CONTEMPORARY MAINSTREAM
A Soft Place to Fall (Shelter Rock Cove, Book No. 1)
The first time they met, his dog trashed her car.
The second time they met, she set fire to her bathroom.
The third time they met, they fell in love.
Annie Galloway isn't looking to fall in love again. Sam Butler doesn't want a home and family of his own.
Too bad fate has other plans . . .
Ebook:
Audio Book:
Girls of Summer (Shelter Rock Cove, Book No. 2)
Just try to keep a secret in Shelter Rock Cove . . .
In the grand scheme of things, it really wasn’t such a terrible mistake. People slept with the wrong people every day of the week and somehow the world managed to keep on turning. Ellen and Hall had been good friends and co-workers before last night, and there was no reason to think their friendship couldn’t survive a night of passion..
After one thousand six hundred and eighty-five mornings of waking up alone, Ellen found herself in bed with the one man who could break her heart and not even the Goddess of the Morning After could rewind the tape back to last night before they made their fatal mistake.
There wasn’t a soul in Shelter Rock Cove who wouldn’t know what they had been up to when she drove home down the main street wearing the same clothes she had worn to the Butlers’ christening party. And, to make matters worse, her car had spent the night in Hall’s driveway. She might as well have hung a flag from his bedroom window with the words “Dr. Ellen Slept Here” embroidered across it in big scarlet letters.
Add a wayward sister with a hundred pound dog named Stanley, a mechanic with his eye on the stars, some very nosy neighbors and all the colorful characters you fell in love with in A Soft Place to Fall and summer in Shelter Rock Cove is about to get very interesting . . .
Audio Book:
The Day We Met
THEY WEREN'T LOOKING FOR LOVE . . .
It's 7:08 on the morning of Maggy O'Brien's thirty-fifth birthday and she's driving carpool in her pajamas and bunny slippers. She can't remember the last time she shaved her legs. She's hasn't slept past dawn since her kids were born and one of them is now a teenager.
Can life possibly get any worse?
The second she sees her sisters waiting impatiently at the foot of her driveway, she knows the answer to that question. Claire and Ellie are staging a makeover intervention and no amount of protest can save Maggy from being cut and colored and waxed to within an inch of her life. And as if that's not enough, they announce she's being banished to Atlantic City for an all-expenses-paid getaway weekend for one.
Maggy isn't a sequins-and-stilettos kind of woman. She's a single mom who is more comfortable pushing a shopping cart through Stop & Shop than sipping champagne in the backseat of a stretch limo headed toward Vegas on the Jersey Shore. Still even Maggy isn't immune to playing Cinderella for a weekend, even if it only means room service lobster and trying her hand at the penny slots.
But when she locks eyes a few hours later with ruggedly handsome police detective Conor Riley, she discovers there's more to Cinderella's story than dancing until midnight.
They agree it's just a fling. A weekend of magic with no strings attached. They'd say goodbye on Sunday night and return to their everyday lives with sweet memories and no regrets.
But Maggy and Conor are about to discover that maybe some flings are meant to last forever . . .
What critics had to say about The Day We Met:
Bretton is a monumental talent who targets her audience with intelligence and inspiration. In her story you'll find no condescension or a stereotypical portrayal of a reluctant heroine forced into situations where she'd rather not be. This author respects her fans and deserves praise for never losing control of her characters just to keep the plot motivated. -- Affaire de Coeur
Consistent winner Barbara Bretton returns with a powerhouse novel that is both touching and emotionally intense. Terrific reading! -- Jill M. Smith for Romantic Times - a 4 1/2 Star Romantic Times Top Pick
THE DAY WE MET is a beautiful love story . . . an extraordinary novel. Highly Recommended. -- Under the Covers
Once Around
Sometimes a woman has to lose everything she ever wanted before she discovers what she really needs . . .
All Molly Chamberlain had ever wanted was a home of her own. Children to cherish. A man who would love her and be there for her through good times and bad. Ten years into her marriage she is finally pregnant with their first child, living in a beautiful home in Princeton, New Jersey and eager to embrace the wonderful future she'd always dreamed of.
But it takes two to build a future and Molly's husband has his own dreams and they don't include Molly or their baby. When she comes home from a routine prenatal doctor's visit one sunny afternoon she discovers that her soon-to-be-ex has stripped the house to the bare walls, emptied their bank accounts and cancelled the credit cards. Molly is left with nothing but broken dreams and a shattered future . . . and a baby on the way.
The last time Rafe Garrick had heard a sound like that was years ago on a Montana mountaintop. Sometimes late at night when the hours lay heavy against his mind he could still hear the wolf, hopelessly caught in a trap, keening in terror and pain.
