Carol Marinelli: The Best Of The Year - Medical Romance

CHAPTER ELEVEN

CHAPTER TWELVE

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

EPILOGUE

A Touch of Christmas Magic

Introduction

Dear Reader

About the Author

Dedication

CHAPTER ONE

CHAPTER TWO

CHAPTER THREE

CHAPTER FOUR

CHAPTER FIVE

CHAPTER SIX

CHAPTER SEVEN

CHAPTER EIGHT

CHAPTER NINE

CHAPTER TEN

CHAPTER ELEVEN

EPILOGUE

A Mummy to Make Christmas

Praise for Susanne Hampton

Excerpt

Dear Reader

About the Author

Acknowledgements

CHAPTER ONE

CHAPTER TWO

CHAPTER THREE

CHAPTER FOUR

CHAPTER FIVE

CHAPTER SIX

CHAPTER SEVEN

CHAPTER EIGHT

CHAPTER NINE

CHAPTER TEN

CHAPTER ELEVEN

CHAPTER TWELVE

EPILOGUE

Copyright

When the clock strikes midnight...

Dr. Miranda Dupris is fed up with men! Her ban on relationships is a New Year’s resolution she is determined to keep. To prove it, she’ll go on twenty-five dates in one year—and that’s first dates only. Maybe then Mira will be able to find Mr. Right!

Finding a man is one thing. But when sun-kissed doc Jack Perry arrives in a spray of perfect snow it soon looks as if Mira might be destined to lose her hundred-dollar bet...along with her heart!

New Year’s Resolutions!

Resolutions are made to be broken...!

Childhood friends Mira and Ellory each make a New Year’s resolution to stay away from love. Little do they know that fate has other things in mind...

When two hunky doctors hit the slopes, escaping their past in the deep snowy mountains, the last thing they expect to find is two wonderful women who can heal minds, bodies and souls...and maybe these brooding doctors’ hearts!

This New Year, lose yourself in these magical snowy romances from Harlequin Medical Romance authors

Tina Beckett and Amalie Berlin

Read Jack and Mira’s story in

HOW TO FIND A MAN IN FIVE DATES

Read Anson and Ellory’s story in

BREAKING HER NO-DATING RULE

Dear Reader,

I seem to have a love/hate relationship with New Year’s resolutions. I love making them. Keeping them? Hmm...not so much.

When the heroine of How to Find a Man in Five Dates makes a crazy resolution one snowy New Year’s Eve she has every intention of keeping it. After all, she’s fresh out of a disastrous relationship and not looking to start anything new. What she doesn’t count on, however, is coming to the rescue of a surfer-dude-turned-newbie-skier when he wipes out on his first run down the slopes. What starts off as one date turns into two, and soon she is doing some slipping and sliding of her own...emotionally.

Thank you for joining Mira and Jack as they make their way down a treacherous slope where trust and self-forgiveness become rules to live by—and hopefully find love along the way. I hope you enjoy reading their story as much as I loved writing it!

Have fun on those ski slopes of life—and maybe even break a resolution or two of your own!

Love,

Tina Beckett

Praise for Tina Beckett:

“A tension-filled emotional story with just the right amount of drama. The author’s vivid description of the Brazilian jungle and its people make this story something special.”

­—RT Book Reviews on

DOCTOR’S GUIDE TO DATING IN THE JUNGLE

“Medical Romance lovers will definitely like NYC ANGELS: FLIRTING WITH DANGER by Tina Beckett—for who doesn’t like a good forbidden romance?”

—Harlequin Junkie

PROLOGUE

HERE’S TO A brand-new year.

Dr. Miranda Dupris clutched her empty champagne flute and waited for the dreaded annual countdown to begin. The huge gathering area of her father’s lodge—with its vaulted ceilings and blazing fireplace—was packed, the free food and drinks drawing in legions of guests and employees, all hoping the year ahead would be kinder than the one they were leaving behind.

Or maybe that was just her.

A fresh glass of glittery amber liquid was pressed into her hand, while the empty one was plucked free and deposited onto the tray of one of the serving staff. The smell of champagne clogged her senses, its sharp bite a welcome diversion.

“Mira, we totally forgot to make our resolutions!” Her best friend grinned at her, long blonde curls bouncing as she swirled the contents of her own glass. “Let’s do them now. That way you can dump Robert into the universe’s nearest black hole and start over.”

At the mention of her ex-fiancé, Mira curled her toes into the ankle-slaying red stilettos while the familiar sting of betrayal lanced through her gut.

Never again. Never, ever again.

If anyone was jumping into the nearest black hole, it was going to be her.

She was done with relationships. For good this time. Three failed engagements in the last seven years should tell her something.

“I’m all for that.” She forced her lips to tilt upward, trying not to ruin their New Year’s Eve tradition, something she and Ellory had done for the last ten years in this very room. She lifted her glass. “I’ll even go first. I hereby swear off committed relationships for the next twelve months.”

Her friend laughed. “What about uncommitted ones?”

What about them?

Oh! Her foggy brain finally put two and two together. Ellory was asking if she was swearing off men altogether. Was she?

Maybe that was a bit too extreme. She did like men. Some of them, anyway. Just not certain bastardly ski instructors.

“Uncommitted is good. More than good, actually.” She raised her glass even higher. “Okay, how about this, then? I resolve to date twenty-five men over the next year with no emotional involvement whatsoever. Zip. Nada .”

Her friend blinked. “Whoa.” Ellory now had to yell over the crowd as the clock hands on the huge screen across from them shifted closer and closer to the witching hour. “Are you serious? Miss Monogamy Dupris is going to serial date?”

Um...yes. Why not?

The idea sounded more and more attractive. Or maybe that was the three glasses of champagne she’d had. Whatever. She took another bracing sip. “That’s exactly what I’m going to do. Serial date. Twenty-five men...one year.”

“This I’ve got to see. Bet you a hundred bucks you either back out or you don’t make it past man number five without getting attached to him.”

Ha! Unless the fifth guy was a puppy hiding in a man suit, she didn’t see that happening.

“Make it ten men. No, wait...all twenty-five. And backing out is not an option.” She waggled her shoulders back and forth, her courage growing with each passing moment. “Tell you what. Next New Year’s Eve we’ll see who pays whom. Your turn. What’s your resolution? And it’d better be good!”

“Well, if you can swear off serious relationships, I can swear off men altogether—maybe work on myself for a change, take on a project. And I’ll bet the same amount of money that I will follow through.” Ellory’s expression had taken on a serious note, totally out of character for her fun-loving friend.

But with the hands almost at the top of the dial, she didn’t have time to question her. “Okay, so we each have a hundred dollars riding on our resolutions, right?”

“Right.”

She’d just gotten the words out when a cacophony of voices began chanting backwards from ten. Ellory clinked her glass against Mira’s and they downed the last of their drinks.

Confetti rained all around her, the cheers and laughter of the crowd forming a frothy wave of mirth that carried her up and out of her funk. Mira caught her friend up in a tight hug, so glad Ellory had come to stay with her for a while.