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Karen M. Bryson Biography

The Early Years

Karen Mueller Bryson is an author, playwright, screenwriter, educator and hopeless romantic.  Born in New Jersey, far from an exit anyone would recognize, Karen was raised in a home where her imagination was allowed to run wild.  This upbringing provided her the most incredible incubator to become a prolific writer, creating stories where characters find redemption through all-consuming, but inspiring love.

Author

Karen is a USA Today Best Selling author.  She has published over 40 books, some under her own name, but the majority under her various pen names.  As Dakota Madison, Karen writes New Adult, contemporary and Love in Midlife romance.  In 2014 Dakota was awarded the prestigious RONE Award for Excellence in the Indie and Small Publishing Industry. As Ren Monterrey, she has reached into the erotic romance market with the much acclaimed Club Series.  Under the name Sierra Avalon, Karen has published four New Adult romance novels.  As Savannah Young, Karen writes her Old Town Country Romance Series, based on the small rural New Jersey town in which she grew up.  She has also written over a dozen books as Karen Mueller Bryson including stories of inspiration, children’s books, quirky comedies, a biography, and even a graphic novel. 

Recent Books


An actress who played a police detective in a long-running television series gets her chance at a real-life investigation when her estranged sister’s death is ruled a suicide and she believes it was murder.

Bad boys get involved with an angry girl, who has been wronged by the law and is seeking justice.

There’s a fine line between sexy alpha and creepy stalker… and Rye has

crossed it.

A homebound hacker clashes with an underground fraternity known for their rape rooms after one of his online friends becomes the fraternity's latest victim.

What’s New?

October 30, 2017

Karen M. Bryson's sci-fi romance, JERICHO JAXON: ALIEN HUNTER won the 25th Annual RWA Lone Star Writing Contest in the Young Adult Category.


October 30, 2017

Karen M. Bryson's love in midlife romance, JANE SAYS, was as the 3rd place winner of the 25th Annual RWA Lone Star Writing Contest in the Contemporary Romance category.

September 21, 2017

Karen M. Bryson's dark romantic crime novel, ONLY THE PRETTY ONES, made the Top 10 in the Tracking Board's Launch Pad Manuscript Competition.



December 7, 2017

Karen M. Bryson's young adult sci-fi romance, JERICHO JAXON: ALIEN HUNTER was selected for Amazon's Kindle Scout program where she will compete for a prestigious publishing contract with Kindle Press.

My Library

BROOKLYN

Her dream vacation becomes a nightmare when her roommate goes missing. A college student convinces her overprotective father, who is a personal security specialist, to allow her to go on Spring Break, only to have her roommate go missing on the first day of their tropical island vacation.

She was the pretty one. She was the one who was taken. After her sister is abducted from a college bar and the police won't investigate, a woman takes matters into her own hands, teaming up with a drug dealer to find her, and unearthing an enormous conspiracy regarding a Senator and his son in the process.

Mia Corrado can't remember that last time she had sex with her husband, Nicky. He's been preoccupied with his job as the head of New Jersey's most powerful crime family and all of the wild oats he sews on the side. When Nicky tells Mia he's too busy to attend her college reunion, and wants to send one of his underlings to accompany her, things spin out of control.

Alexander Hart's gorgeous young wife, Stephanie, loves his platinum credit cards more than she loves Alex. It doesn't take Alex long to realize he made a big mistake when he dumped Amelia, his wife of twenty years, for a much younger woman. When he leaves Stephanie after less than a year of marriage, Alex vows to do whatever it takes to win Amelia back.

Tenured English professor Bly Daniels believes the short walk from her campus office to the university library is too much exposure to the outdoors. When Bly is arrested for reading a book while driving, a judge sentences her to thirty days of community service with The Wild Way, a therapeutic wilderness program for troubled teens. Bly finds the owner, Turner Wild, a reason to get back to nature.

Awkward screenwriter Nellie Berg is great with words, as long as she can write them down. When Nellie meets another aspiring screenwriter, she enlists a friend whose mouth she feeds lines to.  (NOT SO) GOOD IN A ROOM, a romantic comedy novella, is a modern reimagining of

Cyrano de Bergerac.

Maddie Malone is the nanny who made national headlines. She's the temptress who broke up the marriage of two of Hollywood's most beloved movie stars. She's the girl everyone in America loves to hate. Now two months after the Nannygate sex scandal Maddie is desperate to rebuild her life, even if love stumbles in the way.

Chris Rhodes is a struggling actor on the verge of breaking into the business.
Abby Sullivan works at her aunt and uncle's nursery. When Chris sees Abby watering plants in the front of the store it's love at first sight. But Abby has a secret that keeps her from accepting his advances.

What happens when a police recruit reports for duty he discovers his wild one-night stand from the previous weekend is his new field training officer?

Foster Brady has finally met the woman of his dreams. The only problem is that Journey Rivera is his father Mick's young mistress and his father has vowed to kill anyone who lays a hand on her.

Rose Collins is a recent art school graduate with overwhelming student loan debt and no way to pay it. Jae Rothko is a wealthy and renowned artist who doesn't have the time for a real relationship. Jae joins The Club so he can have one woman when he wants and how he wants with no attachments and no expectations. Falling in love is never part of the deal.

Mary, a widow, doesn't want to lose her house and all the money she invested in it, so she makes an arrangement through The Club to get out the financial ruins her dead husband left her in. All Mary has to do for the money is date a wealthy man, who wants all of the benefits of having a mistress, without any of the hassles of an actual relationship.

Cali Gibson quit her dead end job in retail and made an arrangement through The Club. All she has to do is date a wealthy man, who wants all of the benefits of having a mistress without any of the hassles of an actual relationship. She got more than she bargained for.

