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Lee Ann Sontheimer Murphy writes romance about everyday people often caught up in extraordinary circumstances. Her titles range from contemporary to historical to time travel and sometimes stray into the paranormal. She is a native of the historic city of St. Joseph, Missouri, a jumping off spot for countless wagon trains in the days of the old west and where outlaw Jesse James met his death. She now lives in a small Ozark town in what passes for the suburbs. As a member of Romance Writers of America, Missouri Writers Guild, and the Ozark Writers League, Lee Ann pens a weekly column for the local newspaper. She has served on the local library board and arts council. As a member of the Rebel Elite team, her upcoming releases will shift to exclusive Rebel in 2013. She’s married with three children and one spoiled Jack Russell terrier.
When Rae Lockridge put St. Louis in the rear view mirror, she sought the small town life she always dreamed about. After settling into her job at the local library, she thought she was well on her way to realizing those dreams until she met Anthony Pichetti. The good looking jack of all trades fires her imagination. Their mutual attraction is filled with heat but according to her co-workers, he has a past and they advise Rae to steer clear. She follows her heart instead of their advice but her view of the small town are tainted by their gossip. As their relationship deepens, Rae holds back, uncertain if she's in the right place. Rae's preoccupation with city versus country creates some minor health issues and strains things with Anthony. When a life-threatening crisis strikes, however, she must make choices for the future - for both of them.
Bare knuckles brawler Ronan O’Neill thinks he may have found a place to stay in Jane’s cabin on the Ozark frontier. But before he can enjoy all the comforts of home, his wound festers and his life is threatened. Without Jane, he’ll never survive but she draws upon all her skills as a healer and fey ways to keep him alive. As he burns with fever and dreams of survival, he’s struck by one thought above all others – he’s come to love this woman and if he doesn’t die, he’ll not only stay and find a home but regain a life. He has everything to live for – if he can.
When widow Katie Lafferty arrives at the Pythian House, a home for widows and orphans, she has little hope for the future. She soon learns the reality offers more grueling work than she could have imagined. One of the few bright spots in her daily drudgery is Latin Master Everett Brown at the school across the street. As Katie struggles to conform to the rules and settle into her new life, she looks forward to her chance meetings with Mr. Brown When she fails to meet the standards of the home, her future becomes even more uncertain. If she has a knight in shining armor, it’s Everett Brown.
Movie star Mercedes Montague has it all – the fame, the fortune, and the glittering celebrity lifestyle. But she lost herself somewhere along the way. On a publicity tour for her next movie she realizes she’s just fifty miles from her hometown. Mercedes – real name Marie Dillard – decides to bolt and go home to see if she can find what’s left of herself. Hiding away in her grandparents’ old home in a working class neighborhood she’s haunted by memories and reminders of her first and only love, Joe Shelby.
Marie’s stunned when Joe shows up at her door. Passion kindles between them from the first moment their eyes meet but she won’t let it consume her unless it’s going to include a lasting love. As they renew their relationship, Marie must find out if a movie star can return to reality or is love just a distant dream?
Ross Ramsey became a full-time father by default when his ex-wife overdosed. Two months later, he’s struggling to be a good daddy to five-year old Tristan. He put his son in preschool, moved to a small house near his brother and his family, but Ross can’t always cope. His sister-in-law, Caroline, parents by instinct but Ross doesn’t seem to get the hang of it.
When he meets a friendly neighbor, Shellie, they begin a relationship. But when Tristan turns up missing from school, the priority focuses on Ross’ son. Ross must rely on his family, his girlfriend, and his love for Tristan to make things work but to succeed, he must play the three of hearts card.
After surviving the Irish famines, Ronan O’Neill’s spent his time since arriving in America fighting to earn his keep. His bare knuckles, no holds bar style may put food into his belly but a fight in a tiny Ozarks settlement brings more than he expected. Not only is he injured, he meets a woman, Jane, who offers to tend his wounds and brings him home. Bleeding, aching, and with no place else to go, Ronan agrees to the pretty woman’s request. Although she proves to be an outcast, she’s also a widow with a few fey ways and a connection to him he can’t begin to understand. As he heals, he realizes he might – after so long – find his way home.
