Goodnight!

All the best…

Mary Eason

www.maryeason.com

Two years ago Faith McKenzie suffered a brutal attack that ended her best friend’s life. Since then she has been trying to escape a past she can’t remember. Her only connections are a man who claims to be her friend and a frightening voice on the telephone that sends her running for her life.

When Security Specialist JT Wyatt hires Faith as his assistant he knows she is hiding something. JT assumes it is simply a bad relationship until Faith’s past catches up with them both. Now JT must help Faith unravel the missing pieces of memory fast before it costs them both their lives.

Ever wonder what it would be like to become someone new? Have you ever wondered what it would be like to simply start over? Become someone new. No doubt, everyone at one time or another has speculated. But what if your life depended on it? Would you be willing to leave everything behind in order to survive? Well, that’s the subject of my upcoming, July 14th release from Linden Bay Romance , entitled Worth Staying For. For Doctor Jordan Scott, the most dangerous place to be in love. Dr. Jordan Scott thought she knew her fiancé, Caesar, better than anyone…until Detective Riley Donovan confronts her with the truth about her brother’s death. His murder was no random act of violence—and Caesar is the prime suspect, which puts her directly in the path of danger. Their relationship may be strained, but Jordan can’t believe Caesar lied when he claimed he’d severed all ties with his drug cartel family.Riley has seen enough to know that Jordan is telling the truth, despite what his partner believes. Then again, his instincts aren’t exactly on point when it comes to Jordan. He’s already broken two hard-and-fast rules when it comes to witness protection: never get emotionally involved and never fall for your star witness.Now the trick will be to keep her alive long enough to convince her to trust him—and find the truth behind her brother’s murder. Before she becomes the next victim.Warning: Contains a hero to die for, one courageous leading lady, lots of heart-pounding action, and a rollercoaster ride of emotion. Read an excerpt:

Check out all of my latest releases at: http://www.maryeason.com/

All the best…

Mary Eason

Enjoy!

All the best…

Mary Eason

www.maryeason.com

Final contest of the evening.

I’ll be giving away an ebook copy of Root Of All Evil - my October release from Cerridwen Press.

Send me an email with Root Of All Evil in the subject line to maryjeason@netzero.com.

I’ll anounce the winner later tonight.

Good luck!

All the best…

Mary Eason

www.maryeason.com

Life is just a series of events with consequences. On their own they wouldn’t add up to much, but when you put them all together you never know where they’ll end up taking you, or what the outcome will be once you’re there.

The last thing Paige Wilder is looking for at thirty-eight is another bad-ending relationship. Paige believes she has it all—good friends, a challenging career in publishing and the perfect little companion named Sammy.

Jude Martin has made some promises to himself. He will never return to New York City, never work for his father and never, under any circumstances, will he fall in love again. So why is he here, in New York, running his father’s publishing house and trying to convince a woman who is just as determined as he to give him a second chance?

Send me an email with A Night To Remember in the subject line to: maryjeason@netzero.com.

I’ll select a random winner and announce it later today.

All the best…

Mary Eason

www.maryeason.com

Special Agent Rainie McClain wants out. Out of The Agency. Out of the shadow life that has consumed her for far too long. Walking away from The Agency means letting go of the only man she’s ever loved, her husband, Captain Roc Branson. But at thirty-eight, Rainie has seen all the violence and death she can handle. And after discovering she’s pregnant, she just wants a normal life.

But what can be normal about the reappearance of a long lost brother who may or may not be a sadistic killer, the heartrending demise of her marriage, and the web of lies that grows until she no longer knows who to trust?

It’s vital that she discover the truth soon…because what she doesn’t know, just might kill her.

