But her personal life is a mess. No one else, even the Sisters of Fire, knows the inner Trish, the insecure child and wounded adult, both of them abused.When kindergarten teacher Nathan Mitchell finds himself drawn to Trish, he begins to see the woman behind the mask. And once he sees her, he’s determined to help her transform herself to the woman she was meant to become. The road to this is rocky, even dangerous with Trish’s crazed partner, but Nathan never once wavers.Can Trish fight her way out of abuse and insecurity with the Sisters of Fire, a skilled counselor and good-guy Nathan at her side or will she condemn him and herself to misery and loneliness?

    The last person she expects to chase her down is her ex’s sexy but aloof business partner who’s kept her at arm’s length for years. He offers her a lifeline, but his help comes with a catch. Does she dare say yes?Jace Hartman doesn’t believe in love. And he doesn’t believe in giving up. He won’t let his company’s event planner walk away from their biggest launch—even if she has a broken heart. Business comes first, so he makes Hailey an offer she can’t refuse. But it’s her counter offer that has him worried. She needs a place to live for the month, and he has an extra bedroom.Jace has spent the past few years trying his best to bury his attraction to Hailey. Now she’s everywhere and making him forget all the reasons he should never mix business and pleasure.

    But when a medical emergency calls him home and a legal matter affects his business, suddenly his family isn't the only thing in need of a re-build. Unfortunately his new project involves building a house for a woman who not only awakens his desires, but also his fears. But if he wants to claim her as his own, he'll have to tear down the walls he's built around his heart.Single mom Ashley Anderson knows all about juggling. Between an assortment of part-time jobs and raising her sixteen-year old daughter, she doesn't need a hunky construction worker with an attitude as a distraction. Even one who steps in to help her when she needs it most. But life has taught Ashley that when the going gets tough, she's on her own. It's going to take a man with a Texas-sized heart to show her that this cowboy isn't going anywhere.

    His sister's kids shouldn't pay for her error in judgment in naming him guardian. Problem is, he doesn't have a clue what he's doing. And the woman who attempts to help with his every fumble is the one woman he wants to steer clear of... Lacey Anderson loves a challenge, but Jake's already broken her heart once. When his tall shadow darkens the doorway of her classroom, she's ready to shut him out - until she meets her new students, and sees the desperation in Jake's eyes. Emotional intelligence is so not his forte. But she's done banging her head against that wall. Jake, however, is finally ready to learn how to love and Lacey’s the teacher he wants. Is she willing to risk her own heart again to teach him?

     After growing up in a dying town, with only two restaurants, no movie theater, and no future, waitress Cassidy Simon wants out. For once, luck is on her side when the oil boom comes to South Texas. She’s determined to use it for her advantage, starting up an RV park for the oilfield workers to add to her escape fund. She’s never been out of Texas, and she’s itching for adventure. Grady McKenna couldn’t get away from his family’s ranch fast enough when he was a teenager, but a tour in the Air Force in the Middle East is enough to convince him there’s no place like home. He’s seen the world, had his adventure. Now he’s ready to contribute to his family’s legacy in Evansville. Naturally, the woman who draws his attention is the one intent on slipping through his fingers. How can he convince her life with him will be all the adventure she needs?

    He just might fall in love instead.Zane McCord might not say it often, but he loves his brothers no matter what, even when he’s acting like a jerk and he knows it. When his brother Jimmy dies with tension hanging between them, he turns all his hatred to the woman who deserves it—Ava Rainer, the one responsible for his death. He refuses to like her. He won’t help her. He wants her nowhere near him. Except she’s suddenly on his farm and sneaking her way into his heart with her own pain. The guilt is eating him alive, but maybe…just maybe…they can heal together.The entire McCord Family Novel series: (Each book in this series can be read as a standalone.)Protecting You (Book 1): Zane & AvaTrust in Love (Book 2): Austin & SophieDeserving You (Book 3): Emmett & Deja Always Kind of Love (Book 4): Ethan & PenelopeFinding You (Book 5): Gabe & Olivia

