After helping the police track a serial killer brutalizing her sleepy Louisiana town, Darby Shepard made headlines that put her life on the line. Now, the only man she could trust to keep her safe was the enigmatic, inexplicably familiar Aidan Tanner who seemed to know Darby as well as she knew herself.

Soon, Aidan--and his mile-wide shoulders--became too hard to resist, and she became involved with her sexy protector. And as the danger escalated around them, the dark secrets from the past were fighting to resurface. 

Dr. Logan Hart was just passing through Black Horse Beach, but when gunshots sent country veterinarian Samantha Blackwell ducking for cover beneath his rock-hard body, she instinctively knew that the macho medical investigator would stick around to keep her safe.  Although the sheriff's daughter had sworn to never fall for another tough guy again, her new tenant's smoldering intensity lit a raging fire in her heart. . . and kept terror at bay.  As they set up a sting operation to take down the revenge-seeking criminal who was clearly trying to get to Logan through Samantha, chilling new evidence came to light.

Now Samantha wondered who the real target was--and whether she would stay alive long enough to succumb to the boldly seductive man she'd been saving all her love for!

Russian beauty Nadia Penn was frantic when her ex-husband kidnapped their baby and refused to release her until Nadia turned over government secrets.  Nadia would do anything to get her baby back. But did that include releasing information that could endanger the world's population?

So what if my two biggest clients were a known mobster and a ten-year-old kid looking for his cat--business was business. Until Brandon Kirkpatrick walked into my life and made business murder. 

The sexy detective was officially my competition, but when our cases crossed paths both our lives were suddenly dangerously in the red.  Murder and mayhem were multiplying faster than the stray cats in my apartment.  Working together was going to drive me to distraction, but it was the only way to figure out which one of our clients was telling the truth...and how far the other client would go to cover it up. 

Jessica Anderson: In The Sheriff's Daughter, (Jun 05), country veterinarian Samantha Blackwell started over when she realized that life with an alpha male wasn't for her--she vowed to focus on her work and finding a 'nice' guy. Though tempted by the arrival of her new tenant, tough-guy medical investigator Logan Hart, Samantha remains firm in her vow to avoid the macho men she is attracted to. But when a revenge-seeking criminal tries to get to Logan through Samantha, she must rely on the handsome Dr. Hart to save her life-- and maybe her heart. 

B J Daniels: As the five-book McCalls' Montana series continues, Brandon McCall is doing more than just starting over in High Caliber Cowboy, (Jun 05)  He has a "secret" job that could get him not just in trouble but even killed. What's worse, his secret job throws him into contact with a woman--completely the wrong woman for him and in ways he hasn't even yet imagined! And boy does it complicate his life!

 Dusty, the youngest of the McCalls and the only girl, has always been a tomboy. In the last book in the five-book McCalls' Montana series, Shotgun Surrender (Jul 05), late-bloomer Dusty McCall gets a crush on a new cowboy in town but has no idea how to get him to notice her. 

After riding a wild bucking horse doesn't get his attention, she asks her friend Ty Coltrane for help. Ty is one of her brother's friends and has always been around to see her most embarrassing moments. But he's the only one she trusts. The change in Dusty is immediate and Ty, who has always liked Dusty a lot but thought of her more as a kid, now has to admit that his feelings for her run a whole lot deeper . What Ty doesn't know though is why Dusty wanted this makeover--to get the attention of Boone Rasmussen.  But Dusty didn't need to go from a tomboy to a desirable young woman to get the cowboy's attention. He's already looking for her. Unfortunately, Boone Rasmussen is the last man a woman wants coming after her..

Rita Herron: In my latest book, A Breath Away,  (May 05, HQN), both my hero, Grady Monroe, and my heroine, Violet Baker, are facing issues of starting over. Though both have tried, neither have been able to get over the guilt of Grady's half-sister's death. 

