Böcker av Gail MacMillan

Lottie Danvers is beautiful and mysterious. No man can resist her charms, though she holds all men at bay. But who is she, and what is the possibly dangerous past she wants to leave behind? It will take an exceptional man to accept her as she is. Reverend Jack Wallace is intrigued by Lottie. A widower with a sixteen-year-old daughter, he has bee...

For the past fifteen years, I've been writing Christmas stories for various magazines. Each year as I sit down to compose yet another, I feel a pleasant warmth flood into my heart. Each year I draw on memories to inspire my tales and carry me into the true spirit of Christmas, but it was only last year I realized it was through my stories that my heart re-discovers the wonder that is Christmas year after year.

After losing his family in the Scottish Clearances, Harry Wallace becomes infamous for his clever revenge on the ruling English upper class, but his success can last only so long. With the shadow of a noose hanging over him, he barely escapes with his life and sails for British North America and a town he's heard of but never seen. In New Brunswick, Maggie Fowler needs a champion, someone willing to fight for the home and holdings she and her seven stepchildren are trying to defend against a murderous, power-hungry enemy who has already killed the children's father. Will footloose, devil-may-care Highland Harry meet her needs?

Trapped in a life of 1820s drudgery in her brother's tavern, Heather Grey is desperate to escape not only the bleak future of the rural English inn but the brutish attentions of the lout who is determined to marry her. When her brother is found dead, there is even more reason to flee, and she and her upper-class friend Julia make plans. In the wilderness of British North America, Dr. William MacTavish makes a wager with his brother Jamie, a ship's captain, that he can't find him the perfect assistant-strong for farm work, clever for learning medicine, and literate to keep the doctor's accounts. He forgets to specify that the assistant should be male. When Jamie returns with a tavern wench wanted for murder back in England and her wild but high-born friend, the good doctor sees only charges of abduction and nooses around both his and Jamie's necks as a future.

Beautiful, vivacious Emma Prescott has a love-'em-and-leave-'em reputation. Fact is, Emma's holding off for a hero. When she moves to a cabin at wilderness Loon Lake and meets her one neighbour, biology professor Frasier MacKenzie, he's still just another guy, even with his killer blue eyes and a body that just won't quit...until he rescues her and her Pug from one danger after another, from drowning to wild animals to a pair of armed and angry drug dealers. Then he definitely falls into hero territory. But the professor has no intention of filling the role of white knight in Emma's life. All he wants is to be rid of her and her annoying little dog so he can get on with his "research." In fact, he's ordered to get rid of them whether he wants to or not. Looks as if Emma may have to go on holding off for a hero...

Big-city lawyer Michaela Dunn stepped in to give her aunt & uncle a break from their bed-and-breakfast lodge in the wilds of northern New Brunswick, but the neighborhood bully from her schooldays taunts and torments her and wants to put the lodge out of business. What is she to do? Rescue comes in a strange form when a ghostly apparition points a finger. Travis MacDonald wants only to find peace away from city life, secluded in his cabin, checking trap lines, mushing his dogsled to and from town for supplies. Finding a damsel in distress on the trail isn't on his list. Neither is being arrested for murder. Undeniable attraction has Michaela and Travis working together to solve the mystery, hampered by lies, jealousy, and someone who would kill again to keep them quiet.

Starr Reynolds is determined to fight her way out of a life of poverty and violence, and she's not above using her beauty and feminine wiles. But when she marries into wealth and position, she discovers the path leads to despair for a love she can never have, as well as a growing awareness of the ruthlessness of her new family's patriarch. Starr will do as he dictates or find herself thrown out to once more fend for herself. Charismatic, darkly fascinating, Captain Barret Madison has earned his place as commander of a fleet of merchant ships, but no woman has ever tamed him. With the presence of Starr on his ship, his emotions are stirred, but she is promised to another. When she becomes the wife of his employer's son, how can he do more than wish them well?