    Raised by loving adoptive parents, she's never lacked for love...only the knowledge of her past.By day she works the Inn, but by night...Avery comes alive as lead singer in a band. Life was good...stable, until new guests blew into town. Some strangers come with secrets and liesLucas Bennett is one such stranger. Drifting from one mess to another has left him jaded. Doesn't matter the dramas are never his doing. Giving it one last shot to make a fresh start lands him Harmony's Echo, Texas and smack dab in front of the tantalizing Avery.Despite his best efforts to ignore the burn Avery's ignited within, he's intent to keep his distance. Secrets have followed him. Secrets he doesn't want Avery to know.Each time they're near the other things heat up like a brushfire on a dry Texas prairie.But maybe, after the dust settles and the smoke clears, love can bloom with a fresh start.

    See author's note, below Pulling Home (That Second Chance #1) It's taken nine years and a cross-country move, but Audra Valentine Wheyton has kept her secrets safe. She's created the perfect life: a husband who loves her, a daughter she adores, and a position as head writer for an award-winning daytime soap. When her husband dies suddenly, Audra returns to her hometown for the funeral and faces a community that has not forgotten her meager beginnings and the man who has never forgiven her for marrying his brother. Jack Wheyton is a successful pediatric neurosurgeon who is about to become engaged when Audra walks back into his life with her daughter. He forgave his brother long ago for taking something that had been his, something he hadn't even realized he wanted until it was gone. But forgiving Audra is another story...and forgetting her? Near impossible. When a shattering illness strikes Audra's daughter, she turns to Jack to save her child and risks exposing a secret that will change their lives forever. A Family Affair: The Promise (Truth in Lies #7) Grant Richot sprinted through life, a boy wonder with talent, intelligence, confidence, and charm. He never doubted the world awaited him, just as he never doubted the right woman would come into his life—but only when he was ready for her. Anyone before that was simply preparation for the one. How wrong he was. Years and a tragedy later, Grant arrives in Maggie Finnegan’s hometown of Magdalena, New York—broken, uncertain, and searching for that second chance with the woman he cast aside. But Maggie’s no longer naïve and impressionable; she’s a confident, competent widow with a child, who has more at risk than another broken heart… Note from Mary: I love secondary characters: writing them, reading about them, even watching them on the big screen. Secondary characters support the “stars”; make them more vibrant and compelling. But when the story ends, I’m often left wondering what they’d do if they were in the “spotlight”. That’s why I’ve created special boxed sets that were part of That Second Chance series and the Truth in Lies series. These boxed sets let the reader follow the before and after of select characters as they first appear in That Second Chance series and later in the fictional town of my bestselling Truth in Lies series. Boxed Set One contains Pulling Home and A Family Affair: The Promise. I invite you to follow their journey!

    When “Diamond” Jim McCall gambles on a fixer-upper for sentimental reasons, his house of cards implodes – along with his health. Ruby’s ready for a job change but agreeing to become her first crush’s apprentice might be her biggest mistake. She doesn’t doubt they can “flip” the derelict ranch house and save Summit Construction, but at what cost to her heart? After all, Boone Fielding became the son her father never had when she left for college.  Man up. Helping Ruby McCall and her sisters flip Diamond Jim’s “money pit” makes sense financially, but he can’t partner with someone he doesn’t trust – and Boone hasn’t forgotten his last close encounter with Ruby. But every day on the job reminds him of why he fell in love with her in the first place.  How is he ever going to let her go when the job is done?

    Kissable as he may be, he’s not in play and is treating her with kid gloves, lest they succumb to temptation and take their mutual attraction further . . . even if it's spontaneous combustion hot.But after one kiss, the gloves and the clothes come OFF . . .WARNING: This steamy romance may lead to actual smoldering when you get hot and bothered after it ends in a HFA since the sexiness continues to a second book. You should only read if you wish Grey's Anatomy and Chicago Fire featured a shirtless fire chief who can paralyze you with the power of his eyes . . . and abs.***Author note: A section of Part 1 was published as Ignition but has since been re-edited and more than doubled in size.