Puffs (miniature cream puffs)
1 c. boiling water
1/2 c. butter
1/4 tsp. salt
1 c. flour, sifted
3 or 4 eggs, unbeaten

Add butter and salt to boiling water and stir over medium heat until mixture boils. Lower heat, add flour all at once and beat vigorously until mixture leaves side of pan. Add one egg at a time beating thoroughly after each addition. Shape on greased cookie sheet using one teaspoon pastry for 1 puff, depending upon size desired.
Bake in hot oven, 400 degrees, for 10 minutes. Reduce heat to 350 degrees and bake about 30 minutes longer, or until well browned. Remove from oven and place on wine rack to cool. When cool, make slits on side. If there is any soft or spongy dough inside of puff, scoop out. This makes about 4 dozen small puffs. If you have extra puffs after filling with crab or shrimp filling, you can freeze them. Can use pastry bag to insert filling.

CRAB FILLING:

1 (7-8 oz.) can crab meat, drained & flaked
1 stalk celery, chopped fine
1/2 sm. onion, minced
1/4 – 1/2 c. mayonnaise (enough to make it creamy)
Salt & pepper to taste
Lemon juice to taste (1 tsp. – 1 tbsp.)
Dash of Worcestershire sauce or to taste

Mix all ingredients together and fill cream puffs with filling and refrigerate.

SHRIMP FILLING:

8 oz. cream cheese
1/2 c. salad dressing
2 tbsp. shrimp juice
1 (4 oz.) can broken shrimp
1 tbsp. lemon juice
1 tbsp. onion, grated

Cream thoroughly. Stir, put in refrigerator until cooled then insert into cream puffs.

Some mistakes are easy to forget, while others can become glaring reminders of past failures that stand ready to haunt you for the rest of your life. For Laney Winters, life is full of glaring reminders. Starting with the fact that she’s pregnant at forty-one, has just been divorced by her louse of an ex-husband who has a fetish for his secretaries, and, to top it off, has been forced by financial circumstances to move back home to live with her two very eccentric, matchmaking old-maid aunts.

Nothing like hitting a Trifecta when it comes to making the kind of mistakes that call for some serious life re-evaluation. This wasn’t quite how Laney had pictured her life turning out when she’d left town at seventeen, vowing never to return to Down, Texas, or the Pine Street Diner again. The last thing she expected to find in either place was love.

Watching her best friend die was the hardest thing Emma Dupre has ever had to do.  It felt as if she’d lost the only person who would ever love her.  Nickie was more than a friend.  He was like a brother.  When Nickie was first diagnosed with Leukemia, Emma knew she would do anything to make Nickie’s last days happy. 

Moving to Expect, Colorado, to a small rental cabin in the mountains because it had been Nickie’s lifelong dream was a small price to pay to see him happy for a little while. 

The day of Nickie’s funeral in the tiny cemetery outside of Expect, Emma couldn’t imagine ever getting beyond the emptiness left in her life.  But she had no idea how much her life will change the night her world collides with Kyle Sabian. 

After walking for hours, trying to outrun the crippling grief, Emma meets a stranger on a dark deserted stretch of Colorado roadway, and finds comfort in his arms.

Kyle Sabian doesn’t want anything more from her than a one-night encounter.  She understands that.  It doesn’t matter when he tells her that night will mean nothing to him, Emma only wants to forget the pain of losing Nickie. 

Waking up in bed next to a stranger who has fulfilled her every fantasy and eased the emptiness for a little while, Emma regrets her reckless behavior.  She walks away from the stranger and never looks back. 

Starting a new life in Denver, Emma finds an accounting position working at a lumber mill.  Soon after the move, she discovers that she is pregnant. 

When her son is born, Emma names him after her best friend who died.  Nickie is a constant reminder of the man she can’t forget. But the man she can’t forget, the stranger who haunts her dreams and makes her wish for things that can never be, also makes it impossible for Emma to find love with another man.

Nickie’s happiness is all that matters to Emma and yet she can’t help but feel guilty about her decision not to try to find Nickie’s father and tell him about their son.  But the words that he told her that night keep Emma from trying to find him.  She is convinced he would not want any reminders of their affair.  Although money is tight, she and Nickie are happy. 

And then one day Emma comes face to face with the man of her dreams.  The stranger from two years earlier, who now holds both Nickie and her future in his unsuspecting hands.  Kyle Sabian has just purchased the company that Emma works for.   

