Don’t worry, I am not abandoning my current series and starting over with something else! I am talking about books with characters who are starting over or starting a new venture. Many books begin with a character setting out on a new adventure, from cozy mysteries to coming of age young adult literature. Here are some of my books that feature a character who leaves behind her old life to start on something new.
Gluten-Free Murder
Erin Price moves to Bald Eagle Falls, a place where everyone knows everyone as well as everyone else’s business, taking over the store left to her by her aunt to start up a gluten-free bakery. The grand opening is marred by just one thing, the death of her business rival, Angela Plaint. It appears that Angela was poisoned by one of Erin’s cupcakes, making her a prime suspect.
Equipped with cupcakes, her desire for the truth, and new bakery assistant Vicky’s help, Erin goes head-to-head against Detective Terry Piper to solve the murder. Rumors of treasure hunting, drug dealing, and a missing boy swirl around Bald Eagle Falls as Erin tries to sort the clues from the red herrings and find the killer before the killer can take care of her.
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ P.D. Workman has done it again! This introduction to a new series involves a fresh start, sympathetic characters, and a murder. I spent the last ten minutes of the book standing up to read because I was off to do something but just couldn’t put it down until I got to the end. I haven’t been that invested in a book in a while.
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Couldn’t put it down !! From a cute kitten to a police dog to a bakery for people with allergies ! Highly recommend!
EBOOK PAPERBACK LARGE PRINT RETAILERS
READ SAMPLE BOOKBUB BINGEBOOKS GOODREADS
Download Bonus!
RECIPES
Make it a bundle:
BOOKS 1-3 BOOKS 1-21
What the Cat Knew
Reg Rawlins, professional con, has really gotten herself into a bind this time.
The fortune teller gig started as a scam, but she suddenly finds herself tangled up in the case of Warren Blake, a man who she thought was dead. It turns out he may still be alive, but in mortal peril.
Reg has always taken the quick exit, the easy way out, but running out on this racket might mean someone else’s death.
Staying in it might mean hers.
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ It sounds like a fairly gentle story, but there is a lot of suspense involved. Add a bunch of humor to the mix and you are in for a treat … This is a story that you don’t want to put down.
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ This book has all my favourite things: heart, great writing, nearly-flawless editing, something unusual in the air, and a cat.
Like paranormal mysteries? Psychics, witches, fairies, and more! Award-winning and USA Today Bestselling Author P.D. Workman waves her wand to transport readers to the myth- and magic-filled small town of Black Sands for a paranormal cozy mystery to be solved by Reg Rawlins and her friends.
A self-professed con artist practicing as a contact to the dead, a drop-dead gorgeous warlock, and a psychic cat—what could go wrong?
Fall under Reg’s spell today.
EBOOK PAPERBACK LARGE PRINT RETAILERS
READ SAMPLE BOOKBUB BINGEBOOKS GOODREADS
Make it a bundle:
BOOKS 1-3 BOOKS 1-21
Out With the Sunset
There’s nothing like jumping straight into the deep end.
Margie Patenaude is new in town and wasn’t expecting to get called to a murder scene on her daughter’s first day of school.
It’s an ugly murder in a beautiful setting. How can Calgary’s park-goers feel safe with a murderer still on the streets—or pathways? Margie and the team are on the case while at the same time she and her daughter try to acclimatize to the new city.
If she wants her coworkers to believe that she’s not just a ‘diversity hire,’ she needs to show them what she’s made of and track this killer down.
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ This promises to be a wonderful series with fantastic characters, interesting locations, and fascinating glimpses into different cultures. The story is of novella length and can easily be read in one sitting if so desired, there is no offensive language, no sex, no graphic violence – just a whopping good story everyone can enjoy.
—txdoc
Looking for a police procedural set in picturesque Canada? Let Award-winning and Bestselling Author P.D. Workman take you her favourite Calgary parks, as Métis detective Margie Patenaude investigates a murder in this fast-paced new series.
These short mysteries are just right for those days when you could use a break from your busy life. Take a walk in a Calgary park with Parks Pat.
Lose yourself in a new mystery today!
EBOOK PAPERBACK LARGE PRINT RETAILERS
READ SAMPLE BOOKBUB BINGEBOOKS GOODREADS
Make it a bundle:
BOOKS 1-3
Questing for a Dream – Indigenous YA Novel About Identity
A powerful and emotional story of a Native teen’s search for meaning.
Nadie Laplante faces poverty, prejudice, and loss, but she refuses to give up. When tragedy strikes, she embarks on a journey to find her place in the world.
“P.D. Workman’s skilled narrative of Nadie and her poignant journey to wholeness is a thoughtful expose of shattered dreams and tragic youth sure to resonate with every reader.”
“An inspiring book which can encourage the reader to face the challenges in life’s journey and to accept the lessons that come as a result.”
