I’ve been so busy finishing edits and everything else for the release of FALLING HARD that I hadn’t had time to write the back blurb or share the super-sexy cover with you.

Now, here they are! The cover was done once again by Seductive Designs/Carrie Divine, who did a fabulous job in a small amount of time.

Meet Jesse Moretti. I think you’ll like him.

The book will be out on Tuesday, Feb. 21, if not a day or two before. There aren’t pre-order links because the book will be out as soon as we can get it to you.

For an excerpt, read the post prior to this one.

Moretti’s story has I-Team levels of emotional intensity, though no suspense. I hope you come to love him and Ellie as much as I do.

Also, sharing is caring! Thanks in advance for helping me to get the word out on Facebook, Twitter, Goodreads and in your readers groups. You are the best!

Here’s the back blurb:


A war widow alone…

Ellie Meeks promised her pilot husband that if he was killed in combat, she would live her life to the fullest. Three years later, she is still alone, raising the twins he never met. She has no interest in dating or meeting men—until one snowy night when a stranger helps her get her sick kids safely home. That stranger turns out to be a former Army Ranger and a member of the elite Rocky Mountain Search & Rescue Team. He’s also tall, rugged… and irresistibly sexy.

All it takes is one kiss…

Jesse Moretti came to Colorado to get Iraq out of his head, using the adrenaline of extreme sports and high-risk mountain rescues to keep his mind off the past. But getting involved with Ellie might be the riskiest thing he’s ever done. It’s not just their explosive chemistry. There’s something about Ellie that gets inside him, opening him to feelings he’s tried hard to ignore.

When passion ignites…

Ellie feels alive in Jesse’s arms and happier than she ever thought she’d feel again. But their relationship comes at a price for him, and soon Ellie sees that she must help Jesse fight the demons of his past to protect the love of a lifetime—and save the heart of a hero.

I am so excited to share this story with you!

Barely Breathing is the first book in my new contemporary Colorado High Country series (originally called Alpine Rescue Team series). I love the cover with the sexy couple and the mountains in the background.

Barely Breathing is a sexy contemporary romance with lots of adventure and elements of suspense. And it’s headed your way in ebook and print on May 10.

That’s right — May 10 — one week from today!

In the coming week, I’ll also be unveiling a completely redesigned website and blog. (Yes, this blog is getting a major makover!)

In the meantime, here’s the blurb from the back of the book:

Lexi Jewell left Scarlet Springs twelve years ago, vowing never to return to the small Colorado mountain town where she grew up. Now, here she is—over thirty, out of a job and with little choice but to move back in with her father. Lexi knows it’s just a matter of time before she runs into Austin Taylor, her first boyfriend and her first heartbreak. She’s determined to show him she’s over him—until he steps out of a pickup truck and back into her life, looking sexy as hell in his mountain ranger uniform.

As far as Austin is concerned, Lexi can turn her snazzy little convertible around and drive back to Chicago. After all, she ripped his teenage heart to pieces and turned her back on the town he loves. But from the moment he sees her again, he can’t get her out of his mind. Even her smile messes with his head. 

When an evening of conversation turns into something else, Lexi and Austin agree to be friends again—with benefits. But as Lexi starts making plans to return to the big city, Austin realizes he’ll lose her a second time unless he can show her that what she’s searching for has been right here all along.

I had a lot of fun with the story, laughing out loud while I wrote some of the scenes, including one sex scene in particular. I hope you’ll love Lexi and Austin and the rest of the people of Scarlet Springs as much as I do.

Watch for an excerpt of the first two chapters in the next few days!

If you haven't signed up for my newsletter, click here. Enter your email address, and then watch for the confirmation email from Mad Mimi in your inbox or spam folder. I hold subscriber-only giveaways, and it’s your best chance to be sure you never miss out on a new release.

UPDATED TO ADD THE MODIFIED COVER

Here it is at long last — the cover for Seduction Game, Holly’s story. I just got it this afternoon, and I couldn’t resist sharing it immediately. I’m amazed at how like Holly the female model looks. And the male model comes complete with Nick’s somewhat curly, David Gandy-esque hair (and a firearm, which he will need).

What do you think? Feel free to share on Facebook or on your blog. I appreciate your help in getting the word out. This is my first full-length book since last year’s cancer nightmare, and I’m hoping you will love Nick and Holly’s story as much as I do. I think it’s the best book in the series.

I’ve already posted excerpts from the story here on my blog. Those of you who missed those might want to check May in the column to the right for some sexy sneak peeks.

You can preorder a copy for Kindle, iBooks, and Nook, and from Amazon UK.

Now all that’s left is to wait until Oct. 20!

Fortunately, the wait is going to be made a bit easier by the big I-Team 10th Anniversary Celebration going on now.

On Aug. 2, 2005, Extreme Exposure was released, the first of what I hoped might be a three-book series. Known at that time for my historicals, I already had ideas for the next two books in the series. Both would focus on issues I had covered as a journalist, one looking at human sex trafficking (Hard Evidence) and the other at prison issues (Unlawful Contact). I had no idea how readers would respond to Extreme Exposure, but I was hopeful they might find the world of hardcore investigative journalism that had been my home for so long to be interesting at least.

