Second Chance at Love Series
When Push Comes to Shove
Because sometimes all you need is a second chance.
Virgil Push, the golden boy of Vermin County was handed a silver spoon worth 16 million dollars. He used it to sample all the decadence of life. Without care or thought for others, he took the spoon and rode it. Fast and as far away from Vermin County as he could get. But the ride skidded to a stop. All of it slipping away in bankruptcy, poor choices and debauchery. Now Virgil is back in the town he swore never to return to. Divorced, destitute, and serving as mayor, no less. A job he’s been told is easy as pie.
He’s done a lot of shitty things in his life. The worst he’s yet to do. Serving a citation to cease and desist business operations on the home-based business of Miz Ruby Mae Shove. The town’s most beloved widow.
They have a past. One that ended ugly. But the flames of desire had smoldered. For fifteen freakin’ years. Flames of passion and want that distance, time and sacred vows to others could never damper. Or diminish.
He’s got secrets. She does, too. He wants a second chance. A future with her. She wants to keep her business. A roof over her head. The battle of will is about to begin. May the best man — and woman — win.
When Law Met Disorder
Enemies to friends… Distrust to desire… Fragile hope for a precious second chance at love caught in the menacing clutches of greed and corruption.
Officer William Raymond Trainor lives and breathes order. All that changes the day he finds a child abandoned on a desolate mountain. His dull, ordered existence thrust into a fiery battle of wills and desire when an intriguing, exasperating woman with more secrets than she cares to share arrives at his door. Wanting the same thing he wants. Custody of the child. It’s a battle of wills he has no intention of losing. A mystery he has every intention of solving. Not only the one surrounding the very hot Anna McFadden. But the leads he follows pointing to an illegal baby selling ring. In his town!
Anna Lee McFadden was an abused, throw-away child of the mountain. She escaped the only way she knew how. Running away. She’s made a lot of bad choices. The only smart one? Entrusting the wellbeing of her child with her sister back here in Vermin County. But her sister is dead. Her daughter’s wellbeing vilified. Traded away for greed and money. Like Anna’s had been. Except where Anna had been exploited by a police officer, her daughter had been saved by one. One Anna sees as her enemy. Until one searing hot kiss with the darkly, handsome officer stokes all her long-lost dreams into burning desire. And healing love.
Will their newfound love be enough for a second chance? Or will the sins of her past and the greed of the present destroy the future she and Billy so desperately want? Or worse. Will be it be taken with a bullet?
When a Badass Rediscovers a Princess
A devastating industrial accident leaves Brandon Shove at a crossroads in his life. Although, truth be told, it wasn’t solely the accident that brought him here. It was the drugs. The alcohol, and hell. Who was he kidding? He’d been charting this course since he was sixteen. This is the end of the line for him. He has no place else to go. Except one last visit home before he drives himself across the next state and into the ocean to end it all. For good. Hell of a time for the sweetly hot, sexier than hell Melissa Trainor to be standing on her porch. His very own judge and jury.
He deserves her wrath. Her disdain. What he’d done to her was despicable.
So why the hell when he’s dead set on ending it all does he have the urge to dig deep into why she’s suddenly here at home in Vermin County, when her life and her career is in Knoxville? And why is she giving him a reason to live? And maybe… just freakin’ maybe a second chance at love?
When Loves Plays Softly
Gregory Dawson, former FBI, now TBI supervisory agent in charge is hardnosed. Arrogant. Cynical. And those are his good qualities. He sees the worst in humanity and searches for evidence to prove his hunches. Too bad he uses those same tactics in his marriage. His beautiful wife is understanding. But one or two missteps on his part — Hell, make that a dozen or more — and his perfect marriage is in serious peril.
Liza’s given him no reason to doubt. Yet he can’t comprehend, or understand how the former high society, internationally acclaimed piano virtuoso with a legion of admirers could possibly be happy living a quiet life of anonymity. In a backwoods small town in Vermin County, Tennessee, no less. A life necessary to protect her from a sadistic killer who her sole testimony put behind bars. A killer bent on revenge. Even from a jailcell a thousand miles away.
It’s a helluva life. A lot to accept. When love should play softly, theirs is a WWF match of the century. Until the killer escapes, leaving a bloody trail of bodies leading to their door. With lives on the line, doubts are set aside. Roles are reprised. Secrets are revealed. Will they survive long enough to untangle the mess he’s made of their marriage to get a second chance to make things right? Or call the priest for last rites?
