The first book in this series was written early in 2004, the year I founded Bold Strokes Books. The setting was a few blocks away from where I lived at the time—a “city” neighborhood whose spirit of community I hoped to capture. That book, Fated Love, was also one of the first medical romances I crafted, and at the time, I had no idea how my interest in writing medical communities and geographic ones would gradually blend to culminate in the Rivers community romance series. Writing the sixth book in this extended PMC series has allowed me to keep the stories current in time and spirit, and given me the pleasure of revisiting one of my favorite universes. As in the Rivers series, the hospital is modeled after a real one—one founded in 1850 as the Female Medical College of Pennsylvania. This was the first medical school in the world to admit and award women the MD degree and remained solely a women’s medical school until late in the twentieth century when it became co-ed and eventually merged with several other medical schools in Philadelphia.
Thanks to the many people who helped me revisit this world—Ruth Sternglantz and Stacia Seaman for editorial expertise; Paula Tighe for enthusiastic beta-reading and style advice; Sandy Lowe, for invaluable personal and business support. And to my wife Lee, for always seeing the positive. Amo te.