The Remains of Christmas
A man, a woman, a disembodied skull… What could go wrong this holiday season?
Everything.
Traipsing through the woods, searching for a century-old skull is just another day at the office for forensics professor, Dr. Chris Carter. But this call couldn’t have come at a worse time.
He’s recently been jilted by his long-term crush. It’s days away from Christmas and he’s spending the holidays alone. It’s bone-chillingly cold, he really needs that third cup of coffee, and there’s nothing remotely interesting about this cut-and-dried case.
Until his colleague’s new assistant bounces onto the crime scene.
Daphne McKinnon is bubbly and gorgeous, with a keen intelligence and an eye for detail that makes her an excellent anthropologist. Their eyes linger too long inside the caution-taped perimeter. Her smile stretches wide as his thumb accidentally brushes hers over a dirt-encrusted orbital bone.
It’s more than flirtation. It’s magic.
When Chris and Daphne agree to transport the remains across the state to his lab, their spark ignites. Something about this woman turns the snobby, uptight, millionaire academic into a protective, feral… Daddy… who can’t say no to her. Especially not when she’s urging him to right the wrongs of Christmases past, heal their childhood wounds, and make their own new, movie-worthy holiday traditions along the way.
But while they’re making merry, every stop on their Christmas Eve road trip turns into one disaster after another, until one giant peppermint hot cocoa bomb threatens to blow their cozy new world apart, almost as soon as it began.
They’ve already started planning their lives together, but their relationship might not even survive the remains of Christmas.
This book contains depictions of the following:
- medical gore (explicit depictions of autopsies and medical events, mortuary work, and other death care procedures)
- casual alcohol use
- explicit sexual content
- explicit language
- past infidelity of minor character
family trauma
Morgue to Love
With her scalpel aimed straight at his heart, the last person Detective Waylon Wells expected to see in the morgue this morning was Soula, the woman who ghosted him after their one-night stand.
Dr. Smythe is the youngest (and for my money, the prettiest) Medical Examiner in Nashville, Tennessee, only I didn’t know it last night when she was between my legs and just Soula.
This morning, we meet again as our careers cross paths and if I wasn’t concentrating on not spilling my guts from the nasty fumes of this D.O.A., it’d be awkward as hell.
Our eyes meet over the autopsy table…
…ahem…
…cough…
…the autopsy table absolutely covered in melted, gooey human remains that are long past recognizable.
I open my mouth to speak. The name, Soula, is right there on my tongue.
Unfortunately, so is the stench—and taste–of putrescine.
When I wake up on a scratchy, tweed couch with a pounding headache, Soula’s handing me something steamy in a Dolly Parton mug. She’s just as beautiful in her light green scrubs as she was naked in my bed last night, but her expression is clear—She wants nothing more to do with me.
But I want everything to do with her.
“5 morbidly romantic stars.”
“a love letter to the death industry.”
“I LOVED everything about this book. . . . Waylon and Soula are unconventional and different and quirky and just fantastic!”
“I absolutely adore this book! Not only does this book have an amazing storyline, but it also expresses diversity in a way I do not see very often.”
Undertaking Love
Bethany knows all about the heartbreak that led George to cultivate his domineering façade, but she’s not afraid of a few scorch marks if she can build a fire hot enough to purify him.
When Bethany West swapped her lucrative modeling career for her dream job as a funeral director, she expected her eco-friendly innovations and death-positive attitude to blow the roof off the Victorian-era, Smythe Mortuary. Instead she’s only managed to piss off her bitter business partner, George Smythe, a man dead set on maintaining the status quo and driving Bethany out of his family business.
Navigating the new workplace (and co-owner) might be rough, but it just might kill her to keep pretending she doesn’t have feelings for the grump in the gray suit—a man so rigid, he probably has embalming fluid surging through his veins.
At a business conference in New Orleans, George reluctantly agrees to a truce. For four days, they’ll both call a cease-fire on their verbal artillery and present a united front (for the good of the mortuary, of course.)
But that might just spell disaster for him.
Out of town and on “vacation” for the first time after a decade of caring for the dead, George starts to feel the effects of the stress…and Bethany finally gets the chance to exhume what’s really buried beneath his ice-cold contempt for the living.
Little by little, he lets her dig.
Soon enough, he starts to recognize not only the value of her business model, but an intense and dangerous attraction to the blonde bombshell mortician.
Bethany learns the truth behind George’s past, and it’s worse than she suspected. Unless he opens up and leans on her—at the risk of succumbing to their cremation-level attraction—George will jeopardize both the business and their hearts by refusing the true partnership they both need.
“Megan Montgomery writes in such a way that is so fresh, unique, and embalmed with such emotion, that I was engaged and fascinated from first page to the last!”
“Holy cow! This story grabbed me from the beginning and I couldn't put it down.”
“This author has an incredible talent for creating honest and hilarious characters. Their love story is sweet and compelling. I was captivated by the first page. Witty and fun. A truly great read.”
“I absolutely adored this book! This book had me in its ropes from the first page, and I was hooked. I couldn’t put it down, and now that I’ve finished it, all I want is more of George and Bethany.”
This book contains depictions of the following:
- medical gore (explicit depictions of mortuary work and other death care procedures)
- mental health of major character (anxiety, compassion fatigue, career burnout)
- explicit sexual situations (including light kink play)
- morbid/gallows humor
- explicit language
- casual alcohol use
- illness of minor character
- healing family trauma
- past infidelity by minor character (healed)
The Bones of Love
Forensic anthropologist, Dr. Decca Crowley, is no stranger to death.
