Masquerade of Love
by Elizabeth Batten-Carew

Vanessa had only made one small mistake. Taking the opportunity to attend a lavish masquerade ball—even if she hadn't been invited—shouldn't cost her job and, worse still, that of her friend. Still, it had all seemed worth it when Nicholas Powers had dragged her into his arms for the most explosive kiss she'd ever experienced. Only now he searched for her with a vengeance. A vengeance she feared would be her ruin.

Elizabeth Batten-Carew's Bio

Elizabeth has been a romance writer for over ten years. She lives in Ottawa, Ontario in Canada with her husband, two sons and four cats. Her oldest son is in his early teens, so the house is constantly bustling with teenagers -- playing video games, on the computers, playing MAGIC cards, or horsing around.

In her previous professional life, she was a computer software professional. After graduating from the University of Waterloo with a Mathematics degree specializing in Computer Science, she worked for 15 years in the high tech. field before becoming a stay-at-home mom. Over the next few years, she continued to do the odd consulting contract to bring in extra dollars and to keep her knowledge up-to-date.

Her first reading passion was science fiction. Her dad and older brother were avid SF fans and between them they'd collected hundreds of SF books, which she started reading before she hit her teens. When she discovered "The Hobbit", she turned onto fantasy, too. (Her husband is also a big SF fan. When they got married, they combined their book collections and they've been carting around 20 boxes of SF and fantasy books ever since.)

The first romances she read, in her late teens, were historical romances her mother passed on to her. She loved the romance aspect, but wasn't much of a history buff, so didn't continue reading them for long. When she picked up her first contemporary romance after having her first baby (she needed something to do during those middle-of-the- night feedings!) she loved them! That's all she read for years.

Think of her delight when she found there were actually books that combined her reading passions. Romance set in the far future. Contemporary romance with a twist. Fantasy romance. Finally, something she was truly passionate about.

Now she writes futuristic romance, fantasy romance, contemporary romance with wizards, or genies, or alternate realities, or alien abductions, or... pretty well anything a little different. Sometimes, even straight contemporary romance. She writes romances in every length, from short stories to long novels, but mostly tends to mid-sized novels and novellas.