Romance Books

Determined to fulfill her dream of becoming a chef and winning a coveted scholarship to study cooking in Italy, Ki Blake rushes in late to the first class of her final semester at Kirkwood Culinary Academy and is stopped in her tracks by Taryn Ellis, the school’s newest instructor. A beautiful and accomplished chef, Taryn has walked away from her promising career in the city’s top restaurant to devote her life to her five-year-old daughter.  

Ki and Taryn try their best to resist the urge to give in to the undeniable chemistry between them. And when at last they begin a passionate affair that must be kept a secret, they are each convinced it’s only a short-term fling.  

It’s up to both Ki and Taryn to decide whether they have found something genuine or whether the taste of romance they’ve had is truly enough.

Alice never imagined that meeting co-worker Leslie would lead to an all-consuming love affair. But even in the anything-goes 1970s, feminist attitudes and the sexual revolution can’t change the fact that Leslie is a traditional married mom of two who won’t chance losing her children to follow her heart and divorce her husband. Their year of risk, passion, and heartache takes its toll on both women. Tired of only receiving crumbs from Leslie, Alice makes the toughest choice of her life and moves on. 

Although their affair is short-lived, their desire to be together never dies. Nearly forty years later, Alice returns to Connecticut after learning Leslie has suffered a stroke. She soon realizes that time and distance haven’t doused the fire for Leslie that’s always burned in her heart. But is it too late to pick up where they left off?

Ava Wynne wants to start fresh, in a place where nothing reminds her of her failed relationships in Easton. Once awarded a transfer she is paired with a beautiful co-pilot she doesn’t really like. After two cross-continent cargo flights, Ava and her co-pilot are assigned to fly a member of the ruling elite to the cloud city of Miami. The last thing Ava wants is to fly an air taxi for some spoiled member of the Chancellor’s family. But Ava will have bigger problems than her dislike for the ruling elite. A member of the “Return To Earth” insurgency forces their cruiser to crash-land in the desert region of North America. Held captive in this barren outpost, Ava and her privileged, yet captivating, passenger begin to discover things about each other and themselves that will change them both forever.

Socialite Elizabeth Carlton impulsively joins the Women’s Army Corps to escape love’s disappointments and her father’s attempts to control her life. Still, she has never been one to accept discipline imposed by others—not even someone as intriguing as her new sergeant. 

Sergeant Gale Rains is accustomed to challenges, but she’s never had a recruit quite like this one. Rains surrendered much of her Sioux heritage to the Army to escape the hardships and pain of her youth. Now a drill instructor, her calm, steady manner and firm hand have molded women from all walks of life into WACs. But not one of them has ever touched her. Why should this spoiled party girl be any different?

With the whole world at war, victory is never certain as two women wage their own battles of will and desire.

Wren received something for her eighteenth birthday that she was fairly sure was one of a kind: sky-blue wings. But along with those wings comes the knowledge that her father had a surprisingly practical reason for abandoning her when she was eight. In his letter to her, delivered via talking raven, she learns that it’s up to her to save billions of humans and Winged Blue from a threat that’s on the horizon and closing in fast. She is to travel to the world of the Winged Blue thirteen days after her birthday, and before she leaves, an attractive winged young woman named Sia will be teaching her how to fly. Wren has to hope that her world’s prophecy is right, and that she is up for something even more challenging than growing up gay in a small town: saving two entire worlds from the Winged Red.

ADVANCE PRAISE

Morton has an interesting set up...a quick, light read....

The future doesn’t seem to hold much for Wren, until a letter from the father she hasn’t seen in years arrives on her 18th birthday ... along with a set of wings. Wren is destined to save her people, the Winged Blue, along with humans, but first she needs to learn to fly. Her teacher Sia is positive Wren will learn to soar in time. As the women spend more time together, their unspoken feelings for each other grow harder to ignore.

RT Book Reviews

Cressida loves Greek mythology, tales of gods and monsters, but she knows they aren’t real no matter how awesome it would be to meet the beautiful women of myth. When her aunt June disappears, Cressida realizes the other members of her family aren’t so rational. June’s notes point to a possible entrance to the fabled Underworld before they cut off completely.

