Barcelona’s debut book brings an excellent author to the fore; the intrigue blends beautifully with the romance.” -Heather Graham, New York Times Bestselling AuthorTaylor Marlowe Bartholomew carries three of the most notable names in New Orleans society. She hoped to forge her own path in the world as an Assistant District Attorney, but that dream is dying as obligations pull her into the family shipbuilding business. In Taylor’s final days in the DA’s office, she receives a murder assignment that could unravel her perception of reality.Brandon Morrissey is haunted by demons that force him to keep his life simple and detached. He pours all of his energy into his thriving legal practice, until, overnight, he becomes the single father of an infant. For the sake of his son’s future, Brandon searches for a killer and faces the truth about his family’s unfortunate past.Someone is willing to kill to use the past for their own ends. Thrust together, Brandon and Taylor have different views of their families’ intersecting histories. As they confront a sea of uncertainty, one thing is sure…no one is safe until they discover where the truth lies.Their destinies have been set in motion by their ancestors.Ghosts of the past shadow every step they take.Together they have to find the truth…before it’s too late.“Stella Barcelona’s stunning debut, Deceived, has it all. Mystery—check. Action—check. Romance —check. A heart-pounding must read, Barcelona writes for those of us who want intelligent protagonists and an intriguing mystery.” - Cherry Adair, New York Times Bestselling Author

    T. Ellison, New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of Her Dark Lies"Pitch perfect suspense...The best debut I’ve read this year.” --Allison Brennan, New York Times bestselling authorAn intriguing and twisty domestic suspense about loyalty and deceit in a tight-knit Texas community where parents are known to behave badly and people are not always who they appear to be.Emily, a popular but bookish prep school senior, goes missing after a night out with friends. She was last seen leaving a party with Alex, a football player with a dubious reputation. But no one is talking.Now three mothers, Catherine, Leslie and Morgan, friends turned frenemies, have their lives turned upside down as they are forced to look to their own children—and each other’s—for answers to questions they don’t want to ask.Each mother is sure she knows who is responsible, but they all have their own secrets to keep and reputations to protect. And the lies they tell themselves and each other may just have the potential to be lethal in this riveting debut.

    Life changes little for him from day to day until he brings home a young drifter he meets at the railroad tracks, the mysterious Charlene, whose last name he never asks. He becomes her Sweet Billy Ray and his love for Charlene is steady and uncomplicated until the sheriff shows up to take her away in handcuffs. With the only woman he has ever loved behind bars for cold-bloodedly murdering the old man across the road, a confused and devastated Billy Ray sets out on a quest to find the truth, only the truth, whether it leads him to be able to save his Charlene from a death sentence or it frees him from her spell.

    Original.

    The exclusive King’s Club resort casino is a glittering playground for gamblers with everything to gain…and the hunting ground for a shadowy killer with nothing to lose. So far, the odds are in his favor. Until casino owner Jay King places his bets on a beautiful private invesigator. . .Kasey Atwood is an expert at undercover surveillance, and no stranger to this dazzling world of high stakes and low morals. Her attraction to the sensual, enigmatic King is immediate–and incendiary. As their love affair heats up, she becomes a pawn in a dangerously seductive game of passion and revenge. Then more innocent blood is shed, and Kasey knows she can’t afford to make one false move. At risk is nothing less than her heart–and her life. . .

    When forensic nurse Timmie Leary-Parker moves from LA to Puckett, Missouri to care for her ailing father, she's prepared for the slow pace, the small-town politics and the feeling that everyone knows her business.Then, patients in the hospital's Alzheimer's Unit start dying in unprecedented numbers.Everyone refuses to investigate the town's most lucrative business, and no one will come against the hospital's Golden Boy director.No one, except Timmie.Convinced a serial killer walks the Alzheimer's Unit where her father lies ill, Timmie digs up a burned-out Pulitzer-winning reporter and dives into a quagmire of corruption and greed.

    As a stranger approaches, Beth panics and covers the evidence. But when she later returns to the beach, the skull is gone.Determined to find solid evidence to bring to the police, Beth digs deeper into the mystery of the skull and everywhere she goes, Keith Henson, the stranger from the beach, seems to appear. He claims to be keeping an eye on her safety, but Beth senses other motives. Then a body washes ashore, and Beth begins to think she needs more help than she bargained for. Because investigating is a dangerous game, and someone wants to stop Beth from playing. "

    

    She saw him in the shadows.  She felt him watching her.  She knew he was going to get her...The killer always left a signature on his victims...an X carved in their flesh.  But he'd spent the last twenty years in a mental hospital.  Long enough for the world to forget him.  But not long enough for him to forget the rich old woman who had him committed--or her pretty granddaughter.Now he's been set free.Ellie Duveen was busy running her own restaurant and tenderly watching over her fragile grandmother.  Then she met former cop Dan Cassidy, the owner of a local vineyard, and Ellie's hectic life slowed just enough to let her fall in love.So Ellie didn't notice when police found a dead body marked with a grisly X.  She only felt someone watching her.  Following her.  And as a terrifying secret came back from the past to haunt her, Ellie needed an ex-cop's instincts and more.  She needed her own unshakable courage to outsmart a killer's deadly, twisted plan.

