Read, Tan, Relax

Four local writers entertain with tales of crime, secrets, rock & roll, and romance.

Curl up by the pool or under the shade, grab your favorite frozen drink, and escape to the beach, into a ghost story, or lose yourself in a deadly mystery with must-reads of the summer from local authors.

Saving Grace

By Kimberly McKay

Grace Aundine, a beautiful socialite, hasn’t known real love since the death of her parents.  Controlled by her grandmother, betrayed by her boyfriend, and abandoned by her sister, Grace is on the run and hiding from her family and the world.

Nathan Burkette just wanted an escape. He knew all too well about betrayal. After the military, Burke chose a solitary life on Oahu, where he thought no one would bother him until Grace showed up on his beach alone and battered.  

He tried to leave Grace to her own devices as she sat on the sandy shores until fate intervenes putting them on a path of falling in love and straight into Grace’s dangerous past.

Will he save her in time?

Kimberly McKay has been writing suspense and contemporary Christian romance for the last ten years.  Find details about her or her other books at: www.kimberlymckayauthor.com

Ghostlight

By Sonia Gensler

In Ghostlight, things that go bump in the night are just the beginning when a summer film project becomes a real-life ghost story!

Nothing ever happens on Avery’s grandmother’s sprawling farm, where she and her brother spend the summers. That is, until Avery meets Julian, a city boy with a famous dad, whose family is renting a nearby cottage. When Julian announces his plan to film a ghost story at Hilliard House—a looming, empty mansion—Avery jumps at the chance to join him.

When the kids explore the secrets of Hilliard House, eerie things begin to happen, and the “imaginary” dangers in their movie threaten to become very real. Have Avery and Julian awakened a menacing presence? Can they turn back before they go too far?

Praised by Kirkus as “frightening and engrossing” and by The Bulletin for the Center of Children’s Books as “deliciously spine tingling,” Ghostlight is perfect for readers 8-12 who enjoy spooky mysteries.

Author Sonia Gensler is a former high school English teacher who now writes full-time in Oklahoma. Learn more at www.soniagensler.com

Live From Medicine Park

By Constance Squires

Documentary filmmaker Ray Wheeler is down on his luck. Embroiled in a lawsuit, he is reeling from the consequences of a near-fatal shooting on his last film, and has just lost his teaching gig. Broke and beleaguered, he can’t afford to be particular about his next project. So when a former student invites him to film the comeback of Lena Wells, an iconic rock-and-roll singer who hit it big in the seventies, he reluctantly agrees.

When Ray arrives at Lena’s hometown of Medicine Park, Oklahoma, he is determined to approach his topic with the professional detachment that has guided his career. However, it doesn’t take long before Ray violates his own ethical standards and is drawn romantically toward Lena.

When disaster strikes Ray’s set again, this time in Medicine Park, he must face truths he has avoided for too long—about love, relationships, and responsibility.

Constance Squires is the award-winning author of Along the Watchtower: A Novel and Wounding Radius and Other Stories. She teaches creative writing at the University of Central Oklahoma. Constancesquiresofficial.com

Not Another Superhero, Just Another Sidekick

By Tara Lynn Thompson

Samantha Addison remembers the mugger. And his gun. How he pointed it at her head. When he pulled the trigger. She remembers everything, except how she survived.

But it’s only Monday. She’s embarking on a riotous week of near misses and a delicious 

mystery growing with each attempt on her life.

Through all the hilarious, hair-raising events, a sexy man in a black hood keeps saving the day before vanishing. Who is this guy? And can he keep her alive?

It’s a race against time, trouble, and her sarcastic tongue to solve the mystery before the clock runs out. In the end, her very survival may come down to deciding who she can trust and who she absolutely cannot.

Then, continue the adventure! Follow the uproarious escapades of the witty, hard-not-to-like Samantha Addison in the sequel, Just Another Sidekick, available this month on Amazon or at TaraLynnthompson.com

Tara Lynn Thompson is an Emmy and Addy award-winning writer and author of The Another Series books, Not Another Superhero and Just Another Sidekick. taralynnthompson.blogspot.com