Chase McDaniel is all set to take over for his grandfather as CEO of his family’s company. He’s been groomed for the job and has dedicated his life to learning the company business from the ground up. However, his grandfather has different ideas. His grandfather – the old coot that his is- decides Chase needs a chance that he never had- a year off with pay to experience life and make a choice for his future.

Shortly after his grandfather’s announcement, Chase finds out the beautiful woman he resuced not once, but twice that very day would be taking his job. Betrayed and still intriuged, Chase battles his desires for the woman with resentment of the forced sabbatical.

Miranda Craig has worked hard to achieve everything her deceased parent would have wanted for her. With a golden opportunity, she moved from Urban Chicago to rural Iowa to take a crack at her shot of breaking the glass ceiling.

Determined to make a success of herself, she is nearly blindsided by Chase McDaniel’s charm, good looks and endearing qualities. She gives into her desires and they share a magical night. She figures she has a year to get over him and get her head on straight before facing him again. However, fate has other plans.

A medical scare for his grandfather brings Chase storming back into town and taking control of the company. He doesn’t seem to care that he steps on Miranda’s toes. Miranda is ready to battle him for the top job, ready to challenge him and the board of directors to prove she is the best for the company. Then reality hits and she is faced with a decision. Should she step aside, seek another executive job in order to let the man she realizes she loves take over his birthright. Or, continue to fight, possibly win, and lose him forever.

To find out how Michele Dunaway handles this situation and fall in love with all the colorful characters she has created, don’t miss Bachelor CEO.

The title tips the reader to the main conflict in this story, but there’s plenty more roiling within. In the novel-writing classes she teaches, Pat Kay urges students to make conflict compelling. With HIS BROTHER’S
BRIDE-TO-BE, she shows how.

When well-off widower Elliott Lawrence introduces his fiancé, Jill Emerson, and her son, Jordan, to his family and friends, he expects them to be as taken with her as he is. Instead, most count the twenty-seven years
separating Elliott’s age from Jill’s and assume she’ll take him for all he’s worth.

Stephen Wells knows different. He fell for J.J. Emerson more than a decade earlier during spring break on Padre Island. Her aunt’s sudden illness, a roommate who never explained why J.J. left the island, and Stephen’s fear that J.J. didn’t return his love kept him from searching for her. But he’s never forgotten her and doesn’t doubt her integrity.

Unfortunately, Stephen’s not in a position to vouch for Jill. On paper, he’s Elliott’s half brother. In fact, Elliott and his late wife took him in as a young boy and raised him. The groom–to-be is more than a sibling. He’s Stephen’s father figure, mentor, and best friend. Seeing Jill awakens Stephen’s dormant feelings for her. For Jill, meeting Stephen triggers both love and terror. The love part’s no surprise; she’s never forgotten Steve, her first love. The terror is due to the fact Jordan is Stephen’s son.

In Pat’s novel-writing classes, she reminds students that readers want and need an emotional connection
with a story’s characters. To that end, she shows us Jill’s sense of honor. Jill was never tempted by wealth, so why did she get engaged to a much older man? Her son desperately wants a daddy and fell in love with Elliott first.

Stephen’s sense of honor matches Jill’s. As they acknowledge long-buried feelings, their concern isn’t for themselves but for those they will hurt and confuse.

In HIS BROTHER’S-BRIDE-TO-BE, the characters struggle for their happy ending. For readers, that struggle is stressful but oh-so-satisfying.

Lady Brenna’s refusal to wed led her father to banish her to a lonely tower. Marriage, with a passel of brats and endless duties, would end her secret dream: to journey to Italy where she hopes to freely indulge in her great passion: painting erotic works of art.

When Brenna learns her sister’s fiancé has captured her father, she must save her father and her sister from the King’s enforcer, James Montgomery. Montgomery is said to have killed his late wife. In desperation to save her sweet sister from a cruel marriage, Brenna disguises herself as the bride and hides a knife beneath her clothing. Once the wedding feast ends, she plans to plunge the knife in the blackguard’s cold heart.
James is outraged when his new bride attempts to stab him. Her act amounts to treason against the crown. He saves her from a beheading, but there is one condition. Lady Brenna must come willingly to his bed.

