Meet Dolores 'Lola' Cruz. Going undercover is second nature for Private Investigator Lola Cruz, but she's out of her league when the case of a murdered Royals Courtside Dancer leads her to a local nudist resort. Parading around the sidelines of Sacramento's professional basketball scene in a barely-there cheerleading outfit is one thing--but parading around in nothing but a smile? If she has any chance of hiding this from her traditional family and on-again/off-again boyfriend Jack, she's going to have to keep a lot more than her duct tape bra and killer dance moves under wraps...
Hairstylist Azalea March is looking forward to a wild weekend in Las Vegas with her friends. Oh, sure, they're supposed to be there on business, attending the biggest hair show on the west coast, but that doesn't mean they can't have a little fun. But fun quickly turns to drama. On the first morning of the show, Dhane, the biggest celeb of the hair-styling world, is found dead. As it turns out Azalea's friend Vivian not only knew Dhane, but the tale she weaves of how they met is faker than a showgirl's uh...assets. When Vivian confesses to the murder and is arrested, Azalea knows there's no way she could have done it and suspects Vivian may be trying to protect someone. But who? Azalea now has to convince Alex, the sexy detective from her past, to help her prove Vivian's innocence and comb through clues more twisted than a spiral perm. But the truth is stranger than anything found on the Las Vegas Strip, and proving Vivian's innocence turns out to be more difficult than transforming a brunette into a blonde.
WINNER OF THE JOHN CREASEY DEBUT DAGGER AWARD Nominated for the Edgar Award for best first novel An astonishing debut crime thriller about an unforgettable woman who combines the genius and ferocity of Lisbeth Salander with the ruthless ambition of Walter White The Crenshaw Six are a small but up-and-coming gang in South Central LA who have recently been drawn into an escalating war between rival drug cartels. To outsiders, the Crenshaw Six appear to be led by a man named Garcia . . . but what no one has figured out is that the gang's real leader (and secret weapon) is Garcia's girlfriend, a brilliant young woman named Lola. Lola has mastered playing the role of submissive girlfriend, and in the man's world she inhabits she is consistently underestimated. But in truth she is much, much smarter--and in many ways tougher and more ruthless--than any of the men around her, and as the gang is increasingly sucked into a world of high-stakes betrayal and brutal violence, her skills and leadership become their only hope of survival. Lola marks the debut of a hugely exciting new thriller writer, and of a singular, magnificent character unlike anyone else in fiction.
Malicious Mischief by Marianne Harden Is it strange to have the unemployment office on speed dial? Not for twenty-four-year-old college dropout Rylie Keyes. Her current job at a small retirement home is worlds more important than all her past gigs, though: if she loses this one, she won't be able to stop the forced sale of her and her grandfather's home, a house that has been in the family for ages. But keeping her job means figuring out the truth about a senior citizen who was found murdered while in her care. Explain that one, Miss Keyes. The late Otto Weiner was thought to be a penniless Nazi concentration camp survivor with a silly grudge against Rylie. However, Otto was not a liked man by any means, and his enemies will stop at nothing to keep their part in his murder secret. Forced to dust off the PI training she has to keep hidden from her ex-detective grandfather, Rylie must align with a circus-bike-wheeling Samoan while juggling the attention of two very hot cops who each get her all hot and bothered for very different reasons. And as she trudges through this new realm of perseverance, she has no idea that along the way she just might win, or lose, a little piece of her heart.
Caitlyn needs to find her estranged father or her mother will be thrown out of the home she loves, so Caitlyn ventures into the rough, tough world of the Australian opal fields. After rescuing a teenager from an attempted assault she learns that the girl, Max, is her half-sister. Their father is missing and suspected of stealing opals – an activity that could place both Max and Caitlyn in danger. Attempting to locate their father without alerting the police, Caitlyn enlists the help of Dale, a city lawyer turned lapidary, hiding out in the town to protect his daughter from death threats. Together they investigate, but progress is slow until Caitlyn stumbles upon a link between her father and organised crime, and into an investigation by the Federal Police. After offering herself as the go-between in a ‘sting', Caitlyn realises that she's put Dale's life at risk and in order to save him, she does the one thing she's sworn never to do. She battles crippling claustrophobia to descend into the darkness of an underground opal mine where her father's dead body is lying. With the criminals either arrested or dead, Caitlyn accepts that she's found more than she went looking for. She's fallen in love with Dale, but there's no way he'd consider moving back to the city, not when a move would expose his daughter to danger. He doesn't ask her to stay so she makes a new life for herself and her sister in Adelaide...until the death of the man threatening his family allows Dale to confess his feelings for her.
