Showing results by author "Hildred Billings" in All Categories

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.

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.

Hollywood B-list actress Fleur Rosé desperately needs a break from her hectic schedule. When she sees her chance to make a break for it, she drives as far as Paradise Valley, with the media (and her manager) hot on her heels. Cue Jalen Stonehill, stage right. One of the county’s busiest plumbers happens to be in the right place at the right time when she crosses Fleur’s path.

Life as a small-town housewife in Paradise Valley is usually what Sally Greenhill needs. With four kids and a busy wife to keep her preoccupied, she’s got more than enough to do from sunrise to sunset - at all times of year. But as Deputy Candace Greenhill becomes bogged down in an arsonist investigation, Sally begins to suspect that the ring of flaming rebels might be closer than any of them had foreseen. With Halloween right around the corner, both Sally and Candace are too busy to keep an eye on the precocious son with an eye for adventure...and trouble.

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.

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. Married couple Jeanette and Roxy are in Hellfire to party, but paradise shakes wherever they step. For the past several months, the “happy” couple have been arguing more and more about the path of their relationship.

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.

Doctor Brandelyn “Brandy” Meyer has dreamed of the picture-perfect wedding since she was a little girl. Now that fiancee Sunny Croker is ready to tie the knot, all hell breaks loose as Dr. Bridezilla is unleashed! Sunny is the embodiment of her name, with her blond hair and genial disposition. Yet, even the owner of Paradise Valley’s biggest B&B can’t keep her cool when Brandy’s vision overwrites who Sunny really is. Their previously unbreakable bond goes up against the ultimate test!

Heaven’s Cafe is the social epicenter of Paradise Valley, but Heaven Mossberg doesn’t have much of a social life to show for it. Between the demanding small business life and dealing with her ex-husband’s pleas to get back together, there isn’t a lot of time for one 30-year-old to kick back and chill.

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.

Nobody loves Paradise Valley more than Mayor Karen Rath, a woman who works tirelessly to keep the town’s cogs turning and the people content. This doesn’t leave much time for love and dating, but the single mom of two grown kids has better things to do. Until a stranger comes to town. Dahlia Granger of Hibiscus Films is on a mission. Ever since Paradise Valley hit the national news, Dahlia is compelled to create a documentary exploring the history and culture of a town founded by lesbians. She may have an agenda. Just a tiny one.

Welcome to Paradise Valley, where the locals thrive on the rural landscape, the quirky Oregonian living, and the history of the lesbian commune that founded it. Mixing small town attitudes with lesbian dating? Sounds like another day in Paradise. Firefighter Krys Madison is used to the single life. Although a womanizer, she’s been experiencing a dry spell for the past...year. By choice. Kinda. She doesn’t realize what’s missing until she discovers a litter of kittens after a barn fire. The only one who can help is rural veterinarian Siobhan O’Connor.

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.

If anybody deserves a break, it’s Hesper Chess, the only registered CPA within 15 miles of Paradise Valley. Once tax season is over, she dreams of nothing but mai tais and sandy beaches. Too bad she knows a lot about personal finance, and can’t bring herself to spend the money! But before she can rest on her laurels, she hears a cry from one of the town’s many business owners. Florist Meadow Hobfield is being audited. She needs help. A lot of it. These two townspeople who have never shared many conversations are now about to spend a lot of time together.

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.

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.

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.