The Marriage Game

Book excerpt: A group of diverse women—brought together by their connection with the same dishonest man—bond under the most unlikely of circumstances and find romance along the way in this action-packed celebration of friendship and love from New York Times bestselling author Fern Michaels. When Samantha Rainford—new wife to Douglas Cosmo Rainford III—returns home from her honeymoon to find divorce papers waiting, she’s shocked and heartbroken. Then she discovers that she’s not the first to be abandoned—she’s one of four (or maybe more) ex-Mrs. Rainfords—and decides it’s time to put into practice that old truism: Don’t get mad, get even. With her knowledge from FBI training—which she may have flunked out of, but she remembers a thing or two—Sam gathers the other ex-Mrs. Rainfords to help her enact her revenge. Together, the motley crew attends a top-secret private special-ops training camp in the North Carolina mountains, where Sam meets fiercely disciplined ex-CIA operative Kollar Havapopulas. Tall and as handsome as a Greek god, “Pappy” is the best at what he does—transforming civilians into highly skilled fighting teams. What he’s less adept at, however, is telling a woman how he feels, and before long he discovers he’s developing some very intense feelings for Samantha Rainford—an attraction that seems fated to be a total disaster. Two personalities as strong as Sam and Pappy are sure to strike sparks, but will the fire that burns between them consume everything in its path?