intimidating stare, Farren issues a challenge back: take a second away from his phone calendar with its down-to-the-minute scheduling and play her for it-live a little. If Sebastian wins the board game battle he gets to keep his precious croissant, if she wins he has to join their game night next week.Just who will be the victor in this game of love?

She is the wielder of blood magic,and she may end them all."Monster..."Wren has never stolen a life, but that doesn't stop her from believing her darkness makes her a walking nightmare. Harboring a power so lethal, unpredictable, and entirely forbidden by kingdom law, Wren's spent her whole life hiding what she is-who she is. A bloodwitch.Meanwhile, a war is looming, and Wren's feral magic may be the only thing that can stop the uprising from destroying the kingdom, her home, and everyone that stands in their way. After her sister is captured by the rebellion, Wren must seek help from the kingdom's ruler who would sooner imprison her than offer aid. Except... Singard needs her, and when she volunteers the use of her power in exchange for his help finding her sister, an unlikely alliance is born.Forced into a reluctant compromise with the "white-haired witch," Sin finds himself protecting Wren for his kingdom's survival, but their star-crossed relationship quickly spirals into one straddling the precipice of hate and passion. As secrets are unveiled and loyalties are tested, neither are sure who they can trust.When hostilities deepen and war draws near, Wren is determined to rein in her wild magic and bind it to her will. With the lives of everyone she loves at stake, Wren must look within and decide if she is the monster she fears, or if there is light to be found in the darkest parts of herself.

For as long as anyone can remember, those cursed with ebb-magic have been marked for death by the gods. Sayer has always known his fate: he was given seventy-two years of life before he must become a sacrifice.His sister was only promised ten.Now the Blood Hours are set to begin-twenty-eight nights of slaughter, where priests on the hunt compete with the brutal elements to claim the life of each ebber mage slated to die. Sayer is determined to save his sister by entering with her and making sure they survive to see dawn on the final day. But Sayer has done dark things to carve out a place in the Hours early, and a priestess with her own grief lurks in the winter-dark forest. Hungry for revenge and willing to do anything to hurt the man who murdered her brother, she kills his sister that very first night. With every future he dared hope for spattered in his sister's blood, there is nothing keeping Sayer from becoming the monster ebbers are thought to be; wielders of an uncontrollable, deadly power.It's only when he meets Ever-a girl with no fear of their magic and the knowledge to help him master it-that Sayer is given one last chance. If they can survive, there may be a way to save his sister. But Ever isn't telling the whole truth, and when secrets shatter everything Sayer once believed about the gods and the Blood Hours, he must find his own way to save his loved ones-and maybe even himself.

When twenty-three-year-old surly, and slightly tipsy, Frankie finds her hag of a grandmother dead on the sofa, her best friend, playful Ben Bowen, introduces her to the magical underbelly of Aspen Ridge, Utah.Ben is a witch, a seer to be exact, and he guides Frankie into her new identity as a healer, a restoration witch. With the help of Ben and his coven-mate Cleo, Frankie navigates the treacherous classes of witches: dragons, shifters, and the abhorred vampire-life-drinking witches. It was a vampire that killed Frankie's grandmother, and she's after Frankie. But, much to the chagrin of best friend Ben, it isn't Frankie's vitality that the vampire wants.Frankie must work her newfound magic-despite her fear, her self- doubt, and her desire to have one more drink-with her friends to eliminate a common enemy. She'll have to endure nightmares and commit horrors unspeakable, or risk losing them all.It will take guts ... whosever they may be.

Fans of bittersweet titles by Colleen Hoover and Jojo Moyes will have you invested in Brighton and Cain's journey from the first page to the last.In a monochrome world, Brighton Evans is a splash of brilliant color. She can see the world in its true, kaleidoscopic form-a privilege reserved for soulmates only after they've found their other halves. Knowing your soulmate when they come along should be easy, but Brighton can't remember a time when she hasn't seen in color. The past has her convinced that life is safer this way; she doesn't need a soulmate. When Brighton meets a handsome, delightfully cheeky stranger, her carefully cultivated 'happy enough' crumbles as their meet-cute blossoms into true friendship. Cain Whitaker has soulmate written all over him. With Cain by her side, Brighton sees the world as she never has before . . . until circumstance smothers her color and leaves her wondering: if timing is everything . . . is she too late?

They say there are only five kinds of alien contact...But what if there is a sixth kind?Befriending one...Poppy Field Lane is the place to be in the '90s. It's a quiet, affluent New York suburb filled with a few eccentricresidents. One, in particular, Ignatius Feltrap.Ignatius doesn't abide by the snobbish rules of her cliché culde sac, but when she stumbles upon the secret of a lifetimewhile walking on the beach... her life is thrownfor an out of this world loop.Turns out, extra-terrestrials are real.Enter Væson, a sassy alien on the run from their home planet.Væon has blended in for years, while trying to evade capturefrom their own evil government along with Earth's mysteriousagency until, of course, Ignatius and her trusty Labrador, Alfie, blunder upon them. It doesn't take long for a oncein a lifetime friendship to form, and Ignatius vowsto protect Væson at any cost.Can they solve the mystery of Ignatius's late husband's deathbefore the alien government and Earth's top-secret one findwhere Væson is? And more importantly; can they do itbefore the annual Neighborhood Christmas Fete...