Shameless

Hugh Battancourt -- a dark and dangerous nobleman who long ago turned his back on the ton and now leads a life secretly dedicated to his country's service -- is determined not to be swayed by his prisoner's beauty as they share a cabin on a ship bound for France. Lives depend on his retrieving from her a letter full of secrets she intends to turn over to the enemy. But even as Claire and Hugh engage in a battle of wits and wills, captor and captive find themselves drawn irresistibly to each other. Is it possible, Claire wonders, that she could discover the true meaning of love that has eluded her with this handsome stranger? One who will lay his life on the line in order to protect her from someone who is intent on placing Claire in the path of danger?

Which she does. Pretending that Marcus is still alive, Gabby arranges beautiful Claire's London season. She'll keep up the pretense just long enough for Claire to marry a fabulously wealthy nobleman. But when a handsome gentleman arrives at the door and claims to be Marcus, Gabby's plan backfires. For if she exposes this mysterious stranger's deceit, she exposes her own. Bound by secrets and lies, Gabby and the roguish adventurer strike sparks off each other -- and soon London society is abuzz over the scandalous pair of "siblings" who appear to be falling in love....

It’s not that Micayla Lange is afraid of the clinking she hears coming from the first floor of the empty McMansion she’s housesitting for her uncle Nicco. She’s a cop, after all. It’s just that finding out her boyfriend was cheating on her was enough drama for one night. Now she’s alone on New Year’s Eve, wearing flannel pajamas and wielding a Glock 22 as she zeroes in on the unmistakable source of the sound: Uncle Nicco’s private office.

Jason Davis steals things for a living, so unexpected developments are a natural part of the job. Getting caught red-handed by a hot, pigtail-sporting police officer in what is supposed to be a gangster’s deserted house is just one more twist in the game. Kind of like finding incriminating photos in Nicco Marino’s safe, only to discover the cop—and the security cameras— have gotten a real good look at his face.

Unfortunately for Mick, she also got a good look at the damned pictures. Her “uncle” might love her like family, but if he knows she’s seen evidence that implicates him in the murder of a city councilman, she doesn’t like her chances. Which is why she’s having a hard time reconciling her professional instincts with what she is rapidly concluding is an inescapable fact: She’s about to help a criminal get away with a suitcase full of stolen money. And she’s going with him.

Feisty criminal attorney Jessica Ford has done her best to comply with the orders of the Secret Service’s unofficial witness protection program ever since she became the lone witness to the First Lady’s murder. She changed her name, dyed her dark hair blonde, and traded her sturdy black-rimmed glasses for contact lenses. Unfortunately, winning her first high-profile case for prestigious Washington, D.C., law firm Ellis Hayes, and subsequently landing her face all over the news, is not exactly “keeping a low profile.” Or so says hunky Secret Service agent Mark Ryan, whose newest assignment—despite Jess’s stubborn protests—is keeping her safe at all costs. It just so happens he’s also her ex-boyfriend.

The trial earns Jess a permanent spot on the firm’s elite legal defense team, replacing an associate who eloped suddenly and never came back. It’s the chance of a lifetime. But Jess’s mind has raced with questions from the moment the prosecution’s star witness shocked the courtroom with an electrifying revelation involving the handsome son of a powerful U.S. senator. Was the pretty, young mother intimidated into changing her story on the stand? Why will she not return Jess’s calls? Did Jess’s ambitious predecessor on the case really just abandon her successful career? Or did both women mysteriously disappear?

After Mark rescues Jess from an attacker outside her apartment, she begins to consider the possibility that she is a target. Maybe it’s not so bad to have her irresistibly charming and hard-bodied former lover around for protection. Maybe. The question is, which of the many inadvertent enemies Jess has made recently is he protecting her from? The investigation leads her to some startling coincidences—and to a teenage runaway who may just hold the missing link . . . if Jess can find her.

Alexandra Haywood and her younger sister, Neely, have always loved Whistledown, the family's magnificent Shelby County horse farm. After their billionaire father's sudden and tragic death, the devastated Alex returns to Whistledown to try to make peace with her memories -- and to oversee the selling of their gorgeous home. For the family fortune is now a shambles and, like almost everything else the Haywoods own, Whistledown has to go. But Joe Welch, the sexy, handsome farm manager, refuses to cooperate. When Alex fires him, he tells her he has an unbreakable contract and can't be let go.

For years Joe has worked to make Whistledown's stables flourish while he struggled to keep his own dreams alive, and no rich rhymes-with-witch is going to threaten his livelihood -- or his family life. Ever since his wife betrayed him years ago, Joe has raised his three kids alone and did it damn well. Now, his always dependable sixteen-year-old son Eli has become hopelessly infatuated with teenage wild child Neely. Joe refuses to let his boy get caught up with Neely -- a nose stud and penchant for illegal substances among her less desirable traits -- and he tells Alex in no uncertain terms.