Now, ten years later, it’s not historicals I’m known for, but the I-Team series. Isn’t that wild? It blows my mind that ten years have gone by.

To celebrate, Berkley and I are offering some great giveaways.

Right now on Goodreads, you can sign up for a giveaway. Ten winners will receive the first six books of the series, giving them a chance to catch up all things I-Team before Seduction Game comes out.
Click here to read the details and enter! (US only.)

Soon, I'll have a Rafflecopter giveaway that includes books and a bound edition of the manuscript for Seduction Game. Imagine how jealous your friends will be if you win that!

Also, I will host a UK/Commonwealth-only giveaway of the first six books in the I-Team series so that readers in the UK, NZ, Australia, South Africa and elsewhere can be part of the fun.

To add to the fun, I’m bringing the price for Skin Deep (An I-Team novella) down to 99 cents on August 4-18. Those of you who haven’t read the novellas will have a chance to pick up Nate and Megan’s story for 99 cents plus tax. 

So check back and stay tuned!

Here it is — the cover for Soul Deep, an I-Team After Hours novella.

Carrie at Seductive Designs did a fabulous job of putting it together, and she did it with almost no notice. I wasn’t certain how long it would take me to write Seduction Game, Holly’s story. If someone had told me the book would pour out of me in three and half months, I’d have thought they’d been smoking crack. So I didn’t schedule time with Carrie. Still, she jumped in and saved me. And now we have a book cover.

Here’s the blurb from the back of the book:
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Soul Deep is the first story I’ve written that isn’t about twenty-somethings or even thirty-somethings. Jack, the hero, is a former Army Ranger and widower who served two tours of duty in Vietnam as a young man. He’s a fit and robust 63. Janet, a special agent with the FBI, met Jack when he threw her off his land in Striking Distance. In the weeks that followed, she was badly injured by a sniper’s bullet while trying to protect Laura Nilsson. She is 45.

Romantic fiction centers around very young people, I suppose, because most people have their first sexual and romantic encounters while in their twenties. Romantic fiction has focused on catching that overwhelming experience of first real love.

But as those of us who are over 39 know, romance and sex remain a part of our lives. Everyone who is young and beautiful will grow older — if they’re lucky — but that doesn’t mean their need to be loved or their desire for fulfilling relationships, including sexual ones, diminishes. In fact, it may grow sharper, as they understand the value of such relationships.

It’s been fun for me as a 51-year-old to write about people closer to my age. Their maturity is fun to work with, making them unique among the characters that have inhabited my brain. There aren’t silly misunderstandings. There’s less ego and more thoughtfulness. And the sex is just as hot.

I can’t wait to share the story with you!

I’m down to the last few chapters at this point and hope to have the novella written and edited and out to you by the end of June or the first week of July. For a novella, it’s very long — at least 48,000 words. Some readers hate novellas, but these days there are books being sold as “novels” that are 50,000 words. Soul Deep will be a complete story.

In the meantime, I’m still waiting to see the US cover for Seduction Game, Holly’s story. It will be out in four months — Oct. 20 — in ebook format, with the print version coming out in March. The publisher split the release like that in order to get it to readers as soon as possible.

Seduction Game is available for pre-order in ebook format.

Kindle: http://amzn.to/1Jn7jZJ
iBooks: http://apple.co/1I9hJu8
Nook: http://bit.ly/1QmwI63

After I finish Soul Deep, I”ll be taking a bit of a break to recharge, and then I’m going to endeavor to write an I-Team Christmas story. No hints. I’m letting my imagination run loose on this one.

When that’s done, I hope to start the first book in a new series of contemporary novels set in the Colorado mountain town of Scarlet Springs, which I introduce in Soul Deep. The series will revolve around the loves and losses of the extraordinary men and women who make up the county’s alpine rescue team — chopper pilots, rangers, climbers, skiers, paramedics, avalanche rescue,  search and rescue dog trainers, law enforcement officers, dispatch people and so forth. The series will also include the kind of folks one meets in a real Colorado mountain town — eccentric mountain loners, New Agers, aging flower children, marijuana store owners, pot growers, the descendents of Cornish miners, ranchers, preppers, and the reclusive millionaire who owns the county's defunct silver mine. (If this description makes you laugh, you’re probably from Colorado or another mountain state.)

Also, I’m trying to get set up for direct distribution to iBooks and Google Play and perhaps All Romance eBooks. I’m also planning to revise the way people are added to my newsletter and how the newsletter is distributed. The current system, which has me entering names manually, is bunk.

I hope you’re all having a great summer so far!

Coming soon:
Cover reveal for Seduction Game
Excerpts from Soul Deep

Here it is! I’m so excited to share it with you — the cover for my next I-Team novel, Breaking Point.

And who’s on the cover, but the achingly delicious Jed Hill. I recognize those obliques and those lips. Tasty.

This demands an excerpt, don't you think?

