Tag: #smalltownromance

Posted in Cozy Mysteries

Brambleberry Bay Murder Club

Posted on by Reluctant Retiree

It’s Criminally Cozy!
This Book Club just turned into a Murder Club.

“I would have given it ten stars if I could have!”
“One of the best cozy mysteries I’ve ever read!”
You will LOVE this small town cozy mystery! It’s so cozy it’s criminal!


A mind reader. Talking pets. An arrogant homicide detective. A murder club. And a corpse.

Welcome to the club. Getting in was easy. Getting out can be murder.

Living in Brambleberry Bay is proving to be a real killer.


A Cozy Mystery by New York Times, USA TODAY, & Wall Street Journal Bestseller Addison Moore.
Cosmopolitan Magazine calls Addison’s books, “…easy, frothy fun!”

Includes Recipe!

My name is Hattie Holiday, and I can read minds. Sure people have all kinds of rogue thoughts running around up there, but I’m far more interested in using my special abilities to talk to my cat, Cricket, and whatever other furry creature I happen to come upon.

Recently, I’ve lost my job at the public library but lucky for me a position opened up at the local country club, as an events coordinator, and I happened to secure the position. And since my love for books follows me wherever I go, not only will I have extravagant affairs to supervise but I’ve already snagged a few people to start a book club with.

Sure the country club is pretentious and smells of old and new money, but I knew that going in. What I didn’t bargain for was finding a body right out of the gate. And that book club I’ve just started up? Let’s just say the book club is out and the murder club is in. What I didn’t see coming were the secrets, and the deception, and the killer twist of a lifetime.

Living in Brambleberry Bay can be a real killer.

Posted in Cozy Mysteries

The Inn at Holiday Bay: Cookies in the Cottage

Posted on by Reluctant Retiree

A heartwarming cozy mystery series about losing everything, taking a chance, and starting again.

After suffering a personal tragedy Abby Sullivan buys a huge old seaside mansion she has never even seen, packs up her life in San Francisco, and moves to Holiday Bay Maine, where she is adopted, quite against her will, by a huge Maine Coon Cat named Rufus, a drifter with her own tragic past named Georgia, and a giant dog with an inferiority complex named Ramos. What Abby thought she needed was alone time to heal. What she ended up with was, an inn she never knew she wanted, a cat she couldn’t seem to convince to leave, and a new family she’d never be able to live without.

In book 13 in the series, a man is found dead at the Rosewood Estate where Shelby, Sage, and Sierra, are staying for the holiday. The three half sisters want answers, and since Colt is out of town visiting family, Abby finds herself pulled into the complex and dangerous investigation. Meanwhile a whole new group of guests check into the inn, each with a story to tell, and Jeremy and Mylie plan a series of special events which has everyone participating in what is to become a very special Holiday Bay Christmas.

Posted in Cozy Small Town Romance

The Bookshop of Secrets: A heartwarming cozy mystery with a touch of magic! 

Posted on by Reluctant Retiree

What happens when a simple bookshop project to help people face their fears goes viral, and reveals that someone in your small town is achingly, desperately invisible?

Charlie Whitmore thought she’d finally figured out life in Leafwood Falls. Two years after trading her Manhattan law career for the Oak & Ink Bookshop, she’s settled into a rhythm of cozy fall mornings, community book clubs, and only occasional sabotage by Hemingway, the imperious orange bookshop cat who expresses his literary opinions through destruction and hairballs.

Then her assistant Mia has the perfect idea for Halloween.

The Fear Jar starts simply: drop in your anonymous fear, take a personalized book recommendation. A small Halloween project for the bookshop. But this is Mia, purple-haired, endlessly enthusiastic, physically incapable of doing anything halfway, and within days the jar goes viral. Confessions flood in. Social media explodes. The whole town is suddenly writing down their deepest terrors and trusting Charlie to answer with the perfect story.

Until Charlie notices something heartbreaking. Someone in Leafwood Falls is drowning in invisibility, writing their loneliness over and over, hoping someone will notice.