Romantic Times awarded this charming and sensual book a K.I.S.S. Award. All of Ms. Trapp’s books evoke
the classical medieval romances that captured reader’s hearts, but do so in a fresh manner. The Pleasures of Sin is funny, endearing, and highly sensual. I couldn’t stop turning the pages.

After several years without a new release, Karen Young is back and better than ever.

BLOOD BAYOU is her first Christian fiction novel, but the genre designation is the only thing that has changed. Karen delivers a spell-binding suspense that starts with murder and will keep you on the edge of your seat until the very last page.

Camille St. James believes in justice and the law. A professor at Talbot College she heads The Truth Project, an organization dedicated to the exoneration of innocent individuals who have been wrongly convicted and sentenced to death row. Their work on behalf of Chester Pelham is successful, but within hours of his release from prison another woman is dead and Chester is found wearing bloodstained clothes. His arrest lands Chester in the hospital in a coma. The Truth Project is suspended and Camille is forced to take a month’s vacation.

Camille is devastated to learn that the murdered woman is her ex-husband’s sister. A former attorney and recovering alcoholic, Jack spent several years in prison after a tragic drunk driving accident. During his incarceration, Jack found his true calling and his salvation in the word of God. Jack and Camille have been divorced for seven years and he is now a minister.

Camille knows that his sister’s death will devastate Jack and is certain he will blame Camille and The Truth
Project. Still, she feels obligated to tell him how sorry she is for his loss and drives to Blood Bayou so she can do so in person. It won’t be easy to face him after all these years, but it is the right thing to do. Camille is surprised by the changes in her ex-husband and uncomfortable with his religious calling.

As evidence mounts against Chester, Camille is the only person who believes him innocent. She launches her
own investigation, forcing her to stay in Blood Bayou and thus remain close to Jack. But someone doesn’t want Camille nosing into things and several attempts are made to chase her out of town, which quickly escalate to attempted murder. Jack has never stopped loving Camille and is determined to keep her safe.

Can this star-crossed couple rekindle their love, even as she works to free the man accused of killing his sister? Can she accept and ever be comfortable with the changes religion has brought into his life? Will her blood be the next to pollute the waters of Blood Bayou?

Don’t miss this who-done-it that offers all the clues, and still delivers a surprise ending!

Macy Tucker was five years old when her beloved grandfather dropped dead in his spaghetti. At twelve, her father left his family in the dust. At twenty-five, her husband gave his secretary a pre-Christmas bonus in bed, and Macy gave him the boot. To put things lightly, men have been undependable.

That’s why dating’s off the menu. Macy is focused on law school, and putting herself through—which means being the delivery girl for Papa’s Pizza. But cheesier than her job is her pie-eyed brother, who just recently escaped from prison to protect his new girlfriend. And hotter than Texas toast is the investigating detective. Proud, sexy…inflexible—he’s a man who would kiss her just to shut her up. But Jake Baldwin’s a protector as much as a dish. And when he gets his man—or his woman—Macy knows it’s for life.

Christie Craig Strikes again! Another winner from our very own favorite crime writer. Believable characters, even when they are extreme, tight plot and the ever important Happily Ever After. No surprise that Craig is consistent in her delivery and follow through. Don’t start “Gotcha” unless you plan to finish the book in one sitting. Yes folks, the plot is tightly woven and the story compelling enough to spend the afternoon and an
evening in the company of her characters.

Is there anything more chilling, more horror-filled, than a mother’s fear when her child disappears?

After a year in Iraq, widow Ruby Monroe comes home to Dogwood, Texas, eager to reunite with her four-year old daughter, Zoe. The excellent salary she has earned overseas as a contract bus driver for DeserTek, a non-military sub-contractor, will allow her to complete her training as an RN and give Zoe a better life. Ruby’s sister, Misty, took care of home, hearth and Zoe, allowing Ruby take the job.

