Showing results by author "Rosalind James" in All Categories

People who say “love is trust” probably didn’t grow up in a cult. My name is Daisy Nabhitha Kittredge. I chose it myself. As an RN in the emergency department in one of New Zealand’s largest hospitals, there wasn’t much left in me of the 16-year-old girl, covered from neck to ankle and not allowed to make eye contact with a boy, who’d run away with five dollars in her pocket and terror in her heart.

Kevin McNicholl may be a brutal force on the rugby field, but off the field, the star New Zealand All Black is a famously nice guy. His new tenant, though, arouses more than his protective side. She sets him on fire. Pity he's evicting her. Every woman deserves her dreams. Chloe Donaldson can't afford dreams, though, so she's given them up. Marriage, her ballet career, and now, her beautiful tower apartment with its view of the sea. Her new landlord is kicking her out, along with her three-year-old son, Zavy.

Rosalind James brings her sports-romance chops to three tales of football, family, and fantasy of the steamy variety. There’s more than one way to play the game, and there’s definitely more than one way to win. Meet a bossy retired quarterback with a bad knee, a coveralls-wearing, house-painting stained-glass artist who’s nobody’s pushover, a lawyer who schedules her own breakdown, a single mom who knows the cheapest cut of every meat, prize bull Marble Hill Ranch No. 11, and more.

I never asked Hemi Te Mana to rescue me. It was true that I had a lousy job. Not to mention a lousy apartment and too much responsibility, although it was a responsibility I wouldn't have given up for the world. That still didn't mean I needed rescuing, if that was what you'd call the situation I ended up in. And anyway, I knew that a multimillionaire Maori CEO with too many muscles, a tribal tattoo, and a take-no-prisoners attitude was way, way out of my league.

What’s it like to be the first All Black to come out while he’s still playing rugby? Luke has spent more than 30 years not wanting to find out, but hiding has become so hard. He’s a man who doesn’t get tired, but now, he’s soul-weary.

Christmas means summer in New Zealand and All Blacks wedding season, too. Plans made and plans changed, because no matter how well you plan, life happens. Especially if, say, you’re marrying your late husband’s brother, you’ve got a couple of kids in the mix, and everybody’s talked too much about all that already. And then, there’s the rest of the family. A stepbrother who’s carried too big a secret for 30 years and needs to lay that burden down.

Rhys Fletcher is not in love with his sister-in-law. That would be a very, very bad idea, and he doesn’t entertain bad ideas. He also doesn’t lie to himself. Both of those things can’t be true, so he’ll do what he’s done since the long-ago night when his brother, Dylan, turned up in an Auckland bar after a brutal rugby match between their two teams, and introduced his new girlfriend - a dark-eyed, much-too-young girl named Zora. He’ll lie. Now, his brother’s gone, and Rhys is back in New Zealand and settling into his new job as the head coach of the Auckland Blues

Marko Sendoa isn't a beach man. He's not an Auckland man. He's a hard man. Born Basque, raised in the heart of New Zealand's Southern Alps, and bred on hard work, discipline, and getting the job done. It's not easy for a rugby flanker to make it to age 32 at the top of his game, but he's done it. Next year is the Rugby World Cup, and he'll do whatever it takes to be on the field in the black jersey when the anthems are sung. He doesn't need a kitten. He doesn't need a pregnant cousin. He definitely doesn't need a too-short, distractingly curvy, totally unimpressed Maori barista.

Being sentenced by a woman in a black robe is not a meet-cute. Quinn Jeffries follows the rules. A judge in small-town Sinful, Montana, doesn’t have much room for missteps, and when you spend your childhood training for the Olympics, you don’t have time for anything but discipline anyway. And, see? It’s worked! Her life is just fine. Of course, it doesn’t include any romance, but her new six-first-dates plan could fix that. She just has to be feminine and beguiling, or maybe marginally less take-charge. Too bad she doesn’t know how.

Will Tawera doesn't do commitment, except on the rugby field. Moving to Las Vegas to become a kicker for the NFL would be a big change from New Zealand rugby, but then, he's ready for a change. And when he's asked to do a little modeling on the side? Thousands of dollars to hold a beautiful blonde while looking dark, dangerous, tattooed, and Maori? He could do that.

