I choose this book because I like romantic suspense stories  with former special forces heroes (and heroines), I liked Hard to Hold, the first in your previous series, and this story featured a sister and BFF of an older brother romance.  The blurb alerted me to the fact that there was a supernatural element in the story and while that’s not a favorite trope of mine, I decided to wait and see.  Of all the things that bothered me about the book, the supernatural element was not one of them.

Mace Stevens is a Delta Force operative who also runs a bar in upstate New York when he isn’t off saving the world.  (I found this to be implausible, but what do I know).  Mace’s crew was captured and tortured and one of its members, Gray, was killed.  His body is shipped back to his family where he is mourned by his father and stepsister, Paige Grayson.

Paige has a special ability that allows her to see a person’s thoughts, memories and emotions by touching them with her hands.  So of course, she goes into nursing because if one is haunted by one’s ability, you choose something that puts you in near constant contact with people who are in pain and suffering, correct?  But an incident at the hospital brings Paige unwanted publicity and the local newsrooms dig out her story of being the sister of a boy who shot up his high school and killed several classmates.  Paige has suffered from this ever since because she knew her brother, Jeffrey, was bad. She could sense it every time she touched him.  Jeffrey was in the psychiatric ward of a maximum state prison, but he’s still haunting her.

Paige decides to quit her job and seek out Mace to find out what really happened to her brother.  There are two competing stories going on in this book.  The first is a continuation of a previous storyline involving Mace Stevens’ Delta Force team that was captured and tortured.  One of the members is dead and another has amnesia.  Caleb can’t remember what happened to him and the implication is that he may have killed Gray.  Throughout the story, Caleb is interchanged with Cael.  I thought that this was an editing error because it just made no sense at all.  I was told later that it was a nickname.  Not once in the book, however, was it mentioned that Cael was a nickname for Caleb and why wouldn’t it be Cale v. Cael.  This was actually a big deal to me because I constantly was wondering if there was another person in the room.

But Mace’s were just beginning. He’d had the feeling in his gut all day, couldn’t shake it, had snapped at Caleb for no reason and now Keagen, the other bartender, was also giving him a wide berth.

Cael, not so much. He was used to Mace’s moods—even with Caleb’s memory loss, he seemed to understand instinctively that his friend was, and always had been, a moody bastard.

and

He didn’t wait for a response before he left, which was good, since Mace had frozen at Cael’s words, was still staring where the man had been standing, although Caleb was already long gone.

and

Caleb had been drugged simply by luck of the genetic draw. Reid had been down for the count and the three of them that were left—himself, Gray and Cael—were equally capable, but Caleb was broader, definitely the biggest of the men, and DMH had figured they needed brawn.

There just didn’t seem any rhyme or reason as to when they called him Cael or Caleb.  I think the constant switching between Caleb and Cale confused me because some of the writing was rough and I would spend a long time puzzling over the meaning of a sentence rather than being engrossed in the story.

Mace needed to keep busy—goddamned, mindnumbingly busy—contemplated going for a ride on the ATV, until the liquor truck came skidding up the road, toward the bar.

“You’re not okay, Mace, so don’t try to pretend with me,” she said simply.  Not unkindly, and it was all he could do not to tie her to his bed and not keep there until neither of them could see or walk.

But how am I supposed to pick it all apart?  How am I supposed to tell the difference between the men he’d been ordered to kill in the line of duty and the man he’s not?

When he pulled her hips out and spread her legs, she gripped the sides of the sink, harder than before.  When he sank his tongue deep inside of her, she felt as if she could rip it off the wall.

The second part of the story is the suspense plot in which random bad things are happening to Paige that can be traced back to her brother, Jeffrey.  Jeffrey is just a stock crazy, icky villain.  There is nothing in his past that made him bad and there is no exploration of the childhood that Paige and Jeffrey shared to see why one kid turned out wonderful (and gifted) and the other didn’t.  Given that Paige had a supernatural gift, it seemed odd that this was not explored.

