Or, that a strange apparition would issue her a chilling message. Despite the cadaver's warning, Marlie is married a year later to Tennessee State Senator, Daniel Cannon, and living in a plantation-style mansion with two step-sons. Add to the mix her growing suspicion that something is amiss with the death of Daniel’s first wife, Gentry, and newlywed Marlie is definitely in over her pretty Yankee head. What begins as an innocent inquiry into her new husband’s clouded past ends with Marlie in the midst of a dangerous conspiracy.A modern twist on the classic Gothic romance novels of Rebecca and Jane Eyre, Replacing Gentry follows Marlie’s precarious journey as she learns the truth about the man she married.

    The Blue Ridge Madam—built by Willa’s great-great-grandfather during Walls of Water’s heyday, and once the town’s grandest home—has stood for years as a lonely monument to misfortune and scandal. And Willa herself has long strived to build a life beyond the brooding Jackson family shadow. No easy task in a town shaped by years of tradition and the well-marked boundaries of the haves and have-nots.But Willa has lately learned that an old classmate—socialite do-gooder Paxton Osgood—of the very prominent Osgood family, has restored the Blue Ridge Madam to her former glory, with plans to open a top-flight inn. Maybe, at last, the troubled past can be laid to rest while something new and wonderful rises from its ashes. But what rises instead is a skeleton, found buried beneath the property’s lone peach tree, and certain to drag up dire consequences along with it.For the bones—those of charismatic traveling salesman Tucker Devlin, who worked his dark charms on Walls of Water seventy-five years ago—are not all that lay hidden out of sight and mind. Long-kept secrets surrounding the troubling remains have also come to light, seemingly heralded by a spate of sudden strange occurrences throughout the town.Now, thrust together in an unlikely friendship, united by a full-blooded mystery, Willa and Paxton must confront the dangerous passions and tragic betrayals that once bound their families—and uncover truths of the long-dead that have transcended time and defied the grave to touch the hearts and souls of the living.Resonant with insight into the deep and lasting power of friendship, love, and tradition, The Peach Keeper is a portrait of the unshakable bonds that—in good times and bad, from one generation to the next—endure forever.

    Jilted by her fiance, Geneva watches her seemingly idyllic life suddenly fall apart. Bereft and desolate, she packs up her nine cats and leaves her home in Washington, DC to return to her native hills of West Virginia where she plans rest and heal from her heartbreak. When Geneva's ambition, and machinations run up against rugged mountain ways, she finds herself flung from one perilous adventure, romance, crazy circumstance, and heartbreak to another. After facing illness, disaster in the wilderness and an encounter with an old mountain man who teaches her that her soul needs more than men, courtship, and adventure, Geneva finally finds what she's been missing. Ultimately, Geneva realizes she must face herself before she is free to truly love and be loved.

    Abita Carter, a half-Choctaw woman who describes herself as always “in-between,” tells the story of her life and that of the young lawyer/soldier, Minor Barrett, in north Louisiana during the Civil War. The core of the tale involves Abita’s journey to find Minor, who is reported to have been wounded during the siege of Vicksburg. Along the way she faces a cast of characters with varying intentions. General Grant’s wife, a family of slaves with compassion beyond reason, and a small blind mule are among those encountered in the rich, Deep South setting. None, though, is more distracting than Minor’s blue-blooded wife, who seeks her husband for a different purpose. Abita’s state of “in-between” takes on new meanings as she is drawn ever deeper into the turmoil of the times. Passion, self-doubt, and malice finally threaten her existence in any condition.

    But with home resembling a war zone, a parish-wide curfew, and mysterious new faces lurking in the abandoned French Quarter, normal needs a new definition. As the city murder rate soars, Adele finds herself tangled in a web of magic that weaves back to her own ancestors. Caught in a hurricane of myths and monsters, who can she trust when everyone has a secret and keeping them can mean life or death? Unless... you’re immortal.

