Bøger af Heather Balog

Ever have a really bad day when you regret all your decisions? Today is one of those days. You see, I'm tied to the control panel in a soundproof recording studio in the basement of the local library. In a few minutes, I'll be forced to confess to a murder on air and drink a concoction that will lead to my death. What brought me here, you ask?Well, it started when I got an invite to my high school class's 25th reunion. I wasn't going to go...I had no interest in feeling like a loser again in front of all of those people who made me feel like a loser twenty-five years ago. But then a former classmate sent a message saying she loved my writing and couldn't wait to see me at the reunion. I'll admit, the flattery went to my head and I ended up going to the reunion where a classmate met her untimely end at the hand of a nail-file-wielding murderer. And of course, I was the one to find her and the one the entire town suspected of her murder. Which, is ultimately the reason I'm in this current predicament.

Dear Diary, Guess what? I'm pregnant. I should be happy about that, right? After all, Roger and I wanted to start a family...maybe not just right now.Not only am I pregnant, I just lost my job. And my car keeps stalling going into left-hand turns. And not only am I pregnant, jobless, and without a reliable vehicle, I've got to move into a dilapidated old house and smuggle a puppy past my pet-unfriendly hubby.My life was busy enough before I made a pledge to my old boss that I'd figure out who was stealing valuable packages from the small businesses in town. It's a lot of pressure, and I'm not even a mom yet. I can't wait to just cuddle my newborn baby and not have to worry about anything else. But first, I've got to get out of this dog catcher's van before I give birth amongst the dog crates. Hopefully, the guy with the gun in the front seat knows the way to the hospital.Love, Amy

For those of you keeping score at home, it's been almost a year since I was kidnapped and held hostage. I thought my life was going to change, but it's more of the same. I'm cleaning up messes faster than a celebrity fixer, my kids are driving me to seriously contemplate the Witness Protection Program, and Roger is STILL sitting in his armchair, uselessly engrossed in a reality TV show marathon.But since I'm a glutton for punishment, I've added even more stress to my life by going back to college to finally get the degree that eluded me twenty years ago. In criminal justice, of all things.After countless years of Sunday school, I should know that Gluttony is one of the Seven Deadly Sins. Come to think of it, Wrath, Greed, Lust, Sloth, Envy, Pride, and Gluttony are why I'm in my current predicament-stuck in the trunk of my sister's lover's car... bound and gagged. If it were not for those seven deadly sins, I'd be busy burning a casserole at home instead of wondering if I'm about to die sandwiched between a tire jack and a set of jumper cables.

Amy Maxwell is used to being overshadowed by her successful and beautiful sisters. What she isn't used to is having to speak in public about her failures with her domineering siblings. Which is exactly what she has to do when her sister Beth arranges for all of them to be on a panel at a "Women in Business" workshop being held by her hero, the famed self-help guru, Curtis Victor.Amy is less than pleased to be there-especially after a spectacular crash and burn on stage-but Beth has sold this as a relaxing three-day weekend, a chance for Amy to have some downtime without her children and husband needing her at every turn to save them from themselves. Amy is determined to enjoy herself with spa treatments, steak dinners, and cocktails at the bar, but her enjoyment comes to a screeching halt when an heiress is found dead in her hotel room and Amy finds herself thrust in the middle of the murder investigation.

What does it mean when you lose your only child? Are you still a mother? Can you go on with your life as if the child never existed or will you always be missing that piece, unable to love another child the way you once loved your child? This is not a hypothetical situation for Andrea Pringle. It's her unfortunate reality and she is torn between love for her dead son and her desire to be a family after the birth of her daughter. She cannot seem to bond with the new baby, feeling an overwhelming amount of resentment for the simple fact that she is alive and her brother is not. No one understands her pain and Andrea feels that she is completely alone, When the Bough Breaks.

