Second Chance Option by Elizabeth Spaur

He was looking for a fresh start. She was looking for a new path. Love is what happens when they least expect it. At loose ends after a medical discharge from the Navy, a call from Cade Maguire’s college coach gives him a new objective. Help save his alma mater’s football program. A gut-wrenching betrayal drove him from the game once. Can he finally stop running long enough to let go of the past and find his future? Veterinarian and genius Tess Gallagher has an abiding love for home and family, she’s spent her life taking care of everyone else. Doing what was right always came before doing what she wanted. When her younger brothers enter her in the American Ninja Warrior competition, can she finally stop hiding her true self from the world? Sparks ignite between Tess and Cade when she saves his injured dog and love is on the horizon when Cade’s new job is put in jeopardy before it even begins. Will Cade realize Tess is the second chance he really wants? Will Tess realize that Cade has always seen her for who she truly is? Will they realize that love is the only option that matters? Welcome to Second Chance Option, the first book in the Gridiron Knights series where football is king in King’s Folly, South Carolina and the locals have something to say about everything. When you come for a visit, you’ll never want to leave.

Whiskey and Warfare by E. M. Hamill

SPSFC 2024

Running on caffeine and spite with nothing left to prove. GOLDEN GIRLS meets FIREFLY in this rollicking space opera adventure. Maryn Alessi retired from mercenary service after her last assignment went horribly sideways and settled down on a quiet planet with the love of her life. Unexpectedly widowed, Maryn must fulfill a promise to return her mate’s ashes to zer home planet for funeral rites, but a brutal civil war has destabilized space travel. Former Artemis Corps sisters-in-arms and their sassy ship, the Golden Girl, are up to the task, counting on luck and their rather sketchy cargo business to get Maryn passage through the contested star lanes. But when the crew of the Girl rescues survivors of a ruthless war crime, Maryn and her ride-or-die friends must take up their old profession to save the lives of innocents from a genocidal dictator.

The Ghost Gun by Gareth Lewis

SPSFC 2024

The Ghost Gun kills what it hits, its ghost bullets ensnaring the victim’s soul to their killer. Except nothing is that simple. Certainly not an apparently simple theft that leads detectives into a war between secret societies over artifacts which have been around for millennia, their origin unknown, their abilities inexplicable. Demoted to Vice due to departmental politics, Detective Cassie Kinsala sees an opportunity to restore her career path. But what looks like it might offer a decent arrest soon turns into a quagmire the law might not cover, and might not protect her from. Jimmy Bancroft used to be a cop. Working for the other side lets him avoid paperwork. Investigating rumours of a competitor moving in on his employer’s interests, he becomes entangled in a war between criminals and a secret society. And someone might be trying to set him up.