Showing results by author "Hildred Billings" in All Categories

In the final installment of A Year in Paradise, we fly through town and catch up with every couple to grace the series so far. But while Christmas shopping and holiday parties light up the windows, one lonely resident comes to the unfortunate conclusion that Paradise Valley might not be for her.

Joan Sheffield and Lorri Abrams have been partners for years, but their mission to have a baby has placed a damper on their love. After the most recent miscarriage, the couple has begun questioning the direction of their relationship. Yet Joan isn't ready to give up. Her dreams of having the family she always wanted won't end because of some heartbreak and bad luck. Yet as she regroups and prepares to try again, she comes up against an obstacle she least expected.

For the past few years, Stefani has been running her family’s Oregon winery, Bel Cielo Estate. The only thing missing from her picturesque countryside life is companionship. But with a great distaste for dating - and the city - Stefani approaches an international service to make her marital dreams come true. Enter Yulia, the alluring Russian woman with a penchant for heavy flirtation. She occasionally puts her money where her mouth is, too, driving Stefani wild with fantasies that this marriage might be more than convenience.

Frankie Delacour has everything she could possibly want in life: a steady business, a supportive family, and townsfolk who don't give her too much flack. All right, so she doesn’t have a girlfriend, let alone a wife. But one of her online friends is talking more and more about finally meeting. In fact, Z, aka Elaine Hadley of the teashop Tea & Thyme has been wanting to meet for years. She hasn’t told Elaine a few things. Such as who she actually is. Some things are left best on the internet. Like the endless possibilities of a girlfriend maybe, someday.

Bree sees Hellfire as her permanent escape. A place where she can forget her old relationships and seek out new, temporary pleasures. Yet when she sees the woman of her dreams on the night of a big key party, Bree knows she must have her – even if for only tonight. Yet Amelia isn’t a woman who gives her heart as easily as she gives her body. Fresh from a heartbreaking divorce, she’s in Hellfire to get back in the dating game, convinced that a night of senseless fun with a stranger will erase her sadness.

Lonely Lydia has little to look forward to during her long days working at the local LGBT resource center, except greeting multimillionaire heiress, Maxine Woodward, who drops by every week. But Maxine could barely care who Lydia is. Maxine's a faraway dream, the ultimate fantasy for young lesbian, Lydia. When she attends a high-class fundraiser at Maxine's country manor, the last thing Lydia expects is for her dreams to come true!

Nyla Deng has been slinging drinks in Paradise, Taipei’s foremost nightclub, long enough to know the two main rules. The first is to always give patrons the best customer service in town. The second? Don’t. Fraternize. Simple enough for Nyla, who prefers to date “normal” girls instead of the clueless heiresses and cynical businesswomen who blow off steam in Paradise. Yet when has a drink with Terry Tsao, one of Shanghai’s most wayward heiresses, she quickly loses control and wakes up in Terry’s bed.

High in the mountains of central Japan, there's a town that makes it official business to invite in a host of spirits every summer. Helen's twin sister has drowned. After 60 years of relying on each other, Helen must now learn to not only work through her grief, but to embrace a life without the only person who ever mattered.

Welcome to Hellfire, where there are only three rules. Consent is a must. Safety is paramount. No judgment of anyone or whatever the desire. Other than that? Prepare to give your soul to the Devil, because you’re in her playground now. Danica has suffered enough bad luck to last her the rest of her life. The only highlight is using up the last month of her short-lived Hellfire membership to blow off some steam in LA’s most exclusive adult club. Too bad she bumps into the woman who has absolutely wrecked her chances at stardom.

One year after being hospitalized for a life-changing illness, Vivian is finally ready to get back into dating. Things are definitely looking up when a beautiful woman named Shari asks her out for drinks - and possibly more. Too bad the night turns whisky-sour when Shari not only rejects Vivian, but confirms her most self-conscious fears! Enter Kat the bartender, who has seen this train wreck of a date with her own observant eyes. It's not the first time Shari has destroyed a woman's self-confidence in one night, but it is the first time Kat has decided to personally cheer up a victim.

