Wednesday, December 30, 2015

My Research into ESP: ATHENA'S SECRETS by Donna Del Oro

From THE DELPHI BLOODLINE series/ATHENA’S SECRETS

My Personal Research into ESP Phenomena
By Donna Del Oro

It started with my cousin. She was a full-time, practicing psychic. People came from all over California for her “readings”, at which she claimed an approximately 85% accuracy. She even got involved with the local police and guided one city’s homicide detectives in solving murder cases.
One day, while in my 40’s, I decided to get a reading from her. Extremely skeptical—although I’d known her all my life and knew she wasn’t a con artist—I arrived, fully expecting a lot of lucky guesses on her part. An hour later, I left dazed and confused. How did she know that my husband and I were deliberating over which of two investment opportunities to take. We hadn’t mentioned this to anyone, not even anyone in my family or my husband’s. The one my cousin advised against—and which we didn’t take, fortunately—ended up in bankruptcy a year later. There were other revelations that day that proved true in the months to come.

And so, I became intrigued by this strange phenomena known as ESP, or sometimes psi. Whatever you called it, it was known as “extrasensory perception”. My cousin claimed to be a “clairvoyant”, or able to “see” what most humans cannot see. Her insights into people, their health, and other personal facts were amazing to me. People in my family both welcomed and dreaded her phone calls. It was often: “You’ve got diabetes,” “You have a cancerous tumor in your bladder. See a doctor immediately”, “Your appendix is infected. Get yourself to a hospital now!” One close friend of the family received one of her calls. She told her that her brother was dying of cancer and that this friend should call him as soon as possible. The friend insisted that her thirty-five year-old brother was perfectly healthy and they’d just spoken days before. However, my cousin persisted and prevailed, even over objections of the friend’s brother. Two weeks later, the friend’s brother called back. He’d seen a doctor, had gotten a series of tests, and his prognosis was grim. He died a year later after a valiant battle against cancer.

The experience with my cousin prompted me to open my mind and begin a thirty-year exploration into ESP. I took an ESP Workshop at Foothill College from a Czech physicist who had once worked for the Moscow Institute for Psychic Research. I read books about the CIA’s Stargate program, only some of which has been declassified. Other books, including those about “Near-Death Experiences” and my own personal, “clairvoyant” experiences, have also been catalysts for further investigation.
What I’ve learned has convinced me that clairvoyance does exist, and that perhaps to some extent, precognition. Many people have incredible, intuitive abilities and many share this gift with others, at no intent of monetary gain but simply a desire to help others. A poll cited in the Journal of Parapsychology showed that at least sixty percent of Americans believe that they have had at least one psychic experience in their lives.

The difference between a true psychic and a charlatan, or someone who uses trickery and seeks profit or notoriety? Only one does it for monetary gain. True psychics, as do the psychic women in ATHENA’S SECRETS (Book One, THE DELPHI BLOODLINE Series) share their gifts quietly and gratuitously with others and with law enforcement officials who are open to their help. My heroine, Athena Butler—a clairvoyant and artist—finds herself reluctant at first but, encouraged by her mother, offers her insights to a team of Metro homicide detectives in D.C. and to British Intelligence officers in charge of protecting the British Ambassador and his Embassy staff. Doing this, of course, puts her in the crosshairs of a serial killer and a terrorist cell.

Like my cousin, Athena aims to share her gift with others…quietly and with no intention of gaining fame or fortune.

Click here to purchase from Wild Rose Press, Nook or Amazon

Tuesday, December 29, 2015

A First Line Whose Time Has Come by Phil Fragasso

"The first time I saw her it was raining.”

That’s the opening line of my novel, Still Counting. It’s a line that’s been rattling around in my head for about 20 years, but I’d never found the right place to use it – until I began writing my first romance. I had an idea to write an Erich Segal-like Love Story for the 21st century. I wanted the characters to deal with contemporary issues on top of the usual complications of young love, and I wanted them to be thrown together at a moment of deep emotion.

