For Sam, years of infertility, followed by an unthinkable tragedy, have left her despairing of ever having a child. Money is tight, and IVF is expensive. Sam’s only hope may be to ask her sister to be a surrogate. Alex will do anything for Sam, but when the sisters embark upon an unorthodox route to surrogacy, jealousy, guilt, and legal complications soon follow.As the limits of sisterly devotion are tested, the family’s hidden wounds and secret addictions come to light, shaking the foundation of their marriages and their lives.An emotional story of a woman’s struggle with infertility and a riveting book about the complexities of family, Across the Street makes an excellent selection for book clubs.

    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.

    Her team of unexpected allies harbors its own destructive secrets, leading Nicole on a dangerous mission to the heart of the society. As time and options dwindle, can Nicole make one last stand to save herself and her friends?

    

    I’m Lorna Doone. Yep, spelled just like the cookie and I own the Peaches ‘N Cream Café here in Weston. You might think nothing much happens in a small mid-western town, but as my friend Harriett says, things aren’t always what they appear. Take our girl Emma for example…”Emma Lewis has a lot on her plate. The single mother of two precocious twin boys and an aging mother who is having trouble getting through each day, the last thing Emma needs is a man in her life, especially a doctor. So when the town’s doctor goes on vacation and his handsome nephew takes over, Emma is shocked to not only find him standing in her bedroom, but accusing her of being a neglectful parent.Clint Preston came to Westen for the year to fill in as the town doc while his uncle took a long needed vacation. Clint also needed a sense of peace and calm to try to find his passion for medicine burned out by long shifts in an urban hospital’s ER. Angered to find two boys in his clinic with broken wrists and no accompanying parent, he is determined to confront their mother. The feisty redhead he meets quickly dispels his belief that she’s a neglectful mother, but he can see her situation is more critical than she wishes to face and finds himself volunteering to help care for her sons and the remodeling of her home.As Emma and Clint forge a relationship among the slightly off-beat characters that inhabit Weston a menace from Emma’s past threatens her and her sons. Clint and Emma join forces to prevent the loss of either boy and the love they’ve discovered in each other’s’ arms.

    Love Me (Book 1)When Helen Brody needed her office repaired, she never expected that the contractor would be Jamie Evans, the man with whom she shared an unforgettable night a year earlier. Jamie hasn't forgotten Helen, either, and now that he's found her, he's determined not to let her get away again.Helen can't get involved with Jamie, because he wants something she can't give him, but she can't deny the explosive, out of control attraction between them. As they try to work through their feelings, they find that the hit and run driver who destroyed Helen's office has more plans for her. Will they have only a handful of nights together, or will they have the chance to build something lasting?Watch Me (Book 2) When Tessa Porter returns home from work one evening to find her apartment has been broken into, the Chicago nurse is shocked when the detective who responds to her call is her sexy neighbor – the one she's been fantasizing about. She'd caught a naughty glimpse of him through her window one morning, but Quinn Donovan is even hotter in the flesh.Quinn had spotted Tessa through his window, as well, and when he meets her in person, his reaction is hard to conceal – or control. Their passion and desire are overwhelming, but what will happen when Quinn wants more – and Tessa is hiding a secret?Find Me (Book 3) After witnessing the murder of an FBI agent in a parking garage late one night, Lizzy Monroe meets with the FBI and agrees to work with a sketch artist. But on her way out of the office, she comes face to face with the killer – another FBI agent. She knows from experience what happens when a criminal is a member of law enforcement – cops protect their own. So when the killer shows up at her door later that morning, she knows she has no choice but to run.From the moment he sees her, Mac Donovan is intrigued by – and in lust with – their beautiful witness. After Lizzy disappears, he spends his free time tracking her down. When he finally finds her on a remote island in the San Juans, their chemistry is explosive and the sex is even hotter. But he's hiding his identity from her. What will happen when she discovers who he really is? Will she be able to forgive his betrayal? Or will the killer find them first?

