Category Archives: romantic suspense

NEW BOOK RELEASE

Hi Readers!!! I’m so excited to be releasing the 5th book in the St. John Sibling Series! For those of you who have been waiting for the culmination of this family series, thank you for your patience. It’s been a long time coming, longer than I’d anticipated. For those of you new to the series, each book stands alone. But, spoiler alert: there’s a big family reunion in this last book.

FOREVER KNIGHT: St. John Sibling Series, Book 5 to be released the FIRST WEEK OF NOVEMBER in digital format, paperback to follow. Find this FINAL installment of the series at Amazon Kindle, other formats to follow. 

Olympic level dressage rider, Gabrielle Varga, packed away all things childlike when her self-indulgent father chose his medieval-themed venue, The Joust, over his family. When she returns to nurse her ailing parent, it may take Renn St John, a stunt-riding Knight reminiscent of her father, to heal old wounds.

PETS FOR VETS program

50% of the pre-order sales of the romantic suspense/mystery box set  LOVE UNDER FIRE will be donated to the PETS FOR VETS program. Written by 20 authors, many of whom are USA Today and Wall Street Journal bestselling authors, the 21 stories are selling for $.99.  Release date is November 13th.
WHEN LOVE SPARKS DANGER, GET READY FOR AN EXPLOSION!
Twenty-one Wall Street Journal, USA Today, and other bestselling authors bring you a heart-pounding collection of 21 BRAND NEW, NEVER-BEFORE PUBLISHED stories all in one amazing romantic suspense limited time boxed set. 

From around the edges of every day existence lurks mystery, betrayal, greed, and death. 

With every turn of the page, feel the heat of adrenaline as fear lights up the night. Fight alongside the tenacious heroes and heroines as they battle for survival. They’ll put everything on the line to thwart the evil coming after them. 

They want to trust in the power of love. But is it enough?
Click on either image for more information.

A FEW JUDGING COMMENTS FOR SEEKING BLISS

 

From the Aspen Gold competition: I enjoyed the mistaken identity first meet and the plot twists about the gaming world that kept you guessing about what Robbie had gotten himself into.

I loved the beginning. Just too fun.

From The Write Touch Readers’ Award: “What a phenomenal read. Well written characters. A love story you could believe in. The heroine healing the hero. This one deserves to win.”

Seeking Bliss

I’m grateful for the readers who take the time to read, judge, and comment on my books.

DEBUT EVENT FOR THE VISITOR

Wednesday night, Written Dreams Publishing sponsored an author signing at The Attic bookstore in Green Bay. First picture is of the attending authors. I’m front row center with the cover of my just released paranormal romance, THE VISITOR.

Written Dreams Publishing was represented by a diverse group of authors. Back row L to R: Lexi Jordan with her debut novel, a dystopian futuristic, RESURFACED. Evan Michael Martin, author of a series of Wiccan & Sorcery books. Katerine Nohr, author of courtroom mysteries. Nathan Huff with his soon to be released historical fantasy. Front row L to R: Mary Grace Murphy, author of culinary mystery DEATH NOSH. Myself, Barbara Raffin, with the cover of my just released paranormal, THE VISITOR, and Gail F. Meintzer with his memoirs, DETOURS: A Memoir of a Railroad Man.

WRITTEN DREAMS PUBLISHING is making its mark as a publishing house unafraid of putting out unusual stories of exceptional quality. Of notable interest, Lexi Jordan, back row left, is a mere sixteen. Look for her distopian futuristic, RESURFACED, this fall.

Picture two: L to R: Brittiany Koren, owner/editor of WRITTEN DREAMS PUBLISHING & me, Barbara Raffin

Picture three includes the Publisher Koren and her WD staff of interior designer, copy editor, and cover artist.

 

PRE-ORDER THE VISITOR

Pre-order THE VISITOR from Written Dream Publishing
http://writtendreams.com/store/…

Nine months after he’s been cremated, Rebecca Tierney’s husband shows up in her living room…naked.

NEW COVER REVEAL

I’m so excited to share the cover of my upcoming release, THE VISITOR. Watch for release information later this summer from me and/or my publisher, Written Dreams Publishing.

Shape shifter or clone? Which has returned Rebecca Tierney’s husband’s body to her nine months after he was cremated?

Rebecca has returned to her husband’s family home on the largest, deepest, coldest, and most unforgiving of the Great Lakes, Superior, to dispose of his ashes. But the old house holds more than memories of a love ended too soon. A Visitor searches the old Victorian house perched on the bluffs of a lake that never gives up its dead for the key that will stop the dying in his world.

