SPOTLIGHT w/EXCERPT - COZY MYSTERY - A PINCH OF ASSAULT (Sunny Side Up Mysteries, #3) by Misty Simon

Welcome to the Sunny Side Up Diner,
where the pancakes are fluffy, the bacon is crisp,
and murder should not be on the menu…

A Pinch of Assault
Sunny Side Up Mysteries, #3
by Misty Simon
Genre: Small Town Cozy Mystery with a dash of Romance

Welcome to the Sunny Side Up Diner, where the jukeboxes jive and the secrets thrive...

With things at her Sunny Side Up Diner sailing along smoothly for once, Jax Tapman has turned her attention to her personal life. It’s time to meet the boyfriend’s mother in person. And while Jax isn't totally certain she’s up to the challenge, she agrees to show Eliot’s mom around a local retirement home. It sounds innocent enough, and it shouldn’t be too difficult to sell the woman on the idea of moving to be closer to her son. But instead of making her case, when Jax enters the model apartment, she and her potential in-law find one dead body and a whole lot of secrets!

Suddenly it’s up to Jax to discover who the retirement home killer is—a task that only gets harder when someone from Eliot's past shows up and might know far more about the crime than she’s letting on.

The Sunny Side Up Diner is jumping with gossip, Jax and her best friend Dani are running interference, and Eliot’s mom is calling all the shots. But sorting out chaos and minimizing damage is something Jax has grown accustomed to, if she can only get a clue.

"This new series is off to a great start. Misty does an excellent job showing readers all the details of the small town, the diner, and a cast of entertaining characters."
~ Kings River Life Magazine

"Readers cannot help but fall in love with this first book!!! Simon has you laughing out loud... I, for one, look forward to more books in the series!!!!"
~ Cozy Mystery Book Reviews

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“We’re looking for the model apartment,” I said. “If you could point us in the right direction?”

“Of course,” said a guy who came up from behind to join the others. He was wearing a hoodie also emblazoned with the company logo of a big, branchy oak tree with a smiling face. “Right behind you.”

I turned around, and sure enough, when I looked at the sign on the wall to my right, it had a big arrow and the very helpful words “Model Home” in a polished silver that must have cost a pretty penny. But for what they charged to live here, that was probably a drop in the bucket of the money they made on a monthly basis.

“Much appreciated.”

“No problem,” he said, saluting me, and then he caught up with the others.

“We have our direction now from the guy who must not realize it’s warm enough to not need a sweatshirt.”

“Not everyone is as hot as you are,” Eliot said with a chuckle.

“Ha!” I did appreciate that he thought I was hot, of course, but I was fighting a blush that he’d said it in front of his mom.

“Nicely done,” Dot said, patting her son’s arm.

“Let’s carry on.” I cleared my throat and prepared to make the idea of living here irresistible, or at least get mother and son to laugh while trying. “Here we have state-of-the-art facilities and comfort like no other place in the world. The programs and activities are top of line, too. You will only be bored here if you want, or actively make an effort to be bored, because we can schedule your every second before Wheel of Fortune comes on, if you so desire.”

Dot snickered, and even Eliot laughed at that.

“Please follow me to our version of paradise.”

I inserted the key into the lock and twisted, but I didn’t feel any resistance or hear the dead bolt click. I turned the doorknob anyway, thinking maybe the door was just that well-oiled.

Opening the door into the really beautiful suite of rooms, I was already half in love with the teal carpet and the rose-colored walls. The tan furniture they’d chosen to place in the living room was set off nicely with pastel throw pillows, light wood side tables, and a coffee table. The sliding glass door to the left let in ample sunlight without being blinding and bathed the whole area in a golden glow that warmed the room. The effect was truly lovely.

It was obvious I wasn’t alone in thinking so either, since Dot was already oohing and ahhing from the doorway. As she stepped in, I moved out of the way in case she wanted to make a beeline for the kitchen. The breakfast bar fronting the kitchen was big without being massive and separated it from the living room while keeping the floor plan open for entertaining.