When world renowned artist Felicity D accepts a guest lectureship at a prestigious art school in Chicago she hopes it will be an opportunity to resume a relationship with Jae Rothko, the only man she's ever truly loved.

After being dumped by her boyfriend of six years, Lyric Johnson has no way to pay her bills. She's been trying to find a job for months, but has had no luck. When Lyric's neighbor tells her about The Club, dating a wealthy man for money seems to be her only option.

What's a girl supposed to do when she gets pregnant and the father of the child doesn't want anything to do with the baby? How about seducing the nerdy next door neighbor and making him believe the baby is his?

Izzy Grant is supposed to be dead, suicide by hanging. But when she regains consciousness she’s still alive and still the crazy girl everyone in Old Town

loves to hate.

Fresh out of rehab Brooke Rhodes moves to Scottsdale, Arizona to live with her best friend, Harper. But Harper's boyfriend is a rock star and she has history with one of his bandmates. Staying clean and sober will mean staying as far away from the band, and the band's guitarist, as possible.

A homebound hacker clashes with a prestigious underground fraternity known for their rape rooms after one of his online friends becomes the fraternity's

latest victim.

Finding Fisher is a short novel about love, lies, loyalty and what it means to be

truly alive.

While working as a tutor for the athletic department, Sedona discovers a secret that could ruin the school’s winning basketball team. But doing the right thing could mean destroying the only guy she’s ever loved.

To make a hundred thousand dollars Mazzy has to pretend to be Drew Graham's fiancée, just until he wins the election for governor, then we can go our separate ways. Things go sideways when his younger brother returns from Europe Mazzy falls for him.

Harper Leigh's first assignment for Chatter magazine is to cover the North American tour for rock band Always Rayne. A dubious deal with the bad boy frontman of the band puts Harper in a compromising position, leaving her few options.

THE HOOKUP LIST


A list of freshman girls who are ready for action are circulated to the freshman guys via a weekly Listserv. When Nicki Payne is one of the first girls featured on The Hookup List, guys start knocking on her dorm door at all hours of the day and night looking to score.

Cooper Wilde spent his entire adolescence counting the days until he could escape rural northwest New Jersey. Now at 26, he can't believe he's coming back, to work in the family bar no less.

Gracie Parker has been a victim of abuse her entire life. When her boyfriend beats her and abandons her, it’s almost too much for the nineteen-year-old to bear. That is until Tucker appears like a warrior knight from the darkness to save her.

Fresh out of police officer training, Hunter Wilde takes an off-duty gig working special events at a local resort to earn a little extra cash to supplement his public servant's salary, and stumbles into a romance with one of Hollywood's hottest starlets.

Harley Davis was always the girl-next-door…literally. Her family was neighbors with the Wilde boys  and they treated her like the little sister they never had. But Harley spent her adolescence dreaming that she’d one day be Jake Wilde’s girl.

As Maggie Mitchell enters her final semester of college, the last thing she wants is a guy in her life, let alone two of them.

“Don’t be someone who defines her life by someone else’s death.”

“You always think a guy is going to be different until he’s not.” He’s Fire on Ice and she’s afraid to get burned again…

Kian Kavanagh has just been called up to play in the NHL, but has to leave Northern Arizona and the love of his life, Taylor Thompson, to pursue his dream..

A Girl, a Guy, a Tournament and a Challenge. Every year, the senior members of The Clubhouse engage in a golf-inspired tournament to see who can sleep with the most freshman girls.

The Good-Girl, the Bad-Girl and the Boy They Both Want. Bad girls need love too, and all is fair in love in war.

Opposites may attract but can they actually find true love with each other?

It started with a girls getaway weekend in Sedona, Arizona, but turns into a passionate romance with dark secret threatening its destruction.

After getting completely wasted at a wedding reception, bridesmaid Anna Hart wakes up in a strange bed and can’t remember what she did,

or who she did it with.

After finding her sister in bed with her fiancé, Lexie Wilkins decides to relocate to southwest Florida to start a new life and escape relationships all together. What she doesn’t expect to find are two attractive kite surfers, who both want her.

TWYLA'S LAST TRIP


Lucinda Starr is an uptight research psychologist, whose deadline to complete her doctoral dissertation is derailed by her estranged mother's sudden death. Lucinda must take her mother's ashes on a road trip down Route 66 in order to fulfill the requirements of her will and inherit her fortune.

A collection of interviews with survivors of those who committed suicide, individuals talk candidly and intimately about how their lives have been impacted by the suicide of a family member or close friend.

THE MUSTARD SEEDS

A 16-year old musical savant with Asperger's Syndrome, is forced to leave his performing arts high school in New York City and relocate to small town Winslow, Arizona to live with his eccentric aunt.

HELL ON WHEELS

This captivating biography reveals the details of sports legend, Cindy McCoy?s inspirational life story.

RETRO GEEKS

The (mis)adventures of two self-proclaimed geek girls as they attempt to land super-hot dates for their senior prom..

ONE LAST CLASS

Zak Spencer is a washed-up teen idol who decides to rebuild his life by returning to college. Trouble ensues when Zak falls in love with the young professor who teaches the one class he needs to complete his degree..

WHERE IS WONDERLAND ANYWAY

In this sharp and sassy story of a young woman's ascent from the trailer parks of central Florida to become one of Hollywood's hottest celebrities.

HEY DORORTHY


A quirky comic romance set in the Canadian Rockies that pays homage to The Wizard of Oz.

PLAYS FOR A NEW GENERATION

A humorous collection are five original plays written for a new generation of theatre-goers.

CERTAIN EXPECTATIONS

Certain Expectations is an enthnodrama stage play based upon interviews with graduates of the McNair Scholars Program at the University of South Florida in Tampa.