So what’s that have to do with rain? I envisioned Adam, the male lead, leaning against his Jeep grieving the loss of his beloved chocolate Lab. I included rain partly to add ambience to the scene; but also to signal Nina, the female lead, that this young man was clearly in pain. Think about it this way – a guy leaning against his car in bright sunshine might just be soaking up the rays or waiting for someone. The same guy doing the same thing in the rain tells a whole different story.

So this was a classic case of killing three birds with one stone (not that I would ever kill a bird or any other non-insect being). I introduced Adam’s loss, established Nina’s generous and empathetic nature, and got to use the opening line that’s waited two decades to be released onto the world.
Phil Fragasso

Monday, December 28, 2015

Review: SECRET ADMIRER ( A Candy Hearts Romance) By Ally Hayes

 SECRET ADMIRER ( A Candy Hearts Romance) By Ally Hayes
Review by: Peggy Jaeger
5 stars!

            A fresh start in a new town and at a new job are just what almost-30 Andi needs. And flirting with the hot guy she sees in her new favorite coffee shop each morning is a welcome bonus. If she could only discover what his name is without seeming too aggressively flirty.

            Combined with the new job are new office friends, and when Andi takes the plunge to meet an even wider circle of  “friends of new-friends,” she discovers a texting soul mate in a guy named Garret, who sounds almost too good to be true. Through a series of missed how-do-you-do-meetings and family obligations, they are prevented from a face-to-face encounter, but the texting relationship grows more intense with each new missive they send.

            Coffee shop guy looks better every time Andi sees him, and when she finally discovers his name, she starts to devise a way to get to know him over more than just their morning caffeine shot.

            Andi now knows the name of one hot guy, but not the other, and both are making her girly parts go zing! What’s a girl to do?

            SECRET ADMIRER is a quick, cute and thoroughly enjoyable, satisfying read. Ally Hayes has that rare ability to draw you straight into the lives of her characters as a reader, and right into Andi’s life and dating dilemmas.  I highly recommend you add SECRET ADMIRER to your Valentine day reading list.

Available for Pre-order on Amazon

Saturday, December 26, 2015

That Magical Space Where I Write

I think one of our tools, as a writer, should be a special work space.  Do you have an extra room? Even, if its all you have, a large closet will serve.  Somewhere you can call you own, a space that will, I promise you, become a creative oasis. Where no one enters except  by invitation.
And it can change from day to day. I have interviewed many authors and they write on the beach, a coffee shop, on the train, in a lonely cabin in the mountains.

I've always had the luxury of a spare room to call my studio.  On my walls I am surrounded by my own water color work, framed letters from my publisher, photos of theatre productions. In one corner is my desk and a comfortable chair.  My desktop computer has the place of honor as I do all my writing there.  I simply can't write long hand as I cannot write fast enough when the spirit is on me!  I type seventy five words a minute and sometimes that's too slow….
I tend to write in my head, until it threatens to explode, then move to my keyboard
More from my twice weekly blog>> http://www.writeratplay.com/2015/11/28/that-special-room-to-write-in/#more-545
 
Trisha Sugarek, AuthorPlaywright, Poet, & Blogger
Visit:  www.writeratplay.com
'The Taste of Murder', Book 5: The World of Murder 
NOW AVAILABLE!!  The Creative Writer's Journal
 
 




 
 
 

Wednesday, December 23, 2015

LADY AND TELESCOPE -- Cassandra of MY DIVINELY DECADENT DUKE


Hello Writers and Readers:

I’ve been blogging about inspiration pieces, and a number of years back, I came across the framed prints below in a catalog and was intrigued. I cut them out and pasted them on index stock and it occurred to me that I wanted to target my plot based on these images.

