Connected Book Series

The Eastman Family and Friends series
Living Large series

The Eastman Family and Friends series

These books are loosely connecting and all stand alone, and can be easily read and understood out of order. There are a few appearances by other characters in some of the book, but definitely not a cast of dozens to keep up with such as in some series. In a timeline chronology, this is how they go.

1. HEART’S DESIRE is the first book I wrote about the Eastman Family. The heroine is Kara, a 30-year-virgin virgin breaking free of her religious fundamentalist past in a rather spectacular fasion and the hero, Brent, an aide to an U.S. legislator, who unbeknowst to anyone, happens to be Kara’s father. Kara’s motive is revenge on her father, but then the hot desire for revenge fades before the blaze of the passion she experiences with her father’s right hand man. Secondary characters are Taylor, the heroine of A MAGICAL MOMENT, Kara’s wisecracking, psychic best friend. Tiffany, the heroine of NEVER TOO LATE FOR LOVE, Kara’s abused stepmother with a taste for her liquor,and finally Jenny, the heroine of TOO HOT TO HANDLE, Kara’s half sister who has a unrequited hopeless jones for Brent. This family puts the “funk” in dysfunctional. Heart’s Desire is a tongue in cheek rendition of the “soap opera” genre in books–very dramatic, fast moving if you like that sort of thing, or campy, if it’s a type of book you don’t often read.

2. A MAGICAL MOMENT features Taylor, the psychic lawyer for a batter woman’s shelter and Stone, a private detective need to solve the mystery of why the abusers of the shelter’s residents are dying horrifically one-by-one before the shelter gets closed down for good. In A MAGICAL MOMENT, we touch base with Brent and Kara, and get to see more of Tiffany. We meet Jason, Taylor’s father and Tiffany’s love interest in NEVER TOO LATE FOR LOVE. Jared is Taylor’s brother, the hero of TOO HOT TO HANDLE.

3. THE LOOK OF LOVE features a 200+ pound heroine, Carmel and her love interest, Steve. Jason makes a cameo here as the best friend of Steve’s father. Carmel’s best friend is Jasmine Flynn, the heroine of LOVE’S POTIONS

4. NEVER TOO LATE FOR LOVE heroine is the 47-year-old Tiffany, Kara’s stepmother and the hero is Jason, Taylor’s father. They have a second chance at love romance. They attend Marvin’s and Edna’s (from THE LOOK OF LOVE) wedding. Taylor and Stone’s wedding also takes place. Jason’s son Jared, the hero of TOO HOT TO HANDLE is introduced and characters from the same book–the heroine, Jenny and her best friend Stacie. Also one of NEVER TOO LATE’S secondary characters who makes a cameo appearance, is a secondary love interest in TOO HOT, Travis .

5. In TOO HOT TO HANDLE we revisit Tiffany and Jason, and meet Jenny from HEART’S DESIRE in a different light. Jenny finally cones to terms with a terrible mistake she made in HEART’S DESIRE as she falls in love with Taylor’s brother, Jared. TOO HOT wraps up with a definite chick lit feel and a cast of strong female “friend” secondary characters.

6. In LOVE’S POTION Jasmine Flynn is the best friend of Carmel Matthews in THE LOOK OF LOVE. Carmel and her children also appear briefly in this book

The Living Large Series by Rochelle Alers, Donna Hill, Brenda Jackson, Francis Ray and myself, each an anthology of four unconnected novellas featuring full-figured women.

1. LIVING LARGE
2. A WHOLE LOTTA LOVE
3. BIG GIRLS DON’T CRY

IN MY DREAMS and LOVE’S POTION are connected books. Both paranormal romances are about the couple destined to be the parents of The Chosen. The Chosen are the babies who eventually fight the demons at the Last War. The demons are desperate to kill these babies before they grow up fulfill prophecy. The parents of The Chosen all have talents that enable them to protect their offspring. . . and themselves. Bless and her family from IN MY DREAMS appear in LOVE’S POTION.