Cosmopolitan Magazine – Vanessa Kelly, Author

I’m so thrilled to be featuring one of my favorite authors today – JoAnn Ross, the acclaimed writer of dozens of contemporary romance and romantic suspense novels. To date, JoAnn has written around one hundred novels (she stopped keeping track a while ago), and her books have been published in twenty-six countries. Two of her titles were excerpted in Cosmopolitan Magazine – which definitely makes her a Cosmo Girl – and her books have been published by the Doubleday, Rhapsody, Literary Guild, and Mystery Guild book clubs.

Not bad for someone whose first career choice was to play center field for the New York Yankees! JoAnn swears that writing was intended to be her backup occupation, something she was only going to resort to after her retirement from baseball. Luckily for us, the Yankees never called and JoAnn was forced to write all those wonderful books, going on to win (more than once) the Romantic Times Career Achievement Award and eventually making it onto the Romance Writers of America’s Honor Roll for best-selling authors.

I could wax on and on about JoAnn’s truly distinguished career and her fascinating personal history – she married the same man twice, for instance – but you can find that stuff out for yourself on her great website.

Okay, you DO have to check out her 10 things you probably didn’t know about JoAnn page, which includes such fascinating tidbits as the fact that her early years were spent in a bungalow on Santa Monica Beach. The best part about that? Her babysitters were the bulked up bodyguards from L.A.’s Muscle Beach! And then there’s the fact that…well, you get the idea!

What I really want to talk about are JoAnn’s books, which are fabulous. As readers of my blog already know, I’m a huge fan of romantic suspense and JoAnn’s are among my favorites. The books in her recent High Risk series are suspenseful and fast-paced, with a compelling group of military heroes who generate a whole lot of heat and chemistry with their heroines.

Here’s what RT Book Reviews had to say about Shattered, JoAnn’s third book in the High Risk series:

“The third book in Ross’ High Risk series is a fine addition to her oeuvre dealing with veterans of our current conflicts. The story is compelling, and showing characters dealing with some of the issues men and women face when they return from war adds depth. Highly recommended. ” *4 1/2 Stars*

JoAnn’s new series leaves the action of the battlefield for the small town of Shelter Bay, Oregon.

Fortunately, she hasn’t left behind the fantastic, emotional stories her readers have come to love. The latest book in the Shelter Bay series is One Summer, which made the New York Times, the USA Today, and the Publishers Weekly bestseller lists.

See what I mean? This woman knows her stuff!

Here’s the blurb for One Summer:

It was supposed to be nothing more than a brief encounter…

Former U.S. Marine photojournalist Gabriel St. James doesn’t see the world as others do. His work reflects the heart of a dispirited, disillusioned loner. When he arrives in Shelter Bay to help out a fellow Marine, the last thing he expects is for that cynical veneer to crack. Then again, he never expected to meet a woman like Charity Tiernan.

A veterinarian with a past that would have defeated a less resilient woman, Charity still possesses a heart as generous as her name. She’s known men like Gabe before—a guarded soul with an elusive nature. With a shared attraction impossible to deny, Charity and Gabe agree to a simple affair with no expectations.

But as summer unfolds, and Gabe finds reasons to extend his stay in Shelter Bay, he and Charity realize that there’s nothing simple about falling in love, and nothing easy about the choices of the heart.

I’m reading One Summer right now, and I can tell you that I fell straight in love with Gabe. I know you will too, and you’ll also fall in love with the small town of Shelter Bay. Trust me – this series is fantastic.

For my readers today, JoAnn has graciously donated a copy of One Summer. Naturally, you have to answer a question first! On JoAnn’s very cool website she has a number of recipes that match up to her books. Just check out her recipes pages and pick one you think looks really great (well, they all do – but just pick one). Then hop on back here and tell me what it is. One lucky commenter will win the book, and we’ll all get to savor JoAnn’s wonderful recipes!

I’m really happy to be showcasing a fellow Canadian today – Susan Lyons, who also writes as Susan Fox. Susan is one of those extraordinary women you often find in the romance world, a multi-talented, multi-tasking person who had at least one successful career before becoming a writer. In Susan’s case, she was a project manager, a computer consultant, a legal editor, and a lawyer (she says becoming a lawyer was way easier than becoming a published writer). She eventually found her way to writing, and has been penning fiction for 15 years. In additional to her novels, she’s had stories published in Canadian literary journals, England’s Women’s Weekly, and Australia’s Woman’s Day.

In 2005, Susan finaled in the Golden Heart, the prestigious contest for unpublished authors sponsored by the Romance Writers of America. A year later her first book, Champagne Rules, was released, and she has subsequently published over 16 novels and novellas for a number of publishing houses. Susan has also won a whole slew of awards, including the Gayle Wilson Award of Excellence, The Book Buyers Best, The Booksellers Best, and the Laurel Wreath. Her book, Sex Drive, was a Cosmopolitan Magazine Red-Hot Read.

As if you couldn’t tell by that last bit, Susan writes really sexy books, with great titles like Touch Me, and She’s On Top. Readers and reviewers alike love her books, and rightly so. Her stories are steamy and passionate, but they also have a lot of heart and truly wonderful characters. For instance, RT Book Reviews gave She’s On Top a 4-1/2 stars, Top Pick review:

“Full of internal conflict, good friends and delicious sensuality, this book is hard to put down.”

By the way, this book also won the Aspen Gold Readers’ Choice Award for Best Erotic Romance, the Golden Quill for Best Erotic Romance, and finaled in the Maggies, the Laurel Wreath, the…well, you get the idea! If I listed all the awards and accolades Susan has received we’d be here all day! You should definitely check out her website, which has tons of info about her books, novellas, and short stories, and some really cool features like recipes for each of her books.

Susan’s latest book is Heat Waves, which is two-story, interwoven anthology that is part of her Destination Wedding Series.

As usual, Susan has garnered wonderful reviews. According to Romance Reviews Today, Susan has “created a perfect blend of interesting characters, romance, intrigue and, of course, hot sex.”

Sounds like my kind of book! Here’s the blurb for Heat Waves:

Get ready to sizzle…

Liz and Peter can’t think of a more fun, sexy place to get married than the Greek Islands. And they’re not the only ones looking for a steamy holiday, cruising in the sun…

“Rock the Boat”
For widowed wedding planner Gwen Austin, the charismatic Santos Michaelides is the perfect man to help her rediscover herself as a sexy single woman. At least until she finds out there’s more to the cruise director than meets the eye—in more ways than she believed possible. In fact, he’s an insurance investigator, working undercover to get the goods on one of the passengers. How is control-freak Gwen going to cope when she discovers Santos has the potential to mess up the wedding—and mess with her heart?

“Making Waves”
When prosecutor Kendra Kirk meets up again with Flynn Kavanagh, the sexy IT consultant she’d unsuccessfully prosecuted for white collar crime, sparks of all kinds fly. When he professes his innocence, she believes him and soon they’re lovers—secret ones, because if her boss ever found out, she’d be seen as sleeping with the enemy. Kendra’s job is the most important thing in her life, so what will she do when she learns the truth about the crime and must choose between work and love?

Heat Waves is available on Amazon and at all the usual booksellers. Check out Susan’s site for the buy links and to read an excerpt.

For my readers, Susan has graciously donated a copy of Heat Waves to the blog. Since Susan is a sexy writer, let’s talk about sex! When reading romance novels, how hot do you like to go? Full-on and steamy passionate encounters, or do you prefer sex in novels behind closed doors? Enquiring minds want to know! One person who comments will win a copy of Heat Waves.