All of the desires Emma tried to forget resurface to remind her of just how much she lost that night.  Kyle never knew that he took her heart as well as her innocence that night. 

It isn’t long before Emma learns of Kyle’s reputation with women.  She believes that his only interest in her is to continue their affair.  Emma stands to lose too much to give in to his temptation. 

Kyle might not want the responsibility of a child conceived that night, but Emma doesn’t believe he will simply walk away from his son either.  She believes that if Kyle chooses to seek custody of Nickie, he has both the power and the wealth to get it. 

For more than two years, Kyle Sabian couldn’t forget the night he spent in Emma’s arms.  Kyle had needed a break from the pressures of being one of the most successful architects in Colorado.  Deciding to spend the weekend at his home in Expect had seemed like an insignificant decision at the time.  The last thing he expected to find on the night of one of the worst storms of the season was the woman that will haunt him from that night forward.

Kyle had all but given up on love after a bitter divorce that left him believing all women were the same.  The only thing they wanted from him was his money and his prestige.  Emma changed all of that the night she spent in his arms and now, two years later she still had him believing in things that he’d all but given up hope of ever having in his life.  The reality of Emma Dupre was every bit as seductive as the fantasy he has built up of her in his mind.

For years, he’d searched for her without fail.  And then one day, after he had all but given up on ever finding her again, she walked into his elevator, for a company he’d just worked out the final details of ownership of and all of those dreams of her that night come back to remind him of how much he wants her.

But everything that Kyle says from that day forward only puts her further out of his reach.  Emma still doesn’t trust him enough to tell him the reasons why she gave herself to him that night.  And she seems determined to keep right on running away in spite of everything he does to try to convince her that night wasn’t just a casual affair.

The lumber mill that Kyle purchased had been losing money for years.  Major cutbacks would need to take place soon if the business was going to become profitable again.  Emma’s position must be eliminated even though Kyle knows how important it is to her.  He offers her the position as his assistant to keep her employed and close to him. 

Kyle asks his head of security, a long-time friend to find out what Emma is hiding.  When he learns about her friend’s death, Kyle believes she was in love with Nick and that the pain of his death was the reason Emma gave herself to him that night.  

Discovering that Emma became pregnant after their night together, Kyle’s first reaction is to be furious with her for not telling him about their son. 

Emma doesn’t trust Kyle one little bit and his angry reaction to everything she does only makes it harder to believe what he tells her he feels for her is real.  But she is so frightened of losing her son that she will do whatever he asks to keep Nickie.

How can he possibly convince her all of his anger that night was his only defense against emotions he couldn’t trust as real? 

Kyle convinces Emma to move in with him so that they can raise Nickie together.  He is hoping that being near her each day will convince her how important she really is to him. 

Living together makes it impossible to resist the attraction they still have for each other.  But even after they make love again, Emma is afraid of repeating the same mistakes of her past.  She doesn’t want Kyle to feel tied to her out of an obligation for the child they share together.  Emma tells him that she can’t marry him for all of those reasons.  She loves him too much to settle for a marriage of convenience. 

When he hears her say those things, Kyle at last tells her the truth about that night.  How much she changed his life for the better and how frightened he was of never finding her again.  When she walked into the elevator after all those years, he believed it was a sign.  Kyle assures Emma that he doesn’t want to marry her out any obligation but because she is the only woman, he will ever love.

Now’s your chance…send me an email with Worth Staying For in the subject line to maryjeason@netzero.com.  I’ll select the winner and announce it later in the day.

All the best…

Mary Eason

www.maryeason.com

The biggest challenge to Grace’s self-imposed celibacy? Love.

As a little girl, Grace Caldwell watched her father walk out on her mother as she struggled through the final stages of breast cancer. Grace, knowing the odds that she could suffer her mother’s fate, resolves to never to let any man close enough to hurt her that way.

