Place your bets on Laurens

REVIEWS BY SANDY HUSEBY

The high-stakes world of horse racing is the backdrop for danger to heart and body in Stephanie Laurens' latest Cynster series novel, What Price Love. Lady Priscilla Dalloway follows her twin brother, Rus, because she believes his new job with Lord Comarty's stables may have placed him in mortal danger. Once in England, the fiery Irishwoman butts heads with Dillon Caxton. Caxton is newly entrusted by the Jockey Club to investigate rumors that the races have been fixed, and he suspects that Pris may be involved. Each recognizes in the other that a beautiful façade covers a quick intellect and strong will. Despite their instant attraction, it will take those hidden qualities to save Rus and themselves while exposing the unsavory betting schemes. Laurens writes a story that moves like a thoroughbred out of the gate. Totally captivating, with rising emotional tension—this is a guaranteed winner.


And the greatest of these is love

Joanna, wife of Chuza, chief steward to King Herod, learns that the heart grows powerful when it accepts the truth of what it seeks in L.A. Times reporter Mary Rourke's first novel, Two Women of Galilee. Told vividly and with deceptively simple language, the story opens the door to the Biblical world through the circumstances and choices Joanna faces. Tuberculocis drives Joanna to seek out her cousin, Mary, the mother of a mysterious healer gaining a great following throughout Nazareth. The act of healing opens Joanna's eyes and heart to a new faith, and forces her to decide where her loyalty lies: to her beloved husband, Chuza, and his obligations; her personal sense of honor; or her blossoming faith. Rourke explores these themes with the clarity of a reporter and the vision of a gifted storyteller.


Breaking up is hard to do

Juggling the ticklish challenges of ending relationships for others while starting a new relationship, Danielle "Dani" Myers takes on life with zest and cheeky charm in Johanna Edwards' chick lit frolic, Your Big Break. Breakup Hell has five stages—nervous breakdown, sour grapes, rebounding, backsliding and letting go—and Dani has reason to know those stages well. She was the victim of a slam breakup herself and now she's a pro at conducting breakups—her employer, Your Big Break Inc., specializes in handling the messy details of breaking up for a fee. Dani is good at her job, until meeting Brady tempts her to violate the agency's Rule #5: do not get personally involved. That rule is further tested when Dani learns that the married Big Jackass she's hired to help with a breakup is her own dad.


Cowboy love

Willie Nelson warbled about them, this reviewer has always held a soft spot for them, and now three authors combine to shout out the undying fascination with them in My Heroes Have Always Been Cowboys. In Lorraine Heath's "The Reluctant Hero," dime novelist Andrea Jackson needs new inspiration to overcome her writer's block. She sets her sights on Texas sheriff Matthew Knight, convinced his exploits will inspire her. But it'll take all her creative talents to overcome Sheriff Knight's resistance. In Georgina Gentry's free-spirited "The Great Cowboy Race," the cowboys who sign up for the race from Chadron, Nebraska, to Chicago have a hefty prize in their sights, but Henrietta Jennings sees the contest as an opportunity to escape an unwanted fiancé. So Henrietta becomes Henry J. Smith and hooks up with Comanche Jones, making Jones wonder why he feels such a strange attraction to the little Yankee. In Teresa Bodwell's "Moonlight Whispers," rancher Luke Warring comes to town looking for his ne'er-do-well brother Matt, and instead finds himself saddled with Isabelle Milton. She's stranded in Hell's Gate and the temptation of a real job on the ranch and a place to call home beckons like a little bit of heaven. This trio of tempestuous but true cowboys will enliven readers' fantasies.


After this final column, I am riding off into the sunset, where I look forward to writing—and to reading a humongous stack of books of all kinds. McMurtry, P.D. James, Follett, Barefoot Contessa . . . here I come.

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