Twelve years, three cities, and too many pairs of stilettos later, Shaelyn Lawrence is back in the one place she vowed never to return: New Orleans.Thankfully, her hometown stint is temporary. Better yet, she has a plan guaranteed to get her out ASAP: Return her aging-but-still-crazy grandmother back to health;Help her cousin with her boutique;Evade Brady Taylor, her high school sweetheart, a.k.a the reason she fled Louisiana in the first place.Brady isn't even a footnote... until one unexpected run-in with him changes everything. She shouldn't be tempted by his drawl, she shouldn't be tempted by the promise of his kiss, she shouldn't want him.But she does.Oh, boy, this was so not the plan.----------Twelve years, one city, and too many issued traffic tickets later, Homicide Detective Brady Taylor is all geared up for being promoted to sergeant within the New Orleans Police Department. Or, he would be — if he wasn't sitting in third place.Thankfully, he's cut out every possible distraction:Hanging out with his buddies;Women;And, God help him, football.His life should be distraction-free... but then Shaelyn Lawrence waltzes back into it, with her sexy red lips, curvy body, and her f***-me heels. Brady should run in the opposite direction. He definitely shouldn't spend time pursuing her, kissing her, or landing her in his bed.But he does.Shaelyn may have left once, but Brady is determined to prove that Shaelyn belongs in New Orleans. She belongs with him. For fans of Jill Shalvis and Lauren Layne, Maria Luis’ new sexy contemporary romance will leave you laughing and desperate for more! SAY YOU'LL BE MINE is the first full-length novel in the NOLA Heart series, but can be read as a standalone.

    Alone. Damaged. After escaping an abusive relationship, Amanda finds work on a remote farm in rural Minnesota. Eager for a fresh start, she tries to will her nightmares away. She also tries to stop daydreaming about her hot boss's hard, chiseled body. She doesn't like him, but he's sure easy on the eyes.Stubborn. Proud. Protective.Hardworking and hard-headed, Nate is determined to save his family's farm and provide for his sister. The last thing he needs is some city girl getting underfoot. Sure, Amanda is a breath of fresh air (and the prettiest little thing he's ever seen) but there's no way he'd ever admit it. Nate doesn't do romance...but he can't stop thinking about doing Amanda!*This is a full-length, standalone novel that contains explicit adult situations.

    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.

    Especially when his own parents raised her after her brother and parents died. Tell that to his heart. Though she accepts his proposal, she breaks it off and escapes to Paris, leaving him devastated. But she’s finally back in New Orleans and Stefan will do anything to get her back. Jen has always loved Stefan but she’s sick of being treated like a little girl. Attending pastry school in Paris was the best decision she’s ever made. She’s a woman now, and she knows what she wants—passion not pity. Stefan needs to man up if she’s going to agree to marry him. But soon she learns the best way to get Stephan to agree to her demands is to sweeten them with a kiss.Sweetened with a Kiss is a slightly steamy somewhat angsty contemporary romance set in New Orleans. Intended for mature audiences.

    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.

    For Jessica Hughes, this is her reality.At 21, she’s single-handedly supporting her 2 younger brothers and her 4-year-old daughter while paying off her deadbeat mother's gambling debts.Her life may seem like crap to others, but Jess knows it could be worse.Then, Hunter O'Shea walks back into her life and drops a bombshell - a secret that could destroy everything they once had.Once again, Jess finds herself picking up the pieces of her broken heart.Will Hunter find the courage to claim the family he never knew he needed?Or will Jess move on before he gets the chance?

    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!

    BUNDLED FOR YOUR CONVENIENCE. HALF MY HEART BOOK 1: THE CLOVER SERIES At nineteen, Devin Sutton lost his first love, his freedom, and his hope. Years later, the only thing he has on his mind this holiday season is finally settling the score back in Clover, North Carolina. That is, until the girl he thought he’d lost forever crosses his path. Rebecca Farrus is supposed to be off living the life of her dreams, not tending bar in some dive. When faced with the choice, will Devin decide to celebrate what he’s finally found or keep seeking retribution for everything he lost? CHANGE MY HEART BOOK 2: THE CLOVER SERIES You really can't have it all, or so Devin Sutton is finding out fast. Returning to Clover was all part of his plan to exact revenge on the town that robbed him of nearly a decade of his life. Unfortunately, things quickly begin to crumble when he's forced to choose between rekindling an old love or destroying the town. Walking the fine line between both might just end up leaving him with nothing. With his heart full of vengeance is there any room for love?

    To protect Victoria, Garrett whisks her away to an isolated lodge. Major problem for Victoria—how does she help Garrett capture the stalker while guarding her heart against the man who broke it once before? Garret thought his heart had healed when Victoria left him ten years ago. Garrett’s bigger problem—capture the stalker determined to imprison Victoria. Keeping Victoria safe is no easy task for Garrett, but getting her to trust him is an entirely different challenge. He puts his life on the line to guard the woman who is more deserving of love than any woman he’s known. But love takes a back seat to the Whitloch-Reynolds feud. At the center is the Crystal Creek Ranch. The Whitlochs own the ranch. The Reynolds are the rightful heirs.