Her new boss, Aaron Severn, isn’t hard to figure out—his reputation with women is legendary. She’s confident it won’t be hard for her to resist his charm. To her surprise, Aaron seems sensitive and caring, the kind of man who will be there for her, no matter what. Despite her vow of self-imposed celibacy, Grace finds herself allowing their friendship to grow deeper.

When her worst nightmare becomes reality, Grace’s past fear rears its ugly head, driving her to push him away. But Aaron’s not the kind of man to give up on Grace’s love—or her life—without a fight.

What would you do if a killer were hunting you? What if you’re child was the target? What if the killer was someone you knew?

What’s it like to look into the mind of a killer?

Ask any author who writes dark, romantic suspense and they’ll tell you, it ain’t no walk in the park at times.

I think even for writers who create fictitious killers it’s still a little disturbing to consider that there are really such depraved people living in the world amongst us. To make a believable killer you have to do your homework.

To quote Friedrich Nietzsche:

He who fights with monsters might take care lest he thereby become a monster. And if you gaze for long into an abyss, the abyss gazes also into you.

For me, I love to watch Forensic Files and 48 Hours Mystery on TV. You can gain a great deal of knowledge into the mind of a killer simply by studying old case files. I know it’s certainly been insightful for me.

So why do people kill? Well, most psychologists will tell you there are two fundamental reasons someone will take another life.

Love and money.

Both truly are the root of all things evil.

In SILENT WITNESS, my latest release from Cerridwen Press, the killer was someone who loved the story’s heroine, Faith McKenzie obsessively, and was willing to do anything to make her his, even if it meant killing her to keep her from belonging to anyone else.

But there is another type of killer that is far more evil and cunning than all others. He’s extremely intelligent. He can blend into society well enough to be your co-worker, your high school English teacher. Your neighbor next door. He lacks anything resembling a conscience. He’s a sociopath known as the serial killer.

The FBI estimates that today there are some 50 active serial killers working among us in the US alone. That’s a frightening statistic to consider.

In ROOT OF ALL EVIL, my upcoming release from Cerridwen Press, my heroine, Anna Sorenson comes face to face with a serial killer like none other. Anna tries to escape his deadly trap. She walks from everything to gain redemption. But she doesn’t quite leave the past behind and as Anna soon learns, even in paradise evil still exists.

For me, writing about the dark side of romance is both rewarding and challenging. The characters I create leave their mark on you and make it hard to move on to the next story.

And if they’re really chilling, like in ROOT OF ALL EVIL, they make it hard to sleep with the lights off at night.

All the best…

Mary Eason

www.maryeason.com

Anna Sorenson walked from everything to gain redemption. But she didn’t leave the past behind and even in paradise evil still existed. A year earlier, Anna Sorenson buried her husband Aaron. A week later, she lost the child she’d longed for. Anna’s only thought was to put the tragedy of the past behind her and find a way to survive in a post-Aaron world.

Agent John Delaney buried more than just his partner that rainy day one year earlier. He’d shoved aside his feelings, ignored the wrong he and Aaron had done in the name of justice, and hoped the past would stay dead. It hadn’t. It had gone after the woman he still loved and now John must choose between keeping his partner’s secrets and losing Anna again. This time forever.

Carrie Sinclair thought she knew exactly what she wanted from life until she came face-to-face with the bluest eyes in Texas.

Caterer Carrie Sinclair thinks she has the perfect life and doesn’t need a man to complete it. Her pudgy kitty Max is the man in her life, and that’s enough for her. Then, quite by accident, she comes across the man of her dreams. Tyler Bennedict is perfect boyfriend material: Charming, sweet, rich, and incredibly sexy. No matter that he’s made it clear he’s not looking for a serious relationship. One night in his arms, and all her usual warning bells about men go silent.

She should have listened to those bells, and to Aunt Mable. Enter Tyler’s real estate tycoon father, Richard. He makes it relentlessly clear she is not the woman for his son, and comes up with creative ways to keep them apart until Carrie sees the light.

