Susan Fanetti

Lawrence Ellis, with vast wealth and power, has made it known that he wants control of Signal Bend, Missouri. He is a man who always gets what he wants; there are no limits to the lengths he'll go, and he has the means to pay all manner of people to do his dirty work for him. The Night Horde MC, led by its President, Isaac Lunden, is wildly outmatched but prepared nonetheless to defend their hometown to the last man, and they are willing to do whatever they must to protect their home. Lilli Accardo, Isaac’s old lady, with her own special skills and resources, stands with them, rebelling against Isaac’s need to shield her. After toying with them for months, Ellis loses patience for the game and rains down destruction on the Horde, their families, and the town itself. Tested to their very limits, beyond anything they could have imagined, forced to travel dark roads, the citizens of Signal Bend fight a war no one—not even they themselves—thinks they can win. Challenged constantly from without, beset by their own inner demons, Isaac and Lilli must find the true strength within their bond. Isaac needs to protect what is his; Lilli needs to stand on her own; but they are stronger side by side. Even in the deepest darkness, love brings hope. Note: dark themes, explicit sex and violence.

Eastern Kentucky, 1937. After the death of her husband, Ada Donovan returned home to live again with her aging parents. She does all she can to help them keep the small family farm going. But times are hard, and there’s never enough. During one of her infrequent visits to town, she sees a help-wanted notice for the Pack Horse Librarian Project, seeking librarians to ride up high in the mountains and bring books to the people there. Before her marriage, Ada was a teacher, and the thought of returning to the work she loved is impossible to resist. The mountains are her favorite place, books are her great joy, and her horse is her best friend. But not everyone on the mountain is happy to see her. Living in a crumbing cabin at the highest, most isolated point of Ada’s route, there’s a family that catches her attention. The father keeps to the shadows. There is no mother to dote on the happy, curious children. But soon Ada comes to love them just as fiercely as the woman they lost. And makes it her mission to bring them the world.

Jerome “Hoosier” Elliott is the President of the Night Horde SoCal. He has worn a patch for many years, and he’s led his club, and his family, through times of strength and times of struggle. For most of those years, his old lady, Bedelia Beth—“Bibi” to those who know and love her—has stood by his side. Club life has had its challenges, some almost insurmountable, but they have made each other strong and waited for each other always. Together, they made the club a family. After club violence tears them apart, Hoosier needs Bibi to find him and bring him back. The way to their future is their past: the story of the life they’ve made together, and the dreams they’ve dared to make come true. Note: explicit sex and violence.

Carlo Pagano Jr. is the eldest son of a large Italian-American family in Quiet Cove, Rhode Island. He’s a disappointment to his father but a hero to the young son he is raising alone, after his wife abandoned them. Sabina Alonzo-Auberon is a beautiful Argentine native married to one of the most powerful and wealthy men in New England. Though James Auberon is highly esteemed, the power and glamour the world sees hide a darker reality that exists within the walls of their home. Sabina is trapped in a life of control and abasement, living with a man too powerful and vengeful to escape. Sabina doesn’t wish to be rescued and whisked away on a white horse. She’s not looking for a fairy tale hero; she knows the fairy tale is a lie. She’s waiting for the chance to save herself. But she won’t turn down help if it comes. A fateful meeting with Carlo brings Sabina the chance to break free and make a life on her own terms. If any name demands respect and strikes fear more than Auberon, it’s Pagano. Carlo’s uncles head one of the most powerful ‘families’ in the Northeast, and they will offer their help—for a price. What begins as an offer of assistance deepens into an intense bond, but before Carlo and Sabina can be together, they must overcome the obstacles in their path. Together Carlo and Sabina seek true and honest love, and freedom from the demons of their pasts, but no quest was ever without its trials. Explicit sex. Some dark themes.

