Tasting wine is not enough: sommelier Giovanni D’Angelo wants to create it. To put his family first, he’s always deferred his dreams—a vineyard to run, a woman to marry. But a three-week vineyard tour in Italy could set him back on track.
For Emma Rutledge, wine is in her blood. Intent to run the family wine business one day, she finds that the men in her family are only intent to push her out of it. But that’s fine—she’s got a plan.
When Gio and Emma meet on a wine tour in Tuscany, their shared aspirations fuel an undeniable chemistry. Returning home to California, they work toward setting up Emma’s vineyard and a label of their own. But when Emma receives a life-altering diagnosis, she worries it’s all been for nothing.
As Emma works to cement her family legacy while dealing with this unexpected challenge, Gio tries to convince her that their future isn’t just wine.
BEGINNING OF FOREVER (The D’Angelos Book #3) by Catherine Bybee is another perfectly wonderful contemporary romance addition to The D’Angelo family series. This story features Giovanni D’Angelo and his discovery of that one true love traveling from the vineyards of Italy and back to California. This romance can be read as a standalone, but there are family member connections throughout tying to the first two books in the series.
Giovanni “Gio” D’Angelo has always loved everything connected to wine since his first visit with his grandfather in Italy. He has become a sommelier and works in his family’s restaurant, but his dream has always been to own a small vineyard of his own. For his thirtieth birthday, his family sends him on a three-week tour of Italian vineyards.
Emma Rutledge was born into a prominent Napa wine family and has worked hard for her place in the family business, but her father never sees her as an asset. For her thirtieth birthday her mother sends Emma and her best friend, Natalie, on a wine tour to take a break, but Emma is already making new plans for her future.
Gio has a house full of strong women in his family and the feisty, redheaded Emma catches his attention. Their shared love of wine and dreams of having their own vines connects them and only adds to the growing chemistry, but Emma is not looking for forever. When they return to California, Gio continues to show Emma he is a partner with suggestions, but never wants to make her decisions for her. When Emma receives a medical diagnosis that changes her life, Gio proves he is at her side for everything and anything, forever.
I love Emma and Gio’s journey to love and HEA! Every one of the stories in this series has been an absolute delight! Ms. Bybee knows how to bring a romance together even with all the messy things in life that can interfere. With the D’Angelos, like in many big Italian families, difficulties can be overcome with the help and love of family, friends and food and the comparisons between the D’Angelo and Rutledge families leave me with an easy decision of which I would rather belong to. I enjoyed catching up with all the other family member’s relationships and wish I could go to Little Italy and meet them all.
I highly recommend this delightful and heart-warming contemporary romance! The entire D’Angelos series is worth the read.
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About the Author
Catherine is a #1 Wall Street Journal, Amazon, and Indie Reader bestselling author. In addition, her books have also graced The New York Times and USA Today bestsellers lists. In total she has written thirty-six beloved books that have collectively sold more than 10 million copies and have been translated into more than twenty languages.
Raised in Washington State, Bybee moved to Southern California in the hope of becoming a movie star. After growing bored with waiting tables, she returned to school and became a registered nurse, spending most of her career in urban emergency rooms. She now writes full time and has penned the Not Quite series, The Weekday Brides series, the Most Likely To series, and the First Wives series. Learn more about Catherine and her books at www.catherinebybee.com
Today is my turn to share my Feature Post and Book Review for A NOBLE CUNNING: The Countess and the Tower by Patricia Bernstein on this Virtual Book Tour.
Below you will find a book summary, my book review, an excerpt from the book, an about the author section and the author’s social media links. This is an exciting debut historical fiction novel based on a true story. Enjoy!
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Book Summary
A thrilling tale, based on a true story, of one woman’s tremendous courage and incomparable wit in trying to rescue her husband from the Tower of London the night before he is to be executed.
The heroine of A Noble Cunning, Bethan Glentaggart, Countess of Clarencefield, a persecuted Catholic noblewoman, is determined to try every possible means of saving her husband’s life, with the help of a group of devoted women friends.
Amid the turbulence of the 1715 Rebellion against England’s first German king George I, Bethan faces down a mob attack on her home, travels alone from the Scottish Lowlands to London through one of the worst snowstorms in many years, and confronts a cruel king before his court to plead for mercy for her husband Gavin. As a last resort, Bethan and her friends must devise and put in motion a devilishly complex scheme featuring multiple disguises and even the judicious use of poison to try to free Gavin.