Youthful dreams of romance shattered, Allison Armstrong is a hard-nosed businesswoman with no illusions of happily ever after for her future. Then her grandfather's will leaves her bound in a property settlement to the very man who destroyed her teenage fantasies. She has no interest in the remote land and wants to sell it off. Yet with all the legal resources at her disposal, Allison can't escape the web of the will's provisions. Heath Oakes was just a skinny teenager from the city the last time he saw Allison. Now he's just as determined to maintain the estate as a natural preserve as Allison is to get rid of it to developers. Hoping to alter her opinion, he shanghais her into a canoe voyage through the wild, pristine beauty of the area. Will the beauty of untouched wilderness help her heart remember the sweetness of stolen teenage kisses?

Captain Caleb Cameron and First Mate Duncan MacDougal need money to set themselves up as legitimate privateers during the war between the British and the new United States of America. With the prizes they'll conquer, they will be rich, so they risk the noose and accept a large sum to shanghai a princess and her lady's maid. What they get is a pair of brazen, notorious women who will stop at nothing to get what they desire. Annie Puddin, lady's maid, has had adventures, riding as highwayman's assistant by night, learning how to be a lady by day. So when she and her friend Ginny, a housemaid, spend an evening dressing up in the absence of their new mistress and dreaming of being rich, the champagne and caviar are nothing unusual-but being snatched and tossed out the window is a new experience, and there are more to come.

Museum archivist Danielle Burgess is headed for a romantic weekend getaway with the new man in town when she suddenly finds herself a fugitive running from the law, accused of stealing valuable antiquities. She doesn't question the ease with which she is provided an alternate identity, a secondhand car, and a new destination, but will she be safe hiding out on Phantom Island? A charismatic ghost on a black horse haunts the beaches at night, and a phantom ship of fire appears offshore at random. As if that weren't enough, Andrew Drack, blind and lame from an accident, convinces Dani he could be a modern-day Dracula in his eerily decrepit Victorian house on the cliff. His wolf-like seeing-eye dog adds to his haunting image, but his friendship with the local constable is the most frightening aspect of this mysterious real-life man who threatens to overwhelm all her inhibitions with his sensual charms.

A tribute to a dozen wonderful dogs who never failed to astonish, delight, exasperate, humble, inspire, comfort, and love the woman who was their caregiver.

In 1815, Isabella Marston, a refined English young lady, is eager to escape her carping mother and constantly quarreling older sisters. Seeing a newspaper advertisement seeking a "lady wife" for a wealthy North American lumberman, she sends a letter and receives a marriage proposal in response. With her maid, her horse, and her dog, she crosses the Atlantic with high expectations, only to receive a heart-wrenching shock on her arrival in the colony of Riverhaven, New Brunswick. Exhibiting the manners of a barbarian, her prospective groom is brawny, bearded, long-haired, and clad in buckskins. His foreman, Fletcher Atkin, wrote the ad and the letters to Isabella, and he draws her unwilling attention despite his reputation as a gambler, drunkard, and lothario. He at least treats her as a gentleman should, and she wonders about his hidden background. As the summer progresses, love blooms in duplicate despite a charging bear, a kidnapping, and a brewing war between lumber barons.

Determined to avoid an arranged marriage, adventurous Lady Anna Spencer decides to run off to join her sister in America. To this end, she enlists the help of the handsome Scottish head groom on her father's estate, but this escapade may prove more challenging than her ladyship expected.The groom, known simply as Lex, is a fugitive from the army, having deserted in order to bring Lady Anna's severely wounded brother safely home from France. With the redcoats hot on his trail, he agrees to accompany Lady Anna, only to learn she's also on a quest for sunken treasure from the court of Louis XVI.Arriving in Riverhaven, New Brunswick, they suddenly find themselves in the midst of a collection of rogues even more notorious than themselves. Will these outlaws be of any help against the problems that have followed Lex and Lady Anna from England?