In one fell swoop she swears off all men, closes her business, and gets out of Austin. But no matter how far and how fast you run, the unexpected bumps in the road have a way of revealing the truth and turning your life—and your heart—a complete 180.

Carrie Sinclair is the quirky leading lady in my book – The Things You Think You Want. In the story, Carrie runs her own catering business which is booming even if her romance to Tyler is not.

So I thought I’d feature some of Carrie’s recipes throughout the day. Enjoy!

Grilled Maple Chipotle Pork Chops on Smoked Gouda Grits

Ingredients
1/2 cup barbecue sauce
1/2 cup maple syrup
2 chipotle peppers in adobo sauce, seeded and minced
1 teaspoon adobo sauce from can
6 (1 1/4-inch-thick) bone-in pork loin chops
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon pepper
Smoked Gouda Grits
(see receipt below)

Preparation
Whisk together first 4 ingredients, and set aside.
Sprinkle pork chops evenly with salt and pepper.

Grill, covered with grill lid, over medium-high heat (350° to 400°) 20 minutes or until a meat thermometer inserted into thickest portion registers 155°, turning once. Baste with half of barbecue sauce mixture the last 5 minutes of cooking or when meat thermometer registers 145°.

Spoon Smoked Gouda Grits evenly onto 6 serving plates; top each with a pork chop, and drizzle evenly with remaining barbecue sauce mixture.

Yield
Makes 6 servings

Smoked Gouda Grits
Buy a 7-ounce wheel of smoked Gouda cheese to get the right amount.

This recipe goes with Grilled Maple Chipotle Pork Chops on Smoked Gouda Grits

Ingredients
6 cups low-sodium chicken broth or water
2 cups milk
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon ground white pepper
2 cups uncooked quick-cooking grits
1 2/3 cups shredded smoked Gouda cheese
3 tablespoons unsalted butter

Preparation
Bring first 4 ingredients to a boil in a medium saucepan; gradually whisk in grits. Cover, reduce heat, and simmer, stirring occasionally, 5 minutes or until thickened. Add cheese and butter, stirring until melted.

Yield
Makes 6 to 8 servings

WINE SUGGESTION
Concha y Toro, Xplorador, Merlot, Chile

Eborae Vitis e Vinus, Alentejo Chaminé,

Portugal (exceptional value at around $7)

Pepperwood Grove, Merlot, California

Biltmore Estate, Reserve Claret

Rancho Zabaco, Dancing Bull, Zinfandel, California

 All the best…

Mary Eason

www.maryeason.com

The most dangerous place to fall is in love…

Dr. Jordan Scott thought she knew her fiancé, Caesar, better than anyone…until Detective Riley Donovan confronts her with the truth about her brother’s death. His murder was no random act of violence—and Caesar is the prime suspect, which puts her directly in the path of danger. Their relationship may be strained, but Jordan can’t believe Caesar lied when he claimed he’d severed all ties with his drug cartel family.

Riley has seen enough to know that Jordan is telling the truth, despite what his partner believes. Then again, his instincts aren’t exactly on point when it comes to Jordan. He’s already broken two hard-and-fast rules when it comes to witness protection: never get emotionally involved and never fall for your star witness.

Now the trick will be to keep her alive long enough to convince her to trust him—and find the truth behind her brother’s murder. Before she becomes the next victim.

Warning: Contains a hero to die for, one courageous leading lady, lots of heart-pounding action, and a rollercoaster ride of emotion.

All the best…

Mary Eason

www.maryeason.com

Worth Staying For – Available now at Linden Bay Romance

For me writing just seemed to be a natural thing. I started inventing stories when I was a small child, mostly because I was the baby of the family and much younger than most of my siblings and I had plenty of time on my hands to create adventures –some of which still make their way into my work.

I settled on two particular genres to write…contemporary romance and romantic suspense, many of which I’ll be featuring today.

So thanks so much for stopping by. I hope you’ll stay a while and check out some of my work as well as enter for a chance to win ebook copies of my latest works.

All the best…

Mary Eason
www.maryeason.com