Barbara Raffin
Description
I don’t know about you, but my love of reading started before I had a memory. No doubt my mother read to me. The Pokey Little Puppy stuck with me as well as her reading Dr. Seuss to my younger brother. Once I started reading on my own, my favorites numbered among The Secret Garden and The Black Stallion series. Remember the Weekly Reader book sales. I can still feel those glossy covers between my fingers, books like Big Red, Old Yeller, My Friend Flicka, and Black Beauty. Seeing a pattern of horses and dogs here? Dogs still play a huge part in my life. See Copy's page for my current doggy baby. But In sixth grade I expanded my reading interests. I discovered biographies, the most memorable being Helen Keller’s and life continued in a new direction. I was well into adulthood, reading Tom Clancy’s political thrillers and James Clavell’s far eastern adventures, when I discovered the glorious romantic adventure of Kathleen Woodiwiss’ Shanna. I was immediately hooked on romance, first as a reader, then as a writer. Judith McNaught’s Whitney My Love and Almost Heaven taught me true romance. Lindsay Longford’s sweetly painful romances such as Pete’s Dragon taught me there was more sensuality in the inadvertent brush of hands than the most explicit sex scene. From Elizabeth Lowell I learned the magic of dialogue while reading her western historical Only Love. To those who went before me, and there are many more than the few I mentioned here, thank you. You taught and inspired me. May I do the same for those who come after me. (From the Author's web-site.)
Books
Wolfsong
When Madison Montgomery joins Native American artist Walker Armstrong's wolf re-population project, he sees her as just another city-bred female dabbling in the latest trendy cause, not unlike the last woman in his life. But Madison's motives are more complex. Not only is she sincerely attempting to bring back the wolves, but she's hunting the man who raped her best friend. As Madison teaches Walker to trust his heart once more, he teaches her it takes passion to free the soul.
The Visitor
Lee Child's latest unputdownable thriller starring Jack Reacher features a chilling serial killer.Sergeant Amy Callan and Lieutenant Caroline Cook have a lot in common. Both were army high-flyers.Both were acquainted with Jack Reacher.Both were forced to resign from the service. Now they're both dead.Both were found in their own home, naked, in a bath full of paint.Both apparent victims of an army man.A loner, a smart guy with a score to settle, a ruthless vigilante.A man just like Jack Reacher.
The Mating Game
Ten years ago they met in high school. He was a hunk and she was the too tall, too skinny and too shy. Clay Davidson made a bet that he could score with Kelby Richards, but when he had the chance in his mother’s Winnebago, he fled. She later learned of the wager that just added to her broken heart as she knew he could not even make love to her. His action towards “Stretch” upset Clay who ran away because he became frightened of his feelings towards Kelby. He changed how he treated people because of her. At a dog show in Wisconsin, they meet and he begs her for a second chance, but she refuses. He still sees the hurt in her eyes. His mom kidnaps his dog Pirate to persuade Kelby to breed with her canine Chancey. They sign a contract, but Stretch makes it clear one heat season only and she is not part of the deal. However, she fails to see the fine print he put on the contract. This is an entertaining second chance at love romance as Kelby sees a second chance not to atone for what he did as a teen to Stretch, but to prove his love for her that he failed to understand back when they were in high school. The support cast enhances the tale whether they are four legged or two legged as each in their own way causes havoc. Fans will enjoy Clay’s efforts to persuade Kelby that men like him stay (unlike him in high school or her father) though his lone regret at his desperate second chance is using his pet Pirate as a matchmaking stud.
Indentured Heart
MEGAN McCALL, widowed and left almost penniless, swears to right the wrongs her inept husband committed but will trust no man to help her. Her only means of income, however, comes from the male-dominated shipbuilding business she inherited from her father...who was believed to have been killed by pirates. Worse, crippled by the carriage accident that killed her husband, Megan is dependent on her newly acquired indentured servant to transport her around. Success being the best revenge, ROYCE DEVLIN has spent half his life building a shipping business to prove his independence from the last woman who tried to dominate him. But, he has been imprisoned and his ship confiscated when its cargo is determined to be pirated goods. Sold into indentureship by a corrupt gaoler, Royce winds up in colonial Virginia. Too proud to beg for help from the woman of his past, he vows to prove his innocence via his own resources. But the Mistress of Hillhouse, Megan McCall, is as demanding and autocratic as that last woman in Royce's life ever thought to be. Yet, when he lifts Megan and her legs hang lifelessly over his arm, Royce is doomed by his compassion and the guilt of an old secret; while Megan is reminded that, damaged as she is, she will never know passion...not even from a rogue pirate.