"Gwynne creates a fictional world of ideas and passions...truly modern women and men struggling with a torrent of issues...delivered in accomplished prose that challenges us to think, feel, and imagine." --Robert Fleming, author of The Wisdom of the Elders

After an absence of sixteen years, Susan Pettiford has come home to North Carolina, this time for good. Thanks to an inheritance, she can start her own interior design business. But it's not quite the life Susan hoped for. Single at thirty-four, she now faces a challenge that forces her to accept one of her dreams will never come true. Battling sadness, Susan decides to engage in a fling...

Architect Lucas Hamilton couldn't be more surprised by Susan's dinner invitation--after all, she's the same woman who clearly rebuffed his advances at a recent party. Still, his curiosity overcomes his doubts. The result is a night of seduction neither can forget yet neither intends to repeat. While Susan focuses on her work and a new friendship with her troubled neighbor Cassie, Lucas focuses on his goal to become more wealthier than the biological father he resents for being absent from his life. Then, when Lucas's father resurfaces, he finds himself turning to Susan for counsel. As the complexities of family, work, and their undeniable attraction lead their paths to cross repeatedly, their feelings for each other strengthen. But the secret Susan is hiding from Lucas may destroy any future they share...

"Touching, thought-provoking." --Kimberla Lawson Roby, New York Times bestselling author on If You Walked in My Shoes

"A page-turner, and it's one that deserves to be read in a few sittings." --QBR, The Black Book Review on Blues From Down Deep

"An unforgettable read."--Donna Hill, author of If I Could on When Twilight Comes

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After a devastating tragedy sent her into a severe depression, Justine Montgomery gave up her newborn daughter for adoption. Realizing her mistake too late, she discovered her daughter had been adopted by divorced journalist Duncan Banks—and that he was looking for a nanny. Without revealing her identity, Justine took the job and was determined that securing her child's future would be the only passion in her life. But she never anticipated Duncan's growing suspicions about her—or the powerful attraction between them.

A poverty-ridden childhood and a failed marriage left Duncan Banks unwilling to trust in anyone but himself. It didn't take him long to realize that there was something not quite right about his daughter's otherwise perfect nanny. But in trying to uncover Justine's secrets, Duncan soon found his own vulnerabilities were at stake. With divided loyalties and an unexpected passion threatening their fragile relationship, Justine and Duncan must risk revealing more than they ever imagined to achieve what they never dreamed possible…....

Out of deep affection and loneliness, schoolteacher Melinda Rodgers married a wealthy older man. Now a widow at twenty-nine, she is stunned to learn that his will requires her to set up a foundation and remarry within the year—or lose her inheritance to a charity of Blake Hunter's choice. a charity of Blake Hunter s choice.

As executor of the will, handsome, no-nonsense Blake insists that Melinda carry out the terms of her inheritance to the letter. But she would rather give up the entire fortune than marry again for anything other than love. And judging by the dangerous, unfulfilled yearning that has simmered between the two of them for years, Blake may be the man who can bring her the deepest, most passionate kind of love…or the most heartbreaking betrayal of all....

After a bitter divorce, all cookbook author Allison Sawyer needs is some peace--and to lose herself in a kitchen, whipping up delectable meals. But the rustic retreat in the mountains offers more than seclusion. It offers one friendly and very fine neighbor.

Torn between her attraction to Brock Lightner and her reluctance to get close to another man--especially one she suspects might be working for her powerful ex--Allison keeps her distance. But the remote, idyllic setting and Brock's rugged sensuality are an enticing combination.

A private investigator looking to make a fresh start, Brock is intrigued by Allison. Who or what is she running from? And how can he convince her that he'll do anything to protect her...and to have the chance to love her?

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Children's advocate Tyra Cunningham hasn't had time to think about men. After devoting her life to raising her younger brother and sister, it's now her turn to shine. But when her matchmaking siblings fix her up with hunky Byron Wright, doubts begin to surface. Is the single father and sweet, sexy powerhouse attorney too good to be true?

Byron never dreamed he'd hit it off with Tyra! But being on opposite sides of an issue could derail their relationship before it gets off the ground. Now, as the controversy heats up, tempers—and passions—flare. The jury may still be out on Byron's future with Tyra, unless he can convince her that winning means nothing without having someone to share it with.…...

