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Review by Jodi Israel
Mira, a division of the Harlequin/ Silhouette empire, is performing a real service to the romance community by reissuing older out-of-print titles by some of its best-known writers. This is both great and not so perfect. It's great because of titles like Emilie Richard's "The Trouble With Joe". Originally published in 1994 as Silhouette Special Edition 873, this tearjerker deals with the unusual topic of male infertility and the question of what really makes a man and what makes a family. The characters, situations and dialogue are very real. I cried throughout the story but had a smile on my face the whole time, too. Richards doesn't shy away from rubbing all the raw emotions. If you didn't read this the first time around, you have a second opportunity now.
"The Trouble With Joe" was written in 1994. Not much has changed in the way of social mores in the past three years. However, Mira is also reprinting books written in the early '80s. Authors like Jayne Ann Krentz, Diana Palmer and Sandra Brown (who wrote as Eric St. Claire and Rachel Ryan) wrote for these houses during that time. A surprising amount has changed since then. It doesn't necessarily make the books less worthy, but the genre has changed substantially over the past decade. There are great stories but more submissive heroines, more alpha male heroes. Moral of the story: check the copyright page. Do this for every book, not just Mira publications. Reprints are big business in this industry. Don't get caught unaware!
Jodi Israel is a member of the Romance Writers of America and can be reached at jodi@tiac.net.
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