The Lady and the Telescope called to me. She was obviously searching for someone or something on the horizon. I loved her clothing and adapted it somewhat for a description in my Regency novel MY DIVINELY DECADENT DUKE writing as Sandra Masters.

Long blonde hair, blue eyes, an attractive woman, and the ocean, what a picture it represented. Was she looking at a ship in the distance? Was she searching for something? Or was she waiting for Neptune, the ocean god to come to claim her and fulfill her dreams? She had been to a gypsy fortune teller who advised her that a handsome prince would soon come to her, but nothing happened….until she turned from the telescope and walking toward her was the Duke of Althorn, whom she had met briefly when they’d attended a ball. On that awful night, her fiancé had broken his engagement to her. They were to be married in ten days. Her reputation would be ruined.

Who came to her rescue? Of course, the Duke of Althorn, an acknowledged rake, who overheard the dastardly conversation while reclining in a high wing back chair in a drawing room, seemingly out of sight. Her fiancé, the blighter, left the room. The Duke made his presence known, and we have the introduction of two people who will have a whirlwind relationship fraught with romance, passion, intrigue, deception and redemption. We also have the start of my second novel for The White Rose Press.

The picture of the children spoke to me—a pretty blonde haired child in a pinafore and a tow- headed young boy in a suit and I imagined them a little bit older. The girl was eight and the legal ward of her brother, the Earl, but it was Cassandra to whom she belonged. The daughter of a best friend who died in childbirth who begged the young eighteen year old schoolmate to raise her child.  How could Cassandra refuse? The little boy was the son of her brother’s late wife, four years old, and a threat to the Earl’s new wife who despised Cassandra and the children.

And therein lies the conflict for Cassandra, who now finds herself without a future husband, an evil sister-in-law who has made it plain she wants them out of her sight, and our heroine who seeks security and safety for herself and her ward.

The last thing our duke wants is a future wife. He has a past but he is now the respectable, if not renowned Duke of Althorn, a dukedom he inherited when his father and the elder brother died. As a second son he had no responsibilities, but now he has them all and he is content with his life.

His mother, the dowager duchess, had an injury to her brain, and lost her speech. Her caregivers were found lacking.

So we have the juxtaposition of two people with a dire need: Security and safety for Cassandra and her ward, Alicia…the duke with a need for a compassionate, able caretaker for his mother. Desperation leads Cassandra to offer a marriage of convenience to the duke. At first he is outraged at her arrogance and refuses, but the latest caretaker has been dismissed for her callous care of his adored mother.

In a fertile mind, these are the situations which ferment and cause a novel to be written. The last picture is the cover of the duke, with his lion clan tattoo, and the blonde woman in the background.

Where and why did he get a tattoo, most unusual for an aristocratic second son and most importantly, who inked him? What is the secret he harbors? What other startling revelations will he learn?

And what does Cassandra mean to him? Does he marry her? What else has fate planned for the two of them?  Find out when the book is released on January 29, 2016. Available in digital and print versions.

Sandra Masters


 
From a humble beginning in Newark, NJ, a short stay at a convent in Morristown, NJ, to the board rooms of NYC to the ballrooms of the Regency period, to the rural foothills of the Sierras of Yosemite National Park, Sandra Masters has always traveled with pen and notebook. She left her corporate world behind and never looked back. Writer of sizzling Regency romance.  Spicy Sensual Seduction with Swagger.






Monday, December 21, 2015

Feliz año Nuevo from Peru

Christmas in the southern hemisphere is not one for singing “White Christmas.” Jill, in Peril, Passion, Peru, imagines Santa in an old-fashioned two-piece red and white striped bathing suit, the top pulling up as he slides down the chimney, exposing his belly button that glows like Rudolph’s nose. I was home with family on Christmas day but flew to Peru on the 26th (my birthday) and was there for New Year’s Eve and lots of confetti drifting down at midnight to sprinkle Lima’s streets. I was up early the next morning. Not many people were on the streets, but there were lots of policemen, and I greeted all I passed with “Feliz año Nuevo.” Everyone smiled back and repeated the greeting, so I’ll pass it along here to friends and fans. Feliz año Nuevo and Happy New Year!

