THE ONES WE CHOOSE by Julie Clark (published May 8, 2018 by Gallery Books) is a beautiful and emotional novel about relationships and forgiveness.

I AM JUSTICE, the first novel in the Band of Sisters series, by Diana Munoz Stewart is a compelling, suspenseful, and thrilling romance novel. It will be released by Sourcebooks Casablanca on May 1, 2018.

Reviews of the first three novels in the Lilly Long Mystery series by Penny Richards.

You're definitely going to want to eat at least one cupcake after reading DON'T CALL ME CUPCAKE - especially if it is one of the special, magical cupcakes that main character Emma Holloway bakes. DON'T CALL ME CUPCAKE is a contemporary romance novel by Tara Sheets. It is her debut novel, and it will be published on April 24, 2018 by Zebra Shouts. The novel is the first in the Holloway Girls series.

THE WILD BIRDS, Emily Strelow's debut fiction/historical novel, was published March 13, 2018 by Rare Bird Books. Over a roughly 120-year span, the novel weaves together multiple overlapping stories about a diverse cast of characters who are all connected by an ornate silver box containing the egg shells of various birds. This is a novel about finding oneself and a place to call home.

SLIPPER by Hester Velman (published April 17, 2018 by Van Horton Books) is the retelling of Cinderella. And, trust me, it is nothing like the Disney version. This Cinderella suffers a lot more than a torn dress and dirty fingernails thanks to all of that cleaning she had to do. This Cinderella survives rape, a witch hunt, war, and massacres. Life teaches her some very hard lessons – yet it takes her a long time to learn anything from them. And, in the end, the glass slipper doesn’t even fit!

TEXAS TWO-STEP by Michael Pool (published April 2, 2018 by Down Out Books) is a wild romp involving criminals, lawmen (some are good, and some are crooked), and a whole lot of marijuana.

I have read a lot of great books so far in 2018 (according to my Goodreads Reading Challenge I’m up to 36 books so far this year), and I can honestly say that BETWEEN EARTH AND SKY by Amanda Skenandore is the best one I’ve read so far. Skenandore’s debut novel, which will be published by Kensington on April 24, 2018, is a compelling and heartbreaking historical fiction set in the 1880s and early 1900s. The novel alternates between the main character’s past as the only white child attending the Stover Indian School in Wisconsin, and her present as the wife of a lawyer in Philadelphia in 1906.

As of 2018, there are three novels in the A Taste of Texas Mystery series: HERE TODAY, GONE TAMALE (2015), THE GOOD, THE BAD, AND THE GUACAMOLE (2016), and CINCO DE MURDER (2018). Each of the novels place in Broken Boot, and all of them are focused around a festival or celebration that brings an influx of tourists to the small town in West Texas. In the first novel, Josie is basically just a Nosy Nellie sticking her nose into the sheriff department’s investigation because she wants to prove that the person that the sheriff arrested is not the killer. In the second and third novels, Josie is covering the crime beat for the Broken Boot Bugle, and, while that does make her an actual investigator, it does give her a reason to dig deeper into the investigations.

FICTION CAN BE MURDER is the first novel in the Mystery Writer’s Mystery Series by Becky Clark. The novel is Clark’s first, and it will be released by Midnight Ink on April 8, 2018.

Wow. I was just blown away by WHO SHE IS by Diane Byington. WHO SHE IS is Byington’s debut novel, and it will be released on March 20, 2018, by Red Adept Publishing, LLC.

In THE UNINVITED CORPSE by Debra Sennefelder (first in the Food Blogger Mystery series), Hope Early has recently left New York City in the dust following an ugly divorce, an embarrassing appearance on a reality baking show, and her failed career as a magazine editor. After returning to her small hometown of Jefferson, Connecticut, Hope starts her life over as a blogger focusing on food and DIY projects. Hope also (literally) stumbles upon two dead bodies...

Lucy Berberian makes her debut in HUMMUS AND HOMICIDE, the first in the Kebab Kitchen Mystery series by Tina Kashian. The novel is Kashian's first, and it was published February 27, 2018 by Kensington Publishing Corporation.

Inez Stannert returns in A DYING NOTE, the sixth novel in the Silver Rush series by Ann Parker. The novel will be published April 3rd, 2018 by Poisoned Pen Press. For those of you who are unlike me and haven’t read the five previous novels in the Silver Rush series, those novels are: SILVER LIES (2006), IRON TIES (2006), LEADEN SKIES (2009), MERCURY’S RISE (2011), and WHAT GOLD BUYS (2016). If you haven’t read any of these novels, I highly suggest that you do as they are all wonderful novels. The Silver Rush series are historical mysteries set in the 1880s.

WITH LOVE IN SIGHT is Christina Britton’s debut historical romance novel. It is the first book in the Twice Shy series, and RWA's 2017 Golden Heart Winner.

When a romance novel (or really any novel) opens with a Victorian-era, bluestocking, just about old enough to be considered a spinster female protagonist falling out of a tree because she climbed it to spy on the man of her dreams propose to another woman…well, you know you’ve got one interesting, captivating, and convention breaking main character. And then, a few chapters later, an Earl and a Duke exchange in fisticuffs in said female protagonist’s sitting room while battling over her affections…you definitely know you’re in for a fun, romantic ride.