The emotional arc of the characters seemed to go from A to Z with no discernable path in the middle.  For much of the first part of the book, Mace and Paige are at odds and then suddenly, they give in to their passion and start copulating.  I guess I was supposed to find that the lust was too great for them to overcome but why at the particular time? Why not when she first comes to find Mace?  When does Mace go from the solitary independent man to not being able to breath without being physically attached to Paige and vice versa?

Paige’s gift is inconsistent, although no reason is given for this. The inconsistency is convenient, sometimes she can see whole swaths of a person’s past, but when it comes to Caleb/Cael, she only gets feelings but later she’s able to watch nearly every memory of Mace’s, practically experiencing his entire life through her hands.

Finally, I was frustrated when all  these random guys began showing up. I kept wondering a) why are they here and b) more importantly, where the heck are they all going to sleep?  How do they all fit into that tiny house? I felt like it was such an obvious ploy to say “see, look how many sexy guys I will write about in the future” but I wasn’t intrigued but irritated.  It’s possible that part of my problem had to do with jumping into a series at midpoint but you can’t blame everything on that.  D

Best regards,

Jane

P.S. I know that the commenters will say “where is the editor or copyeditor” but one thing I learned from publishing folks is that if an author is very late with her work or if she is not a very clean writer in the first place, these things are not always in control of the editor or copyeditor. I don’t know who is to blame, I only know that it was distracting.

Goodreads | Amazon | BN | nook | Sony | Kobo

Related posts:

1. REVIEW: Too Hot to Hold by Stephanie Tyler
2. REVIEW: Hard to Hold by Stephanie Tyler
3. My First Sale: Stephanie Tyler & Larissa Ione, When One Action Heroine Just Isn’t Enough

Dear Ms. Banks:

I have to confess, although I think you know this already, that I am all over the place with your books. Some I have enjoyed tremendously, others have bored me, and still others make me shake my head in dismay. When I had heard you were writing books in the romantic suspense genre, I was interested because most everything I had read from you had been purely erotic in nature, meaning that the conflict was centered mostly around the relationship of the two (or more) protagonists, usually based on sexual exploration. The blurb for The Darkest Hour didn’t sound like an erotic romance and it is not.

The story opens with Ethan Kelly trying to drink himself into oblivion, again. Ethan had married his childhood love, Rachel, a young girl that became part of his family long before they were married. But Ethan loved his job as a Navy SEAL maybe more than he loved Rachel and their marriage began to disintegrate when he was gone for weeks on end, with no word when he would return. Lonely and alone, Rachel went on a relief mission and only her remains were returned to Ethan. Devastated by how he had failed Rachel, how he never gave enough of himself to her, Ethan can’t live with himself.

On the one year anniversary of her death, Ethan receives a package which suggests that his precious wife is not dead, but has instead been held in captivity in some hellhole in Cambodia. Ethan is struck by two extreme emotions: hope and hate. Hope that his beloved is still alive and hate at himself for allowing her to be a prisoner for over a year. Ethan seeks out the help of his brothers, all former military who run a security firm that rescued people, freed hostages, “blew shit up.” I loved the scene in which Ethan took his case to his brothers.

"Ethan," Donovan began in his quiet voice. "You have to know, this is probably just a hoax. Some sick joke. It might even be someone with a grudge against KGI. What better way to get us in the line of fire with our balls hanging out than to dangle Rachel in front of us like that?"

Sam nodded grimly. "We certainly have to treat it as a possible threat."

Ethan exploded in rage. He slammed into Sam, grabbed handfuls of his shirt and got into his face. "That's my wife down there in some shit hole. We aren't talking about some name-less hostage or some political pawn who doesn't matter. This is Rachel. With or without your help, I'm going in to get her."

I don’t think it is any spoiler to say that Rachel is recovered but she has amnesia. She’s addicted to drugs which were used to keep her compliant while imprisoned and her memory is like a sieve. She remembers a few people from her past, like Ethan, but not much else. She doesn’t even recall much about Ethan, just a lot of intense feeling and a foreboding.

There is a lot of emotion in this story and while the suspense is present, I thought the real story was the relationship between Ethan and Rachel. Ethan is desperate for a second chance. Rachel is haunted by fleeting memories and struggling to cope with being with Ethan again. There is tension between them that belies his whispers of love and devotion. They both have to deal with the problems of what caused their marriage to fail the first go around. Ethan, in particular, is in a pickle because no one in his family knew how bad his marriage to Rachel had become.

