by Jane Graves
“Why not?”
“I’m pretty good at reading body language,” he said, nodding in Shannon’s direction. “She’s hoping I’ll turn around and walk right out of here.”
“Oh, no. I don’t think—”
“Oh, yes, ma’am. And as much as I appreciate the invitation, I’m going to do just that.”
“I should have told you earlier,” Mrs. Kaufman said. “She sends her condolences.”
“Oh, yeah? So why didn’t she deliver them in person?”
Mrs. Kaufman paused. “It’s not my place to answer that. I’m just passing on the message.”
“Then you can consider it passed on,” Luke said. “Good-bye, Mrs. Kaufman. And thanks again. For everything.”
Before she could say another word, he left the café. The rain was letting up, but it still dripped from the brim of his hat as he hurried to his truck. He had one last stop to make before leaving town—the real estate office. It was time to find out what he needed to do to get his father’s property sold so once he left this place again, he’d never have to come back. But as he started to get into his truck, compulsion drove him to turn back and look through the window into the café.
Shannon was watching him.
After a moment, she tilted her head and he saw her lips move, forming words he’d never expected to see.
I’m sorry.
For several seconds, Luke couldn’t tear his gaze away. Maybe the rain drizzling down the glass had made him see things that weren’t really there. But if she had said those words, exactly what did they mean? Was she sympathizing?
Or apologizing?
He didn’t care. If it was sympathy, he didn’t need it, and if it was an apology, it was about eleven years too late.
He got into his truck, refusing to look back again as he drove away. Shannon belonged only in his memories, distant ones that were going to stay buried, now and forever.
Also by Jane Graves
Hot Wheels and High Heels
Tall Tales and Wedding Veils
Black Ties and Lullabies
Heartstrings and Diamond Rings
Cowboy Take Me Away
Ride Off into the Sunset with
Cowboy Take Me Away
“4½ stars! A truly heartwarming romance…This is definitely a story for animal lovers, set in a delightful fictional town readers will wish they could visit. Anyone who has ever worked with animals will empathize with the heroine.”
—RT Book Reviews
“Graves, a nine-time finalist for Romance Writers of America’s RITA Award, writes captivating, emotion-filled stories that sparkle with delightfully humorous moments…[A] charming tale.”
—Booklist (starred review)
“Absolutely blew me away…While there is the author’s trademark humor, with quirky characters that populate the town, the author has ascended to a whole new level with this book. This is a deeply emotional book, and I feel she has soared to the Grand Dame level, on par with Nora Roberts. I can’t wait to read the next in the Rainbow Valley series.
—Romancing-the-Book.com
“An engaging tale that focuses on love’s healing power…Readers will enjoy visiting Rainbow Valley for this wonderful second chance at love.”
—GenreGoRoundReviews.blogspot.com
Get Hitched with
Heartstrings and Diamond Rings
“There are so many things I love about this book… Bottom line: Heartstrings and Diamond Rings is one of those rare books in which the author manages to align all the stars: likable, appealing characters; a creative twist (the hero’s a matchmaker); lots of laughs; fantastic writing.”
—USA Today’s Happily Ever After blog
“A fun romance with a hero who discovers hidden talents and what is really important in his life, and a heroine who finds her own self-worth through love and a good relationship with her dad.”
—RT Book Reviews
“This is a contemporary romance not to be missed! It is a book that you will want to pick up again and again.”
—ARomanceReview.com
Suit Up for Black Ties and Lullabies
“An irresistible book with something for everyone! Jane Graves writes with charm, wit and heart!”
—Carly Phillips, New York Times bestselling author
“Filled with humor, wit, and sizzle… This book starts out fast, the author’s descriptions draw you in completely…and [keep] you turning the page to see what will happen next!”
—GoodReads.com
“Jane Graves definitely tugs on the heartstrings with this book… a believable romance.”
—ARomanceReview.com
Believe in Happily Ever After in
Tall Tales and Wedding Veils
“I can’t recommend Tall Tales highly enough… funny and touching with wonderful characters and great love scenes.”
—LikesBooks.com
“4½ Stars! A breath of pure romance, this book is a real charmer. You will laugh, cringe, and cheer… I sure did.”
—RT Book Reviews
“You can’t help but root for these two mismatched people and hope they discover what a great couple they could be.”
—FreshFiction.com
Buckle Up for Sexy Fun with
Hot Wheels and High Heels
“A delightful, funny read with a unique twist as a former trophy wife discovers herself, and true love, in the most unexpected place. A total winner!”
—Susan Mallery, New York Times bestselling author
“Hot Wheels and High Heels draws you in, then blasts off! Fasten your seat belt for a fun, rollicking ride!”
—Stephanie Bond, author of the Body Movers series
“Funny as can be and I had a blast reading it.”
—LikesBooks.com
THE DISH
Where Authors Give You the Inside Scoop
From the desk of Jennifer Haymore
Dear Reader,
When Lady Dunthorpe, the heroine of THE SCOUNDREL’S SEDUCTION, came to my office, she filled the tiny room with her presence, making me look up from my computer the moment she walked in. The first thing I noticed was that she was gorgeous. Very petite, with lovely features perfectly arranged on her face. She could probably be a movie star.