Although in some ways, Violet Baker has started her life over by moving away,  buying a small cottage by the beach for her and her grandmother, as well as a gift shop in Savannah, she has never recovered from the guilt she feels over her friend's death. Worse, she has never been able to accept love. 

Plagued by his own anger and guilt regarding his half-sister's death, Grady has cut himself off from personal relationships, and has been unable to even leave the town where he feels trapped by the unsolved murder and his father's bitterness. But once he and Violet team up to find answers, learn to trust in each other, and accept love, the two of them can both leave the past behind them, and finally move on--together.

Mallory Kane: New beginnings? Or the same old nightmares? In Seeking Asylum, (Aug 05), the third in my Ultimate Agents mini-series for Intrigue, FBI Profiler Eric Baldwyn has long feared that the insanity that took his identical twin from him when they were eleven is also present inside him. When he must go undercover in a mental institution to expose a mad scientist's sinister plan, Eric doesn't know if he will survive. The only person he can trust is psychiatrist Rachel Harper. But can she save him from the evil doctor, and from himself?

In "Merry's Christmas," my novella in the Intrigue anthology Epiphany, (Nov 05) Merry Randolph is about to embark on the best of new beginnings, she's about to give birth--on Christmas eve. But her husband is dead and she's targeted by a diabolical killer. Hard-edged Detective Trevor Adkins doesn't want anything to do with Christmas or babies. Can Merry's happiness spill over to heal Trevor's heart, or will this chance at a new beginning turn in to the end for both of them and for the tiny new life Merry is carrying? 

Sylvie Kurtz:. In Eye of a Hunter, The Seekers: Book Three (Aug 05), Grayson Reed has reinvented himself in a person so far away from the boy he was in Echo Falls, MA, that even his fellow Seekers have no idea the man they call Hollywood grew up only half an hour from Seekers, Inc. headquarters.  But he hasn't made peace with the place or the woman he still loves and when a madman starts hunting Abbie, he has no choice but to face his demons in order to save her. 

In Pride of a Hunter, The Seekers: Book Four (Sep 05), Dominic Skyralov has never told Luci that he loves her.  When a conman seeks to destroy the walls of safety Luci has built around her, he has no choice but to break a promise that will throw her back into the past she tried so hard to forget.  But in weighing his options, Dominic figures that protecting her and those she loves will hurt her less in the long run ... and maybe he'll get another shot at revealing his secret. 

Kara Lennox: In Bounty Hunter Honor (Jun 05), Nadia Penn has made a fresh start by getting rid of her abusive husband.  She's finally gotten to the point where she's not frightened to go out alone anymore.  She's not constantly looking over her shoulder and triple-checking that the doors are locked.  But she probably shouldn't get too complacent 

Dana Marton: In The Sheik's Safety (Jul 05), the hero opens his heart again after the death of his wife. Sheik Saeed has resigned himself to having lost the throne and his queen. Then an American woman falls out of the sky, literally, in the middle of his desert, and she changes everything. 

Julie Miller: Bwa-ha-ha! The fun answer is that in my next Intrigue, Forbidden Captor (Nov 05) my hero starts a new phase of his life by being taken prisoner by a group of domestic terrorists! Being kept in a cell in a former pirate hideaway on a remote island is definitely an adjustment for a man who has always fought for freedom to make. On a more serious note, the hero in that book, Bryce Martin, thought he had the career of his dreams in the military--there, no one cared about his hick accent, his quiet nature, all his scars and less-than-handsome appearance. He could just do his job. But a rescue mission gone south ended his military career and nearly cost him his life. Now he's adjusting to life as a civilian bounty hunter. He's learning how to communicate with people, how to make real friends, how to use what he's learned to stay alive and escape to freedom--and how to love. Forbidden Captor is the fourth book in the Big Sky Bounty Hunter mini-series, which launches in August with Amanda Stevens' Going to Extremes. 

