The Eden Tree (34 page)

PANTHER LEGACY

(Historical Anthology)

Special Price of Just $3.99

Panther Legacy
contains two volumes:
The Panther and the Pearl,
an historical romance set during 1885 in the Ottoman Empire of Turkey, first printed in 1994, and its sequel,
Panther’s Prey
, set in the same location ten years later and released in 1996. The main characters of the first book reappear in the second book but in lesser roles as the central story is carried by a subsequent pair of lovers. Both stories are very erotic and atmospheric historicals, immersed in the male dominated culture of Turkey at the time. That area of the world was then controlled by local rulers called Sultans and their lesser lieutenants, called Pashas, both absolute despots ruling their districts with iron hands.

In
The Panther and the Pear
l, Sarah Woolcott is a Boston schoolteacher visiting a relative in Turkey in the late nineteenth century. By a combination of circumstances you’ll find only in fiction, Sarah is purchased by the Pasha of Bursa, Kalid Shah. He is a young, Oxford educated district governor, the child of a local pasha and a captive British mother, who takes a fancy to Sarah when he sees her during a state visit to his boss, the Sultan. Sarah is outraged when she is drugged and kidnapped and wakes up to find herself the property of this seductive stranger, installed in his harem as the ikbal, the favorite, and expected to accept her fate as his new sex toy. While she fights him tooth and nail and pursues every avenue to obtain her release, at the same time she is drawn to him inexorably as he proves to be as intelligent, charming and sexy as he is handsome. What results is a battle of wits which drives them both to distraction, as she refuses to submit to his imperious commands and he ignores his stable of submissive beauties to chase the American woman who wants nothing to do with him. How Sarah winds up turning the tables on her dictatorial lover and finally bringing him to heel makes for an entertaining and highly sensual story.

Panther’s Prey
, the sequel to
The Panther and the Pearl
, takes place ten years later in the same district of Bursa, where the ward of Sarah Woolcott’s cousin is abducted by Turkish rebels seeking to overthrow the same Sultan in power when Sarah first arrived in Turkey. She is now married to Kalid Shah and living with him and their three children at Orchid Palace in Bursa. Shah is in sympathy with the rebels and allies himself with Malik Bey, the brother of a character in the first book. Bey is a wanted fugitive, the leader of the insurgents. Bey takes Sarah’s cousin, Amelia Ryder, from her traveling coach by force in order to sell her into slavery to finance his anti-government activities. Amelia is as defiant and feisty as Sarah was a decade earlier, however, and as she tries repeatedly to get away from Bey’s camp and back to her family she and the rebel leader grow fascinated with one another. She learns about Bey’s past and his cause and helps him when his lieutenant and best friend is wounded. As time passes they share a compelling physical attraction which soon grows into an undeniable, unbreakable bond. Bey, young and handsome himself, is besotted with pretty blonde Amelia. He can’t keep his hands off her, despite his best efforts to put the revolution first and his feelings second, and decides finally that he cannot sell her. He makes a deal to release her to Shah just as she realizes that his cause is just and, even more shocking, that she really doesn’t want to get away from him. As Bey works with Shah to remove the Turkish dictator and replace him with an elected legislature, Bey is arrested and condemned by a desperate Sultan and Amelia joins forces with Kalid and Sarah to save his life. How Bey triumphs in the end and gets both a new government and the girl makes for a satisfying and sensual read. I hope you enjoy reading these books as much as I enjoyed writing them.

AUGUST 2012

MEDICINE MAN’S AFFAIR

(Contemporary Romance)

His people were his past

but she was his future

Tall, honey blonde with gray-blue eyes, Jennifer Gardiner hardly fit the role of Publicity Director for the Philadelphia Freedom football team. A lawyer and a professional in a rough-and-tumble world of men, she’d learned to be wary of gridiron heroes––until Lee Youngson shattered her hard earned cool. A proud American Indian, witty and devastating, he broke all the rules, sweeping Jennifer into a passion she had never known. She abandoned all caution for a single reckless night. Now it was too late to turn back. She wanted Lee for a lifetime, but they were worlds apart. His past and his heritage stood between them. Could love ever bridge the gap?

JULY 2012

BLACKFOOT AFFAIR

(Contemporary Romance)

Can a tribal activist forget his past with

the last woman on earth that he should love?

Prim and proper lawyer Marisa Hancock was out to win a controversial case that had tempers flaring, but then she ran up against the opposition—in the sexy form of Jackson Bluewolf. With his sensual swagger and fiery ways, Jackson posed a bigger challenge than any courtroom confrontation ever could!

From the minute Marisa took over for the opposing side, Jackson hungered to see her in action—in and out of the courtroom. Though he’d been burned once before by another blonde beauty, he couldn’t help wanting to melt the elegant Miss Hancock’s icy defenses with some maneuvers of his own. But he certainly didn’t expect to ever risk his heart—or to ignite desires impossible to cool.

JUNE 2012

AN INDIAN AFFAIR

(Contemporary Romance)

He chased fugitives for a living,

but she was the biggest bounty of his life

He was a half-breed, as hard and proud as his Seminole ancestors, bitter about his elegant Bostonian mother’s abandonment of him, and a bounty hunter, tougher than the criminals he tracked. Andrew Fox was dangerous to the men he hunted for a living and to the women he chased for pleasure. He needed no one–until Lucinda Warren came to town.

Shy, reserved Lucinda was as civilized as Fox was wild. He knew she was wrong for him–and he fought against his passionate need for her. She was the most precious prize he had ever captured, and to keep her he was, finally, willing to pay the highest price of all–his love.

JUNE 2012
 

GABRIELLE’S BULLY

(Young Adult Romance)

There’s a new boy in Gaby’s school…

and he will change her life forever

There’s a new boy in Gaby’s school. She never would have noticed him, except that he was in her trigonometry class and that he dressed like a throwback to 1962. Soon she began to notice other things...that he was a star athlete, that he wouldn’t allow himself to be pushed around by the class bully, that he liked to read poetry, and most important of all, that she was falling in love with him.

At first this discovery was pure happiness. But all too soon their relationship swept them into deep waters. Now Gaby wasn’t at all sure that she would be able to cope with her newfound tumultuous feelings and continue to see the boy she loved.

JUNE 2012

SEASON OF MISTS

(Young Adult Paranormal Romance)

First Book in the Collection of
 

Cupid’s First Strike – Teen Love in the 80’s