From Breaking Point:

Zach hung limply from the manacles, unable even to hold up his head. His shoulders ached from supporting his dead weight, manacles biting into his bloody wrists. But none of that could compare to the residual pain of that last electro-shock. His muscles seized in sharp spasms, his heart slamming erratically in his chest, his body shaking, his mouth filled with the coppery taste of his own blood.

Don’t give in to the pain. Adjust for it.

He willed himself to relax, slowed his breathing.

Cold water splashed over his chest, making him jerk. It wasn’t to revive him, he knew, but to make his skin more conductive to electricity. He waited for the next blast of agony, but instead felt a glass bottle against his lips. A hand fisted in his hair, tilting his head back, and he swallowed, warm cola sliding down his raw, parched throat.

Electrolytes. Caffeine. Calories.

All would help him stay alive.

Then his tormenter spoke to him, as always in Spanish. “You are dying, cuñado. And for what? You are alone now, forgotten, left without even a dog to bark at you. Tell us who has the cocaine and where we can find them. Then your torment will end. There will be no more pain, only sleep.”

Zach fought off a wave of despair. “¡Vete a la verga!” Fuck off!

The bastard chuckled, but Zach knew he wasn’t really amused. They’d tried to break him and had failed. There’d be a price to pay when Cárdenas got the news.

Creaking hinges. Footsteps.

And Zach knew she was there. He could feel her presence, hear her rapid breathing. Hell, he could even smell her, something sweet in a world of filth.

Natalie.

“Tráela aquí.” Bring her over here.

What the hell?

Zach’s head came up. Somehow, he drew himself to his feet, his hands clenched around the chains for support, his heart thudding hard in his chest. Why had they brought her in here? Were they going to torture her to get to him?

Over my dead body.

“Zach?” There was fear in her voice, but also sympathy, concern.

He shook his head, his sign to her to keep quiet, hoping she’d remembered what he’d told her earlier. If they thought he cared what happened to her, if they thought he’d told her anything…

An arm went around his shoulder. “You are a brave man. No one has ever lasted so long against my little stinger, so I’ll offer you a better way out. Tell us where the coke is, and you can have the girl. We’ll take off these chains, give you some food and a little coke to make you strong, sí? And you can fuck her till your prick gives out. And when you’re done, you get one bullet to the head. Fast, painless — and you die happy. If you do not, your suffering will be such that those who find what is left of your body will lie awake at night weeping for you.”

Zach might have laughed if the situation hadn’t been so serious. Having failed to break him with pain, they were now trying to bribe him with rape. They were only bluffing, of course. They had no intention of giving him their Jefe’s prize. But if he played along with them, if he could persuade them to unchain him…

He pretended to consider the offer. “¿Es bonita?” Is she pretty?

Rough hands tore off his blindfold.

“!Mira sus tetas!” Just look at her tits!

Unaccustomed to light he blinked, squinted — and quickly assessed the situation. He was in a small room with a half-dozen armed Zetas. There were two small windows and only one door. Wooden chairs sat around an old table littered with dirty dishes and half-empty bottles of tequila. A couple of AKs leaned up against the wall to his right.

You’d give your left nut for one of those, wouldn’t you, man?

He sure as hell would.

In front of him, a car battery sat on a rolling cart, two electrical cables dropped on the floor near his feet. The sight made him shudder, dread mixing with rage in his gut.

Little stinger?

Beside the cart, two Zetas held a struggling young woman between them, while a third unbuttoned her blouse, laughing to himself. Bastards. Knowing he couldn’t risk showing emotion, he met Natalie’s gaze.

His heart seemed to stop. His mind went blank. And he stared.

She looked pleadingly up at him through the most beautiful eyes he’d ever seen, their irises an unusual shade of aqua blue. Her features were delicate, her otherwise flawless skin marred by a dark bruises and smudges of dirt. Her dark brown hair — why he had imagined her as a blonde? — hung in thick tangles past her shoulders. She couldn’t have been more than five-foot-four or an ounce over one-twenty.

The protective urge that welled up inside him took him by surprise, and he actually took a step toward her, until chains and pain reminded him where he was — and in what condition. Then her blouse fell to floor, followed by a lacy, white bra, revealing two beautiful, natural breasts.

A low whistle. A groan.

“¡Oye, mamacita, que buena estás!” Oh, baby, you are fine!


The testosterone level in the room surged, and for a moment Zach was afraid the Zetas’ lust for her would overcome their fear of Cárdenas.

The one with a long scar — the electrical specialist who’d turned Zach’s life into a living hell — walked over to stand behind Natalie, then reached around, drew her back against him, and grabbed her breasts, hands that enjoyed cruelty manhandling sensitive flesh.


“¡Chécalo, güey—las chichis perfectas¡” Check it out, dude — perfect boobs.

Zach felt his teeth grind, seeing only the emotion on Natalie’s face — fear, revulsion, pain. Her gaze locked with his as if eye contact were the one thing keeping her shattered world together. She probably didn’t understand what was happening or why they were doing this to her. He wished he could reassure her.

Instead, he was about to make it all much worse.

Stay strong, angel.