Lela may be the wife of a famous singer but on Christmas Eve, she finds herself home alone. As she waits for Shane to come home for the holidays, Lela wonders if fame has changed their lives too much. Shane's out on the road almost all the time while she keeps the home fires burning. Shane's failure to arrive sends her into a bout of self-pity but when he finally makes it home, she learns things are much different than they seem.
Desmond O’Neill arrives in Los Angeles from his native Ireland ready to make a new life. Although he doesn’t have a job or plan, Des is confident he’ll find his way. After all, he’d gotten this far in life with good looks and charm. Fate smiles on him when he meets a major movie star, Simone Sage. Better yet, she invites him home—and into her bed.
They share lust, not love, but soon their relationship reaches a new level. Neither uses the L-word—yet. Des knows he’s falling in love for the first time but he likes the high life so he’s in no hurry. When he nets a movie role of his own, life is sweet. A near tragedy brings out their true feelings and leads them to a future neither one expected when they met.
When he rides out of the fog on his motorcycle, Gracie Alloway almost mistook him for a demon rising from the smoke and steam of hell. Except she's attracted to him from the first moment. Devlin's everything she's not - wild and a little wicked. But opposites attract because good girl, college student Gracie wants more of this bad boy.
Devlin dreamed up a fantasy woman back in Iraq a lot like Gracie and she evokes a side he hasn't shown anyone in years. She also dares to enter his personal space and take liberties no other woman's dared. Although he struggles with PTSD and other issues, Gracie won’t run and she refuses to abandon Devlin.
If she can just tame him and help him battle his demons. If he can teach her how to live a little bit more, they might just have a chance at a future together.
Dr. Maya Sheppard adores her green-eyed lover, Irish history professor Ashton O'Neill, and the sex is the best she's ever known. She's deep in lust with him, and she adores his storybook house with amazing gardens. But Maya isn't sure they have much of a future anywhere except between the sheets.
Ash, however, has become more than just her passion and when she arrives unannounced to find a stranger in his house. Maya soon realizes there's much more to the man than she ever imagined. Unexpected events draw the pair closer together and with any luck at all, Maya just might realize the kind of love she's dreamed about all her life. (Heat 3 / 12K)
Life’s never easy for a good-hearted man who decides crime is the answer to his troubles.
No rain in the summer of 1933 is bad news for Oklahoma farmer Henry Mink. The local banker wants the mortgage on the farm paid and unless Henry comes up with the dough, his widowed mother and four young siblings won’t have a home. Jobs are scarce so he decides to rob a bank. His sweetheart, school teacher Mamie Logan, doesn’t like the idea and neither does Henry’s kid brother Eddie but Henry’s out of options.
He leaves home and robs a bank at nearby Ponca City. When he returns home, he pays off the mortgage but new troubles show up. Mamie is his greatest joy and they become engaged but by fall, Henry has no options left but to rob another bank. If he can pull off one another big job, he figures he’ll be set until the hard times are over but few things in life go as planned. His desperate efforts will either secure his future or destroy it forever.
If Henry’s family survives and Mamie’s love endures, he’ll need a miracle.
After St. Louis TV weathercaster Cole Celinksi loses his almost estranged wife and three children in a car crash, his boss orders him to take a leave of absence. Against his will, Cole leaves the city in late May to find the rest and relaxation everyone else thinks he needs. Without anywhere else to go, Cole heads for Lake Dreams, a resort on the quiet side of Lake Taneycomo in the Ozarks he visited each summer as a child with his grandparents. Some of his best memories were made in the lakeside vacation haven with his summer friend, Maggie.
