Heartwishes started when I was thinking of that age-old question of, If I had one wish, what would it be?

But that idea made me think how wishes are relative to time and place.  When I was fourteen what I most wanted was curly hair.  When I hit my thirties I wanted to eat anything and not gain weight.

All in all, they were superficial wishes and I’m glad that magic wasn’t wasted on them.  I thought there should be a governing body to decide what was worthy of being granted and what was frivolous.  But who could do that?

It came to me that our hearts, our inner beings, might know what was best for us.  How about a wish that would come true only if it came from deep inside our hearts?

The book seemed to name itself.  Heartwishes.

After I got the basic idea of the novel, I thought about things people would deeply want.  For my heroine, Gemma, I knew she wanted to belong somewhere—and to someone.  To solve that problem I’d send her to Edilean where the residents would envelope her.

But as soon as I had Gemma’s wish and her background figured out, I began to wonder about other people’s wishes.  I knew the Heartwishes were given only to one family, the Fraziers.  I’d felt bad ever since Days of Gold that Shamus had been given such a raw deal.  Back in the eighteenth century in Scotland he’d been looked down on, but I knew he’d had a brutal father, so there were extenuating circumstances to his life.  It seemed appropriate that I’d give the Frazier family the Heartwishes Stone.

But what caused complications were the other Fraziers, the extended family.  And what about people who were marrying into the family?  If they were Fraziers did they also get a wish?

The more I thought about these questions, the more complicated it all became—and the funnier.  I’d already established in Scarlet Nights that Alea Frazier wanted grandchildren.  Surely, that was a wish that came from her heart.  But Gemma had just met the hero, Colin.  Too early for grandchildren, wasn’t it?

I plotted everything out before I started writing, but Gemma caused me lots of problems.  In some books the hero and heroine can’t stand each other from the first moment.  Those books are great!  Easy to write.  I laugh through the whole novel.

But Gemma and Colin looked into each other’s eyes and knew they were made for each other.  If it had been up to the two of them, they would have eloped that first afternoon.

It took the complications of beautiful Jean and her uncle, of gorgeous Dr. Tristan, and Colin’s autocratic mother to keep them apart.

I really liked getting to know the Frazier family.  My favorite scene was when the Frazier men were sitting in the kitchen licking spoonfuls of mashed potatoes.  It seemed so very homey and it made Gemma feel that she did belong somewhere.

I loved seeing the characters from the other Edilean books, especially at the barbecue at Mike and Sara’s house.  It was a place I wanted to be, people I wanted to share time with.

I hope you like Heartwishes.  Watch Dr. Tris as he’s the hero of my next book, Moonlight in the Morning.  His wish is for someone to love him and not just his pretty face.  That wish wasn’t easy to grant in novel form, but I hope I pulled I off.

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Jude Deveraux

Gemma Ranford wants the job of cataloging the documents of one of Edilean’s oldest families, the Fraziers, so much that she is ready to do battle to get it. Fascinated with history, and desperately trying to finish her dissertation, she’s confident that the papers will yield new information to invigorate her research.

What she doesn’t expect to find are repeated references to the Heartwishes Stone, a magical talisman said to grant wishes to anyone named Frazier. Something that powerful could put the entire family in danger if it fell into the wrong hands–but like most people, Gemma writes it off as pure legend. Yet as she spends more time with the family, she realizes that the most secret wishes of each of the Fraziers are slowly coming true–and that in the meantime, she’s falling hopelessly in love with the eldest son, Colin.

The trouble is, she’s not the only one who has noticed that the stone’s powers have been awakened, and an international thief is also on the hunt. Working together, Gemma and Colin must find the stone before it can be used against the family, but not before each of their deepest desires is discovered . . .

Read the Publishers Weekly review.

Now it’s Kady’s turn to enlist his help to find a way back home. But before long, Kady discovers a passion that she knows can only live in Legend — until Cole reveals a secret that unites them in a way Kady never could have imagined.

I didn’t make it to write a letter every month, but then I’ve been too busy working on my new books.

The book I was working on, Silver Roses, had to be postponed because I saw that I needed to tell another story first. Right now I’m working on Heartwishes, which has a bit of magic in it — maybe. No one has yet decided if it’s coincidence or actual magic that’s causing the things to happen.

My heroine is Gemma Ranford, and she landed a job on the Frazier estate to go through hundreds of documents that Mrs. Frazier bought at an auction in England. In Days of Gold, Prudence, who married Shamus, had to sell her family’s estate in England, but Shamus made so much money in America that he was able to buy it back. Their eldest son, Ewan, took the title of earl from his mother and lived in England.

