Book Club: Midnight's Wild Passion by Anna Campbell

London's most notorious seducer, Nicholas Challoner lives solely for revenge . . .

The dashing, licentious Marquess of Ranelaw can never forgive Godfrey Demarest for ruining his sister—now the time has come to repay the villain in the same coin. But one formidably intriguing impediment stands in the way of Nicholas's vengeance: Miss Antonia Smith, companion to his foe's unsuspecting daughter.

Having herself been deceived and disgraced by a rogue—banished by her privileged family as a result and forced to live a lie—Antonia vows to protect her charge from the same cruel fate. She recognizes Ranelaw for the shameless blackguard he is and will devote every ounce of her intelligence and resolve to thwarting him.

Yet Antonia has always had a fatal weakness for rakes . . .

Hey there book clubbers, Marie here taking a turn at hostess duty, and what a book we have to talk about this week! It had been a while since I'd read a juicy historical (one of my favorite genres within romance), and Anna's books never disappoint. From the time I first read Claiming the Courtesan, I have been a huge fan of her work. In this new book, Anna has given us a truly memorable hero and heroine in Nicholas, Lord Ranelaw, and Miss Antonia Smith. From their first meeting, the chemistry between Nicholas and Antonia burns up the page. Both had compelling backstories and interesting motivations for the decisions they made and the choices that drove them. I loved the way Anna tapped into the mores of the day by making Antonia's first love affair an abject disaster that poisoned the next ten years of her life, and how a similar situation in Ranelaw's past fueled his desire for revenge.

There were so many fabulous scenes in this book, but among my favorites were when Antonia clubbed him over the head with a fireplace poker (he had it coming, didn't he?) when she stared him down with a gun in hand after he kidnapped her cousin, and when she cried over his sick bed when she thought she'd lost him before she ever got to tell him she loved him. Ahhh, the stuff of classic romance novels! What were your favorite scenes in the book?

Anna will be joining us today from her home in Australia to chat about MWP and to give away a book from her back list (winner's choice) to one lucky commenter. Look forward to chatting about Midnight's Wild Passion! Find out more about Anna and her books at www.annacampbell.info.

Since I go out of my way to NEVER cook if I can avoid it, and as I have already posted the five or six recipes I make with any kind of frequency, I will offer this as my recipe for the day: RESERVATIONS, people. Make them. Often. :-)

Next Up on Book Club: Midnight's Wild Passion

London's most notorious seducer, Nicholas Challoner lives solely for revenge . . .

The dashing, licentious Marquess of Ranelaw can never forgive Godfrey Demarest for ruining his sister—now the time has come to repay the villain in the same coin. But one formidably intriguing impediment stands in the way of Nicholas's vengeance: Miss Antonia Smith, companion to his foe's unsuspecting daughter.

Having herself been deceived and disgraced by a rogue—banished by her privileged family as a result and forced to live a lie—Antonia vows to protect her charge from the same cruel fate. She recognizes Ranelaw for the shameless blackguard he is and will devote every ounce of her intelligence and resolve to thwarting him.

Yet Antonia has always had a fatal weakness for rakes . . .

Very excited to welcome my friend, Anna Campbell, to book club on Thursday, May 19. Don't miss this fun meeting in which yours truly will be handling the hosting duties. Look forward to visiting with Anna who will be joining us from her home Down Under! One lucky participant will have the chance to choose a book from Anna's backlist as a prize, so make sure you comment to be entered into the drawing!

Happy New Year

Hello friends!
I hope you had a wonderful New Year's celebration. It's hard to believe the 00 decade is over and we're into "the teenage" years. Let's hope those years are less turbulent for our country than they are for those of us with teenaged kids! Regular readers will notice a couple of additions to my sidebar. In 2010, I want to keep better track of my writing progress, and I'd really like to know exactly how many fabulous romances I read during the year. I figured I'd keep track of both here. Once I finish my first 2010 book, I'll add a new gadget that tracks 2010 Reads. I have a feeling it's a pretty significant number, but we shall see!! I'd love to hear about what you're reading, what you love, what you don't, what trends you see that please you and those that don't. One trend that I am frankly OVER is the vampire. I never have understood the lure, but I know paranormals are hugely popular. Not with me. I do read them if my friends wrote them and often enjoy them. But I would never choose a paranormal over a contemporary or historical. Historicals have become my friends in 2009. I sampled my first one with my friend Michele Anne Young's "Lady Flees Her Lord," and was instantly hooked! I've since blazed through at least 100 of them, and now I'm attempting to write one. I'm having a lot of fun with that. We'll see how it goes as this year unfolds. Right now, it's more of a "can I really do this?" experiment. So far, so good. What matters most is that it's fun!!

