Fever
Orphaned and penniless, Juliette Broussard is overjoyed when her godfather, Max Hollinsworth, plucks her from an isolated French convent. Then she discovers his plan for her to marry his shiftless son Tylor so that he can acquire her family's dilapidated sugar cane plantation, Belle Jarod. Juliette's dreams are of rebuilding her once-glorious home and she wants nothing to do with marriage -- until she comes face-to-face with a blue-eyed temptation who unleashes the same passions that drove her mother, Louisiana's most beautiful and notorious prostitute, to destroy every man who loved her.

Chantz Boudreaux, Max's bastard first-born, has one desire: for his father to acknowledge him. But the moment he drags Juliette's naked body from the flood-driven Mississippi, he is swept into a liaison that unsettles his priorities and threatens his life. Soon their forbidden passion burns like a fever. As they struggle to revive Belle Jarod, betrayal and a deadly plague threaten everything they hold dear. 

NOTE: Top rated Goodreads reviews are generally scathing of racist stereotypes and morality of the villainous Max, as well as implausible,  convoluted plotting - but admiring of the Juliette/Chantz dynamic.
Fiction, Fiction, science fiction, space opera, Fiction, media tie-in, Sisko, benjamin (fictitious character), fiction, Bashir, julian (fictitious character), fiction
Katherine Sutcliffe
Katherine Sutcliffe was born an only child in East Texas. After working for a time at an oil company and as a headhunter for a computer personnel company, Sutcliffe decided in 1982 to quit her job and attempt to write a novel. Three years later she sold her first book, Desire and Surrender to Avon Books. She works eight hours a day, five to seven months a year. Sutcliffe also attempts to find a single CD that will provide inspiration during the writing of each book. In the past, she has used the soundtrack to Somewhere in Time and Kitarō's Silk Road.

In 1995 and 1996, Sutcliffe worked as the Consultant Head Writer for the soap operas As The World Turns and Another World. Sutcliffe was offered the job after Bill Graham, who searched for writers for Proctor and Gamble, mentioned to his wife that they wanted to refocus the soap opera stories on romance. His wife, who loved Sutcliffe's book, insisted that he contact her. During her time as a soap opera writer, she concentrated on developing the six-month story lines, which the breakdown writers would then develop into dialogue and individual scenes for the show. During this time frame, Sutcliffe also made a guest appearance on Another World, playing herself. She resigned from her position after the networks began to insist that she move to New York City to be more accessible.

Her historical romance, Notorious, sold out its first printing in a mere four days.

Sutcliffe lives near Dallas, Texas. She met her husband, an English geologist, while they worked for the same oil company. They have three children, Bryan, Rachel, and Lauren. Sutcliffe also raises and shows Arabian horses.