Reader Reviews for The Island

The reader reviews on Goodreads for The Island have been overwhelmingly positive, and I can’t be happier! Was I worried? No, not me!

Well, maybe a little…

I knew when I was writing it that The Island was darker than anything I’d written before – not in content, because I kept the specifics of the rape and torture off the page, but certainly psychologically. I put Lee in a very dark place from the beginning, and put the readers right there in his head with him.

I would definitely like to revisit Shaw and Lee some day, but for now some other stories are calling me. I’m thinking London, gas lamps, frock coats, those canes with swords in them, and maybe even some magic, but we’ll see. 

The Island is here!

I'm delighted to announce that The Island is out today. You can buy it here at Loose Id. 

Shaw has made a lucrative living doing deals with the devil but now, after falling for the tortured captive of a dangerous crime boss, it's not just his job he's risking by getting too close -- it's his life. 

Today when I was at the beach I found a sand dollar. It's sitting on my desk now, reminding me of my guys on their tropical island, of a nightmare masquerading as a paradise, and of how sometimes we put our hope in the craziest things.  

I hope you enjoy it. 

I also hope you like to be surprised! 

Cover Art for The Island

Here is the cover of The Island. The artist is Anne Cain, and I think she's done a fantastic job. I can't wait to share this story with you! 

The Island will be available on January 10 from Loose Id. 

I'm very excited to tell you that my next novel, The Island will be coming out in the New Year, from Loose Id. It's set on a Fijian island that looks a little like this: 

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But it's not all sand and sunshine. In many ways, the tone of The Island is darker than Tribute, but I hope that you will fall a little bit in love with my two guys --  one, who tells himself he's there for the money  and everything else is none of his business; and the other, who knows from experience that the most painful thing in the world is hope. 

Here is the blurb: 

Shaw is in Fiji to sell a stolen painting to a crime boss. It will be the deal of a lifetime, if he can pull it off. He isn’t expecting Vornis to parade his latest toy around in front of him - a captured DEA agent whose time is running out. It’s none of Shaw’s business, and it doesn’t matter that under any other circumstances Lee would be exactly Shaw’s type: he’s young, he’s hot, and he might even have a personality if they hadn’t beaten it out of him. Too bad there’s no way Lee is getting off the island. Too bad there’s nothing Shaw can do for him. And too bad there are some lines that even Shaw won’t cross -- keeping his hands off Lee proves harder than he thinks, but Shaw’s not stupid enough to fall for the tortured captive of a dangerous crime boss. If he does, it won’t be just his job he'll be risking -- it will be his life. 

I can't wait to share the cover art with you! 

I saw a fairytale kiss

When I was a young girl, probably about ten or eleven, I was on a train going through the rainforest to Kuranda, in tropical North Queensland. The journey was wonderful and magical, and I was spellbound. 

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There were two young men in the same carriage. I was eleven -- young enough to imagine they were fairytale princes, and old enough to feel awkwardly shy because they were so good looking and I had braces and puppy fat. And then -- I remember it just as the train passed the waterfall -- those two young men kissed. One of the other passengers swore and left the carriage. 

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I asked my mother later what was wrong with what those boys had done. 

"Nothing," she told me. "Loving someone else isn't wrong." 

And how could it be? We were in an enchanted forest, they were handsome fairytale princes, and I was the plain little girl who had glimpsed something magical. 

If I grew up to write m/m erotica, maybe I can trace it all back to those boys on the train. When I was eleven they were beautiful. Now they would be hot. But underneath all of that there has to be a love story. There always is, otherwise it isn't magic. 

And what I saw was magic.