Bøger af Maggie Shayne

"Maggie Shayne's books have a permanent spot on my keeper shelf." -#1 NY Times Bestselling Author KAREN ROBARDHey, I'm Rachel de Luca, a self-help guru with a potty mouth and a penchant for crime-solving. My partner, soon to be husband if I can get over my paralyzing fear, is Mason Brown, a detective with the Binghamton PD.Ten years ago, professional mermaid Eva Quaid disappeared without a trace from The Sapphire Club. Now, my niece Misty is working at the same club, doing the same job. Coincidentally, (not) Misty's college roommate is in the thick of her self-produced true crime podcast about the same cold case. Misty has kept every bit of this from our way-too-close-for-privacy family.None of this would be a big deal, except that I've been having nightmares. It's my wedding day, and I look from my adoring groom to my twin nieces, face down in the shallows of the reservoir behind the altar.I dreamt, too, of a dying mermaid who's been trying to get my attention ever since.When my sister Sandra says she's worried about twin daughters, Mason and I agree to do a little snooping-only to find Misty has been keeping some big secrets, and is not where she's supposed to be. Nobody knows where she is.I'm pretty sure that Misty's gone off the grid with her podcasting partner Zig to surveil their favorite suspects in the ten-year-old case of the missing mermaid.I'm even more sure the mermaid is dead, and that her killer is determined to keep their oldest, deadliest secret, even if it means taking another young woman's life.I have to find my beloved niece before my visions come true-the way they always do.

A short, riveting thriller that resets you in the Brown and de Luca Universe just in time for book 7, GIRL BLUE."Shayne has hit the jackpot with the pairing of self-help author Rachel de Luca and Detective Mason Brown. ...she is a master storyteller." -RT Book Reviews on Innocent Prey, a Brown and de Luca NovelHey, I'm Rachel and just so you know up front, I've got a mouth on me. Not in public-when I can help it. Cussing is bad for the image of a bona fide guru of self-help, or that which I call "the bullsh*t I write."Only, I'm not so sure it's bullsh*t, because in trying it out, I got my eyesight back after 20 years. Yeah, the corneal tissue came from a serial killer, and yeah, I started seeing his crimes. But still, eyesight.I also have the hottest detective in the universe attached to my proverbial-and, okay, wider than I'd like-hip. I got his 2 nephews with the package and I couldn't fu-freaking love Jeremy and Josh more if I was their mother, which I'm way too young to be.That's a lie, Rache. They're twelve and eighteen. You're thirty-Don't interrupt, Inner B*tch, I'm on a roll.I also have my amazing bulldog, Myrtle. I understand her. She's blind like I used to be.And I got a little something extra with my cornea transplant. "It's a blessing and a curse," said the greatest TV detective ever.Only my something extra was...let's say down. And one of Josh's sixth-going-into-seventh-grade pals has been kidnapped. The sick prick snatched him off his bicycle and left a note behind. "Wait for instructions." Only none ever came.What a time for my antennae to be out of whack!So my wires are down, there's a kid missing, I'm bathing in my pity pool, and things get even worse. A big celebrity psychic shows up to help the cops find the missing kid. In my town.Yeah. No.So there's all that. But I'm out of room, so...just get the book, and I'll tell you the rest.#"This is page-turning, non-stop suspense at its finest."-RT Bookclub on Deadly Obsession, A Brown and de Luca Novel