    She’ll fall in love again…with a man and the island. Charlotte returns to her Aunt Bess and Mackinac Island, a quaint retreat that welcomes summer tourists and allows no cars, to renew herself and write about the island’s ghosts. She’s come to help Bess with her heartache, an ended love with Shaun, and to renew a friendship with neighbor Hannah. In winter Mackinac closes down and everyone looks forward to the ice bridge that freezes across the Straits of Mackinac. Until Hannah disappears into the icy waters crossing it. Everyone says it’s an accident. But Charlotte and her admirer cop friend, Mac, don’t think so. Something isn’t right. Hannah was too smart to go off the path. So it’s murder…but why…how…by whom? In the end, it’s Mac–and perhaps Hannah’s ghost–who saves Charlotte and Bess’s lives when the killer decides they’re too close to the truth and tries to kill them, too.

    Laughter, romance, calamity and tears.“Annette Blair is a master artist in the world of romantic fiction. A strong plot provides the canvas for her compelling characters. Vivid settings and engaging minor characters beautifully augment the portrait. Fascinating subplots add depth. Spicy sexual encounters supply bold strokes . . .” MyShelf.comBio: A New York Times Bestselling author, Annette Blair left her job as a Development Director and Journalism Advisor at a private New England prep school to become a full time writer. At forty books and counting, she’s added cozy mysteries and bewitching romantic comedies to her award-winning Historical Romances.The Rogues Club Awards at First Printing:UNDENIABLE ROGUE2003 Laurel Wreath Award Winner, VCRW 2002 Romantic Times Reviewers' Choice Award Nominee2003 Holt Medallion Award Finalist, VRW 2003 Barclay Gold Top Ten Favorite, LCRW 2003 Aspen Gold Finalist, HODRW 2003 Winter Rose Winner, Yellow Rose RW 2003 A Lories Best Overall Award of Excellence Winner UNFORGETTABLE ROGUE2003 Booksellers Best Award, GDRW 2003 Laurel Wreath Award Winner, VCRW 2003 Orange Rose Finalist, Orange County RWA 2003 Aspen Gold Finalist, HODRW 2003 Blue Boa Award of Excellence Winner, Peninsular Chapter RWA 2002 Romantic Times K.I.S.S., Knight In Shining Silver AwardUNMISTAKABLE ROGUE2003 Booksellers Best Award, GDRW 2005 Gallant Rogue of the Year Nominee, Reed Gilbride, HRC2004 Readers' Poll Favorite, Best Regency [Historical], AdC2003 Most Exciting Start to a Story, Romance Reviews 1996 Hook, Line & Sinker Winner, Hudson Valley RWA1996 RWA Golden Heart Finalist as Act of CharityUNTAMABLE ROGUE, Formerly A Christmas Baby2005 Aspen Gold Winner, HODRW 2004 A Reviewers' International Organization Winner 2005 Regency Romance of the Year Nominee, HRC 2005 Bravest Heroine of the Year Award Winner, Larkin McAdams 2005 Gayle Wilson Award of Excellence Finalist, S Magic RWA 2005 Top Ten Reads for 2004, Lynda Lukow, MyShelf 2004 #1 Top Pick, October, ARR 2004 Top Pick Award, RRAH

    She lives isolated in the Pennsylvania countryside with her affluent and secretive family. When her father dies suddenly, Mary becomes pained with grief and increasingly suspicious of those around her. A humble servant girl has the chance of a lifetime to become a lady's companion. Costly dresses, exquisite rooms, and fine dinners are pleasant distractions from what is really happening in the house.

    She isn't trouble. She just has some problems. After all, her mother is ill and in the hospital and her father is far away, teaching at an American college in Istanbul, Turkey. But everything changes when Vicki fails school. Instead of going to camp, she's sent to stay with her father in Istanbul. Vickie knew Istanbul would be exotic, with its spiraled castles, silk-clad gypsies, and ancient history, but she had no idea that it would also bring danger--to herself and to her new-found friends. Vicki soon learns that all is not what it seems. And America seems very far away indeed....

