Book Link

From Amazon:

She Buried Her Past. It’s Back to Destroy Her.

Skylar Van Ness has always been a fighter. From her tumultuous childhood in Amsterdam to her rise as the Vice President of Marketing at Donovan Resort and Casino in Las Vegas, she’s faced every challenge head-on.

But when Skylar’s estranged mother, Brit, reappears with a sinister agenda, Skylar’s world is turned upside down. As secrets from her past threaten to unravel her carefully constructed life, Skylar must navigate a treacherous path of deception, blackmail, betrayal and heart-wrenching revelations. With the stakes higher than ever, she must rely on instinct alone — because trust is a luxury she can’t afford.

The eagerly anticipated follow-up to Adele Royce’s nail-biting Summer’s Blood, Slipper Girl is a gripping tale of one woman’s resilience and redemption, and the unbreakable bonds of family.

My Review:

I received an ARC from this author. Skylar has many things hidden from her past that she does NOT want out. Then her mother, Brit, comes to town clinging to the biggest whale in the casino. Someone is bribing another, or more is going on. Skyler must keep her past from her cousin, Acel, and James, a sexy dude looking to up his rank in the casino. DJ Keller runs the casino and his ex is Brit. DJ also just remarried. Nothing is as it seems, no matter how great an act you present. Skylar’s best kept secrets from her time in Amsterdam are close to surfacing and she must decide her next steps pronto. This book is perfectly written, the pace is fast, quite engaging, and filled with love, deception, suspense, and intrigue. Someone is stalking Skylar, and stalking is never a good thing. What will Skylar do? Can she make herself disappear for a while? Who has the incriminating photos of Skylar taken in Amsterdam? Who is on Skylar’s side?

Book Link

From Amazon:

Seventeen year old Francine ‘Frankie’ Allen and her family have moved house twelve times in ten years – and she’s sick of it! Her parents have promised that this is the last time they’ll move, but Frankie’s not convinced. Psychologically scarred by merciless bullying at her last school, Frankie feels isolated and depressed, until she meets sixteen year old Carolyn Hunter. Things seem to be looking up, until Frankie discovers that their forever home is haunted by an evil entity. Terrified and vulnerable, Frankie turns to her new friend for help, and finds herself plunged into a paranormal world she never imagined could exist!

My Review:

This book is perfect for those who love a things paranormal. A new family moves to town and one girl has a frightening experience alone one. Another girl becomes her friend. Things escalate from there.

For my writer friends, free podcast.

You are cordially invited to be a guest on the Cozy Book Nook podcast here on X Spaces (Twitter), Tuesday at noon Eastern time.

It is in audio format, and it will be recorded and saved, and eventually made into a YouTube video. 

You can download the video after the show using an X Spaces downloader, such as flowjin.com or spacesdown.com. Flowjin will even lets you make YouTube shorts from the podcast. 

The Cozy Book Nook lasts for 1.5 hours with 3 guest authors each week and with input from many more regular listeners who are also authors. 

You would have 5-6 minutes speaking time, uninterrupted, or we will ask questions if you run short on time. We ask you to discuss your books, and what book promotions worked or didn’t work for you–anything to save other writers time or money promoting their books–and locking down more sales. This will be followed by questions, answers, and comments from other authors regarding your talk.

Our audience is other authors and poets, and they are indie, traditional, and hybrid published. Many of the people you know in the writer’s lifts have been guests and listeners of the show.

Please add your socials to this form so we can promote you.

Cozy Book Nook Guest Form

https://docs.google.com/forms/u/0/d/e/1FAIpQLScxZzp0rheqHQq6BujF9Gfg9-ohJFAzEAbm7-PyQPuIU_hW0g/viewform?s=08&pli=1

Book Link

From Amazon:

When a penniless Viennese musician is told she may be an English duke’s wife, a quest for lost love begins.

Amid the glamour and intrigue of the Congress of Vienna, Lena Arenheim and her musical family perform at aristocratic soirees to make ends meet. When, out of the blue, the sister of the arrogant Duke of Aldingbourne proclaims Lena to be her brother’s long-lost duchess, her safe but small world is turned upside down. Amid opulent ballrooms and echoes of forgotten memories, Lina embarks on a quest to uncover the secrets of her past.

For Julius Stafford-Hill, Duke of Aldingbourne, the wounds of a tragic loss still linger after eight long years. When he encounters a woman who bears an uncanny resemblance to his late wife Catherine, he will do anything to uncover the truth, even if it means immersing himself in her world and facing the everyday challenges of a common middle-class life.

Can the lost duchess be found, and can they rebuild a love that transcends the boundaries of time and circumstance?


This is a sweet and clean Regency romance and the first book of the Viennese Waltz Series:

Set against the backdrop of Vienna’s 1814 elegance, diplomacy, and intrigue, this series twirls through the entwined destinies of friends, enemies, and lost lovers in charming tales of love, desire and courtship.

My Review:

Great romance with love and angst, longing and closeness, spies and royals, high society and commoners, all set in Vienna. I loved reading about the Vienna architecture as well. I’ll never visit in person but I cn dream.