Loneliness is all that Brenna has ever known. She doesn't expect that she will ever even know true companionship, let alone love. People say she was born with the mark of Odin, but Brenna feels it as a curse rather than a blessing. Those who would tell her she is favored by the Allfather are too afraid to look on her; she is apart from her people. Yet she has learned the power of her difference, and turned it to her advantage. She is a shieldmaiden, with a legendary reputation for her valor as well as for her godly gift. Vali is a giant among his people, well-liked and respected. He is of the Úlfhéðnar, a berserker, one of Odin's own elite warriors, and one of the fiercest and bravest warriors to wield an axe or spear. He is the Storm-Wolf; his strength and ferocity are his gifts from the Allfather. Fortune threw the two warriors together when they were but children. Fate brings them together again as warriors when two jarls ally for a raid into Estland. Again and again, Vali seeks Brenna out. He sees her; he sees the woman behind the whispers. More than that, he will not look away. Vali has not forgotten the debt he owes Brenna from their very first meeting, and in seeking his opportunity to repay her, he finds a lonely, beautiful woman whose quiet strength captures his heart. But the sagas do not sing of warriors who live quiet lives, or of love that does not know trial and tribulation. Favored by the gods they may be, but that does not protect Brenna and Vali from the simple and devastating hardships of their lives. Their reputations cannot help them. It is their love that must become their legend.

The follow-up to the bestselling Viking romance, God's Eye. When raiders from the North land in Olga’s world and take it over, she is captured and made a slave. She and her people suffer at the hands of creatures that seem more beasts than men, and not even her talent and skill as a healer can help them. But one barbarian, big and golden, seems different from the others. He doesn’t revel or partake in the suffering of the new slaves, and, when he learns that Olga is a healer who knows some of their words, he releases her from her bonds. The raiders stake claim to Olga’s world and mean to settle it, and she and the rest of her people who survived make a new community with the invaders. The barbarians who destroyed her world and made her a slave grow to be her friends and her equals. The friendship she forms with the one who cut her bonds is the deepest of them all. Leif is a valiant and esteemed warrior who’s raided for many summers. As a leader in this new world they mean to settle, he forges deep, close ties with those who’d been only allies, and sometimes enemies, and with the native people of this new land. In particular, he’s drawn to the dark-haired healer, whose tiny body holds the will and spirit of a mighty raider. Leif is deeply loyal to the jarl who’s treated him as a son. When the jarl arrives to view their success, Leif struggles to understand the ways his mentor has grown cruel and deceitful and to see the man he’s loved as a father, whose sons he loves as brothers. But he recognizes the brutal lies for what they are. Torn between the man to whom he’d long ago sworn his unconditional fealty and the friends to whom he is devoted, Leif makes a devastating choice, trying as best he can to save those he loves, at any cost to himself. Even at the cost of their love for him. The consequences of his choice are severe. Perhaps too severe to allow forgiveness. But until there is forgiveness, there can never be ease. Note: Explicit sex and violence.

For as long as she can remember, Caterina Romano has drawn notice for her beauty, and that notice has been more burden than boon. Leering eyes and groping hands have bedeviled her since she was a young girl. As she’s grown to adulthood, the danger has grown as well. It’s the reason her family finally flees Sicily, in search of a safer life in the golden dream of America. But the dream becomes a nightmare before their first dawn in the new world, and Caterina and her brother are left hopeless and clinging to life in an alien land. Dario Laterza is a baker in Little Italy, his home for the past six years. When he sees the skinny, desperate woman the neighborhood has taken to calling La Bellezza, a phantom in the shadows stealing crumbs and rifling through garbage, he feels compelled to help her. The help Caterina needs will test Dario’s mettle and change his life in ways he could not have imagined. But she is beautiful inside and out, and true love might heal them both. Description for The Golden Door Duet: At the turn of the twentieth century, a brother and sister flee the dangers of their life in Sicily for the golden promise of America. But the promise shatters as soon as their feet touch solid ground again. What they find in that new world will test their faith—in life, and in each other. America’s rough welcome tears them apart. As they struggle to find their own ways and build full lives in an unfamiliar, incomprehensible place, they each, in their own time, discover true love. In the strength of that love, they might find a way back to each other as well. Note: This duet stands alone, but it is connected to The Pagano Brothers series, as it is the origin story of the Romano Family of New York, who are allied with the Paganos and are featured in the overall story of that series.

