by Wendy Warren, author of The Cowboy’s Convenient Bride and the FREE online read, Daniel’s Gift.

I have a friend who gets hives at the thought of living in a small town. Not I. Even though I’ve lived in cities most of my life, in my mind I live in an endless episode of The Andy Griffith Show. LOL!

For a very sweet while, I did live in a kind of latter-day Mayberry. A small town in Oregon still so innocent that the mayor’s giant squash was the lead story on the local news one night.

Twice a day in the summer, horses clopped down our block pulling a carriage, and in December the locals, dressed in elaborate Victorian costumes, handed out hot cider and chestnuts on the street corner.

I could look out the window of our “downtown” cottage and see a dozen deer strolling through the front yard. Heaven.

Marrying my true love dictated a return to larger towns and cities, a trade-off I happily accept, but I’ll never forget the gift of that town.

Home Sweet Honeyford is the series I’ve wanted to write for a long time.

I based it, of course, on that great little town, as it was when I lived there eighteen years ago—tons of character, a bit quirky, rich with caring. I’ve populated Honeyford with locals and transplants from the city, people who have lots of differences, but one thing in common: They’re looking for someone to witness their lives. To say, “You count, and, by the way, I love you.”

It doesn’t matter where we live, most of us want that. But getting there…whew. Not always easy, is it? Which is why I love writing about the journey. And why I’m glad that my next three romances are set in Honeyford, because in that kind of community, there’s always somewhere soft to land. Someone to whom you can turn when the path toward true love becomes too hard to walk alone.

Do you live in a sweet, supportive community? What I’m discovering is that we can create that comfort wherever we are. Today I’ve found my Mayberry in the middle of a busy city. I’d love to hear about where you live and how you create community in your life.

My husband, daughter and I recently visited the little town that left such a big impression on me. It’s different now. Upscale shops have moved in. New homes abound. The old building where we ate popcorn and watched live melodrama is long gone, replaced by a gorgeous retirement home. Hmm…maybe someday….

In the meantime, I love going to work in Honeyford when I sit down at the computer.  I hope you’ll like “living” there awhile, too, getting to know Claire and Fletcher, Rosemary and Dean, and Gabby and Cal as they find each other and a place to call home. And here’s a sneak peek of Daniel’s Gift, Elliana and Daniel’s story, available now on eHarlequin.com:

Elliana Goldman has always longed for a big family of her own. Though a man to love was always part of the dream, at the age of thirty five, with no prospects of romance looming, Elliana is ready to create life, not wait for it to happen. She’s not against using an anonymous donor, but she’d rather hand-pick her baby’s father. And something tells her former classmate—and one time crush–Daniel Bowman is the right man for the job.

Daniel has a reputation in Honeyford for being unwilling to commit to anything more than breakfast, but the truth is a little more complicated than that. He’s not a man who takes family lightly, so he’s floored when Elliana asks him to father a child, no strings attached. And he’s even more surprised when his growing attraction to her has him tempted to agree to make a baby—the old fashioned way!

Welcome to Home Sweet Honeyford!

by Shirlee McCoy, author of Running Scared (Love Inspired Suspense July 2010)

As I wrote the proposal for Running Scared, my husband and I were getting ready to travel to China to meet and adopt our seven year old daughter. I’ll never forget the moment she walked into our lives. We were in the lobby of the civil affairs office, and she walked around the corner carrying a strawberry ice cream cone, her white hair cut short and nearly glowing, her clear blue eyes filled with the same anticipation and fear that I felt. She was a stranger. A child who had lived seven years of her life without us, who had a history and experiences that didn’t include us.

And, yet, she was our daughter.

I thought of that moment often while I plotted Kane and Eli Dougherty’s journey. Here was a man who’d nearly given up believing his missing son would be found, a man who’d almost lost hope that a miracle would happen. Five years after his four year old son’s disappearance, he would meet his child again.

His son, but a stranger, too.

