Best of
Contemporary-Romance

2000

Irish trilogy collection


Nora Roberts - 2000
    Tears of the Moon (Melissa Coates, engineer) A talented songwriter, Shawn Gallagher spends his days lost in reverie and wonder, oblivious to the wiles of women and the ways of the world. He claims that he's content with his life, but his music tells a different story - one of loneliness and desperate longing... Heart of the Sea (Jill Sovis, engineer) Darcy Gallagher has always believed in the pull of fate, the magic of legend . . . and the importance of money. She longs to find a rich man who will sweep her away - into a world filled with glamour and adventure, and the exotic life that is her destiny.

The Rancher's Mail-Order Bride


Mindy Neff - 2000
    The old matchmakers had gone too far this time and now it was up to Wyatt to tell Hannah Richmond and her adorable son that they’d been had by four well-meaning old cowpokes. Except that when Hannah looked at him like he was the best thing since sliced bread and made him feel like a complete man, Wyatt began to think that maybe the old fellas were right — and that could be dangerous for the whole town!

All the Way from Texas


Carolyn Brown - 2000
    So, who else would their professor pick but these two young, adventurous graduate students to go on a journalism excursion?But newly engaged Molly has reservations about the trip. Of all the people in the class, Carson, with his movie star good looks and ego the size of Texas, is not her first choice to spend two weeks alone with.On they way up through America's heartland to Niagara Falls and back to Texas they travel on a journey that becomes more enjoyable with each passing mile. They learn to work together as a team--complementing each other's natural skills and creativity. Somewhere along the way, amidst beautiful scenery and quiet country roads, they learn to listen to their hearts, to trust each other and fall in love.

The Yard Rose


Carolyn Brown - 2000
    A part of her heart went to Galveston with him just after the second grade when he left southern Oklahoma.Twenty years later he returns home for his grandmother’s funeral. He decides to stay in Terral, a little southern Oklahoma town right on the Red River and the Chisholm Trail, to research a new line of restaurants to be located as close to the Trail as possible.During his stay he moves the WM Corporation travel trailer right on the property next to Glory’s land - and the struggle begins. She wants his land to enlarge her property. He wants her land to make a parking lot for his new restaurant. When he tries to cut down the beautiful row of rose bushes separating their property, the battle begins.They both realize they’ve fallen desperately in love yet they’re not sure if they can trust each other. It takes a lot of courage, some reassurance and many roses to confirm their love.

The Long Way Home


Staci Stallings - 2000
    Yet he cannot stop thinking about the stubborn young woman and her struggle to keep her own family farm by turning it into a bed and breakfast. Each time he tries to draw closer to her, he makes the situation worse until a series of crises throws Jaxton and Ami together in unexpected ways. THE LONG WAY HOME is an adventure of love and reconciliation. Touching on themes of faith, family, and fortunes, it asks the characters and the reader "Who are you, and where do you want to be when you're eighty?" "Staci Stallings writes from a deep knowledge and love of the Flint Hills, and with a compassionate understanding of everyday people caught up in family and life struggles. Her characters and their story will reside in your heart long after you have finished the last chapter of THE LONG WAY HOME."

Deep in the Valley


Robyn Carr - 2000
    Unlocked doors, front porches, pies cooling in the windows---this is country life at its finest. But visitors don't always see what lies at the heart of a community. Or just beyond...June Hudson grew up in Grace Valley, the daughter of the town doctor. Leaving only to get her medical training, she returned home and followed in her father's footsteps. Some might say she chose the easy, comfortable route...but June knows better.For June, her emergency room is wherever she's needed---or wherever a patient finds her. Always on call, her work is her life, these people her extended family. Which is a good thing, since this is a town where you should have picked your husband in the ninth grade. Grace Valley is not exactly the place to meet eligible men---until an undercover DEA agent suddenly starts appearing at all sorts of strange hours.Everybody has secrets down in the valley. Now June has one of her own.

Midnight Sons, Volume 3: The Last Two Bachelors: Falling for Him/Ending in Marriage


Debbie Macomber - 2000
    "The Last Two Bachelors" features Falling For Him and Ending In Marriage.