Though rich with historical gossip and pageantry, Bethan’s story also demonstrates the damage that politics and religious fanaticism can inflict on the lives of individuals.
A NOBLE CUNNING: The Countess and the Tower by Patricia Bernstein is an engaging debut historical fiction novel based on a true story featuring a fictional noble Scottish Catholic couple at the time of the Jacobite Uprising and the rise of the Protestant House of Hanover. This is a debut standalone historical fiction novel that is immersive, easy to read and difficult to put down.
Bethan Glentaggert, Countess of Clarencefield lives with her husband and children in the Scottish Lowlands. While prospering, they must always be vigilant as they are Catholics in a land that has made practicing their faith illegal. When Queen Anne dies and the throne is now by law only to be given to a Protestant, the next in line is the German born George of Hanover. This sparks the Jacobite Uprising and the march of Catholics and those who do not recognize the German as king against the throne including Bethan’s husband, Gavin.
Bethan’s husband ends up in the Tower of London waiting execution for treason. Bethan does everything she can to have him pardoned, but her pleas fall on deaf ears. She refuses to give up and she comes up with a cunning plan to save her husband from the executioner’s ax.
I loved Bethan, her strength, intelligence, and cunning plan. That she is based on a real historical character that I previously knew nothing about makes her story that much more enjoyable because I like finding new stories in history when they involve strong female characters. The plan to save her husband was ingenious for the period and gives the story plot the tension of a suspense novel. This story is written with historical detail, both descriptive and in dialogue, to the religious conflict present in England for many decades and I feel the author remains neutral in the telling of the story. I was pleased the author wrote the story in a linear timeline and used quotes and books from authors of the time to give a sense of time and place. This is a well-researched historical fiction novel with a strong female protagonist that I thoroughly enjoyed reading.
I highly recommend this debut historical fiction novel.
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Excerpt
Chapter One
No Safe Place
Heath Hall, Scottish Lowlands, 1710
“…we shall do our utmost endeavor to have the land purged of Popish idolatry … particularly the abomination of the mass We shall never, consent, for any reason whatsoever, that the Penal Statutes, made against Papists should be annulled; but shall, when opportunity offers, be ready to concur in putting them to a due and vigorous execution.” – The Auchensaugh Renovation of the National Covenant.
Reformed Presbytery, July 24, 1712.
I had gone to bed early and slept soundly until I was awakened by a wild noise of cries and shouts almost under my windows. I rose and peered out. As if one of my most troubled dreams had come to life, at least one hundred men were gathered below, waving smoky torches and brandishing pikes and hammers and other tools they had probably seized from our smithy.
One night in London many years earlier, when I was a child of nine, I had witnessed a raucous anti-Catholic parade made up of London rowdies disguised as grotesque parodies of priests and bishops and the pope. Ever since then, I have feared mobs at night, faces distorted by flickering torchlight.
I looked down from my window upon this motley crowd of bedraggled sowers and reapers, my senses assaulted by the sting of smoke and the writhing fingers of flame. For a moment I swayed and felt that I might fall. Gavin, my husband, was many leagues away politicking in the back-street coffeehouses of Edinburgh. How could I face this crowd without him?
But I could not fall. I am Bethan Carlisle Glentaggart, Countess of Clarencefield, a Catholic amid the heathen Protestants, I thought, and must show neither fear nor weakness. Unruly crowds of this kind feed on the terror they engender in their betters. I repressed an involuntary shiver and vowed to demonstrate that they were dealing with a woman of spirit, in full command of her household, not a mere drawing-room ornament. They would not smell my fear. My heart banged violently in my chest, but I would smooth my features as I had seen my mother do when our family was threatened.
The boldest of the leaders–a ragged bunch with tousled hair, mismatched garments and broken-down shoes–hallooed up at me.
“Mistress, you are hiding a Romanish priest, a servant of Satan, and we will have him! Bring him out or we will come in, as is our right by law!”
Oh yes, of course, I thought but did not say, your “legal rights” are meant to be exercised in the dark of night with a mob at your back, against unprotected women and children.
My brain, still a little sodden with sleep, churned and brought forth no response for a moment, but then clarity broke through.
“Hold there, sirrah. I will come down to you,” I cried.
I tossed an unlaced gown over my shift and wrapped a cloak over the whole. Leaving my hair loose, I ran down the stairs, as the storm of bangings and knockings on the front door grew louder and more insistent. Despite the noise, I paused for an instant at the foot of the stairs to run my hands over my face, trying to forcibly soften lines of worry and subdue the pinch of anxiety around my eyes and mouth.
