Audrey and the Maverick

It’s 1868 in the Dakota Territory, and young Audrey Sheridan is so busy trying to make enough money to feed her brother and the eight orphaned and abandoned children she’s brought into her small house that she doesn’t notice the changes in the town of Defiance until it’s too late. Once a respectable place to live, Defiance has been taken over by a corrupt sheriff and his band of ruffians. Now the sheriff wants to use Audrey to gain control over Julian McCaid, who has come from Virginia to check out the reports of trouble on his ranch. The sheriff threatens to kill Audrey’s little band of children one-by-one if she doesn’t obey him. Then Audrey begins to fall for Julian, and their romance puts all of them in danger. This is the second book in the exciting Men of Defiance trilogy, following Rachel and the Hired Gun (2009). Stay tuned for coverage of the next book in the series. --Shelley Mosley

Virginia financier Julian McCaid has put his troubled past behind him. His plans for the future don't include Audrey Sheridan, the extraordinary frontier woman he met just once. But it's because of her that he's come to the Dakota Territory to investigate problems at his ranch. And it's all the more surprising when he discovers she isn't the innocent he believed. Now nothing but her complete surrender will purge her from his soul. If it weren't for the children she cares for in her makeshift orphanage, Audrey would have left Defiance long ago. Now the sheriff is blackmailing her to distract the man who might derail his corrupt schemes - a man who can offer Audrey not just protection, but a passion bold enough to make them claim their place in this harsh and beautiful land...