When I decided to become a writer, I always thought my toughest challenge would be writing blurbs.

Boy, was I wrong.

Because not only do I now love writing book blurbs, but the bigger challenge I’ve faced for the better part of nearly five years is something that not a lot of people know about.

For many years now, I’ve attempted to do the right thing and be the bigger person in a situation that I’ve been dealing with in my personal and professional life. Some of you have figured it out on your own and have come to me with your concerns. Some of you know nothing about it.

I didn’t think I would ever tell this story. Because what comes with telling this story and including all of the facts associated with it is a bunch of drama. From the very beginning of my publishing career, I’ve made a valiant effort to keep my website, my social media, and my newsletter as professional as possible. I’ve always tried to keep it all about the books. It is only on rare occasions that I share stories or pictures that pertain to my personal life and my family.

There’s a reason for that. And I hope by the end of this, you’ll understand better why I’ve stuck to simply posting book-related news.

But I’m here now, ready to tell this story. Because at this point, I feel like I’ve been backed up against a wall. This is no longer fair to my readers, and I believe they deserve to know the truth.

There is another ‘author’ in the romance community that has been actively stalking/copying me. Her pen name is Dr. Rebecca Sharp. Now, if you have heard of her, know her, or read her books, I can guess what you’re probably thinking: There’s no way. She’s so sweet.

Yes, we all portray ourselves online in the best light, don’t we?

The point of me doing this is to show you all of the proof/evidence of what is being done and to allow you to make your own judgments about it.

In the interest of full disclosure before I get into all of this, I just need to blow your mind one more time.

Are you ready?

I’m sure you’re not prepared for this, but here goes…

She’s my sister-in-law.

Yes, you read that right. She’s married to my younger brother.

And I feel it’s important to share that before I get into the details because this goes deeper than just one author behaving badly toward another author, and I want to be utterly transparent for everyone involved.

Now that you know that, let me also say that I have attempted—many times—to resolve this situation privately with her, my brother, and other members of the family. It has been completely ineffective, and I’ve not spoken to her or my brother in several years now.

So, why am I talking about this now?

The answer is simple.

Readers have been contacting me. I love my readers. Adore them. All of them. And it’s really been bothering me to know that they’re seeing something and bringing it to my attention only for me to then tell them that I already know about it.

It’s wrong. I am wrong for not saying something sooner. There was a part of me that thought, I’ll let it work itself out. Readers, especially romance readers, are smart. They’ll figure it out on their own. And many of them have.

But that’s not fair. They shouldn’t have to spend their time and money on something only to learn that they’ve read a book that’s eerily similar.

So, I want to start this by saying that I’m sorry. I’m sorry to my readers—or any reader for that matter—who have purchased my books and her books only to realize there were far too many things that were similar to be a coincidence. I hope you’ll accept my apology. I’m truly sorry for not speaking up about this sooner.

Now, one last thing before I get into the details. Please note that I’m sharing only a tiny fraction of the screen shots, messages, blurbs, etc. that I have. This is YEARS worth of her behavior. I have TONS of stuff that shows what I’ve been dealing with, and you’re only seeing a very small sample. But I think it’s more than enough for readers to see and make up their minds about what is actually happening.

Let’s start at the beginning with the stalker/copycat behavior. It was simple. Just on social media. Here’s a look.

This doesn’t seem like a big deal. They are all simple posts on social media and really don’t matter. But it’s important to this whole thing because it shows a pattern of behavior.

You can see that all of my posts were made before hers. In one case, she puts up a photo a day later that’s exactly the same as mine. In another instance, nearly a month after I’d received my very first paperbacks, she made a post using the exact same words. And the final one shows another post where words were copied again.

This happened tons of times over the months, and she took things up a notch a few months later. Let’s talk about the time she reached out to a reader and tried to use her ‘connection’ to me to have that reader read and review her book.

I just want to make it absolutely clear that we were not on good/speaking terms at this point, but she still managed to contact a reader and use my name to gain some of her own. I’ve learned very recently that this is not the only time she’s done this with readers on Goodreads.

So, now you see where this started. It irritated me, but I didn’t do anything about it other than to contact her/my brother to ask that this behavior stop.

It didn’t.