A young American woman arrives in Paris to change her life. A young Englishman living in Paris needs to change his. A chance encounter will change them both forever. After Cora Harlowe arrives home early one day and learns the life she’d been living was not as she’d believed, she escapes to Paris to regroup. She’s always wanted to visit the city and had hoped to honeymoon there. But things didn’t work out that way. Now she’s alone in the City of Light, the City of Love, trying to decide if she can make an expatriate life work, or if she’s merely on a honeymoon alone. Oliver Ward, a dual citizen of France and England, has been living in Paris for years, regularly entertaining his assorted American friends from his days at university in the States. The youngest son of an English marquess, he’s been living the self-indulgent life of the idly rich, but lately that life has lost much of its luster, and he knows he needs to do, and be, more. To be better. Trouble is, he doesn’t know how. Cora and Oliver meet on a tour of the Eiffel Tower. The attraction is instantaneous, and they spend an evening together made for fairy tales. But they will both have to learn who they are for themselves, and for each other, before their tale can find its happy ending.

Lilli Accardo moves to the dying town of Signal Bend, Missouri, where the citizens have made a devil’s bargain to stay afloat. Lilli quickly garners the attention of the whole town, particularly Isaac Lunden, President of the Night Horde Motorcycle Club and de facto protector of the town and its citizens. When it turns out that Lilli is there under murky circumstances, Isaac decides to get close and try to figure out what she’s hiding. Their chemistry is instantaneous and electric, but each is a potential danger to the other. Action, sex, and drama ensue as Isaac and Lilli try to navigate the rocky terrain between trust and threat. Note: explicit sex and violence.

Astrid has been a warrior since the day she was old enough to make the choice to live and die with an axe in her hand. She is strong and stoic, powerful and brave, and she has the life she desires, free of complications and distractions. She is a shieldmaiden, and that is all she wishes to be. She has been the strong right hand of her jarl since the day they and their allies overthrew the cruel Jarl Åke. Jarl Leif is mighty and honorable, and with Astrid’s help, he has brought great prosperity to their people. Every summer, the raiders sail into new lands, traveling farther and farther, claiming treasure to enrich their people. They meet little resistance from the rulers or the people of these strange worlds. Until they land in a country whose king has learned the lessons of his neighbors and meets the raiders with a cunning and brutality that matches their own. In that clash, and after it, Astrid’s shieldmaiden’s strength and will is put to the harshest tests. Leofric is the second son of a king. Without the expectations or attention imposed on his older brother, he is free to live more or less as he chooses. But he is a seasoned warrior and not half so dissolute as his reputation suggests. When his father and brother seek to salve their rage by torturing a captive barbarian woman, Leofric sees their action for the evil it is and does all he can to save her, and then to heal her. To love her had not been part of his plan. The captive is strong and stoic, powerful and brave. She is a marvel unlike any woman he’s ever known. But if she is to live, she must learn the ways of his world. If she is to thrive, she must cast aside what she was and become something new. Leofric would give her all that he has and more, but there is one thing he cannot offer. His world has no word for shieldmaiden. Note: Explicit sex and violence. Dark themes.

