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The answer is Neva Case. If the former big-city attorney hadn’t been out in her pick-up, Mick wouldn’t be alive. Mick’s never met anyone quite like Neva. She’s smart, sexy, and passionate. She also has a secret. Neva runs the Big Brown Barn, an underground shelter for young girls forced into unwanted polygamist marriages. Neva would do anything for these girls—and that’s what worries Mick. Neva may be trusting, but Mick’s instincts tell him that something’s not quite right. He’s not about to let someone get to Neva and the girls on his watch. Especially when one of the girls brings trouble straight to the barn’s front door.

Now, with the shelter in unimaginable danger and time running out, Mick is in for the fight of his life, one that could cost him the woman he’s come to love more than anything…

Armed with the antidote and a suspiciously enigmatic partner—fellow virologist Mac Coleman—Jane raced to the rescue. But with betrayal, time and the Amazon itself working against her, the bookish Dr. Miller would have to tap her inner adventuress to make it back alive….

HelenKay: Romance and serial killers - two topics one might not view as being compatible. Books about one generally don't sit on the shelves with books about the other. Sure, some authors write romantic suspense. Some write it very well. In most, the suspense centers around a crime or a murder. Some even touch on multiple murders. In Are You Afraid? you get a creepy serial killer. Scary and suspenseful - it's all in here. So is a smart and realistic romance between two wounded and lonely people.

Wendy: The role of the small press has long been to champion what is overlooked by large publishers, to give readers choices beyond the homogenized products turned out by the behemoths, and to find a niche in the marketplace and fill it. In the last few years electronic publishers have done exactly that for romance, offering not only sub-genres and styles untouched by New York or Toronto, but authors as well. The electronic publishers aren’t the whole story, however; there are traditional small publishers (and next to Penguin USA everyone is small) out there, presses that don’t put out a few books a month, but rather a few books a year. What role are they to fill? Is there something unnoticed that only a small press could bring attention to? If Medallion Press is any indication, the role of this small publisher isn’t a niche market, but direct competition for the Big Boys.

HelenKay: Jumping into the middle of an ongoing romantic suspense series is a risky proposition. The plot is running. Backstories have been told. Many times the villian has appeared and disappeared, and it's time to find him again. The fear is in being unable to keep up or, worse, in being unable to catch up and immerse. Hide in Plain Sight avoids many of those pitfalls by keeping a tight focus on this installment of the series.

There is a crux in fiction, a contract between the author and the reader regarding the suspension of disbelief. Readers are willing to step into fictitious worlds and accept the reality presented within and in return authors make those fictitious worlds feel real. What readers are willing to buy into ranges from the impossible to the highly unlikely. In Steam Punk, readers accept a Victorian setting with modern day technology. In Science Fiction, readers accept that humans—or human like species – populate the vast reaches of the universe, traveling and communicating through means that are purely speculation on the author’s part. In romance, readers time and again believe that a playboy will give up his multiple bed partners for that one special woman or that a prince will marry a peasant girl. To aid this disregard of reality, fiction must be couched and grounded in something plausible: readers accept the implausible 200 year old vampire, Louis, in Ann Rice’s Interview With The Vampire because despite Louis’ drinking of blood, rising with the moon, and immortality, he is mired in emotions so human every reader can relate. When fiction is burdened with characters and storylines that strain credibility on top of asking for the usual suspension of disbelief, fiction is doomed to failure. Such is the case with Colleen Thompson’s The Deadliest Denial.

As our regular readers know, every now and then we like to have a little love fest -- a favorite book, a favorite author, a favorite book by a favorite author. It's also a great way to break in new victi--reviewers. Since I've been long convinced that Wendy and HelenKay have missed the magic that is Nora Roberts, when I discovered that new PBRer Lorna Freeman is a Nora fan, I thought, "Cool. It's time for Carnal Innocence."

Carnal Innocence is your basic small-town mystery: someone's killing the fast and loose women of Innocence, Mississippi in particularly brutal ways. Caroline Waverly, a world-renowned violinist comes to Innocence after inheriting her grandparents' home. Her goal: peace and rejuvenation. Of course, with a serial killer on the loose, peace is tough to come by. Enter Tucker Longstreet, known lazybones and the richest dude in town (and possibly the state). Not only is Tucker, uh, well-acquainted with the dead women, he's also impossibly charming, the backbone of his family, and all-around ladies' man. I mean that as a compliment.