This book isn’t perfect. One thing that bothered me quite a bit was Ethan’s mother’s adoption of another teenage stray, Rusty. While she played a part in the conflict, Rusty was also a forgotten character for many stretches of narrative. I felt she was sequel bait and little else. At some point, I presume she will hook up with one of the many Kelly brothers.

I liked how the amnesia part was dealt with. Rachel felt confused and guilty and needy, all at the same time:

"Will you take a bath with me?" she blurted.

He blinked in surprise, and for a long moment he didn't say anything. He seemed to struggle with exactly what to say, how to respond.

"You used to wash my hair. I remember you touching me."

Fire built in his eyes, sparking the blue until it resembled a storm front.

"Are you sure, baby? I don't want to do anything to make you uncomfortable."

She shrugged, hating the awkwardness of asking her husband, her husband, to be intimate with her again.

But I would have liked to have seen more of Rachel’s recovery from her addiction to drugs and whether it had any long lasting effects (it didn’t seem like it did) particularly when I thought that the drug addiction was in place of Rachel being sexually assaulted (which it appears that she was not).   The suspense doesn’t pick up until the second half of the book and while present, my focus was on the rebuilding of the marriage between the amnesiac Rachel and the guilt ridden Ethan.

Also, while I didn’t mind this, I can see some people being frustrated with Rachel because she is weak and often being taken care of by the Kelly men, and the local law enforcement, Sean (who might also be future hero for Rusty) but given that she was a recovering drug addict who had been imprisoned for a year in Cambodia who was also struggling with regaining her memory, I cut her some slack.   Who wouldn’t be a basket case, right?

I was very satisfied, emotionally, by the romance.   Bring on the rest of the Kelly brothers!   B

Best regards,

Jane

I have 10 books to giveaway and if you leave a comment and tell us the title of the last good book you’ve read (because I’m nosy like that), I’ll enter you to win one of the 10 copies. Thanks to Berkley and Maya Banks for the giveaway. You can read an excerpt of the book here.

Book Link | Kindle | Amazon | nook | BN | Borders
| Sony| BooksonBoard

This is a mass market to be released on September 7, 2010 by Berkley, a division of Penguin Books. Penguin engages in Agency pricing.

Related posts:

1. REVIEW: Into the Lair by Maya Banks
2. REVIEW: Into the Mist by Maya Banks
3. REVIEW: Seducing Simon by Maya Banks

Dear Ms. Rice:

I don’t remember which order I read the Lisa Marie Rice books but I do know that Woman on the Run was one of the latter books in my glom. It features a slightly different heroine (one more cosmopolitan but who ends up embracing small town life) and the standard hero (tall, dark, reticent with the stamina of a horse, assuming horses have a lot of stamina in the sex area).  Unique to a LMR/EJ book, much of the story is told from the heroine's point of view, although we do get plenty time inside the hero's head as well.

Julia Duvaux became a key witness in a case against a mob boss.   When said mob boss puts a $1 million hit on her head, she is shuffled off to Simpson, Idaho, under the witness protection program.   There cosmopolitan, world traveler, lover of museums, restaurants, and her cat, Julia is transformed into Sally Anderson, 2^nd grade teacher.

But it's either hide or die and Julia loves her life more than any of the above (including the cat) and agrees to be temporarily hidden in the tiny town of Simpson.

This book takes a bit of suspension of disbelief such as the idea that a former book editor who doesn't like children will immediately be able to take up the reins of teaching second grade children without any problem.   Every child embraces her and surprisingly, Julia embraces them back.

There is one sad little child, Rafael Martinez, who had become increasingly morose within the short time period in which Julie had been a teacher. Julia recognizes instinctively that this is because of some problem at home. She sends a note home which brings not his dad to her house but one Sam Cooper.

