Hell, she's the very definition of the girl-next-door do-gooder. And while he is officially classified as a white hat hacker by the suit-wearing folks who keep track of that sort of thing, no one would ever say that hat of his is exactly pristine.So when Skylar's arrival at his doorstep--on the roughest night of the year for him every year--leads to a downright memorable hotel mishap, an impromptu winter road trip, and the discovery of a secret that could change how she sees him forever, Drew is convinced the universe is on some kind of convoluted mission to thaw his cold, jaded heart....Because, lordy, they've certainly sent in a ringer to get the job done right.AUTHOR NOTE: Before That Promise is a quick & emotional, short & sweet crossover novella starring two of my favorite secondary characters -- Skylar Sullivan from my Can't Resist series, all grown up, and Drew Lawson from my Cactus Creek series, as swoonworthy as ever (no worries, you don't have to have read either of those series).There's a HFN (happily-for-now) ending, with the second book in this duet (Every Promise Unspoken) picking up a few years down the line for this utterly meant to be couple. **Note that Book Two will be released after Violet's medical prognosis improves (she's undergoing aggressive new treatments to combat the worsening condition of her two failing organs). We're hopeful that these treatments take and she'll be able to return to work at least partially by the summer. Updates will be available on her website and social media pages.The UNFINISHED LOVE SeriesFour brothers. Each fighting for their second first chance at love. Years be damned.

     Two alpha men can take care of a baby without anything crazy happening, right? Of course they can. Baby fever isn't real, is it? Definitely not. Two Wingmen and a Baby is a romantic comedy short story (<15000 words) and is best read after reading the Wingmen novels Ready to Fall and Confessions of a Reformed Tom Cat.

    Seriously. The guy is like a potassium addict. Of course, I touched it. If you want to get technical, I actually put it in my mouth. I chewed it up, too... I even swallowed.I know. Bad, bad, girl.Then I saw him, and believe it or not, choking on a guy's banana does not make the best first impression. I should backtrack a little here. Before I ever touched a billionaire’s banana, I got my first real assignment as a business reporter. This wasn’t the same old bottom-of-the-barrel assignment I always got. I wasn’t going to interview a garbage man about his favorite routes or write a piece on how picking up dog poop from people’s yards is the next big thing. Nope. None of the above, thank you very much.This was my big break. My chance to prove I wasn’t a bumbling, clumsy, accident-prone walking disaster. I was infiltrating Galleon Enterprises to follow up on suspicions of corruption. Cue the James Bond music.I could do this. All I had to do was land the position as an intern and nail my interview with Bruce Chamberson.Forget the fact that he looked like somebody carved him out of liquid female desire, then sprinkled on some "makes men question their sexuality" for good measure. I needed to make this work. No accidents. No disasters. No clumsiness. All I needed to do was hold it together for less than an hour.Fast forward to the conference room before the interview, and that's where you would find me with a banana in my hand. A banana that literally had his name on it in big, black sharpie. It was a few seconds later when he walked in and caught me yellow-handed. A few seconds after that was when he hired me. Yeah. I know. It didn't seem like a good sign to me, either.

    The town was settled 1820 by the original Winter Texan, Santa Claus. He kissed the snowy North Pole goodbye and moved his whole operation to the sunny Texas Hill Country where there are never blizzard warnings and the only thing icy is his iced tea. When Lana Green crashes her car into the Welcome-to-Christmas-Texas-you’re-not-lost-you’re-exactly-where-you’re-supposed-to-be, sign she doesn’t necessarily agree with the town slogan. She was on her way to Fredericksburg for a business meeting when she got lost in a thunderstorm. Since she has no intention of sleeping in her car during a thunderstorm and she has zero cell reception, she pulls her suitcase out of the trunk and marches toward town. When it comes to hating Christmas, she could give Ebenezer Scrooge a run for his money so visiting Christmas, Texas the week before Christmas is bound to be a lesson in torture. Sheriff Nick Van De Berg is out on patrol when he runs across a Lexus wrapped around the Welcome sign. But the car’s empty. Surely the driver didn’t walk to town through the thunderstorm. As the storm gathers in intensity, so does his fear that something bad has happened to the driver. After checking the fast-swelling river, lower water crossings, and every single road in town, he stops by the Christmas Tree Inn where he finds Lana Green, his college sweetheart and the one that got away, sipping a mug of hot chocolate. His Christmas wish every year since they broke up has been a second chance with Lana. Now his wish has finally come true. Can he convince Lana to take a chance on him and on Christmas, Texas?

    Getting stranded on the side of a mountain was not part of that plan, nor was being rescued by Josh Bailey—a man too confident for his own good—and going back to his ranch to wait out the storm. But the snow isn’t letting up, and with a warm fire keeping them cozy, Gemma and Josh might let their guards down…if past grief doesn’t overshadow their present—and future. Check out the rest of the Haven Point series!1. Snow Angel Cove2. Redemption Bay3. Evergreen Springs4. Riverbend Road5. Snowfall on Haven Point6. Serenity Harbor7. Sugar Pine Trail8. The Cottages on Silver Beach9. Season of Wonder10. Coming Home for Christmas11. Summer at Lake Haven

    With Shane and Bobbi on the outs, Logan and Billie adjusting to sleepless nights and a baby who’s now mobile, things are bad enough. But with newly minted Hollywood superstar, Betty, planning a wedding in town, the potential for disaster is high.Their gramps has been sidelined by a fall and their father is ailing, so can these triplets get it together—and more importantly—get along? Or will they kill each other before the turkey is served? It just might take a miracle for them to survive the holidays without any injuries. With Matt Hawkins and a Simon or two along for the ride, this Christmas will be full of tears, laughs, reflection—and if Betty has her way—a wedding