"Maggie Shayne's books have a permanent spot on my keeper shelf." -#1 NY Times Bestselling Author¿ KAREN ROBARDSSo, I'm going along in my blissful life, waiting for my guy to get off his ass and pop the question and trying to put my next self-help book to bed, when I'm interrupted by a mental intruder. I'm suddenly doing a ride-along inside some stranger's head, while the attached set of hands strangle a guy in the back seat of a car.It felt like I was killing the guy. But I didn't, because I woke up cussing (not unusual) in my own bed beside my sexy cop and my blind bulldog. Said sexy cop then gets a text about a body, and I know it's the man I just sort of murdered.Turns out mister picture-wire necktie isn't the only victim. One of the others was punched in the face by our 19 year-old sort of kid in front of 20 witnesses right before he vanished. Jeremy is brought in for questioning by Mason's own co-cops.The only other suspects are a woman who beams sweetness and light like a freakin' earthbound angel, and an old horror star who's supposed to be dead. And if those two are murderers, I'm Miz Manners.Mason wants them to be guilty because it would clear Jeremy. He thinks I'm keeping things from him, which I am. He thinks I'm not putting Jeremy first, which I totally am. This whole thing is getting between us. So I've gotta solve it, fast.Even if it means going face-to-face with a serial killer.But the vigilante is more broken than I bargained for, and is determined to silence me. Permanently."Shayne has hit the jackpot with the pairing of self-help author Rachel de Luca and Detective Mason Brown.""This is page-turning, non-stop suspense at its finest!"-RT Book Reviews on The Brown and de Luca Novels

The riveting backstory of Holly and Ivy Newman from A Brown and de Luca Novel Book 7, CRY WOLF.Publisher's Weekly Raves: "A moving mix of high suspense and romance, this haunting Halloween thriller will propel readers to bolt their doors at night.""A gripping story of small town secrets. The suspense will keep you guessing. The characters will steal your heart." -New York Times Bestselling Author Lisa GardnerSince the day her baby sister was taken, Holly's mind hasn't been the same. PTSD, panic attacks, nightmares and blocked memories have plagued her ever since. And now they've returned.Hard-edged Detective Vince O'Malley's most recent case penetrated even his protective shell. Ordered to take time off to recover, he can't let go, and on his own, follows the clues to Holly's small upstate NY town.His presence stirs ghosts from the past, shadows of a little girl lost, the suspicions of some tight-lipped locals with secrets to hide, and more than that inside Holly's fragile mind and untouched heart."Maggie Shayne's books have a permanent spot on my keeper shelf. She writes wonderful stories combining romance with page-turning thrills, and I highly recommend her to any fan of romantic suspense." -New York Times Bestselling Author Karen Robards

I am Rhiannon.This is my origin story.My original name was Rhianikki, firstborn of Pharaoh. My bare feet sank into the sands of Egypt when the pyramids were new. My mother was a divine queen who died giving birth to me and they say the walls of the palace trembled when they took me, wailing, from her cold arms.I was special and not just by virtue of my inherent divinity.But rather than honor my gifts, my father feared them. And when I was five years old, he and his new queen sent me far away from their newborn twin sons, to live at the Temple of Isis, where I learned and grew and became the woman I still am, more than three thousand years later.That temple is where I was raised, by holy women who taught me the secrets of the gods and of the goddesses and all the ways of magic.There I met Luca, a father figure like my own had never been, who could only visit me by night and who said we were related in a way I would not understand until I was older.During those years, I rescued stolen children; I answered women's prayers; I helped artists find their calling; I caused a poor, small village to thrive, and I saw the face of my beloved in the glass-like crystal ball of a prophet.I communed with Isis nightly and became convinced she lived within me, that my soul was divine.That assumption has never left me.

Rom-Com Ghost Mysteries by Award-Winning Author Maggie ShayneJohnny's would-be girlfriend has called it quits, his newfound grandfather has pulled a vanishing act, and his odd connection to the dying has mutated into something else altogether, something he doesn't understand. Suffice to say, he was already having a lousy week when a kid came tearing out of the woods like the devil was chasing him and right into the path of his truck.Teenage Ryan isn't too badly hurt, but it turns out the seventeen-year-old has a serious ghost problem. He was convinced no one would believe him or be able to help him even if they did. But that was before he met Johnny and the gang at Spook Central.Johnny takes Ryan and his gorgeous older sister Breia to Kiley and Jack's no-longer-haunted Victorian money pit, which is also the gang's ghost-busting headquarters. But Kiley's not so sure the house is phantom-free. She says she's heard a female's smoke-and-whiskey voiced laughter a couple of times, which is weird as she's a total muggle.Maya, their resident Wiccan, sets wards around the place to keep ghosts away while Johnny sets wards around his heart to stay in the friend zone where she's put him. Her reasons are both practical and ridiculous since she's as drawn to him as he is to her. Also, he's pretty sure their fates are entwined.Soon, however, they're both too busy trying to protect a young boy and stay alive while doing it. Spirits the likes of which they've never encountered unleash hellish fury on them all, and survival takes precedence over their own star-crossed journey to love.A romantic comedy ghost mystery.

