Margins
Bethlehem book cover 1
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Bethlehem
Series · 8 books · 1997-2003

Books in series

Season for Miracles book cover
#1

Season for Miracles

1997

A suspenseful romantic tale...with a heavenly touch. Emilie Dalton, fleeing Boston with her nieces and nephew, takes refuge from a bitter snowstorm in an old Victorian house. When the neighbors welcome her, assuming she is the mysterious owner, she goes along with the charade...and melts everyone's hearts, including the handsome police officer, Nathan Bishop. Yet dangerous secrets from her past return to threaten her new life—and her love for Nathan—until a little angel intervenes.
Some Enchanted Season book cover
#2

Some Enchanted Season

1998

Sometimes miracles do happen. When Maggie left her husband Ross that fateful Christmas Eve, their marriage was over. But a near fatal accident on an ice-slick road changed everything. Now another Christmas approaches. While Maggie hasn't regained all her memory, she's ready to test her strength at home—with Ross as her only companion. Sharing a house with him once more, putting on the best face for their neighbors, Maggie knows she's living a lie. Then she glimpses Ross as he used to be: playful and passionate, the man of her dreams before ambition changed him. She couldn't know he's feeling the same regrets, the same heartache...or that he fears the return of her memory. What will happen when she remembers the reason she fled from him last year? It will take a miracle to send the walls of anger and secrecy tumbling down and reunite the divided couple. But in the small town of Bethlehem, miracles do happen....
Father to Be book cover
#3

Father to Be

1999

Four miracles and a bachelor add up to...one family. J.D. Grayson agrees that the Brown kids, abandoned by their parents, deserve a loving home. He's just not sure that one man is parent enough for four young children—not if he is that one man. But a persuasive—and mysterious—young woman insists he's exactly what the children need. Now he has to convince twelve-year-old Caleb, fierce guardian of his younger brothers and sister—and then pass muster with Kelsey Malone, Bethlehem's newly arrived social worker. With one good deed, J.D. finds his life turned upside down. The kids barely talk to him and they won't eat his home-cooked meals. Then he finds himself looking forward to Kelsey's home visits too much. Her buttoned-down suit and tough-as-nails professionalism can't hide the vulnerable woman inside. But haunted by the shattered life he left behind, J.D. doesn't want to risk loving again. It'll take a miracle to make a family of them all...but as one enigmatic young woman knows, Bethlehem has no small supply of miracles.
First Kiss book cover
#4

First Kiss

2000

An Improbable Dream At forty, Tom Flynn has reached all the lofty goals of money and success he'd dreamed of as a boy struggling to survive. The only thing left on his list: Get married! But he hasn't a clue where to find the perfect wife—or even if he can change his love-'em-and-leave-'em ways. Until he shows up at his birthday party in the small town of Bethlehem and sits across the table from beautiful, desirable Holly McBride. An Impossible Conquest Wish for me, Holly thinks silently just as Tom blows out the candles on his cake. But Bethlehem's most eligible single woman wants only a sizzling fling, not a wedding ring. She's seen up close what a disaster marriage can be, and that's one mistake she plans to avoid. But Holly hasn't counted on Tom's single-minded campaign to win her heart—or some mysterious intervention in a special town where miracles are an everyday occurrence....
Getting Lucky book cover
#5

Getting Lucky

2001

A man with nothing left to lose.... Rebel. Hell-raiser. Seducer in blue jeans. Ben Foster has been called many things—except father. His twelve-year-old daughter Alanna has never seen him, and he's starting to think that coming to Bethlehem to meet her could be the second biggest mistake of his life. And when he takes a job fixing up businesswoman Lynda Barone's new house, he may be on the brink of making a third: falling in love with a woman as wrong for him as he is for her ... except when he takes her in his arms. A woman with everything—but love.... Lynda couldn't remember the last time she had a date. Eighteen-hour workdays and frequent business trips had really taken a toll on her personal life. She'd been so busy carving out a successful career that she almost didn't notice how lonely she'd become. That is, until Ben Foster strode into her life. Suddenly the sexy Southern handyman was invading her home, her senses, stirring dangerous fantasies of a love Lynda had convinced herself she could live without. Lucky for them, neither is the marrying kind.... Or are they? Stranger things have happened in a place where the most unlikely lovers can suddenly get lucky. Even if luck has nothing to do with it...
Heaven on Earth book cover
#6

