PJ's Birthday Giveaway #2 - - HelenKay Dimon

 

PJ's Birthday Giveaway #2

HelenKay Dimon

Moorewood Family Rules

and

The Usual Family Mayhem

I've been reading - and enjoying - HelenKay Dimon's romantic suspense novels for years. In 2023, Dimon took a detour with her writing and I was delighted to take that journey with her. 

I had no idea what to expect when I began reading Moorewood Family Rules but I soon discovered a quirky, twisty, cringey, laugh-out-loud gem of a book about a highly dysfunctional family of con artists that I could not put down. As I shared in my Top Dish review (click to read), "I gobbled up this book like a bag of Peanut M&M's after a 40-day fast." Yes, it really was that good. 

Moorewood Family Rules

by HelenKay Dimon

One day a con man met an heiress, wooed her, married her, had two kids…and kept on conning. Jillian Moorewood is the oldest child from that meet-cute-gone-wrong marriage. The stable one. The sensible and dependable one. The one who protects and fixes. The one who went to prison to save their sorry butts. Now, thirty-nine months later, she’s out and she’s more than a little pissed.

Finally home she finds the scheming clan in full family fleecing mode. They all claim they didn’t really agree to Jillian’s previous go-legit-or-else ultimatum before she went away. They viewed it as a “suggestion” then ignored it. So, business as usual. But Jillian is done with the lies and fakery. She demands the whole messed-up crew clean up its act, and this time she’s not kidding—she has the leverage to make it happen.

Problem is, her life is in shambles, but with the help of a great aunt (crooked but loveable), a bodyguard (who is a nice surprise after three years in prison), and a few allies (all working undercover), Jillian starts to put herlife back together. She kicks out a few mooching relatives living under her roof, sets limits on everyone’s access to the money, ducks from their various attacks, and sees if that bodyguard is maybe interested in sticking around for a while. For the first time, she’s Jillian Moorewood, her own woman, and she’s ready to figure out who she is.

Two years later, Dimon wrote a second book in the same vein. The Usual Family Mayhem (click for review) has the same quirky, twisty, humorous vibe but with a different family and mystery. It's filled with feminine empowerment, plenty of humor, a bit of romance, and two white-haired grannies who may, or may not, be dishing out sweet revenge on behalf of women who have been wronged. 

The Usual Family Mayhem

by HelenKay Dimon

Kasey Nottingham needs a splashy idea at her company where they find and develop the next big thing for investors—her job depends on it. Impulsively, she pitches Mags’ Desserts, a beloved small-town business run by her grandma Mags and live-in “best friend” Celia, two women who overcame deadbeat husbands and financial ruin to build a word-of-mouth clientele. Kasey expects her boss to say no. Instead, he sends her home to North Carolina to land the deal…and now she has a problem.

Mags and Celia aren’t interested, which isn’t a surprise, but something else is going on in their kitchen. Locked cabinets. Cryptic conversations. Unexpected notations on business records. The ladies have secrets and whatever they’re hiding is big. As reports of mysterious deaths of abusive men in the area surface—all in households that recently received a delivery from Mags’ Desserts—Kasey worries Gram and Celia have gone into the poison pie business.

As investors start circling, Kasey enlists Jackson Quaid, Celia’s nephew and Kasey’s long-time crush, as her reluctant investigation assistant. Jackson is practical. Kasey has a wild imagination. Together, they dodge Kasey’s boss and gather intel. And kiss. Lots of kissing, though probably not the best idea to start an unexpected romance. Doing it while keeping two feisty ladies from going to jail for knocking off bad husbands—even if those husbands deserve it—might be impossible…but Kasey never shied away from a challenge.

 

Have you read HelenKay Dimon yet?

What's the last book you gobbled up like a bag of your favorite candy?

Are you a baker? What's your "special" dish? 

One randomly chosen person who posts a comment before 11:00 PM, September 22 will receive a print copy of Moorewood Family Rules and The Usual Family Mayhem.

*U.S. only

*Must be 18

*If posting anonymously, comment must include an identifying screen name or email to be entered in giveaway.