Huge Sale, Check it out! All .99 Each

 Available from 5 Prince Publishing www.5princebooks.com  books@5princebooks.com

Genre: Fiction/Romance/Historical

Release Date: May 1, 2014

Digital ISBN-10: 1631120328 ISBN-13: 978-1-63112-032-9

Print ISBN-10: 1631120336 ISBN-13: 978-1-63112-033-6

Purchase link : www.5princebooks.com/buy.html

The Ice Goddess

In the bitter winter of 1752, Evangeline Grey is determined to return to London, claim her inheritance, and lead a solitary, uneventful existence. York holds too many sad memories for her now, and she's ready to leave it behind. 

When she finds out that her guardian has designs on her -- and her pending fortune -- Evangeline manages to escape, but her journey south is fraught with uncertainty and danger. Mourning the murder of her brother, still reeling from her aunt’s recent death, and close to penniless until she finds her way back to London, she's never been more alone. 

And then, on a desolate Northern English moor, she meets a benevolent stranger who changes everything.

Kendall Beaumont is a man running from a few demons of his own. On his way to his home in remote Almsborough, he stops to help the pretty, young runaway. The future seems fairly bleak for the both of them -- until he decides to make her an offer she can't refuse...

Available from 5 Prince Publishing www.5princebooks.com  books@5princebooks.com

Genre: Romance/Contemporary

Release Date: October 2012

Digital ISBN 13: 978-1-939217-04-2 ISBN 10: 1939217040

Print ISBN 13: 978-1-939217-05-9 ISBN 10: 1939217059

Purchase link : www.5princebooks.com/buy.htm

First Kiss

Promises made as children have a funny way of working themselves into reality when fate is orchestrated for them as adults.

Olivia Baker wants the best life for her young son, and that meant raising him in the small town she grew up in, but where her past still haunts her and rumors drip from the tongues of the local gossips.

Cade Carter moved away from Aspen Creek the moment they handed him his high school diploma. Now a washed up ex-professional football player he’s headed back after his father’s death to settle the estate of the man he’d left and forgotten about.

The friendship Cade and Olivia shared so many years ago is just now a haunting memory. People changed and moved on. Secrets were kept and loved ones around them buried with them. But when they are thrown back together to face the reasons their friendship faltered, and forces greater than them are in charge, anything can happen with the person whom they shared their First Kiss with.

 Available from 5 Prince Publishing www.5princebooks.com  books@5princebooks.com

Genre: Romance/Contemporary

Release Date: March 29, 2013

Digital ISBN 13:978-1-939217-22-6 ISBN: 10:1939217229

Purchase link : www.5princebooks.com/buy.htm

Unexpected Admirer

The bright lights of stardom are sometimes too bright.

Jesse Charles, the chart topping, pop-sensation has fallen head over heels in love with small town biology teacher Melissa Mathews. However, not only does their age difference worry her, she’s a widowed mother of a young son who needs her attention. But her unexpected admirer isn’t one to give up so easily. He’s willing to give up everything just to make them a family and settle in her home town—but his manager and mother have a different opinion.

Jesse will have to convince Melissa that he can be the perfect husband and father before he loses her—and loses his career over stories circulated by the easily persuaded media.

Available from 5 Prince Publishing www.5princebooks.com  books@5princebooks.com

Genre: Fiction, Romance, Contemporary

Release Date: September 4, 2013

Digital ISBN 13:978-1-939217-75-2 ISBN 10: 1-939217-75-X

Print ISBN 13:978-1-939217-76-9 ISBN 10: 1-939217-76-8

Purchase link : www.5princebooks.com/buy.html

On Thin Ice:

Malory (Wil) Wilson needed to recover from her divorce. A nice transition from West Coast life back to Aspen Creek, the small Colorado mountain town she grew up in would put things straight. The plan was foolproof until she discovered that the first man to break her heart, retired NHL player Christopher Douglas, also returned to Aspen Creek.

Christopher had taken enough hits in his career. He didn’t know his heart would take one when Wil returned to Aspen Creek. Hell bent on winning her over after having broken her heart years earlier, he will risk everything to get her back—including his life.

