Essentially Sweet Romance

A laugh-out-loud cozy rom-com with a twist of mystery and a heart full of charm!

Foreword Indies Finalist

Stephanie Pierce likes life neat, quiet, and under control. Her keys have a proper place, her apartment is spotless, and a few drops of lavender can smooth out almost anything. Then she comes home from work, finds her apartment manager dead in the stairwell, and her carefully ordered world starts coming apart.

Detective Mark Wellborn is not part of Stephanie’s plan. He is six-foot-two of broad shoulders, blue eyes, roughened jawline, and calm authority—the kind of man who can command a crime scene, free a stiletto from a staircase, and leave Stephanie so flustered she can barely form a sentence. The more often he shows up, the worse it gets. Because Mark is not just dangerously competent. He is distractingly handsome, relentlessly observant, and entirely too good at looking at Stephanie like she is the only woman in the room.

But Richard’s death is only the beginning. When the case turns to murder, Stephanie realizes someone has been slipping into the safest corners of her life. Things are moved in her apartment. A white van keeps reappearing. And the more Mark tries to protect her, the clearer it becomes that Stephanie is tangled in something far more dangerous than one bad night in a stairwell.

Now Stephanie is caught between a killer she cannot see, a life that no longer feels safe, and a detective who is equal parts comfort and complication. Falling for him would be reckless. Ignoring him may be impossible. And if she wants to keep her heart, her dog, and her beautifully organized life intact, she will have to trust the one man who sees straight through her.

The Lavender Thief is a clean, no-spice romantic comedy suspense with murder, mishaps, essential oils, one very attractive detective, and a lovable goldendoodle.

Spice level: 2 (sizzling kisses)

Thriller vibe: 4 (suspenseful but cozy)

Dog cuteness: 10 (certified scene-stealer)