In the back room of a back-alley shanty in New Orleans, a fortuneteller once stared down at my palm and made this surprising pronouncement: "In a past life, you were a sailor in the time of wooden ships." Actually, it made sense. Perhaps that explains why I, a New Yorker who'd never been closer to a wooden ship than a visit to the pier at South Street Seaport, chose to write my first historical romance about a female pirate swashbuckling her way across the Caribbean in the lawless early years of the eighteenth century. Such women did exist. Research showed me that among the men who roamed the pirate havens of New Providence and Tortuga, there were a few intrepid women who chose the lawless

She had once been a beautiful noblewoman called Lady Isabeau, betrothed at birth to the handsome squire Jared de Navarre. Read Excerpt > Read Reviews >

path.Most likely, I was never an Anne Bonny or a Mary Read in any previous existence, sailing fearlessly along with Calico Jack aboard his pirate sloop, but I've always felt a kinship with these bold, resourceful women and the struggles they faced. They were strong-minded, fiercely courageous, and independent in a time when most women could only dream of the kind of freedom they stole for themselves at the point of a swordIn The Maiden's Revenge, you'll find my heroine is just such a character. Lynnette Blackthorne, once a sheltered aristocrat's daughter, is better known these days as Captain Thorne, commander of the sailing ship Maiden's Revenge, a driven leader and a woman never bested in battle. She takes what she wants and lets no man get in the way. However, she's destined to find much more than plunder when she clashes with Captain Daniel Bradley, a merchant who's every bit her match on the high seas - and in love. Captain Bradley isn't about to let some half-sized pirate wench ruin the bright start he and his partner are making with their new shipping venture. So when Thorne attacks his prized ship on its maiden voyage, taking him captive, he's determined to foil her plan to hold him for ransom. Yet Daniel soon finds that when it comes to the beautiful Lynnette, his mind is on anything but revenge. Who is this mysterious woman, and why has she chosen such a deadly profession? Daniel intends to find out, but Captain Thorne is equally resolved that he will never discover the terrible secrets of her past. Her purpose is a sacred trust: to destroy the man who brutally raped and murdered her sister. But when Daniel turns the tables on his erstwhile captor, abducting her aboard his own ship bound for London, not only is Captain Thorne in danger of breaking her vows, she's in danger of losing her heart to this man who sees so much more than the buccaneer in her.

Rafe Sunderland, the handsome, rakish duke of Ravenhurst, has it all - power, position, and all the pleasures of proper Society... Read Excerpt > Read Reviews >

She was a daring sea-rover bent on revenge... He was her prey, but hardly helpless.... Read Excerpt > Read Reviews >