Eve Dew Crook
Taking the Tumble
Peril, Passion, Peru

Friday, December 18, 2015

Kimberly Keyes, Romance Author and Friendly Tour Guide

One of the things I enjoy in writing a new book is learning about the locale where my story takes place, then offering my readers a taste. For instance, I’m working on a contemporary series right now set in Copper Mountain, Colorado, a great little ski town I’ve visited many times. You better believe I’ll be describing some of the local hangouts, the après ski joints, and the mountain itself. I want it to feel like you’ve seen the place by the time you’ve finished reading one of my books.

LOVER’S LEAP, my recent contemporary release, takes place in Lake Tahoe and the surrounding area. I’ve been to Tahoe to ski, but have never spent a summer in the area, so I had to do some major research.

A couple of facts you may or may not know are, Tahoe is mostly located in Cali, but when flying there, you use the Reno International Airport in Nevada. Like I mentioned, most of Tahoe is in California. Some is in Nevada, and many people who go there to vacation choose the area in order to enjoy the Nevada’s casinos. And did you know certain parts of Tahoe are just a drive away from other major California cities, like San Fransisco?

Summers at the lake are very cool, even just cruising around in your rent-a-car (or Aston Martin, if you’re Logan Shaw, LOVER’S LEAP’s hero). There’s a cool scenic road, around 72 miles in diameter, that encompasses the lake, that’s a tourist attraction all on its own.

One of my favorite discoveries was the little California town called Truckee, driving distance from Tahoe. The area was once inhabited by Native Americans mainly of the Washoe Tribe. Truckee is named for one Washoe Indian mistakenly thought to be called “Tro-kay.” (It turns out, that was something the Native American often said. It means “all is well.” People thought he was trying to introduce himself, however, and were attempting to name the town after him.)

The town built up around a habitable section of the eastern pass over the Sierra Nevadas to California currently known as the Donner Pass. It’s ripe with colorful history, like the account of one group of travelers (the Donner party) who got stuck in Truckee trying to make the pass one brutal winter. As the story goes, the party was reduced to cannibalism to survive. There’s a Donner museum in Truckee if you want to learn more.

I mention an actual coffee shop, name changed slightly, in LOVER’s LEAP. Wild Cherries Coffee is on my bucket list next time I make it to Tahoe!


The best find was when I read the story of Chief No-name and the Legend of Lover’s Leap. Yep, that’s what sparked the inspiration for the name of my book. Lover’s Leap is the name of an actual cliff in California. It’s supposed to be Chief No-name himself, having turned to stone after causing the death of his beloved daughter. Want more details? Then you’ll have to either consult Dr Google or better yet, read LOVER’S LEAP because I think you’ll vastly prefer to experience Logan’s rendition when he tells Candace (my heroine) the story one starry night in Tahoe.

Kimberly Keyes
author of LOVER’S LEAP, a contemporary romance
http://www.KimberlyKeyes.net
and on Facebook

Wednesday, December 16, 2015

Gambling on a Riverboat by DeeDee Lane


Five Fun Things!
When I write our Christmas letter, which frankly speaking is sometimes a “Valentine’s Day letter,” or a “Never” letter, I include a list of five fun things we did during the year just past. So this is a list of five fun things about being on a gambling riverboat. Unlike my heroine in, My Gambling Man, I cannot time slip to 1835, and board a gambling riverboat traveling down the Mississippi River. Although, I do think I’d look quite dashing in a tall stovepipe hat worn by gambling men of the time! So I am sharing these thoughts from my experience aboard the Emerald Queen a stationary paddlewheel riverboat casino run by the Puyallup Tribe of Washington state from 1996 to 2004.