My companion Lucy had also risen. Shocked and pale-faced, she came running to me barefooted. For once, she, also abruptly jerked from sleep, had no advice to give. But I was beginning to feel more confident that I could maintain at least the outward appearance of a woman who was unruffled by scares in the night, even though my legs were trembling.
“I have read this chapter before,” I told Lucy. “When I was only seven, soldiers came to our home in Wales for this self-same purpose, hunting an illegal priest. I believe I can manage these vermin as my mother once did. None of these men are fit to kiss the hem of Father Jerome’s shabbiest robe.”
Then Lucy and I looked at each other. She gasped. The fact was we had been hosting Father Jerome, a secret missionary priest from France, traveling disguised as an itinerant shepherd and sleeping in the shielings or shepherd’s huts used during summer grazing.
Somehow the priests who came to Scotland knew where the Catholics were and who would welcome them. Father Jerome, diminutive and elderly–but sinewy and strong enough to climb goat paths from glen to glen–once acknowledged to me that he knew his ultimate fate would be exile, prison or perhaps death at the hands of a mob.
“We all believe that at some point we will be caught, my lady, and we are resigned,” he had said with his gentle smile. “When that time comes, I will be grateful for my years spent comforting a scattered and persecuted flock.” I had knelt and asked for his blessing. The itinerant priests were the holiest men I ever knew.
Father Jerome was supposed to have left us at dusk, but neither Lucy nor I had actually seen him go. He had a way of slipping away into the dark without making a sound. But what if he had not yet left and was still somewhere in the house? I had to hope he would take heed of the commotion and make himself scarce.
I could hear the leader of the mob yelling, “We will not give you time to hide him. Open this door or we will break it to…” I managed to raise the iron latch and pulled open the heavy oak door, just in time for him to screech the end of his sentence in my face, “…splinters.”
The night was cold. It was close to Christmastide and, though there was no snow, the wind was sharp. I gathered my cloak more closely around me.
This spokesman was of medium height and spindly, his coat torn and half off his shoulder. His long, greasy, gray-brown hair crept back from his forehead as if it were running away from his face, embarrassed by his actions. His linen was soiled, and his jacket sleeves were too short for his knobby-boned wrists. Ah, but he carried a Bible and proceeded to wave it in my face.
“And you are…,” I asked quietly.
He hesitated, thinking perhaps to hide his identity, which was absurd. A shorter, even grimier man standing next to him–this one wearing a shapeless hat jammed almost down to his eyebrows–punched the leader’s arm.
“Minister Adam Goodnow,” the leader declared, and immediately tried to seize the offensive again by brandishing the Bible in my direction. “Bring us the priest and we will trouble you no further tonight: ‘For your priests have violated My law and have profaned My holy things; they have put no difference between the unclean and the clean and I am profaned among them.’”
“Ezekiel 22:26,” he concluded with an air of satisfaction.
“There is no priest here,” I said, forcing a calm tone into my voice that I did not feel. “We would bring no man into danger.”
“Your souls are in danger,” he spit at me, “if you follow the Whore of Babylon and pursue the Antichrist into darkness…”
I pushed my palm out towards him, intent on holding it steady. I had to find a way to keep a horde of wild men from rampaging through my home. I remembered that, when the soldiers came to Castle Banwy in Wales, when I was seven, my mother took control by telling them they could search for a priest if they left their muddy boots outside. Something about the foolishness of marching upstairs and down in their dirty stockings full of holes took the edge off their eagerness to find the priest. Perhaps I could keep most of these men outside if I gave way just a little.
“It is late,” I said. “My babies are asleep. I desire you not to wake them. Three of you–no more than three–may come in and search the house…if you do it quietly and do not wake the children.”
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About the Author
Patricia Bernstein was born in El Paso and grew up in Dallas. She earned a Degree of Distinction in American Studies from Smith College and taught English at Smith for four years before returning to Texas. In Houston she founded a public relations agency and published dozens of articles in media venues as varied as Texas Monthly, Cosmopolitan and The Smithsonian.