Heaven on Earth

2002

Sometimes you have to sin a little to find heaven on earth.... As a private investigator, Melina Dimitris had seen more than her share of relationships gone bad. But that didn’t keep her from believing that Mr. Right was out there. And she thought she’d found him in a tall, ruggedly handsome adventurer with a pair of magic hands. So when he dumped her without so much as an explanation, Melina hid her devastation by throwing herself into her work. Little did she expect that three runaway children from the small town of Bethlehem would bring him back into her life. Sebastian Knight knew that if anyone could find his missing daughter, it was the brash P.I. with a passion for kung fu and tight red dresses. Their affair had been brief, white-hot, and clearly heading for something more serious. Until Sebastian ended it rather than risk getting burned again. Only now that it was too late did he realize the mistake he’d made. But with a trio of eccentric helpers watching over them—and the children—Sebastian and Melina would soon discover that in Bethlehem it was never too late for a miracle.
Cabin Fever book cover
#7

Cabin Fever

2003

Take one gorgeous, down-on-his-luck man, add an irresistible, up-for-anything woman. Put them together in a smoldering little town—and watch the temperature rise. Nolie Harper is starting over. And the bustling burg of Bethlehem is as far as the single mother can get from the gossipy one-horse town of Whiskey Creek, Arkansas. All set to claim the twin cabins she just inherited, Nolie discovers she already has a tenant: a scruffy, powerfully built stranger who makes it clear he wants to be left alone. Chase Wilson may be living like a recluse, but he’s making her yearn for togetherness—and stirring up the kind of desires that can change a woman’s whole outlook on life. Newly sprung from prison for a crime he didn’t commit, Chase is liking life alone in his rented cabin just fine. Until the redhead with the lush curves and her young daughter arrive and throw what’s left of his life into maddening chaos. With her tantalizing neighborly ways, Nolie is slowly scorching her way into his guarded heart. And her passionate kind of healing is rapidly transforming his private hideaway into a lovers’ retreat hot enough to ignite an entire town.
Small Wonders book cover
#8

Small Wonders

2003

Small Wonders Coming home to Bethlehem in hand-cuffs isn’t the way Cole Jackson’s life was supposed to turn out. Now, trapped in the last place on earth he wants to be, he’s facing serious jail time…and the woman and kids who are both better off without him. Once Cole thought sexy single mother Leanne Wilson could make a new man of him…until he walked away from the tantalizing promise of a future together. But seeing her again rekindles the kind of passion that could set one lifelong sinner on the rocky road to redemption. Liar. Schemer. Heartbreaker. Sure, Leanne knows Cole Jackson. Everyone knows how he cheated the good folk of Bethlehem, then skipped town, leaving Leanne to pick up the pieces. She swore she’d never forgive him, but something’s happened since Bethlehem’s bad boy returned. Maybe it’s those five thousand hours of community service that are slowly turning the town Cole’s way. Or maybe it’s how he’s seducing her all over again with a passion that makes her yearn for forever with the man who could be her last, best mistake…

Author

Marilyn Pappano
Marilyn Pappano
Author · 72 books

Award-winning and bestselling author, international traveler, feted at a Hollywood premiere . . . All true . . . but my regular life is a whole lot more routine. Deal with the five big puppers who share our house, babysit our grandson, battle the jungle that is our yard, pray for summer in winter and dream of winter in summer, and hunker down at the computer—that's my real life. I grew up in Oklahoma and had the fun of living in Georgia, Alabama, California and the Carolinas, thanks to my husband's Navy career. When he retired, we came home to Oklahoma and have lived in the same house for seventeen years. That's a real "Wow!" for someone used to the nomadic military life. Writing was the perfect career for all that moving. Have computer, will travel. I've set books, or part of them, in every state we've lived in and been inspired by every place I've ever been. I've now written somewhere around 80 books, and I think I've got only about 8,000 stories left to tell. My biggest hobby is starting new projects—starting. Not completing. I'm still not done with the cross-stitched Army seal I started when our son joined out of high school. He did tours in Georgia, Colorado, Korea, Italy, Iraq, Afghanistan and Louisiana, and has been out for a few years. So I'm a little slow. I like to think about getting organized, painting my living room in cool beachy colors, and turning my entire five-acre yard into a garden. I also dream about having every room in my house clean at exactly the same time, but I live by the motto of the woman who taught me to quilt: A clean house is the sign of a bored woman. And I've never been bored.

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