Tag: Kay Hooper

Review: In Serena’s Web by Kay Hooper

Posted January 31, 2015 by Marsha in Contemporary Romance / 0 Comments

In Serena's Web KHThis 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. In Serena's web original 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.

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Throwback Thursday: Time After Time by Kay Hooper

Posted January 22, 2015 by Marsha in This one's a Keeper / 0 Comments

Time After Time KH Large

Title:Time After Time

Author: Kay Hooper

Original Publisher: Loveswept

Original Release Date: 1986

 

Book Description:

A tale of ageless love and the power of fate, in which dreams from the distant past imperil one woman’s search for a passion that transcends history …

They first met in a darkened loft, in the middle of a blackout, but the power of attraction supplied all the juice that Alex Bennet and Noah Thorne required. Noah was Alex’s match in every way, while the onetime lion tamer turned world-class interior designer possessed just the air of wildness that Noah preferred in a woman. Inexorably, they found themselves drawn together. So why was each haunted by dreams of the other that seemed to hint at secret lives in bygone times and places–and a relationship fated to end in separation? For Alex, the solution may lie in a Gypsy fortune-teller’s prophecy. To repeat the past is the one thing neither of them wants–but how do you overcome the pull of a destiny that is stronger than time itself?

Time AfterTimeOriginal

This is the original Loveswept#149 cover.  Big difference between that and the reissued release of 2009.  What’s not to love about a former lion tamer turned interior designer who just happens to have a toothless lion as a house pet?

I have loved Kay Hooper’s work for a long time.  I first discovered her through the otherworldly, mystical, magical, always fun romances in the Loveswept line.

When she started Bishop and his paranormal investigators, the light-hearted stories were left behind.  And that’s okay.  Every writer grows and eventually finds their niche, their unique take on the world… but I am grateful to have discovered Kay Hooper much earlier. That just means I got to enjoy her work longer.  🙂

This has been my Thursday Throwback novel to share.  If you ever want some light, funny, mystical romance in your life, check out Kay Hooper’s earlier works.

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Haunted by Kay Hooper (A Review)

Posted January 3, 2015 by Marsha in This one's a Keeper / 0 Comments

Haunted Kay HooperLet me start this review with a sort of disclaimer:  I have always loved Kay Hooper’s Bishop/Special Crimes Units novels.  That enjoyment doesn’t mean that I don’t know that some are better than others – but – I enjoy the stories nonetheless.  Having said that…

from Goodreads:

How do you make peace with the dead if the dead aren’t ready to forgive? In New York Times bestselling author Kay Hooper’s new novel, the answer lies in the twisting shadows of a small town, and its secrets yet unearthed…

When Deacon James’s younger sister Melanie calls him, terrified, he goes to her aid in the small Georgia town of Sociable. What he finds is a scared young woman in the grip of what she insists is a paranormal nightmare—and murder. Two local men have been killed under mysterious circumstances. And Melanie is the prime suspect.

Trinity Nichols left a high-stress job for quiet, small-town life. But news of the murders has left her—and the town—on edge, especially when there is nothing remotely ordinary about how the men died. And her investigation is yielding more than she bargained for, including a group of strangers who have descended on Sociable, some with abilities Trinity finds hard to believe, and agendas she refuses to trust. For some reason, they know a lot more than they should about what’s happening in town. And what’s happening is growing stranger by the minute.

Now Trinity, Deacon, and this odd band of FBI agents must work together to solve a series of disturbances so incredible that Trinity, and the town of Sociable, will be changed forever. She just isn’t certain who—or what—will be left standing when it’s all over.

This book is in my personal collection- owned.

Read on for my review of Haunted – no spoilers, promise.

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