Veterinarian Dr. Madison Todd is a woman on a crusade to shut down her town's major industry-a pulp and paper mill. She believes emissions from it killed her father and no one is going to stop her...not even a handsome blue-eyed cowboy who's the embodiment of all of her romantic fantasies. Alberta ranch foreman Clay Archer, who has recently inherited the mill, is just as determined to keep it open. He plans to use the profits to build a state-of-the-art rehab center in his mother's memory for her sacrifice in marrying the miserly former mill owner to provide a better life for Clay. Both antagonists have vowed to accomplish their goals-they're resolved nothing will stop them. But they didn't count on what happens when a blue-eyed cowboy meets a green-eyed crusader and a wild attraction erupts between this pair of sworn enemies.

"Nothing but a counterfeit cowboy." That's how veterinarian and horse farm owner Dr. Shelby Masters contemptuously describes the number-one male country music singer. Strapped for cash when her prize stallion is stolen, she is forced to spend six weeks with the man, teaching him enough to do his own riding in the western movie he's signed for. Jordan Brooks can sing and play a guitar, but he can't ride a horse. He has a month and a half in which to learn, and he might just give strait-laced and distanced Shelby a few lessons of his own. For instance, how to make the most of a warm summer's night on a moonlit beach...

When a thief and a notorious privateer get together, there is no doubt sparks will fly. With a necklace that once belonged to Marie Antoinette hidden in her bodice and a pack of hounds at her heels, Emma Prescott flees from the prospect of a loathsome marriage. In the storm-blackened night, a dark-cloaked man on an ebony horse offers assistance, and Emma regards the gesture as a blessing, little knowing her fate will eventually be tied to that of an infamous privateer. Eager to get back to London and his fiancée, to set sail for home, Captain Morgan Reynolds helps the mysterious runaway only because of his Highland hatred for her English pursuers...and something about the girl herself. But will Morgan and Emma ever learn to be honest with each other?

Shy, introverted romance writer Etta Prescott is a huge fan of the number-one country singer Travis Masters, but she never dreamed she'd actually meet him, not until her twin sister gets involved. A trip to the Calgary Stampede and a romantic ride in the Alberta moonlight with handsome, affable Travis leads Etta to believe romance isn't limited to other people or the pages of her books. Travis Masters has it all-successful singing career, top of the charts, scheduled European tour. But with all the women throwing themselves at him, he still hasn't found the one who makes his heart sing. Not until one morning he happens on a young lady wanting to learn how to ride a horse. But why were a couple of Mounties escorting her and her sister to the airport? Getting involved with someone with a questionable reputation could ruin his clean country-boy image, as his gung-ho agent keeps reminding him…

Is Louisa Abbott a witch? The villagers, who saw her burn the ship where her doctor husband's body lay with others who had died of an unnamed illness, believe so. Even worse, she communicates with animals. No one, other than her Native friends, is interested in her healing abilities, so she lives alone, companioned by a wolf who owes his survival to her.Brodie MacMillan is a Highland bandit with the New Brunswick law hot on his trail, despite the injustice of the accusation against him. When he arrives at Louisa's remote cabin desperately wounded and nearly frozen stiff, her magic might save his life, but how can he rescue her from the wrath of the villagers and then from the vengeful woman who is out to make him pay for past deeds?

When a bull-riding accident ends Ross Turner's rodeo career, he hermits himself away on a remote farm in New Brunswick. Depressed and disheartened, he's determined to leave his cowboy life behind. Beautiful Jessi Wallace, sent to help him out of his crisis, is resolved that he won't do any such thing. She has healed dispirited horses; she can bring him back from his defeat. And living alone in the farmhouse with him doesn't bother her. After their childhood together, she feels certain handsome, charismatic Ross holds no romantic threat to her. Recently betrayed by her rodeo cowboy fiance, she's not about to let another rodeo rider into her heart.