Her first book was Having a Baby: Mothers Tell Their Stories, a collection of first-person childbirth accounts from the 1890s to the 1990s. The second was The First Waco Horror: The Lynching of Jesse Washington and the Rise of the NAACP about a horrifying “spectacle lynching” which took place in Waco in 1916, and the young women’s suffrage activist hired by the fledgling NAACP to investigate the lynching. The third was Ten Dollars to Hate: The Texas Man Who Fought the Klan about the millions-strong 1920s Ku Klux Klan in Texas and across the US. The book was a finalist for the Ramirez Family Award from the Texas Institute of Letters and was named one of the 53 best books ever written about Texas by the Austin American Statesman.
Patricia lives in Houston with her husband Alan Bernstein where she sings with Opera in the Heights and other organizations, and admires the achievements of her three wonderful and very different daughters. A Noble Cunning is her debut novel, inspired by a story she heard during a visit to Scotland in 2014.
He performs his profane ceremony in a wooded Minneapolis park, anointing his victims, then setting the bodies ablaze. He has already claimed three lives, and he won’t stop there. Only this time there is a witness. But she isn’t talking.
Enter Kate Conlan, former FBI agent turned victim/witness advocate. Not even she can tell if the reluctant witness is a potential victim or something more troubling still. Her superiors are interested only because the latest victim may be the daughter of Peter Bondurant, an enigmatic billionaire. When Peter pulls strings, Special Agent John Quinn gets assigned to the case. But the FBI’s ace profiler of serial killers is the last person Kate wants to work with, not with their troubled history. Now she faces the most difficult role of her career—and her life. For she’s the only woman who has what it takes to stop the killer . . . and the one woman he wants next.
ASHES TO ASHES (Kovac and Liska Book #1) by Tami Hoag is the start of a new series featuring a former FBI agent who is now a local law enforcement victim advocate and a high-profile FBI serial killer profiler who share a personal past. This book does have graphic scenes of violence and torture, but it is expected when I read a serial killer suspense by this author and she adeptly mixes the gruesome with a humanizing empathy for the victims, witty dialogue, and a subplot second chance romance that will carry on through the series.
The Minneapolis papers have named him “The Cremator” after his killing of two prostitutes who he tortured and then left burning is public parks. His third victim is a billionaire’s daughter and that has the police and politicians scrambling.
Former FBI agent now victim advocate Kate Conlan is assigned to a teenage witness who claims to have witnessed “The Cremator” setting the latest victim on fire and FBI profiler John Quinn is called in by the billionaire’s father to assist the Minneapolis authorities. As they work together to catch a sadistic killer who continually taunts the police, they are also dealing with a complicated past from when Kate left the FBI five years previously.
As Kate and John get closer to catching the killer, the killer still has some twisted surprises in store for Kate. Will she survive the attention of “The Cremator”?
I enjoyed this serial killer thriller/police procedural/romantic suspense mash-up from start to finish. There are graphic scenes of torture against women, but this is a serial killer thriller story, so I expected them, and Ms. Hoag is adept at giving me the chills without making the scenes seem gratuitous. The story is more suspense/thriller than romance, but there are two seriously hot sex scenes as Kate and John work through their complicated pasts and come together for the future books in the series. I will say that the revelations surrounding the killer’s identity surprised me and made for a tense and exciting conclusion. As you may have noticed, Conlan and Quinn are not Kovac and Liska which is why I did not give this book more stars. Kovac and Liska are the Minneapolis detectives in this story and while they are important players and had great wise-cracking dialogue, I did not feel they were the focus like Kate and John.
Not for the faint of heart, but I enjoyed the start to this series and I am looking forward to continuing the series.
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About the Author
Tami Hoag is the #1 international bestselling author of more than thirty books published in more than thirty languages worldwide, including her latest thrillers–COLD COLD HEART and THE 9TH GIRL. Renowned for combining thrilling plots with character-driven suspense, Hoag first hit the New York Times Bestseller list with NIGHT SINS, and each of her books since has been a bestseller. She leads a double life in Palm Beach County, Florida where she is also known as a top competitive equestrian in the Olympic discipline of dressage. Other interests include the study of psychology, and mixed martial arts fighting. A woman of eclectic tastes, to say the least, Tami was recently asked to list seven things people may not know about about her: 1. I was once offered a job by a private investigator. 2. I have a license to carry concealed weapon, but never do. I took the course for research purposes. 3. My high school guidance counselor encouraged me to become an actress, but I thought that was too impractical (Of course, there’s nothing practical about being a writer, either, but at least I’m not obligated to look good on a daily basis.) 4. I used to sing at weddings. 5. While I have no intention of ever getting married again, I love watching Say Yes To The Dress 6. I have legitimate knockout power in my right hand, and I’m not afraid to use it. 7. When I’m stressed out, all tech devices around me go haywire. I’ve stopped watches, and fried hard drives. I once killed a television in a store display by merely touching it. I’m better off sticking to life’s simple pleasures–like books!