Sparks of rage give way to a fiery attraction when Joe and Alex meet head-on. But just as a volatile passion begins flaring between them, the discovery of a shocking murder with ties to the past rocks the county -- and cuts frighteningly close to home when Neely and Eli disappear.

Romance writer Clara Winston dedicates her newest book to her cat, Puff, without knowing what havoc she is about to unloose on her placid (boring?) life. Because there’s a rogue CIA agent out there whose code name is Puff, and some very bad guys want to kill him. When the bad guys show up at mild-mannered Clara’s house, thinking that she can lead them to the man they’re hunting, she is rescued by that man, disgraced CIA agent Jack McClain. Jack is green-eyed, black-haired, infuriatingly macho—and every bit as sexy as the romantic heroes she’s always writing about. Clara hates him on sight, but if she wants to survive he is the only game in town. With Puff very reluctantly in tow, they go on the run for their lives, battling each other until the sizzling chemistry between them explodes into red-hot passion. This is a funny, romantic thrill-ride by the New York Times, USA Today and Publisher’s Weekly bestselling author that Romantic Times called “the mistress of sizzling sensuality.”

“NIGHT MAGIC with captivate and delight you. You have GOT to read it.” – Affaire de Coeur

NIGHT MAGIC is the winner of Waldenbooks Award for the Bestselling Original Contemporary Romance of the year.

Romantic Times’ Reviewer’s Choice Award Winner.

Karen Robards is the six-time winner of Affaire de Coeur’s Silver Pen Award for favorite romance author.

“Karen Robards is one of the most popular voices in women’s fiction.” – Newsweek

“Robards is one terrific storyteller.” – Chicago Tribune

About the Author:

Ever since I was a little girl, I’ve loved to write. My first book was a ten-page effort written at age five for my grandmother. Throughout grade school, high school and college I wrote for various school publications. When I was eighteen, my first professionally published piece—a humorous anecdote—appeared in Reader’s Digest. Still, it never occurred to me that I might become a professional writer. I aimed for a career as a lawyer and was actually in law school when I sold my first book. When that happened, the world lost a would-be lawyer and gained a writer. That book, which is still in print, is Island Flame, and it was published when I was twenty-four. Since then, I’ve written over forty books, which regularly appear on the New York Times, USA Today, and Publisher’s Weekly bestseller lists, among others. The mother of three sons, I read, I write, and I chauffeur children. That’s my life.

Prim mid-western schoolteacher Lora Harding is in for the summer vacation of her life when darkly handsome American Max Maxwell slides into her rented car in steamy Cancun, Mexico and orders her to “drive” at gunpoint. Max and his men break Americans out of Mexican jails for a living, but his latest job has gone horribly wrong and Max is on the run for his life. Kidnapping Lora, Max takes her on a heart-stopping adventure as he races to rejoin his men and get out of the country before the authorities can catch up to him. Feisty Lora fights him every step of the way, and in the midst of saving each other’s lives the two fall madly in love in this blistering novel of romantic suspense by the “mistress of sizzling sensuality” (Romantic Times).

WILD ORCHIDS won Romantic Times’ Reviewers’ Choice Award for Best Contemporary Romantic Novel of the year.

WILD ORCHIDS is listed among Romantic Times’ Top 200 books since 1980.

New York Times, USA Today, and Publisher’s Weekly bestseller Karen Robards is the six-time winner of Affaire de Coeur’s Silver Pen Award for favorite romance author.

“Karen Robards writes an absolutely splendid tale, and is among the best for giving the reader incomparable sexual tension.” – Affair de Coeur

“Karen Robards is one of the most popular voices in women’s fiction.” – Newsweek

“Robards is one terrific storyteller.” – Chicago Tribune

About the Author:

Ever since I was a little girl, I’ve loved to write. My first book was a ten-page effort written at age five for my grandmother. Throughout grade school, high school and college I wrote for various school publications. When I was eighteen, my first professionally published piece—a humorous anecdote—appeared in Reader’s Digest. Still, it never occurred to me that I might become a professional writer. I aimed for a career as a lawyer and was actually in law school when I sold my first book. When that happened, the world lost a would-be lawyer and gained a writer. That book, which is still in print, is Island Flame, and it was published when I was twenty-four. Since then, I’ve written over forty books, which regularly appear on the New York Times, USA Today, and Publisher’s Weekly bestseller lists, among others. The mother of three sons, I read, I write, and I chauffeur children. That’s my life.