“How can I help—?” I began, but she interrupted me.
“I need you,” she declared. I could hear the smooth cadence of a French accent in her voice. “My husband has been murdered, and I’ve been kidnapped by a very bad blackguard… a… a scoundrel.”
I straightened in my chair. “What? How… why?” I had about a million questions, but I couldn’t seem to get them all out. “Please, my lady, sit down.”
She slid into the chair opposite me.
“Now,” I said, “please tell me what exactly is going on and how I can help you.”
She leaned forward, her blue eyes luminous and large. “My husband—Lord Dunthorpe. He was killed. And his murderer… his murderer has captured me. I don’t know what he’s going to do…” She swallowed hard, looking terrified.
“Do you know who the murderer is?
She shook her head. “Non. But his friends call him ‘Hawk.’ ”
Every muscle in my body went rigid. I knew only one man called Hawk. His real name was Samson Hawkins, he was the oldest brother of the House of Trent, and I’d just finished writing books about two of his brothers.
Yet maybe she wasn’t talking about “my” Hawk. Sam was a hero, not a murderer. Still, I had to know.
“Is he tall and broad?” I asked her. “Very muscular?”
“Oui… yes.”
“Handsome features?”
“Very.”
“Dark eyes and dark hair that curls at his shoulders?”
“Yes.”
“Does he have a certain… intensity about him?”
“Oh, yes, very much.”
Yep, she was definitely talking about Sam Hawkins.
I sat back in my chair, stunne
d, mulling over all she had told me. Sam had killed her husband. He’d kidnapped her… and was holding her hostage… Wow.
“I need your help,” she whispered urgently. “I need to be free…”
“Of course,” I soothed.
Her desire to be free sparked an idea in my mind. Because if she truly knew Sam—knew the man inside that hard shell—perhaps she wouldn’t want to be free of him. She was beautiful and vivacious—she’d lit up my little office when she’d walked inside. Sam had certainly already noticed this about her. Now… all I had to do was work a little magic—okay, I admitted to myself, a lot of magic, considering the fact that Sam had killed her husband—and I could bring these two together.
Sam hadn’t lived a very easy life. He so deserved his very own happily ever after.
This would be a love match born in adversity. Very tricky. But if I could make it work—if I could give Lady Dunthorpe to Sam as his heroine—it would probably be the most fulfilling love story I’d ever written.
With determination to make it work, I turned my computer screen toward me and started typing away. “Tell me what happened,” I told Lady Dunthorpe, “from the beginning…”
And that was how I began the story of THE SCOUNDREL’S SEDUCTION—and now that I’ve finished it, I’m so excited to share it with readers, because I definitely believe it’s my most romantic story yet.
Please come visit me at my website, www.jenniferhaymore.com, where you can share your thoughts about my books and read more about THE SCOUNDREL’S SEDUCTION and the House of Trent Series. I’d also love to see you on Twitter (@jenniferhaymore) or on Facebook (www.facebook.com/jenniferhaymore-author).
Sincerely,
From the desk of Kristen Ashley
Dear Reader,
As a romance reader from a very young age, and a girl who never got to sleep easily so I told myself stories to get that way (all romances, of course), I had a bevy of “starts” to stories I never really finished.
Not until I finally started to tap away on my keyboard.
One of them that popped up often was of a woman alone, heading to a remote location, not feeling well, and meeting the man of her dreams who would nurse her back to health. Except, obviously (this is a romance), at first meeting him, she doesn’t know he’s the man of her dreams and decides instantly (for good reason) she doesn’t like him all that much.
Therefore, I was delighted finally to get stuck in Nina and Max’s story in THE GAMBLE. I’d so long wanted to start a story that way and I was thrilled I finally got to do it. I got such a kick out of seeing that first chapter unfold, their less-than-auspicious beginning, the crackling dialogue, Max’s A-frame (inside and out) forming in my head.
But I had absolutely no clue about the epic journey I was about to take—murder, assault, kidnapping, suicide and rape, trust earned and tested—and amongst all this, a man and a woman falling in love.
The focus of the book is on Nina’s story—oft-bitten, very shy, to the point where she’s hardly living her life anymore, feels it, and knows she needs to do something about it even as she’s terrified.
But whenever I read THE GAMBLE, it’s Max’s story that touches me. How he had so much from such a young age and lost it so tragically. How he took care of everyone around him in his mountain man way, but also was living half a life. And last, how Nina lit up his world and revived that protective, loving part of him he thought long dead.
The struggle with this, however, was Anna, the love Max lost. See, I knew her well and she was an amazing person who made Max happy. They were very much in love and neither Max (in my head) nor I wanted to give her short-shrift or make any less of the love they shared even as Max fell deeply in love with Nina.