    She intends to quickly tie up loose ends then return to her busy life and thriving antique shop in New Orleans. Instead, she learns Mags has willed The Hideaway to her and charged her with renovating it—no small task considering her grandmother’s best friends, a motley crew of senior citizens, still live there.Rather than hurrying back to New Orleans, Sara stays in Sweet Bay and begins the biggest house-rehabbing project of her career. Amid drywall dust, old memories, and a charming contractor, she discovers that slipping back into life at The Hideaway is easier than she expected.Then she discovers a box Mags left in the attic with clues to a life Sara never imagined for her grandmother. With help from Mags’s friends, Sara begins to piece together the mysterious life of bravery, passion, and choices that changed her grandmother’s destiny in both marvelous and devastating ways.When an opportunistic land developer threatens to seize The Hideaway, Sara is forced to make a choice—stay in Sweet Bay and fight for the house and the people she’s grown to love or leave again and return to her successful but solitary life in New Orleans.

    Her husband has mysteriously disappeared, leaving Birdie to cope with their unmarried daughter’s unplanned pregnancy. Birdie and Hannah disagree about the baby. Birdie urges her daughter to consider abortion, but Hannah is determined to see the pregnancy to term. When Hannah returns for her last semester in college, Birdie must face her demons, the problems in her marriage that drove her husband to clean out their bank accounts and run off with another woman.While struggling to hide her pregnancy from her roommates and ex-boyfriend, Hannah interviews for jobs that will take her and her baby far away from her mother. After graduation, with months to kill before the start of her new job, she returns to Palmetto Island for the summer to await the birth of her baby. Tension mounts between Hannah and Birdie when they move from their waterfront home to a two-bedroom apartment above a bakery. Can mother and daughter mend their relationship? Or will they be lost to each other forever?

    But when the producer's wife experiences a mysterious illness and another cast member is murdered, it looks like someone doesn't want the show to go on.AWARDS:Romantic Times Top PickReviewer's Choice Awards, finalistTHE DAISY GUMM MAJESTY MYSTERIES, in series orderStrong SpiritsFine SpiritsHigh SpiritsHungry SpiritsGenteel SpiritsAncient SpiritsSpirits RevivedDark SpiritsSpirits OnstageUnsettled SpiritsBruised SpiritsSpirits UnitedSpirits UnearthedShaken SpiritsScarlet Spirits

    

    She struggles with the inability to put down roots years after the sudden death of her beloved parents. Madison and her three wise, hilarious friends all wonder if she uses her busy, work-centric lifestyle as an excuse to avoid connection with anyone but them.When Madison checks out a probate sale outside Healdsburg, California, she falls in love with the European-style house on a private tract of land overlooking Lake Sonoma. In fact, she likes the place so much she climbs in the window for a private tour. With help from lawyer and friend Genevieve Delacourt, Madison soon learns that the estate’s corrupt attorney has manipulated the sale and is attempting to steer the purchase to an anonymous client in a deceitful plan for personal gain.Good fortune enables her to purchase the Blackburne’s property, but far more than a new home and lush gardens await discovery during this renovation. As Madison works on the remodel, she’s drawn into an old love story with dangerous consequences. In the process, she discovers herself as she unearths buried secrets. The series of events both endanger Madison and lead her to love – and a permanent home. Mark of the Loon is the skillful combination of history, mystery, and romance in a novel that explores deep friendship, choices, and how individuals cope with loss.

    She’s had a bit of schoolin, and now she works at the local cannery. Her friend Letty dreams of marriage and a family of her own. Kit could choose that life, but she wants more. But it’s 1895 in North Carolina, and her options are limited. In the newspaper, she sees an advertisement calling for young women to go and work for the Harvey Company – a growing chain of restaurants - that serves hungry railway passengers traveling to the untamed west. But the interview is miles away in Raleigh…does she dare? Will she leave her family and the life she knows, and risk everything for independence and adventure? Yes, she will! But it’s not easy. Leaving home is only the first of many challenges for Kit, from facing her own doubts, to proving herself, and standing up to the judgment of others – including her closest new friend. With hard work and an instinctive knowledge of how to bring out the best in others, Kit progresses in her career, until she gets a message from home. Racing back across the country to the bedside of a loved one, Kit begins to question what will make her happy. When it looks like love will be a better choice, Kit is tempted to leave her life out west behind. Are fate, friendship, determination, and good advice enough to keep Kit on the right path? Can she have a successful career, and also the love and respect of a good man? Is there a man out there who is strong enough to value her, and give her wild heart a home? Read on to learn Kit’s fate, and discover the famous Harvey Girls, whose hard work and courage helped build a restaurant empire like no other.