Karen Wiesner – författare

Book One Family Heirloom: Accepting God's willA Proverbs 31 wife wonders, does "e;submissive"e; mean giving up having anything of her own?Thirty-seven-year-old Tamara Wolfe married her childhood sweetheart, Robert, right out of high school and proceeded to have a passel of children who fill her life to capacity. With the last of her children in preschool, Tamara decides to make a business out of her long-time love of creating designer gift baskets. She doesn't expect Robert to be against it from her first word.Robert has always prided himself on giving Tamara the option of staying home to raise the children, just as his father did before him. Since birth, it's been drilled into him that a man who doesn't provide for his family is the worst kind of loser. What will happen if her business takes off? She won't have time to take care of the family. Worse, maybe she won't need him anymore. Although they'd agreed years before their family was complete, Robert considers that perhaps the cure for Tamara's restlessness is another baby.Tamara prays for wisdom. All she wants is a small space of time for herself. Is she being selfish? Or is God leading her to continue being an outdated model of the Proverbs 31 wife--submissive, but never equal?

Book Five Family Heirloom: Learning trustIn order to reconcile her past, she must face the terrible truth she buried long ago...and, in doing so, she gambles with her heart and the salvation of her own soul.Ashley Savage grew up in a troubled home with a competitive, pampered sister and an abusive, ridiculing mother who played at being a Christian when she needed to...and led Ashley to more addictions than one child could handle. As an adult, Ashley tells herself she's put the extreme fears of the past behind her, but she spends most of her time repairing the crumbling wall holding back the horrors she's not willing to face ever again. She's become a woman against the world.The one man who has the annoying habit of getting through her defenses is Jay Samuels, a military chaplain and soon-to-be pastor. Much as Ashley wants to leave him behind like she believes she has the rest of her past, Jay is ambitious to a fault where she's concerned. He hears only what he wants to hear--and he doesn't want to hear that she doesn't love him as much as he loves her.But even Jay doesn't realize the extent of all she's buried deep inside her own subconscious...and what keeps her from giving herself willingly to the God she knows is drawing her inexorably to Himself, to the one place she can't run, where she can no longer hide...

A man of God, a fallen angel. Two different worlds, one undying love...For the first time in her life, Rori Mason is independent, supporting herself; she has friends who love her, and-most importantly-she respects herself. She's vowed never to allow a man to hurt her again. Nate Jovanovich broke the heart of a younger, less cynical Rori by marrying her rival. 11 years later, Nate has lost his wife, gained a child and, at the end of it all, realizes Rori is still the woman of his heart.

Bethany Briggs is a wallflower who's always looked for love in the wrong places. Rod Summers is notorious for the string of broken-hearted girlfriends he's left behind. Even when she sees a teddy bear beneath his wild exterior, she isn't sure she can trust her heart. But this shy girl-next-door is about to prove that the pattern for leather and lace can be tailor-made.

After risking her heart once and learning to regret it, JoJo Summers finds it necessary to live her life as a paper doll. No emotions, no danger and no pain. Randy Briggs is the one man who can change her mind. His only ace in the hole is that she underestimates the power of love. Just when JoJo takes the first step in risking her heart to Randy, her past comes back to haunt her, in flesh and blood…and then her heart isn't the only thing she's in danger of losing. Award: 5 hearts from Writers Club

At nearly 40, Dante Robinson has never been in a relationship that wasn't more than a one-night stand. His nephew, a college student, living in the upstairs apartment of his garage reveals that, on a lark, he and his friend started an online dating company, Perfect Match. Dante insists he shut it down...until the kid offers to hook him up with a "e;naughty librarian"e;.Lena Young has worked two jobs since she was in high school. She's 30 and raises the daughter of her abusive older brother, a truck driver, as if she's her own. When her friend convinced her to sign up for Perfect Match, she couldn't get herself to go through it...until Dante responds to her profile.Developing a major crush on her brother's best friend hadn't been difficult when Lena was a sheltered girl, but Dante hasn't been back to their house in 16 years. After she agrees to meet him without telling him who she is, she discovers he only invited her over to his house to get laid. She's mortified but, when an equally humiliated Dante comes to the truck stop diner she works on the weekends and apologizes, begging her to forgive him, she can't turn him away. Wanting to tell him to hit the road, she instead finds herself believing him, championing his determination to become a better man...convinced that, with him, she could have one thing in her life that brings her the kind of joy she's always dreamed of but has never considered possible.

