Romance Novels - Historical, Contemporary Series (Some Paran

In one family, generation after generation relied on the magic of one Norse ring to lead them to their destined match. For those who heed its advice, only joy and health follow. But the ring has also been known to foreshadow impending doom. Ignore its truth at your peril….

     Wayne Warner is a bully. A two-faced scumbag. A complete and totally deceitful, arrogant, gnash-your-teeth-until-they-bleed kind of man. Or is he? Some might say he is the most supportive and loving person they’ve ever met.
     Anyway, this is not his story.
    This prelude is about his children, and how Wayne’s actions will affect them later in life. Many adults like to claim that their parents messed them up in some way, but Wayne Warner takes the cake. How will the pivotal event in this character introduction change their viewpoints and impressions? How will the course of their lives be affected by what he’s done to them?
   

Since his fumbled chance with the family’s magical soulmate-finding ring a few years back, Raine Warner’s life has become a train wreck. With no other remaining option, the homeless, long-lost brother reaches out to his family for financial help, but unexpectedly receives a perfect job opportunity in New Hampshire. Life is looking up... until Raine’s new girlfriend learns about his deep-sea discovery. Now, a relationship with her risks not only his job, but the survival of a new species.

Reporter Evie Sweetham needs a great story to scoop if she’s to break away from her lackluster job, but the series of deaths in her family leaves her second-guessing her work and feeling guilty. When sexy researcher Raine Warner leaves for NH, Evie takes a gamble and follows him. When she stumbles on the unique creatures living in his research facility, Evie must decide between the scoop of the lifetime or a future with the one man who has ever made her heart sing.

For former boxing contender, Q’orian “Storm” Jones, running a gym might not have been his first choice, but with a partial vision loss, his career options are limited. His new goal is to train professional boxers and get kids off the streets. Bonus: focusing long hours training clients in his men-only gym means that any chance of getting involved with another back-stabber like his conniving ex-girlfriend are nil.
    Until the day Celeste Warner walks into his gym. She claims she needs his help. But he doesn’t turn her away because she’s a dark-haired version of the woman he once loved. No. He turns her away because she’s a woman.
    A woman messed up his past; he certainly wasn’t going to let another one ruin his future.

    Growing up with the story of a magic ring, Celeste rebuffs the signs when her late mother’s ring appears before her. She doesn’t want a mate; she’s known nothing but pain from her last boyfriend. But that stupid ring leads her to Storm’s Corner, a gym where Celeste decides that maybe learning how to punch certain ex-boyfriends might be beneficial. But the self-righteous owner, Storm, wants nothing to do with her.
    When Celeste’s ex gets released from prison, she knows she must follow the ring back to Storm’s Corner and plead her case. But the bruise on her arm is all the proof Storm needs to realize he must help Celeste, regardless of his mixed emotions.
    His bottom line is failing, even though he’s succeeding in getting kids off the streets. And with a felon breaking Celeste’s restraining order, Storm doesn’t know if she will even survive until her court date.
    Storm knows he can’t let anything happen to Celeste.
    But protecting someone who feels no self-worth is probably the hardest battle he’s ever fought.

One particular case has caught the attention of Officer Skyhawk Werner, along with the rest of Syracuse: The Man-handler, a vigilante who assaults innocent men under the guise of protecting women from a supposed attack. But as a policeman, Hawk knows the difference between protection and assault, and this vigilante is no hero. Despite being a rookie, Hawk has every intention of solving this case, a crucial step to becoming a detective. The fact his family’s magic heirloom ring warns him of the danger only further incites him to solve it. He can’t wait to slap the cuffs on this lawless creature and drag him to justice. After all, Hawk knows what it’s like living with someone hiding a secret identity, and he doesn’t want anyone suffering from the tortured past he had. One major problem: his captain’s orphaned sister wants to help, and his ring seems to think this forbidden woman is his match.
 

Watching her bar customers disappear one by one has alerted Gloria Reyes to a dangerous situation: women are being kidnapped. It’s not just from her bar, either—other bartenders have noticed the same thing. Working in an off-duty cop bar should mean Gloria gets to catch snippets of shop talk, but she’s not learning fast enough to help. Her self-defense classes provide the security she needs to investigate—despite her cop brother’s protestations—but nearly a year later, no one has stopped the abductions, or recovered the missing women.
 

Somebody’s got to do something.
 

The problem is, that gorgeous playboy Officer Hawk Werner seems bent on solving the case, automatically making him her enemy.
 

The last thing Gloria needs is her secret crush learning the truth. 

Growing up on a farm has instilled a life-long love of animals, and Wren Werner has carried this love with him into adulthood. He spent every penny of his inheritance retrofitting his rural childhood home into a shelter for unwanted pets, and he’s happy to care for them until they find their fur-ever home. His respect for life and nature was something his father instilled in him young, and he’s happy to carry on that legacy, despite being inundated with more and more homeless animals and limited resources to help get them adopted. 