A hilarious, blood-chilling, romantic holiday-mystery!Her house is no longer a crime scene...Now that all the bodies have been removed from her basement, the crime solved, and the ghosts helped to the other side, Kiley can finally settle into her Gothic fixer-upper.But she misses her nemesis-turned-lover...Even though she stayed with Jack for the past few weeks, their relationship is too new to risk shacking up long-term. Besides, she values her space and her independence too much to give it up so soon.She has something to prove...Moving back in alone is a statement. She is reclaiming her space from the dead. Not to mention from the living, namely the little group of ghostbusters who helped clear her house. Since then, the five of them have helped a few other people with spook issues, mostly imaginary ones. But the gang seems a little too eager to make her place into their ghost hunting Headquarters.She does not want her home to become Spook Central...But the dead have other ideas. Especially the one who shows up on Kiley's very first night back, bringing a heartbreaking, unsolved, five-year-old Christmas murder mystery to her doorstep. And she's not leaving until Kiley and the gang solve it.

She does not believe in ghosts...Kiley's made a name for herself with her column debunking new-age fortune tellers, mediums, and psychics. Her small New Englandish town is known for its hauntings, so the charlatans abound. Her nemesis eludes her...Jack McCain is the one she's never been able to trip up. He's the smoothest con of them all with his good looks, quick wit, natural charm. She even enjoys the game they're playing, her trying to trick him, him always a step ahead of her. They've become best enemies.But something's wrong...Now, something's going on with her house, a big old Gothic she bought for a song. It began with a death threat written in blood. At first, she figures it's one of the phonies she's exposed, out for revenge, but before long she has to admit there's something otherworldly happening. And she can't handle it on her own. She needs help. She needs a medium who's the real deal. She needs Jack McCain.FATAL FIXER UPPER was originally titled "Her Best Enemy," and is a RITA® Award-winning story.

Jack's ex shows up out of the blue to ask for help with her dearly departed husband-who might not be so departed. Kiley-who didn't even know Jack had an ex, is determined to take the case from the rich widow, who is offering big bucks.A weekend in paradise seems like a fun break to Maya, except that both Johnny, the guy she's stuck on, and Joe, the guy she's pretending to be stuck on are coming too.So the gang head to the private island mansion of the widow, where nothing is as it seems, and soon, they are cut off from civilization with no boat, no phone, and no help on the way, as a hurricane bears down on an island crawling with cultish killers who'll sacrifice anyone who tries to stop them from getting what they want. Immortality.

The truth will out?The secret Vidalia Brand has been keeping for decades is about to come out. And she's terrified it will destroy her already fraught relationship with her youngest daughter, Selene.A man's last wish....Bobby Joe McIntrye is back in Big Falls, Oklahoma, and even he doesn't know what really happened between him and Vidalia all those years ago.But it doesn't matter. All he wants is to spend his final Christmas with the only woman he's ever loved; Vidalia Brand.A Christmas Miracle....Holidays in Vidalia's clan are known for their miracles, and this year, she's asking for the biggest one of all.

When Selene Brand, is out by the falls, dancing half naked with her fellow rebellious tree-worshipping types, and casting for the love of her life to fall at her feet, a stranger stumbles out of the woods and does just that.He's been stabbed. And when he opens his eyes, all he sees is a topless wood-nymph holding a dagger. When she bends close and asks his name, he realizes that he doesn't know the answer. Nor does he know who stabbed him, but the local law seems to suspect Selene.And yet she's the one who picks him up when he goes on the run. It soon becomes apparent that someone is trying to kill him because he knows something that he can't remember. Selene is determined to help him figure out who.Soon he realizes the only person on his side is a witchy little vegetarian who's running away for reasons of her own. And he wonders if a guy without a memory can really fall in love so fast.