Following June’s footsteps leads Cressida into a world she knew only as legend, a place of marvels and danger, where the living are highly prized by the dead. Desperate, Cressida turns to Medusa, a demigoddess who’s been maligned by myth, but everything in the Underworld comes with a price. Medusa is more than willing to help find June, and all it will cost Cressida is one little murder.

ADVANCE PRAISE 

A unique take on the Greek gods and the afterlife make this a memorable book. The story is fun with just the right amount of camp. Medusa is a hot, if unexpected, love interest... A truly unexpected ending has us hoping for more stories from this world.

When Cressida’s beloved Aunt June disappears, the last place she expects her to turn up is the fabled Underworld. Demigoddess Medusa offers Cressida her best chance at rescuing her aunt but it comes at a high price. How far will Cressida go to free June? When everything Cressida thinks she knows turns out to be false, will a gorgon be a girl’s best friend … and more? 

RT BOOK REVIEWS

Professor of Archeology Henrietta “Harry” Knight becomes Countess of Axedale upon her father’s death and takes a sabbatical from Cambridge University to begin refurbishing the long-neglected and run-down Axedale Hall. The child of a loveless marriage, witness to her father’s infidelities and her mother’s pain, Harry has no intention of ever falling in love.

Annie Brannigan is a survivor, remaining positive through hardships. As an agency housekeeper, she moves from post to post with her daughter Riley, taking care of people who have everything she will never have. Annie’s greatest wish is to find her happy ever after.

Can love restore the countess’s heart and the crumbling Axedale Hall, or will the first foundations of love turn to dust?

After ten years in love, Willa and Rae decide to celebrate the legalization of same-sex marriage by getting hitched and going on a dream European vacation. First stop: the final weekend of Carnevale in Venice, Italy. When the international leg of their flight is cancelled due to a fast-moving winter storm, Willa refuses to admit defeat and give up her carefully laid plans. All Rae wants is some quiet time to reconnect with her wife after months of wedding madness, but she agrees to attempt a late-night trek across the snowy midwest in a last-ditch attempt to make it to Venice before the festivities end. After surviving a near-death experience on the icy road, Willa and Rae find themselves at odds regarding the entire point of their honeymoon. Can an unexpected rescuer help them rediscover what’s really important, and each other?

Jessica Spaulding works for Magnate, her father’s multi-billion-dollar investment firm. But her life of privilege comes at a high personal cost, requiring her to keep aspects of herself under wraps.

Magnate’s new intern, TJ Blake, leads by example. The sole guardian of her teenage sister, TJ juggles work, graduate school, and debt, never taking “something for nothing.” 

As TJ discovers there’s more to Jess than she lets on, her pride and notions about wealth run headlong against her growing feelings for Jess. Jess starts falling for TJ but doubts she’s principled enough for her. When Jess uncovers a dark secret, will she do the right thing, even if it means losing everything—including any chance at love?

After being kidnapped, Dr. Jessica Benson suffers from a case of post traumatic stress disorder that can’t be good for her drug habit. But how can she get the help she needs without risking her medical license? And why does she keep thinking about the sexy detective assigned to her case? Confirmed bachelorette Detective Mac Calabrese can’t help the attraction she feels for her star witness, but she’s professional enough to fight the attraction. Teaching Jess self-defense draws them closer, but can the clean-cut Mac handle Jess’s past history of drug abuse? And will the homicidal drug dealer Derek Knight put an end to their love before it even begins?

In the blink of an eye, Lena Michaels's dreams of college became a distant memory. A robbery gone wrong in her family’s locally owned restaurant took the life of her parents. The only witness to the gruesome tragedy was Laura, Lena’s nine-year-old sister. Seven years later, the murders remain unsolved and Laura is now a rebellious teenager, dead set on pushing her sister’s limits. Amy Kline is a public relations hotshot for the San Francisco Miners football team.  Her only focus is keeping her publicity prone clients out of hot water. When Laura’s rebellious streak puts her in the sights of the Miners' star wide receiver, Lena and Amy will have to face off to protect what is important to them. What neither is prepared for is that the price could be their hearts.

A call she never expected to receive. A plea she never wanted to hear.  Forgiveness she never intended to give.

