Margins
Bad to the Bone book cover
Bad to the Bone
2018
First Published
4.49
Average Rating
364
Number of Pages

Part of Series

The Dogfather is a contemporary romance series from New York Times bestselling author Roxanne St. Claire celebrating what she loves most: hot guys, great dogs, big families...and true love. And a portion of the proceeds from every book in the series will be donated to the Alaqua Animal Refuge in the author's home state of Florida! Trace Bancroft has been in prison for fourteen years paying for a mistake that cost a man his life. Now released, Trace heads back to Bitter Bark with his mutt, Meatball, and runs into Daniel Kilcannon, who offers to provide some medical care for the dog. Trace knows that would mean seeing Molly Kilcannon, a girl who shared one crazy night with him before his life took a turn for the worst. But when Meatball’s illness intensifies, Trace has no choice. He has to face Molly again, and pray she’ll save his dog, no matter what their history. When Trace Bancroft arrives at Waterford Farm with a critically ill dog, Molly Kilcannon’s entire world is rocked to the core. Firmly believing Trace died in a bar fight years ago, Molly never told anyone that the bad boy of Bitter Bark was the father of Prudence Kilcannon, her very good thirteen-year-old daughter. But Molly has promised to tell Pru the truth about her conception, and now that truth is a living, breathing ex-con whose very existence could change everything, including a precious mother-daughter relationship. It doesn’t take long for Molly to realize there’s more to this sexy man than his dark past and tattooed arms. And while the realization that he’s a father is the best thing to ever happen to him, Trace doubts anything could make him worthy of Pru or her spirited veterinarian mother. As they nurse Meatball back to health and grow ever closer, Trace and Molly have to decide when and how to tell Pru the truth. But will the secret that binds their hearts be the very thing that breaks them apart? The Dogfather Series Daniel Kilcannon is known as “The Dogfather” for a reason. It’s not just his renowned skills as a veterinarian, his tremendous love of dogs, or the fact that he has turned his homestead in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains into a world class dog training and rescue facility. Just ask his six grown children who run Waterford Farm for him, and they’ll tell you that their father’s nickname is due to his uncanny ability to pull a few strings to get what he wants. And what he wants is for his four sons and two daughters to find the kind of life-changing love he had with his dearly departed wife, Annie. This old dog has a few new tricks…and he’ll use them to see his pack all settled into their happily ever afters! Watch for the whole series coming in 2017 and 2018! SIT…STAY…BEG (Book 1) NEW LEASH ON LIFE (Book 2) LEADER OF THE PACK (Book 3) SANTA PAWS IS COMING TO TOWN (Book 4 – A Holiday Novella) BAD TO THE BONE (Book 5) Coming soon… RUFF AROUND THE EDGES DOUBLE DOG DARE OLD DOG NEW TRICKS Praise for The Dogfather Series "This series has all my favorite pulls, a slow romantic build up, large family, small town, and rescues dogs."

  • Book Palace "If you love Romance and dogs, then you should be enjoying this series yourself. You’ll be hooked. I’d recommend this one for any Romance reader who enjoys complex stories, believable, realistic characters and those adorable pups no matter their age."
  • Romance is Ageless "Romances don’t get much more heartwarming than this, folks.
Avg Rating
4.49
Number of Ratings
1,437
5 STARS
61%
4 STARS
29%
3 STARS
9%
2 STARS
1%
1 STARS
0%
goodreads

Author

Roxanne St. Claire
Roxanne St. Claire
Author · 73 books

I don’t know about you, but when I check out an author's bio, it’s usually because I’ve read a book I liked and wondered about the person behind it. Let's skip the formal bio and I'll give you the inside scoop on who Roxanne St. Claire really is. First of all, call me Rocki. Everyone does. Evidently, when my mother brought me home from the hospital I seemed too scrawny and small to pull off “Roxanne” (she’d read Cyrano de Bergerac while pregnant or I would have been Judy) so they called me Rocki. I grew up in Pittsburgh, PA, the youngest of five (overachievers, every one), and fell in love with words and stories the summer I read Gone With The Wind. That year, for my twelfth birthday, my parents gave me a typewriter (with italic font – it was the coolest thing) and from that day on, I’ve had my fingers on a keyboard, pounding out love stories for fun. My AP English teacher taught me the two most important lessons an aspiring author ever needs: 1) verbs are the key to life and 2) a writer should get a real job. After attending UCLA and graduating with a degree in communications, I tried acting and television broadcasting. Oh, they aren’t real jobs? I learned that the hard way. I changed my last name from Zink to St. Claire because a news producer told me Roxanne Zink had too many harsh consonants for a TV personality – apparently Katie Couric didn’t get the memo. I got some fun gigs, and even met Tom Hanks when I did a guest appearance on Bosom Buddies. I liked on camera work, but wasn’t too crazy about starvation, so I moved to Boston and got that “real” job. In fact, I placed my foot on the bottom rung of the corporate ladder and didn’t look down until I’d climbed all the way up to the level of Senior Vice President at the world’s largest public relations firm. On the way up, I met the man of my dreams in an elevator. Two years later – in the same elevator! – he asked me to marry him and I wisely said yes. I stayed in PR, moved to Miami, had a few babies, lost my home in a hurricane, built another one a few hours north and all along, I kept writing my “stories” for fun. One night, I read a particularly fabulous romance novel that changed my life for good. That night, I decided I wanted to make someone else feel as whole and happy as that author made me feel. (Everyone asks! It was Nobody’s Baby But Mine by Susan Elizabeth Phillips.) With two small children and one big “real” job, writing my first novel wasn’t easy, but I did finish a manuscript that managed to get the attention of a literary agent. She told me to do one thing and one thing fast: write another book. (The first one is usually a “learner” book, honestly.) That second manuscript sold to Simon & Schuster’s Pocket Books and was released in 2003 as Tropical Getaway. Since then, I’ve written almost thirty more, in multiple genres, and long ago replaced the corporate ladder with the rollercoaster of publishing as a full-time novelist. Finally, writing is my real job. Today, I live in a small beach community in Florida with my husband and two dogs. Our kids are off to college and law school, which means my nest is empty! I spend my time writing, working with the kids at my church, enjoying my husband's gourmet cooking, and hanging with my many writer friends. Of course, I love to read. I’m still crazy about words and stories and hope to write at least a hundred books in my lifetime. And, yes, verbs are the key to life. My favorites? Love. Work. Believe. xoxo Rocki

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