Showing results by author "L.L. Kirchner" in All Categories

St. Petersburg, Florida, 1944. Thelma Miles can’t stand injustice. Broke and orphaned near the close of WWII, when the 18-year-old lands a coveted spot on the Florida Girls war bond tour, she believes she's escaped her criminal past. Until she discovers she's stepped into the mafia's lair.

In 1940s Tampa, a beauty contest becomes a deadly game of survival when three extraordinary women infiltrate the criminal underworld that threatens to destroy them. After setting off on a war bond tour, Thelma Miles and her fellow contestants discover the mob's grip runs deeper than they imagined. These unlikely allies realize their real strength isn't in their looks, but in their cunning, determination, and unbreakable bond as they outmaneuver the dangerous men who underestimate them.

Havana, 1950. Thelma Miles has carved out a precarious independence running a Havana nightclub and raising her niece when she learns her reporter friend's car has gone over the cliffs off the Pacific Coast Highway. The woman had been on the verge of publishing a groundbreaking exposé. Only Thelma knows the deadly secrets she took with her—secrets powerful men would kill to keep buried.

From addiction recovery to divorce, yoga studios to psychic readings, this raw and inspiring memoir follows one woman's quest for inner peace across three continents. When her marriage crumbles, former wellness instructor Kirchner faces her deepest fears: relapse, family trauma, and losing faith in life itself. Her journey through meditation retreats, Manhattan spirituality, and an unexpected encounter with an Indian guru challenges everything she thought she knew about healing.

Las Vegas, 1945. Reeling from her husband’s death, Thelma Miles sets out to tear down a mafia empire. As federal agents circle, rival gangs plot, and her father’s empire grows more powerful by the day, Thelma masterminds an elaborate ruse. To pull off the con, she assembles an unlikely crew: a Hollywood starlet who is more than she appears; a relentless reporter on a crusade to root out corruption, and her former boss who may or may not be undermining the whole operation.