In fact, it got worse. She started going from copying social media posts to no longer writing her own material.

My debut series was a sports romance about four best friends who were snowboarders. I released the first book in this series in April 2017. Guess what? She released a snowboarding sports romance series, too. The first book in the series released in December 2017.

Now, I get it. Anybody can write a sports romance about snowboarders. But you’d expect that authors would come up with their own content and not steal. Well, here’s something I received from one of my ARC readers who happened to call her out on Goodreads regarding her Country Love series (I’ll get to that in a minute). There was a private exchange between the two of them on Goodreads, and when Rebecca tried to claim that the ideas for her Country Love series were all original and inspired by country songs, my reader happened to fire back with this:

In the message with the reader, you can see a list of things that were far too similar between our books to be coincidental. I had a restaurant/saloon my characters often gathered at for a night out. It was called Big Lou’s. She had a hangout for her characters called Big Louie’s. And she literally took every single one of my characters names and combined them to use them as characters in her books. I realize we all have similar names in our books, but this was blatant.

In the comparison images below, you can see where she either copied direct words or the plots are the same. The red outlines show the similarities in the plots. The purple shows where either direct words were copied or slightly altered to convey the same idea. In Everything I Need vs On the Edge, the heroine has experienced tragedy and moves away from home to a new location where she meets the hero. In the Everything I Have vs Over the Top comparison, we have two stories about heroines who’ve suffered abuse at the hands of their ex-partners.

Now, while we are on the subject of the snowboarding series, let’s talk about some of the content inside two of the books: In too Deep and Over the Top.

I’ve made a note on the image above, but essentially, Rebecca needed a name for a substandard private investigation firm, and she chose Cunningham. Coincidence that my security series is titled Cunningham. For reference, Rebecca Sharp’s In Too Deep was released in February 2019, fourteen months after I’d released the first book in that series.

You’ll see a few names highlighted in these images. Andrea Jensen, Jeff, and Evan.

Andrea Jensen is the villain in the book, and what’s interesting about that is that my name is Andrea and my youngest son’s name is Jensen. You can use my name all you want, but when you take my kid’s name, I have a serious problem with that. Furthermore, whether she likes it or not, my son is still technically her husband’s nephew, even if we’re not on speaking terms. I’m sorry, but that’s just crossing a line you don’t cross.

Jeff is my husband’s name.

And Evan… well, derived from my last name, maybe?

I’m just surprised she didn’t use my oldest son’s name in the book to make it a family affair!

The other parts I highlighted were for a different reason. I read them after they were sent to me by a reader and something about them struck me as strange. This is probably the only time I’m going to insert my opinion into this entire blog post. I feel as though the Andrea character in this book is the Rebecca in real life. The heroine (Jac) has these thoughts, and I swear it’s like Rebecca is writing about what’s bothering her. I mean, it took me FIVE YEARS to give her this reaction she’s clearly looking for.

Anyway, back to the facts.

Another reader reached out to me earlier this year and had this to say about the snowboarding series and what was the upcoming series at that time. Here’s that communication.

So, again, another reader who was unable to miss the similarities between the snowboarding romance books.

I’ll get to the Covington Security series in a minute, too. But let’s take a look at the Country Love series first.

Back in early 2019, I came up with the idea for my Road Trip Romance series. Inspired by the fact that my husband and I are journeying across the United States with our two sons in an attempt to visit all fifty states, it’s a series that will take readers on a ‘road trip’ across the United States to find a happy ending in each one. The first book in that series released in October 2019. I announced the first book back in August of 2019.

In December 2019, Rebecca Sharp released the first book in her Country Love series. For at least the first three books in the series, she copies the same plot theme.

BOOK 1: Natural disaster theme. My book, Tip the Scales, is about a couple who get stranded together in a snowstorm. Her book, Tequila, is about a flood.

BOOK 2: Wedding planning / billionaire theme. Both my book, Play the Part, and her book, Ready to Run, take place in New York. She used the phrase ‘play the part’ in some of her book teasers, too.

BOOK 3: Hot cop and a girl on the run theme. The title of my book, One Wrong Turn, is even used in the blurb for her book, Fastest Girl in Town.

