When Linc met Erin in college, she was already engaged to his best friend. From the moment he first laid eyes on her, a war commenced within him. On one side, the need to resist his attraction to her, and on the other to have her for his own. Erin Clay, widowed, is raising a son, who's turning five come September. Growing up as a minister's daughter, she received a lot of well-meaning charity-donations comprised primarily from the cast-off clothing her schoolmates no longer wanted. When Erin was in college, she'd been swept off her feet by Merrill Clay. He was sophisticated, wealthy, and self-assured. Handsome, too, he'd introduced her to a world that seemed to have all the things her own life had lacked. With stars in her eyes and her head in the clouds, how could she say no to his marriage proposal? It's been a year since Merrill's death, much too soon for her to be developing feelings for Linc Severance, her late-husband's business partner and former best friend. If Erin is no longer certain that she married Merrill for the right reasons, how can she trust her growing awareness and feelings for Linc? She's no longer a young and naive college student. With a son to care for, it's vital that she put away her girlish dreams of passion and love. And, as for Linc, he's determined to untangle his former partner's business interests from Erin's finances. Then, he'll disappear from her life forever. He's wasted too many years loving a woman never met to be his.
River Ames spent the first eighteen years of her life in Southern California. Below is a partial list of some of the cities in which she lived: PasadenaSouth PasadenaDuarteEl MonteLa PuenteLomita West Covina PacificaSanta MonicaPalm DaleArcadiaHacienda Heights In some of those cities, she lived at six different addresses. In the city of La Puente, River's family lived in four different houses on the same street. The non-glamorous reason for all the moves was habitual eviction necessitated by non-payment of rent. It was an interesting way to grow up. River attended twenty-six different elementary schools, two different junior high schools and four different high schools. In one elementary school, she was a student for only three days. Perhaps, because she was so frequently identified as the "new girl," the pattern of River being an observer instead of a participant in the interactions going on around her seemed a logical fit for her personality. When she was thirteen, River read "Gone with the Wind." She skipped three days of school in order to finish the book in one sitting. Disappointed in Rhett for "not giving a damn," River wrote her own sequel-in long hand, on three-hole punch, notebook paper. The opening line? "Tomorrow dawned bright and fair." In less than fifty pages, Scarlett had been transformed into Jane Eyre and Rhett had fallen in love with her all over again. After Southern California, River has spent the next part of her life living in the semi-rural town of Idaho Falls, Idaho. She is a graduate of Idaho State University, majoring in Health Education Sciences and Addiction Counseling. She's worked the past ten years at a Behavioral Health Center where she assisted children, teenagers, and adults committed in a 24/7 secured facility because of mental health challenges they are experiencing. Available Now: "To Each His Own,""Detour to Paradise," "Bachelor in the Boondocks""Every Good Deed" River's books celebrate the good-natured humor that lays at the core of most of our human predicaments. The conflicts are significant, yet it is her characters and their quirky (yet somehow universally relatable) thoughts, words, and choices that reflect a light-hearted peek into a world we wish was real. The amazing thing is that these worlds are real to readers for the time they visit there. Readers have said: "In a River Ames book, one minute I'm laughing out loud, and the next I have a lump in my throat."