Sam Cooper runs one of the largest and most well-known horse breeding ranches in the country. It said that the Cooper Ranch is cursed. The curse is that they can’t keep women at the ranch.   They all either run off (like Cooper's wife or Rafael's mom) or they die young (Cooper's ancestors). There's even a disproportionate number of foals versus fillies born on the ranch. Cooper courses dismisses this nonsense appears but in the truth Cooper is not quite sure how to romance Julia:

[H]e'd lost the art of making a woman smile, if he'd every had it.   He could rappel down from a hovering helicopter, scuba dive to 200 feet, make a two thousand yard shot, tame the wildest horse, but making a woman smile-that was another matter.

Cooper knew everything there was to know about soldiering and everything there was to know about livestock.   But damned if he knew how to coax a beautiful woman into his bed.

Cooper embodies the strong silent type and while we get plenty of Cooper's musings, his conversations are laughably brief.

“Had a meeting. Flight was delayed. Had a hard time getting back."

"Well, I'm glad you're back."

His jaw tightened. "Glad to be back."

"We're redecorating here, did you know?"

"Heard that.   E-mailed Bernie."

Julia was was finally able to smile. She'd almost forgotten his laconic way of speaking. "I guess you left all your pronouns back in Kentucky," she said.

"Guess so.” One side of Cooper's hard mouth kicked up in a smile.

This is story does idealize the small town but it also shows that a dying town can result in miserable people.   Julia's talent for making things bright (she's also a handy interior decorator) breathes in new life to the town and Cooper.   Julia doesn't seem to miss her cultural activities after all.

But if you can look past the glorification of the small town, there is a lot to appreciate.   Gentle humor is suffused throughout the book.   There is true admiration that Julia and Cooper share for one another. Through their eyes we get to see the other in a very positive and sexy light.   You understand why one loves the other and how they fill each others spaces and gaps.   Cooper's inability to understand how Julia is completely transforming his life is pretty fun to watch.

As for the erotic nature, this book relies primarily on the graphic sexual content, primarily from the viewpoint of Cooper.   I thought that the men always sound like men in these books.

There is a suspense thread related to the jeopardy Julia is in that is woven throughout this story and I thought it was fairly lame.   Cooper was too competent to allow anything bad to happen and at a key moment, Julia does something that is too stupid to live.   But those criticisms aside, I enjoyed Julia and Cooper's love story quite a bit.   B

Best regards,

Jane

Book Link | Kindle | Amazon | nook | BN | Borders
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Related posts:

1. In re Lisa Marie Rice/Elizabeth Jennings
2. International Author Series: Lisa Marie Rice, Italy
3. REVIEW: CB – Port of Paradise by Lisa Marie Rice

Dear Ms. McCarty:

I tried your debut book and I’m afraid that I haven’t read you since but a friend of mine (can I say it was Angela James?) emailed me and said I might like The Chief. Then she invoked the magic Scottish comparison (magic for me at least). It reminded her of old school Julie Garwood. My fingers couldn’t type in the title and hit the buy button fast enough at that prompt.

I’m happy to say that I enjoyed The Chief and I could see some glimpses of Garwood, but it wasn’t quite the same. Garwood specialized in the clumsy, adorable despite herself heroine and the brooding but long suffering hero. The Chief features a kind heroine hoping for a better life for herself despite her angry, cruel father and the unrest in Scotland; and a brooding hero wanting to stay out of Scottish politics. The Chief equation is really Navy Seals meets Julie Garwood. (This assessment was confirmed by the author’s note at the end of the book and then all the promo pieces which I rarely read before I start a book).

Set against the back drop of the Western Isles of Scotland, The Chief explores the birth of the Highlander warrior myth. In 1305, Scotland was under the brutal boot of Edward I. William Wallace had just been killed in a gruesome fashion and Scotland floundered for leadership. Robert Bruce conspires with Harry Lamberton to create secret army of highly skilled, highly trained warriors who would employ guerrilla like tactics against the English. (The book refers to these as pirate style fighting).

Harry Lamberton is sent off to do Bruce’s recruiting. This story does not romanticize Bruce but rather characterizes him as an opportunist who was more interested in defeating John Comyn than the British. Lamberton and the others want Tormod MacLeod to lead this group and train these warriors. MacLeod’s legend is stories and while they acknowledge it is likely exaggerated, Bruce points out that “myth can be every bit as powerful as truth.”

