PERFECT SECRETS B. Joyce, K. Kane, J. O'Brien and D. Parr St Martin's Romance August 1999 ISBN # 0-312-97029-3 {Click here to buy this book} In Brenda Joyce's "WHEN DREAMS DON'T DIE" Blair Anderson is forced to grow up quickly. Abandoned by her mother,

Nicole Lovett finds herself accused of murder in Judith O'Brien's "ACROSS A CROWDED ROOM". The murder weapon...one of Aunt Adele's mysterious, possibly poisoned, and very old fruitcakes! While living in her late aunt's home, Nicole begins a journey of discovery. A stash of old fruitcakes, photo's of the way her aunt really looked under all that multi-colored hair, and bizarre and cryptic notes such as "A friend in tweed is a friend indeed" are just the beginning. It's a note that says "You will meet a stranger across a crowded room" that is the most confusing until Nicole suddenly bumps into the most gorgeous man she's ever met...after seeing him looking at her from across a crowded bar. But how can she let herself get close to Christopher Quinn? She's been accused of murder, and he has a shiny badge in his wallet and many questions about the murder of her co-worker.

Dead for four year, Travis Dean returns rather unexpectedly in Kathleen Kane's "RETURN OF TRAVIS DEAN". All Travis had ever wanted in the last four years was to get home and back to the loving arms of the woman he left behind rather unexpectedly, Katie. But Katie is less that happy to see him. She'd run the emotional gambit and buried Travis. Alone, she was forced to raise their son alone while living the lie that she and Travis had secretly married in order to protect her reputation and to give baby Jake a name. With Travis's unexpected return, Katie is sent careening down the emotional highway once more as she fights with herself over continuing the romantic pursuits of the towns only teacher, Arthur Featherstone, and the electricity that still runs between her and Travis.

Finally, "REDEMPTION" by Delia Parr is a story of rumors run amok. Sarah Bailey was not only two-timed by her fiancé, Webster, but also suffers from rumors of her loose behavior, these rumors often being perpetuated by Webster himself because of Sarah's continued spurning. In the hopes of being redeemed in the eyes of the townsfolk, Sarah moves in with her aunt in her tiny cabin in the forest until everyone sees that she is still a woman of virtue and that Webster is still the liar and cheat he always was. It's a mysterious stranger who follows her home in a snowstorm that sets the towns tongues to wagging once more. With a horse gone lame, war hero Captain Thomas Hayes has no choice but to try and find shelter on foot. After what seems like hours he finds himself collapsing on the doorstep of a cabin in the forest. Thomas has no idea that his opinions of life would be so skewed until he gives his heart to a woman who's protecting her own with a vengeance. But it's Webster, on one of his many trips out to harass Sarah, who sees this man leaving her cabin and threatens her with further scandal if she doesn't concede to sleep with him. Sarah refuses him and the scandal she thought could get no worse does.