I didn’t know if this was working very well, for Nina was so very much not like Anna, but, at least to me, I found her quite lovable. This was good; you shouldn’t try to find what you lost but simply find something that makes you happy. But still, it was important for me that the love Max shared with Anna wasn’t entirely overshadowed by the love he had for Nina because Anna was in his life, she was important, and being so was part of what made him the man he turned out to be.
In a book that has a good deal of raw emotion, one line always jumps out at me and there’s a reason for that. I was relieved when a friend of mine told me it was her favorite in this whole, very long book. So simple but also, by it being her favorite, it told me that I’d won that struggle.
It was Max saying to Nina, “I see what I had with Anna for the gift it was but now that’s gone. With this act, are you sayin’, in this life that’s all I get?”
In a book where grave tragedy had consistently struck many of the characters (as life often hands us our trials), I love the hope in this line. I love that Max finally comes to realize that the beauty he had and lost was not all he should expect. That he should reach out for more.
And he does reach out for more.
And in the end, he finds that it isn’t all he would get. Being a good man and taking a gamble on a feisty woman who shows up in a snowstorm with attitude (and her sinuses hurting), he gets much, much more.
So I was absolutely delighted to take his journey.
Because he deserves it.
From the desk of Nina Rowan
Dear Reader,
What is the worst part of writing a historical romance? Once upon a time, I might have thought it was most difficult to unravel the plot and character motivations, but the more I write, the more I realize the truth. It’s the research! And I don’t mean that in a moan-and-groan-it’s-homework way. I mean that the more I research for the sake of a book, the more I get flat-out distracted by all the little golden nuggets I find.
When I start researching, I tend to trawl the London Times archives, which has a searchable database that is so beautiful and easy to use that it almost makes me cry. For A DREAM OF DESIRE, I started by looking up articles about prisons and juvenile delinquency, but got quickly distracted by other things like the classified advertisements. The Times was full of ads for polka and mazurka lessons, “paper hanging” sales, tea companies, and job openings for schoolmistresses and butlers. The “prisons” search term appeared in the classifieds in an advertisement for “prisons supply of coal, meat, bread, oatmeal, barley, candles, and stockings.” The ad requested that suppliers submit an application to the keeper of the prisons to be considered for the position.
I also get distracted by other articles about criminal court proceedings (a goldmine of story ideas), new laws, intelligence from overseas, and details about royal court life, like the state ball of 1845 at Buckingham Palace, which was attended by over one thousand members of the nobility and gentry and where Her Majesty and the Hereditary Grand Duke of Mecklenburgh Strelitz danced the quadrille in the ballroom, which was festooned with crimson and gold draperies and lit by a huge, cut-glass lustre.
I find that fascinating. But distractions aside, it really is within the pages of the newspapers and magazines published in the nineteenth century that the most vivid details of a story can come to life. When I first started writing A DREAM OF DESIRE, I thought surely the term “juvenile delinquent” was a historical anachronism, but it was used often in Victorian-era Times articles about “juvenile destitution and crime.”
I’ve come to accept the fact that rather than being a dedicated, focused researcher, I’m more like a magpie whose attention is caught by shiny objects. But I’ve also learned to appreciate how much all those little tidbits of information come in handy when crafting a story—what might happen if the hero and heroine were in attendance at Her Majesty’s state ball? What if the heroine was having a clumsy moment (or better yet, was distracted by the hero’s rakish good looks) and tripped over the Grand Duke in the middle of the quadrille? What if she found herself face-to-face with a rather irate Queen Victoria?
Must go. I have some writing to do!
From the desk of Jane Graves
Dear Reader,
I like wine. A
ny kind of wine. I’ve learned a lot about it over the years, but only because if you use any product enough, you’ll end up pretty educated about it. (If I ate 147 different kinds of Little Debbie snack cakes, I’d know a lot about them, too.) I can swirl, sniff, and sip with the best of them. But the fourth S: spit? Seriously? The theory is that one should merely taste the wine without getting tipsy, but come on. Who in his right mind tastes good wine and then spits it out?
My husband and I once went to a wine tasting/competition where we took our glasses around to the various vintners’ booths and received tiny tasting pours, which we were to sip, savor, and judge. By the time we sampled the offerings of about two dozen vineyards, those tiny pours added up. At first we discussed acidity, mouth feel, and finish, then thoughtfully marked our scorecards. By the end of the event, we’d lost our scorecards and were wondering if there was a frat party nearby we could crash. Okay, so maybe that spitting thing has some merit.
In BABY, IT’S YOU, the hero, Marc Cordero, runs an estate vineyard in the Texas Hill Country that has been in his family for generations. As I researched winemaking for the book, I discovered it’s both a science and an art, requiring intelligence, intuition, willpower, and above all, heart. The heroine, Kari Worthington, feels Marc’s pride as he looks out over the grapevine-covered hills, and she’s in awe of his determination to protect his family legacy. For a flighty, free-spirited, runaway bride who’s never had a place to truly call home, Cordero Vineyards and the passionate man who runs it are the things of which her dreams are made.
So next time I go to a wine tasting, I’m going to think about the myriad challenges that winemakers faced in order to present that bottle for me to enjoy. But I’m still not gonna spit.