When Trouble Comes Calling
To see how it all began, travel back to 1969…
Ray Trainor is the unofficial law in Vermin County. At least since his return from the war in Vietnam. The quiet solitude he craves is shot to hell the day he pulls up to a ditched motorist on the Shiner’s Trail. He knows the non-descript coupe is loaded down with moonshine. Knows the driver is most likely selling. But what he could never have predicted was the gut punch to his heart when he lays eyes on the hotter-than-hell brown-eyed blonde with her own load of sass and willful determination.
Maise Stevens desperately wants a second chance. That’s why she escaped the hell of sexual servitude at the hands of a sadistic moonshiner and sex trafficker. But her run to freedom is cut short when she ditches the car she stole loaded with illegal moonshine. And, lordy, she couldn’t have landed in a bigger danger to her heart than when she sets eyes on the hotly handsome, gun-toting stranger who sweetly and politely claims her heart, mind, body, and soul.
Ray knows Maise has secrets. He has secrets, too. But his won’t get them both killed. He wants a future with her. One that doesn’t involve looking over their shoulders the rest of their lives for a deranged moonshiner, hellbent on revenge in a showdown likely to blow up half of Vermin County. Oh, yeah. Trouble has definitely come callin’.
When Angels Roost Where Devils Tread
Step back in time to 1973 for a love story unlike any other in this series…
A devil’s bargain. That’s what Vincent Push, owner of the Lucky Strike Oil Company made. Coerced into marriage (in name only) to a woman he loathes. Done to save the son he loves. And hell on earth is where he’ll reside for the rest of his miserable life until he stumbles into a dive bar on the outskirts of untapped Oklahoma. Where he finds an earthbound angel tending bar. The sparks of desire arcing between them hot enough to scorch the earth. You know, burn the house down hot.
He, with no future. Wanting nothing more than one night in this angel’s arms. Knowing it isn’t possible because he’s married to the heartless, soulless Maneater of Vermin County. And she’s ruthlessly holding the trump card. His son. The child he won’t give up for anything. Or anyone. But the seductive allure of Rita Santos Murphy is too much to resist. And one night leads to more than he ever thought possible. Or come with so heavy a price.
Rita Santos Murphy, a champion barrel racing, buckle bunny from Burton, Oklahoma faces censure every day of her life. There is no sympathy for the young widow. No compassion. No respectable jobs offered. Which leaves her with no choice but to take the only job available: bartending. Fending off the unwanted advances from the upstanding men of town. All she wants is the freedom to save her ranch. To make her own choices. But it’s 1974. Women don’t have the same freedom and opportunities. Not like a man.
Rita is desperate. Trying to hold onto her ranch. Afraid she’ll lost everything when a handsome drifter with seductive blue eyes and a devil-may-care attitude roars into her life, empowering and encouraging her to be her true self, to live the life she wants, free of the rules of tradition. When she thought she’d sworn off men for good, here is the on man she can’t resist… until Vince’s past and her future collide in a fiery battle of lies, deceit, broken trust and hopeless despair. Can Vince and Rita overcome impossible odds to get their second chance at love their way? Or will the devil’s bargain Vince made destroy them both?
When it Snows in Vermin County
When it snows in Vermin County on Christmas, dreams come true.
It’s Christmas time in Vermin County, Tennessee. But no one feels the holiday spirit since the wildfires that roared down off the mountain, decimating homes, destroying businesses, leaving a divided, contentious town rising from the ashes. Something has to be done.
Sierra Norwalk knows that — better than most, considering she lost her apartment and everything she owned in the fires. She lost her job, too, on the mayor’s staff when she presented her idea for a Holiday Festival to bring the town together through the compassionate magic of Christmas. Desperate, she turns to the one family who’s served this town and all of Vermin County for decades: The Push’s.
What she never expected to find at her meeting Lucas Push. The man she almost slept with two years ago. A man who comes with his own hostility, considering he’s lost his reputation, ruined his father’s chance to be governor through rumors and false allegations of campaign mismanagement. Rumors she knows for fact were started by the current mayor - the one who fired her.
It’s a fine line she walks. Wanting a future with Lucas. Keeping secret her past. And the mayor’s involvement in his fall from grace. When she thinks she’s accomplished the near impossible with the Holiday Festival and that she and Lucas can have a future, his past and hers collide. Can they overcome the obstacles to have a Christmas like no other? And have a second chance at love. Because when it snows in Vermin County on Christmas, dreams really do come true.
