Hard to Handle [NOOK Book]

For Jamie Denton there's nothing quite as heartwarming as the happy ending for a hero and heroine who overcome the odds. In fact, if you ask her, she'll tell you that anything in life that's easy just isn't much fun. Always one to look for challenges in life, Jamie embraced her first real challenge at the age of 16 when she married her high school sweetheart.

A whole lot of years later, she can still remember the first time she saw her own personal hero and knew, even at that tender age, that he was the one. With a history like that, what else could she write except romance novels? Several writing awards later, it's obvious her personal life wasn't the only place she made the right choice.

Although writing takes much of her time, in her spare moments away from the computer she usually has a book (what else but a romance?) or a cross-stitch project within reach. She enjoys cooking, gardening, and has a love hate relationship when it comes to remodeling her turn of the century home, which Jamie and her husband refer to as the Little Money Pit on the Prairie. Now that her nest is officially empty, she showers her affection on her three, four-legged "babies": a mammoth Maine Coon, Max (short for Maximum Load), her adorable little Red Stag Miniature Pinscher, Strat who loves to cuddle in her lap while she writes, and the dumbest smart dog she's ever owned, the family's yellow Labrador Retriever, Dauber, whom she claims is appropriately named.

When asked why she writes romances, Jamie credits her sister-in-law. During a difficult pregnancy when all activities were strictly forbidden, Jamie received two grocery sacks (before the days of plastic!) filled with novels. Every one was a romance, so during those long days of forced inactivity, Jamie read, and read, and read some more.

She claims that during those hours while she was swept away by the compelling romances of dashing heroes and feisty heroines, she was able to set aside her worries. She never forgot that feeling, and when she penned her first romance 12 years later in 1994, she did so with the fondest hope that someone else may be able to set aside their worries for a short while, too.

Jamie, a Southern California native, lives in North Dakota with her husband. This incredibly very young grandmother of three escaped life in the fast lane and doesn't regret trading sun and sand for clear blue skies and wide open spaces . . . well, except during the long winter months with all that snow cluttering up her gardens.