Ruby gets to the Dallas airport eager for the “the heaven of Spaghetti-Os and storybooks, and Zoe’s endless schemes to drag out tuck-ins.” But rather than experiencing the joy of her daughter’s sticky hugs and kisses, Ruby’s backpack is stolen and Misty and Zoe are no-shows. Things go downhill from there.

Sam McCoy has lived the quiet life the last two years, acting as a fishing guide on Bone Lake with his only true companion a young chocolate lab named Java. His five-year probation for the felony charge of stepping over the line as a computer hacker doesn’t call for an invisibility cloak, but Sam is lying low anyway. He figures he got lucky not having to serve time, and he’s not taking any chances.

At least not until his neighbors go missing and his foster brother’s widow, Ruby Monroe, has no one else to
turn to for help.

What follows is a complex mystery, so suspenseful and action-filled, that the reader can do nothing but grab
onto the pages and hang on for the ride.

Colleen Thompson’s Texas adventures have a reputation for being so descriptive, so powerfully written that the setting itself becomes a living character. From the West Texas desert to the city streets of Houston, Ms. Thompson immerses the reader so completely that one is on the lookout for rattlesnakes or drug dealers. Her latest will not disappoint. The dark bayou, with its stinging insects, its monster gators, and its thick vegetation that can trap like quicksand, will have you gasping for breath and fighting against the feeling of being dragged down, down, down – Beneath Bone Lake.

The worst thing I can say about A Bride in the Bargain is it’s over.

You know what I mean. You pick up a book and scan the first page. It interests you enough to read the second. And the third. Pretty soon, you’re skipping lunch and the laundry piles up. You can’t seem to put it down.

The heroine, Anna Ivey, is someone you get to know and care about. She’s desperate. Her father and her brother were killed in the War Between the States, and her mother died of a broken heart. Anna blames herself.

In the south, we tend to view our own war aftermath of destruction as catastrophic, and it was. But in December of 1865, people in Massachusetts were also destitute. Wives and children of soldiers who would never return were starving and begging in the streets.

Anna found employment as a cook in a boarding house. Unfortunately, the job came with an employer, and she was forced to run for her life or at least her virtue. She makes a deal to travel to Seattle for employment. The procurer swears Joe Denton needs a cook for his logging company, and he will pay her passage.

Sounds good, right? A classic win-win solution. Well, no, not quite. Joe Denton believes he’s getting a bride.

What will happen when they meet? Now you’re hooked. You swear you’ll read just one more page.

I’ll tell you just this much without revealing too much of the plot. When Joe picks her up at the dock, he’s delighted. The girl’s a beauty, and he drives her directly to the church. Although he wasn’t particularly interested in a purchased wife, he needs one to hold onto his land. A bachelor could receive 320 acres, but a married man would get 640 acres of prime timber land. Since he is unable to prove he had been married when he claimed the 640 acres and is now widowed, the judge has given him a deadline to produce a wife.

Even though the attraction is there and growing between these two strong characters, their problems are insurmountable. Anna believes she is sudden death to anyone she loves; everyone in her family told her so just before they died. As she slowly begins to realize this is untrue and she gives the power of life and death back to God, she still resists Joe’s proposal. Believing he only wants her to marry him to keep his land, she refuses.

Joe will have to find a way to convince her he wants her for herself. He must love her more than the land.

Plan to send out for pizza and forget the laundry. You won’t put this book down until the last page and then you’ll cry because it’s over.

Last summer, in Oh. My. Gods., Phoebe and her mom moved to the Greek island of Serfopoula, where her Future Step-Dad is headmaster of a prestigious private high school. Feeling extremely mortal among classmates who are descendants of the Greek gods and whose ancestral attributes determine their clique alliances, Phoebe managed to make terrific new friends. Okay, Griffin’s a terrific hot new boyfriend.