As compelling as that moment of meeting would be, I knew that I had to begin their story after the phone call that brought Kane to Deer Park, Washington, and after his initial meeting with his son. Their story, after all, had to be about Maggie Tennyson, as well. It had to build the mystery and romance and the faith that grew as all three characters learned to trust each other. That’s why I was thrilled to be given an opportunity to tell readers more about Eli’s journey and the days that led up to his reunion with his father. My online read, Dangerous Secrets, does just that.

Shauna Trenton is Eli’s teacher and Maggie Tennyson’s friend. She grew up in Deer Park, and her life is as easy and uncomplicated as Maggie’s is difficult and filled with secrets. Levi McCleary is her high school sweetheart, a guy whose big city dreams and need for adventure pulled him from Deer Park and from her life. Now, years after he said goodbye, he’s back.

And Shauna’s not sure she’s happy about it.

She’s given up her dreams of happily-ever-after and is content with life in rural Washington, but even small towns have their secrets, and when danger threatens, Shauna finds that she has no choice but to rely on the one man she swore she’d never trust again.

Enjoy!

by Anne Stuart, author of The Wicked House of Rohan and Ruthless

Beginning with The Wicked House of Rohan (a FREE online prequel to my Fall 2010 historical romances) I pose this question.

Answer: It all depends on who blinks first. I tend to specialize in dark heroes—men who kill and women who love them—but they tend to show up in my contemporaries, not my historicals.  Dangerous spies and assassins have a good excuse for their darkness, what with saving the free world and all that.

But how do you carry off a decadent aristocrat who’s rich, gorgeous, and fabulous in bed, but is still bad, bad, bad?

I’ve done it before, looong ago, with a couple of out of print romances that still get mentioned by some as standouts in the genre.  But more recently my historical heroes were charmers, rakes and knights.

But then came the House of Rohan. Thoroughly bad men who are nonetheless irresistible.  First comes Alistair in The Wicked House of Rohan, lounging in Venice, seducing a down-on-her-luck governess and helping to form the notorious Heavenly Host, my take on the Hellfire Club.   He’s a bit of a charmer and sets the Rohan lineage down a path of excess and notoriety that will have repercussions for generations (and books!) to come.

Next comes Viscount Francis Rohan (Ruthless, August 2010), the survivor of Culloden and thoroughly decadent exile in France, whom I didn’t think was all that wicked, despite Publisher’s Weekly’s horror. (So read the RT review instead—they think it’s wonderful!)

As for Adrian, Francis’s son (Reckless, September 2010), he’s just an overgrown, naughty libertine, not particularly caring whose life he ruins in the pursuit of pleasure.

By the time we get to his daughter (Breathless, October 2010), some of the wickedness has run out.  The infusion of solid, loving women into our heroes’ lives is bound to improve things.  But the Rohans are still a bit headstrong, and Adrian Rohan’s daughter is bound to get in trouble.  Her hero, a thoroughly wicked gentleman known as The Scorpion, makes the Rohans look like perfect gentlemen, but a Rohan knows how to handle a Scorpion.

So how bad are these heroes?  Francis Rohan is known as the King of Hell.  He runs orgies, kills men in cold blood and blackmails the heroine into sleeping with him.

Adrian is more straightforward.  His heroine comes to observe an orgy, thinking she’ll be safe, and he carries her off, keeping her captive and introducing her to all sorts of delicious wickedness, then abandoning her.

Whereas the Scorpion, scarred and dissolute, is out for revenge and considers Miranda Rohan to be the perfect vessel for that revenge, and he doesn’t care how much he hurts her.

Whether these men manage to be redeemed is a matter of opinion.  How bad they truly are is also a question of perception.  I’ve always figured that the badder they are, the harder they fall, and my bad, bad heroes fall very hard for my strong heroines.  In the end it makes the redemption that much sweeter.  If you can handle a dark hero in the first place.

by Andrea Kerr, Producer

Sophisticated man of the world? Check. Captivating woman? Check. Glamorous, international settings? Check. Passion and seduction? Guaranteed! July’s Special Event Read on eHarlequin.com has all the things readers adore about the Harlequin Presents series. But the best part? It’s an exclusive prequel to the all-new continuity, The Balfour Brides! Scandal at the Balfour Ball will be available July 1 on eHarlequin.com!