To be Released
When There’s a Will There’s a Way
All Will Trainor ever wanted to do was follow in his father and his grandfather’s footsteps. Law enforcement was in their DNA. It’s what Trainor men did. It’s what Will did. Until he took a bullet meant for his sister, saving her life. But ending his career. He’s lost now. Redefining who he is. Or what he could be now that the bullet wound to his arm took away any chance for a career in law enforcement. Security, to him, is a step back from what he wants. Until he’s given the job of handling security while Ashley Dougherty, Nashville’s hottest ticket, does a benefit concert in his hometown.
Ashley is aggravating. Headstrong. Exasperating, as hell. She’s also hot, sexy, and everything Will ever wanted in a woman. She’s perfect… except for the freakin’ secret she’s keeping. One he knows could hurt her. Or worse.
Ashley Dougherty foolishly thought she had her stalker under control. That she was one step ahead of him. Until he finds her in Vermin County at the private wedding of her best friend. Milles away from Nashville. And his threats escalate. If there’s a will, there’s a way. And the only way to eliminate her threat is to face the biggest threat to her heart. Will Trainor.
To be Released
When There’s Smoke There’s Fire
Logan Push fought the fiery demons of the mountain wildfires that consumed a huge portion of his hometown in Vermin County, Tennesse. Not only taking the lives of five of his fellow smoke jumpers, but eating away a big chunk of his soul. He’s wounded. Emotionally. Physically. And spiritually.
Why was his life spared when the others had been taken? And why was he still holed up in his parent’s garage apartment a year after the fires when he had a perfectly good life waiting for him in Colorado? Except his life there hadn’t been all that good. And that was all his fault. Another burden of guilt he carried, because it could have been a great life. A perfect live. Rachel was the love of his life. Everything he ever wanted. So was their son, Josh.
Much as he doesn’t want to face his past, he knows, firsthand, where there’s smoke, there’s fire. And this fiery confrontation, this reckoning he’s been avoiding for 10 months will ignite. And it will either consume him, or temper him, giving him a second chance at love.
To be Released
Turn for Love Series - Sweet Romances
Turn Left for Love
Isabella Mankowski is a born and bred New York journalist. Given the odious assignment to write a captivating, click-worthy article about on-line dating. A subject that has been written about to death. If she doesn’t do as her new editor demands, she loses her job. Her livelihood. And her apartment. It’s a lose-lose situation.
No way is she looking for love. Or expecting to find it. This is an assignment. A do-or-die situation that has her uploading her faux profile on the Heartland agricultural dating app, no less! Swiping right on a potential “love” interest and traveling to the wilds of Central Pennsylvania — farm country — to meet her destiny. At least until she writes her stupid article.
What she never expected was to meet her potential love match… When she turned left. Looking into the captivating, blue eyed gaze of Lloyd Jameson. Her “love” match’s brother. This is bad. Messy bad. Because there’s this instantaneous chemistry that can’t be denied. Chemistry that can’t be pursued because she’s here at Henry’s request. Not Lloyd’s. And the lies and half-truths keep racking up. As does the guilt. Because she can’t tell the truth. Not without losing Lloyd’s respect and affection and skewing the information for her article. Not to mention basing a possible, actual, real lasting relationship on a foundation of lies. A relationship she wants more than her job and her life in New York City.
Swiping right got her here. Can turning left for love keep her here? Or send her back to New York City brokenhearted?
Sweet Inspirational Romance
The Journey
Sometimes the journey takes a lifetime… Sometimes it leads you to a miracle.
There are some who are blessed to hear the Divine voice. Stephanie Holmes is one who did hear. Like a modern-day Job, she is a reluctant traveler who follows an extraordinary path during a freak snowstorm that leaves and her fiancé, Daryl, stranded in the mountains of East Tennessee. On Christmas Eve, no less! Oh, and is it mentioned, she is eight months pregnant?
Daryl Robard knows these mountains. From one side of the vast wilderness to the other. He grew up here. Wants to come back home, to live his life here with Stephanie. And that life — that future he desires — starts now. He’s certain he can find them shelter from the storm. But Stephanie is reluctant to trust him. Or God. This is more than just a journey home. It’s a journey of faith. For both of them.
With roads closed, their vehicle ditched in a snowbank and more snow piling up all around them, Steph’s faith is tested. And now she must choose. Does she trust the man she loves — and the Most High Power he so strongly believes in to make it through the night? Or do they die?