Phoebe discovered she’s got godly powers, too, but now they’re seriously out of control. She’s headed to summer camp to learn how to manage them. Goddess Boot Camp. Sigh. Where the rest of the campers are little kids.

To make a bad summer worse, Phoebe and her “evil “ step-sister Stella—a camp counselor (sigh)—are stuck with each other while their newlywed parents are away on their honeymoon. Since Phoebe’s powers come from her dad, a pro football player, she wants to know more. Like, in particular, about his death. Was he smoted by the gods? She needs to do some serious digging.

The Scots sure know how to throw a party. Especially the immortal Scottish vampires who populate Kerrelyn Sparks’ latest fun paranormal adventure, “Secret Life of a Vampire.” After a bachelor party gets particularly out of hand, it is up to responsible Jack, interim head of MacKay Security and Investigation, to clean up the mess and make nice with the human police who come to investigate the shindig. After all, a cleaning service and a little vampire mind control should be all it takes to do the trick. But Jack is in for the surprise of his unnaturally extended life when he meets Officer Lara Boucher.

Lara is not only immune to his mind games but also a gorgeous former beauty queen determined to do something important with her life following a tragic accident and a long period of recovery. Ambitious and beautiful, her goal is to prove her metal and make detective. She is immediately both suspicious of and deeply attracted to Jack, who does superhuman feats that she can’t explain. Her heart tells her he is a good man that she can trust, but her head knows that something extraordinary is going on. Something that he refuses to tell her about.

Jack, or Giacomo di Venezia, as he was once known, is the perfect Italian lover: sexy, suave, and unfailingly polite. Since being transformed into a vamp, he has fought with the good guys and worked with MacKay Security to battle the dark Malcontents—evil vampires determined to feed from and kill as many humans as possible. Jack has also devoted his life to trying to overcome his past—or rather, his father’s infamous reputation, for his father was none other than Casanova, one of the most famed seducers of all time.

Lara and Jack are drawn together by more than their red-hot chemistry. When local college girls start disappearing, Jack suspects a Malcontent is behind the abductions. Lara refuses to back off the investigation even when it becomes apparent that she bears a striking resemblance to the victims. Jack has found the woman of his dreams, but how can he keep her safe from this supernatural threat? And how can he keep her heart if he cannot tell her the truth about his vampire background?

“Secret Life of a Vampire,” the latest installment in the bestselling and critically praised Love at Stake series, will be welcomed by avid fans and newcomers alike. Readers acquainted with the series will be treated with familiar faces and friends, while newbies will delight in the humor and warmth of Sparks ’ writing. Lara and Jack’s story is sweet and thrilling, funny and sexy, and one not to be missed!

Judy Duarte’s sequel to the outstanding Mulberry Park, is a heartwarming and inspiring story about never giving up on dreams. It’s also a cautionary tale about the power of guilt in shaping our lives.

Kristy Smith was on her way to a college and a bright future when she became pregnant and – in her own eyes, at least – ruined her grandmother’s life. Craig Houston, who once dreamed of a major league baseball career, became a pastor for all the wrong reasons and now doubts he can make a difference in the little town of Fairbrook. Shana is getting married to the perfect boy, except he’s not the one she’s always dreamed about. And Renee, who just wants the best for her unborn child, has no money, no job, and no future. But it’s a known fact that the future unfolds in mysterious ways. Aided by cryptic messages of hope from a transient named Jesse, Kristy and Craig fall in love, Shana finds the courage to be herself, and Renee becomes the daughter she always wanted to be. And incidentally, Craig finds a way to make a difference in baseball, Kristy finds a way to go back to school, Shana re-connects with her former sweetheart, and a childless couple finds the perfect ready-made family.

Duarte weaves all these stories together seamlessly. In a suspense novel, the tension often escalates to a crescendo of violence. In a Duarte novel, you can count on love and kindness escalating to a crescendo of hope fulfilled.

Read Entertaining Angels. Believe in small miracles again.