Christmas At Ardmore / The Quinns Christmas / Excerpts From The Villa


Nora Roberts - 2000
    It contained 2 short Christmas stories featuring characters from the Chesapeake Bay Saga and the Gallaghers of Ardmore trilogy.Due to the short length and the fact that the book is very hard to find, the stories are available on Roberts's website.Christmas in ArdmoreThe Quinn's Christmas

If I Belong With You


Cynthia Rutledge - 2000
    Passing as a student is easy but keeping her feelings for her history teacher, Jake Weston, under control is a whole different story. She doesn’t believe he’s involved in trafficking drugs but until she can rule him out, she’ll keep her eye on him.A devoted coach and teacher, Jake is struggling to accept his brother’s tragic death. When Angel walks into his classroom, he senses something different about her. He quickly discovers she isn’t a student at all! But why is she at his school? Could she be part of the drug ring that police have been trying to bust for months?Staying close seems the best option and the most dangerous, at least where his heart is concerned.Note: This book was originally published as Undercover Angel (as noted on the copyright page). It has been completely updated for your reading pleasure

Mr. Perfect


Linda Howard - 2000
    Perfect. Would he be tall, dark, and handsome? Caring and warmhearted -- or will just muscular do? As their conversation heats up, they concoct a tongue-in-cheek checklist that becomes an overnight sensation, spreading like wildfire at work and sizzling along e-mail lines. But what began as a joke among friends turns deadly serious when one of the four women is murdered....Turning to her neighbor, an unpredictable police detective, for help, Jaine must unmask a killer to save her friends -- and herself. Now, knowing whom to trust and whom to love is a matter of survival -- as the dream of Mr. Perfect becomes a chilling nightmare.

Almost Home


Barbara Freethy - 2000
    With his well-worn jeans and slow, seductive smile, he was nothing but a cowboy on the wrong side of the Mississippi - a diversion in her heartfelt quest to discover the father she never knew. Zach has a gentle hand with horses and a seductive touch with women ... and when he takes Katherine in his arms, he unleashes the passion simmering just below her cool exterior. Yes, her probing questions and tantalizing ways could cause nothing but trouble - but sometimes a man needs a little trouble ....

The Unsung Hero


Suzanne Brockmann - 2000
    When he calls for help, the navy dismisses the danger as injury-induced imaginings. In a desperate, last-ditch effort to prevent disaster, Tom creates his own makeshift counterterrorist team, assembling his most loyal officers, two elderly war veterans, a couple of misfit teenagers, and Dr. Kelly Ashton-the sweet "girl next door" who has grown into a remarkable woman. The town's infamous bad boy, Tom has always longed for Kelly. Now he has one final chance for happiness, one last chance to win her heart, and one desperate chance to save the day . . .From the Paperback edition.

In the Midnight Rain


Barbara Samuel - 2000
    Her latest project, though, promises to be her most challenging--and personal. Not only is she researching the life of a blues singer who disappeared mysteriously forty years ago, but Ellie is also trying to find the truth about the parents she never knew. The love child of a restless woman who died young and an anonymous father, Ellie has little to go on but a faded postcard her mother sent from a small East Texas town--the hometown of her latest subject.Could Mean Finding Her FutureIt is there that Ellie meets Blue Reynard, a man with deep roots and wide connections who may help her find answers. With a piercing gaze and cool grin, Blue is as sultry and seductive as the Southern night air. Beneath his charming surface, however, lies a soul damaged by loss. Despite her better judgment, Ellie finds herself irresistibly drawn to Blue's passion--and his pain. But Ellie's been lured by sweet talk and hot kisses before. How can she possibly stay with blue when every instinct tells her to run?

The Cowboy


Joan Johnston - 2000
    Here, Johnston brings to life a breathtaking love story - between the Blackthornes' oldest son and the Creeds' beautiful daughter - a magnificent novel of passion, vengeance, and star-crossed love.Trace Blackthorne was taught from the cradle to take what he wanted. And he wanted Callie Creed. Eleven years ago, the feud between their families had torn them apart. But now Trace has come home, a ruthless hard-eyed stranger, making her an offer she couldn't refuse: marry him and save her struggling family from financial ruin. But the secrets of the past return to haunt them. And Callie is once again compelled to make an impossible choice - between the family who desperately needs her and the only man she has ever loved.

Heartbreaker


Julie Garwood - 2000
    In a frantic race to protect her, Tom calls upon his best friend, elite FBI agent Nick Buchanan, to track the predator who is closing in on Laurant. Now, as an electrifying attraction grows between Laurant and Nick, so does the danger -- and one false move will cost both of them everything that matters. Let New York Times bestselling author Julie Garwood take you on a thrilling excursion into the soaring heights -- and the darkest impulses -- of the human heart.

One Good Man


Julie Miller - 2000
    But he knew society girl Casey Maynard was trouble, and protecting her would be hell. Twenty years on the force had toned Mitch s body and honed his senses keeping Casey safe from her stalker wasn t the issue. Keeping himself from falling for her was. She d been alone, scared for so long. But in Mitch s arms Casey felt things she thought she d lost forever: safety, trust...passion. She needed him there as a cop, to serve and protect. But she wanted him there as a man, to give her something worth living for....

