IN THE BEGINNING I wanted to create a romance story pairing a strong-willed, rugged cowboy with a socialite down on love.  The resulting book, FOREVER YOURS, featured Kane Taggart as a rancher and Victoria Chandler as the socialite who needed to marry to save her lingerie boutiques.  Their story introduced Matt Taggart, a rodeo cowboy/rancher, who arrogantly asked Victoria to name her price to walk away from Kane.  Matt didn't have much use for women and figured one Taggart strolling through hell because of a cheating woman was enough.  His skewed way of thinking about women made him perfect for Shannon Johnson, a dedicated nurse, whose beloved grandfather's death made her question her medical skills, her life. In ONLY HERS, Shannon showed Matt that the right woman could put a smile on his face and in his heart.

 

I was joyfully writing Matt and Shannon's story when Daniel Falcon, handsome as sin, walked in on the scene and took off his hat, revealing long, salt and pepper hair.  Daniel was part African-American, part Native-American, all man and enormously wealthy. His last name, Falcon, depicted who he could be - a bird of prey - if anyone dared harm those he loved.  It didn't tale long for me to figure out that the woman for him was Kane and Matt Taggart's baby sister, Madelyn "Maddy" Taggart.  You know her big brothers were all over Daniel, but Madelyn did the seemingly impossible in HEART OF THE FALCON, she captured Daniel's heart. 

In  the Epilogue of HEART OF THE FALCON we meet Daniel's sister, Dominique, who flew to Daniel's private estate on a helicopter ready to whisk Daniel away until he comes to his senses. Dominique's first husband was scum and that is being very generous.  She's soured on marriage and love.  Daniel isn't going anyplace.  He's found his heart.  I figured it was time for a disillusioned Dominique to find hers.  In walks sexy Trent Masters whose previous taste in woman was rather poor.  Trent and Dominique were two people not looking for love, but they found it in abundance in BREAK EVERY RULE, the last book in the Taggart/Falcon series.       

 

At Dominique and Trent's beautiful wedding is her handsome cousin, Luke Grayson, arms crossed and feeling a bit annoyed about being there.  Dominique smiled and thought he would be next to find love. 

 

Little did she know that Luke's mother, Ruth Grayson, was already working on plans to find his heart's desire.  The Grayson brood, four, handsome, intelligent and strong brothers and an opinionated, independent little sister, learn of their mother's plan and make a pact to stay strong no matter what their loving mother does in the Graysons of New Mexico series.  If one falls, they feel they all will fall. 

 

Luke, the oldest, had always been the leader, the one the others looked up to. Mama Ruth decides he will be first in UNTIL THERE WAS YOU.  The woman, Catherine Stewart, noted child psychologist, best selling author and college professor, met Luke with a gun when he unexpectedly showed up at the cabin where Daniel Falcon gas sent her to stay.  That was some introduction! 

 

Luke's brother, Morgan, met Phoenix Bannister in an unexpected way as well in YOU AND NO OTHER. Lawyer Morgan had his job cut out for him with Phoenix.  But at least he knew when he met a woman he couldn't live without.  His fun-loving, restaurant-owner brother, Brandon, didn't have a clue when his brotherly feelings for the little sister, Faith McBride, of his best friend, Cameron Mc Bride, changed.  He might have been a bit slow in DREAMING OF YOU, but his baby sister, Sierra, didn't have a problem pointing it out to him.  Just as she had no difficultly helping Pierce Grayson, brother # 4, get over his anger at Sabra Raineau, Broadway actress in IRRESISTIBLE YOU, and ask her to marry him.  Sierra is sure her mother's match-making schemes won't affect her.

 

When Sierra meets billionaire real estate mogul Blade Navarone in ONLY YOU, she is positive that if there is a romance, it has nothing to do with her mother.  After a tumultuous relationship and a dangerous development, Sierra married Blade on the white sandy beaches of Playa del Carmen under the same illusion.  Ruth didn't mind.  The main thing she wanted was her children married to their heart's desire and that had happened.  The road to happiness for Sierra and Blade had been fraught with danger. Two men, Blade's best friends and the top men of his security team,  Shane Elliott and Rio Sanchez, made the difference.  Being a loving woman, Ruth thought the perfect way to pay both men back was to help them find their own heart's desire.

 

The opportunity comes at Sierra and Blade's wedding and thus begins the Grayson Friends series.  Joann Albright asks Ruth's assistance to protect her daughter, Paige, from an unscrupulous man.  Ruth suggests Shane Elliott.  Shane is a tough sell, but in the end he goes to Atlanta to rescue a woman he'd met once before in THE WAY YOU LOVE ME.  While Ruth is thinking of who the woman for Rio might be, Cameron McBride, NASCAR champion meets the woman who left him at the alter.  Ouch!  Their romance is as fast-paced as the race cars on the track in NOBODY BUT YOU.  

 

A mother's love, this time the mother of Duncan McBride, seeks Ruth's help for her oldest son.  You see there is a McBride curse, lucky in business and unlucky in love, that, unfortunately she and Duncan have experienced.  When Duncan finds cave drawings and asks Ruth to send someone to authenticate them, she has the perfect person, archeologist Raven La Blanc, part French and part Native-American.  Raven is used to people seeing her stunning face and thinking there is air between her ears.  Duncan is attracted and asks for ONE NIGHT WITH YOU but Raven will settle for nothing less than a lifetime.  Smart woman.      

When Zachary Wilder Albright needs help meeting renowned concert violinist Laurel Raineau, the little sister of Sabra from IRRESISTIBLE YOU,  he gets help from his sister, Paige, from THE WAY YOU LOVE ME.  Zach and Laurel meet in Playa del Carmen at the Navarone Resorts & Spa in IT HAD TO BE YOU.  Their attraction is intense, but so is Laurel's anger when she learns Zach isn't the man he pretended to be. 

 

The road to true love isn't always easy, but the end results make the journey worthwhile. 

 

Random drawing for 2 winners - 1 autographed copy each of FOREVER YOURS, the book that started it all.

 

Best,

Francis