| Cindy
Vallar
Author,
Editor, & Pirate Chronicler |
 |
| Cindy
Vallar
Author,
Editor, & Pirate Chronicler |
|
From age eight,
Allie Ford has borne the guilt of causing her
mother's suicide and depriving her younger
sister of a mother's love. Three years have
passed since her father's death in 1877, and
the Oregon farm is in desperate need of
repairs. Unable to do the work herself, she
hires Jefferson Hicks, the former sheriff and
town drunk. Jeff "died" soon after shooting a
young boy, and he's just biding his time until
death claims him. The he meets Allie, and his
desire to live blossoms. Although the past
imprisons both Jeff and Allie, their love
offers them a chance to heal, but others have
no intention of letting that happen.
In 1200 Ceridwen
ap Morgan's father arranges for her to wed her
enemy, an English knight. She'd rather not,
but there is no other way for the Welsh to
survive. Sir Raymond de Beauchamp doesn't want
to wed, either, but does want the land offered
as her dowry. Even for their marriage in name
only to work, Raymond and Ceridwen must first
confront their different cultures and the
past. Unless they learn to love each other and
live in harmony, neither will survive the
onslaught of Raymon's evil brother and
overlord.
An
inaccuracy in the historical record
compels librarian Anna O’Brien to
question the navy’s investigation into
the loss of her father’s ship. That
jeopardizes not only her job, but those
of the other female librarians, since no
one made their temporary hiring at the
Library of Congress permanent.
Determined to learn the truth, she seeks
help from a handsome, yet arrogant,
congressman.
After a man
breaks into their house and she loses her
job, Lucy Marsh weds a man she’s never
met. It’s the only way to protect her
siblings, Eileen and Jed, now that her
father is dead and her stepmother left
them to fend for themselves. On a wintry
day in 1877 and with great trepidation,
they board a train for Texas.
As
Christmas 1863 approaches,
recently-widowed Aletta Prescott loses her
job and home. With one child and another
on the way, possible employment for an
upcoming auction seems heaven sent, but
the position has been filled. Although the
carpenter's job remains vacant, Carton's
mistress is reluctant to hire a woman with
such skills.
Raising her brothers and sisters and
doing daily farm chores don’t leave Julie Jones much
time for a social life. She yearns for someone to
court her, but she’s just a country girl, not one of
those flappers who live in town. Her world, however,
turns upside down when several new faces appear in
Fertile, Missouri.
Sour Springs, Texas. Last stop for
the orphan train. Last hope for two orphans nobody
wants. Nobody but Grant, that is. Once an orphan
himself, he provides them with shelter, food, and
clothes, but the most important thing he gives is
love.
Bouncer Rory MacGrath
rebels against his dead grandmother's summons to
come home -- a place he's not visited since his
banishment to America after his father's
disappearance. Rory returns to Ireland and his
family, where he follows the mysterious woman who
haunts his dreams and bids him to hurry before it's
too late.
Prohibition, bootleggers, moonshine,
mobsters -- these are volatile ingredients during
the Roaring Twenties. When they intersect in a small
Missouri town, Annabel Lee Donovan's life changes
forever.
I love Christmas
anthologies and this one is no exception. The
three stories in A Highlander Christmas
center around MacDonald women, an heirloom pin,
and the Scottish Highlands. Three romance
sub-genres are represented: historical, fantasy,
and paranormal. 
After marrying
Eleanor of Aquitaine, King Henry II relies on French
advisers rather than his own countrymen, which upsets
some English nobles. He sends Sir Blaidd Morgan, a
trusted knight and friend, to determine whether Lord
Throckton plots treason. To camouflage his mission,
Blaidd woos the Lady Laelia, the most beautiful woman
ever seen. Her younger sister, Lady Becca, however, is
far more intriguing with her sharp tongue and stinging
wit, harp playing, training as a warrior, and caring
heart. As love unfolds, Blaidd strives to learn the
truth about her father. All appears innocent, but
Throckton Castle holds secrets and some of its people
hint that all isn’t as it appears.
