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​Martha O'Sullivan has loved reading romance novels for as long as she can remember. Writing her own books is the realization of a lifelong dream. She is a graduate of Illinois State University where she wrote for the school newspaper and was a member of Zeta Tau Alpha. She is also a former Acquisitions Editor at MacMillan Computer Publishing. Martha writes contemporary romances with male/female couples and happy endings. Her Chances Trilogy—Second Chance, Chance Encounter and Last Chance—and new standalone novel, Christmas in Tahoe, are available in print and digital formats at online retailers everywhere. Her next book, Sierra Fall, will be released in late 2024. A native Chicagoan, she lives her own happy ending in Florida with her husband and daughters.

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To My Readers, 

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My love affair with California began at the tender age of fifteen and continues today, four decades later. So it should come as little surprise that the book of my heart, which ultimately became a trilogy, as well as Christmas in Tahoe, is set there.

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Maybe it was the ineffable thrill of a midwestern girl seeing the ocean for the first time. Or the perpetually tanned surfers with movie star teeth playing volleyball in the sand. Perhaps it was the soaring palm trees gently swaying against the blinding blue sky. But that was in Southern California; my books are set in Lake Tahoe and San Francisco, hundreds of miles to the north.

 

I was an only child of the seventies, growing up in a place where short, precious summers turned into long, cold winters seemingly overnight. In high school, I often opted for the city bus because it stopped in front of the public library. It was just a branch, but they had loads of paperback books. And I always found myself drawn to the wire rack of slightly musty and lovingly tattered romance novels. The books took me to places all over the world where effortlessly beautiful, determined heroines were swept off their feet by irresistible, charming heroes. And if I found the ending disappointing, I would simply finish the story in my head to my liking.

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Writing such ideas down, however, took another thirty years. In the interim, I went to college and met my own hero. And we went to San Francisco on our honeymoon. And, as cliché as it sounds, that’s where I left my heart. Part of it anyway. Until I went to Lake Tahoe and my love affair with California moved even farther north.

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I hope my books, Second Chance, Chance Encounter, Last Chance and Christmas in Tahoe will take you there. And you’ll leave a little piece of your heart behind too.

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