LOVE AND MAYHEM

The great hall in Fleet Tower is quite the lively place. The McCalls are preparing for a wedding, and if that means unexpected arrivals, murder, mayhem, and chaos, all the better in this 'laugh-out-loud comedy.' Try getting married when your betrothed can wield an iron pot with deadly accuracy, her mad uncle thinks he's William Wallace, and her two maiden aunts can't finish a sentence-or a thought-on their own... Such are Sir Iain Armstrong's troubles when he sets out to wed Lady Marion, a convent-raised spitfire. All Iain wants to do is fulfill their fathers' wishes, appease two royal courts, and do what is best for the future of Scotland by putting an end to all the troubles in his part of the Borders. All she has to do is agree to marry him, which is the last thing on her mind when Iain arrives at the convent. She won't be taken without a fight. And even when Lady Marion realizes that Iain is a man of courage, intelligence, and seductively powerful shoulders, will her eccentric family do what her temper tantrums, willful ways, and pride have so far failed to do-and drive him away forever?

May McGoldrick, Nik James,and Jan Coffey are pen names for USA Today bestselling authors Nikoo Kafi and Jim McGoldrick. Together, they have crafted over fifty fast-paced, conflict-filled historical, contemporary, and Western novels, and two works of nonfiction. Nikoo's education and training was in engineering. She worked in robotics and submarine shipbuilding. Before earning a PhD in sixteenth-century Scottish and English literature, Jim pursued a hundred and one jobs, including a decade in submarine construction. Storytellers at heart, Nikoo and Jim were always searching for careers that gave them time for both family and writing. Then, after thirteen years of marriage, they recognized each other's creative strengths. Nikoo is all about characters and feeling. Jim is about action and sense of place. Their first attempt in writing fiction together produced their award-winning novel, The Thistle and the Rose. Since then, their stories have touched the hearts and minds of millions of readers all over the world. Their work has been translated into over a dozen languages and counting. Nikoo and Jim are four-time Rita Finalists and the winners of numerous awards for their writing, including a Will Rogers Medallion Award for Traditional Western Novels, the Daphne DuMaurier Award for Excellence, the Romantic Times Magazine Reviewers' Choice Award, three NJRW Golden Leaf Awards, two Holt Medallions, and the Connecticut Press Club Award for Best Fiction. The authors make their home in California.