The sound of the woman's anguish rang out in the sweet, still air and he followed that sound to a sun-filled room that held more pain than a human heart could bear. She stood near the window, bent over at the waist, arms wrapped tightly around her middle, back curved in a graceful arc. A cascade of vibrant, sun-streaked auburn hair almost brushed the floor as she sobbed. He wanted to reach out and gather her into his arms and hold her while she cried, the same way he had wanted to ease the wolf's pain, but sometimes a man had to turn away or risk being hurt.
And he knew in a moment that he would risk anything to spend one night with her.
He wanted everything she had to give . . . including forever.
Sleeping Alone
After years of lies, loneliness, and betrayal, Alexandra has finally left her wealthy husband in London and moved into her own house in the run-down resort town of Sea Gate, New Jersey, the place of her childhood dreams—and now, her grown-up hopes.
But while patching together her falling-apart house and fallen-apart life, Alex meets someone who throws a wrench into her plans for solitary bliss—John Gallagher, a local resident with his own haunting past and painful secrets. Alex is determined to do what it takes to make it on her own, even working as a waitress at the Starlight Diner. But when her old life catches up with her, she must measure her fiercely independent will against the needs of her own heart. Because this struggling shore town has become her home—and she'll never let anybody destroy her home again…
Maybe This Time
From the author of One and Only, this is the story of Christine Cannon, a television celebrity, whose emotions are stirred when she sees her ex husband. But there are obstacles to a second chance at love, such as his new wife.
One and Only
A grown-up "once upon a time" kind of fairy tale about a beautiful princess who grew up in a castle high in the French Alps and an all-American male who was born and raised in Queens. Is it a match made in heaven? You must be kidding.
Guilty Pleasures
Lily wanted her daughter back, the one she g ave away when she was trying to sort her life out. Told she is dead she throws herself into her work. But now someone is trying to destroy her business. Only one person can help, t he revenge seeker. '
Her Bad Boy Billionaire Lover
Megan McLean had never seen a man like Jake Lockwood before. Everything about the tall, dark Aussie stranger screamed danger from his chestnut hair streaked by the sun to his powerful shoulders and the wickedly sensual grin that made her bones melt.
He was her dark knight in shining armor, the renegade lover of her deepest fantasies, and he wanted only her.
His dreams were as wild and unbridled as his lovemaking, and every bit as seductive. "One day we'll sail around the world," he promised her, just the two of them, naked beneath a blanket of stars.
One month later they were married.
And one year later they were divorced.
Megan went back to her world and Jake went back to his, both determined to put their failed marriage behind them and get on with their lives.
Except for one small thing.
Now, six years later, Jake Lockwood is back in her life and about to discover he's the father of her child . . .
The Princess and the Billionaire
A runaway princess looking to start a new life in New York City
A golden boy billionaire who likes his life just the way it is
She grew up in a castle high in the French Alps
He was born in Queens
She cut her teeth on caviar and champagne
He loves Big Macs and supersized fries
From the snow-covered Alps to the noisy streets of Manhattan to the ramshackle cottage in the Pennsylvania Poconos, Isabelle and Daniel fight their attraction to each other every step of the way.
A match made in heaven?
It's only a matter of time . . .
* * *
It suddenly hit Bronson that she wasn't half as smart or sophisticated as she wanted him to believe. Isabelle was a nineteen-going-on-twenty-year-old girl with a bad case of the hots for a guy who wasn't good enough to kiss her Jimmy Choos. He'd overheard the servants talking about the little princess and Malraux's son, and it didn't take a rocket scientist to figure out what it was all about.
Just because he was too jaded to believe in happily-ever-after was no reason to deny the girl her dreams. She'd learn soon enough that life didn't always work out according to plan, not even for princesses with eyes dark as night.
But still there was something about her that called out to him. Something that went beyond the allure of her cascade of dark curls or the sweet curves of her body and touched at the most primitive part of his soul. She shifted in her seat, brushing away a lock of hair with an elegant, artless gesture and for a moment, Bronson knew exactly how she would feel in his arms. She was too young, too spoiled, too much trouble for a man as practical and pig-headed as he was, but still—
I'm not laughing at you, princess, he thought as he met her eyes. I'm just wondering why I couldn't have been first.
"Glamour, intrigue, and action ... a regal roller coaster of a romance."
--Nora Roberts
"This nicely plotted sizzler takes readers on an energetic romp through the world of the privileged class"
--Publishers Weekly
"A stunning, powerful, and enjoyable novel."
--Affaire de Coeur
