Like I admitted in my last post, when I wrapped up Zane’s and Stella’s stories, I knew Zarah’s needed to be told, but I didn’t know what all that would entail. The first three books laid a foundation for her and I wanted to keep that going. It wasn’t that simple, though.
These books are going to need a lot of trigger warnings: sexual assault, rape, and mental health issues. Ashton Black was not kind to her, and through these three books that lay out her story, she struggles to live and be happy despite what he did… and who he turned her into.
That’s where Gage Davenport comes in. Max’s half-brother. At first they weren’t half-brothers, but as I plotted out Zarah’s story, I realized I couldn’t make them full brothers. Max’s dad plays a huge part in these books, and I didn’t want Gage related to him. That he’s Gage’s stepfather causes enough problems, and it’s not something Gage knows they can work through–not until the very end.
Where readers might not like Zane and his choices, I think they’ll love reading Gage’s side of what’s going on. I enjoyed writing him very much… the blunt, tatted-up PI who will do anything to protect Zarah. And does.
Nothing is ever what it seems, and while they fight like hell to figure out Zarah’s past, they end up finding more than they bargained for–a conspiracy that started years and years ago. And unbeknownst to Stella at the time, the second she accepted Zarah’s invitation to have wine and cheesecake, she stepped in the very middle of it.
That’s enough of me talking–here’s the cover and the blurb of Shattered Fate, book four in the King’s Crossing series.
Gage
Ashton Black shot and killed my half-brother Max, and in his will, he left me everything he owned, plus one serious request—protect Zarah Maddox.
I don’t want to follow my brother’s last wishes.
All that changes when I rescue her from a group of hungry paparazzi and I look into her eyes.
Her confusion and vulnerability crack my heart wide open, and all I want is to keep her safe.
Locking her up in Quiet Meadows, Black tried to kill Zarah just as he succeeded in killing my brother. And Max was right.
Black’s not done with her yet.
Zarah
My life is a fog of medication and splintered memories filled with violence and hate, and with therapy and the love of my family, I try desperately to live a normal life.
When I meet Gage, I think I might have a chance at happiness.
But there are secrets that won’t leave me alone, shadows the drugs don’t keep hidden.
As Gage and I start investigating my past so we can build a future, we find more than what we bargain for, and it may be too much for him to fight against, no matter how much he says he loves me.
Thank you for reading, and if you’d like, please subscribe! As a thank you for dropping in, download My Biggest Mistake, a standalone ugly-duckling billionaire romance.
So, when I was writing this book, I thought this would be the end of the story, but, I should have known better. I was naïve right up until practically the end. You know how authors say their characters are in control and we’re just telling their stories? That is absolutely true. I had no clue what was going to happen or that it would create the need for three more books.
In fact, when I opened the document for book four, I had no idea what I was going to write, who Zarah’s love interest was going to be, or what her story was going to be about. Nothing. All I knew then was that she needed her chance at happiness because someone had taken it away from her at the end of book three.
This post isn’t about book four though–we’ll get to that next week.
Book three wraps up Zane’s and Stella’s stories. Not completely, as they don’t disappear in books four through six and they feature in the series’ epilogue, but they do get their happily ever after, even if they have to tackle some difficult situations later on.
Zane was in love with Stella from the second he saw her, and I do feel bad it took them three books to find their happiness. But Zane… he’s different from other heroes I’ve written in the past. One of which is, he’s younger than any of the male characters I’ve published so far. His age makes him vulnerable, too trusting in the wrong people, and naïve. He’s mourning the loss of his parents and hiding from the obligations their deaths put on his shoulders. Because of this, sometimes he makes poor choices, and I won’t be surprised if I get a review or two telling me they don’t like him. That’s okay. He’s flawed and makes mistakes, but I think, as you read his and Stella’s stories, you’ll find his heart was always in the right place. He just doesn’t know what to do with his feelings most of the time.
Stella fell in love at first sight, and she put up with a lot. There were times when she didn’t think she could do it, and in books two and three, their relationship is shaky at best. Through it all, though, she never gave up, and in the end, Zane turned into the man she needed him to be. Maybe readers will think she put up with too much and she should have walked away. Zane certainly thought that. But Stella stands up for what she believes in, and despite his mistakes and her doubts, she believed in him. He’ll always love her for that.