1) The creak and groan and bobbing movement of being on board a riverboat with a large paddlewheel. Even though we were not moving it was wonderful to lean out over the gold plated railings on deck and feel the flow of water beneath.
2) The buffet where I learned that prime rib is the PERFECT delivery device for horseradish. And that made me learn the joy of clutching the table with eyes tearing after chewing a perfectly dosed bite of meaty horserasdishy goodness.
3) Mystery shows where I could set up my friends as suspects, rat people out with abandon, make up lies, create other personas and generally have a great time that always ended with SOMEONE in handcuffs.
4) The slots of course! I’ve never been a big fan of table games, at least the ones where I have to bet money on the draw of the cards. However, I am definitely willing to double my twenty dollars on the penny taking “Copper Droppers.”
5) The moonlight reflected on the water was a beautiful sight to see. For me it was especially mesmerizing in the romantic ambience of a riverboat.
The Emerald Queen, at least the riverboat casino part, is no longer in use and at last report sits empty in its same berth at the Port of Tacoma. The Puyallup Tribe Emerald Queen Casino digs have moved closer to I-5 (The major North/South highway through Washington State) to two locations in Fife and Tacoma. And the legacy of the boat still remains during “The Battle at the Boat” fighting bouts which started at the riverboat, retained the name, but changed their locale to the I-5 Tacoma showroom.
Needless to say I am still looking forward to the time I am on a riverboat that is actually traveling down the Mississippi River. While researching my novella I did find several examples currently running, including the American Queen which cruises from Memphis, TN south to New Orleans, LA. So I guess I need to include the other “list of five things” I write for our Christmas letters… “Five things we’re looking forward to in the coming year.”

DeeDee Lane, My Gambling Man
http://www.deedeelane.com
Click HERE to read more and to purchase

Monday, December 14, 2015

A visit with Sandra Masters

Hello Everyone:

Just a small blog to acquaint you with my writing and background.
Once Upon A Duke was conceived in 2007, reviewed in 2010 and rested in a drawer for a long time. When I decided that before I left the planet I wanted to be published, I made a determination I would hone my craft and not just write for the pleasure. That took about three years of attending seminars, webinars, conferences, joining Author organizations, more online classes than I could imagine, a local critique group, to name a few to become the proverbial sponge that sopped up everything.

My debut novel, Book One of the Duke Series went through a naming process and as I reviewed the cases of edits, I would change the title. One night I woke up and there was this vision of the book and the title, Once Upon A Duke, in color I might add. I am a visual person and I need my props around my desk, computer, on the walls of my office. I discovered that Vistaprint offered posters and I uploaded my graphics and depended on them to help me when I got stuck. I got the large size and my husband made me easels to fit.

When I joined the Yosemite Romance Writers, a RWA Chapter in Fresno, California, I was in awe of the talented members, some of whom were already published and some who were almost there. I felt like a bumpkin and took note of everything. This group had a generosity of spirit and went out of their way to answer a question for me.

I’m also fortunate that my husband who used to read only mystery, thrillers, and the like for many years would not read what I wrote. When he saw my dedication, he asked how he could help me. I informed him that he’d have to start reading Romance books. The expression on his face with a priceless moment—as if I asked him to go take a dip in the cold Polar ocean. However, I did give him books, Nora Roberts and as J.D. Robb, Mary Balogh, Julia Quinn, Sarah MacLean, to mention just a very few. Gone were the thrillers and now he reads voraciously. He encouraged me along the way when a rejection would come in, and I’m fortunate that when I felt my novel was ready, I submitted it. Got two rejections and both houses were constructive in their observations.  One editor encouraged me with her comments, and so I resubmitted, got rejected with merits, and the third time was a charm.

For those of you who remember what it is to get the notice that you’re being offered a contract, the euphoria is unexplainable. I was at the computer, two dogs at my side, writing. Stopped to read an e mail and I screamed. The dogs got upset because they didn’t know what was going on. I jumped up and down, twirled, ran through the house like a banshee. The editor was Cindy Davis to whom I’ll always be grateful for seeing a spark in my writing.