Here’s a sneak peek of the FREE story by beloved author Michelle Reid:

After barely a year of marriage, Alessandro and Meredith Ferrera’s relationship is already strained by careers that force them to live in different countries for weeks at a time. So it doesn’t take much to raise Alessandro’s suspicions about what his bride is up to with his best friend Marco when he’s not around!

Meredith Ferrera doesn’t know what’s gotten into her husband. When she calls him in Milan to tell him some important news, she’s discouraged by his surly attitude and veiled accusations. And when he fails to show up in London to escort her to the ball hosted by her illustrious Balfour relations, she quickly discovers the room is abuzz with rumors about the state of their marriage…

Want more? Don’t miss a single, seductive volume (psst, all Presents titles are available a month in advance on eHarlequin.com!)

A powerful dynasty, eight daughters in disgrace…

Mia and the Powerful Greek by Michelle Reid, August 2010

Kat and the Dare-Devil Spaniard by Sharon Kendrick, September 2010

Emily and the Notorious Prince by India Grey, October 2010

Sophie and the Scorching Sciilian by Kim Lawrence, November 2010

Zoe and the Tormented Tycoon by Kate Hewitt, December 2010

Annie and the Red-Hot Italian by Carol Mortimer, January 2011

Bella and the Merciless Sheikh by Sarah Morgan, February 2011

Olivia and the Billionaire Cattle King by Margaret Way, March 2011

First three covers in the series

by Kathleen Scheibling, Senior Editor, Harlequin American Romance

I love family drama. No, I don’t mean when my crazy uncle announces he’s in love with a house plant at the Christmas dinner table. I’m talking about watching and reading about other’s people’s families, and finding out what makes them tick. For years I was obsessed with The Sopranos, in all their bizarre domesticity. And I love shows like Modern Family, which shows familial dysfunction at its finest. It’s way more fun to look through the window at other people’s problems than deal with my own!

There’s one show I grew up watching that still sticks with me. On Dallas, the Ewings taught me about family rivalry, forbidden love, how money drives people, and about the imposing figure of the patriarch. I loved that show. Now they were fun to watch! And I still can’t get that theme song out of my head…

For a long time I thought about doing a big family drama in American Romance. Our books are all about family, after all. And since we love our western stories, I knew the family should live in a place as untamed, majestic and dramatic as I imagined their story would be. And so, American Romance brings you The Codys: The First Family of Rodeo.

This series is full of drama, wild western settings, and most important, heartwarming romance. John Walker and Anne Cody have raised five children on The Cottonwood Ranch in Big Horn County, Wyoming. Their offspring have all been brought up with a love of the rodeo. And even though they may have other professions, each of them regularly competes in rodeos all over the American west. And amid the horses and the dust and the glory of their events, they find the loves of their lives. And believe me; it’s going to be fun to watch.

Six incredible authors have created the Codys – a family with as many ups and downs and crazy times as any you’ll ever see. In Walker: The Rodeo Legend, you’ll meet a war veteran who finds redemption through rodeo, and through the love of a good woman. In Dexter: Honorable Cowboy (July 2010) and Dusty: Wild Cowboy (August 2010), you will read about twin rivalry at its best, while the brothers fight over women and spar with the rest of the family. Mark: Secret Cowboy (September 2010) brings the whole Cody story to a head – and we’ll find out what secret almost tears the family apart. Elly: Cowgirl Bride (October 2010) shows how the Cody women can hold their own at the rodeo, and lasso the man that’s right for her. And in Jesse: Merry Christmas, Cowboy (November 2010), we wrap up this part of the Cody story with a dramatic one-two punch.

I love this miniseries, and I hope American Romance readers do too. Thanks to our wonderful authors – Rebecca Winters, Marin Thomas, Cathy McDavid, Pamela Britton, Trish Milburn and Lynnette Kent – and thanks to you, for letting the Codys in to your lives. Enjoy the drama…and enjoy the romance!