A heartwarming, tear-inducing, holiday miracle kind of story you'll never forget...All Tyler wants for Christmas is a Mommy. He wants that more than he want to be able to walk without his crutches, or to skip his next surgery. Just a mommy.His father, Chicago Cop Jimmy Corona is determined to find him one in his hometown of Big Falls Oklahoma. But trouble follows him there, trouble that could get them both killed.Once shy and awkward, Kara Brand has blossomed into a graceful beauty with the biggest heart in the state of Oklahoma. Jimmy thinks she's the perfect mommy-candidate, and she falls in love with little Ty at first sight.His plan is to win her and wed her, not to love her. But he never intended for her to get caught in between a murderous criminal and his little boy.

When former Secret Service agent Alex Stone is asked to impersonate a foreign dignitary who wears a full beard and is rarely seen without his sunglasses, it's not a problem. But getting someone to impersonate the man's new bride, a beauty the world adores, is a little bit harder.Melusine Brand looks astoundingly like the pampered princess. She's also a rough and tumble Oklahoma girl with colorful language. Besides, she'll never agree.Only, she does.Alex has to tutor her to survive the glitzy world he's used to. But when things take a turn and they're on the run in the wilderness with killers on their heels, it's Mel's turn to school him.Depending on each other to stay alive, these two opposites find a love that's stronger than either of them could have imagined...and hope they can live long enough to claim it.

The girl who was too good for him?In high school, Wade Armstrong had been half in love with Edie Brand, even though she barely seemed to notice his existence. Like the rest of this town, she thought him beneath her. That was how it seemed to him, anyway. But he'd grown up determined to prove them wrong, and now he owns a successful garage which is wallpapered with Edie Brand's photo spreads from the Vanessa's Whisper lingerie catalogue.He fascinated and terrified her?In high school, Edie had been afraid to even look at Wade Armstrong. He was too hot, too smooth, and his reputation of being able to get any girl to say yes on the first date scared the daylights out of her.Now a bad boy is what she needs?She's back in town, driven out of L.A. and her lucrative modeling career by a crazed stalker who nearly killed her once?and who seems to have followed her home.The attraction between these two burns them both, while a dangerous admirer watches, and grows angrier.

Caleb didn't know that one night of bliss last spring with small town beauty Maya Brand had resulted in a pregnancy, until the blackmail attempt arrived on his desk in an unmarked envelope, complete with photos of Maya with a belly out to there.When he learns the truth, Caleb rushes back to Big Falls, determined to make it right despite what the scandal will do to his high profile career and the family legacy he's never truly wanted. All he wants is Maya and their child.But can a girl whose father abandoned and betrayed her, ever truly believe in the goodness of a man who left town the morning after losing her virginity to their one-night-stand?How can he convince her that he hasn't stopped thinking about her since then, much less do so with the whole world watching?His chance to prove himself arrives when a freak storm isolates Maya and labor comes on early on a Christmas Eve no one in Big Falls will ever forget.

As a little girl, Sara Brand witnessed the murder of her family, an event that has left deep emotional scars. She's beginning to heal, having found extended family in Texas and the brother she thought she'd lost.On break from her job teaching Kindergarten, Sarah has come to vacation at Sugar Keep, an old plantation in the Louisiana Bayou country.But trouble hasn't finished with her yet. It shows up in the form of darkly handsome Jake Nash, a man with a hands-off attitude and sizzling brown eyes, who turns out to be an ex-con suspected of murder.Before she can make up her mind about him, someone is killed right in front of Sarah's eyes. She doesn't see the killer, but the killer saw her.Now she's on the run and there's only one person protecting her. Jake. Is he "her shield" as a Voodoo Priestess told her, or is he stalking her with the intent to silence her forever?

