ACCIDENTALLY COMPROMISING THE DUKE by Stacy Reid Amazon Barnes & Noble iTunes Kobo England, 1817. Miss Adeline Hays is out of options. Determined to escape marriage to a repugnant earl, Adel plans to deliberately allow herself to be caught in a compromising position at a house party with the much kinder man she’d hoped to marry. Instead, Adeline accidentally enters the wrong chamber and tumbles into the bed of the mad duke. Edmond Rochester, the duke of Wolverton, is seeking a wife to care for his two daughters. A young lady of sensibilities, accomplishment, and most importantly, one who he is not attracted to—a complete opposite of the bewitching beauty who traps him into marriage. But despite the lust he feels for his new duchess, Edmond is resolved to never allow them intimacy, refusing to ever again suffer the tormenting loss of a loved one. THE MILLIONAIRE’S GAMBLE by Sarah Ballance Amazon iTunes Barnes & Noble Kobo Wealth has a price. Everyone wants something from you. For one woman, that something was my DNA. One minute, she was kissing me like we were going to strip it down and go at it. And the next, she was ripping out my…

I’m a middle child. You know the one, not the oldest, and not the baby, who just kind of slides in there someplace. I wasn’t good at sports in an athletic family. I got bored in school so didn’t bring home the best grades, though my younger brother and I were both equally intelligent. I loved to sit and read. Which made me easy to pass over. Or overlook. I’ve been told many times – mostly by my mother – that a part of me is in every book I write. She says she always, every single time (and she reads every single book) she knows what’s going to happen because she knows what prompted the circumstance. There was a sandwich episode once, she knew the jelly was going to plop out because of a paper I had written in college. I don’t know that I agree with her about truth from life in every book. Partially because unless she points it out, I don’t see it there. But in HIS FIRST CHOICE…I think I see where I come in. Kacey, my heroine, isn’t the middle child. As a matter of fact, she was born first. But she seems to…

My latest novel, THE PHOTOGRAPHER’S TRUTH, takes place in Paris. The book traces the lives of Ian Baines, a Silicon Valley software engineer and Luca Sparks, a former fashion photographer. Their lives are turned upside down as they fall in love. The crux of the story is that love is not always what we want it to be – it’s messy and inconvenient, but it’s always beautiful and exciting. I don’t want to give away too much about the story, but I thought it might be a lot of fun to share some of the more romantic activities I discovered while doing my research in Paris. Just in case you’re over there with a loved one – here are a few “off the beaten path” activities that capture the flavor of the City of Light. Grab a coffee or a glass of wine in Montmartre – One of my favorite parts of town is the little village of Montmartre. It’s nothing like the rest of the city – it feels almost Mediterranean. I got to spend some time here while researching The Photographer’s Truth, climbing up the steep steps and tiny alleys where artists and writers from the last century…

“A glove’s important, Mom.” “I know it is.” “I really need a new one.” Rachel didn’t doubt that. Josh was basically a good kid. He didn’t whine, he didn’t ask for a lot. His passions were simple—anything sports-related and the occasional computer game. That was it. Christmas and birthday presents revolved around whatever sport most had his interest. As they had for the past three years, spring and summer meant baseball. Los Lobos didn’t have a Little League team, but there was a county league. Josh insisted they sign him up the first hour they could, something she was happy to do. He was eleven—she figured she had all of two, maybe three years before he became a raging male hormone and then all bets were off. “Dad said he would buy it for me but I had to check with you first.” At least she was driving and had an excuse not to look at Josh. Because she couldn’t—not without him seeing the rage in her eyes. Damn Greg, she thought bitterly. Of course he could afford to buy his son a new glove. Greg only had himself to worry about. Her ex-husband made a good living as a…

We had a plan. A really great plan. But, you know what they say: humans plan, God laughs… So, hiking is our thing, Mike and I. He has a good idea of the vistas and sunsets he wants us to experience here in the US southwest. Neither of us are natives but Mike seems to have taken to the Nevada wilds better than I so I tend to let him lead the way. Most people would say the desert isn’t beautiful but it takes my breath away. I love the stark landscape that gently gives way to bristlecone pine trees and snow-capped mountain peaks. It’s a hundred and ten degrees in Las Vegas and a cool 72 in the mountain. I love our adventures together but often my challenge is dealing with my paralyzing fear of heights. Acrophobia. I don’t like being high enough that the fall could kill me. How is that a phobia and not just a reasonable way to live? In any case, Mike has the patience of a saint sometimes, especially when it strikes me to the point of being immobile. On this trip, though, there was another challenge. Let’s call it the Hammock Challenge. Here…

“Writing a Woman’s World” Charlotte is a gifted and superbly trained young musician who has been blindsided by a shocking betrayal in her promising career when she takes a babysitting job with the McLeans, a glamorous Upper East Side Manhattan family. At first, the nanny gig is just a way of tiding herself over until she has licked her wounds and figured out her next move as a composer in New York. But, as it turns out, Charlotte is naturally good with children and becomes as deeply fond of the two little boys as they are of her. When an unthinkable tragedy leaves the McLeans bereft, Charlotte is not the only one who realizes that she’s the key to holding little George and Matty’s world together. Suddenly, in addition to life’s usual puzzles, such as sorting out which suitor is her best match, she finds herself with an impossible choice between her life-long dreams and the torn-apart family she’s come to love. By turns hilarious, sexy, and wise, here is a memorable story about how a young woman discovers the things that matter most. Angell talks to Writing a Woman’s Life columnist Yona Zeldis McDonough about her auspicious debut. How…