Book Link

From Amazon:

Lacy Goodlow gets a speeding ticket from a handsome deputy on her way to her spoiled stepsister, Angela’s bachelorette party. The good-looking cop couldn’t just be a random person, no. He was someone Angela dated for a short time and still claims territorial rights to even though she was about to get married.

The attraction that sizzled between Lacy and Officer Jared Kelly during the traffic stop, heats up again when he’s off-duty and encounters her at the bar where the party’s being held. Angela notices the chemistry and she’s not having it. In an attempt to humiliate them, she makes Lacy participate in a game where she has to hand Jared a note. He reads it out loud. “It says kiss me.” Those four words change Lacy and Jared’s lives forever with excitement, chaos, hurt, and eventually a happily-ever-after.

My Review:

Mary Schmidt

Nice romance

Reviewed in the United States on February 22, 2026

Format: Kindle

This book was a nice romance to read. Refreshingly clean romances are special in their own way. Book has been updated since first published.

Book Link

From Amazon:

Fashion designer, Libby Griffin has had an awful week. Terminated from her job. Bad news from the doctor. How much worse can it get? Libby rents a cabin on Grand Lake for five months to regroup. Right away she meets the most irritating man on the planet, who happens to be her neighbor and drop-dead gorgeous.

Recently divorced author, Maxwell August, has a book due in two months and his muse has gone into hiding. With a chip on his shoulder, he heads to the lake and almost gets run over by the unconventional, yet fascinating woman who’s staying in the adjacent cabin.

Off to a rough start, will these two creatives allow the attraction brewing between them? Or deny it to focus on the things they think are more important?

My Review:

This book is a sweet winter romance perfect for a short weekend read. The characters are unique, especially our heroine, with her quirky hair and her signature manner in designing clothing. Despite cold blowing snow and icy conditions, love melts the cold away.

Book Title: The Green Baize Door

Series: n/a

Author Name: Eleanor Birney

Publication Date: January 27, 2026

Publisher: Parlor & Dock Press

Pages: 295

Genre: Historical Mystery

Any Triggers: n/a

Twitter Handles: @EleanorBirney @cathiedunn @marylschmidt

Instagram Handles: @eleanor.birney.author @thecoffeepotbookclub @mschmidtphotography

Hashtags: #HistoricalFiction #HistoricalMystery #UpmarketFiction #LiteraryMystery #GildedAge #BlogTour #TheCoffeePotBookClub

Tour Schedule Page: https://thecoffeepotbookclub.blogspot.com/2026/01/blog-tour-the-green-baize-door-by-eleanor-birney.html

Book Title and Author Name:

The Green Baize Door

Eleanor Birney

Blurb:

An atmospheric historical mystery where every character has their own agenda, and their own truth.

In the fashionable mansions on Chestnut Hill, a simple green baize door separates the masters’ world from the servants’. That door is thrown wide when an elderly housekeeper is found brutally murdered on the first day of the new century. Marie Chevalier, the housekeeper’s poor but ambitious granddaughter, and James Lett, the mansion owner’s kind but indolent son, suspect the killer is connected to one of their families—but which one?

From drawing rooms to alleyways, their separate investigations lead them through the sometimes lavish, sometimes brutal, landscape of turn-of-the-century New England. When long-buried secrets begin to unravel the fragile threads that hold both households together, Marie and James must find a way to bridge the gulf between them—if only to prove that the murderer belongs not to their own world, but to that strange and foreign land on the other side of the green baize door.

Inspired by real-life events, The Green Baize Door is a richly layered historical mystery that explores themes of class identity, family loyalty, and the sometimes blurry line between virtue and vice.

EXCERPT 1:

The Opening

Chapter 1 — November 24, 1899. Six Weeks Before the Murder

The carriage was a country vehicle in the least flattering sense of the word. Wind and wet sputtered through great gaps between the windows and doors, and the cabin contained several well-used fur blankets that reeked of mildew and wet dog. The exterior had once been painted beetle-black, but rust from the undercarriage was gradually overtaking it, mapping the darkness with winding orange rivers and flaking continents. Inside, the walls and seats were upholstered in a bristling raspberry velvet that, over its many years of service, had gone a grayish brown where the springs pressed through.

James Lett, Jamie to his friends, wiped at the foggy window pane with his handkerchief and peered outside. “At this speed,” he said, turning to the carriage’s only other occupant, “we may as well have walked from the station. Does the fellow think he’s being paid by the hour?”

Manassas Edmunds, Chief Financial Officer of the Keystone Lumber Company, shrugged. “Better to go slow than to get stuck in the mud and have to wait for rescue.”

Jamie frowned. The old fellow wasn’t wrong; the rain, which was coming down in torrents, had saturated the iron-rich embankment, and with each step, the horses sank to their fetlocks in mud as thick as potter’s clay. Jamie sighed and slumped back into his seat. “Remind me, what’s our itinerary?”