A missing teenage boy. Three friends who know what happened. A secret they swear never to tell. Until the secret comes back to haunt them...thirty years later.Jack, Matt, Cassie, and Lisa are four friends growing up on "The Edge", a cul-de-sac in the 80s. The alpha male, the lucky one, the goody-two shoes, and the glamorous hottie that all the boys want. On the outside, they seem to have it all. Yet inside, the teens are shattered in pieces. It is their unbreakable friendship with each other that prevents them from falling apart. Until the one night when tragedy is set forth into motion by their actions, leaving one of the four dead...and missing. The remaining three swear to never speak of that night again...or to each other. They go their separate ways, hoping to bury their mistakes and the past.Thirty years later, one of the friends gets an ominous message. Someone is digging into their past and threatening to expose their secret. Who is it and what do they really want? Is their secret the only thing that isn't safe, or are their lives in danger, too?

Shannon Clayton is 35 year old woman with a troubled past. When she tries to kill herself on her wedding day, her fiancé commits her to a mental hospital. Her psychiatrist is the best in her field, but Shannon will not speak to her. She will only communicate through letters. The doctor needs a new perspective on Shannon's tormented soul, so she calls on Kathryn. Kathryn is Shannon's twin sister who wants nothing to do with her. But she can't turn her back on her sister because she is drawn to the letters Shannon has written for some inexplicable reason. She is drawn to her sister's misery no matter how hard she fights it. Why can't she turn away? What is it about Shannon that makes it impossible for Kathryn to ignore? It's a secret they share, that only the letters will reveal.

Violet and Leah have been friends for almost thirty years. They have been through countless trials together---but can they survive a divorce cruise?

Stress? With four kids, a talent for burning dinner in under five minutes, and crusted applesauce on the yoga pants that haven't seen the inside of a gym in a decade, I've cornered the market on stress. Sometimes, I find myself fantasizing. Totally benign, stress-relieving fantasies... like running away with the hot pool boy next door or finding out that the child who's annoying me most that day was switched at birth. At least, it was harmless until Jason Collins moved in across the street, and my wild imagination goes feral.I can't deny Jason's easy on the eyes, but something about him and his family's just not adding up. My kids' safety is my priority, so I spy on the neighbors like it's my job.And that's when my teenage daughter and I stumble upon the body. The dead body.Before I know what hit me, I'm thrown together with Jason in the most unpredictable way. Tied to a chair in an abandoned cabin in the woods. And no, despite my fantasies, there's nothing kinky about this... just pure horror that might be the death of me.

Adults insist that you never completely remember your childhood. They say that as the years pass by, those little details that once captured your undivided attention become fuzzy around the edges. As time marches on, the sharp memories start crinkling up like a piece of newspaper burning in a campfire; first you can just make out the sentences, and then, the white hot fire laps at the pages, blurring them and obscuring the actual words. Until all that you are left with is a fine white ash and the vague memories of what used to be. As long as I'm breathing, I know I will never forget my sixteenth summer. It's been years, but that summer is etched finely in my memory. That was the summer I finally kissed a boy, found the body in the basement, and discovered that keeping secrets just might kill you. And believe me, that isn't something you forget too easily, no matter how hard you try. And I sure as hell have tried. Kennedy Ryan is a normal fifteen year old girl with a best friend who tells her what to do, an agoraphobic mother, a crush on an inappropriate boy...and a body in her basement. Totally normal, right?

I just knew something would go wrong if the whole family went on vacation-I had a sixth sense about it. A week of fun in the sun at an all-inclusive resort on the beach should be a relaxing time for the whole family, right? Not for the Maxwell family.Because prepping for a family vacation as a mom is akin to Chinese Water Torture, I find myself dreaming of a solo vacation before the wheels of the plane even touch down on the runway. The kids are begging to upgrade our WiFi package, I've discovered that I can't seem to get away from Jason Collins, and Roger's acting suspicious. To top it all off, I've been noticing there are unsavory characters at the resort that immediately set off my Mom radar.Unable to stop myself from snooping, I stumble upon another mystery, one that involves a half-naked man with a palm leaf covering his nether regions, and Roger and I in serious danger of being filleted with his spear.