Tor, as he is called, has no interest in training these warriors. Away from the borderland, the folks in the Isles have been able to remain mostly apolitical almost of a necessity for there are more internecine fighting than they know what to do with. Clan X is fighting against Clan Y and marginally suffering a truce with Clan W so that the two can ban against Clan Z.

Angus Og MacDonad, King of the Isles, dangles the comely marriage bait of the daughters of Sir Andrew Fraser in front of Tor but he isn’t biting. Fraser, imprisoned for years by the English, must have this alliance to crush the English. He threatens and drugs his daughter, Christina, into setting a trap for Tor. Christina wants to be married, wants to have a home away from her father, and looks upon Tor as a white knight when he inadvertently saves her from some brutes outside the walls of the keep.

Christina has been reading illicit copies of Lancelot and Guenivere’s stories and begins to create a little fantasy around Tor. She feels guilty at trapping Tor but is helpless. She is but a woman in a dangerous and physical man’s world.

Tor and Christina’s life together could have started out very poor based on this deception but the story does not rest upon that easy convention. Instead, Tor understands Christina is a pawn and does not blame Christina for her role. The conflict between Tor and Christina is one of duty over pleasure. As Christina begins to bring softness and liveliness to Tor’s austere keep, Tor becomes increasingly conflicted. Even though he enjoys his physical coupling with Christina, he sleeps each night with his clansmen in the great hall.

Tor’s devotion to his clan stems from seeing his enemies kill his father, rape and kill his mother and virtually destroy his clan. His entire purpose in life has been to become strong enough to prevent harm to his people. Even spending one night with Christina seems to threaten this. Tor is unable to create a balance between his need for Christina and his welcomed duty to the clan. The more that he feels for Christina, the more that he pulls away. Christina, of course, is bewildered and hurt by Tor. She’s not one to belabor her situation, however, and tries to make the best out of her situation. What makes this even more interesting was that Tor knew that Christina wanted more, maybe even loved him, and he had to resist any emotional softening as well.

I really enjoyed this “marriage in trouble” storyline and thought that the focus on a very natural conflict helped to offset part of the corniness of the story. The creation of the special forces team for Robert the Bruce seemed too steeped in modern day ceremony complete with nicknames for each operative, the corny name for the group and the ceremony. Tor was not a very romantic person and the nicknames, ceremony and name for the group seemed at odds with his practical nature. I could see those things coming from Christina but not from Tor. At one point, I wondered if the Scribe Virgin would make an appearance.

Interestingly, the Author’s Note added a huge sense of realism to the story but without the corniness. Having said that, I’m completely on board with the Highlander Guard books. B

Best regards,

Jane

Book Link | Kindle | Amazon | nook | BN | Borders
| Sony | Kobo |

This book is published by Ballantine, a division of Random House and NOT a member of the Agency Five.

Related posts:

1. REVIEW: Highlander Untamed by Monica McCarty
2. REVIEW: Upside Down Inside Out by Monica Mcinerney
3. REVIEW: Running Wild by Sarah McCarty

Is it too corny to say that this book delivered for me?   I’m not a huge fan of the Navy SEAL books anymore because I think that there are so many of them and I worried about the machismo level of the hero but nothing about the book   was very expected.   That was a good thing.

Hailey Sutherland and her sister have taken over the family business, a San Diego institution that was once the place for social events like showers and parties and small receptions.   Hailey was not as excited about the revitalization of the family business as was her sister for although she had been engaged three times, she doesn’t really know much about party planning.   Because she was engaged three times, had her heart broken three times, she really isn’t in the mood to celebrate others’ newfound love.

When a SEAL team exercise plays out in front of a shower party and the women are drawn to the beach like George Clooney to brunette cocktail waitresses, Hailey recognizes that the Sutherland’s position on the beach could present some unique marketing opportunities for The Sutherland.

Lt. Commander Nate Peterson is stateside helping to train a new set of SEALs due to an injury that has left him unable to perform his duties.   He resents being sidelined and stuck training newbies but realizes that in another year or two one of these newbies might be fighting along side of him.   I liked that Nate was both a bit peeved but also realistic.

