Two days later, Claire Miller pulled into the long driveway that led to the Walker family ranch and sighed. She was home, back in Colorado on her old stomping grounds, and it hurt just as much as she thought it would. Seven years evaporated like they’d never existed. Everything at the ranch looked exactly the way it had the day she’d left town, but she knew one major difference waited…Jake’s mom was gone. That loss hit her harder now. For the first time in her life, Mrs. Walker wouldn’t be on the front porch smiling and waving, or bringing her and Jake a pitcher of lemonade in the barn. She wouldn’t be in the kitchen making fried chicken or harassing her four boys about their homework or their girlfriends, and generally in that order. Claire half expected the place to look as sad on the outside as she suddenly felt on the inside, but the world never stopped spinning, no matter who was lost. The large red barn was freshly painted, the outbuildings were overflowing with riding tack, hay, and tractors. The riding and roping arenas were often used and the horses’ hooves made sure nothing could survive inside the…

Now you may be wondering what does a bad boy have to do with my latest release? Absolutely nothing—but Marine wolves can have a bad boy vibe and I really do love a good bad boy in my books, my movies, and the shows I like to watch on television. Let’s have some fun! I’ll show you my favs, then you tell me yours! Dean Winchester (Supernatural) For over a decade, I have thoroughly enjoyed Dean Winchester’s signature wise-ass nature as he fights to save the world and his baby brother from all things that go bump in the night. Dean is always putting himself last, and he has a definite martyr complex. Like he says, he hopes that all his good acts counterbalance his love ‘em and leave ‘em attitude, gambling, and drinking—but if you’re in a corner and need help? Dean will have your back. Lucifer Morningstar (Lucifer) The name is kind of obvious, right? But on the Fox series, Tom Ellis’ Lucifer is a bad boy of the wild variety. He enjoys a sensuous lifestyle, loves to party, and is also unfailingly honest. The fallen angel and former keeper of hell also has a deep seated sense…

Top Five Reasons Readers Will Swoon for Nick Frasier   He’s drop-dead gorgeous! In a tall, ripped, blond hair, blue-eyed way. He has the scruffy 5 o’clock shadow and tousled hair thing going and would look great wearing a sandwich board!   Nick’s an ex-professional quarterback turned NFL head coach who’s very passionate about his job. He’s hard working, driven and relentless when it comes to his job and reputation.   Smart, sharp, witty and sometimes bossy, (in a good way, of course!) he keeps Marabelle guessing.   Nick’s protective and possessive, especially when it comes to the people he loves…and he loves   But mostly, Nick Frasier is delicious, delightful and dangerous, a triple threat to every girl’s heart. Careful…he’s all Marabelle’s and she’s not above fighting you to keep what’s hers.   EXCERPT “Excuse me,” she said, breaking the deafening silence, “we don’t have all day. The Stones will be waiting.” She planted her fist on her cocked hip. “Nice picture of you and your dad.” Nick reached for the next frame as if they had all the time in the world. The man made her insane. How could he appear so calm? And what was he doing…

Hey, there! My name is Melissa Schroeder! My new release is all set in the DC, Maryland, and Virginia area, or the DMV as we call it. My husband retired from the Air Force a little over three years ago. Thanks to publishing work, we could pick where we wanted to live. Truthfully, I decreed that I got to pick where we lived after following him around for 20 years. So, I picked Virginia, one of my very favorite places to be. Wineries, horses, proximity to free museums (have I mentioned that I a major history nerd), and a fall season that is one of the most beautiful things I have ever witnessed? Yep. Definitely for me. I write a lot of books set in Hawaii, but I wanted to do one series here. When the plot for THE BOSS came to mind, I knew it needed to be set here. As someone who lives in a neighborhood populated with FBI, Secret Service, CIA, and State Department folks, it is easy to picture my snarky spies stomping around my area. Here is a little excerpt from my book, THE BOSS, the first book of my series Spies, Lies, and AlibisSpies,…

Captain Tyran Zakar, The Colony, Base 3 My mate. Holy hell. My mate. Not Hunt’s, as I’d first thought. Yes, I’d been disappointed, hope dying a slow death by starvation when weeks, then months passed and not one new mate arrived on the Colony. We’d gone to the testing center, went through the process, but neither of us came out with a match. That was three months ago. Until now, we’d heard nothing further about it. I knew Hunt had held onto his hope these long weeks. I’d given that up long ago. All I remembered of the event was an amazing yet vague sex dream and that I’d left with a cock so hard I worried it was going to puncture through my armor. Fortunately, I’d been able to return to my quarters and take myself in hand, ease the discomfort I knew would only truly be lessened by sinking into my mate. And now, I was going to have one. I wouldn’t be a second, but the matched mate, the Primary Male. I tried to suppress my grin, but it was almost impossible. I felt…gods, I felt good. Elated. Thrilled. Something pretty damn close to happy. There was…