When the ice rink Malory’s father built faces being shut down the couple find themselves working together to save the business. However, forgiveness and newfound love just might come to a crashing end when Christopher’s archenemy skates into town bent on revenge.

Skating on thin ice, without a guardian angel looking out for Christopher, Malory could lose him forever.  

Available from 5 Prince Publishing www.5princebooks.com  books@5princebooks.com

Genre: Fiction, Romance, Contemporary

Release Date: April 24, 2014

Digital ISBN 13: 978-1-63112-034-3 ISBN: 10: 1631120344

Print ISBN-10: 1631120352 ISBN-13: 978-1-63112-035-0

Purchase link : www.5princebooks.com/buy.html

Indomitable Spirit:

Caught between the traditional Korean culture of her mother and the fun-loving Irish heritage of her father, Kym O'Byrne has never felt truly at home ... until she inherits the O'Byrne Karate School in the sleepy Colorado town of Aspen Creek. Staying focused and disciplined is her game, but something buried deep within the eyes of the grouchy handyman, John Larson—father of some of her most promising students—threatens to turn her strict world on its end ...

Bernadette Marie has been an avid writer since the early age of 13, when she’d fill notebook after notebook with stories that she’d share with her friends. Her journey into novel writing started the summer before eighth grade when her father gave her an old typewriter. At all times of the day and night you would find her on the back porch penning her first work, which she would continue to write for the next 22 years.

In 2007—after marriage, filling her chronic entrepreneurial needs, and having five children—Bernadette began to write seriously with the goal of being published. That year she wrote 12 books. In 2009 she was contracted for her first trilogy and the published author was born. In 2011 she (being the entrepreneur that she is) opened her own publishing house, 5 Prince Publishing, and has released her own contemporary titles. She also quickly began the process of taking on other authors in other genres.

In 2012 Bernadette Marie began to find herself on the bestsellers lists of iTunes, Amazon, and Barnes and Noble to name a few. Her office wall is lined with colorful PostIt notes with the titles of books she will be releasing in the very near future, with hope that they too will grace the bestsellers lists.

Bernadette spends most of her free time driving her kids to their many events—usually hockey. She is also an accomplished martial artist with a second degree black belt in Tang Soo Do. An avid reader, she enjoys contemporary romances with humor and happily ever afters.

Aspen Creek Box Set~Books 1-4 all together, at a nice price.

Aspen Creek Boxed Set 1

Just $9.99 Wow! What a Deal!

Available from 5 Prince Publishing

www.5princebooks.com  books@5princebooks.com

Genre: Fiction, Romance, Contemporary

Release Date: May 29, 2014

Digital ONLY 

ISBN: 13:978-1-63112-057-2 ISBN: 10:1631120573

Purchase link : http://www.5princebooks.com/buy-links.html

Aspen Creek Boxed Set 1

Aspen Creek, Colorado is a small town full of big stories. Find out why those who grew up here come home and why celebrities find it the perfect place to have private lives away from the lime light. The Aspen Creek Series Box Set includes the stories of FIRST KISS (Cade and Olivia), UNEXPECTED ADMIRER (Jesse and Melissa), ON THIN ICE (Christopher and Mallory), and INDOMITABLE SPIRIT (John and Kym.)

--

About Bernadette Marie

Bestselling Author Bernadette Marie is known for building families readers want to be part of. Her series The Keller Family has graced bestseller charts since its release in 2011, along with her other series and single title books. The married mother of five sons promises Happily Ever After always…and says she can write it, because she lives it.

When not writing, Bernadette Marie is shuffling her sons to their many events—mostly hockey—and enjoying the beautiful views of the Colorado Rocky Mountains from her front step. She is also an accomplished martial artist with a second degree black belt in Tang Soo Do.

A chronic entrepreneur, Bernadette Marie opened her own publishing house in 2011, 5 Prince Publishing, so that she could publish the books she liked to write and help make the dreams of other aspiring authors come true too.

How to reach Bernadette Marie

www.bernadettemarie.com

www.facebook.com/authorbernadettemarie

www.authorbernadettemarie.blogspot.com

@writesromance on Twitter

info@bernadettemarie.com

Gotta love me a spunky little gal who can kick butt!