Note: visit the Cottonwood Ranch today and meet some of the Codys in Her Unexpected Cowboy, a FREE online read by Trish Milburn! Here’s a sneak peek:

After the tragic deaths of their parents, Madison Gray had to become a mother to her fourteen-year-old brother, Jason. But the boy’s grief has led him down the wrong path, and Madison will do anything to steer him right. So she takes her friend, Elly Cody, up on her offer to visit her family in Wyoming, hoping a dose of ranch life will do them both good. The last thing she needs is the kind of complication that comes in the sexy form of Elly’s cousin, Callum!

By Lori Devoti, author of Zombie Moon (Harlequin Nocturne, July 2010) and Zombie Midnight (eHarlequin.com FREE online read)

I’ve written five full-length Nocturnes, one novella and two Bites. I’ve written about witches, vampires, hellhounds, and wolf-shape-shifters. But in my current eHarlequin.com online read and in my July Nocturne release, I tried something completely different: zombies.

That’s right. Zombies.

Zombie Midnight, my online read, is the story of Lexi Thompson, a woman desperate to save one of her students from the drugs she thinks have taken over his life. In the process, she runs into Bryce Menard, a man unlike any she has met before. He is strong, determined and magnetic. He is also a vampire on a mission to find and destroy another vampire, the zombie maker. Together they traverse dark underground sewers, discovering new truths about her student, themselves and an attraction neither can push aside.

In Zombie Moon, my July Nocturne (available on eHarlequin.com June 1), Caleb Locke made a choice twenty years ago that changed him forever. After his family was killed by zombies, he became a werewolf. His werewolf skills and personal determination have made him into a legendary zombie killer and that is all Caleb cares about: killing zombies. Until he meets Samantha Wagner.

Samantha’s best friend is missing, and Samantha has come to believe the impossible: that zombies are real and they have her friend. Samantha will do anything to save her–or thinks she will, until she gets to know Caleb and realizes she has more to lose, more to fight for, than she had ever believed.

So, two, count ‘em, two stories with zombies. No, neither has a zombie hero or heroine, but I think the zombies add a real level of danger, intrigue and yes, fun, that no other villain can.

I hope you will check them out and give zombies a try!

by Andrea Kerr, Producer

If you could get a “do-over” on one mistake in your life, what would it be?

Dana Prescott has always done the right thing. The one time she didn’t, she ruined Seth Marcenek’s life. Unsure how to fix her mistake, Dana did something she’s always regretted: nothing. Ten years later, back in her hometown looking for a job, she comes face to face with Seth. He hasn’t forgotten what she did, or forgiven her…Here’s a sneak peek:

Dana Prescott jumped at the sound of the knock on the cabin door. The last thing she expected in the middle of nowhere was a visitor—or so she thought until she pushed aside the curtain to see who was there. Actually, the last thing she expected was for that visitor to be Seth Marcenek.

She opened the door so he could come in out of the rain and hoped she didn’t look as guilty as she suddenly felt. Ten years had passed and she’d yet to come to grips with not doing the right thing. There’d only been one time in her life when she hadn’t, and here was the walking, talking reminder of her lapse, staring at her with cold blue eyes.

“This is a surprise,” she said, stepping back.

Join us every Monday for a new chapter in this FREE Harlequin Superromance serial—Rescue Me by Jeannie Watt! And check out our Online Reads Library for featured stories from every series and imprint, or use the Search function to find even more complete, free stories from your favorite series.

by Andrea Kerr, Producer

If you’ve been to eHarlequin.com, you probably know about our amazing Read section, featuring FREE daily and weekly serials by authors from all of our series and imprints. If you haven’t been to eHarlequin.com, what are you waiting for?! There is something new to read each and every weekday. Did I mention the stories are all FREE? As the Producer of the Reads program, I am constantly amazed at how authors can create intensely emotional, satisfying love stories in such a short format. Ann Christopher’s current Daily Read is no exception. Here’s a sneak peek of Melting the Ice Queen:

Alicia Carroll and Scott Armstrong have the perfect “no-strings attached” relationship. Sizzling sex is always okay, but sleepovers are only for weekends, and emotions are strictly forbidden. As a divorce lawyer, Alicia knows better than anyone that relationships never last, so it’s better to avoid commitments at all costs. No matter how warm and safe she feels in Scott’s arms….

