The Trampled Rose

What do you do when the pain of your past leaves you feeling so unworthy, that any hope of a future crumbles right before your eyes? Since Kristina Talbot can remember, she's tried to earn the love of men in her life, only to be hurt in the process. On the heels of her abusive husband's death, Kristina Talbot leaves New York and heads to New Mexico to try and get her life headed down a new road - one that doesn't include a man. Even before she reaches her destination, Nathan McKinley sets up a roadblock to her plan.

Barbara Houlton is a best-selling romance author, known for her achingly sweet love stories. However, her own love life is nothing to write home about. Raped on the eve of her high-school graduation, she was left pregnant and scarred, both emotionally and physically. She has learned to hide the physical scars, but the emotional scars that taint her soul become harder to hide each day. Sarcasm, avoidance and denial have become weapons to keep her monstrous past at bay.

Leanne grew up under the steady trickle of the harsh and belittling words of her critical mother, in the shadow of her sisters' perfection, and under the weight of a dark secret. With her self-confidence all but eroded, and her head hanging down, she is surprised when Mike McKinley notices her. With every kind word, Mike erases a little pain from her past, and for the first time, she feels as if she is standing on firm ground. But seven years into their marriage, she realizes that her foundation is lying on shallow ground.