Thorin “Thunder” Vaduva is a journeyman MMA fighter—toiling in the shadows, a set of strong shoulders to lift other fighters toward stardom. After years in prison for a crime he didn’t commit, he’s trying to get his life on track—be a good father to his teenage son, get his fights in, do his work, keep his head down, keep his demons at bay. Nina Rodriguez is trying to get her life started. Her days are filled with work and school, slowly climbing toward a meaningful career. Her aspirations aren’t flashy, but she wants a life with purpose. When Nina comes to the Capital City Fight Center so her brother, Thor’s teammate, can teach her to fight, she and Thor really notice each other for the first time. After that they fall hard and fast, even while they’re taking things slow. Their love comes easy. But life is hard, and full of storms. When one of those storms tears Thor’s life apart, only real love can bring the sun back.

Luca Pagano is a second son. The family rebel, he has always been a beat out of step with his father, who sees him as unserious and unsettled. But Luca is a man who knows his mind and follows his heart. He’s never met a woman with whom he wants to be serious or settled, and he is definitely not looking. Active and adventurous, he prefers an uncomplicated life, free of any attachments but those of his family. Emmanuelle 'Manny' Timko has recently moved to Quiet Cove. She, too, avoids attachments beyond her family, but her reasons go deeper than simple preference. To make her way in the world, she’s had to build a life of coping mechanisms and control. The connection they make together is as intense as it is unlikely. To love Manny, Luca must learn to love in a new way. To love Luca, Manny must learn to love at all. When Luca’s uncles come to him to collect on a debt, what Luca and Manny have found together will be sorely tested. What happens next could change everything for them and for the whole Pagano family. Note: explicit sex, violent scenes.

Tulsa, Oklahoma 1996 Maxwell “Gunner” Wesson is the loose cannon of the Brazen Bulls MC. A loss taken when he was a boy left a hole inside him, full of chaos and noise, and only pain and destruction can quiet the tempest. Full of courage and fiercely loyal, he has the Bulls at his back, even when his outbursts threaten to damage the club. But the club president’s patience is wearing thin. Gun’s lack of control has put the Bulls on the front lines of a brewing war, right in the heart of Tulsa. Leah Campbell is a small-town girl, living the life her mother walked away from. She takes care of her father, the town minister, and keeps his secrets, ensuring that he keeps his place as the moral and spiritual center of their community. But Leah has secrets of her own, and she’s faltering under the weight of all the things she cannot say, and all the things she must be and do to keep the truth at bay. She’s filled the hole her mother made, but it’s left her empty. When two such damaged souls, full of secrets and empty of hope, come together, they will either save each other or tear everything apart. Note: explicit sex and violence.

SIGNAL BEND HERITAGE: A NEW, NEXT-GEN SERIES FOR THE NIGHT HORDE MC! Gia Lunden grew up in Signal Bend, Missouri and in the Night Horde MC family. Her father, Isaac, was the most respected president of the club during its outlaw days. Isaac gave up the gavel and the Horde left the outlaw life behind long ago. These days, they run a construction company and keep the town safe, but the club’s reputation as fearsome outlaws abides. Gia is building a career as an anthropologist specializing in outlaw communities. As she works on her dissertation to complete a PhD, she means to begin her research at home, interviewing her family about their time on the dark side. But she hasn’t lived in Signal Bend since she first went away to college, and her homecoming is bumpier than she expected. Zaxx Bello is the newest and youngest Horde patch, still trying to shake off the stink of his prospect period and find his fit at the table. Though Signal Bend is the closest thing to a hometown he’s ever had, he wasn’t born there; he knows of the Horde’s outlaw days only through the stories of the older patches. For him, the Horde is a mantel of respect, a good job, and a place to be. It doesn’t yet feel like a family. Not that he has much idea what family should feel like. With two clueless parents and a nearly feral younger sister, Zaxx has spent most of his life being the grownup of his family. It’s a responsibility he takes seriously, and a weight he struggles to carry. Gia and Zaxx barely know each other, at least until an explosive one-night stand on her first night home. But being with Gia is no easy thing—she’s Isaac Lunden’s only daughter, after all. Nobody in town thinks Zaxx is good enough for her, least of all Zaxx himself. Nobody bothered to ask Gia what she thought.