You can get more information for all of these books by looking on my website. Tap or click on the link.
A writer always hopes and prays for a good cover. I feel fortunate to have had mostly good covers for my more than 50 books. I have had several duds, but we won't mention those further, except for one.
June always brings back memories of summers spent watching the neighbor's horses graze in the field behind our house.
I was reminded of this when I wrote my sweet romance, 1-800-SUMMER, with its Scottish hero and his sweet daughter.
Did you know horses can recognize human emotions and often mirror them? It's one of the reasons they're so effective in therapy programs, something my heroine, Belle Boots, in 1-800-SUMMER puts to good use as an equine therapist for the hero's daughter.
I want to share something special with all of you this month. 1-800-SUMMER is available completely FREE for the next few days. It's my thank-you gift for your continued support. Just click the link to download your copy and meet Andrew Branfield, my Scottish hero, whose fear of horses creates both heartwarming and humorous moments as he navigates his growing feelings for a woman who loves them.
Have you ever helped someone overcome a fear? Or found yourself falling for someone who challenged you to face your own? I'd love to hear your stories in the comments below.
P.S. My video bird feeder has now collected 45 species of birds. One of our most frequent visitors is the Chipping Sparrow, who has visited over 2600 times!
If you're looking for your next great read, the complete Sweetwater Springs series is my newest release and now available in a boxed set. These three sweet romances will transport you to a charming small town filled with hope, heart, and the kind of community we'd all love to find.
The three books in the boxed set include:
WHISPERS OF LOVE IN SWEETWATER SPRINGS
One mysterious letter. Two childhood friends. A love story decades in the making.
WHISPERS OF MAPLE MEMORIES IN SWEETWATER SPRINGS
A century-old secret. A stolen chronicle. Could unearthing their past cost them their future?
WHISPERS OF HOLIDAY MAGIC IN SWEETWATER SPRINGS
A struggling baker, a determined financier, and a small-town mystery where secrets spark holiday magic.
Josie Riviera is a USA Today bestselling author of contemporary, historical, and inspirational romances that read like Hallmark movies. She lives in the Charlotte, NC, area with her wonderfully supportive husband. They share their home with an adorable Shih Tzu, who constantly needs grooming, and live in an old house forever needing renovation.
Sign up for her newsletter and get a FREE ebook on her website: josieriviera.com
This is book one of my new series, Three Women of Courage.
Before you begin this series, you will want to read the prequel, my FREE novella, “Where Honor Began. Click here and download it for free and at the same time subscribe to my monthly newsletter. You can unsubscribe at any time!
The “Three Women of Courage” series chronicles the lives of a mother and her two daughters. Each, in turn, becomes involved in the dramatic and pivotal movements in 19th century America: abolition, women’s rights, and the Civil War. And each one meets her match—a brave man who can’t resist the pull to a fearless woman, All three by Lyn Cote, a Carol award-winning author of fifty novels.
Book 1: A Life with Honor: After the death of her grandfather, Honor Penworthy finds herself unexpectedly destitute. She is forced to leave her Maryland plantation?and the slaves she vowed to free?and seek refuge with a distant relative. With no marketable skills, her survival hinges on a marriage arranged through the Quaker community to local glass artisan Samuel Cathwell. They marry out of mutual necessity. Samuel is drawn to Honor but since scarlet fever took his hearing as a child, he has been unwilling to open his heart to anyone.
Their move west brings the promise of a fresh start, but nothing in Honor’s genteel upbringing has prepared her for the rigors of frontier life with Samuel. Nevertheless, still haunted by leaving behind her enslaved people, she begins her search for others who want to end slavery. Soon she becomes increasingly?though secretly?involved in the infant movement for abolition. Samuel suspects Honor is hiding something, but will uncovering the truth about her work for freedom drive them farther apart or unite them at last?
Click here to get your copy for $2.99
How could I? In last month's blog I left out my 2015 Christmas Love Inspired release, Holiday Homecoming, which was later re-released with the title I had wanted, His Christmas Star. My third Donnelly Brothers story, The Bachelor's Sweetheart, came out in July 2016.
