Showing results by author "Hildred Billings" in All Categories

Bereaved widow Monica had the perfect marriage. For 30 years, she and college sweetheart Cassie made a home, built a business, and celebrated their love with hardly a secret between them, until Cassie dies in a tragic accident. Then, all the secrets are let loose, like the sins from Pandora’s box.

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.

City girl Mikaiya "Mik" Marcott returns to her hometown to help her ailing grandmother. But who does she see first when she's barely reached the city limits? Ariana Mura, the girl whose heart she broke 10 years ago. Only Ari isn't a "girl" anymore. She's a grown woman who doesn't take crud from anyone. The lanky Ariana with a flower crown in her long hair is now the big and tough Ari, Paradise Valley's strongest EMT and all-around "native gal" the other townsfolk are prepared to defend.

One year after being hospitalized for a life-changing illness, Vivian is finally ready to get back into dating. Things are definitely looking up when a beautiful woman named Shari asks her out for drinks - and possibly more. Too bad the night turns whisky-sour when Shari not only rejects Vivian, but confirms her most self-conscious fears! Enter Kat the bartender, who has seen this train wreck of a date with her own observant eyes. It's not the first time Shari has destroyed a woman's self-confidence in one night, but it is the first time Kat has decided to personally cheer up a victim.

Seven months after meeting on a dating site, Abbie Greywood and Joyce Stewart are about to experience Christmas in their respective corners of Oregon. Yet when Abbie makes the hard decision to cancel Christmas with her family, she turns to Joyce, a woman with no family left. Is it time to take their relationship to the next level? Dare they meet in person when everyone is supposed to stay six feet away?

Nyla Deng has been slinging drinks in Paradise, Taipei’s foremost nightclub, long enough to know the two main rules. The first is to always give patrons the best customer service in town. The second? Don’t. Fraternize. Simple enough for Nyla, who prefers to date “normal” girls instead of the clueless heiresses and cynical businesswomen who blow off steam in Paradise. Yet when has a drink with Terry Tsao, one of Shanghai’s most wayward heiresses, she quickly loses control and wakes up in Terry’s bed.

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.

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.

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.

On the first day of senior year in a new school, Alabaman transplant Carrie Sage meets the girl of her lesbian dreams. Too bad the mayor’s daughter is a bit too straight to go for a troublemaking Southerner like Carrie. Enter Leigh-Ann Hardy, the only girl in Clark High School who knows a thing or two about the girl Carrie crushes after like it’s Valentine’s Day.

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 fifth story in the Sins of Mercy series. Worn down by harassment at work, Mercy makes a new friend who informs her she needs to get “angry” again - to feel the rage of a woman scorned who won’t take bull from anyone and knows how to get what she wants. But how is Mercy to ever feel the sweet release of rage again? As fate would have it, a goddess is waiting for her. Wrath, the deity of righteous anger, wants to whip Mercy back into hating shape.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.