Abs, sins make the heart grow fonder

Pack these pocket-sized paperbacks along on your autumn junkets for reading that's fun, fast-paced, and sometimes a tad on the wild side.

REVIEWS BY SANDY HUSEBY

In a simple marriage of convenience, debt-ridden Duke of Cheviot weds Sarah, granddaughter of the wealthy, bumptious merchant William Patterson. The title character in Joan Wolf's Golden Girl is no simpleton, however, and she confronts every challenge with zeal, whether validating her artistic talent, loving the Duke, even solving mysterious "accidents" that threaten her life. Wolf delivers this sparkling historical with a purity of storytelling that's 24-karat treasure.


Unlikely rescuer

Maternal love drives Maggie Stanley to risk her own safety for her infant in Catherine Anderson's Baby Love. Rafe Kendrick is her unlikely rescuer in the frigid danger of a railroad boxcar. Haunted by the past which claimed his own family, he's irresistibly drawn to Maggie and baby Jaimie. Anderson has created a compelling contemporary drama of a new family uniting on the shards of old suffering. You'll love Baby Love!


Robin Hoodwinked

A family in America's Old West struggles to survive in Deb Stover's jaunty homage to the denizens of Sherwood Forest. Mary Goode and her brother, Robin, lead a band of outcasts in Stolen Wishes. The lawman who thinks they're a pack of outlaws feigns amnesia to infiltrate the not-always-merry band in Stover's sparkling Western tale.


Knight time

Avalon and the noble quests of knights find modern-day counterparts in Claire Cross's fascinating time travel, The Moonstone. Viviane is whisked from certain death in medieval England by the magical stone. But Sir Niall must honor his duty, and he pursues her to Salt Spring Island in British Columbia. Cross makes a reading feast of the jousting between true love and duty in this terrific tale.


Strangers in the night

Four authors show that taking a gamble on love with a stranger pays a jackpot in the provocative novella collection, Naughty, Naughty. The bad boy is tamed in each of these stories. In "A Tempting Wager," by Susan Johnson, stolen passions are heightened with the ever-present threat posed by Napoleon's conquest. In Adrianne Lee's "Winner Takes All," a dying woman believes she has only one chance to experience her full sensuality -- with a Montana cowboy with a bad rep. "Strangers in the Night," Leandra Logan's novella noir, gives a private eye more of an eyeful than he bargains for. In Anne Marie Winston's "The Maine Attraction" two strangers on the ocean shore share one night that just might last a lifetime.


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