I love reading Christmas stories, so I was so excited when I sold a Donnelly Brothers Christmas story to Harlequin for December 2015.
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Connor Donnelly is done with romance.
Five years ago, Natalie Delacroix, the woman he thought he'd spend forever with turned down his proposal and left their small community of Paradox Lake to pursue her dreams. Dreams that didn't include Connor Donnelly. Since then, Connor has devoted himself to the community. Now pastor of the local Community Church, he's determined to make the first Christmas pageant he’s directed a success. If only he can avoid the matchmaking of his family and friends who don't want the handsome bachelor to spend the holidays alone.
Natalie Delacroix is back in Paradox Lake.
The successful broadcasting career she left the mountain town and Connor for hasn’t turned out quite the way she’d expected. This well-needed break that she’d intended to use to rechart her future is disturbed by family and friends pushing her to help the church—and Connor—with the holiday pageant.
With Natalie’s musical talents, long admired by Connor, the couple might just succeed in making it the success he wants. And because working so closely with Natalie stirs up old feelings, Connor starts to hope for a second chance with the one who got away.
As much joy as they've found working on the pageant together, Connor worries that Natalie will never be content with small-town life. Natalie knows she'll have to earn his trust.
Will the best intentions of family and friends backfire, or will Natalie and Connor find their love again under the Christmas Star? Find out in this heartwarming holiday reunion romance.
Welcome to Paradox Lake
Any fan of sweet romance will love the stories of small-town love in the Paradox Lake Sweet Romance series. Grab your tea or coffee, settle into your favorite chair, and be swept away into the cozy Adirondack town, where complex characters navigate challenging situations as they find their way to love. Whether it’s love at first blush, old flames reuniting, or second chance romance, you’ll find pure reading enjoyment and satisfy your craving for sweet, wholesome romance.
Part of an ongoing series full of familiar faces, each story will stand on its own. With novel and novella lengths available, there’s something for everyone. Paradox Lake is written by USA Today Bestselling sweet romance author Jean Gordon, who’s penned stories for the Hopeless Romantics of Willow Ridge, No Brides Clubs, and Indigo Bay multi-author sweet romance series—as well as her own series and Harlequin Love Inspired.Jared’s hitting too close to home for Becca, with the proximity of his school and the growing connection between Jared and her son. It doesn’t matter that Jared’s kindness to her and the kids melts her long-frozen heart. She can handle her life and family just fine. She should be pumping the breaks with him, especially considering the brewing trouble with her inlaws over custody of her kids and the bad blood with the Donnellys. No good can come of tangling with the town bad boy, no matter how much he’s reformed. Her heart, however, has other plans and is fighting for the happy ending and all the fairy tale feels love has to offer. How high will the price tag be, and is she ready to pay?
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Falling for the Bachelor
Tessa Hamilton never imagined the hardest part of having her best friend help renovate her small-town movie theater would be keeping her heart safe. She can't fall for a man who has no interest in a serious relationship with any woman and who doesn't know the secret she hides. Besides, Josh Donnelly is too eager to leave Paradox Lake especially when his estranged father returns. Tessa struggles with the turmoil, but as she falls deeper for the bachelor, she knows she must be honest if there's any chance for them. But will telling Josh put everything at risk including their friendship?
BUY: Amazon
Before you begin this series, you will want to read the prequel, my FREE novella, “Where Honor Began. Click here and download it for free and at the same time subscribe to my monthly newsletter. You can unsubscribe at any time!
The “Three Women of Courage” series chronicles the lives of a mother and her two daughters. Each, in turn, becomes involved in the dramatic and pivotal movements in 19th century America: abolition, women’s rights, and the Civil War. And each one meets her match—a brave man who can’t resist the pull to a fearless woman, All three by Lyn Cote, a Carol award-winning author of fifty novels.
Book 1: A Life with Honor: After the death of her grandfather, Honor Penworthy finds herself unexpectedly destitute. She is forced to leave her Maryland plantation?and the slaves she vowed to free?and seek refuge with a distant relative. With no marketable skills, her survival hinges on a marriage arranged through the Quaker community to local glass artisan Samuel Cathwell. They marry out of mutual necessity. Samuel is drawn to Honor but since scarlet fever took his hearing as a child, he has been unwilling to open his heart to anyone.
