Paperbacks

Sequel to Bad to Be Good
Bad to Be Good: Book Two

When a former mobster’s past catches up with him, will it end the quiet life he’s been struggling with, or transform it into something he couldn’t have imagined?

Sometimes Gerome Meadows longs for the excitement of the life he left behind for Witness Protection. But when he stands up to a bully in a bar to protect a homeless man, his past comes very close to home—and it’s no longer what he wants.

Tucker Wells has been living in a tent, surviving with the aid of his friend Cheryl and helping her watch over her son. When he winds up on the wrong side of an argument with some dangerous people, his already difficult life is thrown into turmoil. Gerome steps in to find them a temporary apartment, and Tucker is grateful and relieved.

Gerome never meant to open the door to trouble. His life and Tucker’s depend on keeping his past a mystery. But as his desire to protect develops into something deeper, he and Tucker will have to evaluate what family means—and hope that their growing feelings pass unimaginable tests.

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A Black Dragons Inc. Novel

Former best friends put their differences aside to rescue a child—but the baby isn’t the only thing that needs saving.

A preventable training accident that forced him out of the SEALs has left Gunner Vance bitter and angry. But all that changes when his childhood friend and onetime lover asks for his help.

When a gunfight lands a baby on lonely teacher Chasten Reed’s front porch, he knows Gunner is their best chance for survival—assuming they don’t end up killing each other while on the run.

Chas and Gunner have a simple mission: identify the baby and get her safely back to her real family. But with jeopardy around every corner of the desperate cross-country journey from New England to Hawaii, simple doesn’t mean easy. The attraction between them might be bulletproof, but their bodies are not. Will Chas and Gunner find what they’ve been craving? Or will the past, and the danger, push them over the top before they can fall in love?

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Jack Christensen hat alles, was er sich nur wünschen kann. Er ist ein aufstrebender US-amerikanischer Diplomat und der jüngste Mann, der je zum amerikanischen Botschafter ernannt wurde. Als Berufsdiplomat, der soeben zu einer aus politischer Sicht interessanten Botschaft in Europa entsandt wurde, hat er die perfekte Frau, spricht fünf Sprachen und verfügt über alle nötigen Qualifikationen. Und trotzdem scheint irgendetwas zu fehlen, auch wenn er nicht genau weiß, was.

Bis sich ihm bei einem Empfang in der Botschaft Lucas Carlton mit seiner amerikanischen Verlobten vorstellt. Vom ersten Händedruck an hinterlässt der Brite bei Jack einen Eindruck, der ihn verwirrt und verunsichert. Lucas‘ Position als Verbindungsbeamter zwischen der amerikanischen und britischen Botschaft zwingt sie zu enger Zusammenarbeit, und bald können sie trotz ihrer Partnerinnen kaum noch abstreiten, wie sehr sie sich voneinander angezogen fühlen.

Als die beiden Frauen einen gemeinsamen Wochenendausflug unternehmen, lassen sich Jack und Lucas auf eine leidenschaftliche Liebesbeziehung ein, die sie auch nach der Rückkehr ihrer Partnerinnen weiterführen. Doch in konservativen Diplomatenkreisen macht die richtige Frau an ihrer Seite einen großen Teil des beruflichen Erfolges aus. Wird es ihnen gelingen, sowohl in ihrem Berufs-, als auch in ihrem Privatleben die richtigen Entscheidungen zu treffen? Oder werden sie eines von beidem für das andere opfern müssen?

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The Vigilante: Book Three

Vigilante Nox Boyet won’t rest until he brings down the man who has destroyed his beloved New York City and now threatens the people he loves. But once he’s taken prisoner by the monster behind the carnage, Nox needs help.

Cade Creel has come a long way from his days as a high-priced rent boy, but he never expected to join the Vigilante on a high-stakes quest, never mind fall in love with him. Now it’s time to step up.

Separated and desperate, Nox and Cade have their work cut out for them. With the help of new friends and old enemies, they must identify the man who has turned New York City into a dystopian nightmare and get the hell out before a raid by the Feds turns the city into a warzone. But first they must find their way back to each other.

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A Restoration Channel Novel

Can a prickly carpenter build a reality TV host a way out of the closet?