I’m guessing I don't need to keep going with the comparisons here, but you can check out a side by side comparison below of the blurbs for book three. And because I’m trying be reasonable with the amount of images in this post, I’ll just suggest that if you really want to see how deep this obsession she has with me goes, take a look at the blurbs for the rest of the books in the series. She has used the titles from nearly every book in my Road Trip Romance series in her Country Love blurbs.

In the image below, you can see that I made an announcement that I was removing my Road Trip Romance series from Kindle Unlimited back in January. By March, she made an announcement that her Country Love series was now available on all retailers.

So, at this point, I’m guessing that because she hasn’t been caught, she’s continuing to up the ante. And this is why I’m becoming more and more frustrated.

In December of 2017, I released the first book in my Cunningham Security series. It was a 9-book series, and I released the final book in the series in June of 2020.

In March 2021, Rebecca released the first book in her Covington Security series. She had also released a series prior to this one called the Carmel Cove series. I won’t get into details about the original covers for that series and how they were a blatant ripoff of another author, nor will I talk about how the blurbs for a couple of those books were a mashup of two other authors. I immediately noticed the covers; readers told me about the storylines. I’ve notified one of those authors about that. She can handle it as she sees fit.

But let’s take a look at how Rebecca’s Covington Security and Carmel Cove series compare to my Cunningham Security series.

Should I be surprised that she used the exact same font for her security series as I did for mine? I know, I know. She angled hers, so it’s different, right? That’s what she’ll lead you to believe.

Or maybe, she completely copied it because it’s like the reader said in her message above. Her book Betrayed is about “a girl showing up on the doorstep of the security office and then becoming roommates with the guy who owns it.”

Interesting… that’s the same exact thing that happens at the beginning of my book Obsessed.

The Solitude vs Besotted comparison just shows more of her copying those small phrases for her blurbs.

And in the Surrender vs Beguiled comparison, you can see more of those phrases being copied. She also decided to model her hero after my hero. Someone who is brilliant and uses logic. Such a coincidence, right?

Need a rape survivor story? You can choose either of these since, based on the blurbs and even the teaser Rebecca shared, they’re basically the same. And let’s be honest. This is a blatant attempt at making that connection to my book on her behalf because I’m willing to bet that most people would not use the word OVERCOMER to describe someone. They’d likely say fighter, survivor, trooper, champion—any of those is the likelier choice.

But Rebecca needed that connection to me or my rape survivor story, and I don’t think she could have been more obvious about it.

Or, could she?

Being entirely honest, I have not read her book. I won’t read her book. But if it’s this obvious on the exterior, I can only imagine what I’d find inside.

And I know what you’re probably thinking. If there’s a chance that someone has plagiarized your work, why wouldn’t you read and find out?

The honest answer?

I’ve already seen enough to know I’ll find things within these books that’s not okay. Readers came to me because they saw too many similarities.

I’m a wife and a mother. I’ve homeschooled my children for the last five years—this will be our sixth.

When I’m not doing things for my family, I want to write books. I don’t get to read nearly as many books as I would like these days. And if I have an opportunity to read, I’m not going to be doing it with her books.

So, let’s keep going.

In the image below, you’ll see my book, Line of Fire, which is the first book in my Archer Tactical series. It’s a 3-book series about a group of brothers who have a family business called Archer Tactical. Line of Fire released back in April. I’ve highlighted some spots to show you the similarities between my book and a book she happens to have coming out next year. Surprise, it’s titled Archer! And how funny is it that the beginning of my blurb and the beginning of her blurb both talk about heroines who have live their lives PROTECTED and there is some connection their fathers being responsible for that?

In the purple boxes, you’ll see some direct word-for-word copying.

Not only that, but this series—based on the info she’s shared publicly—is a 4-book series about a group of brothers.

Now, look. I understand that as romance writers, there are many books that have a hero who will ‘stop at nothing’ to protect the woman he loves. I get it. It’s expected that some of these phrases are bound to repeat themselves over a multitude of books. I don’t expect that nobody else is ever going to use those same phrases or terms. But I think from what I’ve show above—and remember that this is just a small sample—that it’s clear this isn’t simply coincidence or a result of being in the same genre. Nearly every single thing I’ve done, she’s gone on and copied in some way.