He's an unwilling loner?Luke Brand wants a family. Aside from an overprotective mother who died young, he's never had that. At least not until he drives his rig into Quinn, Texas to meet the family he's never known.His cousins welcome him with open arms. Three months later, he's still there, selling his semi to buy an abandoned house for back taxes, dreaming of settling down with a wholesome woman and raising some kids of his own.Opposites attract?Jasmine is not what some would call wholesome. She's a waitress and sometimes exotic dancer at a Chicago club.A classically trained dancer, Jasmine doesn't mind doing what she has to. It's all for her son, Baxter. She'll do anything to protect him from the world.Danger pursues?When Baxter witnesses a murder at the club and becomes a target himself, Jasmine takes him and runs. Posing as her best friend, shot dead by the same killer who's after Bax, she heads for Texas to hole up in the house her roomie inherited but wanted no part of.The only problem with her plan is the sexy cowboy who's already living there.

Left at the Altar!When Adam Brand's first and only love Kirsten chose not to show up on their wedding day, he was devastated. When she turned up again, married to the town's richest old man, it was almost a relief. His seething anger overpowered his heartbreak.At least, outwardly it did. Inside he never understood, and rather than be forced to see her playing trophy bride to a billionaire, he left Quinn, Texas, his family, and the Texas Brand.But now he's back, and Kirsten's in trouble. Her wealthy husband has been shot dead. His blood is on her hands, and his gun bears her prints.The secrets she's been keeping for longer than Adam ever suspected, have finally come home to roost, and there's only one man who can save her from the mess she's made of her life.The one man with more cause to hate her than anyone, more cause to hate her than he even knows. And now she has no choice but to tell him the awful truth.

A Woman From The Past....When he first finds himself at an old west hanging in the middle of Quinn Texas, Elliot realizes that he probably hit his head a little harder than he thought when he ran his brother's truck into a tree.It's only a concussion-induced delusion, but he rescues the beautiful outlaw from the gallows all the same.When the delusions clear, and she's still with him, he figures he's either losing his mind, or else that amulet his archaeologist sister-in-law dug up has some kind of strange powers, after all.Regardless of how she got from her time to his, Esmeralda Montoya claims the Texas Brand is rightfully hers.His family want her gone. His sister Jessie would prefer to skin her alive. But all Elliot wants to do is kiss her, hold her, love her, and keep her in his world forever.

Marcus doesn't celebrate Christmas anymore. Not since the holiday massacre of his entire family left him an orphaned child, traumatized and alone.Taken in by a reclusive billionaire with a secret identity, Marcus was trained to take the older man's place when he could no longer serve as the elusive crime-fighter known as the Guardian.Casey is a reporter, but unlike every other member of the press, she's not after the Guardian to unmask him. She needs his help to protect her younger sister. Someone from her shadowy past is after her, and Casey is sure she's in danger.Marcus couldn't have known that helping Casey would bring him into the midst of the huge loving family he never knew he had, much less into Casey's loving arms. Or that helping Casey would unwrap a Christmas miracle that would heal his wounded heart.

Back from the Dead?Ben Brand is still in mourning for his long lost wife, Penny. It's been two years since she died in a fiery car wreck leaving her wedding band as the only identifiable thing on her body.Now he wonders if his endless grief has finally driven him crazy, because he's seen her, twice now, once outside his gym in town where he teaches martial arts to kids, and once right outside his bedroom window.Is Ben losing his mind...or experiencing a miracle?

Alter Ego or Ghostly Warrior? Wes Brand is the black sheep of the family. But lately, he's become friends with an old Shaman named Turtle who has hidden reasons for wanting to put Wes in touch with his Comanche roots. Turtle convinces Wes to impersonate legendary warrior Wolf Shadow, to drive archaeologist Dr. Taylor McCoy away from her dig site. His failing health provides plenty of leverage and he's not ashamed to use it. But when the beautiful doc finds herself falling for both Wes and his ghostly alter-ego, Wes wonders how he'll get out of the mess he's made without ruining the powerful feelings beginning to grow between them.