Real estate guru Brandon Chase knows what “family friendly” means in the biz, and it’s not being open about his sexuality.

The end of Brandon’s marriage is still making headlines when the Restoration Channel makes him an offer: helm a show about flipping houses in New York City’s risky market. Still smarting from the bad press, Brandon is reluctant to get involved—until he falls in love with an old Victorian.

Except the house isn’t the only thing that catches his eye.

It’s contractor Travis Rogers’s job to enumerate every way a renovation could go wrong, which leads to a lot of on-set sparring and mutual frustration between him and Brandon. But when the simmering attraction underneath boils over, the show and their relationship hang in the balance.

Travis hates the media attention that follows Brandon, and the network has a history of firing LGBTQ personalities. Like the houses Brandon makes over, this relationship has potential. But if Brandon can’t convince Travis to take a chance, their chemistry might stay on-screen only.

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Buch 1 in der Serie - Keeping Promise Rock

Carrick Francis besaß schon immer die zweifelhafte Gabe, Ärger und Probleme jeder Art wie ein Magnet anzuziehen. Das einzige, was ihn vor Haftstrafen oder Schlimmerem bewahrte, ist seine unverbrüchliche Freundschaft zu Deacon Winters. Deacon war seine Rettung undhalf ihm, seine unglückliche Kindheit und die Misshandlungen durch seinen Vaterzu überstehen. Crick würde alles tun, um für immer bei Deacon bleiben zukönnen. Deshalb schiebt er seine Studienpläne auf als Deacons Vater stirbt. Erspringt ein und hilft seinem Freund, so wie der ihm geholfen hat.

Deacon wünscht sich nichts mehr, als dass Crick seinen schlechten Erinnerungen und ihrer kleinen Stadt entflieht und eine strahlende Zukunft findet. Aber nach zwei Jahren, indenen seine Gefühle für seinen Freund immer tiefer werden, kann er derVersuchung nicht mehr widerstehen und gibt Cricks Annäherungsversuchen nach.Der schüchterne Deacon gibt endlich zu, dass er ein Teil von Cricks Lebenwerden möchte.

Aber Crick wartet nur darauf, von Deacon wieder verstoßen zu werden – so wie er in der Vergangenheit von seiner Familie verstoßen wurde. Eine seiner typischen, spontanen Fehlentscheidungen lässt ihn weit weg von zuhause enden. Deacon bleibt allein zurück. Er ist am Boden zerstört und muss hart kämpfen, bis er sein gebrochenes Herz wieder heilen und er in einer Welt überleben kann, in der Cricks Liebe einewiges Versprechen ist, das vielleicht niemals in Erfüllung gehen wird.

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A Copper Point: Main Street Novel

Bookshop owner Jacob Moore can’t believe his longtime celebrity crush, author Rasul Youssef, is moving to Copper Point. For many, the chance to meet the playboy novelist would be a dream come true, but Jacob dreads it. You should never meet your heroes.

You definitely shouldn’t pretend to be their boyfriend.

Rasul came to this backwater town for an academic residency—a necessary evil, since he’s burned through his advance without finishing the book that goes with it. But he’s also getting distance from a toxic relationship. Quiet, reserved Jacob isn’t his type, but their charade gives Rasul a respite from the social media circus surrounding his breakup, and Jacob’s charming apartment proves the perfect setting to write.

Of course, prolonged exposure reveals that Jacob’s reserved exterior hides a thoughtful, intelligent man who sets Rasul’s imagination—and heart—alight.

Every day Rasul reveals himself to be more than Jacob ever dreamed he could. Jacob tries to be content with friendship and the professional overlap between author and bookseller, knowing a shooting star like Rasul could never make a home with Jacob in a small town like Copper Point.

Could he?

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Ever since his discharge from the military, injured veteran Ashton Covert has been running his family ranch—and running himself into the ground to prove he still can.

Ben Malton knows about running too. When he takes refuge in Ashton’s barn after an accident in a Wyoming blizzard, he’s thinking only of survival and escaping his abusive criminal ex, Dallas.

Ashton has never met a responsibility he wouldn’t try to shoulder. When he finds Ben half-frozen, he takes it upon himself to help. But deadly trouble follows Ben wherever he goes. He needs to continue on, except it may already be too late.

