Taking Fire

Dr. Ali Torveau knows just how fragile life can be - she sees death and tragedy every day in the trauma unit. Battling the dark forces of fate is her life's work and she doesn't want or need anything else, certainly nothing as transient as love. Plenty of women try to change her mind, but she never has any trouble saying no. Not until the day firefighter Beau Cross shows up in her ER and sets Ali’s carefully ordered world aflame.

What do you do when your carefully planned life takes a wrong turn into hell? When Quinn Maguire, a dashing young trauma surgeon, unaccountably accepts a position as an ER physician, her new boss, Honor Blake, suspects that Quinn is hiding a dark secret. While the two declare an uneasy truce in an effort to work together, both struggle with mutual, and unexpected, attraction.

Homicide detective Mandi Murphy had seen enough bloodshed on the streets of Houston to last a lifetime. After a botched drug bust left a friend dead, she wanted out of the city. Peaceful little Sawmill Springs seemed like the perfect spot to start over. Six weeks on patrol proved the town to be as quiet and serene as she'd imagined.

Literary agent Emily May is in danger of losing everything she's worked for - her job, her home, her friends, and the security she provides her older sister back in Singapore - all because she doesn't have a green card. Racecar enthusiast, high-flying, fast-living Derian Winfield is called home when the only family member she still cares about falls ill. Forced into assuming a role in her father's dynasty she's spent years avoiding, Derian needs to rehabilitate her black sheep reputation in a hurry, or the agency will likely end up being lost in a takeover.

Grieving over the loss of her family and feeling like her life is unraveling, Lindsey McDermott quits her job, gets a puppy, and retreats to her grandparents' home in the Texas Hill Country. She spends her solitary days walking childhood trails and reminiscing, trying to reconcile the conflict within her as she struggles with survivor's guilt. After the death of her husband, Hannah Larson needs a change. At the suggestion of her mother-in-law - and against her better judgment - she and her son Jack move to tiny Utopia and into her husband's grandmother's house.

A mysterious newcomer, a reclusive doctor, and a troubled gay teenager learn about love, friendship, and trust during one tumultuous summer in Provincetown. Reese Conlon, LtCol USMCR, is the new sheriff who has heads turning amidst speculation as to who will be the first woman to capture her attentions. Doctor Victoria King has been betrayed by love once and refuses to risk heartbreak again. Brianna Parker, the teenaged daughter of Reese's chief, fears her father’s wrath when he learns that she loves another girl.

Cassidy "Cazz" Warner, a smart, sporty, reticent newcomer to the senior class at Claiborne High, unwittingly attracts the attention of its most popular girl: Sarah Perkins, a bright, athletic, charismatic beauty. Just as the two begin to understand how extraordinary their friendship is, another cross-country move wrests Cazz away. Ten years later, Cazz unexpectedly runs into Sarah during a fraud investigation at Sarah's charitable foundation. The women are inexorably drawn to each other, but Cazz's investigation into the foundation's finances limits her ability to be entirely honest with Sarah.  

“Luke” Hamilton has always been sure she’d never marry. She accepted that she would spend her life alone when she chose to live her life disguised as a man. After working in a brothel for three years, Nora Macauley has lost all illusions about love. She no longer hopes for a man who will sweep her off her feet and take her away to begin a new, respectable life. But now, they find themselves married and on the way to Oregon in a covered wagon, with 2,000 miles ahead of them.

Adrienne Pierce, buffeted by fate and abandoned by love, seeks refuge from her past as well as her uncertain future on Whitley Point, a secluded island off the coast of Maine. Tanner Whitley - young, wild, restless - and heir to a dynasty, desperately tries to escape both her destiny and the memories of a tragic loss with casual sex and wild nights, a dangerous course that may ultimately destroy her. One timeless summer, these two very different women discover the power of passion to heal - and the promise of hope.

After nearly a decade as a professional drummer, Diana Petrell leaves her rock-star life behind to continue her residency in emergency medicine. She's determined not to let anything stop her - not even falling in love with her aloof mentor, Dr. Emily Barnes. Emily has only ever focused on her career as a senior attending in the emergency department, and she isn't happy about having to babysit a resident with a 10-year gap in her resume, no matter how intriguing she is. But every time they work together, it's not just their patients' heartbeat that gets a little irregular.

There'd been a Rivers at the helm of Argyle Community Hospital for six generations, and Harper Rivers was set to take her father's place whenever he decided to hang up his shingle. Unfortunately, the board of directors had other ideas - they accepted a buyout offer from a health-care conglomerate with plans to close the hospital's doors to the community that depended on it. And Presley Worth, a high-powered corporate financier, came to town to oversee the closure.

Saxon Sinclair, the broodingly secretive Chief of Trauma at a busy Manhattan hospital is less than pleased to learn that her new resident is going to be the subject of a documentary film. The arrival of Jude Castle, a fiery independent filmmaker, soon sets sparks flying as the two driven women clash both personally and professionally. Both have secrets they have spent a lifetime guarding, and both have chosen careers over love.

When Laura Fry returns to her childhood home to care for her invalid mother, she hopes the writer’s block that has swallowed her writing career will disappear. She doesn’t plan on turning into a “yard girl” but her mother’s long neglected lawn beckons her to return it to the lush and colorful display it had been before her mother’s accident. She also doesn’t plan on making friends with the “nympho lesbian” next door but she finds it impossible not to watch the parade of playmates the neighbor brings to her pool.

Workaholic Detective Aiden Carlisle isn't looking for love - and certainly not at the law-enforcement seminar she reluctantly agreed to attend. But the first lecturer is not at all what she expected. Psychologist Dawn Kinsley has just found her place in life. After a failed relationship with a police officer, she has sworn never to get involved with another cop again, but she feels a connection to Aiden from the very first moment. Can Aiden keep herself from crossing the line when a brutal crime threatens to keep them apart before they've even gotten together?  

Jessica Spaulding works for Magnate, her father's multi-billion-dollar investment firm. But her life of privilege comes at a high personal cost, requiring her to keep aspects of herself under wraps. Magnate's new intern, TJ Blake, leads by example. The sole guardian of her teenage sister, TJ juggles work, graduate school, and debt. As TJ discovers there's more to Jess than she lets on, her pride and notions about wealth run headlong against her growing feelings for Jess.