Tami Hoag

Burke Longton has traveled to Scotland to find his brother, but instead finds himself in a dungeon, accused of a crime he did not commit. Before he can devise a plan to escape, a motley crew bursts into the cell, and he is rescued by a fiery hellion who is as beautiful as she is fierce . . .They call her Storm—an avenging angel to the wrongly imprisoned, an outlaw wanted by the Scottish government. Everything and everyone she'd ever loved has been taken from her, and now she's determined to never let that happen again. She does not have time for tenderness or love . . . until she meets Burke. Rugged and courageous, his kisses promise nights of fevered passion, while his eyes challenge her to dream of a future together. Dare she let this man storm past her defenses and convince her to trust her heart again?

She was a vision. She was a siren. She was a nightmare. She was dead. Now he needed her to disappear. And he knew just how to make it happen. The Palm Beach elite go to great lengths to protect their own—and their own no longer includes Elena Estes. Once upon a time a child of wealth and privilege, Elena turned her back on that life. Betrayed and disillusioned by those closest to her, she chose the life of an undercover cop, the hunt for justice her own personal passion. Then a tragic, haunting mistake ended her career. Now Elena exists on the fringes of her old life, training horses for a living. But a shocking event is about to draw her back into the painful vortex she's fought so hard to leave behind.  First she finds the body—a young woman used, murdered, and dumped in a canal. Not just a victim, but a friend. As Elena delves into her dead friend's secret life, she discovers ties not only to the Russian mob but also to a group of powerful and wealthy Palm Beach bad boys known for giving each other alibis to cover a multitude of sins. A group that includes a man Elena once knew very well—her former fiancé, Bennett Walker, a man she knows has already escaped justice at least once in his life.  Finding her friend's killer will put Elena at odds with her old life, with her new lover, and with herself. But she is determined to reveal the truth—a truth that will shock Palm Beach society to its core, and could very well get her killed.

With her frayed jeans and cascade of tousled dark hair, Lynn Shaw looks more like one of the teenage residents of Horizon House than their counselor. So it's no wonder State Senator Erik Gunther mistakes her for one. Not that he exactly fits the description of a politician, with his movie-star looks and athletic build. Even Lynn, cynical, stubborn, and decidedly not looking for a relationship, can't ignore her body's response to the man. Allegedly, he's come to defend Lynn from angry locals who don't want her home for delinquent girls in their neighborhood. But as far as Lynn is concerned, he's looking for a photo op, a chance to play the hero - the last thing either she or her troubled girls need. What they need is understanding. Lynn knows teenage rebellion all too well. And she knows firsthand its heartbreaking price. She won't touch the good senator with a ten-foot pole only to watch him disappear once he gets what he wants. Unfortunately, Erik refuses to go away. The moment Erik looks into her emerald eyes, his interest in work falls into serious competition with his interest in Lynn Shaw. Her rejection of his assistance only intrigues him further. He is determined to know her - and to help her. If that means practically moving into Horizon House, so be it. But as the two engage in a battle of hearts, it becomes clear that Lynn is waging a private war of her own, against demons of the past - and against her overwhelming desire for the one man who may be worth fighting for.

New York Times bestselling author Tami Hoag returns with a thriller that begins with a shocking crime scene you'll never forget and follows two relentless detectives on a manhunt that ends in a chilling confrontation with the essence of human evil.It was a crime so brutal, it changed the lives of even the most hardened homicide cops. The Haas family murders left a scar on the community nothing can erase, but everyone agrees that convicting the killer, Karl Dahl, is a start. Only Judge Carey Moore seems to be standing in the way. Her ruling that Dahl's prior criminal record is inadmissible raises a public outcry--and puts the judge in grave danger.When an unknown assailant attacks Judge Moore in a parking garage, two of Minneapolis's top cops are called upon to solve the crime and keep the judge from further harm. Detective Sam Kovac is as hard-boiled as they come, and his wisecracking partner, Nikki Liska, isn't far behind. Neither one wants to be on this case, but when Karl Dahl escapes from custody, everything changes, and a seemingly straightforward case cartwheels out of control.The stakes go even higher when the judge is kidnapped--snatched out of her own bed even as the police sit outside, watching her house. Now Kovac and Liska must navigate through a maze of suspects that includes the stepson of a murder victim, a husband with a secret life, and a rogue cop looking for revenge where the justice system failed.With no time to spare, the detectives are pulled down a strange dark trail of smoke and mirrors, where no one is who they seem and everyone is guilty of Prior Bad Acts.From the Hardcover edition.