I mean, really. What are the chances that two authors are going to have this many phrases and plots that are so close? One or two? Maybe. This many? I’m going to have to say something is a little fishy.

But if you’re still on the fence about whether I’m just looking too much into something that’s really not there and that some of my readers happen to be reading too much into those similarities, what I show you next should give you a clear indication that she has a sick, twisted obsession with me.

On April 1st, I received a notification from Facebook that Meg Dane requested to join my private reader group, A.K.’s Book Babes. At the time, I accepted the request and didn’t think twice about it. It wasn’t until a little more than two months later when something tipped me off, and I immediately knew Rebecca was in my group under another name. When I figured it out, I reached out to a family member to get out my frustrations about the complete and utter lack of respect that Rebecca has for me and my privacy and the lengths she’ll go to constantly be in my space—space she knew she would not be welcome in if she’d attempted to make that request as herself.

As you can see, on June 11th at 11:46am, Meg Dane was still an active member of my group. By 6:02pm that same day, hours after she’d been confronted, Meg shows up as unavailable, indicating that the account was deleted or that I’d been blocked from seeing it.

Now, I know you’re probably thinking… none of this indicates that Meg Dane is actually Rebecca Sharp. Well, what if I told you that ‘Meg Dane’ signed up for my newsletter with her fake email address? You’d probably still think that doesn’t tell me that it’s Rebecca. And maybe you’d be right. But what you might not know is that the company I use for my newsletter records the IP address and latitude/longitude coordinates for anyone who signs up for my newsletter.

Normally, this information is meaningless to me. I never even go in to look at it. But in this case, it was just what I need to prove to myself that I wasn’t crazy.

And I know you’re now probably asking the question, “If the IP address and latitude/longitude coordinates prove that Rebecca Sharp is the one who did this, why are you covering them up with that red banner, Andrea? What do you have to hide?”

And the answer, I don’t have anything to hide. But Rebecca does.

You see, Dr. Rebecca Sharp is a pen name. And as you can easily see from her biography that loosely resembles mine (don’t worry, I have pictures of that, too along with the ones that show how her logo now suddenly looks similar to mine), she’s a dentist.

If I share the information underneath that red banner, anybody who reads this will be able to plug those coordinates into Google and drop a pin right on top of the dental office her grandfather opened back in the 50s. It’s the same dental office that has an apartment upstairs that she lives in.

Rebecca’s real identity is exposed if I share that information. And the bottom line is, for some ridiculous reason I cannot begin to understand, I actually have a shred of decency in this situation. I will respect someone else’s right to privacy, even if that person is undeserving and has invaded my privacy on multiple occasions.

Rebecca will have you believing that I’m some evil villain and that she’s the victim, but I’m not actually an evil person. So, I’ll keep that IP address and latitude/longitude coordinates private for now.

But if Rebecca wants to claim that I’m making this up, and it’s not her, she is certainly welcome to ask me to prove it. I’m more than prepared.

But I guarantee you, she won’t.

Because she knows that it’s not just her pen name that’s at stake at that point. Exposing her real identity exposes the dental practice. And exposing that? Well, let’s just say that this short story I’m sharing is not the first time her family has made headlines.

And finally, in the images below, you’ll see a few screenshots of that same IP address visiting my website. I’ve included three, which show visits in January, February, and March of 2019. I have HUNDREDS of these. Nearly every day, multiple visits per day. It’s almost scary.

So, there you have it.

This is my real-life stalker story.

If you’re wondering why I finally decided to share this, I made mention of it above, but I’ll share it again. I did this for my readers. If this had only been affecting me, I would have sucked it up and kept doing my thing.

But the amount of readers contacting me that are being affected by this is unacceptable. Let me clarify. I’m okay with the readers contacting me to share what they’ve seen. What’s not okay is them feeling like they’ve been cheated.

Could I call the police and start talking about stalking and harassment? Could I hire an attorney and take this to court? Yes, I probably could.

But I REALLY don’t want to have to do that. And the bottom line is, I’m not after her money. I don’t need to take her to court to sue her and get money out of her. That’s not what this is about for me at all.

What do I want?

I want this to stop. That’s all I’ve wanted from the very beginning.