Kayla Chambers knows what love is - and what it isn't. When her boyfriend turns abusive, she and her son escape to a new life in a place where he'll never find them. The idyllic town of Paradise, Idaho, has everything she needs to get back on her feet. Survival is her only goal, and the last thing she wants is another man in her life.

There are secrets. There are guilty secrets. And then there's switching places with your twin. Paige Hollander and her identical twin Lily stopped switching places a decade ago. But Lily's run into trouble, and Paige is on leave from the SFPD, recovering from a traumatic shooting. It's not like she has anything better to do, and she remembers how to be feminine. Sort of. How hard could it be?

You don’t find many too-pretty rich boys in the New Zealand Defense Force. Turns out there’s a reason for that. Fortunately, you can find your true self in the oddest places. Of course, you can lose yourself in those places, too - at least some pieces of you. Since I was back home with a new leg, some facial alterations, and time on my hands, I might as well help out my sister. Showing a buyer around New Zealand’s ecotourism sites, having a few adrenaline-fueled adventures? Fine. It wasn’t like I’d never been camping, unlike the walking tornado that was Miss Karen Sinclair.

When you walk out of a cult with a driving license and the clothes on your back, you can face some challenges. How does a cooker work, and what do you cook on it? Is microwave pizza actually food, and how many times can you eat sausages before you never want to smell them again? And what do people put in all those bathroom drawers?

Paradise, Idaho, may not be the largest town, but for newly minted professor Zoe Santangelo, it's the first step on the path to her big break. After teaching in a small Idaho school, her next stop is the Ivy League, and no one is going to stand in her way. She'll do what it takes to move up, to protect her students from a creepy campus stalker - and to protect her heart from Cal Jackson, the hot, hunky cowboy who keeps coming to her rescue.

Harlan Kristiansen may not be good at many things, but he can sure catch a pass. He’s an All-Pro at charming a room, too, and then there’s that Norse God thing. He can even figure out how to tackle a woman and save her from a charging bison. On skis. What happens when you drop that game-winning pass, though, and your house is too big, too weird, and too empty? When your dad’s a mean drunk, your mom took off a long time ago and stayed gone, and all your money can’t keep your little sister safe? You fall back on what you know, that’s what.

Hallie Cavanaugh's late father just left her millions of reasons to stay away from Jim Lawson, deputy sheriff of Paradise, Idaho, and the man who broke her heart fourteen years ago. Hallie has worked hard for independence, but she can't dismiss a massive inheritance, even if she has to follow her father's manipulative terms to get it. How hard can it be to spend six months back in Paradise - and not sleep with her old flame?

Blake Orbison's pro football career with the Portland Devils may have come crashing to an end, but not calling the signals anymore just gives him more time to devote to his business enterprises, including the latest and greatest: the opening of the Wild Horse Resort in scenic north Idaho. And that other one, too. Blake's on the marriage track now, and he's got a game plan.

Rochelle Marks is working hard to build a name for herself that has nothing to do with her pinup-girl curves. She's made mistakes in the past, and now she's trying to stop her little sister, Stacy, from making worse ones. Rochelle's done with being nothing more than someone's good time. Even if that someone is the one-night stand who turned her life upside down before vanishing - and who's just arrived in Paradise, Idaho, looking to pick up where they left off.

There's no place like home... For teacher Jenna McKnight, nothing spells "heartbreak" like finding her husband with somebody else--in her bed. It's clearly time to reinvent herself. A new body, a new city, and a new job later, she's done just that. The beautiful Auckland villa isn't really her home, though. Finn Douglas and his kids aren't really her family, however much she wishes they were. And playing house can be a dangerous game. Rugby star Finn Douglas is just looking for a temporary nanny and housekeeper. Not a girlfriend, and definitely not a wife. He can't resist Jenna's cooking, it's true. Who knew he'd have so much trouble resisting her? He wants to do what's right for his kids. But waiting is so hard... Note: This romance, like New Zealand, contains a bit of steam. If that isn't your cuppa, maybe visit some other country... er, audiobook.