Can a character be too flawed? I guess I’ll let you be the judge of that.
Here’s the cover and the blurb:
Zane
I thought everything would end the day Ash and his father, Clayton, were arrested for my parents’ deaths, heading a prostitution ring, and selling weapons on the black market.
But I was wrong.
The true reason why Ash hated Stella comes out, and it does more than ruin what little trust I’ve managed to repair between us.
It tears us apart.
There’s nothing that will redeem me in Stella’s eyes. All I can do is wait her out and hope that love, just this one time, wins.
Stella
Growing up in foster care, the only thing I’ve ever wanted was to find a family. I thought I had when Zane asked me to marry him. I would have a husband who loved me, and Zarah would be my sister.
But as the FBI sorts through the Blacks’ illegal activities, they find more than what we bargained for.
Now I have to choose between Zane and the family I thought I never had.
I don’t know if I can keep both, or if, after everything I’ve been through to destroy the Blacks, I have the strength to try.
As always, for reading and subscribing to the blog, you can download My Biggest Mistake, a free, full-length ugly duckling billionaire novel. You can find it here: https://BookHip.com/CMSVSNK
This was the book that actually started it all. I have no idea what I was doing now… washing dishes, driving somewhere, trying to fall asleep, but I thought, out of nowhere, What if he hated her? What if he loved her so much but she did something and now he wanted to kill her. That was it. I thought this little ember, this little tiny spark, would be the beginning of a standalone, or maybe a trilogy since I like writing them. I started to think about it. Why would he hate her? What could she have possibly done? What if he only thought she did the thing?
That led me to realize I needed to back up. I couldn’t start with him hating her. I wanted more. I wanted him to be so irrevocably in love with her that that passion, that fire, could turn into hate, loathing, at the drop of a hat. But it was important to me she didn’t do what he thought she did, and it took me 90k words of explanation. That would have been a pretty long prologue!
As you can imagine, that little spark turned into a forest fire, and this story, from the first sentence, until now, while I’m typing out this blog post, has pretty much consumed me. I’ve written other things between editing these books, and with every editing pass, the story became stronger and more fleshed out. I’m to the point now where I can’t do any more to them, and I’m not going to try. I’m proofing for typos one more time, praying I don’t edit in a mistake while I’m trying to fix one.
Book one ends on a pretty hard cliffhanger. You’ll want to read book two right away to see what happens (I hope!), and book two picks up right where book one leaves off. Well, maybe not right after, but if I talk anymore about books one or two, I’m going to start giving away spoilers, and all the spoilers I want you to have are in the blurbs. Writing the blurbs was hard just because the story builds, and you need to start with book one. The blurbs will give away some information, but hopefully only in a way that will excite you to read the series.
Here’s the book cover and blurb for book two:
Zane
I know the second Stella’s back in King’s Crossing, and I want nothing more than to tear her into pieces the way she did to me the day she ran away with another man.
But I’m not the only one who wants her dead, and when she risks her life visiting my sister, I realize that Ash isn’t as innocent as he wants me to believe.
Now Stella and I must work together to find justice for my parents, and maybe I can prove to her that despite all these years of hating her, I still love her, too.
Stella
When Zarah watched Ashton Black kidnap me, she snapped, and for five years, we were both Ash’s prisoner: me at Black Enterprises, Zarah locked away at a sanatorium.
Until I escape.
Now someone wants to kill me, and they almost succeed until Richard Denton, Kagan Maddox’s previous business partner, saves me.
He’s been trying to uncover who murdered Zane’s parents.
I have proof.
We need Zane’s help to destroy the Blacks and avenge Zane’s parents’ deaths, but working with Zane is strictly business.
I trusted him once with my heart . . . I won’t do it again.
That’s all I have this time around… I’m trying to post more on social media, and if you want to follow me, I’m on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/vaniamargenerheault/ and/or you can follow me on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/VRheault. I’ll be posting graphics and teasers that don’t fit in a blog/newsletter, so following me, at least on Instagram, would be perfect.