Their move west brings the promise of a fresh start, but nothing in Honor’s genteel upbringing has prepared her for the rigors of frontier life with Samuel. Nevertheless, still haunted by leaving behind her enslaved people, she begins her search for others who want to end slavery. Soon she becomes increasingly?though secretly?involved in the infant movement for abolition. Samuel suspects Honor is hiding something, but will uncovering the truth about her work for freedom drive them farther apart or unite them at last?
Click here to get your copy for $2.99
Daughter of parents who counted President Washington as a friend, Sarah had a bright future.
An unjust scandal casts Sarah outside the new American society. She forsakes the 13 United States for French Colonial New Orleans. But sailing the pirate-ridden Caribbean is no place for an unprotected lady. Hired to protect her, Mac McKuen finds her and the new city and the untamed frontier more challenging than they could imagine.
“Totally engrossing and believable. Adversity, intrigue, love and hate all flowing seamlessly in these early Americans.” Sale through Thursday May 29th.
https://www.amazon.com/Journey-Honor-Sweeping-Historical-Patriots-ebook/dp/B06ZYSQTPC
Last week, a deadly EF3 Tornado bulldozed a path through neighborhoods in St. Louis, Missouri,
Tornadoes aren't foreign to Missourians, especially in St. Louis, but this one had a powerful punch with winds at 152 miles per hour.
This was our second twister within three months, which happened a few blocks from my house in the county.
Fast forward to May 2025. News reports say the 23-mile tornado damaged nearly 5,000 buildings with an estimated cost of $1 billion.
Given the large scale of damages, it is my opinion that rebuilding may take decades, but St. Louis will rebuild.
#WeAreSt.LouisStrong
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Year of the Dog has less suspense than my other books. It’s a romantic comedy suspense more on par with The Lone Rice Ball and Single Sashimi. Here’s a snippet that I wrote:
***
Mari Mutou wouldn’t have rammed her SUV into the sleek, expensive-looking Audi if her brother-in-law hadn’t been cheating on her sister. Really, it wasn’t her fault.
And if she’d been running late, as she usually did, she wouldn’t have even noticed the fire-engine red Corvette parked on the edge of the real estate agency parking lot, much less the two people in it. She’d have sped past it on her way to meet her potential dog training client.
But for once in her life, she arrived early for her appointment with Jim Tong, who had asked her to meet him at his workplace during his lunch hour. Her SUV hustled into the lot, looking for a shady spot under a tree or, barring that, next to a new-ish luxury car, whose owner would be less likely to ding her new teal-green paint job.
She found a good spot all right. Good viewing spot for the couple smooching in the Corvette. She couldn’t see the face of the blonde woman, but she got an eyeful of the forty-ish man macking in the middle of the day in plain view of everyone. Really, some people had no shame about PDA …
Wait a minute. She knew that man.
That man was William. Her brother-in-law. Her sister’s husband of fifteen years.
What was he doing with that woman?!
Crunch! The truck jerked as if she’d run into something.
Oh, no. She had.
Her stomach clenched like a wrung-out rag. She was going to be sick.
She had hit a really nice car, from what she could see of its back end. Black racing-type. Expensive. And an extremely irate owner.
“What are you doing? Weren’t you even looking?” The man had barely any of the local pidgin accent in his crisp voice. He had Asian features (Japanese maybe? Or Korean? She wasn’t very good at being able to tell) but his short, softly waving hair was so dark a black it almost looked blue. Average height, but broad shoulders and a lithe, athletic grace as he walked—no, stomped toward her car. His hazelnut-colored eyes were irked and flashing, and a muscle pulsed in his strong jaw. In fact, he reminded her of a certain K-drama star ...
“Hello? Anybody home?”
“Huh?” She blinked, and visions of a painfully beautiful Korean movie star with his hair blowing in an artful wind dissolved into the angry real estate agent (she guessed—this was a real estate agency parking lot) who was making his immaculately tamed locks stick up at wild angles from pulling at it with long-fingered hands.