Innocent Kimberly Malone, new tenth grade English teacher, is shocked to discover the drama that rules the halls at Franklin Crest High School. Cliques and torrid affairs aren't limited to the student population. Kimberly is wildly unpopular among the other teachers who ignore her and rebuff her advances to become friends, leading her to listen at doors and lurk in corners, uncovering some damning secrets of her coworkers. When Kimberly is found by two of her students, strangled by her own scarf, it becomes apparent that she may have uncovered a little too much of the drama in the teachers' lounge. Interviewing Kimberly's coworkers, Detectives Madden and De Luca discover that someone's secret may have been worth killing for...and that Kimberly herself may not have been as innocent as everyone thought she was. Can they piece together the puzzle of Kimberly's death before the killer gets away with murder? Fans of contemporary fiction and suspense novels alike will be intrigued by this tale of the unexpected secret lives of teachers, uniquely told through interviews with the suspects and letters from the deceased.

What happens when your ex-husband shows up on your doorstep looking for a place to live, just when you're about to get remarried? 28 year old, out of work editor/ writer Elizabeth is about to find out. Her annoying British ex-husband, Simon has been "displaced" after forgetting to pay his rent and has nowhere to go. As much as she seethes at the sight of him, Elizabeth can't turn her back on the man who was once the love of her life. After all, they were happily married for two years before "the incident" ripped them apart. There's just one teensy problem. Elizabeth's fiance, Austin, has no idea that she was previously married. Nor is he aware that Simon is bunking with his future bride. Elizabeth must keep the two away from each other until she is ready to come clean about her marriage and divorce. This proves exhausting in close quarters while planning a wedding. As Elizabeth and Austin prepare for their upcoming nuptials, it gets more and more difficult to hide the truth from Austin. Especially, when Elizabeth is starting to have doubts about what the truth really is.

We can probably all agree that I've got a knack for getting into situations that require a bit of intervention. Specifically, intervention from one DEA agent, Jason Collins, who has saved me more times than I would like to admit. After the last incident in the Caribbean that almost got Roger and me killed, Roger has begged me to mind my business and stay away from trouble. He's going to be furious when he finds out about the mess I'm in now.In my defense, I didn't go looking for trouble this time. This time, trouble found me-in the form of a Prada-wearing soccer mom, who is responsible for the death of another similarly clad soccer mom.Who would have thought that joining a playgroup with my "fifth child" might result in me being held at gunpoint next to boxes of half-off stuffing? Can Jason get me out of this or am I doomed to become a casualty in aisle thirteen?

Julie Hendricks is living a charmed life in the suburbs with the perfect career and the family she has always dreamt of. Enter Alex, the epitome of a tall, dark stranger. Julie is instantly drawn to her newest employee, despite the air of danger that surrounds him. Their scandalous affair has all the earmarks of a disaster, yet Julie does not realize just how devastating it might be. Alex harbors a secret that just may destroy Julie's world. Will Julie realize her mistake and repair the damage before she loses it all?

Charlie Webster had it all figured out at just sixteen years old. She was the popular girl, the cheerleader, the one with the great hair and the drool-worthy boyfriend. Smarter than your average Mean Girl, Charlie had a promising journalism internship waiting for her as well, despite only being a junior in high school. She had the life that any other girl would be jealous of. But that was all before HE showed up. He was the Quiet Boy...the boy in the back of the class, his greasy untamed locks covering his mysterious dark eyes and his origins unknown. He was the one without friends, the one all the others avoided in the halls. Not Charlie, though. Drawn to his mystery, he intrigued her. Despite her teacher and friends' insisting she avoid him as well, the Quiet Boy's friendship became a tantalizing challenge, one that she was willing to chase with no regards for consequences. Until the Quiet Boy and his secret nearly cost her everything.