I’ve been working extremely hard to get these books up and running, and with every day I’m coming closer. But that also means I need to start talking about these books or no one is going to know what they’re about or want to read the ARCs when I finally post them.
I’m not used to talking about my books much, just throwing the links out there and hoping for the best, something you probably have come to realize about me if you’ve followed my author journey for any length of time. I’m rather introverted and tend to lurk, but lurking isn’t so great if you have news to share, which I do, and I’ll have a lot of it in the coming weeks.
I started writing this series back in December of 2019. A plot, no, an idea, kind of fell into my lap, and as things do, my story turned into a 500,000 word monster. I’m not sad about it, but it took me a lot longer to get them written and ready to publish than I thought. Four and a half years later, I’m getting close. These were the first books I wrote when I decided to change from 3rd person past POV to 1st person present POV, kicking off my the books I would write under my initials.
As most of my books are, these take place in a huge made-up city in Minnesota called King’s Crossing. In my mind, it’s a mixture of Minneapolis (a city I have been many times), New York City (a city I have never been to in my life), and Savannah, Georgia (a city I have been a handful of times). I wanted the big city feel, especially since Zane Maddox, my main male character for the first half of the series, is a billionaire, but I also wanted the river in Savannah to feature because when we stayed at the Westin, I would love to watch the huge cargo ships go by, and they play a part in book three.
This is the hotel I stayed at, right on the river. It was beautiful, and watching the cargo ships float by was amazing. I hope I bring that feeling into my books.
Anyway, so the story spans a few years and I was able to include the hot stickiness we can experience in the summer, even in Minnesota, and the harsh winter temperatures as well. It’s probably why I like setting my books in Minnesota… I love using all the seasons.
Here’s the cover and the blurb for the first book:
Zane
Six months ago, my parents were killed in a plane crash. They left behind me, my sister, and a billion-dollar company that’s my responsibility now.
The only things that have gotten me through are Zarah and my best friend, Ashton Black.
Until I meet Stella.
Ash hates Stella as much as I love her, and as I try to uncover the reason why my parents’ plane crashed, I struggle to keep both of them in my life.
When she disappears, Ash says, “I told you so,” and all I have left is our friendship built on years of family loyalty, tears, and blood.
Stella
Meeting Zarah Maddox while she tours her parents’ company is a dream come true. She introduces me to her brother, Zane, and a world I want to desperately be a part of as much as I fear.
Ashton Black is Zane’s best friend, and he hates me from the second he hears my name.
He’s not the man Zane thinks he is, but when I discover evidence he’s hurting Zarah, there’s nothing I can do but sacrifice myself to keep them safe.
Zane’s loyalty to the Blacks is stronger than our love, but I won’t be the only one to pay the price.
These books are new for me–they are one long story from start to finish. There’s only one entry point–book one, and books 1 2, 4, and 5 end on mild to hard cliffhangers. The first three books are about Zane and Stella, and the second three books are about Zane’s sister, Zarah, and her love interest, Gage.
As an author, you hear a lot about people hating cliffhangers and maybe readers really do, so I will be very vocal about this point going forward–most of these books end on cliffhangers. It’s another reason why I waited to publish until all the books were ready. There will be a few weeks waiting between books, but not months or even years that are between the releases of some books (no shade to those authors, this was just my preferred way). When the ARCs are ready, they’ll be available all at once, though the releases will be about six weeks apart, if all goes smoothly.
For now, I’ll give you a sneak peek at each book from now until the ARCs are ready, one about every 9 days or so. I’m hoping I don’t need much longer to publish these. I’m so excited, and I hope you are too.
Stick with me through the summer–you won’t regret it!
As always, if you haven’t grabbed your free copy of My Biggest Mistake, you can do that here. It would be great if you could subscribe to my blog for updates and news, especially if you plan to be in on the ARCs and releases of my series. This will be where I’ll post the newest information, so don’t miss out!
Have a great week and a wonderful 4th of July, also, Happy Canada Day to all my friends across the border. Stay safe, and I will touch base with you soon!