Life has not been kind to Mercy: her girlfriend is gone, she's unappreciated in her corporate job, and depression has always haunted her. That's how she came to stand on the bridge where she meets Acedia, the deity who oversees the Seven Sinners, bringers of peace and carnal healing. Now Mercy must embark on a journey to reclaim the sinful delights in life, beginning with Lust, the crimson-colored deity who hopes to reawaken more than just a woman's heart.

Tallulah is currently one of Hollywood’s biggest ingenues, and there’s nothing she loves more than partying in Hellfire, the only place she’s allowed to be the big, domineering queen of seduction instead of the sweet girl-next-door America wants her to be. There’s nobody in the circle of regulars who doesn’t know her, let alone hasn’t seen her biggest assets to come straight from the plastic surgeon’s. Too bad her bodyguard would rather be anywhere else.

Seven months after meeting on a dating site, Abbie Greywood and Joyce Stewart are about to experience Christmas in their respective corners of Oregon. Yet when Abbie makes the hard decision to cancel Christmas with her family, she turns to Joyce, a woman with no family left. Is it time to take their relationship to the next level? Dare they meet in person when everyone is supposed to stay six feet away?

Months after she first went to the bridge, Mercy has been declared healed. However, life still isn’t all sunshine and roses, as evident when she’s stood up on a date. Yet there is someone waiting for her. Acedia, the leader of the Seven Sinners, wishes to personally congratulate Mercy on completing her healing journey. Then the darkness returns, ready to claim Mercy’s soul.

Mercy has never considered herself special, which is why she can see right through her coworker’s “flirtations” for what they really are: harassment. After finally putting everyone in their place, Mercy heads home to find the last of the Seven Sinners in her room. Vanity, the Goddess of Self-Absorption, is ready to teach Mercy how to love herself. But Vanity isn’t very aggressive. If Mercy wants her life back, she’s going to have to take it. Again. And again.

For the first time in months, Mercy enjoys a day all to herself. After spoiling herself silly without a care in the world, she takes a wrong turn around the wrong alley and encounters Envy, a goddess who wants Mercy to hold a grudge. A plethora of bad memories awaits Mercy before she can continue on her healing journey, and nothing holds a candle to the very real issues in her place of work.

The sixth story in the Sins of Mercy series. In the grandest of miracles, Mercy is developing a social life. Thanks to her new friend, Mercy spends an evening out enjoying the company of energetic strangers who flirt with her, share their knowledge, and make her feel a little less alone. Yet Mercy shows she’s still on her way to healing when she’s unable to indulge in the same revelries as everyone else. Luckily there is yet another new friend waiting at home: Excess, the jolly goddess of many kitchen talents.

The fifth story in the Sins of Mercy series. Worn down by harassment at work, Mercy makes a new friend who informs her she needs to get “angry” again - to feel the rage of a woman scorned who won’t take bull from anyone and knows how to get what she wants. But how is Mercy to ever feel the sweet release of rage again? As fate would have it, a goddess is waiting for her. Wrath, the deity of righteous anger, wants to whip Mercy back into hating shape.

No one is more productive at work than Mercy, who is blessed with lust and avarice - and both sins leave her with too much energy! For a week, Mercy has not slept a wink, opting to, instead, put in overtime at work, clean her house every day, and probably train for a marathon, too. It's gotten to the point where her coworkers are noticing her for all the wrong reasons.

Since her visit from the first of the Seven Sinners, Mercy Devereux has been living a life of sin. At first, she enjoyed the renewed desires, but now they're starting to control her existence! How is Mercy supposed to live a life of insatiable sin without trading one addiction for another? The answer comes in the form of Avarice, the greedy goddess Mercy catches ransacking her house one night.