Available from 5 Prince Publishing www.5princebooks.com  books@5princebooks.com

Genre: Fiction, Romance, Contemporary

Release Date: April 24, 2014

Digital ISBN 13: 978-1-63112-034-3 ISBN: 10: 1631120344

Print ISBN-10: 1631120352 ISBN-13: 978-1-63112-035-0

Purchase link : www.5princebooks.com/buy.html

Indomitable Spirit:

Caught between the traditional Korean culture of her mother and the fun-loving Irish heritage of her father, Kym O'Byrne has never felt truly at home ... until she inherits the O'Byrne Karate School in the sleepy Colorado town of Aspen Creek. Staying focused and disciplined is her game, but something buried deep within the eyes of the grouchy handyman, John Larson—father of some of her most promising students—threatens to turn her strict world on its end ...

About Bernadette Marie

Bernadette Marie has been an avid writer since the early age of 13, when she’d fill notebook after notebook with stories that she’d share with her friends. Her journey into novel writing started the summer before eighth grade when her father gave her an old typewriter. At all times of the day and night you would find her on the back porch penning her first work, which she would continue to write for the next 22 years.

In 2007—after marriage, filling her chronic entrepreneurial needs, and having five children—Bernadette began to write seriously with the goal of being published. That year she wrote 12 books. In 2009 she was contracted for her first trilogy and the published author was born. In 2011 she (being the entrepreneur that she is) opened her own publishing house, 5 Prince Publishing, and has released her own contemporary titles. She also quickly began the process of taking on other authors in other genres.

In 2012 Bernadette Marie began to find herself on the bestsellers lists of iTunes, Amazon, and Barnes and Noble to name a few. Her office wall is lined with colorful PostIt notes with the titles of books she will be releasing in the very near future, with hope that they too will grace the bestsellers lists.

Bernadette spends most of her free time driving her kids to their many events—usually hockey. She is also an accomplished martial artist with a second degree black belt in Tang Soo Do. An avid reader, she enjoys contemporary romances with humor and happily ever afters.

www.bernadettemarie.com

www.facebook.com/authorbernadettemarie

www.authorbernadettemarie.blogspot.com

@writesromance on Twitter

info@bernadettemarie.com

Excerpt of Indomitable Spirit

Crisp wind blew off the lake and down through the small mountain town. The streets were bare as the sun crested the mountaintop and sent the lake shimmering in gold and orange hues. Kym O’Bryne stood on her deck, wrapped in her heavy robe and fuzzy slippers, nursing a warm cup of coffee that steamed in the brisk November air.

She’d lived in many places. Korea, Ireland, California, and New York to name a few. Each place held its own mystique when fall began to give way to winter. But she’d never experienced anything like the change in the seasons in Colorado.

Already she’d been up for hours. She’d tended to her grandfather. In April he’d turned ninety, and though sharp as a tack, he was becoming frail. It had become her duty to take care of him and she did so with honor. She’d run three miles on her treadmill, within her warm house, and had trained in her dojang, which was downstairs from where she lived. She’d inherited the failing karate school for her thirtieth birthday.

Kym shook her head at the thought. She always assumed she’d run a school. What had made her father purchase the school and hand it over to her, she’d never know. It wasn’t what she considered an ideal location. It was, however, her grandfather’s dream to see his grandchildren carry on the family tradition. Though, when you saw the name O’Bryne on the door of a karate school, it didn’t actually give the impression of traditional Korean training.

She shook off the cold and walked back into her home, slipped a piece of bread into the toaster, and finished her cup of coffee. Kym thought of her brothers and their minimal success with their schools. Both of her brothers, Ian and Liam, were Irish through and through. Ian with his blond hair and Liam with his red, both sported emerald green eyes like hers. They’d inherited them from their father, Todd O’Bryne of Dublin, Ireland.

She took her toast from the toaster when it popped and buttered it generously and then slathered strawberry jelly on top of it. It was her little bit of indulgence.

With her toast in hand she sat at the kitchen table, flipped open her laptop, and was pleased to find an email from her mother. She smiled.