Working together brings Ben and Ashton close, kindling fires not even the Wyoming winter can douse. Something about Ben makes Ashton feel whole again. But before they can ride into the sunset together, they need to put an end to Dallas’s threats. Ben can make a stand, with Ashton’s help—only it turns out the real danger could be much closer to home.

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Fish Out of Water: Book Six

Jackson Rivers has been learning how to take care of himself so he can be there for Ellery Cramer, but after eight weeks of healing, body and soul, he’s itching to get back to work. Finally Ellery gives him a simple task: pick up a file on a kid who probably didn’t commit murder but who refuses to participate in his own defense.

Nothing is ever that easy.

A horrifying game of connect-the-dots leads one case to another, to the mob, to the local high school… and a bottomless list of potential suspects and victims. The case has a lot of moving parts, and Jackson and Ellery have to work fast to make sure the machinery of the mob doesn’t mow down everyone they care about—or rip them apart.

After a year of living together, Ellery is learning to accept that Jackson can’t let an injustice stand. Together they fight to keep kids out of jail while the streets of Sacramento threaten to explode. They’d better hope they’ve learned enough about each other to keep it together, because for this case, school is the most dangerous place to be.

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A Black Dragons Inc. Novel

Hot SEAL. Hot spy. Hot reunion. Can they work together to find a notorious terrorist without killing each other first?

When SEAL Spencer Newman accepts a dangerous mission to bring in CIA agent Drago Thorpe—the only man he’s ever loved—he expects things to get FUBAR. He doesn’t expect Drago to convince him to go rogue too.

Drago regrets ending their torrid affair by pressuring Spencer to acknowledge their relationship publicly, and he wants a second chance. It’s always been a challenge to get the uptight SEAL to break the rules, but to eliminate a supposedly dead terrorist, they’ll need to operate outside the law. Tension heats up as they track their target, but can they find him before their attraction explodes out of control?

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What does a work-life balance look like to recently retired professional athletes?

Ex-hockey player Nate Overton is trying to find out, but dipping his toes in the gay dating scene post-divorce is a daunting prospect even without the news that his show is on thin ice. Before he can tackle either issue, he skates headfirst into another problem—his new cohost. Former figure skater Aubrey Chase is the embodiment of a spoiled rich playboy. He’s also flamboyant, sharp, and hot as sin.

Aubrey knows how important it is to get off on the right foot. He’s just not very good at it outside the rink. Having spent his life desperate for attention, he’ll do anything to get it—even the wrong kind.

For Nate and Aubrey, opposites don’t so much attract as collide at center ice. But while Nate’s everything Aubrey has scrupulously avoided—until now—Aubrey falls suddenly head over heels, and Nate’s only looking for a rebound fling. Can Aubrey convince Nate to risk his heart again, or will their unexpected connection be checked at the first sign of trouble?

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Bad to Be Good: Book One

Longboat Key, Florida, is about as far from the streets of Detroit as a group of gay former mobsters can get, but threats from within their own organization forced them into witness protection—and a new life.

Richard Marsden is making the best of his second chance, tending bar and learning who he is outside of organized crime… and flirting with the cute single dad, Daniel, who comes in every Wednesday. But much like Richard, Daniel hides dark secrets that could get him killed. When Daniel’s past as a hacker catches up to him, Richard has the skills to help Daniel out, but not without raising some serious questions and risking his own new identity and the friends who went into hiding with him.

Solving problems like Daniel’s is what Richard does best—and what he’s trying to escape. But finding a way to keep Daniel and his son safe without sacrificing the person he’s becoming will take some imagination, and the stakes have never been higher. This time it’s not just lives on the line—it’s his heart….

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All That Heaven Will Allow: Book One

When Tucker Henderson inherits Daisy Place, he’s pretty sure it’s not a windfall—everything in his life has come with strings attached. He’s prepared to do his bit to satisfy the supernatural forces in the old house, but he refuses to be all sweetness and light about it.

Angel was sort of hoping for sweetness and light.

Trapped at Daisy Place for over fifty years, Angel hasn’t always been kind to the humans who have helped him in his duty of guiding spirits to the beyond. When Tucker shows up, Angel vows to be more accommodating, but Tucker’s layers of cynicism and apparent selfishness don’t make it easy.