Ann Voss Peterson: In my upcoming Intrigue, Marital Privilege (Oct 05), Alec Martin started over when he assumed a new identity through the Witness Security Program. The only problem? He didn't tell the woman he married who he really was...   Laura Martin believed she was marrying a nice safe salesman, a man who would make a solid husband and terrific father for their unborn son. But when Alec's father, a "big man" in the Russian Mob, seeks revenge, she finds out she's been living a lie--and that her and her baby's survival depend on the husband who betrayed her... 

Dani Sinclair: In DB Hayes, Detective (Jun 05), I created a headstrong female private investigator trying to establish her own firm in her sleepy Ohio hometown. Next I added a sexy, former police officer from Pennsylvania with the temerity to open a firm of his own nearby. After stirring in a good dose of pheromones, a missing cat, a missing victim, an absurd peeping tom and a car named Binky, I let the situation bake under a hot June sun. A murder adds a touch of spice to the mix and the hero and heroine's lives will never be the same again. 

Amanda Stevens: "New Beginnings" is the perfect topic for my next Intrigue, The Edge of Eternity, (Nov 05), the second book in the Mists of Fernhaven ghost trilogy.  Elizabeth Blackstone has been teetering on the edge of despair ever since her son's death eighteen months go.  She and her husband, Paul, have grown so far apart that Elizabeth has come to believe their only recourse is to divorce.  A fortuitous invitation to a remote hotel in the Cascade Mountains provides Paul one last chance to win her back.  But someone is watching Elizabeth.  A dark, sinister stranger who wants her for himself.  Grief destroyed their happiness.  Evil is keeping them apart.  Will Paul's love be strong enough to lure Elizabeth back from the edge of eternity? 

Joanna Wayne: The hero in Security Measures (Sep 05), breaks out of prison as the book opens. It's not the kind of new beginning most people dream of, but he's not worried about beginnings. His only concern is saving his daughter and her mother, the only woman he's ever loved. But to do that, he not only his past to live down but his very name. In the end, it's the woman who captured and then crushed his heart  when he was fighting for his life, who helps him find his new beginning and the love he'd thought was lost forever. 

Rebecca York: In my next Berkley release, Beyond Control, (Aug 05), Jordan Walker and Lindsay Flemming are two people who have always felt incomplete, damaged, unable to fully connect with other people.  Then they met each other at a Washington cocktail party and they realize that their lives can change--if they dare to take the risk.  When they explore their new relationship, they find out the startling truth that they are sexually linked telepaths whose psychic talents increase as they become more intimate.  But as they discover the amazing potential of their joined minds, sinister forces are trying to control or destroy them.

Despite his previously unblemished reputation, for years, cowboy sheriff Cash McCall had been the prime suspect in his fiancée's disappearance and presumed murder. So when a woman claiming to be her showed up in his office, Cash was finally off the hook...even though his instincts told him he'd never before held this woman in his arms. 

Posing as a missing woman had seemed like a good idea to on-the-run Molly Kilpatrick...unfortunately, she'd made the mistake of stealing the wrong identity. Someone wanted the woman dead and would stop at nothing to make sure, this time, she stayed dead. Molly needed Cash's protection and had to trust in his innocence, but if she was wrong, she'd be dead wrong. 

Rita Herron sold three more books to Harlequin Intrigue. Two will be sequels to her popular gothic, The Man From Falcon Ridge and the third will be another installment in her Nighthawk Island series!

Mallory Kane is pleased to announce that she has four Harlequin Intrigues coming out in the next year.  In addition to Seeking Asylum (Aug 2005) and a novella in the Christmas anthology Epiphany (Nov 2005), she just got a title for her February 2006 book, the 4th in her Ultimate Agents mini-series. It's called Lullabies and Lies. Then in July of 2006 True Lies, Book Three of Miami Confidential series will be on the shelves.

USA Today best-selling author Susan Kearney has continued her Heroes Inc  series at Blaze. Don't miss her June Blaze Uncontrollable, a paranormal romantic suspense that sizzles. 