Oh, right. Fender-bender. Focus, Mari.
***
Year of the Dog released in the anthology Danger in the Shadows on May 13, 2025. Buy on Amazon or read on Kindle Unlimited!
Most of us get excited over any day we get off work and it's even better if it's a paid holiday. There are several military holidays each year, although for most, most don't come as a paid holiday other than Memorial Day.
We've just recently celebrated Armed Forces Day and will be celebrating Memorial Day soon. That used to not mean so much to me, but as I've aged I've come to appreciate the great freedom I enjoy as not everywhere in the the world has that privilege. My son is currently deployed. And, I volunteer as a medic to accompany WWII veterans on return trips to Normandy, France for D-Day anniversary events. Freedom and those who have done so much to provide it greatly matters to me
Armed Forces Day is for those still in uniform & is the third Saturday in May each year. It's to honor those who are actively serving to protect our freedom.
Veterans Day is for those who have hung up their uniform. Veterans Day doesn't change by the day of the week, but is always on November 11th each year. The date is to commemorate the ending of World War I in 1918.
Memorial Day is a day set aside to honor and remember those who never made it out of their uniform. Memorial Day is always the last Monday of the month in May.
If you know much about my writing, then you know that my Wrapped Up in Christmas series feature Quilts of Valor. These are quilts meant to wrap those who've served in quilts of comfort, healing, and to welcome them home. Through my stories, I hope to provide satisfying romances that make readers feel the characters' journey, for the reader to laugh and maybe shed a tear or two. I also want to share my appreciation for our military in the stories, but in a way that hopefully isn't intrusive to the romance.
I'm currently working on the fifth book in this series, Wrapped Up in Christmas Faith. and it will be available November 13, 2025.
Around the world, Mothers are celebrated at various times in a variety of ways.
💐 In the United States, we take a day to honor moms with cards, meals, and a little pampering.
💐 In the United Kingdom, "Mothering Sunday" began centuries ago as a tradition of visiting one’s "mother church" and celebrating family.
💐 In Mexico, "Día de las Madres" is filled with music, flowers, and family gatherings on May 10th.
💐 In Ethiopia, families celebrate mothers during the Antrosht festival with feasts and song. No matter how or where it’s celebrated, the heart of the day remains the same: honoring women who love, nurture, and shape the world around them.
Mother’s Day has always been one of my favorite holidays, not because of the cards or flowers, but because of the small, heartfelt moments.
When I write my sweet romance stories, I try to honor the mother’s journey. Most of the time, it’s a day-by-day process—growing, learning, and figuring out how to navigate a life where every decision impacts not just herself, but the people she loves most. Moms are the quiet heroes—lifting others up while carrying so much themselves.
And then, I love to introduce the unexpected:
💐 Love that opens her eyes to even greater hope than she already shares.
💐 Someone who laughs at her jokes (because there’s a season where kids insist their mom isn’t funny—even though we all know she could have been a professional comedian if she didn’t love being a mom so much).
💐 Best of all, someone who shows her the beauty within herself that she may have forgotten—or never fully seen.
The scene I'm sharing today begins when Millie finds Matthew in the middle of a big mess. Her kindness naturally comes out when she's with Matthew, offering him exactly what he didn’t realize he needed: a little help, a little hope, and a lot of heart.
Here’s a little sneak peek:
“Michael, this won’t take long. I’ll get the big pieces, and you can sweep up the smaller ones with the broom,” she said, gently directing Matthew’s attention to the utility closet. “We can use a vacuum for the shards.”
Matthew tried to object, “I can take care—”
Millie didn’t let him finish. “You know what they say about many hands.” Then she gave him the smile. The one that made Matthew feel like it didn’t matter what they were doing. She enjoyed spending time with him.
( Make Room for Second Chances is a Kindle Unlimited story)
Mothers show us that love isn't just grand moments—it’s found in the little things: a homemade cookbook, a broom, a soft smile that says, “I’m here.”
I’d love to hear from you:
What’s one of your favorite memories tied to your mom, a mother figure, or a fictional mom who made you smile?
Wishing you a May full of blooming possibilities and heartwarming moments. 🌸