Charlie wants to respect anonymity. Mia wants to solve the mystery, in a dramatic reveal at the Halloween masquerade party. And Hemingway has his own, feline opinions. And as October winds toward its witching hour, the cozy bookshop mystery becomes something more complicated, because in a small town where everyone knows everyone, discovering who’s been writing those fears means unraveling secrets people have spent years keeping hidden.

Curl up with a pumpkin spice latte and let this Halloween bookshop mystery work its magic. You’ll laugh at Mia’s chaotic sleuthing, fall in love with fall in Leafwood Falls, and find yourself believing that bookshop cats know more than they’re letting on. Perfect for readers who love their mysteries cozy, their small towns quirky, and their October evenings full of twinkle lights and possibility.

Return to the beloved town of Leafwood Falls, where a viral Fear Jar, one all-knowing bookshop cat, and a purple-haired investigator with boundary issues prove that October’s best magic happens when someone finally sees you.

Posted in Cozy Mysteries

The Inn at Holiday Bay: Turkey in the Trap-Room

Posted on by Reluctant Retiree

A heartwarming cozy mystery series about losing everything, taking a chance, and starting again.

After suffering a personal tragedy Abby Sullivan buys a huge old seaside mansion she has never even seen, packs up her life in San Francisco, and moves to Holiday Bay Maine, where she is adopted, quite against her will, by a huge Maine Coon Cat named Rufus, a drifter with her own tragic past named Georgia, and a giant dog with an inferiority complex named Ramos. What Abby thought she needed was alone time to heal. What she ended up with was, an inn she never knew she wanted, a cat she couldn’t seem to convince to leave, and a new family she’d never be able to live without.

In book 12 in the series, Lacy takes over as director for the local Thanksgiving Pageant after the director they had appointed is bitten by a snake. The pageant seems to have met with bad luck from the beginning but when the star is found dead in the trap-room Abby becomes convinced the entire production is cursed.

Meanwhile new guests check into the inn including three half sisters, all the same age, who never even knew of the existence of their half siblings prior to the reading of their grandmother’s will. Their grandmother left each granddaughter a third of her extensive fortune but in order to collect the inheritance the sisters must work together to find answers and make decisions in the ten days allotted them to do so.

Posted in Cozy Small Town Romance

The Tiger’s Tale: A moving story about second chances, and romance with a touch of magic!

Posted on by Reluctant Retiree

Can be read as a standalone or part of the series.

What happens when your mother’s fairy tales about magical tigers turn out to be the story of your own life?

Kat Morrison has built her world around taking care of everyone else. As a freelance web designer in charming Leafwood Falls, Vermont, she’s perfected the art of juggling client deadlines while caring for her mother Rose, whose memory isn’t what it used to be, and her talented seventeen-year-old daughter Emma. Kat’s days are a carefully orchestrated dance of doctor appointments, work commitments, and family needs, with little room left for her own dreams.

But Rose has always been a storyteller, and her enchanting tales of Luna and her magical tiger have become a feature of monthly story nights at Oak & Ink Bookshop, where the whole community gathers to hear about adventures in their own backyard.

Until everything starts to change.

Between Rose’s increasingly fragile grip on the present, Emma’s growing restlessness and mysterious phone calls, and Ben Walsh, the quietly thoughtful parks department worker who keeps showing up exactly when Kat needs him most, Kat’s perfectly controlled life begins to unravel. There’s something about Ben that makes her want things she’s convinced herself she can’t have, but opening her heart means risking the careful balance that keeps her family afloat.

As the community rallies around Rose’s magical stories and Emma faces her own crossroads, Kat must choose between the safety of staying in control and the terrifying possibility of letting others help carry the load. Because in a town where a cantankerous orange cat named Hemingway dispenses wisdom through strategic interventions, where stories have a way of revealing hidden truths, and where love appears in the most unexpected forms, sometimes the greatest magic is learning to see yourself through someone else’s eyes.

With her carefully constructed world shifting beneath her feet, Kat discovers that the hardest person to take care of might just be herself.

Perfect for readers who loved BEACH READ, THE MIDNIGHT LIBRARY, and THE BOOKSHOP ON THE CORNER. A deeply moving story about family, caregiving, and finding love when you least expect it. And the courage to accept both help and happiness.