An All-American Smile, and Blue Eyes a Girl Could Drown In... Writer Jake Gannon couldn't believe it - his brand-new Porsche had overheated in the middle of nowhere, and now he was being towed by a brunette named Dixie! He'd driven South in search of the missing Devon Stafford, the exquisite blond actress whose life story he wanted to write. Instead, he was living in a seaside cottage owned by Dixie La Fontaine, a feisty, warmhearted woman who rescued strays and was all delicious curves. Dixie admired Jake's tanned body and perfect smile, but she suspected his ideal woman ate salad and did aerobics all day - how could he be attracted to a lady who'd rather stretch out in the sun than jog on the beach? Jake felt like a cad for lying to Dixie about why he'd come to her town, but he wanted the woman he'd learned to love to share her secrets. Dixie adored this tender man who'd convinced her it was sweet passion, not impossible perfection, he yearned for. But could she trust him to love her for who she was, to write her a fairy-tale ending?

Nineteen-year-old Opal, a freed slave working as a dressmaker in California in 1860, meets dashing Gabriel Fortune who makes her forget her unadventurous fiancé Willie.

Fan magazines called Pat Reilly the Hunk from Down Under, the action-movie star who made strong women tremble. But young widow Jayne Jordan had fled Hollywood-and the attraction that burned between her and her husband's best friend. Reilly promised the lady he called Calamity Jayne that he would come looking for her, and he kept his word. Jayne had denied her feelings for the rough and ready cowboy, but Reilly was through being haunted by memories.

As wild and mysterious as the Louisiana swamp he called home, Lucky Doucet was a dangerously attractive Cajun no woman could handle. His solitary life left no room for the likes of elegant Serena Sheridan, but Lucky couldn't deny her desperate need to find her missing grandfather. He would help her, but nothingmore--yet once he felt the lure of the flaxen-haired beauty, an adventurer like Lucky couldn't help playing with fire.Serena felt unnerved, aroused, and excited by the ruggedly sensual renegade whose gaze burned her with its heat, but she did not dare tangle with a rebel whose intensity was overwhelming, who claimed his heart was off limits? Deeper and deeper they traveled into the steamy bayou, until with one electrifying kiss her resistance melted into liquid desire. And the devilish rogue found he'd do anything to make Serena Lucky's Lady.From the Paperback edition.

128 p. : 29 cm

From award-winning author Tami Hoag comes a warm, moving story of two cultures in conflict and two hearts in love.Matt Thorne had come to his sister's rural inn to recover from an injury far from the city and his fast-paced life as an emergency room physician. Drifting between sleep and waking, Matt didn't trust his eyes when he saw the young woman who sat at his bedside in her plain cotton dress and apron, her chestnut hair tucked demurely beneath a white bonnet, like a beautiful vision from the past century. Sarah Troyer had been warned about the womanizing Dr. Throne, but nothing prepared her for the shiver of desire that shook her to her core when she gazed at him. Though her life was bound by the simple Amish way, Sarah had always longed for the world outside. Her job at the inn already branded her as a rebel in her community, and falling in love with a stranger would mean the loss of her family and the only life she knew. Yet something sparked within her with every touch of his hand, each glance from his dark eyes.Sarah was willing to allow herself a brief, secret adventure in the arms of a forbidden man. But she hadn't counted on Matt's passionate love--a love that would not let go, a love that could cost them both everything they knew....From the Paperback edition.

Katie Quaid could never refuse a dare. It was the quality that had once made her a world-class equestrian. And it was the reason she'd been elected to introduce herself to Briarwood's intimidatingly gorgeous new resident. It took one week to make Nick Leone the focus of the Virginia town's rumor mill. So far he was a CIA agent, a male model, a fugitive - maybe all three.  Whatever Nick was, Katie learned one thing right away: she liked him. And that made him the greatest danger she'd faced since the accident that had ended her riding career. In the five years since, she'd buried herself in her business of restoring historic homes, afraid to share her scars with any man - scars that had destroyed more than one dream. Nick had disappointments of his own, but after meeting Katie, he sensed that fate had a better plan all along. And soon he would pose her with the greatest dare of all - to love again.

Minneapolis investigators Sam Kovac and Nikki Liska find themselves in pursuit of a serial killer whose latest victim is a bullied adolescent who desperately sought a normal life.

In response to public demand, new federal legislation requires testing of most students in the United States in reading and mathematics, for grades three through eight. In much of the country, this new order promotes an Increase in the amount of standardized testing. Many educators, parents, and policymakers who have paid little attention to testing policy issues in the past will now do so. They deserve to have better information on the topic than has generally been available, and Kill the Messenger is intended to fill this gap. Kill the Messenger is perhaps the most thorough and authoritative work in defense of educational testing ever written. Phelps points out that much research conducted by education insiders on the topic is based on ideological preference or profound self-interest. It is not surprising that they arrive at emphatically anti-testing conclusions. He notes that external and high stakes testing in particular attracts a cornucopia of invective. Much, if not most, of this hostile research is passed on to the public by journalists as if it were neutral, objective, and independent. Kill the Messenger describes the current debate, the players, their interests, and their positions. It explains and refutes many of the common criticisms of testing. It describes testing opponents strategies, through case studies of Texas and the SAT. It acknowledges testing's limitations, and suggests how it can be improved. It defends testing by comparing it with its alternatives. And finally, it outlines the consequences of losing the war on standardized testing.