Jon Rushing has finally found the answer to a lifetime of misplaced guilt and misery. Tracey Scott is unlike anyone Jon has ever met before. She's completely open and honest, ever true to her own heart--and determined to have a baby, ASAP. Even as Jon vows to be everything she'll ever need and Tracey sets her heart on him, the past rears its ugly head. What Tracey wants most of all is the one thing Jon can't give her…unless he can find a way to go back in time and reverse the damage. Awards: 4 ½ stars from Affaire de Coeur, 4 ½ stars from Scribes World Reviews

Small-town girl Ayodele "e;Della"e; Flynn lives in a city she abhors, where danger seems to be lurking around every corner. When her husband dies very unexpectedly, she's confronted with figuring out where her home is with her young son River and trying to come to terms with the loose ends her husband left their lives in.

They both want what they can't have--each other.Blackie Scarpacchio has had hard lessons kicked in him from birth, leaving him cynical and afraid to trust in love. Lori Gordon has loved Blackie all her life. After one stolen night together, he'd torn her soul in two when he admitted their relationship was based on vows he'd made to her father. Five years later, she's come home to discover that absence has made her heart grow fonder. Blackie doesn't know how to deal with his own unresolved feelings. But when Lori starts receiving threats, his protectiveness thrusts him into constant contact...and reborn needs.

Someone has unleashed an ancient evil bent on destroying Cassidy Christopher by eradicating the women he loves, one by one... Just one year earlier, Cassidy's daughter, Maddie, was attacked by a creature who was unleashed by human hands from its chains beneath The Protector, an ancient oak on the Christopher property. In the dead of the night, Maddie calls her best friend, Robyn Warren. Robyn hastens to be with the only family she's ever known.In the wake of newfound surrender to a love they can no longer fight, Robyn and Cass find they have everything they've ever wanted...except time.

She has two men, two identities, one choice... Rain Meyers has been in a suffocating relationship for five years, engaged to a man who sees only what he wants to see in her. When Rain finally escapes, she meets a man she can make beautiful music with. Justin Pascal is a songwriter with a past that haunts him. Together they discover common aspirations, a future, love and, ultimately, healing. But Bryan isn't about to give up the glass bottle world he's tried to trap Rain into...even if it means destroying everyone in his path.

Who is killing the midnight ladies?Falcon's Bend is a small, sleepy town in Wisconsin that owns more taverns than churches, but fills both on the appropriate days. Teenagers talk of escape from a one-horse town like Falcon's Bend because nothing ever seems to happen...until one fateful night when a dancer from the town's scandalous strip joint is found strangled.It soon becomes clear to Investigators Pete Shasta and Danny Vincent that the close-knit "e;family"e; at the nightclub is a bizarre breeding-ground for unbalanced feelings and obsessions. Pete and Danny race to peel away layers of bitterness before another girl falls victim to the dance of death.

Falcon's Bend Police Department Investigator Pete Shasta's brother Jordan, is recently divorced and intent on putting his life back together for himself and his daughter.Jordan discovers that people have moved into the house next door to him and one of them is MaryEmma Gold, who'd lived in the house he now owns when he was a boy. Jordan soon finds that his shy "e;Marigold"e; has become an even more withdrawn woman.MaryEmma's sister Shelley sleeps all day and parties all night. Seeing bruises all over MaryEmma's arms, Jordan asks his brother to check into her past. Pete and his partner Danny Vincent discover that Shelley's husband died in a fire only a week before they came to Falcon's Bend. The women left their jobs and lives behind abruptly.Meanwhile, Shelley's new boyfriend is found near the dam, bludgeoned to death. As they uncover murder in the form of a conspiracy, Pete and Danny can't help noticing that Shelley Wilson leaves a trail of dead men behind her wherever she goes...and Jordan may be next.

