This is one of Kay Hooper’s earlier Loveswept novels.

Title: In Serena’s Web
Series: Hagen Series #1
Author: Kay Hooper
Genre:  Contemporary Romance
Published: 1987 Original Loveswept #189 (reissue March, 2010)
Source: own

At twenty-six, Serena Jameson is a handful—brilliant, manipulative, and passionate, at least when it comes to righting the wrongs of the world. Her father, a renowned computer magnate, is worried about Serena’s impetuous nature—as well as a far more tangible threat—and entrusts a colleague, handsome Brian Ashford, to ferry her on a trip across the country. But as usual, Serena has ideas of her own.

A novice in affairs of the heart, Serena asks Brian to give her a crash course in seduction so that she can tame the notorious womanizer Joshua Long. But what starts as a simple lesson in love becomes a complex erotic dance, as both men find themselves caught in the snares of Serena’s undeniable wiles. Is Serena trying to attract her declared target or her teacher? Who is really ensnaring whom? And can she finish weaving her web before the mysterious cabal eager to kill Serena’s father manages to succeed—over her dead body?

For the times (1987) this novel was written for, In Serena’s Web was a light-hearted, fast-paced romance for the Loveswept line which featured mostly this formula for their romance novels.

This is the original cover.  Yeah, I know.  🙂

One thing I am grateful to the Loveswept line is the fact that they sent so many new, wanting to be published, struggling writers out into the reading world who went on to write, for the most part, vastly different styles of novels.  And far, far more in depth characters and world-building.  The writer Kay Hooper who wrote this novel is the same person who now writes the Bishop paranormal crime fighting novels.  The two styles of writing and novels could not be further apart.

I put this post up for mostly memory sake.  At one time Loveswept and similar publishing houses of the time period, were mostly what I read.  At that time, they were good stories.  Now.  A trip down memory lane to a so-so story that I would not pick up to read today.

Guess I’ve  moved on to other novel styles as well.

Oh Serena?  Well she was a manipulative, spoiled brat who got two men hot for her and then picked one for a happily ever after.  Yeah, pure formula.