Say Yes / The Cinderella Solution


Lori Foster - 2000
    but she would if he wouldn'tSara Simmons had decided that, for her, marriage and happily ever after wasn't meant to be. Still, she wasn't averse to having a fling with sexy Gavin Blake. But Gavin wanted more, and his new motto was "Why buy the bull if you can get the beef free?" It was driving Sara crazy, trying to keep her hands off him while he played virgin to her Don Juan...."The Cinderella Solution" / Cathy YardleyThe woman of his dreams was right under his nose...When Charlotte Taylor's best friend, Gabe Donofrio, agreed with her that she wasn't the type of woman men fall in love with, she bet him a thousand dollars she'd have a marriage proposal in three months. Then she turned her tomboy self into a sexy siren, The World's Most Eligible Bachelor moved in next door... and Gabe realized he'd made a big mistake!

Family Men


Debbie Macomber - 2000
    In Daddy's Little Helper, a little girl sets her dad up with her new teacher, and in Because of the Baby, a man schemes to get his ex-wife back.

Daddy, M.D.


Jacqueline Diamond - 2000
     Five-year-old Spike has a sure-fire cure for any illness: ice cream. He’s also picked out the cure for being fatherless: fun-loving pediatrician Chad Markham, who just moved in next door. But Spike’s serious-minded Aunt Jill, who’s adopting her orphaned nephew, sees heartbreak ahead. Unable to bear children after a disastrous pregnancy that destroyed her first marriage, Jill can’t help liking the handsome doctor. But she’ll never be able to give him kids of his own, and she’s also learned how easily good times can crash and burn, especially when the guy isn’t the settling-down type. The last thing her little boy needs is another loss in his life. The approach of Christmas brings other challenges, too. At Jill’s job as assistant marketing director for a mall, she’s juggling too many Santas. At home, she’s coping with a pair of yard-destroying dogs that Chad is housing for a friend. Then another relative, on learning that Spike has a large inheritance, decides to make a self-serving bid for parenthood. With troubles floating down like snowflakes, Jill needs a real-life Santa Claus. If only Daddy, M.D., proves up to the task! Written by the award-winning author of 100 published novels.

Spotlight


Carole Bellacera - 2000
    Wounded in the arm himself, Devin vows revenge on his British opressors - and steps into a cycle of violence that will leave him with a shattered family and an empty heart.Eighteen years later, Devin has become an earnest rock-n-roller who uses his songs to relate the horrors he's seen to an international audience of millions. His American tour photographer, Fonda Blayne, is falling in love with him - but she has no idea that his brooding silences may be rooted in a very real danger. Devin hopes that he's left the violence of his homeland in the past - but some very powerful and deadly forces are hoping to take advantage of his life in the spotlight...

New and... Improved? / Andrew in Excess (Harlequin Duets, #28)


Jill Shalvis - 2000
    A little mousy, maybe, but a sweet friend and a darn good chemist. So why did she have to go and wreck it all by having a makeover? Now she looked like some sexy siren out of a lingerie catalog, and when it came to chemistry...there was only one kind on Kent's mind! ANDREW IN EXCESS She's got the baby blues... Teacher Kat Devereaux was free spirited, unorthodox...and had a little problem with excess. And right now, her biological clock was ticking excessively loudly. What she needed was a temporary husband--one she couldn't possibly fall for. Andrew Winthrop III was stuffy, conservative and needed a wife. A marriage of convenience would solve both their problems. Only, neither one anticipated enjoying their mock marriage so excessively....

The Brands Who Came For Christmas


Maggie Shayne - 2000
     When he learns the truth, Caleb rushes back to Big Falls, determined to make it right despite what the scandal will do to his high profile career–the family legacy he had never truly wanted. All he wants is Maya, and their child. But can a girl whose father abandoned and betrayed her, ever truly believe in the goodness of a man who left town the morning after their one night stand? How can he convince her that he hasn’t stopped thinking about her since then, much less, do so with the whole world watching? He has to prove himself to a woman he’s not even sure he’s worthy of. But he has no idea how. The Oklahoma All-Girl Brands is a six-book, small town, contemporary romance series with shades of HOPE FLOATS and YOU’VE GOT MAIL. Spin off of the bestselling Texas Brand Series.

Circle of Gold


Diana Palmer - 2000
    Yet never in her wildest dreams did the innocent young woman imagine that her formidable new boss would sweep her off her feet with his potent charm. Before long, she was in love so deeply that it made her heart ache. But how did he feel? The enigmatic rancher was so difficult to read. Still, she couldn't imagine spending her days --- or nights --- with anyone else but Gil. Could Kasie convince the hard-edged widower that a circle of gold ... belonged on her finger?