Sold to Berkley Books, Coming Out April 2011
Virna's debut paranormal suspense series launches in April of 2011 by Berkley Books. The series is about a unique special ops team whose members include a werebeast, a wraith, a mage, and a vampire and the human female he's forbidden to love; on their first mission the team must recover an antidote needed to save the vampire race.
Completed
Murder is nothing new to Bryn Donavon. The ambitious district attorney has dedicated her life to seeking justice for victims of crime. No one knows she is motivated by a shameful secret: once a rebellious youth with a penchant for casual sex and alcohol, Bryn feels responsible for the rape and murder of her best friend, Christine.
When a disgruntled defendant attacks Bryn in court, she is literally thrust into the arms of Daniel Mays, a criminal defense attorney with slow Southern charm and an appreciation for warm-natured women. Although he has always admired Bryn’s skill as a prosecutor, Daniel now sees that she has been hiding her softer and more sensual complexities. Determined to taste her passion, Daniel must first gain her trust and help her overcome her feelings of guilt, especially those related to sex.
Just as Daniel begins to get close to Bryn, a man from her past is arrested and brought to court, charged with the murder of his stepfather, Senator Thomas Akers, and stepsister, Lydia. Ten years ago, Sam Danvers blamed Bryn for the death of his girlfriend, Christine. Upon seeing Sam again, Bryn is overcome by self-loathing. She retreats from Daniel and begins to investigate several troubling facts about Sam’s case. Daniel realizes that Bryn’s emotional retreat is somehow connected to Sam and convinces Sam to retain him. Forced once more to work with Daniel, Bryn finds him harder and harder to resist.
Completed
Jenna Montgomery is a former Olympian markswoman and ex-SWAT sniper who, after failing to take a critical shot, has dedicated her life to finding missing children. Now, two years later, police scramble to find “Darwin,” a serial killer who believes that by killing stronger prey, he can eradicate the facial deformity that has tormented him since birth. Darwin brags about his kills on his Blog and relishes bringing “enlightenment” to his victims, something he manifests by drawing eyes on their closed eyelids. When Darwin kidnaps a nine-year-old girl, Jenna believes it is because of the girl’s resemblance to Sam Danvers, an ex-felon with a troubled past. With no other leads to follow, Jenna asks for Sam's help.
Sam Danvers has literally been burned by love, as the scars on his face and body can attest. Convicted of a crime he didn't commit and betrayed by the people he loved most, Sam struggles to survive in spite of his physical and emotional wounds. He wants nothing to do with love, and instead tries to out-climb his demons, one mountain at a time.
Successfully celibate for a year, Sam’s solitude is suddenly challenged by Jenna, a woman who triggers such intense desire in him that he can no longer think of anything else. And although he eventually agrees to help her, he bargains for something that Jenna has never given to anyone before—her sexual surrender.
After Jenna is injured while trying to apprehend a violent pedophile, Sam accepts that his feelings for her extend beyond the physical. Likewise, Jenna confirms that behind his emotional walls, Sam is a man of great integrity and compassion. In the end, Sam vows to save both Jenna and the missing child even if it means sacrificing himself. Determined not to let this happen, Jenna faces her inner demons, including her inability to fire a gun, proving to Sam that imperfection, whether in body or love, is worth fighting for.
Completed
Fifteen years ago, sixteen-year-old Lily Cantrell hoped to convince twenty-year-old John Tyler that her feelings were more than a school girl’s crush. All that changed the night Lily disobeyed her mother to meet John and then returned home to find her mother brutally murdered. Overwhelmed with grief and troubled by lapses in memory, Lily spent a year in a rehabilitation center and vowed to forget the man she loved.
El Dorado County Sheriff John Tyler never forgot Lily Cantrell or the single kiss they’d shared so long ago. Now he’s been asked to explore whether a man sentenced to die is innocent, and whether the man who really killed Lily’s mother is responsible for the rape and murders of three young women. During his investigation, John must deal with the Cantrell family’s anger, as well as newly awakened feelings for Lily.
Lily, an art therapist who works with young trauma victims, initially resists John’s attempts to reopen the case. But when disturbing holes in the evidence confirm that Lily’s dreams may be repressed memories, they have no choice but to work together. Their physical and emotional intimacy progresses but is hampered by several factors, including Lily’s increasingly violent nightmares, her continuing mistrust, and her compulsion to protect her father, an ex-cop who may have lied about her mother’s murder.
The evidence points to various suspects, including Lily’s father, stepmother, and brother-in-law, as well as Lily herself. And while John believes Lily is innocent, he can’t deny that she knows more about the crime than she remembers. A lie detector test confirms she’s hiding something, but more importantly a prison visit with the man convicted of killing Lily’s mother reveals that Lily was already home and her mother already dead when he entered the house. Before they can talk to him further, the man is killed in prison. Lily’s sister is run down. And then the killer targets Lily herself.
In Progress
Natalie Jones has been running her whole life, first from her mother who tried to suffocate Natalie’s half-brother for fear that he was evil, and then from a diagnosis that she suffers from the same degenerative eye disease that slowly contributed to her mother’s mental breakdown. Alone since she was 15, Natalie survived her dysfunctional upbringing to become a famous photojournalist, depending on no one, traveling the world, and pushing her body to its limits. When her vision worsens, she refuses to give in and instead races to complete the book of her heart—a photo journal about ordinary people overcoming extraordinary odds, such as stuttering, disfigurement, anorexia, and cancer. In particular, she photographed a young man named Sawyer who impresses her with his maturity and utter love for life. And although she ultimately does not use his photo in the book due to his mother’s change of heart, she’s devastated to learn about his subsequent death. Months later, when her work is met with unexpected criticism and she’s able to see only shadows and an occasional blur of color, Natalie isolates herself in her house, allowing no one but her faithful assistant Melissa to visit on one assigned day a week.
Death haunts Detective Liam “Mac” McKenzie. A year ago, he left his son Sawyer in the hospital to finish an assignment. When he returned, Sawyer was dead. When the story opens, Mac believes that dwelling on the past or opening himself to love will lead to pain, that the key to surviving is looking professionally ahead, and that he cannot reconcile his job with having a family because he will only bring about more death. Now, close to the anniversary of his son’s death, Mac has one goal—to capture the killer who claims he is murdering and embalming the “imperfect” in order to immortalize the true beauty of their immortal souls. Although the victim’s bodies have never been recovered, the killer has begun leaving a note full of clues that no one can decipher except to posit that his motivation is both personal, spiritual, and unwavering. When Mac discovers a connection between the murders and a reclusive photographer, Natalie Jones, he seeks her out. He finds a pale, fragile woman with a chillingly detached manner and a shocking ability to arouse passions he’d long thought dead. He insists she submit to questioning, only to learn why her being the killer, or even a witness, is unlikely-- she’s legally blind.