Can Tucker work with a gender-bending, shape-shifting irritant, and can Angel retain his divine intentions when his heart proves all too human?

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Lions & Tigers & Bears: Book One

In the human world, shifters are a myth.

In the shifter world, mates are a myth too. So how can tiger shifter Dellan Carson have two of them?

Dellan has been trapped in his shifted form for so long, he’s almost forgotten how it feels to walk on two legs. Then photojournalist Rael Parton comes to interview the big-pharma CEO who holds Dellan captive in a glass-fronted cage in his office, and Dellan’s world is rocked to its core.

When lion shifter Rael finds his newfound mate locked in shifted form, he’s shocked but determined to free him from his prison… and that means he needs help.

Enter ex-military consultant and bear shifter Horvan Kojik. Horvan is the perfect guy to rescue Dellan. But mates? He’s never imagined settling down with one guy, let alone two.

Rescuing Dellan and helping him to regain his humanity is only the start. The three lovers have dark secrets to uncover and even darker forces to overcome….

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Tales from Foster High: Book Two

Kyle Stilleno is no longer the invisible boy, and he doesn’t know how he feels about it. On one hand, he now has a great boyfriend, Brad Graymark, a handful of new friends, and even a new job. On the other hand, no one screamed obscenities at him in public when he was invisible.

No one expected him to become a poster boy for gay rights either—at least not until he stepped out of the closet and into the limelight. But with only a few months of high school left, Kyle doubts he can make a difference.

With Christmas break drawing closer and their trials far from over, Kyle and Brad have each other to lean on. Others are not so lucky. One of their classmates needs their help—but Kyle and Brad’s relationship may be too new to survive the strain.

Second Edition
First Edition published by Harmony Ink Press, November 2012.

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An Elite Athletes Novel

Sprinter Jason Jones Jr., known around the world as JJ, is America’s hope to take the title of Fastest Man in the World, the champion of the Olympic 100-meter sprint. Two years before, a doping scandal brought his winning streak to a crashing end, and even though he’s been cleared of wrongdoing, he’s finding it hard to escape the damage to his reputation. At the Games in Madrid, no one believes he’s innocent, and officials from the doping agency follow him everywhere.

It just fuels JJ’s determination to show them he’s clean and still the fastest man on earth.

If only he wasn’t tempted by foxy hurdler Brandon Stanton, an engineering student and math prodigy who views each race like a complicated equation. His analytical approach helps him win races, and he wants to help JJ do the same. But JJ’s been burned too many times before and doesn’t trust anyone who has all the answers. No matter how sexy and charming JJ finds Brandon, the Olympics is no place for romance. Or is it?

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A Stud Games Novel

In crime, like in love, there can be no half measures….

Fashion model Zane Stryker needs money—badly. At almost thirty, his glory days are behind him, and he needs capital to start over. When his luggage is switched with a bag containing contraband he’s forced to deliver, it’s either the worst thing that’s ever happened to him… or the best.

Enter Sebastian Gigoni, formerly of the British Special Forces, who has to decide just where Zane’s loyalty lies and why. Sizzling attraction erupts between them, but that doesn’t mean they can trust each other. They double down in a race for their lives—and their love—but are their purposes at odds? As they struggle to reconcile their goals, their consciences, and the needs of their hearts, one thing is clear—they must go all in or give up altogether.

Previously published by Dreamspinner Press as All In by Ava Drake, July 2017.

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Were-Geeks Save the World: Book Two

Paramedic and firefighter Bruce Collier became a werewolf to protect his family—and hopefully make amends for the way he treated his younger brother. His bitterness nearly turned him into the monster he thought his brother was… until he met Mr. Happy.

Werewolf Laddin Holt—a.k.a. Mr. Happy—likes things organized as he makes them go boom. He’s Wulf, Inc.’s explosive expert and the only one calming the turmoil inside Bruce.

At least until they’re drawn into a conflict between two factions of fairies living around Lake Wacka Wacka. Bruce wants to take them out, Laddin has other ideas, and neither of them sees the real threat lurking behind the scenes—or how their love could be the answer to everybody’s problems.

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