Now, though, his biggest problem is an old, vitriolic woman who keeps calling him, demanding Wren return the ten-thousand-dollar check she accidentally sent him.

He would, had he not spent it rescuing more animals.

Worse, his family’s magical ring keeps signaling him that this woman is his future!

As if!

The only good thing about this ring is that his kneejerk reaction to it usually has him bumping into a certain grieving young woman he’d love to get to know better, but she seems to slip in and out of his life before he can get her name, let alone her phone number. He’s never felt so inadequate when it comes to helping people before, and he really wants to help her. If only he knew how to reach her!

Emma McWilliams is emotionally and spiritually lost. Her entire world revolved around her husband, Bill, but he died from a fluke accident involving a stray dog a mere two years into their marriage. After his death, Emma watched her entire early adulthood disappear. What was she to do with their big empty house, her unused college degree, and a world of pain? Honestly, her husband didn’t leave her in the best position to move on, or even cope. The house they’d bought is burying her. Since it’s not market-ready, she can’t sell it, and without that money, her college dreams of starting her own company are moot. No way is she going to her rich grandmother for help, either; that woman is convinced that Emma’s as worthless as her parents. Emma is trying to accept this new normal, but every time she turns around, another problem surfaces.

The only highlight of her life is that one man keeps appearing just before her world turns dark, cheering her up with a kind word or sweet gesture.

But every time she tries to get his name to thank him, he disappears.

Can’t a girl catch a break?

Zenith “Zenie” Warner, a licensed falconer, loves her role as educator. Having a peregrine falcon grants her opportunities to travel all over the state, educating people on the importance of the environment and the animals in it. Orphaned young, Zenie’s stepmom, Meagan, took over her care, which changed her life path. She has become as tied to the land as Meagan is, to the point that she and her stepmom both bought adjoining parcels of land. Someday, Zenie would like to turn her acres into a bird sanctuary. For now, it suffices that she can rescue and release birds in this safe span of wilderness. 

That was until the horrible Archibald Development Corporation encroached on her property. Not only do they want to buy the surrounding acres and turn it into asphalt and storage units, they are buying the Renaissance Faire—where she just took an educational job—and their intentions are to plow it under! 

Not this time. Despite what her family’s magical ring thinks about it, Zenie’s had just about enough of this destructive company! 

Evan “Archie” Archibald has the best job in the world: he finds impoverished areas, changes the zoning, and helps scores of people improve their living conditions with reduced taxes and plenty of job opportunities. Now that his father is gone, Archie knows the fate of his father’s faltering company is up to him. He knows, if the board gives him a chance, he will do a great job of leading the once-lucrative Archibald Development Corporation into the future, especially since he doesn’t have newsworthy scandal following him. Like his father, Archie knows he’s no good at maintaining healthy relationships, so it’s best that he’s done with his ex-girlfriend, anyway. 

First order of business: buy out the failing Renaissance Faire, and build up the entire area with retail opportunities, starting with a grocery store. Even better, Archie got hired at the Faire. He uses his remarkable skill as an archer to showboat for the crowds. When he gets shown up by a young lady falconer, though, he knows he’s smitten.

And when said falconer suddenly has a creepy stalker, Archie decides to protect her, but in a fun way, one that will also keep his ex away for good—he arranges a pretend marriage to the falconer at the Ren Faire.

Only problem is... the man who married them is an actual reverend, and Zenie’s magic heirloom ring is the one Archie placed on her hand during the vows. 

Can two people who survived their parents’ dysfunctional marriages find peace with the new arrangement, or are they doomed to repeat the cycle that’s destroyed both their families once before?

Professionally, Dovey Werner’s life is great. Her love life? Not so much. When her magical family ring finally appears to her, Dovey is ecstatic... until she realizes she must choose between her high school crush, Chance Best, and his best friend, Brady Eriksson, who she dated for a year. (Un)lucky for her, she’ll be working with both of them in a televised home-flip reality show as they compete against three other teams to renovate a full house in a month. Problems start when the dreams come, showing her a Viking lifetime when the ring first became cursed. If Dovey understands correctly, she chose wrong in a past life, condemning hundreds of generations to doom, including that of her own parents! If she messes up this time, will she ruin her siblings’ happiness as well as her own? 

Solopreneur Chance Best knows he’s a perfect candidate for the home-flip show, but since he must choose a partner, he picks Dovey Werner, a girl from high school he liked but never pursued due to his pact with his best pal, Brady. Winning means working with his favorite TV crew and helping Habitat for Humanity, his dream. But Dovey is not the meek follower he recalls; she’s confident, happy, and worst of all, the guys love her. And though Chance claims he does not want to date Dovey, the thought of her with anyone else, especially Brady, grates on him. But how can he tell Dovey that Brady is wrong for her without revealing he is her, ahem, Best Chance at happiness?