Nearly 200 years later, the English branch of the family has died out, the estate was sold, and Mrs. Frazier bought all the documents that had been stored in the attic. She hired Gemma, who is about to finish her Ph.D., to go through all the papers and write a detailed history of the family.

On the first day, Gemma finds part of a letter that mentions Heartwishes. The premise is that anyone of Frazier blood gets a wish to come true if it comes from his or her heart. It’s been interesting to think about wishes that come from the very heart of a person.

The hero of the book is Colin Frazier, who is the sheriff of Edilean. Everyone likes Colin; adores him, really. But Gemma has a reason to be quite angry at him — and he can’t understand it. I’ve enjoyed his bewilderment.

What I really like about this book is that I get to see all the people in Edilean together. Yesterday I finished a scene of a barbeque which had many of my past characters there. I had to be careful not to go on and on with them because that could be boring to a person who hasn’t read my other books set in Edilean. I just like to go back and see them and reassure myself that they’re doing well.

I want a scene with Mr. Lang because I want to see what he’s up to now. I think Gemma will like him as she tends to like quirky people.

In each book, I try to introduce more descendants of the seven founding families, and in Heartwishes I brought in Dr. Tristan Aldredge. My last letter spoke of the DVDs that I spent a year searching for. They are Bramford, an English series about a female doctor in 1893. It was the perfect time period for what I plan to do in Silver Roses. In fact, I’ve written quite a bit of that book already. I needed to do that to see what Tristan was like before I put him in Heartwishes. He’s a beautiful man, but there’s something missing in his life. He and Gemma become friends, and he talks about what’s inside him some.

That’s all for now. See you next month,
Jude Deveraux

Ethne McTern, descended from an ancient Scottish family, knew exactly what she wanted in life: to observe everything and write about it. Unfortunately, in 18th century Williamsburg, Virginia, this is not an acceptable profession for a woman, so she is forced to write under a male pseudonym. She cannot envision ever finding a man who will understand and appreciate her passion.

Jamie Armitage is a son of the wealthiest man in the country — and his family is determined that he marry a woman chosen by them. In order to avoid yet more arranged meetings, he escapes to the unchartered territories of America, where he has become a renowned explorer. Although the loneliness of his trips has made him long for someone to share them with, he can’t imagine what woman could bear the hardships and dangers of his adventures.

In the summer of 1800, to help a friend, Ethne agrees to tutor Jamie’s nieces and nephews, who are spending the summer in Gracewell, South Carolina — and her trip coincides with one of Jamie’s visits home. When his unruly horse nearly tramples Ethne but she isn’t in the least upset, Jamie makes up his mind that she is the woman for him. Now he just needs to persuade her.

But in Jamie’s relentless pursuit of Ethne, they stumble on a mystery that has remained unsolved for years. They discover a long buried corpse, but they also find a ring so valuable that people are willing to kill for it. In order to track down the rightful owner, Jamie has to face a possible murderer — and Ethne will be forced to risk her life to warn him of the danger.

This addition to the Edilean series will only be available as a vook, allowing Deveraux devotees a special glimpse into the characters they’ve come to love. In this interactive new format, readers will be able to join Jamie and Ethne in the unfolding mystery, by viewing suspenseful videos of possible whodunit murder scene scenarios.

The picturesque setting of this love story is brought vividly to life in evocative film, and offers Deveraux’s fans a unique reading experience.

Even shy, sweet Nellie Grayson — Nellie, who thought only of her beautiful younger sister’s happiness. With Nellie’s tireless aid, Terel Grayson easily became the belle of Chandler, Colorado.

Yet Jace, homesick for his closeknit family in Maine, took immediately to Nellie. For the first time, Nellie was the center of attention. It was a heady, delightful feeling…almost as wonderful as the moment when Jace gave her her very first kiss.

Nellie was sure her romantic idyll would end — how long could Jace resist the lovely Terel’s charms? But with the help of an enchanting new friend, Nellie would discover that her flirtatious sister might not be the woman to win the gallant Jace Montgomery….

With her father murdered, her home burned, lovely Alyx Blackelt fled to the woods — and sanctuary in the camp of Raine Montgomery, a nobleman outlawed by the king’s edict. There she hid her beauty in the guise of a boy, and her sorrow in her work as Montgomery’s squire.

But how long could such loveliness as hers be hidden? How long could such a gallant man’s desires be blind? And how soon — even as a blood feud raged between the Montgomerys and the Chatworths, as angry swords clattered in the name of family honor — one woman’s love would make all the difference…one woman’s love would inflame a hero’s passion, touch a king’s pity, and raise a song of praise in every English heart.