Author Note

Before my debut novel That Despicable Rogue was accepted, I had written several others. There was one in particular languishing on my hard drive that I always believed had potential—a story about a female archaeologist and a tortured hero who was hiding from the world. Recently I dug it out, intending to tweak it, only to find the heroine was insipid, the hero unlikable and the middle of the story interminably slow.

I made a valiant stab at tweaking it. I really did. But after completely rewriting the opening chapters I conceded defeat. I realized that old story was unpublished for one very good and inescapable reason—it was awful!

But I still adored the premise.

So here is the all-new story of a quirky female archaeologist and a tortured hero who is hiding from the world. Max might start out gruff, but he has a noble streak a mile wide. And Effie is about as far from insipid as it is possible to get. In fact, her shenanigans drag the poor hero kicking and screaming back into the world regardless...