Illinois Authors

Independently Published 2018

Midwestern nurse Annie dreams of finding the type of love you read about in romance novels. Having been burned in the past, she is no stranger to heartache and remains guarded. But that doesn’t stop her kind and compassionate heart from holding onto hope for something beautiful amidst the trauma she sees every day in the emergency room. When an opportunity lands her in Italy, Annie learns to live in the moment andadventure paves the way to the kind of love she’s been waiting for. Italian waiter Luca has grown up feeling like a piece is missing from his life. Found in a church, abandoned as a small boy, he has grown up desperate to please the family that raised him. This handsome hard worker, with a kind heart catches Annie’s eye, when she dines in a favorite Florence pub. She could be the one to finally make him feel complete, but he holds back, uncertain of who he is and where this attraction could lead. Known across the city for his good looks and magical pizza skills, he's quite the catch. But he only has eyes for one tourist in particular. As the seasons change, Annie and Luca fall deeper for each other, and their love becomes the ultimate journey as distance, language barriers and hurdle after hurdle threaten to tear their newfound love apart. One thing is certain, the language of love goes beyond words.

Independently Published 2019

Maggie and Marcos met when he was 17 and she was 14 one spring afternoon when she and her best friend, Kathy, had gone to a local beach, Chick’s, a teen hangout. They had heard friends at school talk about Cole’s Ice Cream Shop, about a block away and decided to check it out before going home. Kathy and her new friend Jason had ordered and were sitting at one of the tables eating their ice cream cones, but Maggie was still trying to decide what flavor to order when someone walked up behind her and whispered in her ear. If you trust me, I would order Cookies and Cream. Turning around she looked up into the face of a boy she had never seen, a boy with penetrating cobalt blue eyes. Maggie was hooked, love at first sight, and a love that would last for years. His name was Marcos. She later learned he was actually very shy and had been talked into approaching her by his friends. It was not always a happy time for the M and M couple as their friends called them. It was a typical first love, teen romance. There were periods of jealousy and disappointments and arguments, but they always ended back together until they didn’t. Years later when they saw each other would their past lead to just memories of a first love or would they take a chance to rekindle that long ago love as adults?

Independently Published 2019

Betty Sue Browning comes from a life in a small town in southern Illinois. She lost her best friend, her father, from an illness when she was seventeen and she is still grieving. She goes to college and works part time to help her Mom keep their small horse farm in the black. One night while out with a group of friends at the local rodeo, fate intervenes and Betty Sue meets Bo, a city boy, from St. Louis in his third year of law school. Can she trust a city boy with her heart when she is all country girl, cowgirl and tomboy rolled in one?Bo Walker is a city boy from St. Louis who has suffered more heartache in his young life than any boy should. Bo’s Dad, a prominent attorney, in St. Louis, suffered a serious accident leaving him paralyzed and in a wheelchair. Bo’s mother left them when she found out her husband would never walk again. Bo was only twelve years old. Bo goes on a trip with his Dad to visit Grandma on spring break and his cousin, Buck, takes him out one night where he meets Betty Sue. The attraction is mutual from the start, but Bo is suddenly in a world so different from anything he has ever known. Can he trust his feelings that grow deeper every day he’s with Betty Sue? Will the magic of love pull them together or will the reality of their different lives or a secret from the past tear them apart?