As of the moment, Once Upon A Duke, was released in July 2015. My Divinely Decadent Duke, Book Two, will be released January 29, 2016, and the Rosette mini novella prequel Book Three, Thorn, Son of a Duke, is scheduled for March 9, 2016. The fourth book has not as yet been contracted since I’m rushing to finish it, Book Four, The Duke’s Magnificent Bastard. Book Five has a long story about it, entitled One Night With A Duke.

While Regency Historicals are my love, I also have contemporary works completed waiting for my polishing.

One of the awesome side effects of getting published was that my husband and I discuss characterization, plots, turns, twists, and sometimes the discussions are hot and heavy, but it has enriched our long marriage in ways we couldn’t have imagined.

We were shopping, not looking for anything in particular, and he came across a picture, on sale, and he mentioned the woman’s dress reminded him of the Regency Period. He bought it for me and viola….our master bedroom which was originally Greco-Roman was transformed into a Regency. Take a peek at the pictures. I hope you enjoy them. Our lives have been changed  and the standard joke is:  Write, Write, Write, but quit at four o’clock so we can talk and have our gin and tonics together. If ever you’re in the foothills of the Sierras, give us a jingle and come on over.

My next blog will be about tattoos and all you’ll never need to know again.
Bio:

From a humble beginning in Newark, NJ, a short stay at a convent in Morristown, NJ, to the board rooms of NYC to the ballrooms of the Regency period, to the rural foothills of the Sierras of Yosemite National Park, Sandra Masters has always traveled with pen and notebook. She left her corporate world behind and never looked back. Writer of sizzling Regency romance.  Spicy Sensual Seduction with Swagger.
Nothing she expected, but everything she dreamed.
 





 

Saturday, December 12, 2015

My Great Grandparents Married 100 Years Ago--My Heroine Vita

My great grandparents, James and Josephine Arnone, were married on December 4, 1915. My New York historical romance, FROM HERE TO FOURTEENTH STREET, has been released with The Wild Rose Press, and my heroine Vita is based on her--a woman way ahead of her time. She left grade school to become a successful real estate investor as she married and raised 4 children.

FROM HERE TO FOURTEENTH STREET is Book One of the New York Saga.

It's 1894 on New York's Lower East Side. Irish cop Tom McGlory and Italian immigrant Vita Caputo fall in love despite their different upbringings. Vita goes from sweatshop laborer to respected bank clerk to reformer, helping elect a mayor to beat the Tammany machine. While Tom works undercover to help Ted Roosevelt purge police corruption, Vita's father arranges a marriage between her and a man she despises. When Tom’s cousin is murdered, Vita’s father and brother languish in jail, charged with the crime. Can Vita and Tom’s love survive poverty, hatred, and corruption?

Excerpt:
On her way up the stairs, she glanced down the hall and noticed the closed parlor door. Maybe one of the other boarders was in there with a beau. She smiled in the dark. Let them enjoy themselves. All the girls here had beaux, and they needed privacy without chaperones breathing down their necks during every stage of courting.
As she gathered her soap and towel, Madame Branchard tapped on her door. “You have a gentleman caller, Vita. A policeman.”
“Tom?” His name lingered on her lips as she repeated it. She dropped her things and crossed the room.
“No, hon, not him. Another policeman. Theodore something, I think he said.”
No. There can’t be anything wrong. “Thanks,” she whispered, gently nudging Madame Branchard aside. She descended the steps, gripping the banister to support her wobbly legs. Stay calm! she warned herself. But of course it was no use; staying calm just wasn’t her nature.
“Theodore something” stood before the closed parlor door. He’s a policeman? Curious, she looked him up and down. Tall and hefty, a bold pink shirt peeking out of a buttoned waistcoat and fitted jacket, he looked way out of place against the dainty patterned wallpaper.
He removed his hat. “Miss Caputo.” He strained to keep his voice soft as he held out a piece of paper.
“Yes?” Her voice shook.
“I’m Theodore Roosevelt. I have a summons for you, Miss Caputo.” He held it out to her. But she stood rooted to that spot.
He stepped closer, and she took it from him, unfolding it with icy fingers. Why would she be served with a summons? Was someone arresting her now for something she didn’t do?
A shot of anger tore through her at this system, at everything she wanted to change. It eclipsed her fear, made her blood boil. She flipped it open and saw the word “Summons” in fancy script at the top. Her eyes widened with each sentence as she read. “I can’t believe what I’m seeing.”