Oh, it was a grand thought that Todd and Mi Sun O’Bryne had retired back to Dublin, where her father was born. Her mother sent a picture of them standing in front of a pub once owned by her father’s family. They looked happy.

Her mother’s name fit her so well. Mi Sun stood for beauty and goodness and that was what her mother always radiated.

Her parents’ was a love story you’d have read in a book or seen in a movie. The tall, gangly Irishman who followed his wanderlust and landed in Korea, where he met the small, beautiful, and graceful daughter of a rice farmer. Both father and daughter dreamed of seeing the world. Todd and Mi Sun were married and lived in Korea for five years, where Ian was born. Then Todd took his family, father-in-law included, and moved to Ireland. That was where Kym was born.

Named after her mother’s family Kym, Kym was born with the Korean features of her mother, except for the emerald green eyes she’d inherited from her father.

After five years it was off to America to live in Sacramento where little Irish Liam was born and the first school of the Kyms and O’Brynes was started.

It seems like a lifetime ago, Kym thought as she cleared her place at the table. She closed her laptop and moved to the cabinet to find the tea to make for her grandfather.

Now Ian, Liam, and she owned schools all over the country that taught Tang Soo Do to the masses, changing lives as they went along.

Kym, however, never thought her chance to change lives would be tucked in a small community in the Colorado mountains with less than three thousand people.

When she reached for the canister of tea, she found it was empty. That she should have known, it was on her list, but she’d forgotten to stop at the store. She wished she’d remembered, because the temperature had dropped at least thirty degrees from the day before and now she would have to bundle up, warm her car, and head out to find tea for her grandfather.

John Larson pushed through the front door of the Aspen Creek Market. How, he wondered, could kids eat through four boxes of cereal, two boxes of Pop-Tarts, and a box of frozen waffles in a week? They were going to break him.

He pulled out a cart, and with his head down, he started on his mission.

“Good morning, John. How are you this lovely morning?”

On a slight oath he turned to see Gloria, the cheerful clerk, standing at the register with her red apron barely encompassing her oversized chest and stomach.

“Mornin’.” He pushed forward as quickly as he could. The last thing he needed on a Sunday morning was to be caught up in one of Gloria’s hour-long renditions of what her grandbabies did this week that no other child has done before—like eat and poop. He just didn’t need it.

He fretted over the cereals that his sons liked because there was a heroic character on them and then over to the ones with a princess, for his little Abby. But in the end he reached for the generic bag of cereal with the name that sounded name brand, but wasn’t. He threw two different ones into his cart and with a grunt he took off to finish his shopping.

A woman’s yelp made him shoot his head up when his cart collided with another. He found himself staring into the most mesmerizing green eyes he’d ever seen. How odd they seemed on the very petite Asian woman standing before him.

His tongue swelled in his mouth and he couldn’t speak to apologize as she glared at him.

“Sir, don’t you think an apology is in order?”

He stood there, staring at the long, dark hair that fell from beneath her sensible stocking cap, over her shoulders and down her back. It had been a very long time since a woman’s beauty had rendered him unable to think or talk.

“Well, then I’ll apologize for having my cart simply parked here in the way of your moving one.” She huffed out, reached for a box of tea bags, and tossed it into her cart.

He simply watched as she backed up her cart and started around him. She stood erect, and, though she was probably only five feet tall, he thought she could easily walk among the city streets without anyone messing with the little ball of beauty and fire.

She stopped and shot him another look with those beautiful, cool eyes. “I haven’t found too many people in this town who weren’t treated to manners as a child, but I guess there is always a first.” She went on her way, moving down the next aisle as John continued to get his breath back.

Once he shook off the utter irritation and delight of the little woman, John went back to filling his cart with things his children would, no doubt, devour before he got home from work the next day.

When he headed toward Gloria to check out, he noticed the dark-haired woman who had stunned his brain with just a few words walk out of the store.

He unloaded his items onto the conveyor as Gloria began to scan the boxes, bags, and cans.

“Where’s your veggies?” she asked, analyzing his purchases.

“Pardon me?”

“Those kids need veggies.”

