Quick and painless, like every other relationship she has. But wildlife biologist Bailey Chase has other plans for Ken. First, as surgical assistant, and second, as the designer for her new raptor sanctuary.Bailey protects her privacy with the vigilance of a hawk, hiding in her rescue center where she has complete control over her life and her work. Isolated on Washington’s Olympic Peninsula, she’s surrounded by natural beauty and plenty of solitude. Until sexy Ken Pearson walks in with a wounded bird and Bailey finds her life has been invaded by more than just an extra beak to feed.Sometimes pain is invisible, and only love can soar over protective barriers and heal a wounded heart.

    They save lost people, but Roni is a bit lost herself. She’s a loner, who loves a woman she can’t have. Rather than dwell on what is out of reach, she buries herself in her work—or in her other business of training horses. Which, to her chagrin, isn't going so smoothly, either.When the SAR crew is short a member, Selena Ayala is assigned to fill the empty spot. Still on the rebound from a sudden breakup with her girlfriend, Selena has issues of her own. But she has to find a way to gain the crew’s trust, and gain it quickly. Often the missions in this rugged and unyielding wilderness are matters of life and death, and the SAR members have to be able to depend on each other.Just when Roni and Selena are forming a tentative friendship, Selena’s ex shows up, leaving both Selena and Roni with uneasy questions. Can the two women search deep within to rescue themselves and to find love right out of nowhere?

    Eden is fleeing a past filled with blood and death that promises to forever haunt her. She travels aimlessly until the day her motorcycle breaks down in the middle of nowhere, southern Idaho, and in rides Brandi Cornwell. Brandi Cornwell lives a simple life on her Idaho ranch. She works hard, struggles to make ends meet, and follows the Golden Rule. The only thing missing is a good woman to share the sunsets, and as much as she'd like that woman to be Eden, Brandi senses the turmoil within her, and buries her feelings, knowing that whatever Eden's running from, it's going to take her away from Idaho and from whatever chance they might have at love.

    Used to working out her problems in her work, the successful syndicated cartoonist plans a solo summer vacation on a houseboat, hopeful that the separation will resolve her doubts about her future with Shannon. But Shannon's frequent calls demanding some resolution only heighten her turmoil. Marine biologist Dr. Jamie Hughes sees Puget Sound in ways few other people do. The hours she spends diving its depths and running her laboratory absorb all of her focus and time. When Jamie meets the obviously distressed Dana at a friend's, she offers her scientific detachment to help Dana sort through her problems. Worrying about Dana's present is easier than examining her own past. It seems like an ideal way to help Dana sort out her future, but as the summer heats up, the distance between Dana and Jamie is anything but comfortable. Kenna White (Romancing the Zone, Braggin' Rights) explores unexpected passion, unexplored possibilities and unforeseen complications in this novel of summer on Puget Sound.

    The overwhelming confusion she feels threatens her plans for a fresh start as a doctor in the inhospitable Australian Outback.Veterinarian Harry Roberts doesn’t need some city girl-pretty girl rocking her world. The Outback is no place for lightweights—and no place for women who ask too many questions.One touch, one unguarded look… The future could be promising, if neither of them had a past.

    Threatened with her job if she goes public, Celia pays a secret visit to celebrated women’s rights attorney Theodora Constantine. Theo’s riding high after winning a very public sexual harassment claim against a cable news network. Next up for her firm is a class action suit that will strain her small staff. She can’t afford to get sidetracked by another case, but Celia won’t take no for an answer. The case is compelling and so is Celia—so much that Theo finds herself falling hard. But before they can win love, they have to win justice.

    An unexpected gift bestowed on long-distance hikers. Raven is two years cancer-free on the day she arrives on the Appalachian Trail, ready to prove to the world that she’s more than just a breast cancer survivor. She’s still Raven, and she’s strong enough to tackle the 2,000-mile journey. Kit shows up with nothing but a hastily-packed bag and a new pair of hiking boots. When her boss and her girlfriend dump her on the same day, she decides now is as good a time as any to tick the AT off her bucket list. Trail magic brings Kit and Raven together on the mountain. Raven needs a friend and Kit needs an experienced hiker to guide her. They share meals, fireside stories, old wounds and new dreams… and a one-man tent in the wilderness. But can they bring that magic with them off the mountain?