Diana Rubino
Click HERE to read more and to purchase



Monday, December 07, 2015

December 7 by Gail Kittleson


Seventy-four years ago, Americans woke to the horrible news of the Pearl Harbor attacks. I can’t let December seventh go by without calling attention to this significant event in our nation’s history.

Many young men went to war during the next months. My grandparents sent their two older sons to the fight, one still in his senior year of high school. The army drafted my dad, too, and my father-in-law. They all came home, but so many others didn’t.

Fifteen years ago, our family visited Normandy and stood in an actual Nazi bunker from which soldiers rained fire on the D-Day invaders. And we spent some time in Dachau, recalling what motivated the Allies.

Much of my writing research involves besieged London, southern France, where the Resistance risked everything to thwart the Nazis, and stateside. Everywhere, people sacrificed for the cause of freedom.

Today, I’d like to honor my father, my father-in-law, my uncles, and so many who waited at home (like my grandparents and my mother.) In This Together, my debut novel, honors them through the heroine’s loss of her son during the war, and her neighbor Al’s continuing challenges from his World War I service.

The story of the long-range effects of the war on a regular, down-to-earth rural Iowa Gold Star mother takes us back in time. Hopefully, readers will resonate to Dottie’s sacrifice.

Originally Posted at http://www.gailkittleson.com/december-7/


Friday, December 04, 2015

Double the Fun - 2 Books on Sale!

From December 5 to 17, 2015, my two World War Two novellas from The Wild Rose Press will be on sale for .99 cents each in various ebook formats. These stories are close to my heart and I’m excited to share them with readers at this amazing price! Here’s a look at the stories:


France, 1942.  The world is at war. The Nazis have stolen the infamous blue diamond, Le Coeur Bleu, intending to barter it for weapons that will destroy the Allies. Jewel thief Hunter Smith is given a choice; help the French Resistance steal back the diamond and avenge the death of his best friend, or stay locked up in an English prison. He chooses revenge.

Resistance fighter Madeleine Bertrand’s husband died when he was betrayed by Hunter Smith. How can she now pretend to be married to the arrogant American? How can she betray Jean Philippe’s memory by her passionate response to Hunter’s kisses? Neither is prepared for the maelstrom of attraction that erupts between them. To survive they must uncover the mysteries of the past and conquer the dangers of the present. But first Madeleine must decide if her loyalties lie with her dead husband and the Resistance or with the greatest love of her life.






Anne Wakefield travels halfway around the world for love. But when she arrives in Canada from England at the end of World War Two, she discovers the handsome Canadian pilot she’d fallen in love with has married someone else. Heartbroken, she prepares to return to London, though she has nothing left there to return to. Her former fiancé’s mother makes a suggestion: marriage to her other son.

Badly wounded and scarred during the war, Erik Gustafson thinks he’s a poor substitute for his brother. Although he loves Anne almost from the first time he sees her, he cannot believe she would ever be able to love him as he is – especially as he might be after another operation on his bad leg.  Anne sees the beauty of his heart. The cold prairie winter may test her courage, but can she prove to Erik that her love for him is real?




I love hearing from readers! Contact me at jana.richards@hotmail.com