“We ride to Conifer tomorrow morning,” Manassas answered. “You do the inspection tour while I review the ledgers.”

“Mph,” Jamie grunted. Inspection tours were typically less inspection and more tour, as it took a special kind of idiot to show the owner’s son their blunders. It would be awkward, but at least it would end with a feast—they usually did. Famished and half-frozen as Jamie was, the thought of a hot meal could tempt him almost anywhere.

“You’ll be fine,” Manassas reassured him. “Your father just wants you to show your face. Let the men see the heir apparent.”

Jamie turned back toward the window to hide his annoyance. He knew perfectly well what his father wanted, and, if you asked him, the Captain, as the men called him, was being damn foolish. Union agitators, and the rash of strikes that followed them, had been splashed across the front pages of the newspapers for months—first with the miners in Idaho and now with the newsboys in the City. It had the old man spooked, but if trouble was brewing, giving the millworkers a glimpse of his face would hardly hold it at bay.

If anyone else had been in the carriage, Jamie would have said as much outright, but Manassas was a company man to the marrow. He had been his father’s friend and bookkeeper for as long as Jamie could remember and was incapable of entertaining the notion that the Captain could be wrong.

For the hundredth time that morning, Jamie wondered how he had allowed himself to be talked into this trip. A man whose appetite for nature was sated by a half-hour’s walk in Central Park had no business boarding the eight o’clock Mohawk and Malone for an expedition into the wilds of Upstate New York. And yet, here he was, inching through a muddy wasteland in a carriage that should have been sold as scrap a generation ago. Jamie sighed and settled deeper into his seat. There was nothing to be done for it now, and he would have to get through the next few weeks as best he may.

Buy Links:

Universal Buy Link incl. Amazon: https://books2read.com/u/mBWALv

Universal Buy Link incl. other outlets: https://books2read.com/u/mqRkOd

Author Bio:

Eleanor Birney writes historical mysteries about class, moral ambiguity, and people who aren’t satisfied with life on their side of the green baize door.

She received a BA in History from UC Berkeley, and works as a legal research attorney, a day job that feeds her love of precision, research, and puzzles.

Growing up in foster care gave her a lifelong fascination with the way society steers people into assigned places—and how some of those people refuse to stay in them.

She lives in Northern California with her family. The Green Baize Door is her debut novel.

Author Links:

Website: www.eleanorbirney.com

Twitter / X: https://x.com/EleanorBirney

Facebook:https://www.facebook.com/eleanor.a.birney/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/eleanor.birney.author/

Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/eleanorbirney.bsky.social

Book Bub: https://www.bookbub.com/authors/eleanor-birney

Amazon Author Page: https://www.amazon.com/stores/Eleanor-Birney/author/B0FZ18BV39

Goodreads:  https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/243454080-the-green-baize-door

Book Link:

From Amazon:

Beware who you let inside.

A serial killer terrorizes the streets of Los Angeles, dubbed by the press ‘The Werewolf Killer’ for his brutal and methodical way of killing. There are no known links between victims, no apparent motive, and no suspects. Detective Tanya Reynolds, in charge of the investigation, hopes to put a stop to the killings soon, but the killer has eluded her for so long, why would this time be any different?

What begins as a routine investigation soon turns into a cat and mouse game, where neither party knows which of them is the hunter and which is the prey.

My Review:

Mary Schmidt

5.0 out of 5 stars Scary

Reviewed in the United States on February 13, 2026

Format: Kindle

This book is a murder thriller for sure. Truly psychotic the main suspect is a serial killer. His mind worked in strange ways that are difficult to comprehend. How can a person have such a need to kill? How could a person have such a horrific modus operandi in his chosen style of murder? Was he born with this need and it manifested later in life? How can a person have a need, a drive, to kill others? You, the next reader(s) can figure it out.

The Coffee Pot Book Club has my book highlighted today. Check out the link.

Book Link

From Amazon:

Mutants is the continuation of the process that spawned 100, addressing grief and loss along with newfound discoveries of Fibromyalgia and optimism over pain. This little collection is one part hope, one part discovery, and one part the decision to ride with the other parts while trying to find a better way of life. It’s a teaser for the larger sequel to 100, while also featuring a couple poems pre-publication and a few from the current work in progress. It makes for a great sampler, while stoking the fire for what’s to come down the road. These items were originally not meant to become full-fledged poems, but simple sketches that maybe I’d come back to. Hence the title, Mutants. But somewhere along the way things looked pretty good, and I ran with what I had with minimal tinkering. There are times when it’s right to find something to build on for growth, and there are also times when you can admit that it’s ok to respect and love what you have. I think this minimal chapbook encompasses that, and I’m pleased with it. If pain can come with greater understanding- not just personally, but for the reader too- then I’ve done the job I set out to do.

My Review:

Mary Schmidt

5.0 out of 5 stars Meaningful

Reviewed in the United States on February 11, 2026

Format: Kindle

This book for poetry is immersion. The manner in which it is composed gives pause and feeling to the written words. Moving poetry is always a good thing and Mr. Aikin has accomplished that throughout this book.