Christian Riley, Elizabeth Horace, and Oscar Albright grew up together, the cliched "e;church kids"e;, but Chris quickly found everything about his life stifling. When he moves to Los Angeles to get away from everything his existence has dictated for him, he doesn't expect Elizabeth to follow him, but he's known for as long as he can remember that she loves him obsessively...just as Oscar loves her. With Chris's faith in tatters, he has no interest in Christianity let alone morality. Yet in the thirteen years that follow, he finds himself returning to Elizabeth whenever he hits rock bottom. Deep down, he understands she alone will always love him, no matter how far he strays or how much he hurts her when he uses her as his last-ditch refuge.When a serial killer/rapist's attack of Elizabeth is mercifully thwarted, Chris's world collapses in on him with guilt and horror coming at him from every corner. The attack has changed Elizabeth. She realizes she's put her life on hold for too long praying for Chris to share her belief that their love and life together is destined. After she severs the ties between them, Chris knows the only way to get her back is to give himself to the Lord. God begins changing him from the inside out, but--too little, too late--has he fallen in love when his angel of mercy is no longer available to him?Destiny... Do you believe?

The first collection of Falcon's Bend Detectives Pete Shasta and Danny Vincent's cases, with Patrol Officer Amber Carfi.Bugs: A partially digested body is found in the oxidation ditch at the Falcon's Bend Wastewater Treatment Plant. Was it an accident...or is Pete facing his first murder? Broken Wings: Just two months ago, a runaway daughter Keith Pierce never knew he had landed on his doorstep. Seventeen years earlier, Keith had a brief, intense affair with a woman on the lam. When he returns to Kat's hometown of Falcon's Bend to find his daughter's mother, he discovers that Kat disappeared shortly after giving birth to Quinn. Investigator Pete Shasta solves a decade and a half old missing-person case that's about to turn into murder. Obsessions: A newborn baby is stolen from Falcon's Bend Community Hospital's maternity ward...and Pete's only lead is to the Liace Adoption Agency which set up the open adoption. Case Representative Lisa Mercer is as suspicious and defensive as she is beautiful. With a kidnapper who seems to believe there's nothing left to lose and potentially everything to gain, and his own uncontrollable feelings for Lisa, Pete's about to learn just how dangerous obsessions can be. Blind Revenge: For the first three years of her life, Lindsay Bronwyn had nightmares about a witch who wanted her eyes. Nineteen years later, those nightmares have come true when she's found murdered on her kitchen floor, her eye sockets empty. Falcon's Bend Investigator Danny Vincent faces the supernatural to get at a chilling flesh and blood truth. Fixated: Someone has been following new Falcon's Bend citizen Risa Nitzberg for the past few weeks. Victor Brooks, her neighbor from across the street who's become fixated with Risa from afar, steps in when Risa's creepy stalker decides to get up close and personal.

For the past fifteen years, on the anniversary of his arrest for armed robbery, Zeke Carfi has received a threatening letter signed by the wife of his deceased partner in crime.Zeke's daughter Amber, Falcon's Bend Police Department's newest patrol officer, has spent fifteen years holding onto a secret that could further condemn the father she'd worshiped as a child. When Zeke is released on parole, Amber finds herself questioning everything she's ever believed. Is Zeke the good man she once knew? How could the father who'd made her the center of his world for the first seven years of her life be a criminal? Is it possible to turn from a life a crime, or is it true that once a criminal always a criminal?Their reconciliation is cut short when Amber discovers the fifteenth letter...and the key to a fifteen-year mystery that could lead to murder.