Lorna Dutton wouldn’t take a call from Anna Frye if she was the last person on earth. Despite the unconditional love Lorna has discovered with Renee Austin, she is far from ready to forgive Anna for dumping her for another woman. Some wounds cut too deep. But when Anna’s wife, Sadie, goes missing and the police are getting nowhere, Renee convinces Lorna to do the unthinkable: she takes Anna’s call begging Lorna to use her psychic abilities to find her wife. Always reluctant to use her psychic powers, Lorna is faced with a hard decision. Will Lorna be able to move past the history of lies and betrayal to help? Or will an unseen evil take Sadie beyond salvation? 

Third in the Reluctant Psychic Series

Twenty-five-year-old theater grad student Rory Morgan walks into her Intro to Theater class expecting it to be a piece of cake. She isn’t prepared for the diminutive little fireball of a professor who walks in. She is instantly captivated by Dr. Margaret Parks, her forty-year-old professor, and even works up the courage to flirt a little, which Dr. Parks quickly dismisses. After their first class, Rory finds herself thinking about the professor more and more and spends most of her class time watching the professor as she passionately does her job. Rory really wants to ask her out, but she doesn’t know if the professor is even gay, to say nothing of the fact that she’s her professor. What follows is a romance full of humor, passionate awakenings, and college politics. Can they overcome the hurdles that lie before them and still be a class act?

Adi Bergeron doesn’t want to be discovered. Discovery could lead to her arrest or worse. She just wants to keep flying under the radar, safe and anonymous. She may have to give up the life she’s built for herself when the restaurant she works in is chosen to be featured in a culinary magazine. 

Reporter Griffith McNaulty has had a rocky year. She’s struggling to rebuild herself after having her reputation destroyed and her heart broken by a previous interview subject. She’s jaded and hesitant to accept the flimsy story Adi presents as her past. The relationship that develops between them cements Griffith’s need to find Adi’s truth. Can she get to the root of Adi’s fear or will the past destroy them both?

Jacqueline Knight is driven and ambitious, always focused on getting to the top. But when her father’s failing health demands her attention, she must consider putting her career on hold. Though she struggles with her new responsibilities, she won’t admit she can’t do it alone. And the last person she wants to accept help from is her ex, Casey.

Since their breakup eight years before, Casey Meadows has concentrated on co-parenting their son and making a new life for herself. While she’s happy to offer her help, spending time with Jacqueline threatens to open the box in which she’s locked away their past relationship.

Will the lessons learned in eight years apart be enough to mend the mistakes of the past?

DEA Agent Colby Vincent is working an undercover assignment in which homeless veterans are being used to deal drugs. She’s forced to work without the support of fellow agents or friends and is challenged by her attraction to a woman she suspects is involved in the case. 

Adena Weber is trying to maintain her late father’s law firm and legacy, part of which is the homeless resource center Colby is investigating. She’s always followed the rules and adhered to her boundaries until a new homeless woman wanders into the center.

Colby and Adena choose to keep secrets that complicate their jobs and ultimately jeopardize the possibility of a life together.

Anastasia Mikhelson is the rising star of the New York City Ballet. She’s sacrificed creature comforts, a social life, as well as her own physical well-being for perfection in dance. Even her reputation as The Ice Queen doesn’t faze her. Though Ana’s at the peak of her career, competition from a new and noteworthy dancer puts all she’s worked for in jeopardy.

While Natalie Frederico has shown herself to be a prodigy when it comes to ballet, she much prefers modern dance and living on her own terms. Life is too short for anything else. However, when the opportunity to dance with the New York City Ballet is thrust upon her, it’s not like she could say no. Dealing with the company’s uptight lead is another story, however. When the two are forced to work side-by-side, sparks begin to fly onstage and off.

Publishers Weekly says: "Readers will relate to the realism of the romance...This ably plotted, moving offering will earn its place deep in readers’ hearts."

Kendal Moore knows she’s being used shamelessly by her boss, Holly McAllister. What’s more, Kendal has willingly agreed to it. Holly needs a wife to remain in the US despite an expired visa. Now it’s their wedding day. Kendal is about to marry the woman she secretly loves, but she is afraid. What if she fails Holly by getting last-minute cold feet? 

Holly McAllister tries to keep up her usual stern demeanor. If she doesn’t marry, all she’s worked for is lost. She is surprised that the only person she can imagine marrying is her assistant, Kendal, whose loyalty she always relied on. Now Holly’s heart and conscience insist she must talk to Kendal and call off the wedding. She can’t  take advantage of the woman she’s grown to love. Kendal deserves more.