Longtime personal assistant Georgie Mulcahy has made a career out of putting others before herself. When an unexpected upheaval sends her away from her hectic job in L.A. and back to her hometown, Georgie must confront an uncomfortable truth: her own wants and needs have always been a disconcertingly blank page.
But then Georgie comes across a forgotten artifact—a “friendfic” diary she wrote as a teenager, filled with possibilities she once imagined. To an overwhelmed Georgie, the diary’s simple, small-scale ideas are a lifeline—a guidebook for getting started on a new path.
Georgie’s plans hit a snag when she comes face to face with an unexpected roommate—Levi Fanning, onetime town troublemaker and current town hermit. But this quiet, grouchy man is more than just his reputation, and he offers to help Georgie with her quest. As the two make their way through her wishlist, Georgie begins to realize that what she truly wants might not be in the pages of her diary after all, but right by her side—if only they can both find a way to let go of the pasts that hold them back.
Honest and deeply emotional, Georgie, All Along is a smart, tender must-read for everyone who’s ever wondered about the life that got away . . .
GEORGIE, ALL ALONG by Kate Clayborn is a beautiful journey of self-discovery and finding where you belong along with quirky hippy parents, a best friend who seems to always have it all together, and a one-time town troublemaker and his dog. This is a standalone women’s fiction/romance and the first, but will not be the last, book I have read by this author.
Georgie Mulcahy has made a living from putting other people first. When Georgie’s current Tinsel Town client decides to retire, she does not know what she wants to do, but her best friend is pregnant and asking for her help, so she returns to her hometown. She returns to her parents’ home to find they have also allowed Levi to stay while his house is being remodeled. Levi is basically a hermit after being a troublemaker in his youth and opposite the open Georgie.
Georgie finds an old “friend-fic” while helping her friend and decides this just might be the guidebook she needs to start a new path. As Georgie and Levi spend more time together, Levi wants to help Georgie with her old to-do list, and they discover they both have pasts they need to accept before they can move forward.
This is a deeply emotional attempt to go back to find your future. Georgie is a giver and fixer who feels empty personally and as you read along you find you are yelling at the book, trying to tell Georgie she is perfect just the way she is. Levi is a wonderful grump who proves to be so much more and is a wonderful counterpoint to Georgie’s openness and caring. The parents of both Georgie and Levi could not have been more different and I know which I prefer. Levi and Georgie are wonderful together and I was happy with the family reconciliations in this story and glad that others were not forced to make a resolution. The story would have felt false to me otherwise. Being a pitbull owner myself, all Hank’s traits made me smile and I know the difficulties are real that Levi faced at times with others.
I highly recommend this wonderfully uplifting women’s fiction/romance and I am looking forward to checking out other books by this author.
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About the Author
Kate Clayborn is the critically acclaimed author of six novels. Her work has been featured in The New York Times, The Washington Post, Oprah Magazine, Entertainment Weekly, Bookpage, and more. By day she works in education, and by night (and sometimes, by very early morning) she writes contemporary romances about smart, strong, modern heroines who face the world alongside true friends and complicated families. She resides in Virginia with her husband and their dig.
Luck is the story of Daniel – a man born with the gift of being able to influence others. He learns that he can both charm as well as destroy. As his ability grows, so does his craving for acceptance.
Once his ability is unleashed on the American political stage, Daniel finds that he no longer has to settle with charming the few. Now he can control the minds of the masses, as his own sanity descends into a tormented oblivion.
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Book Review
RATING: 4 out of 5 Stars
LUCK by Chris Coppel is an engrossing political thriller/horror/sci-fi mash-up that continually left me guessing what twist was coming next. I have always believed the truth of the quote “Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts completely.” and with Daniel’s gift, I could not wait to see where this story led.
Daniel was born with a gift. From his birth, he is able to see auras around people and influence them accordingly. He learns as he grows how to charm them, use them, or destroy them. He successfully ascends to the heights of a business career and now he has his sights set on a political career. Daniel can not only control the masses in live audiences, but also through the television cameras. The more he uses his special power to advance the more reckless and dangerous he becomes.