The Homecoming
Where two souls connect and the heart finds love.
Hayden Michael Roark came home a decorated war hero. But no amount of medals, or commendations can make up for the fight he lost trying to save his family and his Appalachian hometown from the greed of big coal and the environmental hazards of mountaintop removal mining. It has cost him everything. His reputation. His home. The life he wanted. And most of all, Elsa Billings. The woman he loves.
He’s done fighting. All he wants now is peace. A place to come home to heal his wounded spirit and mend his battered soul. Instead, he finds Elsa Billings McCreary and her seven-year-old daughter living in his house! On his mountain! Leaving him without a home. And, whether he wants it or not, with one more battle to fight. And that’s convincing Elsa to leave Roark Mountain and Cooper Falls, Kentucky before bad air and polluted water sicken her. Or worse.
Elsa Billings McCreary has fought her entire adult life. With Hayden’s coalition to save their town. And for her husband, lost in the darkness of anger and depression. And for her daughter, an innocent casualty in her less-than-perfect marriage. She’s lost every fight. But she won’t lose this battle to heal her daughter’s spirit. Even if it means going up against Hayden Roark. The man she once loved with all her heart. The man she never thought she’d see again. But he’s here. On her doorstep. (Well, his doorstep, if she wants to split hairs.) Bringing with him the promise for the future she always prayed she’d have with him. But it comes with a price she’s not willing to pay.
When her life takes an unexpected turn, Elsa’s faith is tested. She soon finds herself in the fiercest fight of her life. Physically, and spiritually. Can she beat the terrifying hand Fate has dealt her to have The Homecoming she and Hayden both desire?
The Dream
Sometimes love is letting go. And sometimes it is making all your dreams come true.
Kristen Williams has lost everything. A cooking empire. Her reputation. Her dream decimated. The IRS has taken everything. Except her soul. And her personal relationship with God. With only a few thousand dollars to her name, she returns to her hometown of Oakley Springs, Maryland. Pulled there by a voice in her head. But is it Divine Guidance? Or a cruel trust of Fate? Because she finds Alex Daniels there. Her one true love. And like a Good Samaritan, he is offering her a place to live. A job. A chance to start over. This man who’d taken her heart and broken. Really, God? This is your plan for me?
Alec Daniels has returned to his hometown with his three kids in tow. He survived two tours of duty overseas. Lived when others hadn’t. Was this God’s plan for him? To be alone? Overworked? Running full-out with his faith on empty? He’s desperate. He needs help. Or maybe just a better answer to his prayers.
Never did he expect that answer to come in the form of Kristin Williams. His greatest joy. And deepest regret. The only woman he ever truly loved. And hurt. Badly. Much as he wants to pick up where they left off, the answer to his prayer isn’t the easy sell she used to be, leaving Alec to make the hardest decision of his life. Can he save his diner and give Kristen back her dream? Or love her enough to let her go?
Holiday Romance
Holiday Wish
Sometimes the rules need to be broken...
Wanting something she can’t have? Apparently, there are rules for that. At least at Vaugh Jennings Restoration where Chelsea Chathford works as a master carpenter. There, she isn’t allowed to date her boss. Isn’t allowed to love him either. But she does.
What’s a girl to do? It’s Christmas. And Chelsea has one holiday wish. But Garret Vaughn Jennings the Third follows his no employee dating rule. To the letter. And this year is destined to slip away like the last. And Chelsea is destined to face another New Year alone.
No employee dating…
Vaugh Jennings has one rule he refuses to break. With just reason. Damn shame his body doesn’t agree, because he’s been lusting after Chelsea Chathford, his curvaceous master carpenter, for the past year. And with every day that goes by, it gets harder and harder to follow his damn rule. Worse, his heart is involved now.
But caving to his desire comes with a price. One he knows from the hard-learned lessons of his past. Should he follow his heart? Or forever wish he had? Because Christmas comes but once a year. And with it, the chance to have all his holiday wishes come true.
NASCAR Romance
Beyond the Checkered Flag
Has their race for a happily-ever-after been run? Or just begun?
Bobby Wayne Forsythe is a NASCAR superstar on the verge of greatness when an on-track accident leaves his career in jeopardy and his future uncertain. He returns to the home he owns with Lauren Foster-Forsythe. Wife Number 3. The only woman he’s ever loved. The only woman who’s ever walked away from him without a backward glance, leaving his heart broken and a gaping hole in his soul that no other woman has ever been able to f ill. And he’s tried. A lot.