Life At Apricot is the second book in the God Loves High Heels trilogy. With this book, the author seeks to introspectively explore the essence of sexism and spirituality.
Meet Lola Cruz. After paying her dues as an intern, she's now a full-fledged detective at Camacho and Associates. Her boss is Manny Camacho, a muy caliente former cop with a mysterious ex-wife, a Lara Croft look-alike girlfriend, and a sudden personal interest in Lola. Her first big case? A missing mother who may not want to be found. And to make her already busy life even more complicated, Lola's helping her cousin plan her quinceañera, and battling her family and their old-fashioned views on women and careers. She's also reunited with the gorgeous Jack Callaghan, her high school crush whom she shamelessly tailed years ago and photographed doing the horizontal salsa with some other lucky girl. Lola takes it all in stride, but when the subject of her search ends up dead, she realizes she has a lot more to worry about. Soon she finds herself wrapped up in the possibly shady practices of a tattoo parlor, local politics, and someone with serious---maybe deadly---road rage. To top it all off, her treasured postcoital pictures of Jack are missing! Still, Lola is well-equipped to handle these challenges. She's a black-belt in kung fu, and her body isn't her only weapon. She's got smarts, sass, and more tenacity than her Mexican mafioso-wannabe grandfather. A few of her famous margaritas don't hurt, either. Debut author Misa Ramirez, a blond-haired, green-eyed gal with a passion for the Latino culture and authentic Mexican food, has penned a delicious mix of mystery, romance, and all-out fun. Filled with sizzling scenes and side-splitting humor, Living the Vida Lola is a thrilling ride that will have you up all night.
"I, Grayson Dawson, Alpha of the Moonlit Pack, reject you, Lola Ashton, as my mate and Luna of this pack," I heard Grayson's voice reach my ear and a single tear ran down my left cheek as it felt like my heart was being ripped out of my chest. "I, Lola Ashton, accept..." I did not finish my sentence before he held me up by my throat and snarled in my face. His eyes had already changed colors so I knew his wolf was in charge. "You will not reject me, slut. I am your owner and I tell you what to do and when," he slapped me across the face and threw me on the ground. *** After being rejected by her mate in the Moonlit pack, Lola escaped on a full moon only to enter the territory of the next Alpha King who also happened to be her second chance mate. Adrian is the next Alpha King but he hasn't been able to assume his role because he needed a Luna by his side. A rogue that trespassed on his territory, whom he ordered be killed turned out to be his mate leaving him in a dilemma. Will Adrian reject Lola because she came into his territory as a rogue? Will he overcome what happened to him in the past and give Lola a chance or reject her and go ahead with Fay as his chosen Luna? What will happen when everyone finds out just how much power Lola wields and how she's supposed to protect her kind in an oncoming war? Find out in Lola- The Moon Wolf!
Just what is LOL? Yes, a common abbreviation for Laughing Out Loud, and often used to refer to a Little Old Lady, but in bridge it means a Loser-On-Loser play. At times a declarer can improve his/her situation by playing a losing card from one hand on a loser in a different suit from the hand opposite. This occurs when a player has a loser in two suits but can arrange to lose them both on one trick, thereby reducing the number of losers from two to one. Often this looks like a Ruff-and-Sluff play, but instead of ruffing, declarer or dummy discards a loser in each hand. When and why would one do this? This technique has many uses. One example is to keep the ‘Danger’ hand off lead. Often in the end game it serves as the exit in assisting the process of elimination and placing the lead in the hand of the desired opponent for an endplay. The advantage of this procedure is that declarer divests himself of two losers while simultaneously placing the lead in the desired quarter.