Between traveling across the state of Tennessee to investigate skeletal remains, responding to mass casualty events with her team, and sitting in bedside vigils as a death doula in her “time off,” she’s exhausted. She’s run herself ragged to avoid the dark shadows that lurk in her rundown, inherited home. And the even darker ones that live in her heart.
Putting in more work hours also meant putting off any hope of a love life. That part’s been easy.
Until now.
Her good friend (and not-so-secret crush) Gus, has just graduated from Greek Orthodox seminary, and in order to be ordained as a priest, he must marry—or else serve as a monk. For Gus, lifelong celibacy is a fate worse than death.
Purely out of the goodness of her heart—or so she’s convinced—the ever-practical and selfless Decca proposes a marriage-of-convenience between herself and Gus. He’s desperate for the companionship; and she could definitely use someone to talk to (other than the 200 year-old skeleton she’s piecing together on her dining room table.)
But she didn’t really think he’d say yes.
When the bride and groom finally start to admit their long-held, more-than-platonic feelings for each other, it could be the end of their cozy arrangement. There’s too much at stake to fall in love and risk their marriage.
But if they find the right framework–the bones of love–it could be their key to happiness.
The Bones of Love is an interconnected standalone in the Last Responders Romance series. Although darkly humorous, spicy, and deeply romantic, it contains serious themes centered around religion and the nature of work in deathcare.
"Gosh this book was so good—the whole series was! And I’m so sad the series is over.
I absolutely loved Gus and Decca’s story. The burn was slow, but it was so, so good."
"Everyone needs that soft place to land no matter how strong they seem, and Decca & Gus are it for each other. I loved revisiting the siblings and the ever expanding clan."
"He had me laughing and crying and hot! Megan did an amazing job, creating a world for readers to get lost in. I look forward to reading this again and again."
The Bones of Love was unputdownable and got a place on my very small list of MUST RE-READ books.
I immediately fell in love with Decca and Gus with and their story. The love between them is palpable, and the anguish each feels about not being good enough for the person they love made my heart ache. For the first time in a decade of reading romance, I had to peek at the end of the book because I couldn't bear the tension. Yes, it's THAT good!
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This book contains depictions of the following:
- Active opioid addiction (minor character)
- Explicit sexual content
- Casual alcohol use
- Explicit language
Well…That Was Awkward
Sometimes you can feel like a fish out of water. Even in your own pond.
Emerson and John meet on the boardwqalk as the moonlight dances off the Chesapeake Bay.
She thinks he’s gorgeous and comes down with a case of instalove. He thinks she’s a panhandler and gives her five dollars.
The embarrassment is enough to send the tattoo-sleeved and turpentine-stained antiques restorer Em running for a life makeover. The only problem is, she’s spent the last decade looking after everyone else in her little town and now she’s totally forgotten how to self-care.
Adding to that garbage heap of a situation is tonight’s blind date.
Of course, it turns out to be with the man who mistook her for homeless. And, of course, he’s a clean-cut Navy test pilot stationed a stone’s throw from her antiques shop. All the whiskey and chocolate in the café can’t help the awkwardness between Em and this cold, stoic, modern Mr. Darcy.
Fortunately, their tiny, tight-knit community won’t let one (or two) bad nights come between a couple everyone knows is uncannily perfect for each other.
John is the Golden Boy; the prodigal son finally returned home to the beloved island, but she’s been there all along, holding everyone together. Em and John’s chemistry creates more sparks than a jet’s afterburners, but they’re just too different. If she tries—and fails—at this relationship, she might not just lose the guy; she might lose her whole found family.
Unless she decides to trust John to help her navigate, Em might be stuck circling the runway in a loveless holding pattern.
“Montgomery’s bright brain shines like a smarty pants diamond with the wit she infuses into Emerson’s internal monologue.”
“one of the best romances i have ever read. a blooming full five stars.
kicking my feet and smiling from pure joy—that’s what this book will do to you. it’s so cute. you will laugh out loud, guaranteed. this is the perfect “chick flick” in book form, and i haven’t read a rom-com like it that produces such strong doses of serotonin.”
“I love, love, LOVED this one! Everything about it -- the small town cast of characters, the east coast setting, the unique heroine, the meet-disaster got me and more than a week later I'm still thinking about it.”
“Loved, loved, LOVED Em & John’s story. It was funny, sweet, and sexy at once.”
An Award-Winning Wordsmith
MEET MEGAN MONTGOMERY
Crafting steamy, character-driven romance with a dash of dark charm.
Megan Montgomery is a multi-award winning author of steamy, smart, character-driven romance.
Her debut novel, WELL…THAT WAS AWKWARD, described as “a big, juicy bit of Chesapeake Bay culture,” was inspired by her homesickness for southern Maryland. She now lives among the cornfields of Illinois with her family–but don’t ever mistake her for a Midwesterner. A goth at heart since age 12, she loves the color black, Mozart’s Requiem, and the history of death and burial rites.
When she’s not writing, reading, or cooking dinners her son won’t eat, you’ll find her volunteering at the library or the medicinal herb garden, or cackling over a cauldron during a full moon.
Her books have received the B.R.A.G. Medallion, Best Indie Book Award for romance, the Indie Reader Discovery Award for chick lit, the Rudy Award for contemporary romance, and were finalists in the Page Turner Book and Screenplay Awards, but she’s most thrilled when she makes personal connections with readers.
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Reach out to Megan for inquiries, collaborations, or just to say hello.