This one is a blend of genres: Suspense, Thriller and Women’s Fiction. The type of book that gives my agent a heart attack, trying to figure out how to sell it.

I can only write the ideas that come to me. So far, I’ve written Small Town Romance, Western Romance, Women’s Fiction, Thriller, and now, Suspense. But I believe everything I write is, at it’s heart, Women’s Fiction, because I’m endlessly fascinated by women’s journey to becoming.

This one grew from (as many books do), childhood damage. I’ve always been big for my age, awkward and plump. In school, I always felt like an outsider, not accepted because you didn’t fit the ‘norm,’ and it wasn’t just at school. I remember my petite,  ladylike mother, almost in tears, back to school shopping with me when I was in junior high, trying to find shoes for me in a size 11.  And I won’t even go into the diets I was on from the age of 5 on.

I think every woman can relate to my character, Mari, who tries for invisibility, and failing that, puts on a mask, to be whatever other people want from her. It works, but it’s lonely – no one knows who she really is – not even her.

Until…

Well here’s the blurb:

Mari Koval is a freak. At 6’5” and built big, that’s how she sees herself. After years of being bullied in school, she lets no one close. People only know the mask she hides behind. Mari has a dream—starting a bold clothing line for women who can’t shop off the rack. That, and to have the guts to wear her own designs.

It’s winter-dismal in Chicago when Mari sees a website for Temptation Cove, an exclusive singles-only resort on a small island in the Caribbean. They’re running a sweepstakes, and the prize is a week-long vacation, free of charge. Despite an invasive questionnaire and the fact that the island has no cell or internet service, Mari enters.

And wins.

The island is beautiful, and Mari’s confidence soars when her daring clothes bring more male attention than she’s ever had. But something is off. Details don’t jibe with memories of her nightly trysts. She and another contestant investigate and discover a string of past winners have died on the island. Then they stumble on a dangerous secret—they weren’t lucky, they were specifically chosen. To survive, Mari is going to have to rip off her mask and use every bit of strength she didn’t know she had.

Her dream vacation has become a nightmare, and the resort’s tagline a threat:

What happens on Escondida Island always stays here.

Releases in October – stay tuned!