Dianne Castell & Lori Foster

This weekend, more than 300 authors and readers gathered in West Chester, Ohio for Lori Foster and Dianne Castell’s Reader and Author Get Together, where we did what we love to do most: talk romance. More than 100 authors were on hand, print and e-book, to sit at round tables with readers and talk about a wide array of topics. I attended the conference with RNTV’s own Stacy Ahlgren and friends Julie and LeeAnn, both frequent visitors here at RNTV.

Kati & Stacy

When LeeAnn and I arrived at the Marriott, we met up with Stacy and headed straight to lunch (food first, always!). Soon Julie joined us and we were talking about which authors we were looking forward to meeting and just catching up in general. After…

Reviewed by Kati Dancy
Reprint/Publisher: Silhouette
It all started in 1983, at my parents’ beach house. I was 12, and bored through and through on the one rainy day we had during our beach vacation. My mom suggested I go to the book shelves where renters had left books behind to share, to see if I could find something to entertain me for the afternoon. It was there that I spotted my very first “grown-up” romance novel. Oh sure, I’d read “Fifteen” by Beverly Cleary and had of course read quite a few of the “Sweet Valley High” series. But this book, with its white cover featuring a gorgeous redheaded woman and a handsome man just behind her kissing her neck, this book that screamed out “romance”, was going to be my…

Reviewed by Kati Dancy
Publisher: Aspen Mountain Press
4.75 stars out of 5

Seth is aggravated when his regular massage therapist, Linda is unable to keep their regular appointment. That is, he’s aggravated until David shows up. David is wiry and adorable, and gives Seth the very best massage he’s ever had — that is, until Seth does something inappropriate at the appointment. David leaves in a (justifiable) huff and Seth worries that he’ll never see him again.

Seth’s life is complicated. He’s mourning his sister, Nikki, who died unexpectedly of advanced ovarian cancer, leaving him custody of his darling six year old niece, Molly. Seth is bewildered by Molly’s girly needs for pink or purple everything and her fascination with My Little Pony. Seth is a high powered executive, who works very hard,…

Reviewed by Kati Dancy
Publisher: Penguin
4.5 stars out of 5

One of my favorite reads of last year was Erin McCarthy’s Flat Out Sexy. The book is set in the entertaining world of NASCAR, where the women are hot, but the drivers are hotter. McCarthy keeps the fun going with the next in the series, Hard and Fast.

Imogen Wilson has moved to Charlotte, NC to gain a little independence and to continue her graduate studies in sociology. With her entrée into the world of NASCAR through her friend, Tammy, who is married to a driver, Imogen settles on a thesis that tests whether a book about how to capture and marry a driver really works. She decides that bad boy driver Ty McCordle is the perfect candidate to help her test her…

Reviewed by Kati Dancy
Publisher: Berkley
Release date: April 28, 2009
4 out of 5 stars

It’s been a while since I’ve read a straight Nora Roberts contemporary. Don’t get me wrong, I’ll read anything Nora writes, paranormal, romantic suspense, dinner menu, anything. But I’ve missed her confident touch with straight contemporary romance. I can happily tell you that her new Bride Quartet is straight contemporary and a ton of fun to boot.

The first in the series is Vision in White, which introduces us to photographer Mackensie Elliot, who along with her three best friends have taken their childhood passion for staging weddings and translated it into a successful one stop wedding planning business, Vows. As a child, Mac didn’t really love staging the weddings until her mostly absent father gave her a camera.…

Reviewed by Kati Dancy
Publisher: Grand Central Publishing
4.25 stars out of 5 stars

Larissa Ione continues her track record of smoking hot, exciting paranormal romances with compelling heroes and entertaining heroines with the publication of Passion Unleashed. Serena Kelly is an archeologist, and a Marked Sentinel, on who possesses an amulet which contains a tiny piece of Heaven. The supernatural charm makes her impervious to injury or illness and can only be bestowed by the angels to one who is worthy of the gift. She wears the charm around her neck, and has done so since her mother gifted it to her in order to save her life when she was seven. The catch to the charm’s continued effectiveness is that the charm only works if Serena remains a virgin. And Serena…