Upon his arrival, Cole learns Maggie now runs the place. Twenty years have passed but from the minute he returns, they reconnect and soon their mutual attraction ignites. He fishes in the lake, takes Maggie to visit some of the places he remembers and begins to find out who he truly is. Before he can heal, he must learn to deal with his loss and to see if he can create a new family with Maggie and her children. It’s a task he’s not sure he can handle but if he wants to be with Maggie, he must. A near tragedy brings them all together into a close knit unit and afterward, Cole may be able to make his dreams reality. (213 pages)
Tamara’s known far and wide as the girl in the red hood. Red is not only her favorite color but a way to express everything from anger to love. She hates her mundane existence. After tragedy destroyed her family life, Tamara’s become a loner who shuts out everyone, even her one-time lover, Wulfric.
Wulfric refuses to give up on Tamara, and when she yields to him, her life seems to shift back on track. But when danger hits, Wulfric steps in to make the ultimate sacrifice to save her. His life and their love hang in the balance.
Heat Rating: 2 / Word Count: 9,360
When a young woman really believes the sky is the limit, amazing things can happen…
Lorraine Ryan wants to fly airplanes so she heads for the local airstrip in 1925 to make her dream come true. Most of the flyboys think she’s cute but a woman’s place is in the home, not the cockpit. When Guy Richter steps up and offers to teach her to fly, she’s captivated with both Guy and flight. He nicknames her “Angel” and takes her up into that wild blue yonder. Before long, they’re deep in love.
Love, however, isn’t always enough……
Guy, a former World War I flying ace, is haunted by his past. His demons include his war service, the death of his only brother in an accident the previous year, and the Valkyries that he evaded in France who trail him in the hopes that they can complete his destiny. But his dreams lie with Angel and as they grow closer and closer, he soon realizes that if anyone can save him, it’s his Angel.
Davey Devaney has hit rock bottom at Fort Gibson after losing most of his family during the forced Trail of Tears march and Indian Removals. He decides to stop drinking and go in search of his sole remaining brother, Johnny, who left the fort months earlier. He
travels what he hopes is the same route Johnny took and when he finds his brother, their reunion is all he hoped to find. Still, his brother’s found a wife and happiness, two things Davey craves. As he struggles to settle back into ordinary life along the rugged frontier, he finds he’s attracted to a lovely young Scotswoman, Jenny, the adopted daughter of the storekeeper at the nearby settlement. What Fills The Heart follows the same family from The Marriage Cure with the unique blending of Cherokee and Irish culture.
There may be no place like home and nothing like love….
When Lillian Dorsey inherits the family home from the grandfather who banished her pregnant mother decades earlier, she travels to see the house and sell it. Instead, she is captivated by the Edwardian beauty and intrigued by the ghost. When the original owner manifests himself, he’s both charming and witty. Lillian can’t hide her attraction to Howard Speakman especially when she learns it’s mutual. Since she’s alive and he’s long dead, however, there seems to be no way they can ever be together.
But where there’s a will there may be a way….
One afternoon, while pretending to visit the past, the impossible becomes real for a short span and they realize that if they visited 1904 once, they can do it again. If Lillian can return to Howard’s time, then maybe she can prevent his death and they can manage that happily ever after anyway. With just enough pluck to try, they attempt to bend time to their will and if they succeed, then they may find a love to stand the test of time.
Cara couldn’t be happier now that her sexy vampire husband Will Brennan located his long lost brother Seamus. Her new found brother-in-law even has a theater where she can sing—until a vampire named Henri shows up in the audience. He covets Cara, but not for a happy ending. The old vampire, far more powerful than Will or Seamus, has a bad reputation among the undead.
Back in Memphis Henri demonstrates he can make them suffer at will. A cat and mouse game begins and takes them back to Missouri, then onto Texas for what they hope will be a happy family holiday.
A last minute grocery store run puts Cara in Henri’s hands and leaves Seamus near dead. When Henri takes Cara deep into the mysterious back waters of Caddo Lake, it’ll take more than just Will Brennan and his brother to save her—if they can.
As the temperature drops, the women in this collection of stories find naughty and delicious ways to warm up for the holidays.
A boss with a proposal to make her sweat, a promise from an Italian assistant, a cabin in the middle of nowhere with two men waiting to cater to her every desire, a special surprise for a lonely solider...
