What do a poker tournament,
a major makeover
and $4.5 million in rare stamps have in common?

Certified Male
U.S. Male

coming summer 2005
from Harlequin Blaze

Sealed With a Kiss tells the story of Gwen and Joss Chastain, the granddaughters of a rare stamp dealer who find themselves on the hunt for $4.5 million in missing stamps. And while they're searching for the stamps in Las Vegas and Stockholm, they both find themselves losing their hearts.

The mystery starts with Gwen's story in Certified Male
All Guinevere Chastain ever wanted was to be normal. Growing up in Africa with parents in Physicians without Frontiers might have been exotic for some kids. Not Gwen. Let me live with Grandma and Grampa and go to high school, she begged her parents at 14. Her mother understood how unhappy she was and let her go.

Gwen’s grandfather deals in investment stamps, which can be worth millions of dollars. Eleven years after Gwen moved back to the U.S., he is in the process of retiring but disassembling such a business is not easy and doesn’t always happen on schedule. Meanwhile, his overeager wife has booked her long dreamed of three month tour of New Zealand, and isn’t about to let a little detail like the business still being open stop her. The grandfather trusts Gwen well enough to let her run things in his absence -- she’s worked the business since she was a teenager. Hire someone to help you, he tells her, don’t make any major moves, and we’ll work everything out when I come home.

It all sounded fine until Joss appeared. Joss is a free spirit of uncertain employment, and suddenly Gwen found herself with Joss as her assistant instead of a steady hired person. The only thing to do is bring on someone else to help.

Gwen’s horrified when $4.5 million in rare stamps goes missing from her grandfather’s collection -- the collection intended to finance his retirement. She can’t tell the police, for fear of triggering a run on the business. Instead, she and Joss vow to track down the stamps and restore them to the collection. When a series of clues lead her to Las Vegas, mousy, ordinary Gwen becomes blonde bombshell Nina. Unfortunately, the gambler she finds herself seducing in an attempt to find the real thief winds up stealing her heart. When he says he loves her, is he talking to Gwen or to Nina? Can she trust him or will he wind up breaking her heart?

And suspense takes over in U.S. Male, Joss's story...
Joss Chastain loves to be the center of a crowd. She doesn’t quite know what she wants to do, but she knows it’s destined to be something important. So far, her singing career hasn’t worked out all that well, but there’s still time. When she finds herself stranded in San Francisco after a show, it’s only natural that she look up her sister and grandparents. She finds her little sister running the business singlehandedly and looking for help. What could be more natural than for Joss to step in?

Of course, three weeks later she’s heartily bored with the life of a shopclerk, and persuades Gwen to hire another assistant. When the stamps disappear and all signs point to the man she persuaded Gwen to hire, Joss is furious and torn with guilt. It makes her take a good, hard look at the feckless life she’s been living. She needs to change, she tells herself, but first she’s got to get the stamps back.

Joss’s book is set in Stockholm, Sweden, so I had to go there to do research. It’s a beautiful city and I did my best to bring it to life for you. I can’t tell you anything about Joss’s book right now without giving away plot points in Gwen’s. I can tell you one thing, though -- the book has about the hottest cover I’ve ever seen.

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