But on the night that I finally plucked up courage to ask him back to my room, he turned me down. Okay, he didn't just turn me down; he crushed my very soul. That was a month ago, and now, at Christmastime, I’m traveling with my family to the Arctic Circle to celebrate Noah’s wedding. Because Stefan and I are the only two singletons left, I just know we’re going to end up sitting together on the plane and in restaurants. I can’t bear to be near him. It hurts too much. And then he tells me he has feelings for me. He says he can’t date me, but refuses to reveal why. He wants me; the heat in his eyes convinces me of that. But what can I possibly do about it in sub-zero temperatures? “That’s it,” Clio says. “We’re commencing Operation Polar Fling.” According to Clio, all men can be seduced. I guess we’re about to find out if she's right.

    Though she has big plans for her new home, none of them involves falling in love — least of all with Fabien Coste, the handsome but arrogant owner of the nearby château. As romance blossoms in the beautiful Provençal countryside, disturbing events at the farmhouse hint at a dark mystery — a destructive, centuries-old attachment between the ladies of Bellefontaine and the ducs de Coste. As Amy struggles to unravel the mystery, she begins to wonder if it may not just be her heart at risk, but her life too.

    Sure, she loves fostering shelter dogs, but she never imagined herself as a mother. Anxious to be an aunt, her sister starts pressuring her to be someone she’s not. Her new friend wants her to stay fun and unencumbered. When Hope’s ex says he wants back in her life, she feels like it might be what’s best for her baby. Pulling away from her sister, Hope spends more time with her new friend and risks letting her ex break her heart all over again.

    As mayor of Eden Falls, a business owner, and the mother of six-year-old Charlie, she doesn’t have time to coddle a self-absorbed author, who’s only in town for the summer.Best-selling author Colton McCreed is in Eden Falls to study small town life for his next murder mystery. As his research draws him into the community, he becomes entwined with the mayor and her cheerful son. Colton’s unhappy childhood left him believing he’s immune to love, but Alex and Charlie have a pull on him he’s never felt before.Impromptu dinner invitations throw Colton and Alex into a world of discovery, shattering her image of Mr. Right and his belief that love is out of reach.If you like clean romance, quirky characters, and a quaint town you won’t want to leave, you'll love Finding Eden.Other Books in the Eden Falls SeriesBeyond EdenA Taste of EdenThe Angel of Eden FallsTouches of EdenStars Over Eden FallsFortunes for EdenSnow and Mistletoe in Eden Falls

    Ana Lund never knew how true this was until she went away to college. Now, back for winter break just after her first semester away, Ana desperately wants to stay home, but doesn’t know how to tell her parents. Then one day an old friend is in need of a last-minute babysitter, and Ana volunteers.Divorced at twenty-one with a three year old son, Caleb understands Ana’s fear of disappointing her parents, but he also knows that the sooner she talks to them, the better. With his encouragement she’s able to talk to her parents about what she wants, and as she settles back into her life on the island, she and Caleb start to grow closer. Both of them homebodies, they share the same desire for a quiet, uncomplicated life filled with family and friends. But after his disastrous relationship with his ex-wife ended in bitter divorce, Caleb is in no hurry to repeat past mistakes. In the end is love enough? Or are some things just meant to be repeated?