Sylvie Kurtz sends congratulations to Hannah Beck who was the May winner of a copy of Personal Enemy and a serenity kit.

Kathleen Long proudly announces her newest sale to Harlequin Intrigue. When a Stranger Calls will be an April 2006 release. 

Dana Marton: Shadow Soldier, Dana's first book in the Special Designation Defense Unit (SDDU) series, is a finalist for the Daphne award. 

Julie Miller says "Woo-hoo!"  Last month, she announced she was a finalist--this month she is thrilled to announce that her 2004 Intrigue, Unsanctioned Memories, (Harlequin Intrigue, Taylor Clan series) won the Gayle Wilson Award of Excellence for Best Series Romantic Suspense.  She thanks the Southern Magic Chapter of RWA and all the readers and booksellers who judged. 

Tracy Montoya  is thrilled to announce that her January 2004 Intrigue release, Maximum Security, is a finalist for Best Category-Length Romantic Suspense in the Daphne contest. The Daphne awards are given by the Kiss of Death chapter of the Romance Writers of America. Maximum Security  is also a finalist for Best Romantic Suspense in two regional RWA chapter contests, the Beacon and the Golden Quill. Also, the three books in Tracy Montoya's Mission: Family miniseries finally have official titles. House of Shadows will be out October 2005, followed by Next of Kin in November 2005, and Shadow Guardian in December 2005. More info and excerpts will be up on Tracy's badly-in-need-of-an-update website in the near future.

Ann Voss Peterson has contracted to write a three-book series for Harlequin Intrigue revisiting serial killer Dryden Kane from her 2002 Intrigue, Accessory To Marriage!  Start watching over your shoulder in June, July and August of 2006!

Rebecca York is thrilled to announce that at the awards ceremony at the Washington Romance Writers' Retreat, she was given the Prolific Pen Award for having published her 100th book this year.  Afterwards, she was asked, "Did you start out to write 100 books?"  The answer is, "No." She says she just kept working--and all at once she realized that number 100 was on the horizon.  Currently she's writing number 106--an Intrigue Eclipse called Night Terrors.

• June 4
• 2:15-3:00 pm PDT : Linda O. Johnston will be on an Ask the Pro Panel at the California Writers Club, San Fernando Valley Branch, conference: The Writers Journey, the Mystery of Writing Conference. 
• June 9
• Kara Lennox will join us in the NovelTalk chat room to discuss the next book in her exciting series for Harlequin Intrigue, Bounty Hunter Honor! 
• July 6
• Susan Kearney will join us in the NovelTalk chat room to discuss The Dare. 
• July 20
• Dana Marton will join us in the NovelTalk chat room to discuss The Sheik's Safety.

Rita Herron: In honor of Rita's Nighthawk Island series, she is giving away a complete set of the previous stories in her Nighthawk Island series.  All you have to do to enter is visit her website and sign up for her newsletter.

Susan Kearney is giving away to one lucky winner an autographed copy of The Challenge, her first science fiction romance from Tor.  You can enter at her website

Sylvie Kurtz is giving away a signed copy of A Rose at Midnight and a snow globe kit.  To enter, visit her website.

Kara Lennox will be giving away a prize basket featuring assorted goodies and a signed copy of the third installment in the Code of the Cobra series, Bounty Hunter Honor.  Visit her website  for details.  Contest will run from June 5 through July 5, 2005.

Debra Webb: Debra is offering autographed copies of the complete Enforcers trilogy, John Doe on Her Doorstep, Executive Bodyguard and Man of Her Dreams. Visit her website for more details. 

Rebecca York (Ruth Glick)  will autograph and send a copy of  Flight of the Raven (Harlequin edition)  to the winner of a drawing on August 1, 2005.  To be eligible for the drawing, send an email to her, mentioning  "Contest #32" in the subject line.   And please provide an address to send the book if you win.