Jill Marie Landis

Jill Marie Landis


About Jill Marie Landis


Jill Marie Landis is an award-winning American romance writer. Born on November 8, 1948 in Clinton, Indiana, she moved to California with her family when she was 10 years old, and her love affair with the beach quickly blossomed. Here she met her husband, Steve, and graduated from Long Beach State University with a B.A. in History. Degree in hand, she pursued a 10-year career as a kindergarten teacher before she found her true gift, writing novels.

Known for the emotional intensity of her stories and the depth of her characters, Jill Marie is considered one of the country's foremost authors of women's fiction. She has two walls full of writing awards, one in her Long Beach home, a cottage once owned by Upton Sinclair and where the legendary writer reportedly penned some of his most famous works. The other is in the Hawaiian island retreat where Jill Marie and her husband enjoy their passion for sun, surf, and sand.

Jill Marie broke into publishing in 1988 with SUNFLOWER, the first of many books to earn distinguished awards and slots on such national bestseller lists as USA Today's Top 50 and the New York Times' Bestsellers Plus. SUNFLOWER won The Romance Writers of America's Golden Heart for the Best Unpublished Novel, and, after it was published, the Golden Medallion for Best Published Single-Historical Romance. In 1993 Jill Marie's COME SPRING was given the organization's Golden Choice Award for favorite novel of the year. BLUE MOON, out in 1999, earned Amazon.com's distinction as one of the year's 10 Best Historical Romance Novels of approximately 2000 published. SUMMER MOON, Jill Marie's first hardcover, was chosen by Library Journal as one of the Top Five Romance Fiction Novels of 2001.

In recent years, as readers' tastes changed, Jill Marie switched her focus to writing novels set in today's world. With the beach in her blood, it was only natural that Jill Marie chose a coastal setting when she sat down to write her debut contemporary novel, LOVER'S LANE. Published by Ballantine Books in July 2003 in hardcover and in May of 2004 in paperback, LOVER'S LANE is the launch book in Jill Marie's Twilight Cove Series set in a fictional northern California beach town. The second book in the series, HEAT WAVE, now in paperback, has garnered a number of "perfect 10" reviews.

HEARTBREAK HOTEL, the third book of the trilogy, is available in hardcover from Ballantine. Chosen by "Booklist" as one of the Top Ten Romances of 2005, HEARTBREAK HOTEL is "an involving, ultimately feel-good tale about a widow struggling to run a dilapidated hotel..." and the mysterious loner who checks in as her first guest.

With so many major awards and bestseller credits on her resume, Landis, in her usual light-hearted manner, claims one of her greatest achievements has been kayaking around Kauai's Na Pali coastline, a six-and-a-half-hour paddle considered the "Mount Everest of kayaking."

When she's not writing, Jill Marie enjoys raising orchids and working in her garden, playing the ukulele, dancing the hula and quilting. Currently she is working on a new writing

Jill Marie Landis - Last Chance

One night, one kiss would change their lives forever...

It was Independence Day, 1894, when the widow Rachel McKenna decided, "I will not wear black tomorrow." Her husband, the sheriff of Last Chance, Montana, had been dead for a year. And now, sitting near the dance floor, listening to the music, she was ready to start living again...

It was then and there that Lane Cassidy walked boldly toward her and asked, "May I have this dance?" Rachel knew town gossips would be shocked. Lane was a legendary gunfighter. To dance with him was unthinkable, scandalous. And it was exactly what Rachel decided to do...

Jill Marie Landis - Heat Wave

Private investigator Kat Vargas once cared about someone so much it hurt. Once she lived a dream life with her first love and fiance--until betrayal followed by shattering tragedy ended it all. Kat has sworn never to get too close to anyone again. But now the peace and quiet of Twilight Cove is driving the straight-talking, no-nonsense P.I. crazy. Then a prospective new client shows up at the door. Moved by his stubbornness and sincerity, Kat takes his case, breaking a promise to relax, recoup, and rethink her solitary life.

Ty Chandler is desperate to locate the child he fathered nineteen years ago--a child he never knew existed until now. Although he's no stranger to heartache, he is irresistibly drawn to the exotic, vibrantly alluring P.I. Their search not only leads them to Ty's troubled, strong-willed daughter, but into each others' arms. Though Kat courageously works to help Ty reunite his family, she's terrified of confronting a painful secret of her own--one that will cost her the love of the only man capable of tearing down the walls she's built around her heart.

From the tranquil beaches of the central California coast to the fast and furious streets of L.A., Heat Wave is a passionate and heartfelt story of families divided and brought back together, the magic of hope for new beginnings, and the overwhelming power love has to heal even the most battered hearts.

Jill Marie Landis - Heartbreak Hotel

A supportive wife and mother, Tracy Potter always played by the rules and maintained a perfect home. But after her husband's sudden death, she learns the devastating truth: all she believed in -- from their wealth to their marriage vows- -- was a perfect lie. Forced to start over, Tracy puts everything into resurrecting the Heartbreak Hotel, a long-abandoned turn-of-the-century inn overlooking the Pacific Ocean. She's determined to never again believe in anyone but herself -- until the night mysterious loner Wade MacAllister checks in. Intrigued by the secret disillusionment in his eyes -- one that mirrors her own -- Tracy finds that a growing desire challenges her at every turn.

The Heartbreak Hotel is a perfect place for Wade to hide not only from his notoriety as an author, but the shocking events in his past. Drawn to Tracy and her struggle to succeed, he is quickly compelled to risk the anonymity on which his survival depends. By the time Tracy discovers the handsome stranger's true identity, there's more than ever at stake. She is not only forced to risk another broken heart and learn to trust again, but she must fight to make Wade believe in their love.

Along California's sparkling blue coastline and amid its mist-shrouded nights, Heartbreak Hotel unfolds a suspenseful and yet tender story of second chances against all odds, of families lost and regained . . . and of the ways unexpected love can make even the most disillusioned hearts believe.