A lawyer himself, Scott respects the rules Alicia has set in place. But after two years as part-time lovers and best friends, Scott can no longer pretend their relationship is merely casual. He wants more from Alicia than just her body — he wants her heart, forever. But first he’s going to have to melt the ice that’s protecting it!

Go to eHarlequin.com to find out exactly how Scott melts Alicia’s heart! If you like what you read, look for Ann’s latest book from Kimani Romance, Redemption’s Kiss, available on eHarlequin.com for pre-sale on April 1!

After Jillian Warner’s much-publicized divorce from her ex-governor husband, Beau Taylor, all she wants is a quiet life—out of the political spotlight. And quiet it is: the heiress and single mom runs a quaint B and B in Atlanta.

But Beau is back, vowing to win her heart. With desire reigniting, Jillian’s more confused than ever. Her seductive ex betrayed her once. How can she ever trust him again?

A near-fatal accident has changed Beau in ways he never imagined. Now his number-one priority is becoming the devoted husband and father he knows he always should have been. He’s determined to atone for the sins of the past and build a new future with the woman he’s never stopped loving. Beau wants Jillian—and this time he’s doing it right.

Plus, join us Monday, April 5 for Rescue Me, an all-new Weekly Read by Harlequin Superromance author Jeannie Watt. And check out our Online Reads Library for featured stories from every series and imprint, or use the Search function to find even more complete, free stories from your favorite series.

Happy reading!

by P.D. Martin, author of the Sophie Anderson thrillers

A few weeks ago I started a new project that probably verges on madness – certainly that’s what many fellow authors are saying!

Coming Home is a mystery/thriller with one key difference…each week readers vote for how they want the next chapter to unfold, and six days later their plot choices come to life on the screen. Every Sunday night I post the most recent chapter and the questions for the following chapter. Then, at the end of the short voting period, majority rules and I write that chapter.

The next round of voting is this Sunday (Chapter 9). Anyone and everyone can vote – you don’t need to have read my previous books and you can ‘catch up’ by simply reading chapters 1-8 online (for free). At the end of the process I’ll have a Sophie novella, which will be available for free on my website as a PDF file (after some editing and formatting). You can also subscribe to my website to receive a weekly email reminder to vote.

This project is extremely exciting and scary for me. It gives me a chance to write a Sophie story I’ve longed to write – the tale of Sophie’s brother’s murder 28 years ago – while also challenging me creatively with the voting system. After all, I’m curious to find out what I have to write next!

P.D. Martin – Phillipa Deanne Martin – is an Australian author with a background in psychology. She has written five novels featuring Aussie FBI profiler Sophie Anderson — Body Count, The Murderers’ Club, Fan Mail, The Killing Hands and Kiss of Death (not yet available). Phillipa’s books are page-turners with lots of forensics and profiling and have been described by The Sydney Morning Herald as: “The Silence of the Lambs meets Medium, with a passing nod to Cornwell.”

You can view book trailers of her current and upcoming novels on YouTube and follow her on Twitter and Facebook.

Check out the trailer for P.D.’s latest release in the Sophie Anderson series, The Killing Hands here:

By Olga Kwak, eHarlequin.com site admin

Last Friday we launched the new Linda Lael Miller Take a Cowboy Home sweepstakes, and to celebrate we got swag!  Of course, to earn our swag, we had to wear it.  And take pictures!

Check us out:

The whole Harlequin team that worked on the campaign

The Harlequin Internet and Digital team

The McKettrick boys would be proud. We’re a handsome bunch.

Now to keep the celebration going, we’d like to offer YOU a FREE Take a Cowboy Home t-shirt! We have one ladies size medium t-shirt to give away. Just leave a comment on the blog telling us what your favourite real life or imaginary cowboy is and we’ll pick a name out of a (cowboy) hat on Monday, December 14. The deadline to enter is midnight on December 13! Only one entry per person and only US and Canadian residents are eligible to win, terribly sorry! Please see our full contest rules here.