The second collection of Falcon's Bend Detectives Pete Shasta and Danny Vincent's cases, with Patrol Officer Amber Carfi.Murder on the Heartstrings: Lieutenant Pete Shasta takes his lovely wife Lisa on a romantic vacation, promising her no mysteries, no crime, and certainly no murder. But, not long after arriving in the middle of a blizzard that has shut down the entire town below the luxurious inn, a body is found stuffed into a janitor's closet. Lisa's only resort is to join her husband in sleuthing so she can get back to her Valentine's Day agenda.Flashback: In the midst of planning for the birth of his first child, Lieutenant Danny Vincent is called away because a person missing for seven months has suddenly, and suspiciously, dropped back from out of nowhere. Lucinda Staub was thought to be dead. Now that she's returned, her husband Ryan wants nothing to do with her--even seems afraid of her--insisting she'd bested Old Scratch himself down in the swamp. Lucinda claims to have lost her memory...so how did she know how to get home? And why is she back now?Double Take: Victor Brooks, celebrated artist and owner of The Brooks Gallery in Falcon's Bend, contacts local police about a missing painting. The very next day, two more pieces of art are stolen. Patrol Officers Amber Carfi and Warren Jensen stake out the gallery, hoping to catch an insatiable thief.Retribution: The subdivision FBPD investigators Pete Shasta and Danny Vincent live in becomes home to a very hot young mama...and their wives Lisa and Melody aren't too happy about all the men in the neighborhood moonlighting as Peeping Toms. But it isn't until the beautiful young woman disappears, leaving her two young children alone, that Lisa realizes crime is firmly afoot.andUp In Smoke: Lieutenant Pete Shasta is struggling to find the perfect Christmas gift for his perfect wife. His agonizing is interrupted when FBPD Dispatch receives a call from the neighbor of a local Christmas tree farm--which has just burned to the ground. Owner Mitchell Ferrara is officially out of business for the holiday season. But was the fire an accident...or the means to cover up evidence of a crime?Ghost of the Past: After an exhausting day, patrol officer Amber Carfi is looking forward to dinner and going home to the love of her life, Warren Jensen, who's been acting strange and secretive lately. When she stops at a local restaurant for take-out, she's surprised when a woman at the counter pushes a note written on a napkin over to her. The hastily scrawled correspondence says that someone has been following her all day and he's now in the restaurant.Sixteen years earlier, Ericka Callister gave birth to a baby she didn't want. Young and scared, she wrapped the baby in a pillowcase, then threw him into a dumpster before fleeing. She's about to discover the hard way that mistakes have a way of haunting the guilty no matter how far they run and no matter where they hide.

Book Three Family Heirloom: HealingShe was one of his late wife's best friends. He's the man she's loved from afar for as long as she can remember. Falling in love could take simply letting go of their fears...or a miracle.Peter Samuels had lost his beloved wife Lydia to a brain tumor just one year earlier. His grief continues to overwhelm him, especially now that he's the sole caretaker of their growing children and he's alone once more in the world without a partner.Kimberly Wolfe has always loved her boss Peter, but she's loved him from afar. For years, she'd endured Lydia's misguided attempts to fix her up with one Christian man after another. She'd envied Peter and Lydia's love for one another, and, most recently, she'd consoled him in his grief over the loss of his wife and her close friend. But for as long as she can remember, her domineering father has used the Bible to justify his God-given place as head of the household, destroying Kimberly's mother and her own ability to trust men. A committed Christian, she struggles to forgive her father when he refuses to repent and see the wrong he's done.An innocent kiss on New Year's leads to a growing awareness between Peter and Kimberly. Peter wonders if there can be love again after such devastation. Kimberly wrestles with her fears borne of the past. Can Peter ever see her as more than an employee and a shoulder to lean on? Can he accept her as a Christian woman who's nowhere near content to live out her life without the love of a man and a family of her own?

Love--and murder--is in the air.Falcon's Bend Police Department Patrol Officers Amber Carfi and Warren Jensen are partners on the job, and lovers off-duty. The relationship is so new and fragile, neither of them are willing to come out in the open with it. But sometimes love can't be hidden any more than secrets can be kept...The nude body of a young woman is discovered in her bed, shot through the heart. Lying between her breasts is a single red rose with an exquisite wedding band. Also at the scene of the crime is a chilling quote: "e;What is done out of love always takes place beyond good and evil."e; In order to find the killer, Lieutenants Pete Shasta and Danny Vincent decide to put Amber undercover. Amber's assignment goes from dull to deadly when she discovers a murderer harboring romantic notions...