    But one unexpected encounter at a lake house would stir up every dark emotion she worked so hard to forget. There wasn’t anyone Aiden Ryan hated more than himself… Plagued with a life filled with manipulation and regret, he will try anything to ignore the guilt that eats him alive, even if it means more pain for him in the long run. It’s not until he meets Becca that things start to change. There’s only one problem—he’s stuck in a relationship he can’t get out of with a woman he doesn’t care about. Love is complicated, but when two people have demons they refuse to face, love could destroy them. Together, Becca and Aiden try and let go of their painful pasts to be together. But will their pasts let go of them?

    Work. Football. That’s my life summed up in three words.Sure, I used to be a pro NFL baller, but now I’m perfectly content with a quiet life in my small hometown of Peachtree Grove, Georgia.That is until Bree, a beautiful blonde dating expert, gets tackled at my Pee Wee football practice, knocking me off my game.I swore I’d never get involved again after my messy divorce left me reeling, but one date with Bree and I’m dropping all my hesitations—along with my jersey. Now she has me rethinking my plays.But will the tabloids, my ex, and Bree’s complicated past keep us in the friendzone?

     Katie Lou Brennan is young, beautiful and engaged to the man of her dreams. Her wedding is only three weeks away, and she's so nervous and excited that it's nearly more than she can bear--until an accident throws her through the windshield of her fiance's car, leaving her in a coma and fighting for her very life.  When she awakens, the world she knew is gone. She cannot make her legs obey her, so she can no longer walk, and some parts of her have little or no feeling. She's terrified of what the future will hold in a wheelchair, and then the next bombshell hits, when her fiance tells her that a crippled wife would not fit into his plans for a future political career. Heartbroken and distrusting, Katie Lou pours everything she has left into walking again, no matter what the doctors say, and her new Physical Therapist, Rob Christopher, is determined to help her do so--and more than a little bit taken by this tiny beauty with the lioness' heart! Read now for FREE on Kindle Unlimited!

     Kallie I fell in love with him when I was seven. I scraped my knee, and he helped carry me inside. Our love story was the talk of the town until a woman told everyone she was pregnant with his baby. The only rational solution was to high tail it out of town and never come back. My best friend needed a place to hide, and you can’t get much more covert than my family farm, so I came back. For her. It was supposed to be temporary, and I wasn’t supposed to see him, but that’s what happens when you live in a small town where everyone knows each other. Jacob Being the sheriff in a small town was never my dream. My father died and my older brother took off, so I had to be the one to look after my mother. I stayed. I fulfilled my duties as a son and I protected my hometown. My life wasn’t perfect, but I was content. Until I locked eyes with a ghost from my past, Kallie. I thought it was my imagination, it couldn’t be. I loved her most of my life, but now I hated her. The town gossip mill was going into overdrive. I kept my head down and my mind off of the woman who shattered my heart when she ran away. She didn’t give me a chance to explain, it didn’t matter to her then. I didn’t matter. A second chance is never promised, but now that mine is right under my nose, I’m not sure I can take it.

    But my life has never been a bedtime story and no prince with a fancy shoe is turning me into a Cinderella.I had big plans outside of my small but powerful country. But Gunnar, the wicked prince in a gorgeous package, was temptation too strong for me to resist. His sweet lies and sweeter kisses pulled me back into his arms over and over again until his cold cruel heart finally broke mine for good.Now he's going to be King and he wants me back in his country, his palace...and his bed.And we all must bow to the King.

    Real, true love that could never be hidden. Book 1 - Unknown Life has changed radically for Leslie. Her husband has finally succumbed to his terminal cancer and it's time for her to have a change of scenery. Moving across the country and setting up shop, Leslie takes the months to rebuild her life and figure out what she wants in the future. Pouring herself into her successful mystery books series she's written, she is a reclusive global sensation writing under a penname.  Leslie realizes that her life is missing the romance she so desperately craved and now she's on the hunt to live her life beyond her grief. Sooner than she realizes, cupid comes calling in the form of a handsome actor who has no clue she's a successful author. However, he comes with his own personal set of baggage.  Is new love possible after you've laid true love to rest?  Book 2 - Unpublished Things with Conrad didn't go as Leslie has planned and after running back to New York City, she's the most surprised person in the world to find him standing on her doorstep, asking for a chance to win her heart over. Leslie doesn't know how to respond. But, Conrad's here, alive and wanting to love her. Excited to show her new found beau the city she's come to love, Leslie realizes when Amber and Josie return, that she left out one minor detail about her life. The more Conrad expresses his love for her, the more Leslie grows nervous about telling him who she really is. Will Conrad being willing to accept who she really is when the truth comes out? Book 3 - Unexposed All secrets have a price, and Leslie is about to find out when hers is exposed. Now one of the most popular authors on the planet, Leslie only wanted to find life after love. She never expected that her heart would fall for anyone again. Sexy, handsome, and an extremely famous actor, Conrad has managed to capture her attention, along with the attention of a million paparazzi who want to snap pictures of the couple together. Can they survive the world known, published, and exposed for everyone to see? SERIES: Unknown Unpublished Unexposed Unsure Unwritten