Bereft at the unexpected loss of
her father in 1883, Gillian Young returns from his
funeral to discover a London Metopolitan Police
sergeant searching her house. Her father is under
suspicion for associating with and profiting from
criminals; he may have been murdered. Although
afraid, Gillian is determined to prove his
innocence. She discovers a photograph of a
beautiful stranger and a letter from her deceased
mother that reveals her intentions to donate
Winton Park to the Cause, a Christian mission for
the poor. Her father never mentioned the letter,
and Gillian had assumed her grandfather's home was
now hers. She just doesn't have sufficient funds
to restore the house to its form splendor.
The instant Cody
Maxwell hears the click, he knows he's made a
stupid mistake. Thinking about his ex-wife nearly
gets him killed, but he can't help it. That
morning he found Dana's earring lying on the seat
of his car. It was a clear message from Gerard
Fontenot, the man Cody tried to put away for
murdering his wife. Instead of life imprisonment,
Gerard was sentenced for another crime. Now, he's
out of prison and he has one goal -- to kill the
New Orleans detective who put him away -- and
he'll do it any way he can, including hurting
Dana.
Born out of wedlock, Rhonwyn is
raised as a boy by her Welsh father's warriors.
Not until her impending marriage to an English
prince does she learn to be a lady under the
tutelage of her aunt, a prioress, and the other
nuns at the abbey. Edward de Beaulieu is both
captivated and dismayed by his bride. Rhonwyn is
beautiful, but she is also freespirited. With
Prince Edward of England, they embark on a crusade
to the Holy Land. Captured by the infidels, she
becomes the captive of the Emir of Cinnebar, who
teaches her about passion. She eventually escapes
the harem and returns to England -- where the
battle for her heart and her freedom pit her
against enemies she doesn't even know exist.
Mountain man Matt
Tucker, who lives in the Dakota Territory,
should pay attention to the trail, but a woman
distracts him. Which is how he tangles with a
mama grizzly. She swats him off the mountain
then chases after him. Which is how he
encounters Shannon Wilde, his distracter. With
nowhere left to run, they jump into the
Slaughter River. Shannon’s Civil War survival
and medical training kick in, and she snags a
branch that leads her to a cave. Once she gets
Matt out of the water and splints his broken
leg, they explore the cave, hoping to find a way
back to civilization.
The horrors of the Civil War and a
Confederate prison camp reawaken Seth Kincaid’s
emotional scars from a childhood fire. He also
suffers from gaps in his memory, which explains
why he doesn’t recognize the woman who tries to
shoot him. A decade after the war, Callie wonders
if her husband is still alive. With her father
dead, her brother gone, a son to raise, and
nowhere to live, she heads for the Kincaid ranch
in Colorado. If Seth’s alive, can she trust him
not to disappear again?
In the
spring of 1215, an incompetent and mercurial tyrant
rules England, and Northumberland is a hotbed of
ferment. The rebellious barons are abetted by
outlaws led by the enigmatic Le Renard. Sir Hugh de
Villiers is sent north to capture the thieves and
deliver a royal missive to the widow of Tallany
Castle. When he learns the contents of the royal
letter, he is as stunned as Lady Tallany, but he
adeptly heeds his liege's command in spite of her
reticence to do the same.
With her car stuck in the
mud on the outskirts of Fertile, Missouri, April
Asbury slogs through pouring rain, scoots under a
barbed-wire fence, and flees an angry bull to reach
the safety of a small farmhouse. Meeting handsome Joe
Jones, the bull’s owner, sets off April’s alarm bells,
but his kindness and teasing tug at her heartstrings.
Thus begins her new life as Doc Forbes’ nurse. But
this charming town has secrets. With the unending
rain, the river threatens to flood. As the water
rises, so do prejudices against those who live near
the river. Yet nothing threatens Fertile as much as a
bitter widow’s plan to destroy the legacy of her
husband, and in doing so, she will ruin the lives of
innocent residents.
