Rose Cottage - Tapa blanda

Bookstore owner and widow, Summer Gabriel, dreams of marrying wealthy Marcus Brennan and living at her favorite childhood place, Rose Cottage, but dreams are sometimes difficult, even impossible, to bring to reality. Marcus is a widower with a child and a scheming sister-in-law, Patrice, who would also like to become the next Mrs. Marcus Brennan. Unfortunately, Mrs. Glenn, the Brennan housekeeper who has been with the family for years and who worshipped the deceased Diana Brennan, allied herself with Patrice. Marcus lives in a nearby town and when at his invitation, Summer visits him and Sasha at their mansion, the two gang up against her, playing all sorts of tricks, attempting to make her look bad in Marcus' eyes. One thing in Summer's favor is the feeling that Marcus' five-year-old daughter, Sasha, has taken an instant liking not only for Summer but also for Summer's two young sons.Summer believes she can never live up to Diana nor can she compete with the beautiful and well-off Patrice, so she breaks it off with Marcus and accepts an offer to tell the lovely children's stories that she has written on audio cassettes to be played for children.Even if Summer can overcome the obstacle of Patrice and Mrs. Glenn's campaign against her, she still faces the problem of convincing Marcus to help her reunite the spirit of the former owner, Rose, with Rose's beloved late husband. Summer's efforts to win Marcus's trust are hindered by the ghost of Rose's vindictive twin sister, Rena who will stop at nothing to thwart her plans. Marcus thinks Summer is a victim of her own lively imagination and scoffs at the idea of the cottage being haunted until Sasha tells a strange story of seeing a lady down by the stream that runs behind Rose Cottage and, subsequently, someone . . . or something tries to drown Marcus himself.. Realizing he may have been too hasty in dismissing Summer's pleas, Marcus decides that she may not be crazy after all and he decides to help her, but he may be too late. Discouraged by his criticism, Summer has gone away.

Olivia Claire High was born in Waukegan, Illinois and raised in San Francisco, California. With a B.A. in Liberal Studies and a Multiple Subjects teaching credential, she was a public school teacher for nineteen years.A member of Romance Writers of America, she is now concentrating on her passion for writing romance. This is her third published book. Her first romantic suspense novel, The Crystal Angel, which received excellent reviews from book columnists Dan Barnett of the Enterprise-Record and Isabel Fine of the Oroville Community Mirror, is available from www.firesidepubs.com.Olivia lived on Guam for a year, but currently resides in northern California with her husband, Joe. They have three grown daughters and four grandchildren. She is working on her next novel. If you care to contact her, she can be reached via email directed to firesidepubs@comcast.net.