The pretend relationship or fake marriage is one of my favourite romance tropes. If done well, it can be dramatically tense, underlain with emotion, and deeply satisfying when the end reveals sincerity to the pretense. The pretend relationship is usually for show. Like the marriage of convenience, it’s meant to serve an aim—securing an inheritance, satisfying family expectations, or spurring (or repulsing) a romantic rival. Sometimes both the heroine and hero gain from the charade, sometimes only one of them is actually motivated towards the ostensible goal and the other is reluctantly brought along. Usually one of them is emotionally attached from the start and the other realizes it as the sham relationship plays out. The characters often bond over the joint venture, on the principle that they are two against the world and usually the only two who are aware of the deception. Of course, there are lots of variations on this theme. I have to admit that I have mixed feelings about those fake relationships where the sham is itself a sham and one of the characters made it up to embark on that joint venture with the other, with the sole aim of showing them that they…

At Marly’s, Jo hit pay dirt. Loud and smoky despite the laws suggesting people not smoke indoors, and littered with hard bodies and hard liquor, Jo felt at home. A few heads swiveled her way as she moved toward the bar. That’s when she saw him. He had his back to her, a tight T-shirt stretched across a thick layer of muscles built by hours at the gym, and maybe a few steroids. She really hoped steroids were not this guy’s thing. Ink peeked out on both his arms just above the sleeve line. A shadow of growth gave evidence that his baldness was by choice. He had a nice ass. Now if only his face matched. She waited until her gaze inched up his spine like an insect in the forest on a hot summer night. He turned, and her heart stopped. Good Lord, God broke the mold with this one. His goatee was trimmed, immaculately so. His lips were full, his jaw tight . . . and his eyes. Dark, almost haunting. Dangerous. He did a once-over, and when his eyes met hers, he lifted one side of his lips in a half smile. One that asked ….

– or – Let Us Praise Mr. John Impey of the Inner Temple There’s a saying about the past; it’s another country and they do things differently there. That means that authors and amateur historians all owe debts of gratitude to those brave souls who penned the travel guides. This becomes really clear when you’re researching the law and policing. Before 1828, England did not have a professional police force administered by the government. In fact, the ruling elite actively resisted the creation of any such institution. They insisted it would be an infringement on the traditional freedoms of Englishmen. As an example, they pointed to Napoleon and his secret police (who were, to be fair, really bad). This freewheeling attitude created a lot of headaches back in the day. It created more than a few for me as I was trying to do my research for the Rosalind Thorne mysteries. In 1817, when my books, A USEFUL WOMAN and A PURELY PRIVATE MATTER take place, London was on its way to becoming the biggest, and wealthiest, city in the Western World. Despite this, crime prevention and investigation was performed by a really loose patchwork of institutions. In fact to…

Readers who enjoyed my first Writer’s Apprentice mystery, A DARK AND STORMY MURDER, don’t have to wait much longer for the sequel. DEATH IN DARK BLUE debuts on May 2. Since I don’t want to delve too deeply into the storyline and risk spoilers, I thought I’d talk a little more about Blue Lake, the fictional town where all the mystery happens. A Dark and Stormy Murder #1 Amazon.com BN.com iTunes/iBooks Kobo Google Play Death in Dark Blue #2 Amazon.com BN.com iTunes/iBooks Kobo Google Play Blue Lake is an amalgam of any number of Midwestern small towns I’ve visited, and even Bick’s Hardware has shades of other hardware stores I’ve seen over fifty years. One in particular stands out. It was a wonderful old store in Valparaiso, Indiana—my college town!—and I happened to wander into this place when I was twenty and searching, just before Christmas break, for family Christmas gifts. I had chosen my brother Christopher’s name in the family grab bag, and I wanted to buy him a saw and a flannel shirt (both on his list). So I walked the mile from campus to Valpo’s downtown strip, and I stumbled across an amazing place called Wark’s Hardware….

The things you learn while researching a book can be very interesting in and of themselves. Everyone of a certain age remembers the Sears catalog as a place to order clothing, toys, and home goods, but did you know that an entire house could be ordered from Sears in the early twentieth century? A mail order home, also known as a “kit house”, was a parcel of goods containing precut wood, windows, shingles, and all the other items needed to build a house. The parcel was usually shipped to the desired location by rail. The would-be homeowner provided the labor and, often, the concrete and bricks needed to construct a foundation. The pieces were often labeled to assist in assembly, just like a model kit. During the mid-1920s, land lots in Florida sold like crazy. The West Coast Development Company was selling undeveloped parcels in Homosassa, the setting of our book. The St. Petersburg papers were filled with real estate ads. Harry Prettyman was advertising Gold Rushes in Oldsmar, burying gold pieces in vacant lots as a promotional gimmick. Empty lots needed houses on them. Most of them were constructed by traditional builders, but others were built from kits. Sears…