Name: The Best Little Motel in Texas with Lyla Lane and Meryl Wilsner
Start: 2026-03-04T18:30:00-05:00
Location: Schuler Books (Grand Rapids)

The Best Little Motel in Texas with Lyla Lane and Meryl Wilsner

“Check in” for an evening of fun with author Lyla Lane! Lyla will be celebrating the release of her newest book, The Best Little Motel in Texas, which is perfect for murder mystery lovers.
Lyla will be in conversation with author Meryl Wilsner.
We love seeing who is planning to join us! Your RSVP helps us prepare to host you. You can RSVP here: https://events.humanitix.com/lyla-lane-sbgr
About the Book:
A charming, edgy mystery about a young woman who unexpectedly inherits the best little motel in Texas – replete with a feisty set of golden working girls, a poisoned priest, and a sleepy hometown thrown into chaos.
After a childhood spent combing the dive bars of Sarsaparilla Falls to collect her fun-loving momma, Cordelia West now enjoys a simple, respectable life in Dallas. Then one phone call from the hometown she’s spent years trying to forget throws it into chaos.
Cordelia's great-aunt Penelope has passed away, naming Cordelia the sole heir to the Chickadee Motel. She has no memory of a great-aunt and no interest in hospitality, but the will stipulates that the motel can’t be sold until its residents leave or pass away – so she reluctantly heads back down to Sarsaparilla Falls to figure out who's living in the Chickadee, and how to get them out.
But upon her arrival, Cordelia discovers the Chickadee isn’t a motel—it’s a brothel, housing three women in their sixties known as the Chicks. For decades, Daisy, Arline, and Belinda Sue have entertained the men of Sarsaparilla Falls (with their wives’ blessings)—including the upright Pastor Reed-Smythe, who thunders against the town’s favorite sins when he’s not indulging. Cordelia doesn’t want to be a hotel manager or a madam, but she can’t just sell the only home the Chicks have known—especially not after the pastor is found poisoned in Daisy’s bed.
With the Chicks—and the town—on the verge of a breakdown, Cordelia steps up to mop up the mess. For a small town, there are plenty of suspects: could it be the obsessed nurse with access to arsenic? Developers eager to gobble up the land? The righteously angry town librarian? Things are heating up in Sarsaparilla Falls, and with the Pastor’s obnoxiously attractive son Archer—Cordelia’s childhood nemesis—investigating the Chicks and getting close, straightlaced Cordelia may just have to get a little dirty to make a killer come clean.
About the Author:
Lyla Lane is a pen name for Sonia Hartl, author of the romcoms Rent to Be and Heartbreak for Hire, which has been optioned for television, as well as the YA novels Not Your #Lovestory, Have a Little Faith in Me, and The Lost Girls, also optioned for television. She lives in Grand Rapids with her husband and two daughters.
About the Conversation Partner:
Meryl Wilsner is a bestselling author of contemporary romances featuring queer folks who love women. Whether high-heat or slow burn, their books always have a happily ever after. Some of Meryl’s favorite things include: all four seasons, Hawaiian shirts, the way giraffes run, and their wife.