Over my 17-day stay-cation (the BEST vacation of the year), we had a lot of snow. That's somewhat unusual for us this early in the year up here in RI. Often when big snowstorms head our way, we don't get much down here on the coast. This year, we've probably already had more than two feet. When I lived here growing up, I used to HATE the snow. I never have liked being cold and snow was always a pain in the rear. Now that I am all grown up with kids of my own, I love the snow! It brings everything to a big fat halt and gives us time to hang out at home, read, play games and WRITE. I've written the entire 21,000 words of Fool for Love since Dec. 17, during two of the busier weeks of the year. It's snowing again today and I say let it snow, let it snow, LET IT SNOW! During the stay-cation, I've also done quite a lot of reading. Here is what I've read:

Captive of Sin
By: Anna Campbell
I've gotten to know Anna through my Casa sister Lucinda McGary, who along with Anna is an owner of the very popular Romance Bandits blog. Cindy is my dear friend and EVIL TWIN. Anna's new book is a really fun story about a damaged hero who saves a damsel in distress. In turn, she saves him from himself. A great book!! I loved it. Anna is a hoot in person and if you ever get the chance to hang out with her, you won't be disappointed. Pick up her earlier books, too, especially To Tempt The Devil. Loved that one, too!

Forbidden Falls
By: Robyn Carr
Regular blog readers will recall my fixation on Robyn's Virgin River series earlier this year. I think I read all seven books in four days during a summer vacation. Totally AWESOME! This new installment doesn't disappoint with a new-to-town minister who hires a down-on-her-luck single mother to be his pastoral assistant. The sparks fly between these two unlikely lovers. Throw in a subplot featuring a favorite couple from an earlier book along with Jack, Mel, Preacher and the rest of the Virgin River regulars, and Robyn has penned another winner. If you haven't read the Virgin River books, RUN don't walk to your nearest bookstore. I promise you won't be disappointed. The only bad thing is we have to wait until February for the next one!

Kindred In Death
By: J.D. Robb
I'm a huge fan of this series, which now numbers 30 books. Last December I read the whole series during the staycation. Prior to that, I'd read a few of them piecemeal. You really need to begin with Naked In Death to get the full lowdown on Eve and Roarke's amazing love story. Their story continues to amaze in this latest rendition that follows the investigation into the rape and murder of a police captain's daughter. As always, Eve and her team of friends and colleagues, aided by her ex-criminal and current uber-billionaire, tech-savvy husband Roarke are on the path of a killer. Before I read this latest installment, I heard this one was long on police procedure and short on relationship stuff. So I went into it expecting to be slightly disappointed, but Ms. Roberts gave us a nice mix of both. I always find myself craving more Eve and Roarke, which is probably what fuels the runaway success of the series. This is one series I often buy in hard cover, if that tells you anything about how much I love it. The one negative thing I will say about this latest book is, like in some of the past installments, I found some of the police stuff hard to follow. I had to go back a few times and re-read and still wasn't always clear about what was going on or how they'd come to certain conclusions. That said, however, a bit of confusion didn't take anything away from my enjoyment of this latest In Death book.

Finally, a few plugs for new books out this week by my friends:

Fugitive
By: Cheryl Brooks
This is the fifth book in Cheryl's Cat Star Chronicles. I read this one in manuscript format and it's a fun, sexy romp! Run out and buy the whole series! You won't believe Cheryl's world-building skills. What an imagination!! (Oh and did I mention it's SUPER SEXY?)

My Dearest Mr. Darcy
By: Sharon Lathan
The latest in Sharon's ongoing look into the happy marriage between Mr. Darcy and Elizabeth Bennett. I am now two books behind and must get caught up! Sharon will be coming by soon for a visit, so stay tuned.

