A Heart life (Paperback or Softback)

A forbidden bond... an unstoppable love.

Leena Coughlin has the perfect life on paper: a surgeon husband, a beautiful home above San Francisco Bay, a daughter she’d die for. What she doesn’t have is anyone who actually sees her. So she writes one anonymous letter to a stranger behind bars—just to feel less alone.

She doesn’t expect to fall in love with him.

Dr. Michael Casspi is serving ten years for an act of mercy: helping his dying wife leave this world on her own terms. He has nothing left—no career, no freedom, no one waiting for him. Until a pink envelope signed only with the letter A starts arriving, and a woman he’s never met becomes the only reason he wants to survive another day.

Their letters become confession, comfort, and finally, an admission neither of them planned to make. But when Michael walks free, the connection that kept them both alive in the dark has to survive daylight—a marriage Leena hasn’t ended, a daughter spiraling toward a tragedy of her own, and a husband who will not let go quietly.

Some loves are forged in impossible places. This one will be tested in every way a love can be tested—and what’s left standing by the end is the only thing that ever really mattered.

The most important part of my life has always been my family, both the one I was born into and the one formed by my marriage. My father was an Oakland firefighter for thirty-five years while my mother stayed home to care for their six daughters. With five sisters, it was quite the challenge getting six strong women in one household to agree about almost anything. Therefore, it should be no surprise that the theme of all my novels is relationships. I weave tales of men and women and their loved ones, sprinkling my books with intriguing characters who struggle to find balance in life. Whether an unwed teenager, desperate widow, abandoned father, disconnected sisters, or a troubled couple, my characters form relationships impacted by their desire to create a cohesive family.I live with my husband on the picturesque, man-made island of Alameda, across the bay from San Francisco. We have two kids, a son at home and our daughter in the state of Washington. Our two chocolate labs-UJE and Remy-provide endless entertainment. When I'm not writing, you'll find me on the back of my black-and-white Gypsy Vanner horse, Zemra, in the hills of Oakland.