“Yeah, I’ll get some next time.” That would shut her up for a moment, he hoped. Then he realized he needed information, and if anyone in town had it, it would be Gloria. “Hey, who was that woman that was just in here?”

“Oh, Kym?”

“Kym?”

“Just took over the karate school. Lives above it with her grandfather. Surprised you didn’t know about it.”

He shrugged. “Been busy, I guess.”

“Heard. Fixing up Malory’s bakery?”

“Yeah.”

He wondered if he’d heard about her moving to town. Then again, people were always talking, and he was usually in his own world. There was too much on his plate to worry about town gossip. Until now.

He carried the bags to his truck and tossed them in the back. As he did he saw her, Kym, he reminded himself, dart out of Malory’s bakery with a cup of coffee. No doubt it was one of those fancy blends that she’d brought in just for those who had to have it. He didn’t see the point, but then again John didn’t need anything that was fancy.

Kym hurried to her small Honda and drove away. John stood at the back of his truck and watched her disappear around the curve of the lake and behind the trees. It was a good thing she lived and worked at the same place, he figured. Sooner or later it was going to snow, and that little car wasn’t going to go anywhere.

Another series coming from Bernadette Marie!

Amelia, Penelope, Vivian

The Three Mrs. Monroes

Bernadette Marie

Some men keep secrets…Adam Monroe kept three.

 Genre Contemporary Romance:

Amelia Book one of The Three Mrs. Monroes

Release Date: June 26, 2014

Digital ISBN-10: 1631120387 ISBN-13: 978-1-63112-038-1

Print ISBN-10: 1631120395 ISBN-13: 978-1-63112-039-8

From loss breeds new opportunity.

Amelia Monroe had felt the sharp pain from the loss of a soldier before—Adam Monroe’s death didn’t have that same effect.

Sam Jackson had one job—deliver Adam Monroe’s revised will. Even he couldn’t have anticipated that he’d be entangled in the web of lies his client had woven.

Doing what is right had been inbreed in Amelia. She’d planned to say her goodbyes and start fresh. Staying in Adam’s small town with his other lies, that wasn’t part of her plan.

Penelope Book two of The Three Mrs. Monroes

Release Date: July 31, 2014

Digital ISBN-10: 1631120409 ISBN-13: 978-1-63112-040-4

Print ISBN-10: 1631120417 ISBN-13: 978-1-63112-041-1

From loss breeds new life.

Penelope Monroe married on impulse and her heart had been broken by Adam Monroe’s lies. Pregnant she wonders how she will survive, alone, with her baby.

Brock Romero held Adam Monroe when he died in combat. Now released from the Army he makes it his priority to find Adam’s wife and share with her his last words.

On the verge of making the same mistake twice, Penelope must trust her heart—especially when new lies are uncovered.

Vivian Book three of The Three Mrs. Monroes

Release Date: August 28, 2014

Digital ISBN-10: 1631120425 ISBN-13: 978-1-63112-042-8

Print ISBN-10: 1631120433 ISBN-13: 978-1-63112-043-5

From loss breeds new beginnings

Vivian Monroe had been jaded. Her husband’s death only compounded the lies she’d only come to learn about.

Clayton North knows a thing or two about loss. He figured it was fate for him to meet Vivian Monroe. He’ll take on the challenge of helping her mend her heart.

Midst new friendships and new romance, Vivian must let go of her pain and face the woman who helped Adam Monroe weave his deceptive web.

You will get a Kick out of this one!

Genre: Fiction, Romance, Contemporary

Release Date: April 24, 2014

Digital ISBN 13: 978-1-63112-034-3 ISBN: 10: 1631120344

Print ISBN-10: 1631120352 ISBN-13: 978-1-63112-035-0

Indomitable Spirit:

Caught between the traditional Korean culture of her mother and the fun-loving Irish heritage of her father, Kym O'Byrne has never felt truly at home ... until she inherits the O'Byrne Karate School in the sleepy Colorado town of Aspen Creek. Staying focused and disciplined is her game, but something buried deep within the eyes of the grouchy handyman, John Larson—father of some of her most promising students—threatens to turn her strict world on its end ...