    Women that want true love. True heroes that never say die! The Found Warrior When Blaine Hammerton, Navy SEAL, is notified that his father died of a heart attack, he finds himself in Brooklyn, shaking hands with people he's never met and accepting a random key from one of his father's friends. As he finds himself lost in a mental fog on the streets of Manhattan, he never expects to walk into an art gallery, and he really never expects to discover a beautiful woman...having a breakdown. Breakdown? Elena Gates doesn't have breakdowns! Just because she threw a bottle of water at her prize canvas doesn't mean she was coming apart. The know-it-all man in uniform has no right to be in her gallery! Giving him a piece of her mind will be her pleasure ... until she discovers his father recently passed. The sadness in his ice blue eyes leads her to do something she's never even considered before--ask a man over for pancakes at midnight.When the call comes and it's time for Blaine to get back to being a real life hero, Elena has to make a choice--wait for him or risk losing her heart once and for all. The Dream Groom Scar Walker, professional football player and ex Navy Seal, only wanted to focus on getting his gym built for military vets while he was in San Diego. He didn’t want to take crap from his brother, he didn’t want to deal with a lippy waitress, and he really didn’t want random people calling him on the phone.Shayla Castle came to San Diego to finally live out her childhood dream. When she accidentally calls the mysterious phone number left on her table while waitressing, she never anticipated it would be the handsome jerkface soldier who chewed her out that morning. It confuses her even more when the same jerkface shows up the next night and saves her from an attacker.She never would have imagined she and soldier boy would start talking every night and she really never imagined he would convince her to let him do her bucket list together. After a hike at Torrey Pines, a helicopter ride, and surfing at Oceanside…she finds she just might be falling for this soldier boy.When things get heated, she’s left with a choice—let go of the past or lose a new dream she was just starting to discover. The Broken Warrior Zane Kent, ex Navy SEAL and Thor look-alike, takes pride in keeping calm in stressful situations while being part of a ‘special teams’ vigilante group. But when he walks into a mission blind and discovers the woman who broke his heart 7 years ago is the target, the lines become fuzzy and his pride flies out the window.Sarah Hamilton moved to San Diego to start a new life with her son and start a matchmaking business. She is shocked when Zane Kent shows up at a client meeting and down-right stunned when she finds herself asking for his protection. But it’s fine because their relationship is professional now. Too bad he kisses her. Good thing she slaps him.After Zane insists on moving into her home, following her everywhere, easily bonds with her son over lightsabers, her old attraction to Zane begins to surface.

    My non-profit has been wildly successful with the kids, but now I'm forty mentors short for the Christmas season. It didn't look like we would be able to find enough help, until Jim Adelson got involved. He may have solved my mentor problem, but he's created another: I can't concentrate with this panty melting God around. Jim: The community has been good to me. I'd built my successful security business with hard work and determination, and when I got approached to help Kate Monroe's non-profit, it seemed a fitting way to give back. I'd offer to spend time with some kids, but it’s Kate that I find myself wanting to spend time with. With beauty obvious to everyone, and a compassionate heart she wears on her sleeve, she has me reevaluating my priorities. When the children's Christmas gifts go missing, Jim and Kate are forced together in the hunt. Can true love fight through the drama to find a happy ending? Gifted is the first book in the holiday series Clear Security Holidays. This is a standalone holiday romance suspense novel, but characters from the Venture Capital series and from Tech Billionaires can be known to make appearances.

    Tressa is determined to prove there's more to this cockeyed cowgirl than meets the eye and she’s just been handed the perfect opportunity to get "Ranger Rick" and a skeptical citizenry to finally take her seriously. How? By solving a murder no one else believes happened...No one, that is, except the killer. CALAMITY JAYNE RIDES AGAINTressa’s off to the State Fair to work at her Uncle Frank’s ice cream concession stand. But when a soft-serve saboteur appears at the same time her cousin, Frankie, goes missing, it's another fine, sticky mess she's gotten herself into. With a string of malicious pranks, to scary, psycho dunk-tank clowns, two geriatric Jessica Fletcher wannabes, a dishy state trooper, and a sister who may have her eye on a certain ranger-type, and it's mayhem on the midway time. GHOULS JUST WANT TO HAVE FUNTressa thinks she on to a scoop when eccentric and reclusive bestselling writer, Elizabeth Courtney Howard comes to Grandville to finish her latest book. So, what's stopping Tressa from scoring this journalistic coup? Only the fact that the skeletons to uncover in this little exposé are all in a closet in Haunted Holloway Hall--a house only Norman Bates could love.CALAMITY JAYNE GOES TO COLLEGEAce cub reporter Tressa Jayne Turner is back in college and nothing’s going to stop Tressa from making the grade. Well, except for a wrinkled roommate rekindling an old flame, maid of honor madness run amok, a botched betrothal that’s more than just schoolyard gossip and a campus criminal out to teach the student body a lesson—one one crime at a time. Failure is so not an option.CALAMITY JAYNE HEADS WESTTressa Jayne Turner’s off to Arizona to see her gammy hitched. Her cousin’s keeping secrets, Ranger Rick Townsend is sending signals—more of the smokin’ than smoke variety—and it seems Tressa’s not the only person with an attachment to “Kookamunga”, the fertility figurine she picked up at a roadside stand. Throw in a washed-up actress out to kick-start her career, a suspect spiritual advisor, locals with a cause, and a ten-year-old who’s a chip off a certain ranger’s blockhead and it’ll be a vision quest to make Thelma and Louise’s southwestern spree seem like amateur night at the OK Corral. May the best spirit guide win.ANCHORS AWEIGHTressa Jayne is off on a post-wedding cruise. Good food. Warm beaches. Romantic sunsets. Nothing can take the wind out of Tressa’s sails this time. Nothing that is except this particular Love Boat has Iceberg ahead! written all over it. Why? It’s a lo-cal “biggest loser” cruise, Tressa’s bad-boy faux fiancé and his marriage-minded aunt Mo are stowaways, and Tressa’s barely got her sea les before a dastardly murder plot bobs to the surface and Tressa Jayne knows just how Capt. Jack Sparrow feels when the rum is gone. Yo ho ho and a bottle of V-8!