June came in with a little excitement . . . we had an old plastic dog house on our balcony our late cat, Pumpkin, liked to sleep in. One afternoon I was sitting outside and I saw a wasp fly into it. That didn’t give me a good feeling, and I was right to be curious. I looked inside and saw she was building a nest. I felt bad because she didn’t choose s safe place. Well, maybe she did, but I didn’t feel safe having her around, and my son and I ended up throwing the house into the dumpster. She had only just started on it, it wasn’t even as big as a golf ball, and she flew around the balcony for a couple of days before giving up and moving on. I didn’t want to kill her, and I hope she found a better place and started building a new nest. My son and daughter were sad that we had to throw Pumpkin’s house away as it was one of the few reminders we had left of him.
The first month of summer is almost gone, and I’m working as hard and as fast as I can. I’ve started proofing the second book in my King’s Crossing Series, and once I get through all six, I’ll put up the ARCs, but I will definitely touch base with you before that happens! I’m so excited to finally be able to share these books with you. I don’t have a set date in mind because things always take longer than anticipated, but I know it’s been a while since I published and you have my heartfelt thanks for hanging in there with me.
In other book news, today is STUFF YOUR E-READER DAY and there are over 1,000 romance books of all subgenres in this selection. It doesn’t matter where you read–Kindle, Kobo, Google Play, Apple Books, or Barnes and Noble, there’s something for everyone. Go to www.romancebookworms.com and start browsing! All books are free to “buy” and they don’t have to be returned like they do in Kindle Unlimited. It’s today only, and I hope you find some amazing romance books!
That’s all I have for this month. I hope you’re having a great start to your summer!
Like a lot of people, Mother’s Day holds some complicated feelings for me. My mother was difficult to get along with, mostly because she was unhappy, and if someone is unhappy, everyone around them is too. It doesn’t help she’s been gone for the past fifteen years and anything I might have done or said to hurt her, and I know there was a lot, I can’t apologize for.
My own daughter graduates high school this month, and I’ve been conscious since my children were babies that I didn’t want to be as difficult as my mother was, in fact, I didn’t want to be like her at all. In some ways, I think I managed, and I feel like I am a completely different person, maternally, than she was. More easy-going, not so quick to get angry. In other ways, history repeats itself, and I can see her face when I look into the mirror, see her body when I get dressed in the morning.
Some of my characters have great relationships with their parents, and some don’t. The ones who don’t, I think I model after my own tumultuous relationships with both my parents, and the ones who do, I envy. I’ll never have that and doubt that I would even if my mother hadn’t passed away. There was damage there, hurt that couldn’t be fixed. Mostly because I think she did the best she could and she didn’t feel she needed to apologize for anything. That’s true to an extent–your best can only be your best and if it’s lacking, it’s not your fault.
Mother’s Day is a day of mourning and regret. But it’s also a celebration of the small things my mother and I were able to share, and joy in watching my own children grow into the adults the are.
If you’re struggling today, I understand. If you’re not, I’m glad you’re able to enjoy the day.
If you missed my last post, I just want to remind you that today is the last day you can get Rescue Me for free on Kindle, and you can find it here: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0BGT13LPR/
And as always, My Biggest Mistake is available as a thank you for reading and subscribing to the blog. You can download your copy here: https://dl.bookfunnel.com/a4ldiapzmg
Have a lovely Sunday whether you celebrate or not, and enjoy the week ahead!
Happy May! I can’t believe it’s already the 9th. Did April feel like it flew by for you like it did for me? May seems to be going just as fast, and I would love it if time slowed down just a little bit. I have a lot to do!
This month I have a follow-up appointment in Rochester, MN, at the Mayo Clinic. I had my first appointment in February for a feminine issue I’d been having for quite some time, and the nurse practitioner didn’t disappoint. She knew exactly what was wrong with me, and I’ve been under treatment and on the mend since then. This appointment will tell me what to expect going forward, but I only see improvement and happier days ahead.
I’ve been steadily working on my King’s Crossing series, and I’ll be ordering the proofs to proofread in the coming weeks. While I’m doing that, I put Rescue Me and Captivated by Her for free from Thursday, May 9th, to Sunday, May 12th.