    With one failed marriage under her own personal belt, Lori had fallen hard and early—and it isn’t something she plans on repeating. She’s content focusing on the temporary marriages of her rich and famous clients. When she joins some of her recent divorcées on a celebratory cruise, her only vow is fun, sun, and new friends. But Lori finds herself tempted by a jury of one.For Reed Barlow, falling into the world of private investigation was easy. He knows the law and knows how to avoid breaking it—all while doing his job. His rule to live by? No emotion, no involvement…until Lori. His charming smile and cocky attitude distracts Lori and lowers her guard, which is exactly what Reed desires.But what appears as a one-time-only flirtation may be a plot orchestrated by Reed. As he’s taking his investigation to a dangerous level, it’s Lori who could end up in jeopardy. Reed has only one shot for Lori to grant him a second chance. But if he comes clean with her, he blows his cover. And that just might cost him the opportunity for an alliance of family…and of love.

    She treasures beading jewelry for her own small business while watching nature and its amazing creatures outside her window. But, her mom begs her to move back to the city so she can find a man to marry. Holly doesn’t want to give up on her dreams, but does that mean she’ll have to give up on love?

    When the judge rejects her offer to pay for the structure and sentences her to rebuild it—with the hot ranger supervising—she embraces the challenge to take control of her life. Park ranger Wade Baker wants nothing to do with the rich city girl, no matter how tempting he finds her lush curves. She’s too much like his ex-fiancée, and if he’s learned anything, it’s that women like Reese don’t fit into his world. And he sure as hell wants no part of her big city life. Reese may not know a hammer from a screwdriver, but she’s working hard to prove she’s not just some pampered princess to be toyed with. And damn it if Wade doesn’t admire her tenacious spirit. If only they got along half as well outside the bedroom as they do in it, there might be a chance for them after all…

    Two years after the DUI that injured a pedestrian, Andy Randall is still making amends. He hopes the Christmas spirit will help him get rehired as a ski instructor, but that job will come with conditions. He can’t afford another mistake, which is exactly what making a play for his former boss and friend, Nikki Steele, would be.Nikki races down double black diamonds and hikes mountains better than most guys, unafraid of tumbling down the slopes. But trusting the guy who once shot her down could end in a fall that actually hurts, especially when she’d have to vouch for him with her boss. Still, the resort needs another instructor to handle the holiday tourists, and Andy’s sexy grin and relaxed charisma make him hard to resist.With both of their reputations now on the line, can Andy convince Nikki that the second chance he wants isn’t only about the job?

    Once enlivened by the trade in Palm Sunday palms and moonshine, Utina hasn’t seen economic growth in decades, and no family is more emblematic of the local reality than the Bravos. Deserted by the patriarch years ago, the Bravos are held together in equal measure by love, unspoken blame, and tenuously brokered truces.The story opens on a sweltering July day, as Frank Bravo, dutiful middle son, is awakened by a distress call. Frank dreams of escaping to cool mountain rivers, but he’s only made it ten minutes from the family restaurant he manages every day and the decrepit, Spanish-moss-draped house he was raised in, and where his strong-willed mother and spitfire sister—both towering redheads, equally matched in stubbornness—are fighting another battle royale. Little do any of them know that Utina is about to meet the tide of development that has already engulfed the rest of Northeast Florida. When opportunity knocks, tempers ignite, secrets are unearthed, and each of the Bravos is forced to confront the tragedies of their shared past.Reminiscent of Kaye Gibbons, Lee Smith, Anne Tyler, and Fannie Flagg, Heart of Palm introduces Laura Lee Smith as a captivating new voice in American fiction.

     “Stephanie Bond never fails to entertain me and deserves to be an auto-buy.” Romance Reviews Today “Need a lift, feeling down? Pick up Stephanie Bond’s latest and your mood cannot help but improve.” CataRomance.com For a feel-good sexy holiday romance, cuddle up with SEEKING SINGLE MALE!

    There’s just one problem: she’s engaged to his oldest friend, Rob. So James toasts their union and swallows his desire.As the years pass, James’s dreams always seem just out of reach—he can’t finish that novel, can’t mend his relationship with his father, can’t fully commit to a romantic relationship. He just can’t move on. But after betrayal fractures Lou’s once-solid marriage, she turns to James for comfort.When Lou and James act on their long-standing mutual attraction, the consequences are more heartbreaking—and miraculous—than either of them could have ever anticipated. Then life throws James one more curveball, and he, Rob, and Lou are forced to come to terms with the unexpected ways in which love and loss are intertwined.

     His FBI career in ruins, Caleb Faulkner is back in his hometown of Applewood to lick his wounds and start again. Years ago, he’d left the little town for the excitement of Chicago and the chance to build a career. Unfortunately it also meant leaving behind Michaela Adams, the woman he loved and adored. Michaela gave up her chance at a lifetime with Caleb to stay and nurse her dying sister and care for her infant nephew. She doesn’t regret her decision but sometimes in the middle of the night she thinks about what might have been. In a tiny hamlet like Applewood, they aren’t going to be able to avoid each other. When Caleb runs into Michaela it’s agonizingly awkward and more emotional than he’d expected. She wants nothing to do with him, which is probably for the best. After all, he doesn’t plan to stick around town for long. Funny how plans can change… Could these two lonely souls have a second chance at true love?

    She fortunately knows just the man for the job. Mike O'Dell. He's cute and smart and funny and good-hearted, and she's been into him for all the years he's worked for her company. Now's the time to make her move. What could go wrong with hiring him as her date for the weekend?An early version of Date for Hire was published in the AUSTRALIA charity anthology. It has since been expanded by 45%.