    So she escapes with her children to her small home town of Prairie Valley and takes a teaching job in hopes of restarting her life. Sam inherited his family’s ranch years ago, but running the ranch cost him everything, including his high school sweetheart, Georgie. When she returns to town, heartbroken, he soon realizes he still has feelings for her. But, he figures he’s the last guy she would look at after he broke her heart back in high school. When Sam’s nephew comes to stay with him it’s a blessing and a curse. Looking after a teenager wasn’t in his plans; however, when his nephew enrolls in Georgie’s night class, Sam and Georgie find their paths intertwined and old feelings begin to resurface; good and bad. Georgie starts to fall for Sam, but she’s afraid of love, especially with someone who’s already hurt her in the past. To make matters worse, her children miss their father, the cheating Governor. This all leaves Sam with a lot of convincing to do if he wants that second chance.Is Sam the answer to Georgie’s prayers and, if so, will she have to choose between her own happiness and that of her children? Or, will they find a way to all live happily-ever-after in Prairie Valley? Start at the beginning of this sweet, small town, western romance and fall in love with Prairie Valley.

    This sweet, Southern romance doesn’t disappoint.” – Liz Talley Robin Lancaster, a twenty-six-year-old former kindergarten teacher, has her summer and her life all figured out. She’s ready to be on her own, writing and illustrating her children’s stories at her family’s beloved lake house. Once there, she intends to rekindle a romance with Caleb Jackson, the area’s top hunting and fishing guide, and bag him for herself.Complications arise from the start when Robin finds out her mother has rented the lake house to a man they know nothing about. Matthew McLaughlin, forty-year-old widowed university professor and author from California, shows up at Pine Lake in crisis. A sabbatical might be his only hope to save much more than his career. He needs a place of refuge. Sharing the lake house with a lighthearted young woman and her dog is the last thing on his mind. Caleb Jackson has his own plans. He’s used to things going his way, but a man staying in Robin’s house presents unforeseen challenges. When paths unavoidably entangle for these three, hearts are on the line.

     Cami Calypso receives her first assignment on Earth just in time for the Valentine season. As a newbie Cupid archer, her life is perfect until her arrow accidentally strikes the wrong man. She has sixty days to secure a job as the confident cowboy’s housekeeper and find him his soul mate—not keep him for herself. Rhett Holloway needs a housekeeper and cook. He doesn’t need an adorable blonde to distract him. He doesn’t need her to fix his love life. But here she is, and he finds her irresistible.

    There is no way she’s going to get involved with a commitment-phobe again.Guy takes the concept of a commitment-phobe to a whole new level—but with good reason. He’s been running from his emotions since his wife’s death. But their lives become entwined when Lucia proves his ‘forgery’ is genuine and reveals a mysterious past from which neither can escape…The Real Thing is the first book in The Mackenzies series.—The Mackenzies—Book 1—The Real ThingBook 2—The PA's RevengeBook 3—The Marriage TrapBook 4—The Cowboy's CravingBook 5—The Playboy's RedemptionBook 6—The Lakehouse CaféYou've met the Connelly family in The Lakehouse Café, read their stories in my new series—New Zealand Brides.—New Zealand Brides—Book 1—Yours to GiveBook 2—Yours to TreasureBook 3—Yours to Cherish

    At least until he finds himself stuck working with his best friend's little sister, Yasmin. Yasmin has reinvented herself. After a brush with death in the wilds of Borneo, she's made a list of all the things she wouldn't have had the courage to do before. The new purple streak in her hair and the diamond stud in her nose is just the beginning. Next up: seduce a tall, dark, handsome man. Lane fits the bill, oh so perfectly. Yasmin is so different from the girl Lane used to know. Her ideas may be impractical and a little bit crazy, but he's irresistibly drawn to her free-spirited nature, never dreaming he's just a number on her Love List.