I love Captivated by Her and the second part of the duet, Addicted to Her. They were the first books I published under my pen name, and I’m still proud of them. Here is the first scene of Captivated by Her:
Devyn
I know the minute he calls my name I’m in trouble. I tense, sensing my boss’s stare boring into my back.
“Girl, what did you do now?” Alesha, the woman who uses the desk in front of me, asks, shaking her head.
“Breathe,” I mutter. I put up with the way Walt treats me because I need this job. I don’t let anyone know how much I need this job.
Pasting a smile on my face, I turn and say, “Just a second.”
Walt nods once, sharply, and disappears into his office.
“Good luck, hon,” Alesha says. “With that glower, you’re gonna need it.”
“Thanks a lot.” I try to keep the sarcasm out of my voice.
It’s not her fault Walt doesn’t like me. Well, it’s not that he doesn’t like me. He likes me fine, or he wouldn’t have gone up to bat for me when I applied for this job. It’s that ever since then, the owners of the Portland Pioneer have been breathing down his neck. They don’t like me, and in two point five seconds I’m going to find out just how much they don’t like me.
Again.
“What’s up?” I ask, tentatively stepping into his office.
“Have a seat, Devyn. We need to talk.”
I push a piece of hair behind my ear, perch on the edge of the chair in front of his desk, and tuck my hands between my knees to keep them from shaking.
“What do I need to do to prove my worth this time?” I ask, not a little bitter.
I draw the shittiest assignments. They want me to quit. And even crappier, I don’t know who they are. I have no idea who owns this fucking paper and pulls on Walt’s puppet strings. I never dared to look or else I think I’d kill them.
Walt sits behind his beat-up metal desk and leans back in his squeaky chair. “You know it’s not like that.”
“Yeah, it is.” Tears want to spring to my eyes, but I won’t let them. I’m a damned good reporter. I tangled with the wrong person, and I get that, but I shouldn’t have to suffer for it for the rest of my life. Except, that’s not how it works.
He sighs, tips his head, and talks to the ceiling. “Look. I tried, I really did, and they’re setting you up to fail with this assignment. Devyn, ever since you walked into this newsroom looking for a paycheck for an honest day’s work, I’ve done my best by you. I really have.”
“It’s that impossible, huh?” I give up and rub a tear off my cheek.
I don’t know what I’m going to tell Talia, my sister. She’s depended on me for the past couple of years. Hell, we moved here because of this job, and to get her as far away from Cedar Hill as possible.
He tosses a file at me, and I open the front flap. A headshot of Rickard Mercer glares at me. God, the man is intimidating. Sexy, hot, and intimidating.
“They want you to interview him.” His voice is flat.
“He doesn’t give interviews.”
“They . . . don’t care. I’m supposed to send you up there with two hundred bucks for expenses and tell you to stay there for as long as it takes.”
I flip the flap over and cover Rickard Mercer’s glower. “I might as well just quit, then. You know how impossible that will be. He hasn’t spoken to the press since he was discharged from the hospital.”
And the words he said to the reporters loitering outside were, “Fuck you.” They’d ran the sound bite over and over again. Memes flew around the internet, and Rickard Mercer, the fifth richest man in the United States, turned into a laughingstock in two seconds.
Walt blows out a breath.
“And that was two years ago,” I add for nobody’s benefit.
“I can’t force you,” he says, “but if you can’t, don’t, whatever, then I’m supposed to send you packing. I hate it, but I don’t make the rules.”
Incredulous, I laugh. I can’t help it. “And they think if I’m able to land the interview of the fu—” I cut myself off from swearing. Walt hates it— “the year, I would hand it over to the Pioneer? I’d sell that sh—” God, I need to curb my potty mouth— “well, you know what I’m getting at.”
Walt scoffs. “Maybe they didn’t consider it, but if you went up there on their dime and you sold that interview to the highest bidder, I think you’d have a lawsuit on your hands. You’re still trying to wade out of the shit Stevie Johansson flung at you. I’d watch it. Don’t get any bright ideas.”
He’s right. Not the part about the lawsuit, but Stevie Johansson is the reason why I’m in Portland, Minnesota, population 15,333, instead of working at the Cedar Hill Times on my way to a Pulitzer. I’d been thisclose, and it went up in a ball of flames. That’s why I need this job.