Lauren Foster-Forsythe is a country music superstar and the ex-wife of Bobby Wayne Forsythe. Theirs had been a whirlwind courtship; their marriage fairytale. Their life together perfect… until Bobby Wayne’s deceit destroyed everything, leaving Lauren with bittersweet memories of what could have been. And a stately, centuries-old mansion on the shores of Albermarle Sound she jointly owns with him. A home she needs to turn over to him completely, if she’s to move forward.
With her career in chaos, her life in turmoil, Lauren returns to the house she loves for one bittersweet, private goodbye, only to find Bobby Wayne there. Still hard-bodied, still white-hot sexy. Still able to rev her heart like no other man.
Even when hope seems lost, buried in the rubble of bad choices and hasty decisions, when reality comes knocking on the stately old mansion’s door, sparks of attraction flare, but nothing revs like two hearts still deeply in love. Still wanting one more chance to cross the finish line a winner. But is it enough? Has their race for a happily-ever-after been run? Or just begun? Will they find love Beyond the Checkered Flag?
Love and Other Lies Series
Karma in Camo
Can lives based on lies lead to love?
Joe DeMarco of Nowhere, West Virginia believes in love at first sight. From the moment he sets eyes on the gorgeous long-legged beauty stranded on the side of the road outside town, he knows. She’s the one. Even if she’s standing in front of him, brandishing a bottle, threatening to blind him with hand sanitizer. He likes her idea of foreplay. He likes everything about her. Even when she’s maligning his character, calling him a terrorist. And he, the chief of police! He should tell her who he is. And what he does. And he would… Soon.
Julia Stockton of New York City is having a bad day. Bad year, actually, now that Karma has it out for her. Or maybe because of Karma. More likely, it’s because of the rat bastard of a man she loved. The one who’d lied to her, betrayed her and carved out her heart, taking her savings account and apartment as a departing gift. She’s done with lying men! So why has Karma dropped her on the side of the road in god-forsaken West Virginia? Taunting her with a handsome blond-haired god? The kind of man she harbors secret fantasies about? The kind of man she could so easily fall in love with If she was looking for it. Which she wasn’t.
But Joe is very persuasive. And Jullia willingly gives him a weekend. One she’s sure she’ll never forget. And then she gives him so much more. She gives him a piece of her fragile heart. And for a while, Joe is everything she wants. Until she finds out he isn’t what she thought. Or who. And the result? Is it Karma in Camo? Or is it love?
Cupid in Camo
Can lives based on lies lead to love?
Crystal Rose McDermott only knows how to do one thing. Model. Well… maybe two things. Lying comes as easy to her as breathing. She’s done it all her life. She’s lied about her age. She’s lied about her experience. But no amount of lying will change the fact she’s getting older. Nearing the end of her modeling career as the top fallen angel for Sinfully Sexy, the hottest lingerie company in the country. And they’ve put her on waivers because of a few added extra pounds — putting her career in crisis.
With her future uncertain and no place to hide from the rumors, she escapes the hustle and bustle of New York City to wild and wonderful Nowhere, West Virginia. Her mission, to lose the extra weight. Because all she truly wants is one more year at the top. Just one more year. And if it means telling a few more lies about who she is, or what she does, well, she’s more than willing to do, or say whatever it takes to be the top fallen angel for one more year.
A.J. Cummings has hidden his handicap behind a wall of lies and a few outrageous escapades. Few know of the brain trauma that has taken part of his eyesight, robbing the two-time Olympic gold medalist of his professional downhill skiing career and a normal life. He’s doing a pretty good job keeping it hidden… until he meets a mysterious woman from New York City. Crystal Rose. She fascinates him. At a time in his life when he desperately needs a purpose, she’s given him one: To make her see him for who he really is.
Too bad he’s lied about that, leading her to believe he is Allen James. A worker at the gym and not the owner of the ski resort she’s staying at. Or that he is the owner of Donner Mountain Intimates — a line of camouflaged lingerie she’s agreed to model in his Valentine’s Day show.
Despite the lies, A.J. and Crystal do not deny the passion that ignites between them. A passion that soon turns to love. But can their newfound love survive when the lies are exposed and the truth is told? Is it Cupid in Camo at work, offering them a happy-forever-after? Or just another lie?