    Yet, the man she has loved all her life will not warm up to her.Rajeev, a hotshot movie director, has feelings for Ishaani. But, she is his sister's best friend and has been like another sibling to him. Yet, what can he do if he feels compelled to make her his own?Then, Ishaani's life changes overnight. She is no longer a lowly commoner but a princess.She has to make some tough decisions to protect the man she loves.Her choices lead them both down a path filled with shocking revelations and devastating consequences.Will true love prevail?Or will the many twists of fate tear them apart?

    The young military widow leaves dozens of messages for her father but receives no response. Looking for a copy of her mother’s obituary, Roxie reads an article in the newspaper and discovers her entire life is a web of lies, secrets, and deceit. The story sends her off in search of the truth about the man she idolized. She drives to her father’s birthplace—Manhattan, Kansas—and moves into her grandmother’s huge, three-story, hundred-and-fifty-year-old house. It’s been vacant for decades, but Roxie begins to believe she’s not the only occupant. She doesn’t know if there’s an intruder or if the spirit of her grandmother is watching over her. In only a matter of days, someone has made several attempts on her life. She calls in her best friend, Janice Tallchief—retired on a disability from the Kansas City Police Department—to act as her bodyguard. Can Jan and Roxie unravel the mystery before the killer succeeds?

    They could hardly be more different, so why do they feel so connected? Gavrielle Rozmann (daughter of Ilana Rozmann from The Lonely Tree) is on leave from a career in the Israeli army. After suffering personal loss and the general trauma of the Yom Kippur War – and the horrific terror attacks that followed it, she is also dealing with a personal crisis. Born an orphan, she has received information that a man in Florida might be able to help her find the father she has never known. Should she get on a plane for Florida? Instead, she boards one for Rome – for a vacation and time to think. There she meets Charlie Freeman (from Whatever Happened to Mourning Free?).Charlie, a young black man, has just graduated from the University of Michigan and Charlene, the white woman who has given him a home, has big plans for him. She believes he could become a true leader, following in the footsteps of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.But her plans have little to do with the future he envisions for himself. What better place for a student of art and architecture to take time for reflection than the open air museum called Rome? These two strangers – who seem to have absolutely nothing in common – discover they share a basic reality that other people may find difficult to understand. The Summer of 1974 draws you into the lives of believable, well-developed characters. People you care about, even when you don’t approve of their actions. Though set in a specific historical/political context, this book is about personal relationships – love, friendship, and family.

    She couldn’t have been more wrong… A STICKY INHERITANCE – BOOK 1 Sometimes the truth can be a sticky thing… Nicole Fitzhenry-Dawes feels like the only failure amid a family of high achievers. Her boyfriend turned out to be married, and her career as a defense attorney is in tatters. When she inherits her uncle’s maple syrup farm, she thinks it’s time for a change—one that keeps her far away from bad guys. For half a day at least. Her uncle’s suicide wasn’t a suicide at all. And as Nicole closes in on his killer, she not only risks becoming the murderer’s next victim, but also starts to wonder if knowing the truth is ever worse than believing the lie… BUSHWHACKED – BOOK 2 Sometimes the most beautiful places hide the darkest secrets… What former lawyer Nicole Fitzhenry-Dawes wants is to peacefully run her maple syrup farm. What she gets is a body run over by her car. It turns out to be the manager of the local animal shelter, and his death wasn't the accident it at first seems. With a little finagling, Nicole convinces the interim police chief to allow her to help with the case, even though she’s also busy trying to settle in to her new role as owner of Sugarwood and figure out her unusual friendship with the county medical examiner. As Nicole closes in on being able to put the killer behind bars, will she manage to find the evidence she needs before the murderer puts her in a cage—or a body bag—instead? ALMOST SLEIGHED – BOOK 3 The truth always comes with a price… Former lawyer Nicole Fitzhenry-Dawes has finally settled in to her new home in Fair Haven, and her first maple syrup season is upon them. It’s not going as smoothly as she’d hoped. Their sap lines keep springing leaks, and as if that wasn’t enough, Nicole finds their groom-mechanic, Noah, apparently trampled in one of the horse stalls. Fair Haven’s interim police chief is ready to declare it an accident, but Nicole believes otherwise. With Noah in a coma, she’s determined to figure out who wanted to kill him before the perpetrator can return and finish the job. But whoever attempted to kill Noah has other ideas and is willing to do whatever it takes to stop Nicole from discovering the truth—even destroy Sugarwood and the man Nicole loves. These books are "clean" reads and contain no swearing, gore, or steamy bedroom scenes. While the series is best enjoyed in order, each book is a complete mystery on its own.