    But the emotional pleas of a pretty woman have some how lodged inside the usually practical investigator’s head. Ashe mulls it over, probing the theft of an expensive roping horse seems much more interesting than the mundane pleasures of sun, surf, and dinners alone. However, when Rocky arrives at Glenn Gridley’s northern Utah ranch, he unearths far more trouble than he bargained for. Multiple horses have been stolen from the cantankerous rancher and have been mysteriously replaced with worthless look-alikes. Then Gridley’s attractive and persuasive daughter, Shanice, finds someone from her past on the family property—very much dead. What started as a simple investigation of theft has escalated into a murder investigation, and as Rocky edges closer to the truth, he is targeted as the next victim. Tensions peak, and Rocky realizes he must shield Shanice and her daughter from an unknown enemy. It seems someone wants to destroy the entire Gridley family. Now Rocky must summon every bit of his faith and courage to protect the woman he has come to love as he is tested in the fires of his most dangerous case to date.

    Four years later, the aftershocks still ripple through the town, and no one feels them more than Natasha Hawthorne, the young driver. When someone targets the survivors of the horrific crash for murder, the obvious motive is revenge. But things aren’t always what they seem, and the notion of revenge served cold doesn’t ring true with Brady Simms, newly appointed police chief. To make things even more difficult, Brady ultimately finds himself standing squarely between the killer and his next victim, the woman who broke his heart four years ago. As the killer escalates his attacks, Brady’s only hope of saving the intended victims is to get into the mind of a sociopath. When the relative of the first victim makes a startling revelation, Brady reopens the investigation and what he finds will change all of their lives forever.

    Barbara Covington has one more chance to save her daughter from a devastating addiction, by staging an intervention. But when eighteen-year-old Emily disappears on the way to drug treatment—and her interventionist is found dead at the airport—Barbara enters her darkest nightmare of all. Barbara and her son set out to find Emily before Detective Kent Harlan arrests her for a crime he is sure she committed. Fearing for Emily’s life, Barbara maintains her daughter’s innocence. But does she really know her anymore? Meanwhile, Kent has questions of his own. His gut tells him that this is a case of an addict killing for drugs, but as he gets to know Barbara, he begins to hope he is all wrong about Emily. The panic level rises as the mysteries intensify: Did Emily’s obsession with drugs lead her to commit murder—or is she another victim of a cold-blooded killer?

    Her husband, Gray, loves her fiercely; together, they dote on their beautiful young daughter, Victory. But the bubble surrounding Annie is pricked when she senses that the demons of her past have resurfaced and, to her horror, are now creeping up on her. These are demons she can't fully recall because of a highly dissociative state that allowed her to forget. Disturbing events trigger strange and confusing memories for Annie, who realizes she has to quickly piece them together before her past comes to claim her future . . . and her daughter.

    But over time she is becoming more unsure if Jack has ever loved her ? and if he is over the death of Eve, his first wife. When fate intervenes in their relationship, Libby decides to find out all she can about the man she hastily married and the seemingly perfect Eve. Eventually Libby stumbles across some startling truths about Eve, and is soon unearthing more and more devastating family secrets. Frightened by what she finds and the damage it could cause, Libby starts to worry that she too will end up like the first woman Jack loved...Tense and moving, The Woman He Loved Before explores if the love you want is always the love you need ? or deserve.

    The day begins with the jarring discovery that, soon after ending an affair, Laurel is pregnant. But when she returns home to find her husband ashen, unkempt, and on the brink of violence, a nightmare quickly unfolds. In the heart of an idyllic Mississippi town, behind the walls of her perfect house, Laurel finds herself locked in a volatile standoff with a husband she barely recognizes. Confronted with evidence of her betrayal, she must tread a deadly path between truth and deception while a ring of armed police prepares a dangerous rescue. But Laurel's greatest fear -- and her only hope -- lies with her former lover, a brave man whom fate has granted the power to save both Laurel and her children -- if she can protect his identity long enough....