aka Laura Leone

Contemporary Romance

* Rita Award Finalist for Best Contemporary Romance
* Desert Island Keeper, AllAboutRomance.com
* No. 29 on DearAuthor.Com’s list of the Top 100 Romance Novels

After thirtysomething Sara Diamond experiences professional and financial setbacks, she moves into an eccentric little apartment and works on reviving her career. Before long, she becomes good friends with Ryan Kinsmore, the handsome twentysomething man next door, who shares her balcony—and her unreliable utilities.

But Sara’s new neighbor conceals painful secrets and a double life behind his gentle charm and good looks. As their friendship blossoms into love, Sara gradually learns the truth about Ryan, who’s trapped in a world of lies, danger, and sex-for-hire. With his spirit renewed by love, he becomes determined to find a way out of the life he was drawn into as a runaway minor, and equally determined to rescue a street kid whom he finds falling into the same traps that once caught him. But Ryan’s secret life is lived in a ruthless world which won’t easily let him go. Having fallen so far from grace, can he find his way back?

“Fallen From Grace is an amazingly powerful, emotional and thought-provoking book… Leone’s gift for storytelling shines in a truly provocative, gritty, tender and unforgettable story.”

— Romantic Times

“In this realistically gritty, sometimes violent, and gripping tale, Leone reveals the seamier side of society’s manueuvering while she spins an unconventional romance between two unhappy people who find that love, like respect, can grow out of friendship and shared experiences and that new beginnings are indeed possible for those with the determination and courage to pursue them.”

—Booklist

“Laura Leone will keep readers up all night with this fascinating, passionate and emotional novel.”

—New York Times bestseller, Susan Wiggs

“A fast-moving, compelling read… Fallen From Grace is recommended for its unusual pairing, its audacity to examine the seamier side and its ultimate message of hope and redemption.”

—The Romance Reader

“Leone’s characters are richly drawn and fully human, and she displays extraordinary skill in showing how Ryan and Sara, both individually and together, work through the complexities of their situation in a believable way.”

—AllAboutRomance.com

Contemporary Romance

* “Top Pick!” Romantic Times Magazine
* Desert Island Keeper, AllAboutRomance.com

Madeleine Barrington is rich, sophisticated, and dedicated to the family business. Ransom is rugged, sexy, and into risky business. He’s also the only man who’s ever succeeded in seducing Madeleine.

So when they’re sent abroad on business together after their steamy one-night stand, she sets some ground rules: No flirting, no touching, and not one single reference to their night together. But Ransom will talk about whatever he damn well pleases. Besides, hell will freeze over before he’ll go near Madeleine Barrington again.

But when hell does freeze over in the sultry heat of the jungle, Ransom and Madeleine discover that rules are made to be broken.

“Readers looking for fun, high adventure and humor should snap up their copy… as soon as possible. This is one you don’t want to miss.”

—Romantic Times

“Laura Leone’s romances sizzle with wit and sensuality!”

—Mary Jo Putney, New York Times bestselling author

“There hasn’t been a jungle story this good since Bogie and Hepburn. I loved Fever Dreams, and wish I’d written it!”

—Vicki Lewis Thompson, bestselling author

“Fever Dreams is a stirring romance, an exciting adventure and an all-around fun read. It’s a new favorite of mine. Leone is an author who deserves a lot more attention than she’s getting. It’s going on my keeper shelf and I recommend it highly.”

—AllAboutRomance.com

Contemporary Romance

Wedding bed—or crime scene? 

In this romantic-comedy short story, a young woman wakes next to the corpse of a total stranger, in a shabby hotel room in a country where she doesn’t speak the language… and this is her honeymoon!

The free ebook of this 6,000-word short story also includes excerpts from Disappearing Nightly, A Wilder Name, and Fallen From Grace.

Contemporary Romance

“This literate, exceptionally well-written romance is a major step forward in a most promising career.”

—Romantic Times Magazine, 1989

I’ve collected all my old “category” romances, most of which I wrote for Silhouette Books, in these two six-book collections, for readers who might be interested in them.  In Sleight of Hand, the least-known of these novels (its publisher folded the same month it was released), a magician and an actress wind up fleeing angry gangsters, jewel thieves, and the cops after a performance at Atlantic City’s most over-priced hotel goes terribly wrong.  A rock star and a rising opera star  drive each other crazy yet can’t keep away from each other in A Wilder Name; and in a related spin-off book, The Black Sheep, a movie star’s publicity-averse grown son is perturbed to wind up hosting a tabloid-magnet celebrity on the remote island he calls home.  The Bandit King is about an American journalist who travels to Sicily to follow a new lead in the decades-old story of Salvatore Giuliano, the mountain bandit and freedom fighter. A detective reluctantly spends Christmas investigating a series of break-ins at a boarding kennel in Upon A Midnight Clear, which book is a sequel to One Sultry Summer—the first book I ever wrote.

“This marvellous romance is superb entertainment for genre conoisseurs.”

—Romantic Times

“The immensely gifted Laura Leone blends a touch of mystery with a heartwarming romance… Ms. Leone plays skillfully on all our emotions, making us both laugh and cry as her attractive lovers find their happy ending.”

—Romantic Times

Contemporary Romance

“The extremely talented Laura Leone continues to add luster to the genre with her fresh concepts and precise writing.”

 —Romantic Times Magazine, 1990

This six-book collection of romances, all of which I originally wrote for Silhouette Books  early in my career, includes Untouched By Man, which won a Romantic Times Reviewer’s Choice Award; in this book, a shy scholar teams up with a down-on-his-luck treasure hunter in pursuit of a ghost galleon. A spin-off character from that novel washes ashore in Belize in Under the Voodoo Moon, with no idea why people are trying to kill him. I wrote Ulterior Motives while working at a language school not unlike the one the heroine of this book is running when she falls for the manager of a rival school, and I’ve had housesitting experiences too similar to the one the heroine wrestles with in Guilty Secrets (but she gets a hunky historian). A private eye in New Orleans tries to help a yoga instructor find a missing astrologer in Celestial Bodies, while an ambitious advertising executive falls for her new client in A Woman’s Work.

“The always superb Laura Leone makes our hearts rejoice with a wonderful new love story… Ms. Leone’s outstanding craftsmanship and exquisite sense of romance add a brilliant lustre to an unforgettable tale of love.”

—Romantic Times

“Sheer delight for discerning readers who appreciate wit, sizzling passion, and crackling good romance. Who else but Laura Leone could put together such a wonderful love story?”

 —Romantic Times