Jane Toombs Books In Order

Under the Shadow

A man wakes naked and injured on a beach with no idea how he comes to be wherever he is. Worse, he doesn’t know who he is. And worst of all, he has no conception of what he is. Not until the first full moon when he changes. Harried by humans afraid of his kind, he travels from Gold Rush California to New Orleans, to Michigan, the killing fields of the Civil War and finally back to the fortress he’s built in California to protect his family. He’s safe there until a long overdue debt forces him to invite danger inside the fortress walls…
Rating: This paranormal fantasy is set in the past, from 1848 to 1880. Although violence and sex are an integral part of the story, so is love.

Gathering Darkness

Gathering Darkness continues the story of Sergei Volek and his struggle to keep himself and his growing family safe from not only those around him but also from the Shapeshifters’ deadly enemies, the Stalkers. And how can he control the strange powers of the babies being born within the family, aberrant talents that threaten the entire Volek clan? What will happen if his beloved grandson, Wolf, can’t master his passion for the beautiful and deadly woman who is now a guest within their midst?

Dark Sunrise

Who are the Moonrunners? Why have they been blessed or cursed with unusual powers that make others fear them? Will they ever be able to bring their strange talents under control? As they try to live and love as ordinary humans do, they search desperately for an answer to why they are born ‘different’ and marked for death by the deadly Stalkers. This third book in the Moonrunner trilogy stands alone, though it continues the story of the Volek family human, or are they? For Jael Steinmetz, newly hired to care for the strangest little girl she’s ever met, the challenge is to stay alive…

Fire Griffin

Seth Kinman’s annual Leonid party becomes exciting when an apparent meteorite strikes a nearby pond. Seth, his girlfriend, Kara, and Danny, the young son of one of Seth’s friends, find what they believe to be meteorite shards in the form of oval rocks. What happens next will be the surprise of their lives if they manage to survive it…

Creole Betrayal

In the early 1800s, Jurissa Campbell Winterton, pressured into marriage to a man she scarcely knows, sails with him from Boston toward New Orleans. Since her husband, Philip, double her age and fond of alcohol, is ill and can’t tolerate her presence, Jurissa spends much of her time alone on deck. There, she meets a dashing Creole gentleman, Leon du Motier, who’s entranced by her beauty and pays romantic court to her. The result is they both fall madly in love. One fateful night, Philip Winterton falls overboard under mysterious circumstances, but due to his heavy drinking, no one is blamed and he’s presumed dead. Believing she’s a widow, Jurissa enters New Orleans nearly penniless, and with Philip’s two slaves, a brother and sister, in tow. Meanwhile, in order to save his family’s plantation when his father dies, Leon must go through with an arranged marriage of his own. But deeply in love with Jurissa, he continues to see her in secret until she learns of his impending nuptials. Grief-striken of living without Leon, Jurissa also faces potential scandal when she realizes she’s pregnant with his child, and makes desperate plans of her own. Will Jurissa ever be able to forgive Leon for his betrayal? And will she ever be able to forgive herself for keeping the knowledge of his child from him? And what will happen to her when Philip Winterborn suddenly resurfaces, very much alive and desperate to reclaim his wife?

Dead Silent

Dr. Helena Moore is eager to start her new job with her stepsister, Fran, in California, but when she arrives to find Fran’s lifeless body, she sets out to find the murderer who was lurking in hospital corridors.

An Improper Alliance

Spinster Celeste Prescott has no use for rakes. The Earl of Campion has no time for straight laced young ladies. Fate throws these two unlikely to suit the other into a situation where both are striving to keep a love struck young lady and a lovesick prince apart. Just when they think they may have prevented any chance of the prince and his love ever getting together, Celeste and the Earl find themselves mired in the quicksand of overwhelming mutual attraction. Impossible! Surely sense and sensibility must triumph over what can’t possibly be love…

A Most Unsuitable Bride

Deirdre Darrington’s widowed father marries unexpectedly. Deirdre accepts her new family, only to be crushed when she discovers the man of her heart, Clive Shadbourne, is engaged to Phoebe, the elder of her stepsisters.

After Clive goes off to war still unwed, the Darrington family is invited to Harmon Hall, where all three young women meet Edward Fox, who will one day be Lord Harmon. A notorious rake, Edward sets his sights on both Deirdre and Phoebe not for marriage but for dalliance.

But what will happen when Clive returns to London, traumatized by the wound that left him with an ugly scar?