    In the ten years she has led climbers on excursions up the world’s most treacherous peaks, she has never lost a client. But that doesn’t mean she hasn’t lost someone even more important.Surgeon and philanthropist Olivia Bradshaw hires Sam’s company to lead her handpicked team on a fundraising climb of Annapurna, the world’s most dangerous mountain. For Olivia, for the donors who have pledged money to her charitable foundation, and for the underprivileged masses she is seeking to help, failure is not an option.Secrets abound and danger lurks at every elevation. Will Olivia’s attraction to taciturn Sam get in the way of the expedition’s success or will Mother Nature have the final say?

    It’s that everyone thinks her advice comes free, even on weekends. That’s why she keeps a strict observance of her Saturday routine: a scone, a caramel mocha, and nobody bothering her.  So when she meets a new campus hire at the Bean Grinder who needs computer help yet doesn’t ask for it, she’s intrigued enough to offer. It’s the beginning of a beautiful friendship and possibly something more. But Elizabeth Markel is a little higher up the university food chain than she’s let on, and the truth brings out buried prejudices that Anna didn’t know she had. People and computers have one thing in common: they’re both capable of self-sabotage. The difference is that computers are easier to fix.

    The only thing she knows about her is that she turned her back on her family years before. So it’s a bit of a surprise when a package arrives bearing Samantha's name, containing letters to her and mementos that belonged to her grandmother. She discovers that her grandmother has included her in the will with one caveat. Growing up in the seedier parts of Boston, Ellis Hudson knows her way around the lowlifes she defends. She fills her life with one night stands, since the woman she loves is straight and completely unavailable. Instead, she settles for best friends. She’s also struggling with her own doubts about her career and what she wants to do with her life. With nothing more than some letters, a map and a few names, they set out on the road trip of a lifetime. Along the way, they meet different people who knew Samantha’s grandmother. Samantha realizes that each memento is a piece of her grandmother’s memory of those people and she starts to return them. Along the way, she realizes her attraction to Ellis was more than just a drunken thing. The journey also challenges Ellis’ will to remain just friends. Will they take the life lessons that Samantha’s grandmother teaches them and finally follow their hearts?

    With its circulation dwindling, Genevieve is desperate for a good story. When she hears about a reclusive mountain woman, she realizes her chance.Graham Sheridan needs her seclusion for a multitude of reasons, none of which she wants to impart on the intrusive, tenacious reporter.Was it fate that bought them together or something otherworldly?

    The death of her older brother, and her parents’ denial, have left her shaken and grateful her simple needs are being met. She’s not looking for the future—today is all she needs.It’s the last summer Emily MacKenzie will get to spend hanging out with friends, soaking up the sun and checking out the women on Seattle’s sporting fields. Come fall, she’s an assistant soccer coach with responsibilities. She’s planning on making every day of summer count.When their paths cross, Emily is surprised Sam remembers her. Years ago, they played soccer on the same high school team, only Sam was the star and Emily the new kid. Their youthful camaraderie had been simple, but under the warm Seattle sun, simple is the last word that describes their feelings.In this rich story of long days and hot nights, newcomer Kate Christie follows the collision course of two women during the summer that changes their lives.

    A popular artist suddenly goes into seclusion; a reluctant reporter wants to know why; and a heart locked away yearns to be set free.Sometimes the greatest test of love is the willingness to take a chance when there are no guarantees.At the peak of her career, painter Cori Saxton's life changes irrevocably. With her future suddenly uncertain, she seeks refuge at her country home in Upstate New York where she successfully manages to shut out most of the world—until journalist Bennett McClain is assigned to get the story. Soon Cori has to remind herself that the charming reporter is simply there to do a job, even though something about the woman makes her want to reveal all her carefully guarded secrets. When Bennett accepted the assignment, she didn't expect to find Cori so attractive, on so many levels. Cori's intensity and energy are more appealing than down-to-earth Bennett cares to admit. But when Bennett discovers the truth behind Cori's seclusion, she is torn between a desire to soothe away Cori's pain and the instinct to flee that is born of her own painful past.

    There, she crosses paths with a ruthless poacher and Leandra, a mysterious, feral woman with a dark past, who seems at one with the fierce felines she protects. In this charged, exotic, lesbian romance, Ashley is caught up in danger, a deadly vendetta, and the clash of two starkly different worlds. It changes everything she knows.(2nd, revised edition)

    Playful wit, tight jeans, cowgirl boots—the sparks are real. She might even be sad when the affair ends. And they always end.Kristine is back in the saddle to deal with unfinished business from her last summer guiding horseback tours at Mammoth Lakes. A dalliance with an attractive blonde biologist isn’t in her plans. She can only hope the thin air is why she feels so weak.Only a fool takes two things for granted—Mother Nature, and the ways of a woman’s heart.