Part of the setup, where Hailey is playing a shower game which requires her to kiss the first man she sees, was a bit irritating. Would Nate Peterson, SEAL hardcore, really stop and kiss some chick during a training exercise?   I wasn’t sure but one off note in the book didn’t slow me down.   Part of the scene, the part after the kissing, did a great job at rendering how tough the SEALs were.   One of the trainees was hit in the head and lost consciousness.   Peterson dragged him to the shore and allowed him to recover.   The shore was right in front of the Sutherlands.   The SEAL trainee recovers and then goes back into the ocean to finish out the training exercise because, as Nate points out to a shocked Hailey (and a concerned reader), the trainee would have to endure much worse in battle.

Hailey’s plan to use the SEAL training exercises as a way to draw in more business is a concern to Nate.   He comes to ask her to rethink her plans because the attention and boisterousness of the crowd interferes with the training.   In other books, this would become an issue of contention between the two but both recognize and value the other person’s position.   Nate recognizes that Hailey needs the business and is willing to listen to an alternative plan.   Hailey accepts Nate’s explanation that the training is being compromised and offers up a different solution.

This is not to say that the book is conflictless, but the conflicts weren’t based on disrespecting the other person.   The conflict was based on Nate wanting nothing more than an affair and Hailey having sworn off men.   She falls in love too easily.   Nate begins to court Hailey.   There’s no other word for it and I really thought this part of the book was charming.

Nate and Hailey have a deep physical attraction toward each other, but they do not fall in bed immediately. Maybe some would say that means that their passion just wasn’t strong enough but for me, this detail helped me buy into Nate and Hailey’s happy ever after.   Nate would be going back into service once he was fully healed which would mean long separations for the two of them.   Their ability to forego immediate gratification made me believe the two would be able to survive Nate’s obligation (and desire) to be part of the SEAL teams.   Hailey clearly could survive without Nate by her side.

I also appreciated the secondary romance between a young bride to bride to be. The arc of Nate and Hailey’s romance was somewhat echoed in that of the secondary characters. B

Best regards,

Jane

This book can be purchased at Amazon or in ebook format from Sony or other etailers.

Related posts:

1. REVIEW: Tall Dark and Filthy Rich by Jill Monroe
2. My First Sale by Jill Monroe, The Fall Of The Soviet Union Made Me Write Romance
3. AuthorTalk: Jill Monroe and Gena Showalter Interview CJ Lyons

***

The diversity of the settings in Jennifer Morey’s The Secret Soldier give you an idea of the novel’s sweep: war-ravaged Afghanistan, a Greek island that lives up to its romantic promises, and eventually, a small Colorado town invaded by the national media. All those cameras and reporters are looking for a hero–the mysterious rescuer of Sabine O’Clery, a contractor who was kidnapped in Afghanistan. Sabine knows that man is Cullen McQueen, and his name is just the first secret she has to keep. Jennifer is one of several double nominees among the debut authors, with The Secret Soldier also landing a place in the Suspense/Adventure category for contemporary series romance.

About The Secret Soldier-

A six-word memoir for your protagonist:
Headstrong heroine can’t hide her heart.

What were the original "triggers" or inspiration points for this story?
Back in 2005, the beheadings of contractors in Iraq was all over the news. It so upset me that I decided to write a happy ending to something similar. THE SECRET SOLDIER was born, where Cullen McQueen is the yummy ex-delta man who saves Sabine O’Clery from her captors in Afghanistan.

Your favorite line, moment, or scene in the book:
When Sabine discovers Cullen has arrived in her hometown to protect her despite the risk of exposing his identity. It’s a great turning point in the story and things really get fun after that.

Noah, Sabine’s father, is a great example of a character who has a definite function in the machinery of the plot, but who is also a fully realized person. Do you develop your secondary characters in the same way you do the main ones?

Yes. Actually, Noah and Sabine’s mother were developed extensively in the initial unpublished novel. This manuscript started out as a single title but when Harlequin asked me to shorten it to category length, I had to remove a lot of content related to secondary characters.