    I write happy-ever-after romance novels, and after writing ten romance novels you’d think I’d know a thing or two about love. But I’ve been chasing my own happy-ever-after for a long time. I seem to have no problem starting my fairytale, but the ending never comes to be. My love life isn’t the best-seller that I’ve written, so I decided to change things up and write a dark romance.While finding my way around and reading books in that genre, I discovered something unexpected. I found a sexy, romantic man who happens to have a soft spot for romances. He’s an alpha male, and that type would never have appealed to me before…but it’s amazing what you see when you look between the lines.

    But it is tending her beautiful garden with her handsome young gardener, Rex Kenwright, that ultimately saves Helen from grief. No stranger to bereavement himself, Rex finds comfort in Helen's company but it is seventeen-year-old Chloe who steals his heart.It is the swinging sixties, however, and Chloe has dreams of her own. When she announces that she is pregnant and moving in with her boyfriend, Adam Livingstone, she has no idea of the effect this will have on those she loves. Nor does she anticipate the rocky road to happiness that lies ahead...

    Mae was NOT what he had in mind when he asked four elderly women to pray for him in hiring his first employee. She was just the kind of lure he didn’t need in his fishing store.

    After receiving guardianship of Stacy, the biracial daughter of an old friend, Deanna comes to terms with her own goals and identity as an African-American woman as she and Patterson Temple join forces to protect the frightened child.

    In A Tide Worth Turning----Addison and Logan aren't in the market for love. She's recovering from a breakup, and he is hiding out on Galveston Island, trying to save enough money to get back to his country of origin before his world crashes down around him. But when Addison awakens feelings in him that he thought died long ago, Logan begins to question whether or not fleeing from the past is worth leaving Addison forever. Can love triumph where currents are rough? In Message In A Bottle----Kyle loses the love of his life when girlfriend, Morgan, is whisked away by the CIA in the middle of the night. Almost six years later, two men show up at Kyle's door with news that he has a daughter who is ill. Her only chance of survival lies with Kyle, if he'll fly to an undisclosed island location in the Pacific. But reuniting with his first love and saving his daughter places his engagement to his fiancee, Lexie, at risk. Can love bridge the troubled waters of Kyle's past?

    After missing the Olympic team because of injury, and being shut out by her ‘winning is everything’ father, she’s built a career as a top notch, award-winning coach. When a serious student injury propels her to the outside of the gymnastics world, she finds herself broke and alone – until a bequest from a mysterious and unknown aunt takes her on an unexpected journey. Who was Aunt Winnie, and what does the equally mysterious and unknown Mr. Boudreaux have to do with it? Army veteran, Cole Boudreaux, has returned home a hero to Cardinal Point, Texas, but a few things went wrong with his homecoming. His fiancée cut him loose, and he lost his position as a police officer because a wartime injury left him nearly deaf. Then, the woman who was like a mother to him dies suddenly. Cole knows God has a plan, and if he could settle Winnie’s estate and grow his budding security business, he just might figure out what it is. Winnie’s niece is not making it easy. She’s rolled into town with a ton of baggage and secrets she’s not willing to share. Why is Jacey so distant, and why is she so determined to not let him in?

    First she got engaged, then she was jilted, and now she’s pregnant—via a sperm bank! She was so sure love had passed her by, she decided to have a baby on her own. Before Lily’s due date, Jake will have to woo her, win her, marry her, and convince her that he wants to be a dad to the baby she’s carrying…and maybe a few more. Originally published in 2004 in Mothers by Design.