A Beguiling Intrigue

Justine Riggs expects to despise Quentin Fletcher when she, disguised as a male jockey, challenges him to a race set up by Lord Alton, a so called friend of his. She’s ahead, winning, when she sees runaway horses dragging a carriage. At the risk of her life, she veers off course and halts the panicked carriage horses. Saving Mrs. Baldwin’s life drastically changes Justine’s future.

Both being stubborn, Justine’s and Quentin’s stormy relationship seems doomed to fail until Lord Alton reveals his true, dastardly colors

A Deceptive Bequest

In the country, Ashley Douglas sees a young man overturn his boat. She can swim, and, believing he is drowning, leaps in to save him. She’s mortified, however, when he winds up pulling her to safety. She discovers he’s Lord Damon and, worse, not only does he call her Miss Blake, but dares to kiss her. She arrives home, drenched, and finds even more upsetting news. The Duke of Roxton has informed her foster parents that he wishes Ashley to become his young daughter’s governess, and Ashley is terrified of the dour duke. In London, word reaches reputable singer Alcida Blake that Lord Damon not only supposedly met her in the country, but kissed her. Unlike Ashley, however, Alcida knows she has an identical twin sister, and that they were separated when very young. For years she’s searched for her lookalike, but has never been able to find her. Now, through Lord Damon’s mistake, she feels she might have indirectly done so. Determined, Alcida sets off for the country, but by the time she secretly connects with Ashley, she has become ill. Lady Lancaster, Damon’s aunt, invites the reunited sisters to stay with her until Alcida improves, and in the process, discovers Ashley’s trepidation regarding her imminent departure to the duke’s mansion and her new job as his daughter’s governess. A born meddler, Lady Lancaster decides Alcida, who is far more experienced about men than Ashley, should take her twin’s place at the mansion, while Ashley, who has some marginal experience and local fame as a songstress, will go to London in her sister’s place. A comedy of errors quickly ensues, placing the more innocent Ashley within Lord Damon’s easy reach, while the Duke of Roxton, expecting an innocent young lady to be his daughter’s governess, has to contend with the worldly Londoner Alcida instead…

Harte’s Gold

When, without her knowledge, Carole’s grandmother allows a film company to shoot a movie on Harte’s ranch, Carole, who actively runs the ranch, is confronted with Gerrald, an Australian actor, a type she has never trusted. Add to this a legend of ghost gold buried on the ranch, Gerrald’s conniving father and Carole’s vulnerable grandmother, plus Native American superstitions that just might be true. A mixture guaranteed to explode. When the fire dies down, can the bright phoenix of true love rise from the ashes?

The Missing Heir

Raising horses not spying on scheming females was rugged Russ Simon’s passion. Still, for his family’s sake, he grudgingly agreed to discover whether poor if pretty rarncher Marigold Crowley was a gold digging imposter or a truly missing heiress.

Vigil House

GOTHIC To Boris Gregory, Vigil House was his dream come true a Russian palace transplanted to California where he’d build his dynasty. Accustomed to going his own way, he pays no heed to the local Indians who warn him the site he’d chosen was sacred to the Old Ones. From the day he carries his bride over the threshold, darkness hovers over Vigil House, shadowing the lives of his descendants. No Gregory escapes the intangible malevolence that haunts them, not until one determined man and one courageous woman solve the ancient enigma and, in the doing, find an undying love…
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Nightingale Man

Historical Fiction, WWI Thriller: 007 in World War I. That’s Luke, an American pilot from Denver, recruited from the French Air Force for a secret mission into German territory. Straight shooter Luke takes time he can’t afford to discover his British comrades, including the beautiful Kezia, are even more dangerous to him that the Boche and that deviouness, not integrity, is the name of the game.

Dangerous Medicine

When a red haired nurse comes to work at California’s Harper Hills Hospital, fireworks erupt. Nurse Lynn Holley, attempting to make a new start, believes she’s left her past behind her in Boston. And she intends to have nothing to do with men especially doctors!

Dr. Nick Dow, however, does his best to change Lynn’s mind about men, never dreaming that when her past catches up with her, his plans for seduction will throw them both into deadly peril.

Though it’s not her fault, Lynn’s arrival in California plunges the entire hospital into turmoil. Because of her, lives change for better or worse. And when doctors like Nick Dow vie for Lynn’s attention, they are unaware that any man who gets close to her is marked for fiery death…

Out of the Blue

1920s Chicago: Though an Ouija Board predicts barnstormer aviator Bruce and Christie will fall in love doing the Charleston together, prohibition’s wild days threaten their happiness.

