June 4th, 2026
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Love, Danger, Homecomings & Heart β€” Your June Reading Escape Starts Here

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One disastrous night. One devastating man. One diabolical proposition.


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He’s stubborn. She’s tougher. His kid? Already picked the bride.


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A small-town second chance wrapped in danger, desire, and Sharon Sala heart.


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She came home to save the ranch… and found the cowboy she never forgot.


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From reality TV heartbreak to real-life reinvention.


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A missing twin. A deadly cartel. One K-9 team caught in the crossfire.


In the Beautiful Dark by Melissa Payne

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Also by Melissa Payne:

In This Life or Another, September 2026
Trade Paperback / e-Book
In the Beautiful Dark, May 2025
Trade Paperback / e-Book
The Wild Road Home, June 2024
Paperback / e-Book
A Light in the Forest, December 2022
Trade Paperback / e-Book
The Night of Many Endings, October 2021
Trade Size / e-Book
Memories in the Drift, December 2020
Trade Size / e-Book

IN THE BEAUTIFUL DARK
By: Melissa Payne

A Novel

Lake Union Publishing
May 2025
On Sale: April 22, 2025
336 pages
ISBN: 1662515758
EAN: 9781662515750
Kindle: B0DDY4D8LV
Trade Paperback / e-Book
Add to Wish List

Mystery Amateur Sleuth | Women's Fiction Friendship

A woman investigates a friend’s long-ago murder in a haunting and hopeful novel about the weight of secrets and regrets by the bestselling author of The Wild Road Home and A Light in the Forest.

 

At Sunny Pines Retirement Community, where the “Sixty-Two and Better!” share their golden years, secrets abound. Some scandalous, some haunting, and some dangerous. For Birdie Allen, a retired business owner and grandmother, her secret is the only thing she’s got left. Getting old isn’t the hardest part about life. It’s the memories from more than fifty years ago of the death of her unrequited love. And Birdie’s abandoned quest to root out the killer.

With retirement comes a lot of time to revisit old ghosts, so when Birdie ties together a string of recent murders, and a woman disappears, she’s drawn into the same chase she gave up decades earlier. But this time she has the help of an eccentric community of eager new friends. And they’re not alone. Restless souls are watching, including Birdie’s lost love, and they sense the danger that lies ahead. They’re not leaving Birdie’s side until she finishes what she set out to do. But will Birdie’s pursuit of a killer finally free her of regrets and allow her to embrace the beauty of the life she’s created?

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