“What am I supposed to do about my sister? I don’t like leaving her alone for so long, and Old Harbor is five hours from here.”
“I’ll check on her.”
Helluva lot of good that will do, but it’s all I got.
“When do you want me to go?”
“Now. As soon as you can. Go home, pack a suitcase, tell your sister you’ll see her soon, and get going. It’s supposed to snow up there tonight, and the roads can get slick by the water.”
I stand and head for the office door. “You’re going to job hunt for me while I’m gone, right?”
As always, if you forgot you have access to a free copy of My Biggest Mistake for visiting and hopefully subscribing to the blog, here is the link to download the billionaire, ugly duckling, standalone novel.
This is my first blog post in lieu of my newsletter. Shutting it down was difficult, but putting up with the glitches that made me look (and feel) bad was worse, so this is how I’ll be updating my readers from now on, maybe forever. I’ve been blogging in a different capacity for close to eight years so I know how this website works and I’m hoping that this will stop any more unfortunate incidents from happening again.
I’m going through my King’s Crossing series, but it’s going smoothly and I hope to have the ARCs (advanced review copies) ready by the end June. That might be asking for a lot considering how much can go wrong between now and then, but life hasn’t beaten me down completely, and the sunny days we’ve been having and the new wine I found at the liquor store has kept my spirits (and optimism) up.
I would love to share covers and I have the basic concept down, but they aren’t ready quite yet. I really want to show you something though, so here’s the basic idea of the first cover and the blurb. There are six books in this series (three about Zane and Stella and three about Gage and Zarah) they’ll be all ready to go and on preorder (I didn’t want you to have to wait long between books), and I’ll have the ARCs up for all the books on this site ASAP. There is so much work I have to do between now and then, but I’m having so much fun, and I know once you can read them, you will too!
Zane
Six months ago, my parents were killed in a plane crash. They left behind me, my sister, and a billion-dollar company that’s my responsibility now. The only things that have gotten me through are Zarah and my best friend, Ashton Black. Until I meet Stella. Ash hates Stella as much as I love her, and as I try to uncover the reason why my parents’ plane crashed, I struggle to keep both of them in my life. When she disappears, Ash says, “I told you so,” and all I have left is our friendship built on years of family loyalty, tears, and blood.
Stella
Meeting Zarah Maddox while she tours her parents’ company is a dream come true. She introduces me to her brother, Zane, and a world I want to desperately be a part of as much as I fear. Ashton Black is Zane’s best friend, and he hates me from the second he hears my name. He’s not the man Zane thinks he is, but when I discover evidence he’s hurting Zarah, there’s nothing I can do but sacrifice myself to keep them safe. Zane’s loyalty to the Blacks is stronger than our love, and I won’t be the only one to pay the price.
I did share some other information with you in the newsletter that I hope no one opened and if you did, didn’t click on the links. As an author writing to her readers, I never thought I would say that, but it would make me feel a lot better if you didn’t (just lie to me, thanks!). Last month Give & Take, the first book in my Lost & Found Trilogy, was featured in a bi-monthly newsletter called Happily Ever Alpha. I shared the signup link that didn’t go anywhere, but if you were interested in signing up for a newsletter that features deals and freebie books, you can do it here: https://happilyeveralpha.com/
That’s all I have for now, but now that I’ve made the transition to blogging from a newsletter aggregator, I should post more consistently. I have a lot going on this year, so please subscribe if you haven’t, and don’t forget to download My Biggest Mistake! I love Allie and Brady and don’t want you to miss out! You can do that here: https://BookHip.com/CMSVSNK
Because of my newsletter provider issues, I have decided to move my updates to a blog post format. I like blogging and I’m familiar with my website and host.
I’ve been dealing with a health issue from quite some time and trying to write and publish is my top priority. I know that dealing with tech issues is a given when it comes this author business, but we also have to do what’s best for us when it comes to protecting our time and mental health. I enjoy sending out a newsletter, and only the how will change.
Thank you for understanding, and I hope you stay with me. I have a lot of news to share in the coming year.
VM Rheault 