Amanda Ross is thrilled when she is appointed junior high school principal in Caution Point, N.C. But her promotion will only be a pipe dream if the board of education discovers that she's pregnant—and single. She never expected her baby's father to desert her, but explanations won't satisfy a small town's rumor mill. A husband is what she needs, and handsome music engineer Marcus Hickson looks like the answer to her problem.

Embittered by his ex-wife's selfish and cruel behavior, Marcus told himself he'd never marry again. That is, until doctors inform him that his injured daughter needs immediate surgery, and Amanda—financially independent because of her inheritance—offers to pay the medical bills if he'll be her husband. Desperate, Marcus agrees, as long as their "arrangement" is strictly business. But days and nights under the same roof soon ignite mutual desire. Now Marcus and Amanda's marriage of convenience has become an affair of the heart…and a deception that endangers everything they hold dear....

As the head of a highly regarded child welfare agency, Veronica Overton is one of the most respected women in Baltimore. But when a child placed in foster care is harmed, Veronica is criticized in the media by fiery children's advocate Schyler Henderson. With her reputation in ruins and her confidence shattered, Veronica sets out to rebuild her life. Yet her search leads to family secrets she never knew—and ignites a smoldering attraction to Schyler that she is determined to resist.

Ever since his own traumatic childhood, Schyler has been driven to help children caught in an uncaring system. When he learns that Veronica is actually a kind, capable woman, he's determined to help her uncover the truth about her family and reclaim her good name. Not even the conflict between them can cool their fire and dampen their passion as they battle distrust and pain to save a love they never dared dream of…....

No one brings home the power of family to shape and heal us like national bestselling author Gwynne Forster. Now, in BLUES FROM DOWN DEEP, she crafts an unforgettable story of one woman’s search for the family she’s never known—but whose pull she’ll never be able to escape again…

BLUES FROM DOWN DEEP

Regina Pearson has never really known any family other than her late, widowed father. He cut ties with his family in North Carolina long ago and moved to Hawaii with Regina’s mother, then raised Regina alone following his wife’s accidental death. Living among the native Hawaiians so different from herself created in Regina an aching for people to call her own. Regina finds among her late parents’ effects a letter written forty years earlier that leads to her mother’s sister, Maude, a been-there, done-that blues singer, and her nonagenarian maternal grandfather, head of the extended family in New Bern, North Carolina.

For Regina, going to North Carolina to see Aunt Maude is the chance of a lifetime—an opportunity to bond with the people who share her roots, her blood, and her heart, and find the pieces of her she’s been lonely for all these years. But the big, warm, loving family Regina’s dreamed about is nowhere in sight. Instead, she finds uncles, aunts, and cousins torn apart by secrets and lies, petty squabbles and heartbreaking wounds stretching back for years—a contentious clan ready to draw Regina front-and-center into their troubles whether she wants to be there or not. And just as her new family conflict threatens to overwhelm her, Regina discovers a passionate connection she hadn’t counted on with a man who’s ready to show her what real family’s all about—and what it takes to keep the love flowing.

Filled with heartfelt wit and homespun wisdom, BLUES FROM DOWN DEEP is a joyous reminder that love comes when we least expect it, from every side of life, and the family that makes us crazy can also lead us home to the place where we belong....

Can Della Murray overcome her childhood fears of poverty and adversity in order to find love? The fast-paced world at the United Nations sets the stage for this exciting love story....

Kisha Moran knows next to nothing about Craig Jackson--which seems to be just the way he likes it. The TV-news anchor arrived at Kisha's dental practice for emergency treatment and ever since, she's been unable to get him out of her mind. Her body's reaction to him is undeniable, and their first incredible night together tells her it's mutual. But getting this sexy, enigmatic man to open up would take a Christmas miracle...and Kisha isn't waiting for one of those.

Craig has no time for the string of women who'll do anything to get close to a celebrity. Maybe Kisha's different, maybe not. But suddenly, brushing her off isn't a problem--because feisty Kisha has gone ice-cold on him. And with the holidays approaching, Craig realizes that the only gift he wants is another chance to show her the man behind the mystery....

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