Carlotta Wren's life is a mess. Her parents skipped town rather than stand up in a courtroom for their white collar crimes. So, at eighteen, Carlotta lost her fiancee and financial security, but gained full-time care of her baby brother Wesley. Now, years later, her baby brother continues to seek out trouble and every gambling opportunity possible. Being on the financial edge and in debt to everyone, Wesley's antics threaten both Carlotta and Wesley.

But Wesley is the least of Carlotta's problems. There's the return of her ex-fiancee, the murder of the ex-fiancee's now-wife, a mysterious detective, a hot former doctor who gives Wesley a chance and Carlotta more than one look, a questionable female attorney with a shady link to Carlotta's father and a probation officer who looks more like a stripper than a member of law enforcement. And those are only the main characters in Stephanie Bond's newest, Body Movers, the first installment in an ongoing series.

Let the discussion begin.

So, in the course of my work on the RomanceWiki (yes, that was a shameless plug!), I noticed a pattern. One book was consistently a reader favorite, repeatedly noted as an influence, and considered a classic of romantic suspense. It did not escape my notice that, typically, I'd somehow neglected to devour Linda Howard's Dream Man, and I resolved to fix that problem, well, you know how it goes when you have more books than time.

One of the worst-kept secrets at Paperback Reader is that we love to force our personal favorites on each other. I won't bore you with the behind-the-scenes process, but somehow this is one of HelenKay's favorites...so it makes sense that L.J. and I are reviewing the book.

One of the most perplexing trends to take a hold of romance is the demonization of the press. Through category and single titles alike, journalists have become the easy go-to villain. In contemporary romance, being part of the media is as telling a character trait as the black hat in westerns of old. The reader need not be given anything beyond that one word: press. Authors who utilize this characterization shorthand might as well substitute Satan for press for all the evilness the press has come to symbolize in romance. What is, perhaps, even more perplexing is why. Really, why? Do the average romance author and the average romance reader really share the common enemy of the media? Since neither readers, nor writers, of romance show up in mainstream media or are the subjects of gonzo paparazzi the common enemy theory seems unlikely.

You know how it goes -- I read a gazillion books a year. Sometimes they blur together, especially if I go on a bender. Things can get weird when that happens. Like when I (accidentally) pick up a Linda Howard book in the grocery store. Honest, I meant to get orange juice, but I went in the wrong entrance.

I digress. So, being a good citizen (I have a badge in Book Buying), I read the back cover. Okay, this was mostly because I never know who might be reporting back to my husband, and I wanted to create the impression that thought went into this purchase. And I'm reading and I'm thinking and I'm trying to remember, "Did I read this before?" Then, being of sound mind and marginally okay body, I realized the book was a sequel.

Hallelujah, purchase!

As I’m sure you’ve noticed by now, I have a real love/hate relationship with continuing series. I adore them more than words can say, and I hate it when a favorite series jumps the shark. I don’t believe every book needs a sequel, I don’t believe every character needs to be expanded into his or her own full-fledged novel, but I do believe that authors should have the grace, dignity, and, well, objectiveness to stop a series at the right time.

I’m also sure that you’ve noticed that even when I swear off a series, I sometimes relapse. For me, breaking up really is hard to do, and sometimes I realize that it wasn’t the series, it was me. Like when I thought I was done with the J.D. Robb (Nora Roberts – the secret was poorly kept to begin with, and that’s clearly Nora looking mad, bad, and dangerous on the back covers of recent books) “In Death” series.

Julie Garwood is a member of my personal romance pantheon. While she’s written some clunkers, she’s also given me many hours of reading pleasure (oh my, do I just adore the heck out of Castles). That makes this a difficult review to write. Because Shadow Dance isn’t a bad book...it’s just not the book it could (or should!) be.

Since making her move to romantic suspense (I know, HK, I know), Garwood has also been name-checking two previous series – the “Roses” series and, for lack of a better name, the “Medieval” series. To achieve this feat, she has brought together a descendants of the Claybornes from the Roses series, and the Buchanans (see Ransom. among the other Medievals) and the MacKennas (who apparently didn't appear in any of Garwood's previous books -- fact-checkers will be working overtime to verify this -- but they've been feuding for centuries with the Buchanans). This will all come together, I swear.