Jessi Brand always gets what she wants. And what she wants is part-time ranch hand, part time deputy, and full time hunk, Lash Monroe. Unfortunately, her five big (really big) brothers have other ideas.So does Lash, who got his fill of large families and overbearing "brothers" during his childhood in foster care. He's a loner and a drifter and he intends to stay that way.Can the youngest Brand on the ranch handle six uncooperative males and land the man of her dreams?Maybe, but when trouble finds Lash and he heads off to face it alone, everything else takes a back seat, because the Brand family sticks together, and like it or not, Lash has become a part of that family.Much as he doesn't want their help, the cavalry shows up, with Jessi leading the charge.

Baby on his Doorstep!Sheriff Garrett Brand has raised his entire brood of siblings single-handedly, and he's done his best to teach them some values, to mold them into honorable, responsible, and trustworthy human beings. So when a baby lands on the doorstep of the Texas Brand, his first question is which younger brother is in for a butt-kicking?But the little fellow isn't named after Ben, or Wes, or Adam, or Elliot. The little guy is named after him-Garrett Ethan Brand-according to the note his mama left behind.He's still racking his brain to figure it all out, when a woman shows up at the ranch in the dead of night, fighting mad and accusing Garrett of murdering her sister and stealing the baby!She's lost too much?Chelsea is confused, heartbroken, and too mad to think straight, and the same trouble that found her poor sister is right on her tail.What she doesn't know is that of all the places she and the baby could've wound up, this ranch is the best one. Because this is one family that knows how to pull together.Trouble doesn't stand a chance against the Texas Brands

Her name says it all?Sunny is the kindest, sunniest woman in small-town Big Falls, Oklahoma. She owns a bakery where she shares her sweetness in the form of mouth-watering treats, and sends weekly crates of them to the nearest homeless shelter.Everybody loves her, including Jason McIntyre, and most think that's a match made in heaven. The 2 most eligible, likable, single folks in town belong together, and Sunny is the living, breathing essence of her name.But her name is a lie?Sunny cracks her head, and Jason stays by her side while she's treated, still unconscious. But when the injured area is shaved, it reveals an ugly hate symbol tattooed beneath her golden hair, and his entire world turns inside out.She thought she'd found a safe haven?Sunny's violent past has caught up with her in the pretty small town where she's been hiding for the past 6 years. She doesn't want to leave her country life, her adopted home, or the tall, handsome Texan with the heart-melting kisses. Especially right before Valentine's Day.But running is the only way to keep her toxic history from poisoning Jason, his huge, loyal, meddling family, and the entire town.He thought he'd found his soulmate?Jason wonders if he ever really knew Sunny at all. But even so, he can't let her face this trouble alone. He's just not that kind of man.

Kendra Kellogg's back in Big Falls. Thanksgiving and Dax Russell will never be the same.Con-artist Kendra is back in small-town Big Falls for one reason only: to save her father's life. Jack is dead unless Kendra can get his kingpin captor what he wants. And what he wants is for Dax Russell, Kendra's ex-lover and the only mark she ever regretted conning, to take over his father's thoroughbred racetrack, Aurora Downs.Dax is the sole heir to a legacy he doesn't want, from a hateful father who never showed love. All the other tracks in Aurora Springs NY belong to the State Racing Association. When there are no more relatives to inherit it, Aurora Downs becomes their property as well.And that's fine with Dax.Sadly, it's not fine with Kendra. If Dax refuses his inheritance it will spell her father's end. So she has to con the sweetest, sexiest man she's ever known. Again. And that means spending Thanksgiving with the most honest family in Oklahoma.For Dax, Kendra's return means a second chance with the only woman he's ever loved.For Kendra, it's a life and death game of deception.Fooling a man who knows her so well is a challenge.Trying not to fall in love with him is impossible.

