Reckless Moon (21 page)
Authors: Doreen Owens Malek
I came to writing by a circuitous route, starting out as an avid reader of
Jane Eyre
and
Wuthering Heights
and
Gone With the Wind
and
Rebecca
, and any other similarly themed books I could find. I first worked as a teacher and then graduated from law school when I desired a more lucrative and independent career. I had always been discouraged from pursuing a writing career by the volatile nature of the business and the relatively poor chance for success. But the realization that I needed a focus for the future encouraged me to do what I had always wanted to do. I sold my fledgling novel to the first editor who read it, and I have been writing ever since. I have written all types of books for all types of people, but my favorite literary pursuit is and always has been romance. Nothing is as rewarding as hearing from my readers, so please use my website to communicate your thoughts and criticisms, as I am always eager to learn from you.
A romance novel rarely disappoints me: in an uncertain world filled with tragedy and sadness, reading about an appealing woman finding a strong man to love her and share her life is the perfect escape. I like to read and write stories in which the main characters overcome obstacles to get together, and then stay together because their mutual devotion cannot be denied no matter what else is happening around them. They always HELP each other and reinforce the quaint but enduring notion that love conquers all—at least in the fictional universe of my imagination. So pull up a chair and take down a book—or pick up a Kindle—and join me in a world where the heroes are tough and headstrong but never boorish and the heroines are feminine and sympathetic but never helpless.
Happy reading!
— Doreen Owens Malek
See all of
Doreen Owens Malek’s
Kindle eBooks on Amazon.com
RECENT CONTEMPORARY ROMANCE
RELEASES BY
DOREEN OWENS MALEK
Brand new, never before published
Contemporary Romance
AMANDA’S BLUE MARINE
Available for digital download
at Amazon.com, and in print at
www.doreenowensmalek.com
Amanda’s Blue Marine
marks the return of Doreen Owens Malek to publishing after a 12 year absence. It is with great pleasure that Doreen presents her new, never before published contemporary romance
Amanda’s Blue Marine
.
When Amanda Redfield, an assistant district attorney from a wealthy and prominent Philadelphia family, is being harassed by a mysterious stalker, she meets Brendan Kelly, the police detective assigned to her case. Smart and capable but deeply troubled, Kelly protects Amanda while he works to find her tormentor, but his disturbing presence and rogue behavior disrupt Amanda’s settled life. She is helplessly drawn to the sexy and charming but barely controlled cop, and as their passion grows she must choose between her prosperous and settled past and an uncertain future with a man whose own life is spiraling out of control. How she draws on her wits and resources to eventually rescue Kelly emotionally in the same way that he rescues her physically makes for a powerful and satisfying love story.
Look for the reissue of the
enormously popular
A MARRIAGE OF CONVENIENCE (1989)
,
available for digital download at Amazon.com
Taylor Braddock. His name brought back memories of a man so handsome that a young girl had fallen in love–and made a fool of herself. A man so unique he’d spoiled Sharon Philips for any other love.
But now her father’s will had joined their lives once again. In a final attempt at matchmaking, Dad left half his California horse ranch to Sharon, the other half to Braddock - provided they were husband and wife.
A quick wedding. A quick divorce. A quick sale of the ranch. It seemed simple. But time had only fueled their passion. Could Taylor erase ten years of pain and show Sharon that loving him was her destiny?
MARRIAGE IN NAME ONLY
(Contemporary Romance
Best Seller from 1995)
Revenge is bittersweet…
when passion intervenes
Years ago Ann Talbot had been forced to leave Heath Bodine without a goodbye. Now she was back, and though Heath still had the power to make her insides quiver with longing, he had changed. Yes, he was proposing marriage. But not out of love—out of revenge. And Ann knew she had no choice but to say yes.
Heath intended to make Ann pay for running out on him. But no matter how much he tried to deny it, living under the same roof and sharing the same bed with her was going to prove his undoing. Because he didn’t just want her body, he wanted her heart as well...
NEW DIGITAL RELEASES
AUGUST 2012
PANTHER LEGACY
(Historical Anthology)
SPECIAL PRICE OF JUST $3.99
Panther Legacy
contains two volumes:
The Panther and the Pearl
, an historical romance set during 1885 in the Ottoman Empire of Turkey, first printed in 1994, and its sequel, Panther’s Prey, set in the same location ten years later and released in 1996. The main characters of the first book reappear in the second book but in lesser roles as the central story is carried by a subsequent pair of lovers.
Both stories are very erotic and atmospheric historicals, immersed in the male dominated culture of Turkey at the time. That area of the world was then controlled by local rulers called Sultans and their lesser lieutenants, called Pashas, both absolute despots ruling their districts with iron hands.
In
The Panther and the Pearl
, Sarah Woolcott is a Boston schoolteacher visiting a relative in Turkey in the late nineteenth century. By a combination of circumstances you’ll find only in fiction, Sarah is purchased by the Pasha of Bursa, Kalid Shah. He is a young, Oxford educated district governor, the child of a local pasha and a captive British mother, who takes a fancy to Sarah when he sees her during a state visit to his boss, the Sultan. Sarah is outraged when she is drugged and kidnapped and wakes up to find herself the property of this seductive stranger, installed in his harem as the ikbal, the favorite, and expected to accept her fate as his new sex toy. While she fights him tooth and nail and pursues every avenue to obtain her release, at the same time she is drawn to him inexorably as he proves to be as intelligent, charming and sexy as he is handsome. What results is a battle of wits which drives them both to distraction, as she refuses to submit to his imperious commands and he ignores his stable of submissive beauties to chase the American woman who wants nothing to do with him. How Sarah winds up turning the tables on her dictatorial lover and finally bringing him to heel makes for an entertaining and highly sensual story.
Panther’s Prey
, the sequel to
The Panther and the Pearl
, takes place ten years later in the same district of Bursa, where the ward of Sarah Woolcott’s cousin is abducted by Turkish rebels seeking to overthrow the same Sultan in power when Sarah first arrived in Turkey. She is now married to Kalid Shah and living with him and their three children at Orchid Palace in Bursa. Shah is in sympathy with the rebels and allies himself with Malik Bey, the brother of a character in the first book. Bey is a wanted fugitive, the leader of the insurgents. Bey takes Sarah’s cousin, Amelia Ryder, from her traveling coach by force in order to sell her into slavery to finance his anti-government activities. Amelia is as defiant and feisty as Sarah was a decade earlier, however, and as she tries repeatedly to get away from Bey’s camp and back to her family she and the rebel leader grow fascinated with one another. She learns about Bey’s past and his cause and helps him when his lieutenant and best friend is wounded.
As time passes they share a compelling physical attraction which soon grows into an undeniable, unbreakable bond. Bey, young and handsome himself, is besotted with pretty blonde Amelia. He can’t keep his hands off her, despite his best efforts to put the revolution first and his feelings second, and decides finally that he cannot sell her. He makes a deal to release her to Shah just as she realizes that his cause is just and, even more shocking, that she really doesn’t want to get away from him. As Bey works with Shah to remove the Turkish dictator and replace him with an elected legislature, Bey is arrested and condemned by a desperate Sultan and Amelia joins forces with Kalid and Sarah to save his life. How Bey triumphs in the end and gets both a new government and the girl makes for a satisfying and sensual read. I hope you enjoy reading these books as much as I enjoyed writing them.
AUGUST 2012
MEDICINE MAN’S AFFAIR
(Contemporary Romance)
His people were his past
but she was his future
