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By: Barbara Early | Other books by Barbara Early
Categories: Mainstream Romance, Contemporary, Romantic Suspense, Short Stories
Word Count: 21,300
Heat Level: SWEET
Published By: Pelican Book Group
High school geometry teacher, Donna Russell likes her life well-ordered and logical, even if it is a tad solitary at times. But when a charming co-worker at the local food bank disappears just before Christmas, Donna is left with more questions than solutions.
After the missing man's neighbor, muscle-bound EMT Sam Holton, volunteers as Donna's crime-fighting sidekick, sparks fly between them. Donna wonders if Sam can be trusted, or if he's trying to throw an unknown into her calculations—and her life.
And when police recover a body from the icy Niagara River, Donna is faced with the most frustrating equation of all: can murder plus mayhem ever equal romance?
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Gold, Frankincense, and Murder
Available in:
Adobe Acrobat, EPUB
Price: $2.99
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Excerpt
Food pantries are lousy places to meet men.
I slammed another dusty can of sauerkraut into the rough wood shelving to punctuate that thought, enjoying the reverberation through the brick storefront. Don’t get me wrong. That’s not why I volunteered. My days of pining after some testosterone‐charged he‐god passed a decade or so ago when all my friends married and started having kids. I’d officially become “Aunt Donna,” and I was pretty okay with that.
Most of the time.
I had my friends, my students, and my cat. Only my friends were all busy chauffeuring their kids to basketball practice and dance recitals, my students at the high school drove me up the wall, and my black cat was one of those independent sorts, content stalking birds from the window. He rubbed against my leg twice a day when I filled his food dish, and that was pretty much the extent of my physical contact with other living things.
The bell over the door announced our first client of the morning. Linda Bartz blew in with a flurry of snow and stomped her boots into the mat. Linda was a rather matronly African‐American woman, not obese exactly, but hippy and big bosomed. Underneath her long red coat, her figure could be perceived as fat. Then again, warm winter outerwear was a great equalizer.
Everyone looked a little plump these days.
I handed her two paper grocery bags.
“One is fine.” She shook open the sack in one fluid motion. “I’m getting my paycheck on Wednesday, and the first thing I’m going to do is get me some food that don’t come in cans.”
One bag was our normal limit, but Linda was the sole provider for three bulky teenage boys. When I’d started at the food pantry, Sandy clued me in. Linda’s husband used to gamble away most of the family’s budget. When a bus coming back from the casinos in Niagara Falls flipped over almost a decade ago, he had been one of seven passengers killed. Sandy suspected the family might be better off. It didn’t seem to work that way, so everybody at Saint Mark’s looked the other way. Linda always got two bags.
“What? No more sauerkraut and lima bean casseroles?” I asked. “I tried that recipe you gave me.”
“How’d you like it?”
“I’ve got to hand it to you. It was almost edible.”
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4.3
46 Ratings
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(Published by: Siren-BookStrand, Inc.)
[Siren Classic ManLove: Erotic Alternative Paranormal Romance, M/M, shape-shifters, public exhibition]
Riojos and Collin were lovers, partners, and best friends. When Collin is killed in a senseles MORE...
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Joni Peterson is catapulted through time into a world both familiar and strange. Finding herself in Victorian England, she discovers love in the most unexpected place— at the feet of the man whose c MORE...
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(Published by: Pelican Book Group)
Brice Taylor might not be on Aleni Callan's Christmas list, but she finds him under her tree anyway.
Nurse Aleni Callan's anger toward God is fueled when Brice Taylor enters her life. Not only does MORE...
Formats: pdf - epub
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4.3
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(Published by: Siren-BookStrand, Inc.)
[Ménage Amour: Erotic Paranormal Ménage a Trois Romance, M/F/M, werewolves, spanking]
Joanna and her mother, Katherine, are rare female werewolves who can procreate without the mating bond specif MORE...
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(Published by: Pelican Book Group)
In Coyote County, Christmas means festive lights, the town parade, hot coffee and cinnamon rolls...not creatures from another planet.
While a glowing green Peeping Tom with two antennae is a little MORE...
Formats: pdf - epub
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Anne Greene - Word Count: 25,123
(Published by: Pelican Book Group)
A lady Coastguardsman searches for a killer. An oil rig troubleshooter accused of murder races to clear his name. The murderer strives to silence them both.
Sparks fly as Amber Meredith seeks to arr MORE...
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4.3
63 Ratings
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(Published by: Siren-BookStrand, Inc.)
[Siren Classic ManLove: Erotic Alternative Paranormal Romance, M/M, shape-shifters]
The Gathering is called. The spell is cast. There is no escaping the Midnight Matings.
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Laura Briggs - Word Count: 20,243
(Published by: Pelican Book Group)
Julia Allen is a waitress by day, painter by night, and…a famous 1800s authoress on weekends?
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4.6
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Gale Stanley - Word Count: 24,162
(Published by: Siren-BookStrand, Inc.)
[Ménage Amour: Erotic Paranormal Ménage a Trois Romance, M/M/F, with M/M, werewolves]
Brady and Cade are already lovers, but each wolf-shifter has his mind set on making a certain she-wolf his ma MORE...
Formats: pdf - lit - html - prc - epub
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