The Wrong Girl

Only a rogue would trifle with a lady’s affections, Maud knew. Yet she was ready to forgive Lord Montrain, until he had the effrontery to ask her help in pursuing her beautiful older sister’s affections. He deserved the comeuppance she planned until her whole world turned topsy turvy when she discovered nothing at all was what it seemed to be.

Deception is everywhere, even in the attentions of the mysterious Frenchman who is a guest at Maud’s home. She must learn the hard lessons of who to trust and who not to, in order to survive and find her way to love.

Snow Flower

When Kegan Kendall, an English aristocrat in 1812 America, rescues an Indian Maiden held captive by the Sioux, he has no idea his life is forever changed. Snow Flower, a respected Mide shaman among the Anishinabe, has vowed never to wed a white man. But Kegan’s rescue changes her mind and her life. When Kegan fails to return to Snow Flower, she sails to Regency England, determined to find the man she regards as her husband, only to find he’s to wed another…

Ladies Of The Lakes

Fiery haired Octavia travels far from the drawing rooms of her native England to the new United States’ Lake Ontario. Stranded by the War of 1812, she’s surprised to find herself drawn to the wildness of a Seneca warrior…
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Silver Grass, Octavia’s daughter, fleeing from the white men’s attacks on her people in New York States, finds refuge near Lake Superior with the Chippewa. Her heart dark toward all whites, how can she admit to any attraction when blacksmith and copper miner Olav Johanson courts her?…
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Elma, older daughter of Silver Grass, raised near Lake Erie by her father and stepmother, favors the Union cause during the War Between The States. Why, then, does she find herself drawn to Confederate prisoner Hunt Drury?…
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Marta, rebellious younger daughter of Silver Grass, flees her staid home to become a logging camp cook’s helper in the wilds of Wisconsin near Lake Michigan. When she meets the son of the wealthy Easterner who owns the camp, she knows his attentions mean only heartache for her. Yet she finds herself unable to resist him…
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Henrietta, Marta’s daughter, lives near Lake Huron. Even as a child, she has her heart set on captaining a Great Lakes boat an unheard of ambition for a woman. To reach her goal, however, must she give up the love of her life?…
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Five generations of fiery, stubborn women discovering their destinies beside the five Great Lakes…

Love Medicine

Romance / Historical Romance Bramwell Sumner, a hot shot Philadelphia lawyer, travels into the Minnesota Territory to intervene when he believes a con woman is tricking his wealthy stepbrother, Ronald, into marriage. Upon his arrival, however, Bramwell discovers that Ronald has already left his residence, and he fears he is too late. Fueled by indignation and determined to stop the wedding at all costs, he hunts down Ronald’s supposed fianc e, Jennara Gray, an attractive and determined frontier doctor. But when Jennara tells him that his stepbrother has fallen in love and run off with her sister instead, Bramwell doesn’t believe her, thinking she staged a ruse for his benefit. He also doesn’t believe her warning when she claims that the territory is in a midst of a major and dangerous Indian uprising. Bramwell discovers his error, however, when he and Jennara go in pursuit of their wayward relatives. And before he knows it, he is forced to swallow his pride, put his trust in Jennara, and follow the capable young woman’s every directive in order to stay alive in the wild and savage frontier…

Mischievous Music Duet

From the pen of Jane Toombs comes two complete Regency Romances in a single volume. Included are the tales…
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A Mischievous Matchmaker Wade Mathias, third Earl of Kendrick, and Elnora Precott, a parson’s daughter, meet at a sordid baby farm, each there to retrieve a baby girl neither has ever seen. When, from three almost identical babies, they both pick the same infant, the stage is set for conflict and chaos. And when they wind up reluctantly cooperating to take all three children, the stage is also set for mischief and magic…
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. Music Of The Heart Juliet Grant meets Malcolm Rothwell, Lord Talland, at the Valentine Ball, and though he’s about to leave for the war, he promises to meet her at the ball the following year. But Malcolm breaks his vow. Once he returns from the war, he holes up at Hart’s Hall, refusing to see anyone, let alone attend social events in order to meet with his beloved Juliet. It takes his well meaning but devious Aunt Elaine and a dulcimer to make the ancient rhyme of Hart’s Hall come true and reunite the heartbroken lovers. But will her plan succeed?

Becoming Your Own Critique Partner

Not everyone has access to a good critique group. If you’re on your own and need someone to help polish your manuscript so it shines in the eyes of agents and editors, look no farther. Using examples from their own work and a huge dash of humor, veteran authors Jane Toombs and Janet Lane Walters guide both the new writer and the experienced through the labyrinth of self editing.