Why did I change the order of my Colorado Trust Series?

With the May release of books 2-5 of the Colorado Trust Series, I've had a few questions about the old-vs-new books.

As noted on my Coming Soon page, here are the 5 books in the series:

Evidence of Trust, Book 1 ~ new release

Trust by Design, Book 2 ~ new release

Trust in the Lawe, Book 3 ~ re-release

Shattered Trust, Book 4 ~ re-release

Dare to Trust, Book 5 ~ re-release of previously titled Shadowed Trust

The Colorado Trust Series didn't start out to be a series at all, it kind of evolved and was dubbed so by my good friend, USA Today best selling author, Donna Marie Rogers. That's why the original books published by The Wild Rose Press in 2011 never had a series title on the covers or a true uniform look.

Old covers

Bear with me here as we do a bit of time travel.

The year was 1996 when I first started writing with the clear determination to finish a book. Evidence of Trust was that book and it took me 8 years to write. Trust by Design was my second book and it took me just under 2 years to complete.

That brings us to about 2006. I'd joined a writing organization by then and learned A LOT about the craft of writing. Those first two manuscripts were set aside because although I loved the stories, I wasn't sure they were fixable, and resigned myself to the fact they were my learning books.

Since becoming published in 2007 and working with other writers and editors, I have become a completely different writer than in 1996. When the publishing rights of Trust in the Lawe, Shattered Trust, and Shadowed Trust were returned to me in 2013/2014, I decided to reissue them with new covers, because for one, I didn't own the copyright to the original covers, and two, I wanted to clearly brand the series.

New branded series covers

This time, knowing so much more about the craft of writing and feeling more confident in my abilities to do the stories justice, I completely re-wrote my first two books, Evidence of Trust and Trust by Design, which have always been books 1 and 2 for me.

And, because those characters' stories came before the other 3, I had no choice but to re-number the series. Shadowed Trust was also re-titled as Dare to Trust so it would fit the overall series better and not be so identical to the title Shattered Trust. (I was careful to note this title change on the copyright page as well as in the book description.) This was a business decision as to what would be best for the series going forward because I do plan to continue with it in the future.

I apologize if any of this causes/caused confusion for some of the earlier readers of the original 3 books published in 2011.

If you bought and read the old versions of Trust in the Lawe, Shattered Trust, or Shadowed Trust (now Dare to Trust), there is nothing new about the re-issued copies of these books other than the covers and a second edit by my wonderful editor Stacy D. Holmes. If you have the original 3 and want to read the new books, all you have to do is grab a copy of books 1 & 2, then you can refresh your memory with your original books 3-5, and you'll be all caught up.

I'd also like to take this time to extend a huge thank you to all my readers for your continued support. If you have any questions, feel free to email me via the contact page on my website.

~ Stacey