Breakfast in Bed
By: Robin Kaye
Robin's books are as funny as she is—and she's pretty damned funny. All we do is laugh when we catch up on the phone. This is the third book in her Domestic Gods series. I love the tagline for that series: Every woman wants a man who is a good in the kitchen as he is in the bedroom. Is that inspired or what? Looking forward to reading this new one in which a DG in training falls for the woman who was teaching him to be a better man for ANOTHER woman. Knowing Robin, you can expect a laugh riot!

What have you been reading during the holidays? Any great recommendations? Are we friends on Facebook? If not, why not? I'm growing my Facebook site and I want you there with me!

The Writer's Middle Finger

Young adult novelist A.S. King has written a couple of great essays on her group blog that are must-read for all writers.

Find Part 1 Here

And Part 2 Here

Amy has traveled a long a difficult road to publication of her first book, The Dust of 100 Dogs, out in February: fourteen years and seven manuscripts before the sale. In part 2, she advises writers to embrace their "inner suck" and to keep pressing on, mindless of the rules that are intended to constrict our creativity.

Check it out! On the writing progress front, I'm still struggling to finish my 12th MS, Fatal Justice. This book is trying to kill me, so if you find my body, you'll know what to blame for my untimely death. It has challenged me and tested me and taken longer to write than it should have. The end result will be worth it, but the pain... Whoooo! Pain. I figure I am 7/8 of the way done. Of course TV has returned with new shows just as the finish line comes into view. So what's a girl who works all day supposed to do? Battle with recalcitrant manuscript or watch The Bachelor? Hmmm, well, that's a no brainer! LOL! Alright already, I will finish it this weekend. My office in Washington is closing for the Inauguration, so I have a whole day off with the kids in school next week (an extremely rare event in my world). I will finish the book. I promise. Stand by for updates. Speaking of new shows... Friday Night Lights returns this Friday. OMG, I can't wait! Our whole family LOVES that show and we've been counting down the days until it returns. If you haven't seen the first two seasons, run out and rent them. You will not be disappointed and no, it's not ALL about football. It's about so many other things. The show is dazzling. One of the best EVER. And Kyle Chandler? Yummmmmmm.

Now that we've covered writing (and TV), let's talk about reading. Something is happening to me. Something disturbing and worrisome... I think I might be becoming a fan of historical romance. Gasp, you say? Well, YES, me too! I blame my Casablanca friend Michele Ann Young for this. She wrote a great book that I absolutely loved called, "The Lady Flees Her Lord." If you haven't read this (or her earlier book, "No Regrets,") I'd suggest you check them out. One of the things I loved about both of Michele's books is that her heroines are "full figured," rather than the usual stick figures we see in romance. But after having read maybe four Lisa Kleypas historical romances over the years, I now seem to be unable to get enough of them.

In the last month, I've also read Eloisa James's book, "When the Duke Returns," which I loved. I met Eloisa at the New Jersey Romance Writer's Conference in October and heard her speak. I loved the malfunctioning water closet subplot in "When the Duke Returns." Eloisa is a very classy dame and to read her book about, well, crap, stinking up the manor, was simply hilarious. I just bought another of her Duchess books. I'm also reading Anna Campbell's "Tempt the Devil," which I really like, too. Anna is a member of the Romance Bandits with my friend Cindy McGary, so I had read about her books on the Bandit's blog. It's a fun book and very steamy!

So the died-in-the-wool contemporary girl is branching out. Don't worry too much, though. I can't imagine writing a historical romance. I'm in awe of all the research that must go into them, and it would take me the rest of my life to figure out how the aristocracy (also known as "the ton") worked in Regency England, my Lord. And I'm not going to totally lose my mind and start reading paranormals, unless of course they are written by a friend. Then I will gladly take one for the team.

On a final note, congratulations to Boston Red Sox alum Jim Rice who was voted into baseball's Hall of Fame yesterday on his 15th and final opportunity. When we were growing up in New England in the 70s and 80s, Rice was one of the best players in the game. His contentious relationship with the media, however, caused this long and protracted battle to get the recognition he deserves for outstanding numbers over his 16-year career with the Sox. He said yesterday that players should be judged solely on the numbers they post during their careers and not on whether or not they sucked up to the media. In a perfect world, that's how it would work. In the imperfect world we live in, an imperfect player gets paid back for being less than cordial to the people who hold his Hall of Fame entry ticket in their hot little hands. The debt has been paid, and a wrong has been righted.