Veterinarian and single mom Emily Hawkins' world is turned upside down when her precious little girl is diagnosed with a terminal illness. Only a bone marrow transplant can save 3-year-old Matilda Louise. Emily isn't a match, but she's determined to find someone who is, and that means tracking down Tilda's biological father and his filthy rich family, a family she believes would've preferred her little girl had never been born.When she arrives in Big Falls, Oklahoma, nothing is the way she expected. Joey McIntyre, the billionaire's son who'd been her sweet teenage summer fling, is as handsome and smooth as ever, but he seems to fall hard for Tilda-Lou at first sight, and he's furious that Emily has kept his child from him--which makes no sense at all. Soon Emily begins to suspect that the version of history she's believed all these years, might not be the real one. And if that's true, she's done a terrible, unforgivable thing.But none of that matters as Tilda's dire symptoms set in. The doctor advises Emily and Joe to give their girl the best Christmas ever. Fortunately, Christmas is what the Brand-McIntyre clan does best.Emily and Joey put their feelings aside, coming together in a desperate search for a way to save their little girl against all odds.But the truth is that little Matilda Louise is the one who's saving them.

The hottest billionaire cowboys in Oklahoma!Fans of New York Times bestseller Maggie Shayne's award winning Texas Brands and Oklahoma All-Girl Brands series, are raving about this new spinoff, The McIntyre Men.Kiley Kellogg and her twin sister Kendra were raised by a con-man who's sitting in prison. When Kendra dies in a tragic fire, all Kiley wants is to reclaim her home and start a new life. An honest life. The sprawling ranch where she grew up in Big Falls, Oklahoma, is on the auction block. She only knows one way to raise the funds to buy it. But she's determined it will be her final con.Rob McIntyre is the most honest man in town. He surrounds himself with honest people, and has sworn off liars after a beautiful one broke his heart two years ago. He plans to buy a ranch, raise quarter horses, and live a peaceful, honest life in Big Falls.Then he meets Kiley, who lies to him from their very first encounter. Yet he's powerfully drawn to her. He convinces himself that he'll be all right. She's a terrible liar, completely transparent to him. Instead of letting her con him, he partners with her and they purchase the ranch together.But Rob is unprepared for the tangled, sticky web of deceit that threatens the entire town when her criminal relatives show up. And even more unprepared the overwhelming power and rapid growth of his feelings for Kiley.

Rescued by a rascal...Allie's plans to surprise her big brother on the eve of his deployment fall through, and a fight breaks out in the bar where she's been waiting for him. Extricated from the brawl by a handsome stranger, she surrenders to his charm and indulges in an uncharacteristic one-night stand that makes her forget her troubles for just a little while.But it brings her a whole new set of problems.A woman he can't forget...The memory of his passionate night with Allie haunts Logan's dreams in Afghanistan. His commanding officer and best friend wants him spend Christmas with his family, since they both have leave.Logan doesn't really do family, but reluctantly, he agrees.A revelation he never expected...But Logan is stunned to find the object of 9 long months of fantasies, waiting at the airport. And that's only the first surprise. He soon learns that she is his CO's baby sister, and she's very, very pregnant.A Christmas they'll never forget!As her entire family gathers, and her due date comes and goes, attraction is rekindled, secrets are revealed, and both love and labor ensue.

Darryl is on a quest for peace. His chance at fatherhood was taken from him long ago, and an IED in Iraq ensured he'd never get another. In Big Falls, the McIntyre brothers hire him to keep an eye on their beautiful cousin Sophie in case her criminal ex shows up. He doesn't expect to fall head over heels. Sophie McIntyre's life was blown apart by a drug dealing ex who cost her her job and nearly her medical license. She comes to Big Falls because she has nowhere else to go. And the minute she gets there, things start to get better. Is it because of that letter to Santa her Aunt Vidalia convinced her to write? Within days she meets a beautiful man with a deeply wounded soul. And oddly, she finds herself giving him the same advice the town Santa gave to her-try believing again, and if it's too much to believe, then just try hoping. Love, magic, and miracles ensue.Because this is Big Falls, Oklahoma. Miracles are an everyday occurrence around here. Especially at Christmastime. BELIEVE AGAIN with MAGGIE SHAYNE expanded author's cut edition of the story previously published in Buckles, Boots and Mistletoe.