Related Books

In the Chicago criminal justice system, the people are represented by two groups of confident, frequently sarcastic, and shockingly attractive people, all of whom seem to spend an inordinate amount of time at Starbucks: FBI Special Agents, who investigate crimes, and the U.S. Attorneys, who prosecute the offenders. These are the stories of what happens when they’re not out busting bad guys. Happily ever after guaranteed.

Please note that these books are related in the sense that they are set in a shared world and some characters make appearances in later books. They are, however, stand alone novels. Feel free to jump in wherever you like.

Julie’s Notes on Inspiration

The related theme began somewhat by happenstance.  I was at the RWA conference in San Francisco, and I’d pitched an entirely different idea for my third book to my editor over dinner. Then fate intervened. That night, the people in the hotel room next to mine had a very loud party that lasted for hours.  As I lay in bed unable to sleep, a story began to develop in my head—about a woman, an assistant U.S. attorney, who overhears a murder in the hotel room next to hers and becomes the only witness to the crime.  And since this would be a romance, naturally there needed to be a guy: in this case, an FBI agent assigned to protect the heroine despite the fact that the two of them had a big-time falling out in the past. “But it’ll be funny!” I’d promised my editor.  And, thankfully, she trusted me to write the book that became my first national bestseller, Something About You.

The problem was, I had so much fun writing Something About You that I didn’t want to leave that world when the book was finished.  What’s an author to do in those circumstances?  Write another book with an FBI agent hero, of course! I knew three things when beginning to outline my next book: (1) the heroine would not be a lawyer, since my three previous heroines had been attorneys, (2) there would be wine in the book—a convenient excuse for me to take a wine appreciation course for “research,” and (3) the FBI would need the heroine’s help with . . . well, something.  And from that, A Lot Like Love was born—a story about a wealthy wine storeowner who agrees to pose as the girlfriend of an undercover FBI agent (as part of a sting operation) in exchange for her twin brother’s release from prison. There’s a scene early in A Lot Like Love in which the heroine visits her twin brother in prison, and I knew from the moment the brother stepped onto the page wearing his orange prison jumpsuit that he was going to be the hero in my next book.

I’ve had a great time writing these stories about the (often humorous) romantic travails of the prosecutors and special agents who work for the Chicago U.S. Attorney and FBI offices.  I hope you enjoy them as well!

Hero Profiles from Related Books

Jack Pallas

  • Name: Jack Pallas
  • Occupation: FBI Special Agent
  • Alias: Agent Hottie
  • Weapon of choice: Glock 23 and a lot of glowering
  • Weakness: black sweaters with silky gray camisoles
  • Drives: Triumph motorcycle
  • Not his finest moment: Caught on national television saying that a certain assistant U.S. attorney had her head up her ass
  • Best day on the job: The time he infiltrated a bachelorette party while on “assignment”
  • Dream destination: A place where a man can brood in peace
  • Random fact: Possibly once killed a man with staples
  • Featured in: Something About You

 

Nick McCall

  • Name: Nick McCall
  • Occupation: FBI Special Agent
  • Alias: “Tall, Dark, and Smoldering”
  • Hails from: A place where men don’t wear scarves indoors
  • Weapon of choice: A very impressive don’t-fuck-with-me face
  • Weakness: billionaire heiresses who eat cheese fries
  • Not his finest moment: Once threw a guy out of a wine shop for flirting with his fake girlfriend
  • Will deny to his grave: That he watched an episode of Dancing with the Stars to impress a girl—the right girl
  • Random fact: Refuses to drink anything pink
  • Featured in: A Lot Like Love

 

Kyle Rhodes

  • Name: Kyle Rhodes
  • Occupation: Network Security Specialist/billionaire heir
  • Alias: the Twitter Terrorist
  • Weapon of choice: an iMac and an Internet connection
  • Weakness: skirt suits
  • Drives: Mercedes SLS AMG
  • Not his finest moment: Caused world-wide panic and mayhem when he shut down Twitter while half-drunk on Scotch
  • Another not-so-fine moment: impaled his forehead on a cactus while on a bender in Tijuana
  • On the bright side: Looks surprisingly good in an orange prison jumpsuit
  • Random fact: Once shoved another inmate’s face into a plate of mashed potatoes
  • Featured in: About That Night

 

Cade Morgan

  • Name: Cade Morgan
  • Occupation: Assistant U.S. Attorney
  • Alias: the Mighty Morgan
  • Weapon of choice: a perfectly-tailored three-piece suit and an army of federal agents on speed dial
  • Perk of the job: being able to aggravate a certain sarcastic/sassy general counsel
  • Weakness: red high heels
  • Not his finest moment: Tore his rotator cuff in a career-ending college football injury
  • On the bright side: Now gets to throw corrupt politicians and Twitter Terrorists in prison
  • Needs to work on: finding some friends who aren’t FBI agents and so damn nosy
  • Random fact: Makes a mean Denver omelette
  • Featured in: Love Irresistibly

 

Vaughn Roberts

Special Agent Vaughn Roberts from It Happened One Wedding

  • Name: Vaughn Roberts
  • Occupation: FBI Special Agent
  • Hails from: A place where men don’t wear seersucker suits
  • Weapon of Choice: Kimber 1911 handgun and a perpetual five o’clock shadow
  • Drives: A Dodge Charger with the Pursuit Package
  • Weakness: Summer dresses with peek-a-boo sleeves
  • Not his finest moment: Being shot down after unknowingly hitting on his brother’s future sister-in-law
  • Perk(?) of the job: Hanging out in dark, sketchy alleys pretending to do dark, sketchy things when working undercover
  • Will deny to his grave: That he once ate finger sandwiches and miniature wedding cakes to impress a certain saucy red-head
  • Random fact: Gets an eye twitch around wedding talk
  • Featured in: It Happened One Wedding