"Elizabeth Whitaker is a pen name for Kate Merrill
When Ellie Birdsong, an ambitious young real estate developer, is sent from Atlantic City to Puerto Rico to “charm the panties off” landowner Carla Valdez, the last thing she expects is to be seduced by the lush island, Carla’s two troubled adopted young sons, and Carla herself.
But in her quest to buy Carla’s sprawling beachfront property on the Caribbean and turn it into a gambling resort, Ellie learns to love the land and its people. As she tours bustling marketplaces, rugged mountains, and historic sites she experiences the culture clash between rich and poor, and tradition and progress.
As Ellie’s love and respect for Carla grows, their relationship is threatened by a ruthless gangster who also wants Carla’s land, by jealousy and romantic rivalry, and by the disappearance of Carla’s younger son. Torn between her professional ambition and her feelings for Carla, Ellie may risk losing Carla’s trust and becoming her “beloved enemy.”
Cole Montgomery has it all---success, women, and a brilliant future as a physician in Birmingham, Alabama. Yet he is restless and incomplete. Seeking the happiness that eludes him, he returns to his tiny hometown of Millville to work in the cotton mill and search for the father he never knew, the man who caused him to be born a bastard.
Amelia Mansfield has an agenda. After graduating with an advanced business degree in Philadelphia, she seeks to fulfill her empty life by returning to Millville. Her goal is to wrestle control of her family’s mill empire from the hands of her ruthless father, proving once and for all that a woman can be more than a pretty face.
From the moment of their first meeting, Cole and Amelia seem star-crossed. Their attraction is immediate and passionate, and in one magic summer their relationship deepens to love until Fate intervenes. A bitter corporate struggle and long-buried secrets erupt in greed, jealousy, and finally flames as one man’s shameful past conspires to pull the lovers apart for all time.
Christie Cole is a pen name for Kate Merrill
When Judith Caldwell leaves urban Washington DC to accept a teaching position in Michigan’s remote Upper Peninsula, is she hoping to recapture an idealized memory of summer vacations spent in that beautiful wilderness, or is she defying her fiancé, Kent, who has put their wedding on hold?
The moment Judith sets foot in Michigan, a hotel fire destroys her possessions. Instead of teaching high school, she is assigned to an elementary school where she must learn to relate to young children. The Andersons, with whom she will be living, are no longer the happy family she remembers, and most devastating of all---her old playmate Paul has matured into a ruggedly handsome and strangely secretive ladies’ man who seems determined to upset Judith’s equilibrium.
The attraction between Judith and Paul is immediate and powerful, but each comes to the relationship with hidden scars and insecurities. Both have lost fathers, and Paul’s hero, his older brother, has died in a freak mine accident. Commitment seems impossible because Judith is engaged to another, while Paul is hiding an indiscretion from his past so dark that no one speaks of it.
As the year unfolds, the couple confronts many challenges, including a near brush with death as history tries to repeat itself. In spite of the obstacles, Judith and Paul’s forbidden passion heats up the northern nights and leads to a surprising conclusion.
In New York City, artist Jan Seagal is riding high on her latest success when she’s attacked by a crooked vice cop. She manages to escape in a blast of violence, but he frames her on a fabricated drug charge. Now a wanted felon, she changes her name and runs for her life.
In small-town Ohio, five years later, police officer Shelly O’Brien is forced to kill a young gunman in a mass shooting at a mall. Emotionally devastated and gun-shy, she takes a leave of absence to live with her spunky Aunt Charlotte on a lake in North Carolina.
When Shelly takes a summer job as a custom picture framer with Jan, who now owns a struggling art gallery, their attraction is sudden and passionate. As Jan tries to hide her past life from Shelly, the danger escalate. Neither woman realizes that Jan’s attacker has tracked her down and has arrived in North Carolina to get his revenge.
Entangled in a web of secrets, lies, and violence, will Jan trust enough and will Shelly get her mojo back in time to save them all?