ROMANCE

REVIEWS BY SANDY HUSEBY

Coulter provides full-blown intrigue

Catherine Coulter deftly orchestrates her fast-paced, intricate story threads and the disparate cases challenging her agents with a concertmaster's touch in her latest FBI novel, Point Blank. Treasure hunting takes a decidedly deadly turn for FBI agent Ruth Warniecki, who uses vacation time to explore the dark mysteries of Winkel's Cave. There, her hunt for Civil War gold leads to the body of music student Erin Bushnell. Virginia sheriff Dixon Noble and his two sons rescue Ruth from snowy death and loss of memory. Finding the murdered Erin adds to the puzzle. The music student had no known enemies. As Ruth begins to recall the pieces of her life, her FBI colleagues Dillon Savich and his wife Sherlock arrive to aid her investigations. They face their own puzzle as they juggle helping Ruth with trying to capture Dillon's personal tormenters, Moses Grace and Claudia, whose terrorist assaults may threaten national security.


Dive into this Victorian adventure

Kat Adair's impetuous plunge into murky, turbulent waters to rescue David Turnberry launches an escapade that stretches from Victorian England to the pyramids of Egypt. Talented daughter of a nearly starving artist, the plucky young woman dives into every new challenge facing her, from riding sidesaddle on horseback for the first time to standing up to Lady Daws, the woman who sells the paintings by Kat's beloved Papa and insinuates herself into the lives of Kat and her sister, Eliza. But no other challenge measures up to Hunter MacDonald, the man whose spirit matches her own in Shannon Drake's aptly titled Reckless. When Hunter proposes on impulse that Kat accompany his group to Egypt in search of antiquities, she welcomes the chance to join the aristocratic band of explorers. In the unfamiliar milieu, however, danger stalks with an immediacy that belies the sleeping secrets of the ancient realm, and Kat discovers that the depths within Hunter far outshine callow David. Drake, the pseudonym of contemporary romance author Heather Graham, delivers ardor, antiquities and adventure as enticing as the treasures of Tut in this captivating tale.

It takes a village

Romance blooms like an old-fashioned seaside cottage garden among the residents of Cedar Cove, and Debbie Macomber's 50 Harbor Street is a fresh bouquet of budding relationships and a long-time marriage about to be tested by the intrusion of the past. Corrie and Roy McAfee have been married for years, but lately Corrie's worried about a series of puzzling, anonymous postcards. The strains that her fears and Roy's stoic 'I'll handle it' attitude bring to their marriage aren't enough to stop Corrie from playing matchmaker for their daughter, Linette, who's recently returned to the picturesque Northwest village. Macomber's distinctive homespun touch moves deftly among courtships and relationships tested and renewed in Cedar Cove with sweet-honeyed languor that always delights.

Huffin' and puffin

Prepare to be charmed by Norma Lynn Dale as she emerges from her emotional lockbox and takes on the promise of her inheritance. A woman named Jewel wouldn't settle for just anyone, or just any life, and when Norma Lynn learns that's been her father's secret name for her all these years, she takes the key he gives her on his deathbed and unlocks a whole new world. Abandoning small-town American boredom, she packs the stuffed puffin of her childhood and leaves the rest behind. She heads to London, then the Orkneys to set the stuffed toy, Tammie Nories, free. In the process, Norma Lynn may be winging it as much as the Tammie Nories, as she learns all the puffins are called, but a certain local male, Brian Burroughs, with an understanding for gestures, captivates her as he places the toy on the seaside cliff-face. Like real wandering puffins, Norma Lynn struggles to find her true place amid fanciful adventuring. Nancy Baxter's debut chick lit fairytale, Norma Ever After is sheer joyous entertainment, every page a guilty pleasure.


Sandy Huseby writes from Fargo, North Dakota, and lakeside in Minnesota.

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