I was hoping she’d love the space as she moved around the end of the bar, but when she stepped into the kitchen, she drew to an immediate halt and barked at us to call 9-1-1.

Don’t miss the other Sunny Side Up Mysteries!

Find them on Amazon or at Gemma Halliday Publishing

Misty Simon always wanted to be a storyteller…preferably behind a Muppet. Animal was number one, followed closely by Sherlock Hemlock… Since that dream didn’t come true, she began writing stories to share her world with readers, one laugh at a time.

Touching people’s hearts and funny bones are two of her favorite things, and she hopes everyone at least snickers in the right places when reading her books. She lives with her husband in Central Pennsylvania where she is hard at work on her next novel or three. She loves to hear from readers so drop her a line at misty@mistysimon.com.

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SPOTLIGHT EXCERPT - PSYCHOLOGICAL THRILLER - DARK UGLY PLACES by Ashley Mansour

Some wounds don’t heal. They take over.

A Beverly Hills psychological thriller about grief, female rage, fractured identity, and revenge.

Dark Ugly Places
by Ashley Mansour
Genre: Psychological Thriller, Domestic Suspense

Some wounds don’t heal. They fester. They whisper. They take over.

In Dark Ugly Places, trauma isn’t something you survive — it’s something that survives you.

Thirty-four-year-old Nicola Holiday loses everything in a hit-and-run: her husband dead, her body broken, her fourteen-year-old daughter Emmy forever changed. With no one held accountable, she spirals into grief, panic attacks, and financial ruin — awakening a hereditary darkness she’s spent her life trying to outrun.

That darkness has a voice now. Her name is Martha, and she aches for revenge.

As Nicola’s grip on reality loosens, Martha slips into another life — one of wealth, glamour, and moral rot. When she crosses paths with the wife of a famous actor, Nicola’s suspicions ignite.

Pulled between vengeance and annihilation, Nicola and Martha collide with a woman whose secrets may be the key to everything — or the thing that destroys them both.

Dark, provocative, and deeply unsettling — a haunting psychological portrait of female rage, obsession, and the terrifying lengths the mind will go to survive unbearable pain.

Because sometimes the most dangerous place isn’t the past. It’s inside your own head.

 

“A suspenseful and relentless tale of troubled Californians.”
– Kirkus Reviews
 
“A tense, viciously readable psychological thriller about the violence that lurks beneath polished surfaces.”
 – BookLife Reviews
 
“With fast-paced thrills and gripping psychological drama, Ashley Mansour’s Dark Ugly Places serves up vengeance for morally complex characters.” - Indiereader

**Releases September 15 – PreOrder Now!**

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PROLOGUE

No one likes to be kept in the dark.

In the dark, everything is murky, even the Los Angeles sky.

But the day of Nicola’s accident, I had a pretty clear view of things. It tends to be that way—clear—when Nicola isn’t.

Nicola, Ben, and their daughter, Emmy, were walking holding hands, something the three of them hadn’t done since Emmy was a little kid. I felt the itch in Nicola’s palm, like she didn’t want to hold hands. But Emmy insisted. She was between them, arms outstretched, making that little humming sound she sometimes made when she was nervous or lost in thought. Ben walked on slightly ahead, his head down, eyes focused on the phone in his hand. I could almost hear his teeth grinding.

Up ahead, the road was clear. The sun covered everything in butter-yellow light. Crows perched in the bare-barked trees and made long, scratchy cries like a group of smokers laughing. They rustled leaves and crossed the pavement before them. But the trees were still, like the air had been sucked out of the city. Up ahead, the road was clear.

The three of them approached the corner, Emmy and Nicola chatting aimlessly. Ben narrowed his eyes and squinted at the screen as if the sky was too bright. He stepped out into the road first. Emmy, next. She skipped slightly—braids flying—and pulled her mom’s arm.

Nicola looked up and saw one of the crows overhead, its beak open, making a dreadful sound. When she looked back at the road, her gut pinged with a horrible dread she couldn’t place.

Then she—we—saw it.

