What is so compelling about romantic suspense novels?  Is it the tight blend of gripping romance and dangerous suspense? Is it the twisted villains who put our main characters in such life-or-death jeopardy? Is it the heart-pounding adrenaline rush?  I was curious about why we love romantic suspense novels (I sure am obsessed with them!), and I decided to task three best-selling authors for their take on the issue. I sent the authors this question: “What makes for a great romantic suspense read?” USA Today best-selling author Morgan James replied, “The tension! A good romantic suspense keeps you on the edge of your seat, with both the plot and the characters. It should move swiftly and keep the action coming. I love when a story draws you in, then spins you in a completely different direction with a well-developed twist. Add to that a healthy dose of conflict between the main characters, and you’ll find yourself cheering them on as you scramble to unravel the mystery alongside them!” I think Morgan is absolutely on target—a fabulous romantic suspense novel will always keep me on the edge of my seat…and turning pages as quickly as I can!  Her recent release, DANGEROUS…

Summer is winding down. But you’ve still got time to squeeze in one or two more beach reads, and might want to add Susan Wiggs and Melanie Benjamin’s latest novels to your TBR stack. Though set in different time periods, both stories take place primarily in California beachside communities and feature strong, athletic heroines facing big problems who find escape, purpose, and poetry in the world of competitive surfing. Susan Wiggs’ Welcome to Beach Town kicks off in the early 1980’s in Alara Cove, a fictional beachside community in Southern California.  A haven for tourists and for surfers in search of the big waves, sunny, charming Alara Cove seems idyllic. But tensions between the wealthy residents who live in newly constructed beachfront mansions, send their privileged offspring to Thornton Academy, and hold the reins of political power, and those of lesser means who work low-paying jobs and live in pre-gentrification beach cottages and trailer parks, lie just below the surface. The two worlds collide when Nikki Graziola, a scholarship student at Thornton who lives in an Airstream trailer park that some deem historic and others consider and eyesore, goes off-script during her valedictory speech, revealing secrets that the school, and…

Taking something supernatural and putting your own spin on it can be a challenge. There are many authors out there molding the status quo of supernatural abilities into something refreshing and exciting. I love it when I find a series that feels new in some way. With my Shadow Rider series I have people who can use shadows in order to travel anywhere. Then I layered in the fact that they’re assassins who mete out justice where the law has failed to give it. Now, book #8, SHADOW DANCE, will be released on August 22nd and we’ve moved from Chicago to New York. Whether it’s a new ability or a unique spin on an established supernatural trope I love when an author creates a series that pulls me in. Here’s a list of just a few series that I find refreshing, interesting and exciting. Gunnie Rose series by Charlaine Harris: Magic. Western. Need I say more? This series is an alternate history in the U.S. where magic is acknowledged but not entirely trusted. Especially by Lizbeth “Gunny” Rose. I’ve always loved westerns. I love how you feel like you’re part of the world Charlaine Harris has created. You feel grounded…

August 1914 saw the opening salvos of the “War to End All Wars,” a conflict blithe enlistees in England believed would be over by Christmas.  Instead, the war was to last four long years, entrap thousands in the stalemate of trench warfare, decimate a generation of young men and change society forever. Most books dealing with the war focus on the soldiers or the nurses, doctors and support staff who served them.  In this month’s column, we look at fictional portraits of how this cataclysm changed the lives of several home-front protagonists. Penny Vincenzi’s NO ANGEL, first of the three-book family saga, features beautiful, controlling Celia Lytton, daughter of wealthy aristocrats who is not above using any means, including getting pregnant, to force her family into allowing her to marry the man she wants, Oliver Lytton. To her husband’s dismay, Celia soon discovers that managing her own household isn’t challenging enough, and with her sister-in-law’s collusion, she insinuates herself more and more into the publishing business his family runs.  The story follows Celia, her husband and growing family, along with the destitute young woman she brings into the family, through the great events of the time, from the shock of…

Yikes! Hot enough for you? It’s sizzling outside for so many, all over the world, but the pages of some of the books I’ve been reading this past month have been on fire themselves! Scorching example number one: 2021’s BROKEN FALCON by Rachel Grant. Now I consider myself a connoisseur of romance, but somehow or other I’ve not read this amazingly prolific (and hot—did I mention hot?!) author. BROKEN FALCON is the eleventh volume in her “Evidence” series, but I had no problem understanding the set-up, and even though it’s obvious many of the secondary characters have their own stories, it’s easy to catch on. Hero Chase Johnston is trying desperately to carve out a second chance life for himself after experiencing horrific abuse at the hands of a villainous psychiatrist. Heroine Eden O’Keefe is also working to build a new life, and if doing so in a timely manner means earning money at night on the internet, so be it. These two complicated souls seem at first to have little in common besides physical passion, but their shared determination to stop child-trafficking helps them find a soul-deep connection that burns as brightly as their bedroom encounters. I loved Ms….

