ANYTHING YOU CAN DO, mainstream romance, Heat Rating: 2
Ebook and print version
What happens when a childcare, clueless male CEO mixes with infants, toddlers, and preschoolers for a week, all because of a dare? Can he keep up with the kids...and maintain his sanity...while becoming more and more attracted to the daycare's owner, the woman who issued the challenge?
When her daycare facility needs financial aid in order to offer the employees at Ryan Industries the best care for their children, Allison Minetti approaches the CEO, Jeffrey Ryan. After he fails to answer her requests for a partnership, Allison dares him to spend one week at the center. Jeff accepts the challenge and ups the ante by demanding her company for the weekend if he wins.
Instant mutual attraction leads to a week of seductive teasing and brief steamy encounters. Is there a way for them both to win? Or will someone's interference in their challenge lead to mistaken conclusions and pull them apart?
SERENA XAVIER runs a dating agency using a special gift, her "second sight", to match up potential couples. While successful at matching others, she fails in finding a true love match for herself.
Undercover police detective DAN REESE (CARRINGTON) comes to her as a client but in reality is sent to investigate her agency after a complaint has been filed about it being an "escort/sex for hire" organization.
Serena finds him to be a challenge to her sight and decides to double date with him in order to watch him. He's not her usual client and matching him with other women tests her system. Dan's mere presence plays with her emotions as she finds herself attracted to him. He finds the attraction mutual, but after events make each question the honesty of the other, they both have to weigh giving into passion vs proving the other a phony.
Serena sets up dates for Dan with three not-so-matchable women, to include a final double date at a murder mystery dinner where they become part of the show. Is it Dan and Serena hurling accusations at each other, or their characters for the show?
Will they settle their misunderstandings and find a love match with each other?
STREET OF DREAMS, available as an ebook
Detectives NICK OLSON and EILEEN MURPHY are sent back in time to capture an escaped killer who may change history. As they battle for control of their mission, there's one thing they can't ignore...the growing attraction between them escalating the desire and passion for each other.
Setbacks and dead ends hamper their pursuit and test their control and resolve as time to catch the suspect starts running out. They face life-threatening danger as the killer becomes more desperate.
And, of course, posing as newlyweds and having to share a heart-shaped bed proves to be a complication of another sort and doesn't make their mission any easier.
GONE TO THE DOGS, available in ebook and paperback versions.
KATIE O’HARA, a real-life version of Dorothy from the Wizard of Oz, finds herself in the Land of Oz longing to bypass Kansas and head straight back to the hustle and bustle of New York City.
The first line of "Gone to the Dogs" starts: "Your dog ate your underwear." (This was inspired by my dog’s gourmet appetite/fondness for eating underwear!)
Jilted fiancée Katie moves from NYC to Kansas. Her new job is to help financially struggling company Yipsey Dipsey market and sell a new drink, Whoopsie, before it goes bankrupt. However, there are others who would rather see the company sold. Katie encounters “mishaps” that at first seem explainable but then turn more ominous.
She tries to ignore handsome fireman MIKE MARINO, who’s out to win her heart. She wants no ties to Kansas as she doesn’t plan to stay, but can’t escape the mutual attraction pulling them together.
Katie’s determined to solve the mystery of who’s really trying to keep her from doing her job after someone tries to kill her. Can she forget trying to prove she can do everything on her own and find happiness with Mike, someone willing to help?
Copyright © 2011 Marianne Stephens