From the middle distance, something large and hurtled into view, its body glinting in the sun. Emmy screamed. Nicola tried to pull her back, but one by one, her fingers slipped out of her grasp.

It was too late.

Nicola’s body collided with the big, thing, and in the next moment, she was airborne, tumbling through the air as if she had been taken by a tornado. Her thoughts spiraled with her, spinning out of control.

I’m going to die.

I’m going to live.

Don’t let me die.

I’m going to die.

She kept spiraling, around and around, until I stopped her with a simple suggestion: Breathe, Nicola. Breathe. We have this power, those of us who live in the darkness.

The asphalt grated her spine. It must have hurt, but Nicola did not cry. Perhaps because the air was too full of Emmy’s screams.

She rolled to her left, her left arm pinned against her chest like a piece of limp fabric. Her left leg lay stretched out before her perfectly straight, but dead. Cold. Frozen in place. She rolled to her side and saw Emmy, blood coating half of her face as though she were wearing a mask. Five feet away, Ben lay in the road unmoving, his body contorted, his face turned away.

Overhead, the stretch of blue sky angled down Beverly Boulevard and went on forever. Cars passed, some honking, others slowing to stop and help or to get a better look. Nicola grunted and heaved herself along the ground, her jaw gritting with pain. She reached for Emmy, reached for Ben.

The body of the car stirred. A door opened. A black polished shoe emerged onto the asphalt as the driver leaned out, then disappeared again as the door shut. I heard the engine as the car started and rolled backwards, slow at first, then picking up speed until it was gone.

Ashley Mansour writes dark, cinematic psychological suspense and domestic suspense about dangerous relationships, buried truths, and the chaos waiting beneath the surface of ordinary lives.

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Follow the tour HERE for special content and a giveaway!

Enter the Dark Ugly Places Giveaway Here

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PREORDER - CONTEMPORARY - TORRENTS'S TREASURE (Grave Prowlers MC: Missouri) by Nat Logan

Torrent's Treasure 

Grave Prowlers MC: Missouri, #1

by Nat Logan

Release Date: September 1st 2026

Genre: MC Romance

Tropes: Marriage of convenience; Damsel in distress/woman in danger; He falls first; Found Family

Cecilia Wilson is surviving, trying to raise her younger sister after her parents’ suspicious death in a fire. When her investigations into her parents’ murders gains the attention of the person that doesn’t want anything brought to light, danger comes to her doorstep.

Cecilia survives the unthinkable, only to realize she has to defend her life and her younger sister’s, or life will be over for them. The ensuing fallout has her needing help that only specialized individuals can provide. She calls the one man that her father told her she could trust if she was ever in danger— Torrent from the Grave Prowlers MC.

Mason “Torrent” Jones loves his club and has given whatever they asked in the past because the club has given him everything— a brotherhood, family and freedom. A call from the daughter of a friend of the club has Torrent and his brothers riding to help.

Torrent despises men who hurt women, but he’s never felt like enfolding a woman in his arms to comfort her until Cecilia.

As Secretary of the Grave Prowlers MC: Missouri, he’s done many things for his club, and he doesn’t hesitate when they tell him to marry Cecilia to protect the club because the club is above everything. He doesn’t count on the unfamiliar feelings when Cecilia and her sister Calliope are threatened.

Torrent and his brothers will do whatever it takes to protect the Club, his wife and family. But will it be enough when danger wears a badge?

If you like a marriage-of-convenience where he falls first, found family and plenty of action, you’ll love Nat Logan’s locked-and-loaded introduction to the Grave Prowlers MC: Missouri.

“I want you just as much. You saved me. When I called, you didn’t hesitate to help me. You’ll always be my hero, Torrent. Now, make me yours,” she implored, smiling at him.

His mouth quirked in the way she loved. He leaned closer, letting her decide if it was okay until his mouth claimed hers.
His touch, his taste wasn’t something to fear. It was his promise of always being her home.

“There were no flashbacks, nothing to intrude on this moment with Torrent. She wasn’t cured or healed by any means, but in this moment, everything was perfect with the man who’d saved her and shown her love.”

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