Daniel plans on taking the highest office in the land, but someone from his past is making their own plans to stop him.
This story has a bit of everything. I was sitting on the edge of my seat waiting to see what Daniel would do next or who he would hurt and the author would throw in a bit of humor or political satire. This is a fast-paced story that is at times horrifying, shocking, and captivating. I think almost everyone wants people to like them and agree with them, but this story takes that desire to the extreme in a twisted and interesting way.
This is the second book I have read by this author and I can truly state that he always leaves me thinking about the characters and story I have just read, and he also always leaves me with a surprise twist at the end.
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About the Author
Chris believes that stories should be able to transport the reader to different places, where they can experience events and dimensions that have never been considered. Chris is able to write gentle fable-like adventures (Far From Burden Dell) as well as opening the pages into dark and terrifying stories where dimensions co-exist with indescribable evil. (Legacy).
Chris Coppel was born in California and has since split his time between the USA and Europe, living in California, Spain, France, Switzerland and England.
Chris has held senior operations positions for both Warner Bros. and Universal Studios. Chris also held the position of Director of Operations for UCLA’s Film School where he also taught advanced screen writing. Chris and his wife Clare spent many years helping animal rescue with Best Friends Animal Society in Utah. Before joining Best Friends, Chris was President and Managing Director of the Home Entertainment Division of Testronics in Los Angeles.
Following in his father’s footsteps (Alec Coppel wrote Vertigo among many other successful movies) Chris has written numerous screenplays as well as the novels Far From Burden Dell, Luck, The Lodge, Legacy and Lakebed.
Chris is also an accomplished drummer and guitarist. He and his wife currently live in the UK.
WHIRLWIND (The Champions Book #1) by Janet Dailey is the first book in a western romance/romantic suspense trilogy featuring the three Champion sisters of the Alamo Canyon Ranch set in southern Arizona. They are carrying on the family legacy of raising and breeding bucking bulls for the professional rodeo circuit.
Lexie Champion has been invited to bring Whirlwind, her promising young bull to participate in the PBR. This could radically change the money problems their ranch has been having since the death of both their father and brother. Whirlwind is the talk of the circuit and brings the unwanted attention of family competitors interested in buying the talented bull and even their ranch and with that come threats and accidents that just might not be accidents.
Shane Tully is a ranked bull rider who is sent to offer Lexie an offer on Whirlwind from the man he works for who is scheming to take not only the bull, but the sister’s ranch. Shane is immediately taken with the intelligent and beautiful young Lexie, but she wants nothing to do with him not only because he works for a family enemy, but also because she refuses to be involved with a professional bull rider. Neither can resist the emotional pull of the other, but when Shane is trampled in the ring, both need to find their way in this new reality, but will it be together or apart?
This story pulls you right in. Lexie and her sister are working so hard to keep their ranch going and Whirlwind just may be the bull that brings them financial stability. Lexie is a wonderful heroine with her love of Whirlwind and the ranch, her intelligence in wanting to advance ranch practices to help them in the future and her loving and caring heart. Shane is a hero who goes through very difficult life changes and fights for what he wants in his future. The two of them together make a powerful couple despite Shane’s physical disabilities. The author’s descriptions of the ranch’s Arizona landscape and the arenas where the bull riding competitions take place are so vivid that you feel you are there. The suspense plot was intertwined well throughout the story, but I was surprised by the lack of law enforcement involvement.
I am happy this is a trilogy because I did not want this story to end, and I am looking forward to the other sister’s stories.
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Author Bio
Janet Anne Haradon Dailey was an American author of numerous romance novels as Janet Dailey (her married name). Her novels have been translated into nineteen languages and have sold over 300 million copies worldwide.
Born in 1944 in Storm Lake, Iowa, she attended secretarial school in Omaha, Nebraska before meeting her husband, Bill. Bill and Janet worked together in construction and land development until they “retired” to travel throughout the United States, inspiring Janet to write the Americana series of romances, where she set a novel in every state of the Union. In 1974, Janet Dailey was the first American author to write for Harlequin. Her first novel was NO QUARTER ASKED.
She had since gone on to write approximately 90 novels, 21 of which have appeared on the New York Times Bestseller List. She won many awards and accolades for her work, appearing widely on Radio and Television. Today, there are over three hundred million Janet Dailey books in print in 19 different languages, making her one of the most popular novelists in the world.
Janet Dailey passed away peacefully in her home in Branson on Saturday, December 14, 2013. She was 69.