Will building a house together tear this team apart? Or will this contest be the foundation of a beautiful relationship? 

GQ—aka Quinn—is the last man on the planet Magdalene Walsh should consider getting involved with; after all, he freely admits he’s trying to steal her security program, the one that would be the pinnacle of her career. He’s made no bones about the fact that she is a job to him, one that’s worth millions. So Maggie has no reason to believe someone else is out to get her program—at any cost. Her family turned on her in her youth, forcing her to live on the streets. Trust is at an all-time low; betrayal is the foundation upon which her life is built. Maggie is pretty savvy when it comes to human nature... but while her head tells her GQ must be lying, her gut says he’s not.
 

Ten years working Military Intelligence has put Quinn Goodman in some compromising positions, including some Secret Ops that have cost innocent lives. He’s eager to put the past behind him and work for his former Commanding Officer in a NYC private security firm, mixing in some espionage on the side. His first mission should be rather routine—break into the target’s penthouse under the guise of testing her new security system but sabotage it while he’s there. However, a deadly team of assassins is on the case, too, putting Quinn in another precarious spot: should he risk an innocent person’s life once again, or put up with the most bitter, witty, scathing, compassionate, distrustful, beautiful, perfect woman he’s ever met?

Fun loving veterinarian Carla Krasinski is finally taking her dream vacation—a week in Key West. Working overnights in emergency means she sees all the critical cases... and no sun. So this week will be seven full days of brainless meandering and sunbathing. No life-saving decisions. No winter-white skin. Just a week-long stroll under the palm trees. Having her sister out of prison means Carla’s babysitting duties of her niece are also moot this week.
 

And the fact her new boyfriend proposed and expects an answer when she returns? Well, that’s what a week of no decisions is for, right? She’s one cabana boy shy of unadulterated bliss.
 

When DEA Agent Gunner Fitz gets the call that a possible drug deal is going down—by a woman he incarcerated and who just got released—he knows he has to follow the lead to Florida. Not only will this woman lead him to the crime boss, but also his abducted sister, the reason he went into this field in the first place. Catch the bad guy, free the girl. He’s got this. But Gunner gets sidetracked by a woman on the plane, one whose laugh captivates him. After scant minutes in her presence, Gunner knows unequivocally this is the woman he’s going to marry.
 

And then he gets the email: Carla’s the woman he’s supposed to trail. If Gunner tells her the truth about his mission, he’ll lose her. If he lies, he’ll lose her.
 

And when Carla’s only choice is to help Gunner rescue his sister, her decisions become matter of life or death.

Gorgeous. Scottish. A musician—but not in the traditional sense. No, Matteu MacKenzie is one of the best bagpipe players around—a Master Piper. And Cora had given her heart to him, only to have him break it by choosing his music over her. But a secret they share is tearing them apart, and unless Cora is willing to acknowledge what happened, Matty feels their love can never be redeemed. And by midnight on New Year’s Eve, their chances will expire.
 

EVER SINCE they met as teens, they clicked. Completely.
 

EVER SINCE they started dating, they knew they belonged together.
 

EVER SINCE the car accident that ended innocent lives, Cora has been on her own—abandoned, bereft, betrayed by the only man she’d ever loved.
 

EVER SINCE the day Matty’s distracted driving almost cost Cora her life, he’s been unable to cope with how deeply he failed her.
 

They have not been the same EVER SINCE.

Being the apple of Hollywood’s eye is great for a billionaire action/adventure hero, but Rex Rockford knows he needs to break out of his typecast roles if he hopes to have any longevity on the silver screen. A fresh new role by a new director, filmed on the deserted Hawaiian Island of Koho’olawe, will grant Rex decades of acting opportunities and maybe even make him feel like a true hero, like his father. But a tropical storm strands him at sea, and when he makes land, Rex is saved by a woman running a wildlife preserve—on the very land Rex’s agent is turning into a mega-resort, one that will ensure Rex’s fame and fortune for the next hundred years.
 

Taking care of living things is what Tori Jackson does best; after all, she knows what it’s like to be broken and discarded. A car accident has scarred her, both physically and emotionally, so living among nature and protecting everything on her reserve is all that matters to her. So when a scruffy, shipwrecked vagabond shows up on her doorstep, Tori has no compunction against helping him. The only problem is that her reserve didn’t get the land renewal in time, and now her beloved property is at risk of turning into a concrete tourist destination. With no money, no power, and a coalition intent on stealing the land out from underneath her, Tori needs something extraordinary to save everything she holds dear.
 

