Denied entrance into vet school because of her gender, fiery and determined Jillian Matthews trained at her father’s side and then headed west to Montana Territory after answering an ad using only her father’s initials and last name. She is convinced that her skills will override local ranchers prejudice. She’s wrong and handsome Wade Parker, the one who hired her, is the first to make his displeasure public. But Jillian refuses to back down and sets out to win Wade’s approval. Soon that’s not all she hopes to win.
Widower Wade Parker is furious the new vet he helped hire is a woman. The fact that she’s beautiful, smart and wakes parts of him that he thought dead burns even more. Feeling tricked, Wade is determined to send her back east but when the town turns on Jillian and her enemies become dangerous, he steps up to be her protector. And that’s not the only role Jillian has him contemplating.

Award-winning author Michelle Beattie began writing in 1995, almost immediately after returning from her honeymoon. It took 12 long years but she achieved her dream of seeing her name on the cover of a book when she sold her novel, What A Pirate Desires, in 2007. Since then she’s written and published several more historical novels as well a contemporary. Her pirate books have sold in several languages, been reviewed in Publisher’s Weekly and Romantic Times. Two of her independent self-published works went on to win the Reader’s Choice Silken Sands Self-Published Star Contest.

When Michelle isn’t writing she enjoys playing golf, reading, walking her dog, travelling and sitting outside enjoying the peace of country life. Michelle comes from a large family and treasures her brothers and sister as well as the dozens of aunts, uncles and cousins she’s proud to call family. She lives outside a tiny town in east-central Alberta, Canada with her husband, two teenage daughters and their dog, Ty.