Making Her Mark – YA Drama About Family Secrets
Secrets and lies change everything for Kelli.
Strong and independent, Kelli’s life turns upside down when she discovers the truth her mother has hidden for years. Will it lead to happiness, or heartbreak?
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️One of the best books I’ve read in a long time!
EBOOK PAPERBACK RETAILERS READ SAMPLE
Tattooed Teardrops – YA Crime Fiction About Life After Juvie
Winner of Top Fiction Award, In the Margins Committee, 2016.
Fresh out of juvie, Tamara wants to stay out of trouble—but life seems determined to pull her back in. If she can’t prove her innocence, she’ll lose her freedom all over again.
Readers will appreciate the realistic details about Tamara’s release, her issues dealing with a foster family, her emotional triggers, and the challenges facing someone trying to maintain the conditions of parole. For those teens who love books where all that can go wrong does go wrong (isn’t that almost all of them?), this is a winner.
– School Library Journal
EBOOK PAPERBACK RETAILERS SAMPLE
And a few more—in some of these, the protagonist is forced to start over, rather than choosing it:
More new beginnings
Looking for some more? Check out these other authors.
Every Trick in the Book
Turning over a new leaf doesn’t always go according to plan…
When Jemma James takes a job at Burns Books, the second-worst secondhand bookshop in London, she finds her ambition to turn it around thwarted at every step. Raphael, the owner, is more interested in his newspaper than sales. Folio the bookshop cat has it in for Jemma, and the shop itself appears to have a mind of its own. Or is it more than that?
Gradually Jemma starts to make a difference … and then the anonymous letters start arriving. Who is behind them, and why?
As the threats escalate, and the shop becomes increasingly turbulent, Jemma and Raphael must work together to find the culprit. And what else will Jemma find in her investigations?
Planting Pearls
Free first in series
A new name and a new home.
A scary ex-husband …
And a ghost.
When Selkie Moon escapes her controlling husband to start a new life in Hawaii, she’s under pressure to support herself, while keeping hidden from her ex.
But when she encounters a so-called haunting, Selkie delves into the mystery surrounding an old Honolulu house.
Are there dark forces at work and is a child in danger?
Or is something else going on?
As Selkie gets caught up in something that’s way beyond her skillset, the disturbing events not only hint at secrets buried in her own past, but she unwittingly makes herself a target for the man she’s fleeing from.
Will her mad dash for freedom end in disaster?
Or can she discover the inner strength needed to win?
Lethal Assumptions
Judith Anderson’s no-nonsense attitude and confidence served her well in her climb to homicide lieutenant in the Baltimore County PD, but that confidence is shaken when she finds herself one step behind a serial killer—just eight days into her new job as Chief of Police in a small Florida city.
The first victim, a female college student, may be a case of wrong place, wrong time. But the bodies keep coming, with a mishmash of MOs, and the murders may be linked to various cases in nearby Jacksonville.
While Judith assumed the CoP job would be challenging, she’s finding it harder than she imagined to establish her authority without alienating and be more hands-on without micro-managing. Plus, evidence is stacking up that there’s a leak in her department.
Who can she trust? If she makes the wrong assumption, the wrong decision, it may be her last. In a race to save lives, she’ll draw on every talent and instinct that made her a star in Baltimore. But will it be enough this time?
Don’t Look Behind You
The truth is a deadly blade that cuts deep.
Megan Pritchard aches to find safety and security when she starts fresh in a new town. Yet the habits of a chilling past are hard to break.
Keep her head down.
Never tell them who she is.
When someone asks about her scar… lie.
For a brief flicker of time, she thought she was safe. That she could find ways to fit into that small town with secrets of its own. Then… the prickle down her spine returns.
Someone is watching and waiting—just like before. But this time they won’t settle for shallow cuts. Knives, and secrets, will be buried deep.
Stop My Bleeding Heart
When I was five, my mother died.
When I was seventeen, my father was murdered.
I try to heal and count down the days to escape from my evil stepmother.
Little do I know, she’s also counting down.
On my eighteenth birthday, I find myself orphaned, homeless, and broken-hearted. The only place I can seek shelter is in a home with seven guys.
I’m living in an all new world, making new friends, and unraveling the mysteries of the boys surrounding me.
Can I unravel my own mystery and finally heal from my father’s death, perhaps with a prince charming to stop my bleeding heart?
Stop My Bleeding Heart is a contemporary coming-of-age tale loosely based on Snow White.
Selfish
When is being selfish the right thing to do?
A child wanders the courthouse hallways alone. She won’t speak. Or, can’t speak.
Anna agrees to foster the abandoned girl.
But danger lurks in Anna’s past. Just when she thinks that all her striving has finally brought her the life she sought, the past launches itself at her and those she’s come to love. Yet other forces are after the child.
With lives and freedom on the line, can Anna shake the bonds on the past, and stand up for those who mean the world to her?