Don't close your eyes..."e;Harrity Scaritty, on the mountain-side, in the realm of the dead, how will you escape, how will you be fed? With the living and the undead"e;.Nestled on Lake Superior in northern Wisconsin is a small, secluded town called Bloodmoon Cove with volatile weather, suspicious folk...and newly awakened ghosts bent on revenge. Esmeralda "e;Esme"e; Dumas comes to the town looking to find work surrounded by wide-open nature, and most of all looking for a place to hide.Park Ranger John Kotter has returned to his hometown after a decade away. He left Bloodmoon Cove under the cruel and mistaken accusations of the townspeople that he was to blame for the suicide of his girlfriend, a local daughter. When his father goes missing on the mountain and is presumed dead, his mother asks him to come home and take over the family legacy. Generations of Kotter men, including his great-great grandfather Harrity, have run Bloodmoon Cove Park, and John can't help but remember how much he loved this place as a boy. When he finds the squatter in the campground host house, he can't help wondering if she had anything to do with his father's disappearance. John also senses Esme has ghosts of her own.As a child, Esme was kidnapped and locked in a cold, dark basement. Her friends were rodents, insects, and the changeable terror that held her hostage. The only thing that kept her sane those nightmare years were her books. She's been on the run since her escape a few months ago, never expecting to find another bound spirit come back to life.

What's a man to do when he's seen too much of life's dark side and suddenly finds himself believing in flesh-and-blood angels who can heal with a single touch? What's a girl to do when she believes in true love but can't trust the eyes of her own heart? Fall in love...reluctantly?

Steve Thomas has a self-destructive wife, three kids, more guilt than one man can handle...and a chance at true love for the first time in his life--if only he can allow himself to take it.

Book Four Family Heirloom: ForgivenessA young Christian woman struggles with seeking pardon from those she's hurt when she can't seem to get past her own inability to forgive those who have wronged her.Three years ago, Samantha Samuels had suffered under the violent hands of Ryder Feldmann, a juvenile delinquent her pastor father had been counseling. Now she's completed her psychiatry training and plans to help other victims of violent crimes at the rape counseling clinic in her hometown of Peaceful, Wisconsin. Unexpectedly, she finds herself sharing an office building and Sunday services at her new church with the older brother, a divorce counselor, of her attacker...the very man she'd been in love with before her rape.In the time since Kyle Feldmann's brother was jailed for his crime against Samantha, he's lived with the torment of all he's lost because of his sibling. Before the tragedy that stole Samantha from him and destroyed his dreams, Kyle had begged her to risk her father's disappointment and elope with him. Seeing Samantha again after so many years, being near her, only puts him right back where he was before the rape. Kyle wants to heal Samantha, love her, and fulfill the dreams he grieved the loss of--by marrying her. But how can they be together forever when she's still so broken?All her life, Samantha had wanted her father's approval, but his selfish part in putting her in a dangerous situation has led her to a painful place of desperately needing to forgive him and her attacker...and being unable to in all the time since the traumatic event that ripped her life in two. As she gives her heart to Kyle once more, her already fractured relationship with the Lord is tested. In the crossfire of faith, she wonders if glass angels shatter beyond recognition when they take a leap of faith, or if they can heal and become stronger than ever before.

Twenty-five years ago, Gwen Nicholson-Nelson was in a car accident that almost claimed her life and left behind a strange gift. She can see the future, and death, before it comes to pass. She had a vision of her husband's death ten years before it happened in, for Gwen, chilling deja vu. During this time, she's also had a disturbing connection with another like her, a psychic who has the power to not only see into others but to manipulate and destroy.For twenty-five years, as seemingly unrelated events convince Gwen she has no power of her own beyond bizarre sight, she's wondered why she was given the ability to see pain and death yet never to alleviate it. But when her nemesis targets Dylan Mitchell, the man she loves, and his daughter, all the pieces of the puzzle that have tormented her fall into place. Gwen must discover her own power, believe in herself and her destiny, and act--before her vision of Dylan's death comes to pass.