Kristen Ashley

From the balcony of his house, Mike Haines can see the quiet, commonplace beauty of the Holliday farm. But what he remembers is Dusty, the little sister of his high school girlfriend, who grew up there. As a teen, Dusty had gone off the rails, but when she was a kid, she was sweet, she was funny and she had a special bond with Mike. After high school, she took off and Mike never saw her again. Tragedy strikes Dusty's family and she comes back to town. Mike thinks she hasn't changed back to the sweet, funny girl he knew but instead continued to be selfish and thoughtless, leaving her family alone to deal with their mourning. He seeks her out and confronts her in an effort to understand what went wrong and to force her to sort herself out. He finds out quickly he's wrong about Dusty Holliday. Very wrong. After Mike discovers that, the bond they had years before snaps back into place in ways he would never suspect. But Mike Haines had a bad marriage and then he played games of the heart for a good woman...and lost. In order to protect himself and his kids, he's cautious, he's careful to read the signs and he's not interested in finding a woman he has to fix. When he learns what happened to Dusty, he thinks she needs to be fixed. He swings, he misses, and in this new game of hearts, Mike just got strike three.

Tanner Layne and Raquel Merrick fell in love young, hard and fast and both of them knew a beautiful life they thought would be forever. Until Rocky left Layne, no explanation, no going back. Layne escapes the 'burg only to come back years later because his ex-wife has hooked herself to the town jerk and Layne needs to make sure his sons get raised right. Layne manages to avoid Rocky. But when Layne gets three bullets drilled into him while investigating a corrupt cop, he can't do that because Rocky stops avoiding Layne. They make a deal to work together to expose the dirty cop, but they have no idea the strength of their enduring attraction or the sheer evil at work in the 'burg. As Tanner Layne and Raquel Merrick play their game and dance around the pull that draws them together, Layne has to discover the dark secrets buried so deep in Rocky's heart she doesn't even know they're there. At the same time he has to untangle a sinister web of crime so abhorrent it must be stopped...at all costs. And to do it, Layne enlists everyone, including his ex-CIA mentor, Rocky's detective brother, the town's unpredictable informant and Layne's two teenage sons. All the while stopping Rocky from doing something crazy and keeping their game secret so Layne won't get himself dead.

Violet Winters and her daughters once had it all but lost it when Lieutenant Tim Winters was murdered by a criminal madman. Over a year later, during a cold winter night, cop's widow, Violet, has to leave her warm bed to tell her neighbor to turn the music down. And that's when she meets sinister, scarred, scarily attractive security specialist, Joe Callahan. She wants to deny it, but she can't beat back the hunger she feels for Joe. She gives in again, and again...and again. Feeling it himself, Joe feeds Vi's hunger, breaking his own rules to keep her in his bed. Even though Violet had only one man in her life, she's sure Joe is giving her the signals and Vi decides she's ready to take a second chance at life and, maybe, love. But Violet doesn't know the dark secrets in Joe's past, secrets so soul-wrenching, they've drained him dry. With nothing left to give, Joe's determined to live his life alone. But Violet's husband's murderer is obsessed with her and heartbreak again haunts the door of the Winters girls. When it does Joe is forced to face the knowledge that he can't fight the combined pull of Violet and her daughters. They've gotten under his skin and filled him full to bursting. Joe needs to win them back and put his life on the line to keep Violet safe. But, having had it all twice, can Violet endure losing Joe?

When Lily Jacobs was born, she inherited Fazire, a genie. Her family had three wishes and they'd only ever used one. Since Lily never used her wishes, Fazire was stuck in the human world. This worked since he'd become a member of the family anyway. Even with a genie, Lily's young life wasn't perfect. To escape the nasty kids making her miserable at school, Lily buried herself in romance novels. One day, when the teasing was just too much, she used one of her wishes. She told Fazire she wanted to find a man like in her books and she made the most complicated wish Fazire had ever heard. Her wished-for man had to be impossibly handsome, virile, fierce, rugged and ruthless (amongst a dozen other things). He also had to think she was beautiful and he had to love her more than anything in the world. Nathaniel McAllister wasn't born to a life where there were such things as genies granting wishes. His life was filled with drugs, crime and neglect. He was running errands for a gangster before he was in his teens, and even though life and hard work led him to wealth and respectability, he always knew, deep down, he was dirty. When Nate met Lily he knew he was no good for her, but as virile, fierce, rugged and ruthless as he was, Nate was no match for the pull of sweet, innocent Lily. Unfortunately, Lily's wish included that she and her hero go through trials and tribulations to test their love. And Fazire wasn't only a good genie, he loved Lily-so he gave her exactly what she wanted.

Lieutenant Alexander Colton and February Owens were high school sweethearts. Everyone in their small town knew from the moment they met they were meant for each other. But something happened and Feb broke Colt's heart then she turned wild and tragedy struck. Colt meted out revenge against the man who brought Feb low, but even though Colt risked it all for her, Feb turned her back on him and left town. Fifteen years later, Feb comes back to help run the family bar. But there's so much water under the bridge separating her and Colt, everyone knows they'll never get back together. Until someone starts hacking up people in Feb's life. Colt is still Colt and Feb is still Feb so the town watches as Colt goes all out to find the murderer while trying to keep Feb safe. As the bodies pile up, the Feds move in and a twisting, turning story unravels exposing a very sick man who has claimed numerous victims along the way, Feb and Colt battle their enduring attraction and the beautiful but lost history that weaves them together.