(Completed Manuscript)

Maggie Donovan was a doormat during her twelve years of marriage; but, since her divorce two years ago, she's become what her friends refer to as stone-hearted. They're wrong.  She has feelings or at least she used to.  Tired of all the blind dates and set on rediscovering herself, Maggie visits friends in Peaceful Lake where she is thrown into a town rivalry.  Once she decides to make the community her second home, Maggie must find her inner strength to save the small town from four men:  two feuding old-timers, one hard-to-read developer and a self-centered bully.  The words planned community holds a different meaning for everyone. 

Then there's the fifth man, CIA operative Reese Trenton, the one who lights her fire and makes her smile again.  His one commitment in life is to the United States and he likes his life the way it is—go on missions, avoid capture and dodge bullets.  Detached, his few trusted friends are job related until Maggie appears and his heart whispers to him an invitation home.  But Reese doesn't have time for emotions, much less a woman who smells of magnolias.  It's distracting!  And, in his line of work distractions can be fatal. 

Maggie and Reese could make a perfect couple, but there are obstacles such as trust and commitment in their path.  Plus, there's always another mission.  Together they discover freedom is not free and neither is love.  Come along for their journey from Chicago to Peaceful Lake to Washington, D.C. and experience their fight for a second chance in life. 



(First in the Peaceful Lake series)

They say your heart is located just left of center.  Rylie Crawford's husband was the center of her heart until a plane crash three years ago took his life.  Taylor Randolf's heart was his wife and soon-to-be-born child, but a tragic car wreck four years ago left him alone in the world.  Both Type A personalities, Rylie and Taylor each latched on tighter to their companies and grew them into major players in the world of real estate; Crawford Enterprises and Randolph Development; along with their owners, have respected reputations.  When the call of progress in Peaceful Lake throws Rylie and Taylor together, they attempt to fulfill their contract going so far as to share a house together where heartstrings begin to pluck again.  One of them is ready to live, the other holds onto their self-imposed guilt.  Loss can be a strong barrier to the future--it's awfully hard to break through a wall of concrete.  Is there such a thing as Type A Miniscule Minus?

Mix in a case of contract kick-backs Rylie discover's, Taylor's agreement to resurrect some of his job skills from the U.S. military and the ongoing saga of Peaceful Lake's inhabitants, for a story in growth and second chances.

(Second in the Peaceful Lake series)

The first story in a series about private investigator Elizabeth Francesca MacKenzie, (a.k.a., MacKenzie to her friends and Macki on the job).   Most of the city knows her as a wealthy heiress with numerous businesses to run and a more than charitable giver in community fundraisers.  Someone with a quick smile, known by first name from fashionable boutiques to resale shops to the local market.  She's also known on "D" Street and other such seedy locations from her days with the local police force.  MacKenzie only takes cases that touch her heart, her soul or her conscience.  That is unless someone hurts her family or one of her friends which can really set her off.   As if she doesn't have enough to do with her current homicide case of Lacy, a young girl from Kansas, wearing  diamonds and pearls;  her uncle has saddle her with ATF agent, Josh Alexander, who needs a place to stay while he's undercover on a few assignments.   Shouldn't be a problem—her penthouse has plenty of room and neither of them are home all that often.