The Secret Soldier has this wonderful, happy-sigh-inducing, Hollywood movie ending. It’s very satisfying, and yet to think about the tragic events that made you start thinking about the story in the first place–well, it’s a pretty dramatic journey between two points.

Thank you! I love the ending, too. There was nothing happy about the news features covering contractor beheadings, and that’s why I wanted a happy ending for my story. I also wanted it to be entertaining and fun and directly related to the threat to Cullen’s identity. I wanted to turn what Cullen perceived as the worst thing that could possibly happen to him into something good–his epiphany as he faces that conflict. And let’s not forget the romance. What better way to end this story than with a cheery splash?

I sometimes “begin with the end in mind” but not always. I definitely aim to resolve all the threads, and if chapter one addresses the theme of the last chapter, I’ve begun with the end in mind. In The Secret Soldier, chapter one begins with a lot of suspense, so the first and last chapters are very different.

What’s the best or most unusual fan mail you received about The Secret Soldier?
Has to be my first Amazon review: "Look out Suzanne Brockmann."

What’s coming up next from you?
HEIRESS UNDER FIRE will be released September 2009, and KISS ME ON CHRISTMAS is a novella in a 3-in-one book that is due out November 2009. Book 3 in the ALL MCQUEEN’S MEN miniseries will likely be released late spring of 2010.

On Publishing-

The Secret Soldier is your first published book, but was it really your first book?

It is my eighth. The first six were me learning how to write. The seventh is publishable if I do some revisions. I had ten written at the time I signed with Harlequin.

From the decision to write for publication to the "sold" call: How long?

Ten long, hard-working years.

How did you find your agent?
I compiled a list of nine New York agents and sent query letters. Maureen Walters from Curtis Brown asked for a four-week exclusivity, which I gave her, but after that I sent the rest of my queries. I received six requests for material and three offered me representation, one being Maureen.

Your biggest surprise, pleasant or otherwise, about being a published author:
That I’m a published author….

On Writing-

Your weirdest or most reliable writing ritual/habit:

Roll out of bed and go straight to my office in PJs and a hairclip.

Writing advice you’re glad you followed:

Never give up.

Three items within arm’s reach when you write:

Water, pen, and a notebook.

Biggest distraction and how you deal with it:

Boyfriends. I haven’t learned how to deal with them yet.

In one interview, you mentioned your twin sister, whose reading tastes, you said, run “more along the lines of that sad, deep stuff that often has the word ‘Pulitzer’ attached to it.” Does she make a good critique partner for you?

Laughing! My twin sister has never critiqued my work. I joke a lot about our differences, but really she is my biggest supporter. She loves to brag about me. And as far as critiquing, I sometimes run titles by her, or certain story ideas. But I never ask her to read, because from a business standpoint, it is better to have someone familiar with the genre than someone who is not.

As a RITA Nominee-

How did you celebrate the nomination?

I did nothing other than tell everyone I could think of and bask in the wonder. That was enough. A little over a week later, my brother did throw a barbeque and I celebrated with my family.

Wearing or carrying any lucky charms to the awards ceremony?

No, just my positive thoughts and energy. I might wear something that belonged to my mother.

The author who, despite your usual poise and eloquence, would reduce you a blathering fangirl if you found yourself sitting next to her/him at the ceremony:

Rachel Gibson.

First person you’ll hug/text/call if you win:

My boyfriend. My twin sister if he screws up before then (wink, wink).

A Little More Personal-

Your paying job(s) pre- and post-publication:

Associate Project Manager for the Space Segment of a satellite imagery and information company. I work with export licenses required by International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR) and fill a technical administrative role for my brainy co-workers.

An author or book you recommend again and again:

Anything by Rachel Gibson or Susan Elizabeth Phillips.

A favorite guilty pleasure:

Spending money I don’t have.

Your own "best first":

The way I felt when a man hit on me for the first time in 20 years. It pushed me over the fence and compelled me to get a divorce. This sounds terrible, but it wasn’t. My divorce was friendly and necessary for my growth. It was the best thing I ever did for myself. And I have a sexy French guy to thank for helping me find the courage.

RITA winners will be announced at the RWA national conference in July. You can read some of Jennie’s short stories and see pictures of her with her twin at www.jennifermorey.com .