Mexican soldiers abduct
Elizabeth Evans and kill her brother, a
newspaper editor who published information about
General Manuel Diego’s design to overthrow his
president. With the help of gypsies and several
fellow Texas Rangers, Jake Nelson, a former army
reconnaissance officer and now a Ranger captain,
rescues Elizabeth from her captors and returns
her to El Paso. Diego, refusing to allow anyone
to thwart his plans, devises another scheme to
kidnap this daughter of an important senator.
Elizabeth’s attraction to Jake is instantaneous,
but after her husband died, she vowed never to
marry another military man. Although betrayed
once before, Jake can’t deny what his heart
wants. But will he prevent Diego from killing
Elizabeth to spark another war between Mexico
and the United States?
King Henry II of England suspects
that his estranged wife, Eleanor of Aquitaine,
conspires against him. To ferret out the truth, he
enlists the aid of his trusted spy, Hugh of Wexford,
and a learned but innocent scholar, Lady Phillipa de
Paris. Posing as Hugh’s wife, Phillipa must use
intelligence and feminine wiles to expose the
traitorous secrets of the queen’s confidante and her
unscrupulous brother.
Jenny Easdale awaits her
fate -- marriage to a man who wishes to possess her
lands and title. Not the future she desired, but her
guardian insists this is best for her. She craves a
last adventure and escapes her betrothal feast to join
a band of traveling musicians. Never has she felt such
freedom, but unease filters through her as she
overhears whispered tidbits and is mistaken for
someone else in the company.
1874: Scout
Proffitt, notorious gunslinger, arrives at the Bar C.
He won the fifty-acre Texas ranch in a card game but
never dreamed that his desire to start a new life
would get him a spread built of broken dreams. Nor
does he reckon on Rose, whom mother and sister abandon
after they bury her father. When an old acquaintance
offers Scout the chance to expunge his criminal past,
Scout agrees to hunt down rustlers stealing his
brother-in-law’s cattle.
Unable to move past the train wreck
that killed her fiancé, Alexandra Jamison faces the
untenable choice of accepting her father's choice
for a husband, a much older man, or remaining a
spinster -- until voices raised in song offer her a
new path one evening in 1871. Fisk University, a
school dedicated to educating former slaves, needs
teachers. When she joins their staff, Alexandra is
turned out of her house with only the clothes on her
back.
A sealed
missive orders Morrigan McNab’s brother to kill the
bishop. In his absence, the task falls to her. If she
fails, her impoverished clan will suffer. Although she
longs to be a lady, her sins are many and no one wants
to wed a woman who wears male attire and skillfully
wields a crossbow or sword. Except perhaps the French
minstrel she robbed then kissed. The same man who
stops her from murdering the bishop.
Emily McCarthy goes to
Montana with great misgivings about marrying a wealthy
stranger, who advertised for a wife. On Christmas Eve
1884, Luke Sullivan, a reluctant vigilante, hears
about Bart Axel getting hitched. Luke's intent is
merely to rob the stage carrying Axel's money, but his
conscience prevents him from allowing feisty, but
beautiful, Emily from wedding the nasty old man who
swindled Luke's father out of their ranch. After he
kidnaps her, he seeks a safe haven -- the orphanage
where he grew up. Emily and Luke spar constantly,
neither willing to admit what they feel toward one
another. While out searching for missing cattle, Luke
is ambushed and seriously injured. Later they discover
Axel's been lying about the acreage the orphanage
owns, but proving it gets complicated when a hired gun
shows up and the nearby Crow become involved.
Regan MacLaren
loves her husband, but an argument on their wedding
night results in his departure, and the next day she
finds herself a widow. Her brother-in-law claims Iain
Campbell shot Roddy in the back, and Walter convinces
Regan they must right this wrong. Regan has second
thoughts and sets off to stop Walter.