Valentine’s Day can be right up there with New Year’s Eve for all the pressure it puts on ordinary mortals to have someone to kiss at midnight or deliver chocolates. I like to think that’s why our favorite authors work so hard to bestow literary bonbons on us this time of year.
New York Times Bestselling Author Elizabeth Lowell’s Valentine for readers comes in the form of a paperback release of her romantic suspense novel PERFECT TOUCH, which promises a night of living vicariously through an international art dealer. Traveling the world to find the ideal artwork for her clients is a far cry from the family farm where Sara Medina spent her poverty-stricken childhood; it’s also a life and business she is determined to hold onto, even if a vicious killer has other plans. Then Jay Vermillion enters her life. The former soldier recently inherited his family’s ranch in the shadow of Wyoming’s Grand Tetons, but he’d be the first to tell you he has no plans to create a seventh generation of Vermilions. Or does he?
The American West is also the setting for the Cowboy Protector Collection, an eBook boxed set of romantic reissues, including A MAN FROM STONE CREEK by #1 New York Times Bestselling Author Linda Lael Miller, JUSTICE AT THE CARDWELL RANCH by B.J. Daniels and LONE WOLF LAWMEN by Delores Fossen.
A love story may be the perfect Valentine read for some, but for others, a thriller is just what the evening warrants. For those readers, New York Times Bestselling Author Allison Brennan delivers the goods with the paperback release of COMPULSION, Book 2 in her Max Revere Series.
Investigative reporter Maxine Revere has a theory about five New York City murders that have been in the headlines. She finagles a coveted pre-trial interview with the killer, only to feel in her gut that Adam Bachman isn’t acting alone. What Max fails to realize is that every step she takes brings her one step closer to a brilliant sociopath who has been waiting for her to make just one little mistake.
You may end this Valentine’s without a ring on the right finger, but New York Times Bestselling Author Katy Evans is betting LEGEND, Book 6 and the finale in her REAL Series about a young man striving to become a legend in the ring will more than make up for it. Maverick Cage keeps his identity well guarded but he’s known on the fighting circuit as the new kid with a chip on his shoulder and a tattoo on his back. He has a personal score to settle with the infamous Remington Tate, and a passion for Reese Dumas, a girl whose family ties to Tate dictate she should root against Maverick. Forgive for worrying that they might be mutually exclusive.
And because what would Valentine’s be without a little historical romance, this month sees a new novel by New York Times Bestselling Author Nicole Jordan: THE ART OF TAMING A RAKE, Book 4 in her Legendary Lovers Series. Despite his notorious reputation, Quinn Wilde, Earl of Traherne, has mostly honorable intentions. So when Venetia Stratham boldly enters a gentleman’s club demanding he stop courting her sister, he does what any bachelor would do: He kisses her. Before more can kindle between the two, Venetia is implicated in an attempt on the earl’s life, and to save her good name, Quinn does what any true gentleman would do: he proposes. Publishers Weekly gave it a starred review, calling it “a sweet and tender romance with a perfect blend of adventure and mystery.”
Now that’s a Valentine I can get behind.
—Jeanne Devlin