Rex craves fame and fortune, while Tori nurtures her flora and fauna. Was their shipwrecked encounter a disaster, or simply their destiny? 

Can your first kiss and your last first kiss both be with the same person?
 

Jessalyn Swan has never found any man who could light a candle with a flame bright enough to outshine the torch she still carries for one Darius Covington and therefore has stopped looking. Her flourishing antique business is her hard won lifeblood-- a testimony to her feelings for the man she met once and has never forgotten. One magical date as a teenager has shaped her entire life, and nothing will tear her from her path.
 

When it comes to business or pleasure, middle-class Jessalyn knows she cannot risk losing her heart--or her livelihood--to blue-blooded Darius all over again.
 

Years of control and discipline vanish the moment Aikido champion Darius comes face to face with Jessalyn, the incredibly sweet teenager he had met ten years ago, the one who had left an indelible brand on his own teenage heart. But it seems to have gone both ways, for Jess now owns an antique store, a passion she had shared with him over the hours they had once spent together. Now, though, she will control the inheritance--his beloved uncle’s priceless heirlooms--and he can’t decide if he wants to publicly crush her or simply crush her in his arms.
 

To make matters worse, someone else is aware of their impasse, and attempts are being made on their lives. The inheritance must go to somebody. 

Survivor takes all.

Lies. Deceit. Denial. A ghost. Must be Wednesday morning.
 

RoseAngel Dobson—psychic quasi-extraordinaire—uses her telepathic powers to help people and pets at her humane society job. She’ll be the first to admit, though, she’s a masked superhero in this regard, keeping her true colors hidden behind a ringing phone. Helping people—alive or dead—is what she does, and by golly she does it well. So when a darkly mysterious caller with the sexiest voice on the planet calls—accompanied by a ghostly vision of a boy in need—RoseAngel knows she has to find out who this child is, and how to help save him. It has absolutely nothing to do with trying to learn more about the caller who makes her heart do the jitterbug. Nope. Nothing at all.
 

Travis Mattison is hiding his true identity, going under the alias Trevor Matthews, although the spunky redhead who bumps into him at the grocery store seems to know his real name. He is too close to finishing a three-year ordeal, suffering through a series of events that would put a lesser man in the R wing, and if Ms. Dobson knows who he really is, nothing in his world will be safe.
 

Including his life.
 

As the attraction between them grows, so does the risk. RoseAngel’s life gets upended, while Travis’ is endangered. All RoseAngels has to do to save their future is pinpoint Travis’ location on a map.
 

Too bad she was probably eating ice cream the day they handed out that ability. 

Having a Texas friend in the quantum physics field makes Anya Littlefeather slightly more receptive to Cody Bell’s claim that he time traveled from 1898 into her backyard of 2013. He certainly seems to be an honest-to-God --albeit prejudiced-- handsome cowboy who is utterly surprised by the established neighborhood where he claims his family farm once stood.  He’s a drifter, and Anya has too many abandonment issues with men to even consider a romance with someone who already breaks two of her four relationship requirements. This frees Anya to help Cody as one human does another, and not worry about the possibility of romantic involvement.
 

Cody had been racing home with medicine to save his niece’s life when his horse tossed him into this magical place. This contemporary Indian squaw confuses him, for she doesn’t act the way his grandfather spoke of them during the Western Indian/Settler Wars, and she’s courteous and helpful and respects him as a man. Her offer to help get him home seems genuine, and he fears every day spent in this amazing land jeopardizes the life of his beloved niece. The last woman he loved died, and that scar makes him hesitant to love again, regardless of his attraction.
 

As the time draws near for the next time travel portal to open, Cody has to decide whether to go save the life of the last of his family, or stay here and start a new one. Anya has to either add one more abandonment issue to her list when he goes home, or ask Cody to let his niece perish and stay with her forever.

Peace Officer Raylie McPherson’s mission in life is to protect animals from abuse, and if that means throwing the abusers in jail, so be it. So when the report of two downed horses comes in—from renowned Starstruck Stables, nonetheless—Raylie assumes she can make a quick headline arrest. Despite having to face her horror from the last time she rode, making her relieve her fiance’s death every time she sets foot in a stable, she is determinded to do her job. Her coworker swears the owner is innocent, but Raylie’s experience tells her he simply can’t be. But the suspect is anguished, grieving, and too rich to need the insurance money.
 

Ashton Lyre is devastated over the loss of his two favorite horses—a money maker and a brat. So he’s surprised that the pretty Peace Officer accuses him of the foul deed—for money, no less. She fears his horses, which intrigues him, for she’s obviously ridden before. However, he knows he must be cautious, for he just discovered his very empire was built on shaky ground. Should the pretty cop learn of his fraudulent start, he fears everything he owns could be forfeited, and every case that dips into his past dredges up his fears.