Jacqueline Baird
Description
Jacqueline Baird was born and raised in Northumbria, UK. She went to the local village school, and later an all-girls' grammar school where she passed the University of Oxford General Certificate of Education in various subjects. On leaving school she joined the civil service in the then Post Office department. She met her husband Jim, when she was only eighteen. Eight years later, after working as a hotel receptionist in a five-star hotel in Scotland and traveling abroad for a few years, she came home and married him. They still live in Northumbria and have two grown sons. Her number one love is writing. She has always been an avid reader, and she had her first success as a writer at the age of eleven, when she won the first prize in the Nature Diary of the Year competition at school. But she always felt a little guilty because her diary was more fiction than fact. Apart from a spell as a hopeful painter in oils, when she actually did have a painting accepted for the Federation of Northern Artists' annual exhibition her real passion was for romance novels. When her sons went to school all day she thought she would try writing one. Jacqueline Baird's been writing for Mills & Boon since 1988, and she still gets a thrill every time a new book is published. When Jacqueline is not busy writing she likes to spend her time traveling, reading and playing cards. She was a keen sailor until a knee injury ended her sailing days, but she still enjoys swimming in the sea. She visits a gym twice a week now and has made the surprising discovery that she gets some good ideas while doing the mind-numbingly boring exercises on the cycling and weight machines.
Books
Wife
The title of Wife is both ironic and deeply serious. There are wittily sharp poems on the gender inequalities and potential prisons of marriage, that are in dialogue with poems that celebrate the physical joys of intimacy and poems that explore the processes of self-creation that take place in the closeness to the male other. Poems that are cutting about male self-deceptions and arrogations of power speak to poems that display a deep sensitivity to the aloneness of the embattled male psyche. This is not verse in the confessional mode, but poems that take on other voices, other histories and explore the relationship between experiences and the way we mythologise them. These spare, elegant poems are not only intensely body focused and attentive to the minutiae of domestic space, but that they make connections to the worlds of family, church, village and nation - and even, in a poem the references the parable of the wise and foolish virgins, to the soul. Their context is a Virgin Islands' past, a Black American present, and an enlarged human future.
The Greek Tycoon's Love-Child
When millionaire Theodore Kadros first sets his sights on beautiful Willow Blain there can only ever be one outcome: a night of incredible desire! But the next day Willow is gone.... However, their brief passion results in a legacy that Willow is eager to conceal. When the Greek tycoon discovers the shocking truth, he is enraged. Theo demands they marry, so he can have what he feels is rightfully his -- Willow as his wife... and at his mercy!
The Italian's Blackmailed Mistress
"You really expect me to sleep with you to pay my father's debt?" Italian magnate Max Quintano knew exactly how to get his way...by blackmailing Sophie into becoming his mistress. "Sleep is not what I have in mind." Sophie will do anything to prevent her family's ruin -- even if it means living in Max's luxurious Venetian palazzo -- and being beholden to him...and will be until she discovers exactly why he hates her so much....
The Italian billionaire's ruthless revenge
Ruthless and passionate!Guido Barberi hasn't set eyes on his ex-wife since she left him--taking with her a quarter of a million dollars! But he's determined to have his revenge by bedding her once more.Innocent and alluring!Sara is shocked that Guido is even more attractive and dangerous than ever. Despite her hatred of him, she desires him twice as much. But if she surrenders to his skillful seduction, she'll be at his mercy night and day....
Untamed Italian, Blackmailed Innocent
"No woman has ever shunned wicked Italian tycoon Zac Delucca! But sweet, studious Sally is in a world of her own, looking after her sick mother -- little does she realise her unfocused lack of interest is driving Zac's fury! Especially as her father is responsible for embezzling millions from his company. There's a debt to be paid. Zac will offer Sally an ultimatum -- become his mistress on demand, or risk ruin! He's confident she'll make the right choice."--Publisher description.
Giordanni's Proposal
A marriage proposal -- Italian-style! Beth was left breathless when gorgeous Italian tycoon Dex Giordanni proposed marriage--within days of meeting her! But then she overheard a conversation that chilled her: Dex wanted to wed her to settle a family score. Beth prepared herself to end their engagement--how could she ham born so naive as to think Dex was really interested in a virgin like her? But Dex didn't take no for an answer. If a diamond ring couldn't seduce her to the altar, then he would!
Harlequin Bianca
Her Baby Secret
When Rowena runs into her old college friend Dr. Quinn Tyler at a charity ball, the attraction is instant. Handsome, sexy and eligible, he can have any woman he wants--and now he wants Rowena! Determined to prove her independence, Rowena insists she's a career woman with no time for marriage or babies. But one passionate night together changes everything. Now she has to tell Quinn the truth--that she's falling for him, and that she's expecting his baby