Launch Day for Best Selling Author Bernadette Marie~ On Thin Ice

Available from 5 Prince Publishing www.5princebooks.com  books@5princebooks.com

Genre: Fiction, Romance, Contemporary

Release Date: September 4, 2013

Digital ISBN 13:978-1-939217-75-2 ISBN 10: 1-939217-75-X

Print ISBN 13:978-1-939217-76-9 ISBN 10: 1-939217-76-8

Purchase link : www.5princebooks.com/buy.html

On Thin Ice:

Malory (Wil) Wilson needed to recover from her divorce. A nice transition from West Coast life back to Aspen Creek, the small Colorado mountain town she grew up in would put things straight. The plan was foolproof until she discovered that the first man to break her heart, retired NHL player Christopher Douglas, also returned to Aspen Creek.

Christopher had taken enough hits in his career. He didn’t know his heart would take one when Wil returned to Aspen Creek. Hell bent on winning her over after having broken her heart years earlier, he will risk everything to get her back—including his life.

When the ice rink Malory’s father built faces being shut down the couple find themselves working together to save the business. However, forgiveness and newfound love just might come to a crashing end when Christopher’s archenemy skates into town bent on revenge.

Skating on thin ice, without a guardian angel looking out for Christopher, Malory could lose him forever. 

Bernadette Marie has been an avid writer since the early age of 13, when she’d fill notebook after notebook with stories that she’d share with her friends. Her journey into novel writing started the summer before eighth grade when her father gave her an old typewriter. At all times of the day and night you would find her on the back porch penning her first work, which she would continue to write for the next 22 years.

In 2007—after marriage, filling her chronic entrepreneurial needs, and having five children—Bernadette began to write seriously with the goal of being published. That year she wrote 12 books. In 2009 she was contracted for her first trilogy and the published author was born. In 2011 she (being the entrepreneur that she is) opened her own publishing house, 5 Prince Publishing, and has released her own contemporary titles. She also quickly began the process of taking on other authors in other genres.

In 2012 Bernadette Marie began to find herself on the bestsellers lists of iTunes, Amazon, and Barnes and Noble to name a few. Her office wall is lined with colorful PostIt notes with the titles of books she will be releasing in the very near future, with hope that they too will grace the bestsellers lists.

Bernadette spends most of her free time driving her kids to their many events—usually hockey. She is also an accomplished martial artist with a second degree black belt in Tang Soo Do. An avid reader, she enjoys contemporary romances with humor and happily ever afters.

www.bernadettemarie.com

www.facebook.com/authorbernadettemarie

www.authorbernadettemarie.blogspot.com

@writesromance on Twitter

info@bernadettemarie.com

Excerpt of On Thin Ice:

The tires of Malory’s old red Jeep crunched the frozen snow over loose gravel. The sound curled her mouth into a smile. That was how winter was supposed to sound.

The sky filled with the orange and blue hues of a rising sun as the chill of the air stirred together with the heat from the vehicle’s heater. All of it brought back a flood of memories from her childhood. All of them warm and welcome.

She pulled her Jeep into a parking space in front of the large metal building that housed the ice arena. A huge banner above the front doors read, “Home to NHL Player Christopher Douglas.”

She shook her head. Well, she thought, at least someone claimed him. If memory was correct, he’d played for multiple NHL teams in his very short professional career. So he’d never called anywhere home for long, except Aspen Creek.

But everyone had started somewhere, including her.

Above the banner announcing the fame of Christopher Douglas was the name of the building. Aspen Creek Ice Center.

It was good to be home.

And home was where she planned to stay.

She didn’t see her father’s pickup parked on the side of the building. She’d told him she’d meet him there at seven. It was already seven-ten. He wouldn’t have headed off to breakfast without her. After all, he’d awakened her at four forty-five in the morning just to invite her.

She turned off the engine and pulled the keys from the column, placing them in the pocket of her coat. She might have been born and raised in the small Colorado town where people left their doors unlocked and the keys in their cars, but she’d been in California long enough to have picked up some less trusting habits. Sadly, those new habits had her locking part of herself away too.

