Time-travel romances can take you anywhere, any time, and in any direction. But what makes them eternal? I’ve come up with a list of five reasons why we love time-travel romances. The experience So many people long for experiences, but the reality is, we can’t possibly experience everything in this life. That’s where books come in – and that’s especially where time travel shines! Of course we know that times were rough in earlier periods, but as time-travel romance readers, we get to experience the best of what the era had to offer, while looking at it all through the rosy glasses of hindsight. We can take the best of a culture, spin the most heroic qualities of the time into a hero (or heroine!), and make an ideal out of it. We can take a piece of ourselves – the piece that we relate to in one of the characters – and get that happily-ever-after, in the most perfect setting, in a time where the good always outweighs the bad. Love is transcendent It’s one thing to know that your beloved would give up his phone for you, but it’s a whole new experience when he’d be willing to…

If you’re familiar with cozy mysteries, you’ll know that these whodunits, often with culinary themes have recipes used in the story included in the book. My latest novel, TELL ME NO LIES is not a cozy mystery, however it does have a culinary theme betwixt the romance and danger. Rain Howard, the main character in my romantic suspense novel opens a beignet and coffee cafe. In the story, the recipes she uses were handed down from her grandmother who received them from her mother and so on. Rain’s grandmother is a descendant of a famous New Orleans quadroon, infamous for her beauty and her beignets. A quadroon referred to a person with 1/8th African parentage in the late 19th and early 20th-century New Orleans. Quadroons were involved with placage – a recognized extralegal system in New Orleans (and other places) in which ethnic European men entered into the equivalent of common-law marriages with women of color. These women owned homes and raised their children on Rampart Street. It’s a small part of the back story in TELL ME NO LIES, but one I plan on exploring in another historical romance series. But in the meantime, I wanted to share the…

When I was a little girl, I didn’t pay attention to what I wore. I put on a pair of jeans and a T-shirt. I had no sense of fashion, nor did I care. Toward the end of my high school years was when I started to be interested in fashion and makeup. I enjoyed flipping through Vogue and Glamour magazines. And a little part of me wished I could live the lifestyle of a runway model or work in the fashion industry world. So, I decided to write about it. Something Great series is based on two brothers, Maxwell and Matthew. They took over their parent’s fashion magazine business called Knight Fashion. Hot alpha males, but sweet and loving, they know how to swoon their women as they live in the fast, rich life of Glamour and scandal. Then afterward, I wrote a spin-off based on the models, and I thought to title the cover SEXIEST MAN ALIVE, and book two is titled SEXIEST COUPLE ALIVE. The cover even looked like a magazine. I met Nathan Weller at Utopia convention and thought he would be perfect for my cover. I was thrilled when he agreed. When you get a…

The fake relationship trope is one of my favorites out there. You typically have two people who are at least somewhat known to each other—often friends—who each have their own goals that the fake relationship is serving. So, in honor of FOOLPROOF LOVE’s upcoming release, I’m sharing my top three favorite fake relationship movies. In no particular order (because it was impossible for me to decide!): The Proposal: This one is gold. You have Ryan Reynolds, who’s a favorite of mine across the board, and Sandra Bullock who’s even more of a favorite, and they get married to keep her from being deported. She’s been singularly awful to him for years (she’s his boss) and seeing her out of her element and him realizing she’s not a total monster when they’re in Alaska… Love, love, love. Betty White as his grandma is just the icing on the cake. The Wedding Date: Who hasn’t wanted to show an ex that they had moved on? In this movie Debra Messing is so dang relatable because she’s a hot mess. And she’s faced with this to-order boyfriend she’s paid for to attend the wedding with her, and he’s so suave and cool and…

I’ll let you in on a little secret…life is hard! Some days it seems to be harder than ever. How wonderful that we have books to escape into. Magical stories to sweep us away to other lands, other times. Allowing us to slip our feet into the shoes of queens and dukes….and pirates! In my new release, WITHIN A CAPTAIN’S TREASURE, my pirates do a lot of escaping. Battling on the high seas, they escape death at every turn. They escape the heartless peril of the sea itself. Their lives are one step away from a hangman’s noose. My heroine, Alice Tupper, knows more escape tricks than Houdini! Trying to break away from the deeds of her past, she heads toward America only to be captured by pirates. Through pure guts and a lucky shot, she frees herself from one band of pirates only to end up in the hands of another. She climbs the mast in the middle of a storm and survives. Stares down the barrel of more than one gun and manages to live to tell the tale. She even manages to flee into the night after being discovered for the pirate she truly is. Turns out,…