    Matthew Lassiter will learn that lesson in many ways. At a crossroads, he wonders if being a high school coach is all there is for him, until…ribs, peach cobbler and Leah Saxton walks into his life. Leah Saxton has a father who believes a woman’s place is in the kitchen, and having babies. According to him, a brain is a terrible waste in a woman. Determined not to bow to his or any man’s will, she constantly battles to be a force in her father’s world, until…Matthew Lassiter walks into her life. Sexual tension explodes from the first kiss to the last as the two learn the road they are traveling leads to their destiny. Adonis: An everyday hero with an impressive punch.

    

    It’s a lie, of course. What I mean is, I remember so very little.’ Tom Haworth is struggling against the fragility of his own mind as it surrenders to what seems an increasingly hostile world. He begins to be haunted by vivid dreams that transport him into a different life and to a treeless forest, high in the stark moorland of industrial England around the time of the First World War. There he meets family he never knew existed and a girl called Clara, whom he recognises as the blueprint for every woman he has ever loved. Back in the present, he discovers he is losing days: vaguely remembered yesterdays in which he has acted out of character, as if someone were taking his place. Tom traces back through his family tree and discovers the characters in his dreams to be real and not just products of his unstable subconscious. Where are the ‘memories’ coming from? Has madness finally taken hold? And is Clara lost to him forever, or will she be his salvation? A story of redemption and rebirth that weaves compellingly between different times and different lives. Inspired by a gravestone in a remote Pennine cemetery, this story had been nagging at the author for over a decade. Eventually he gave in.

     Tonight she’s been sent out to investigate a tragic domestic homicide. But it's much worse than that. And when she realizes who the likely killer is, she can’t believe what the evidence is telling her. Maybe she shouldn’t. She knows this man. Or thought she did. Now she has to prove him innocent of crimes he didn’t commit. But is he innocent or a sadistic serial killer? And will she be the next victim? THE MIRANDA'S RIGHTS MYSTERY SERIES Someone Else's Daughter Delicious Torment Forever Mine Fire Dancer Thin Ice THE MIRANDA AND PARKER MYSTERY SERIES All Eyes on Me Heart Wounds Clowns and Cowboys The Watcher Zero Dark Chocolate Trial by Fire Smoke Screen The Boy Snakebit Mind Bender Roses from My Killer The Stolen Girl Vanishing Act Predator Retribution Most Likely to Die (more to come) MAGGIE DELANEY POLICE THRILLER SERIES Chicago Cop Good Cop Bad Cop

    If her parents' horrendous marriage isn’t enough to convince her that love sucks, her job as a marriage counselor is. The one thing Bree hates more than love is a man with too much money. When Jakob enters her life, he's already got two strikes against him. He's filthy rich, and he says he loves her. King of his lion pride, Jakob’s model good looks, and muscles that would shame a bodybuilder work for him in the board room, easing the wounds of his corporate killings. Surrounded by yes men, Jakob's used to getting what he wants… until he meets Bree. He's drawn to her sexy curves and fierce independence, but she insists that they're all wrong for each other. When Bree is faced with extreme danger, he will stop at nothing to save her and claim her as his mate. But, will Bree accept Jakob's love before it's too late, or will her stubbornness be the end of her? WARNING: THIS BOOK IS INTENDED FOR READERS OVER 18.