The Challenge Factory discussion

Nominate books for the next group read here!

Rules:
Must be under 350 pgs
Must be under $10
Must have been published more than 6 months ago


You may nominate one book for the monthly category: mystery/suspense

I'll nominate The Perfect Marriage by Jeneva Rose.

344 pgs.
$9.99/available on KU
Published in 2020

I'll nominate Razorblade Tears by S.A. Cosby.

336 pgs.
$9.99/available on KU
Published in 2021

I nominate Peril in Pensacola by Lucy Quinn

Should it turn out the US price is above $10 my alternate nomination is Maui Widow Waltz by JoAnn Bassett

Both are cozy-mysteries

Voting is now open for the June Group Read. Check out the books below and vote here for your favorite one! Voting ends on 5/17/23.

The Perfect Marriage
Jeneva Rose
342 pgs

$9.99 kindle
KU - membership required
Hoopla (audio & ebook) - membership required
Scribd (audio & ebook) - membership required

Synopsis
Would you defend your husband if he was accused of killing his mistress?

Sarah Morgan is a successful and powerful defense attorney in Washington D.C. At 33 years old, she is a named partner at her firm and life is going exactly how she planned.

The same cannot be said for her husband, Adam. He is a struggling writer who has had little success in his career. He begins to tire of his and Sarah’s relationship as she is constantly working.

Out in the secluded woods, at Adam and Sarah’s second home, Adam engages in a passionate affair with Kelly Summers.

Then, one morning everything changes. Adam is arrested for Kelly’s murder. She had been found stabbed to death in Adam and Sarah’s second home.

Sarah soon finds herself playing the defender for her own husband, a man accused of murdering his mistress.

But is Adam guilty or is he innocent?

Razorblade Tears
S.A. Cosby
336 pgs

$9.99 kindle
KU - membership required
Hoopla (audio) - membership required
Scribd (audio & ebook) - membership required

Synopsis
A Black father. A white father. Two murdered sons. A quest for vengeance.

Ike Randolph has been out of jail for fifteen years, with not so much as a speeding ticket in all that time. But a Black man with cops at the door knows to be afraid.

The last thing he expects to hear is that his son Isiah has been murdered, along with Isiah’s white husband, Derek. Ike had never fully accepted his son but is devastated by his loss.

Derek’s father Buddy Lee was almost as ashamed of Derek for being gay as Derek was ashamed his father was a criminal. Buddy Lee still has contacts in the underworld, though, and he wants to know who killed his boy.

Ike and Buddy Lee, two ex-cons with little else in common other than a criminal past and a love for their dead sons, band together in their desperate desire for revenge. In their quest to do better for their sons in death than they did in life, hardened men Ike and Buddy Lee will confront their own prejudices about their sons and each other, as they rain down vengeance upon those who hurt their boys.

Peril in Pensacola
Lucy Quinn
212 pgs

Free on kindle
Hoopla (Audio & ebook) - membership required
Scribd (audio & ebook) - membership required

Synopsis
Meet Dora and Evie, two best friends who are suddenly thrown into the world of life undercover as they fight to prove Dora’s innocence in the death of her money-laundering boss.

Maui Widow Waltz
JoAnn Bassett
338 pgs

$3.99 kindle


Synopsis
Even ‘death do us part’ couldn’t halt her march down the aisle…
Cash-strapped Maui wedding planner Pali Moon can’t believe her luck when a prospective bride flashing a five-carat dazzler pops into her shop, “Let’s Get Maui’d,” to request a glitzy beachside wedding. But then Pali learns the lavish wedding must take place on Valentine’s Day—only nine days away. Oh, and one other little hitch—the groom’s been missing at sea for more than a week. But no worries, the bride assures Pali, with or without the groom the wedding will take place. She’s struck a deal with the groom’s best friend to be his proxy, if necessary. Two days before the nuptials, a male corpse floats ashore on a South Maui beach. Looks like the groom’s shown up just in time. But what’s it gonna be—a wedding…or a funeral?