All of these encounters and more from ten talented authors. Get ready for some holiday loving...Evernight style.
When Jessica Martin met Johnny Devereaux that December, holiday magic filled the air. But their love was no enchantment. He was without doubt the love of her life and by summer, they were happy newlyweds with their life and many more holidays ahead.
But when Johnny failed to return home from a fishing trip on the Fourth of July, Jessica's world was rocked to the foundation. When the authorities tell her that her husband is missing and presumed dead, Jessica refuses to believe it.
As the months and seasons pass, no one holds out hope but Jessica believes.
She knows he'll be home for Christmas. Her family calls her crazy and Johnny's family tries to help her find closure but Jessica's heart refuses to surrender.
And when Christmas comes, the truth will shock them all.
No matter what your fantasy, these sinfully naughty tales are certain to keep you reading late into the night...
Midnight Seduction is an exclusive collection of erotically charged stories by thirteen talented authors. From dark angels and vampires, to ghosts and kelpies, this anthology is sure to please paranormal romance lovers everywhere. Fulfill your wanton desires and escape into a world where anything is possible.
After surviving the wrath of a wicked she-vampire bent on revenge, Will and Cara Brennan have a new task – finding Will’s brother that Sallie Hawkins made a vampire centuries ago. Both bear the scars of their battle but they’re glad to be alive and together.
Cara wants to find the only family Will has in this world and so they set out on a search for Seamus that takes them from Memphis to the rough bars of Oklahoma, Las Vegas casinos, to Hollywood Boulevard and to New Orleans. Along the way, their love deepens and the sensual connection they share heightens.
Whether or not they find Seamus isn’t the only issue – they have no way of knowing whether he has gone wicked or if he’s an average vamp like them. The journey defines their love as the story begun in Love Tattoo, advanced in Love Scars, and continues in Love Knots.
After marrying her sexy undead husband Will Brennan, Cara Riley Brennan thought her happy ending would last forever but she soon learned that the course of true love doesn’t ever run quite that smooth. Just when she thought they were settling into eternal bliss, Sallie Hawkins, the woman who made Will into a vampire in the past, intrudes into their lives. She’s wicked, she’s jealous, and she won’t stop till either Will or Cara is dead.
When the three meet for battle, they all may not survive and in the end, who lives and who dies is up to Cara who will do anything to keep her chance at a permanent happily ever after ending intact.
One unexpected late night encounter and one titillating kiss detours Cara Riley from reaching Nashville for her last shot at a singing career and lands her in Memphis.
Dark, mysterious truck driver Will Brennan oozes sexuality and Cara finds herself drawn to him. He brings her to a higher level of sensual pleasure than she even imagined could be possible. As their relationship explodes into something real, she learns he has more than a few quirks—he sleeps by day and prowls by night.
At his home—a castle—nestled in a wooded area just outside Memphis, she learns just what his sweet love tattoos really mean and must decide if she wants another. Whether or not they find their happy ending is all up to Cara.
Stella Raines was looking for a change. She moved to the small town of Riverville to begin her first year of teaching history. She quickly learns that teaching in such a rural high school is no picnic, but the math teacher in the class down the hall makes her first week all the more intriguing….
Darien Wolfe is a staple of Riverville High School, with his rule-breaking hair and attire. He seems to have taught there since, well, forever. However, Darien never knew how much his long life might change until he notices the new history teacher down the hall.
Their attraction is instant and for eternity, like the stars under the full moon. But can Stella survive Darien’s secret?
Small Town Love Story
Ronan's Life
The Widow's End
Urban Renewal
Three of Hearts
Ronan's Woman
Home Fires of Christmas
Movie Star Magic
Devlin's Grace
An Emerald Heart
Dust Bowl Dreams
Heart of the Ozarks
Red in the Hood
Guy's Angel
What Fills the Heart
In Loves Own Time
Love Shadows
Stockings and Suspenders
Sing We Now of Christmas
Midnight Seduction
Love Knots
Love Scars
Love Tattoo
Wolfe's Lady