Pop Quiz:

The best romantic suspense villains exhibit which of the following traits:

• Shadowy, mushy goals and motivations which make sense only because the author says they do.
• The ability to hide their thoughts so well that the reader is more often perplexed than not.
• Violent, sometimes sadomasochistic tendencies that have appeared for no good reason.
• Clear, well-defined goals, motivation, and conflict.

You know how some writers pass in and out of your consciousness? You like their work, but you don’t clamor for their next release. When you stumble across something by the author that you haven’t read before, enthusiasm builds. If you’re lucky, you might catch this second wave at a time when a sufficient number of unread titles has amassed. You get to go on a reading glom.

Life is good.

Kasey Michaels is one of those authors. I like her work. A lot. She wrote one of my favorite Regency historicals. But she’s never really been an author I seek out; definitely more of an author I encounter in odd places. I’m always happy to see her. She’s probably always wondering where I’ve been all this time – and that, my dears, is where we get into talking about her “Maggie Kelly” series, or more specifically, , the fourth book in the series.

I think we’ve talked about this before, my tendency to buy books in an almost impulsive, irrational manner. Like, for instance, when I’m at the grocery store and things happen and “Plop!”, another book falls into my cart. This is sort of behavior has engendered a companion trait: deceit.

For many reasons, publishers are eager to send copies of books to reviewers. Thus, I get more than my fair share of free books (this is not a complaint, though I promise you that it’s not the blessing it seems). And, being male, the husband often notes the books that arrive in the mail (since he has this thing about “clean” and insists on decluttering my inbox). He then makes a rather illogical leap from “you have way too many books” to “why do you need to buy more?”

The answer, obviously, is because our house can only hold so many pairs of shoes.

So sometimes I buy books and because I am feeling guilty, I rapidly integrate them in with the older books. It’s easier than explaining why I don’t want to read that book, I want to read this book. So that’s what happened when I bought Linda Howard’s Cry No More. I can even see that at the time of purchase, I read a whole three pages. Then things happened and I forgot I had the book. See above.

Let me tell you upfront what kind of review this is going to be. I believe all the way down to my Summer Pink toes that Stephanie Bond is a great writer. There will come a time when you pick up a book by Stephanie Bond and say to yourself, “Kassia was right. This woman is brilliant.”

This is why I implore her: stop with the Body Movers series and start writing that book!

I accidentally started this series (before it was a series, I suppose) when I picked up Party Crashers for an airplane read. Then HK and I decided to co-review the first in the series, Body Movers. Then, well, you know how this stuff goes. I said I would read the second book, 2 Bodies for the Price of One, even though I knew I'd end up right here. Telling you about the book. I am weak.

Let me recap the series as so far: Carlotta Wren and her poker-playing, supposedly really smart younger brother are barely making it because their parents skipped out on them just as Carlotta turned 18. Carlotta’s major job skill is shopping, which she puts to good use as a salesperson at a major department store (Neiman Marcus). Due to a preponderance of dead bodies in the previous book and her younger brother’s job as a “body mover”, she has three dudes chasing after her: her preppy-esque ex-fiance, Peter; a detective who couldn’t pick a decent tie if his life depended on it; and Wesley’s boss, a former coroner turned body mover.

Some men just won't go away. Romance novels are filled with former husbands, old boyfriends and used-to-be lovers that pop up at the most inopportune times - usually when the heroine has found a new hero. These men from the past tend to shake the heroine's sense of security. Many times these fellas are the abusive sort. They haunt and harass the heroine causing the hero's protective nature, and sometimes his jealousy, to flourish. This is the sort of plot that puts the "alpha" in alpha hero.

Carla Cassidy's Paint It Red puts a new spin on an old story. The heroine's husband Jim was not the nasty sort but he also is supposed to be the dead sort. Then, as the back cover states:

"Jim's picture somehow finds its way onto the dresser, and his jacket appears on the back of the sofa. Is she going crazy? Or has her husband returned to claim her as his own?"

All good questions.

There is a lot of talk in the romance world about TSTL (too stupid to live) heroines being unbearable. These are the horror movie equivalents of the woman who runs upstairs rather an outside when the serial killer with the hatchet starts a chase. If message boards and reader sites are to be believed, the new breed of heroines-with-attitude-for-no-reason are equally annoying . These women are angry and on edge – ie, the bitches. Of course, heroines that land somewhere in the middle do not fare well with some readers either. The bottom line: It’s hard to be a romance heroine today.