The secrets of the house cloistered from the world by towering pines and iron rich bluffs in an isolated finger of Michigan’s Upper Peninsula can free Rebecca from her grief and teach a man of logic that love is worth more than eternal life…if only she will open her mind and he his heart.

SAVING ANDI A WINNER!

Okay, it’s not new news. I posted about SAVING ANDI winning the Write Touch Readers’ Award when I was notified. I even posted a pic of my local Wisconsin Romance Writers of America group giving me a dozen red roses. But the celebration continued at the WisRWA conference May 19-20. Check out the beautiful plaque I got!

WHERE DID I GET THE IDEA TO WRITE SAVING ANDI?

Saving AndiSince winning the Write Touch Readers Award with SAVING ANDI, I’ve been thinking maybe you’d like to know what prompted me to write this romantic suspense.

It started with Andi Johanson making an appearance in CRAVING A HERO. She’s the character who plows out Kelly’s family camp when Kelly and Dane get snowed in (don’t get me started on the bombshell that forced togetherness exposed) and later for their Valentine Day winter wedding.

Initially, Andi was a guy with a different that was going to make a walk on and never be heard from again. But this young woman living hand to mouth reached out from the back of my brain and I knew SHE was supposed to be driving that beat up old truck with the plow. When Andi let me see into her past–see what a hard childhood she’d had, I knew she had a story that needed to be told.

In my last blog post about SAVING ANDI, I mentioned Andi’s rough childhood. Cruel is a more appropriate adjective what with an alcoholic father who viewed women as little more than chattel to do his bidding and an older brother following in his path. Her mother’s premature death left Andi to take on the household duties and to mother her younger brother. Put them all in an isolated cabin on a wooded lake living hand to mouth because Dad couldn’t hold down a job and you have a recipe for everything from poaching to outright burglary.

This is the environment that shaped Andi, the only saving grace her need to protect her younger brother—to see him free of the harshness of their lives. Her mother had instilled at least that much integrity in her before she died.

But a drug addicted older brother, a protective young brother, and the law all came together to one fateful afternoon, shattering the one hope she had in life; that her baby brother could escape their wretched life. It left her with the burden of guilt and a big distaste for cops.

A year and a half with her baby brother dead and big brother in prison, Andi has given up on life–hope…until she finds Cole McCall, a man with a bullet hole in him and no memory. Prime for a dangerous liaison, she takes him in, nurses him back to health, and hides him from the authorities. Too bad whoever wants Cole dead are still tracking him.

Find SAVING ANDI at most online book sellers, including:

Amazon 

Barnes & Noble

iTunes 

 

SAVING ANDI WINS WRITE TOUCH READERS’ AWARD!

Having been a finalist in this prestigious competition in the past, I am thrilled to win with SAVING ANDI. This Romantic Suspense  is the first of my new spin-off series, St. John Sibling: FRIENDS. That my Great Green Bay Area Wisconsin Romance Writers of America group would honor me with a beautiful bouquet of roses puts me over the moon. Big THANK YOU to my fellow writers for your thoughtfulness. Having a community of fellow writers to share the good times with is priceless. And thank you to all of you readers who judged SAVING ANDI in THE WRITE TOUCH READERS’ AWARD CONTEST and found it worthy.


For those of you who haven’t enjoyed reading SAVING ANDI yet, let me share a little about the story and its characters:

Cole McCall is shot, dives off a bluff, and hits his head. Now he has amnesia and can’t remember who wants him dead or why. He doesn’t even know which side of the law he operates on.

Fortunately for him, Andi Johanson finds him at the camp he’s broken into. Given her family history of being on the wrong side of the law, her distrust of lawmen, and a guilt she carries over her younger brother’s death, she takes Cole home rather than to a hospital and nurses him.

All that togetherness feeds their attraction to each other. But their love is jeopardized by his unknown past, her secrets, and the fact whoever wants Cole dead has tracked him to Andi’s cabin.

CHECK my FB author page for snippets about what inspired me to write this story and what shaped these characters.

VISIT MY WEB SITE to read excerpts from all my books and learn more about me. Dog lovers, there’s a surprise waiting there for you. But above all know this about me. I love to write romances that will make you laugh and cry.

BUY “SAVING ANDI” from most online stores including: Amazon, Barnes & Noble, D2D, and Apple iBooks