Love's a thrill

Best-selling author Stella Cameron has emerged from a crowded field of writers of series romance fiction to write powerful, engaging historical romances and riveting romantic suspense.

Sandy Huseby: You're one of a cadre of writers who have made the successful transition from series romance books to taut, suspenseful thrillers with strong romantic conflicts. Why does this combination appeal to you as a writer?

Stella Cameron: This is a "killer" combination for me! By that I mean it represents such potential power that it's irresistible. Strong suspense can be wonderful. A powerful romance will always captivate readers (including me). When I delve into suspense, taking a love story with me, I feel the odds crank up and up and the excitement goes up, too. I've read mystery and suspense all my life. I came to pure romance a little later, but this combined genre feels like coming home.

SH: What new writing challenge are you setting for yourself? What's coming next?

SC: French Quarter was a thrill to write. I'll never be able to resist feeling that "edge of the knife" sensation when I'm working on a story. The challenges with my historical books are a little different. I play with the added element of humor in those stories. But currently I'm working on a new contemporary romantic suspense story set in Key West and yes, I am confronting and enjoying another level of the work. I want to move deeper and deeper into the emotional drive and motivation of my characters. In this case the cast will be relatively small. I chose to make it so because I want to focus very tightly on who these people are and who they are under fantastic stress.

L'amour in the French Quarter

REVIEWS BY SANDY HUSEBY

Stella Cameron brings the decadent underbelly of New Orleans's most infamous neighborhood to life in her latest novel, French Quarter. Here, sinners rule and even saints are tempted.

Celina Payne and Jack Charbonnet must preserve the integrity of Dreams, a foundation that grants wishes to dying children.

But Dreams has become a nightmare after the murder of its founder, New Orleans businessman Errol Petrie.

Jack thinks Celina is nothing more than a dabbling ex-Miss Louisiana covering up her own scandal until the pair finds that they have more reasons than just Dreams to collaborate on finding Petrie's killer and salvaging Errol's reputation.

Stella Cameron's French Quarter is as sensuous, intricate, and hard-edged as the ironwork adorning the carnal Quarter itself. A sizzling suspense filled with sultry romance that throbs with the heat and passion of New Orleans's dark side.


Flower power

Emerge from the darkness into the light of Sunflower by Martha Powers -- just don't expect to leave suspense and terror far behind.

Sheila Brady is a single mom who's moved to the small Wisconsin town of River Oaks to escape the dangers of urban policework. But the community, which prides itself on its annual Sunflower festival celebrating the major local agribusiness, harbors a dangerous killer who's selected Sheila as his next victim.

Martha Powers weaves a taut and gripping thriller, portraying the everyday challenges of a single mom dating again and dealing with male colleagues in the small town police force. Sunflower is an enervating, disturbing, and ennobling story that portrays all too clearly the dark secrets which can lurk in the most placid of small towns.


Places of the heart

Summer is a state of mind in these light romantic tales told by three popular romance authors in That Summer Place.

Overworked, weary businesswoman Catherine Winslow returns to Rainshadow Lodge in Puget Sound in "Old Things" by Jill Barnett. There she confronts Michael Packard, her first summer romance, but this time, romance is crowded by Catherine's two daughters, Aly and Dana -- daughters who should have been Michael's. An abrupt parting years earlier and their seemingly disparate current lives pose challenges to their old feelings which resurface. And they find that over the years, each has carried "old things" like an heirloom treasure in their hearts.

Kids could be the downfall of "Private Paradise" by Debbie Macomber. Beth Graham and her son Paul find unexpected housemates when her best friend cancels out of sharing Rainshadow Lodge. Instead, John Livingstone and his daughter Nikki become their reluctant roommates. When strangers share close quarters, getting acquainted can be both a pain and a pleasure. Add in some self-serving matchmaking by two teenagers who decide they're ready to make a family and "Private Paradise" will keep you as warm as toasty marshmallows on a crisp autumn night.

Mitchell Rutherford organizes his life down to the microsecond, and the last thing he needs is a woman like Dr. Rosalinda Galvez who operates on "Island Time." Mitch has big plans for developing the island site of rustic Rainshadow Lodge and wants Rosie's scientific expertise to tell him there won't be a negative environmental impact from his proposed development. But free-spirited Rosie is ready to teach him that there are more important things in life than work.


The love of the Irish

In Beholden, by Bronwyn Williams, a young Irish woman, Kathleen O'Sullivan, leaves her homeland behind to build a new life in North Carolina with her sister Tara. Kathleen is on a search to find Galen McKnight, the man for whom her father sacrified his life. But once she finds him, she discovers that he is not the father figure she had hoped would help her start over in the New World.

Beholden offers brilliant and captivating historical writing as plucky Katy takes on Galen's pride and the challenges of building her own dress shop business.


Sandy Huseby writes and reviews from her homes in Fargo, North Dakota, and Nevis, Minnesota. She is online at Shuseby@aol.com

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