Dear Reader,

      It’s been a very long time since I wrote Betrayed by Love, a story about a newspaper reporter from South Dakota named Kate Walker, who works for a daily paper in Chicago and is carrying a huge torch for rancher Jacob Cade.

      While I was writing this book, I really wanted to push Jacob over a cliff by chapter three, and by chapter five I wanted to run a bus over him. But he redeems himself big time when Kate gets shot in the course of her news gathering. Kate and Jacob show up for a cameo later in Tom Walker’s story in the anthology A Long, Tall Texan Summer, along with their son, Hunter.

      I wrote Betrayed by Love in 1986 (it was published in Silhouette Desire in 1987), and this was only a few years after I gave up reporting full-time and came home to write books and raise our own son, Blayne. At the time I wrote the book, Blayne was six years old. Now, Blayne and Christina are raising my beautiful little granddaughter, Selena Marie, who is three years old. I never realized how quickly those days would end. The old saying that time flies as you get older is so true.

      But back to the book—I had a wonderful time writing it, during a very sweet time in my own life. I hope you enjoy revisiting these early characters as much as I have.

      As always, thank you, my wonderful reader family, for your kindness, your tolerance and your loyalty down all the long years. Thank you, thank you, for all that you do for me, just by being the kind people that you are.

      Much love, many hugs, from Diana Palmer (who is still your biggest fan).