Synopses & Reviews
Sparkling mixes of Regency drama and desire, Barbara Miller's books have been called "delectable"
(Romantic Times). Share her matchless wit as a spirited young lady battles the man who controls her fortune....
For seven years Miss Amy Conde has run a successful horse breeding enterprise on her country estate, Talltrees. She longs to bring new blood into her line with a younger stallion, but that requires capital -- money her absent guardian is willfully withholding. Until Amy turns twenty-five in three months' time, Mr. Trent Severn controls her fate, and she bitterly resents his interference.
Trent's role in aiding his country's war against Napoleon has consumed the last decade of his life. When he thinks of his ward, he remembers a little girl he met once, at her father's funeral. Then he comes to Talltrees and finds that Amy is now a capable, strong-willed businesswoman -- and a vital, passionate soul who regards him with deep disgust. Stunned beyond measure, he determines to find her a husband who will take her off his hands. But when an eligible suitor does arrive, Trent and Amy discover the heated emotion that sparked between them from the first is rapidly turning to desire.
About the Author
By day
Barbara Miller works as a business analyst; by night she runs a retirement home for aged horses, dogs and cats. On the week-ends she spends a lot of time in Regency England, creating heroes and heroines to fight the Napoleonic Wars, shock London society, and set the countryside in an uproar. Her accomplice is her computer-expert husband Don, who is one of her biggest fans.
Barb started writing because she was running out of reading material and all her copies of her Georgette Heyer novels were becoming dog-eared. Under the name Laurel Ames she produced eight Regency-era historicals for Harlequin, one of which was nominated for a Rita in 1994.
Barb admits to enjoying the research as much as the writing, and has the books to prove it. France used to be in the dining room and England in the living room. Now that she has taken over the upper story of their old farmhouse as an office at least all the books are one floor. This saves a tremendous amount of time when she is trying to confirm an obscure fact in the middle of the night.
Dearest Max is Barb's first Sonnet and although it is a Regency, it required research into Henry VIII's time since the characters are looking for an artifact from Nonsuch Palace. She feels that the combination of romance and mystery is the perfect mix for a fast-paced book.
"The most bizarre feeling is when you are proofreading one of your own books and you get down to the last 30 pages and start wondering how the author (you) is going to fit everything that has to happen in before the end. That's when you know you have the pacing right."
My Phillipe, Barb's second Sonnet will be released in October of 2000 and has been blessed with a cover as beautiful as the one for Dearest Max. All the readers want to meet these men.
Barb is a member of the Western PA Chapter of Romance Writers of America and edits The Laurel Wreath newsletter for them. You may email her at <>[email protected].