She stepped out into the cold and quickly slid on her gloves. It was the kind of cold that took your breath away. It froze the inside of your nose, and when the wind blew through the valley, it burned your skin. She pulled the stocking cap from her pocket and pulled it over her head, making sure to cover her ears. She hit the lock on the door and slammed it shut. Then as fast as she could, without falling on her butt, she headed across the slick parking lot for the front door of the arena, which had been the love child of her mother and father years before she’d been born.

The heater above the door did its job. It took that pins-and-needles chill from her skin just enough to comfort her.

White concrete walls, which held bleachers on the other side, blocked the view of the ice rink from the door. There were no spectators at seven fifteen on a Wednesday morning, but the ice wasn’t empty.

Malory had been there enough times in the early morning to know that at least a dozen figure skaters and a few hockey players had already etched their presence into the glossy finish of the ice before they went about their day.

Malory stood there for a moment. She closed her eyes and just let the building surround her. When she opened them, the smiling faces of the hundreds that had graced the ice over the past forty years greeted her. Early photographs in black-and-white and later ones in color lined the corridor that lead toward the ice. The first set of eyes to catch her matched her own. They were her mother’s.

Malory stood and stared at the picture of her mother, then only twenty-two. She wore an Olympic medal around her neck and had a bouquet of roses tucked in the crevice of her arm. Hadn’t that been the very picture her father had hoped to recreate with her? Oh, he’d tried, but she was never the skater her mother had been.

She blew out a breath. Her parents had opened the skating rink with money her mother had won from competitions and endorsements after her Olympic win. People had laughed at them. The hockey player wanna-be and the washed-up Olympian. What good was it going to do to build an ice rink in a town of three thousand? But the gamble had paid off.

Young girls wanted to skate under Ginger Bromell-Wilson. Boys wanted to learn to play hockey from Harvey Wilson, the man who had almost made it to the NHL. Neighboring towns embraced the opportunity, and the Aspen Creek Ice Center was born.

Only four short years later Malory entered the picture. Another two and her mother was gone.

Malory had lived thirty-one years without her mother, but it still tore her apart. She didn’t know her. She didn’t have one memory of her except for the pictures that hung on the walls of the building her father had put up twenty years ago to replace the original structure. What Malory had was the sadness that her father had always carried in his heart.

He’d tried to replace Ginger, Malory now understood, with her. He’d tried to raise her to be an Olympian figure skater. But she was no Ginger Bromell-Wilson. She was only a look-alike with some of the skill.

Malory let her mother’s eyes follow her as she walked down the corridor toward the ice. There were no figure skaters on the ice as she’d first thought. She didn’t have to see it to know that. The sound was of a single skater. The short stops that tore up the ice and the sound of wood hitting the cold hard surface said hockey player. There was the sound of the puck sliding on the ice. The ping as the puck ricocheted off of the pole and the crack of the stick against the ice in a fit of anger resonated through the arena. Curses that flew from the mouth of the player confirmed that the player was an adult and had missed the mark of the net. A low laugh escaped her throat. You were never too old to enjoy indoor ice.

She turned down the short hall that led to the ice. The smell of adrenaline and sweat had permeated every crevice of the building over the years. It was a nasty smell, but it too made her feel at home.

Breathing deeply, she lifted her head to watch the hockey player she’d heard when she walked in. She saw him and gasped. He skated down the ice, around the other net, keeping the puck on the edge of his stick and then as he hit the blue line, he smacked the puck into the net. He turned back around, caught the puck with the stick, and then caught her eye.

The crooked grin that erupted on his face made her heart rate kick up. It raced so fast that she wasn’t sure her chest would hold it inside any longer. Fifteen years had passed since they’d last spoken, but not a day had gone by that she hadn’t thought of him.

Malory tried to will her feet to walk closer to the door he skated toward. She found the task hard to do. His hair was long and peeked out of the sides and back of his helmet. His dark eyes sparkled as he neared her.

By the time he’d unlatched the door, she realized she’d walked toward him and now he towered above her only inches away. At six foot three, he was an enormous sight in front of her. The skates added at least three more inches to his height. He wore no pads, but his shoulders were square and muscular under his loose jersey.