Wild Orchids

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.

In this steamy romance by "the mistress of sizzling sensuality" (Romantic Times), eighteen-year-old, defiantly tomboyish Jessie Lindsay is left at the mercy of her wicked stepmother Celia upon the death of her beloved father. Beautiful, vampish Celia can have any man she wants, and when devilishly handsome stranger Stuart Edwards turns up amongst their aristocratic Mississippi plantation society, she wants him. What Celia doesn't know is that Stuart is a con man and a fortune hunter, and when he marries her it is to gain control of the plantation, Mimosa, that Celia inherited from Jessie's father. Jessie hates Stuart on sight, but he takes pity on the hoydenish young woman and is kind to her. An unexpected friendship develops between Stuart and the spirited, late-blooming Jessie as he steps in to protect her from evil Celia, then helps Jessie transform from an ugly ducking to a swan -- and in the process awakens feelings in Jessie that are like nothing she has ever experienced. Stuart never imagined that he could fall for Jessie, but the desire that blazes between them is impossible for either of them to resist. Will the dark secret Stuart has been keeping tear them apart as they fall recklessly into a scandalous, forbidden love? Can Jessie trust the man she has come to love with all her heart?

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.

“Behold the wondrous star in the firmament of historical romance that is Karen Robards, With each new book her luster intensifies…” – Romantic Times

Karen Robards writes “spellbinding romance.” – Publisher’s Weekly

“Incomparable.” – Affair de Coeur

“Karen Robards penetrates the steamiest of women’s fantasies.” – Chicago Sun-Times

“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.

If driving a piece-of-crap tow truck through the seediest part of town with a Smith & Wesson beside her means putting a roof over her son’s head, then Samantha Jones is going to be the best damn repo woman on the books. The streetwalkers, the drug pushers, the bands of looking-for-trouble punks haunting the mean streets at midnight don’t intimidate her. These are her people. The guy she finds bound and bloodied in the trunk of her latest conquest, a flashy new BMW, is a different breed entirely.

Daniel Panterro was certain he was going to die. Instead, by a stroke of luck, he was beaten to within an inch of his life and left for dead. But if he’s having a bad day, Sam’s day is about to get way worse. Danny knows he hasn’t seen the last of the vicious drug runners who kidnapped him from protective custody. His only recourse is to take his pretty savior hostage and force her to help him. There’s no going back for Sam and her four-yearold son, Tyler. They’re in way too deep.

Christy Petrino hadn't planned on a vacation on Ocracoke Island, but when she learns her fiancé and boss, suave Michael DePalma, is a "made man" and the Philadelphia law firm where she works is a front for the mob, she breaks her engagement and quits her job. But no one walks away from the DePalma family business so easily....Only if she delivers a locked briefcase to a motel on Ocracoke Island will she -- and her mother and sisters -- be free.

But after clandestinely making her drop-off late at night, Christy suspects she is being followed on the moonlit beach -- and unwittingly runs into a new kind of terror. Now a witness at the center of a homicide investigation, Christy learns the police are hunting a serial killer they refer to as the "Beachcomber" because beautiful young women -- women who in fact resemble her -- have disappeared recently while vacationing at nearby beach communities. Christy doesn't know whom to fear more -- a serial killer who believes she might be able to identify him, or the DePalma family, whose tentacles she can't seem to escape.

Only when she's with Luke Rand, her big surfer-dude next-door neighbor, does she feel safe. But with Luke's asking so many questions about her ex-fiancé and his showing up almost too conveniently whenever danger strikes, she can't help but wonder if his interest in her is due to more than sexual attraction. Can she trust this handsome stranger to help her survive a hot and deadly summer?

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.