I know, I know. It’s hard to think about Christmas when we’re in the dead of summer. But Christmas in July is a thing for a reason, right? Dreaming of those sugarplums and hanging metaphorical stockings as a way to anticipate the magic of that season? If you’re already thinking ahead about what you’d like to see under the tree, consider adding these five upcoming Christmas romances to your wish list!   FAKING CHRISTMAS by Kerry Winfrey (Berkley, 9/26/23) – In order to land a magazine job, Laurel Grant has been pretending to have a second life as a farm-wife-turned-influencer, complete with a full-fledged family and a much more nuanced knowledge of goats than she actually has. When her recently devastated boss invites himself to Christmas Eve dinner at the family farm, Laurel has to scramble to build out her fictional life or risk losing her job. And when she ends up snowed in with her long-time nemesis and new fake husband, Max Bennett, well . . . it might start to get hard to separate what’s real from what’s not.   WRAPPED WITH A BEAU by Lillie Vale (G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 9/26/23) – Fifty years ago, Elisha Rowe’s hometown…

When I write a book, one of the first things that I decide is just where I intend to set my story.  Whenever possible, I like to visit the cities that I use in my books. There is just something about actually being in the area—you can pick up on sounds, scents, special sights…all these fun little details that you can add into a story in order for the setting to become real for the reader. In my books, I’ve set quite a few stories in New Orleans. Why? First…because I adore the city. New Orleans is just two and a half hours away from my home, so I’ve spent my whole life traveling back and forth to the Big Easy. It doesn’t matter how many times I visit; I always leave feeling inspired.  Reason two?  New Orleans is perfect whether I’m writing a romantic suspense or a paranormal. In the city, you can find so many unique elements, and those elements just beg to be included in books. And reason three? Readers seem to love the city just as much as I do! I recently headed back with my son, and one of our first stops had to be…

My soul is full of longing For the secret of the sea, And the heart of the great ocean Sends a thrilling pulse through Me.   Henry Wadsworth Longfellow   I think since the film The Shape of Water, directed by Guillermo del Toro, some people have been intrigued by the idea of sea creature romance. Years ago, pre-The Shape of Water, I remember reading THE MERMAN’S KISS by Tamsin Ley and her other books about human/merperson romance under the water. I loved the stories but was always a little skeptical about how that would work out long-term. Now, authors have a host of different ways to problem-solve and make such a relationship work. With the monster romance boom, I’ve read about krakens, swamp monsters, and tentacles – lots of tentacles. Let’s discuss. FOUND BY THE LAKE MONSTER might only be a novella in Lillian Lark’s Monstrous Matches series, but it is my absolute favorite. Amy and Adrian find each other in kind of a bizarre way, but they turn out to be a perfect match with more in common than they might have originally thought. Adrian had signed up to be matched. He was looking for love, companionship, and…

Chefs and other food connoisseurs spend a lot of time pairing just the right wine or drink with their food. And then there are folks like me who spend time pairing their binge watching with their binge reading. Instead of finding just the right wine for my meal, I’ll hunt down just the right book or series to go with the current tv series or movie I’m watching. It’s all about setting the right mood. So what have I been binge watching lately? It’s a mishmash of genres so here we go! Some pairings are easy, and I’ll start with the easiest one of all. I’ve watched and rewatched the Reacher series more times than I care to admit. Alan Ritchson is exactly who I envisioned while reading the Lee Child books, unlike the previous movie with Tom Cruise. No offense to Tom Cruise at all, but Alan Ritchson has the height and size needed to make the Reacher series believable onscreen. Lee Child’s book series is amazing, and whether you are reading the first book, KILLING FLOOR, or the 27th book, NO PLAN B, the Jack Reacher series is engaging and entertaining. Even better, I imagined Alan Ritchson in…

As the US celebrates the anniversary of gaining its independence, we look at a group of intrepid women who took advantage of extraordinary circumstances to seize the lives they wanted.  As with World War I, the manpower drain of World War II opened up new opportunities for women to work in fields from which they had previously been barred or restricted. The heroines of this month’s selections used those opportunities to pursue their dreams—most of them in the air. We begin with GLAMOR GIRLS by Marty Wingate.  Growing up on her family farm, Rosalie Wright has longed to fly since her father indulged her with a tenth birthday ride on an airplane from the Traveling Circus.  She’s promised lessons by her father when she turns sixteen, but his unexpected death and the advent of World War II put an end to the lessons before she earns her pilot’s license.  Her mother feels flying is a vain, foolish ambition; her place is on the farm.  But when Rosalie discovers one of her heroines, aviatrix Pauline Gower, is recruiting female pilots to ferry aircraft from field to field, freeing up male pilots for military missions, she applies.  Initially turned down because she…