The Wet ‘N Wild Authors are at it again, this time featuring Navy SEALs – heroes ready for action, on the job and off! We asked each of the 10 bestselling & award-winning authors, “The SEALs are WET – how is your story WILD?” Tawny Weber’s A SEAL’S PROPOSAL, much like its heroine, is sassy, sexy and wild! Sam vowed if he ever became a SEAL, he’d do it as a single man. Bryanna isn’t willing to give up the man she loves. She has 2 weeks to convince him that he can have his career, and everything she has to offer, too, if they stay together. How? With wild sex, of course. For Commander Marc Miller, Hell Week begins the moment one red-hot redhead, a well-connected junior officer, waltzes through his door & gets inside his head. In Rogenna Brewer’s SEAL IT WITH A KISS, Lieutenant Tabitha Chapel will have to match wits with the best to become the first female SEAL – but the limits of her determination are tested by the only SEAL capable of commanding her heart. One. Wrong. Move. In ROGUE by Laura Marie Altom, disavowed Navy SEAL, Nash Adamson, knows that’s all it will…

Hello Friends, Next up for me is INTO THE WHIRLWIND, the second of my BOSS Inc, novels! It’s Megan and Dirk’s wild and tumultuous story; one of personal favorites. And ya gotta love the cover!! It hits the shelves May 31st. I just received the review from RT BOOK REVIEWS, and thought I would share it with you along with a peek inside the cover of INTO THE WHIRLWIND. “The second in the BOSS, Inc. series continues to excite! If you enjoy taught page-turners with powerful and protective alpha males, you’ve found one. The main characters have fiery chemistry and are evenly matched, making the intensity and intrigue all the more thrilling. Readers have come to expect steamy sex and plenty of suspense from Martin, and this series provides it in abundance!” —RT BOOK REVIEWS EXCERPT from INTO THE WHIRLWIND Megan O’Brien parked at the end of the gravel driveway and quietly got out of her compact SUV. Through the trees, she could hear the roar of a chainsaw, hear see two-by-fours going up to form the sides of the house under construction. The garage was already finished, undoubtedly full of Dirk’s toys, including a Harley and a custom Dodge…

You never know what is going to happen . . . .When the Duke Comes to Town! I’m thrilled to be included in this collection of Regency stories, all centering on the madcap mischief that ensues when the infamous, match-making Duke of Danby leaves Yorkshire for the London Season. There are four books in all: EVADING THE DUKE THWARTING THE DUKE OUTWITTING THE DUKE DISMISSING THE DUKE My novella, The Earl’s Hired Bride, is included in OUTWITTING THE DUKE. Because an unmarried Earl must be in want of a bride . . . Every debutante in the ton wants to be the Countess of Hartford—and mistress of Hartsworth Castle. Never mind that Hart has no interest in marrying just yet, the young ladies hunt him as ruthlessly as a pack of hounds after the elusive fox. What he needs is a hired bride—one who will give him some room to breathe, but is guaranteed to call it off at the end of the Season. Because a girl with no prospects will do what she must to help her family . . . Miss Emily Spencer must do something. Her mother’s health is failing and the notorious Duke of Danby is…

I grew up in a house where we laughed a lot. We often poked fun at one another, called each other out for stupid things we did, and never let anyone live down one bad mistake. As a result, I find myself drawn to novels and movies that have a large amount of humor and wit in them. Don’t get me wrong, I can appreciate deep, heartfelt storylines, but I’ve learned that I have to be in the mood for a good cry. And the older I get, the less I enjoy putting myself through the emotional roller coaster. Wow. That made me sound like an old maid. I guess what I mean is that it takes me DAYS to recover from a novel or movie where I’ve balled my eyes out all night. Instead, if I’ve laughed through most of it, no recovery is needed and I move onto the next enjoyment. That’s important. I feel like life is serious enough. We deal with so many stressors every day that we need an escape from it all. These are my top 5 laugh-out-loud movies that no matter what kind of mood I’m in, they are my go-to in order…

After falling in love with historical romances during my years as an elementary school teacher, I eventually decided to try my hand at writing one. Since the publication of my first western historical romance, SUNFLOWER, I’ve been blessed with a long and fruitful career as a published author. I’ve written thirty novels, numerous novellas and short stories that include both Historical and Contemporary Romance fiction in both paperback and hardcover, Inspirational Western Romances, and most recently, a series of cozy/amateur sleuth mysteries set in Hawaii. The reason I turned to writing who-done-its set in Hawaii is no mystery. Many of my books always contained an element of suspense and because we owned a summer home in Hawaii, I was always trying to get away with island settings. GLASS BEACH, is a Victorian Western set on Kauai. The heroine of DAY DREAMER, ends up on an island in the Caribbean. One of my more humorous historicals, THE ORCHID HUNTER, is set in England and on a fictional island off the coast of Africa. Thanks to E-book publishing, all of my backlist historical romances are available to a new generation of readers. In 2005 we became permanent residents of Kauai, the northernmost…