Shadowdance (39 page)

From the desk of Anna Sullivan

Dear Reader,

I grew up in a big family—eight brothers and sisters—so you can imagine how crowded and noisy, quarrelsome
and fun it was. We all have different distinct personalities, of course, and it made for some interesting moments. Add in a couple of dogs, friends in and out, and, well, you get the picture.

I was the shy kid taking it all in, not watching from the sidelines, but often content to sit on them with a good book in my hands. Sometimes I’d climb a big old elm tree behind our house, cradle safely in the branches, and lose myself in another world while the wind rustled in the leaves and the tree creaked and swayed.

Looking back, it’s no wonder how I ended up a writer, and it’s not hard to understand why my stories seem to need a village to come to life. For me, the journey always starts with the voices of the hero and heroine talking incessantly in my head, but what fun would they have without a whole cast of characters to light up their world?

The people of Windfall Island are a big, extended family, one where all the relatives are eccentric and none of them are kept out of sight. No, they bring the crazy right out and put it on display. They’re gossip-obsessed, contentious, and just as apt to pick your pocket as save your life—always with a wink and a smile.

Maggie Solomon didn’t grow up there, but the Wind-fallers took her in, gave her a home, made her part of their large, boisterous family when her own parents turned their backs on her. So when Dex Keegan shows up, trying to enlist her help without revealing his secrets, she’s not about to pitch in just because she finds him… tempting. Being as suspicious and standoffish as the rest of the Windfallers, Maggie won’t cooperate until she knows why Dex is there, and what he wants.

What he wants, Dex realizes almost immediately, is Maggie Solomon. Sure, she’s hard-headed, sharp-tongued,
and infuriatingly resistant to his charms, but she appeals to him on every level. There must be something perverse, he decides, about a man who keeps coming back for more when a woman rejects him. He enjoys their verbal sparring, though, and one kiss is all it takes for him to know he won’t stop until she surrenders.

But Maggie can’t give in until he tells her the truth, and it’s even more incredible—and potentially explosive to the Windfall community—than she ever could have imagined.

There’s an eighty-year-old mystery to solve, a huge inheritance at stake, and a villain who’s willing to kill to keep the secret, and the money, from ever seeing the light of day.

The Windfallers would love for you to join them as they watch Dex and Maggie fall in love—despite themselves—and begin the journey to find a truth that’s been waiting decades for those with enough heart and courage to reveal.

I really had a great time telling Dex and Maggie’s story, and I hope you enjoy reading about them, and all the characters of my first Windfall Island novel.

Happy reading,

www.AnnaSulivanBooks.com

Twitter @ASullivanBooks

Facebook.com/AnnaSullivanBooks

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This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is coincidental.

Copyright © 2013 by Kristen Callihan

Excerpt from
Firelight
copyright © 2012 by Kristen Callihan

Cover design by Christine Foltzer

Cover art by Gene Mollica

Custom lettering by Ron Zinn

Cover copyright © 2013 by Hachette Book Group, Inc.

All rights reserved. In accordance with the U.S. Copyright Act of 1976, the scanning, uploading, and electronic sharing of any part of this book without the permission of the publisher is unlawful piracy and theft of the author’s intellectual property. If you would like to use material from the book (other than for review purposes), prior written permission must be obtained by contacting the publisher at [email protected]. Thank you for your support of the author’s rights.

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First ebook edition: December 2013

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ISBN 978-1-4555-2082-4

E3