Riverhaven Books

For Love of Romance: Thursday, August 16th, 7PM

The Book Shack, Independence Mall, Kingston

A panel of romance authors

Romance can be defined in many ways. Be it stereotypical gifts of roses on Valentine’s Day or the intense passion demonstrated in movies, the genre explores the depths of the human heart and the characters’ connections to one another.

This free event, sponsored by The Book Shack of Kingston, will feature four local authors. Their books are as diverse as the authors’ backgrounds. Come find out what drew each to the genre.

Pam Loewy’s contemporary romantic suspense novel Saving Jemma begins with the main character fleeing New York after a divorce and the trauma of witnessing a fatal robbery. New Englander Jemma Abbott finds herself stranded in a North Dakota snowstorm with an enigmatic stranger. Lawman Wyatt Kelly doesn’t believe Jemma’s claim that she’s in North Dakota to visit an old friend and her fiancé, who just happens to be Wyatt’s cousin. Too much about her story doesn’t make sense. Despite Wyatt’s suspicions and Jemma’s reluctance to get romantically involved again, the two are drawn together by an irresistible attraction. Their encounter is cut short when Wyatt’s cousin is severely injured in a hit-and-run. When Wyatt realizes this was no accident, but rather the result of a murderous conspiracy that has Jemma in its crosshairs, he rushes to Boston to protect her and bring the perpetrators to justice. But neither friends nor foes are precisely what they seem.

Virginia Young, a native New Englander, explores romance in each of her five novels. The first, Out of the Blue, opens on Thanksgiving Eve and is set in Plymouth where Samantha Elwyn is visiting her grandparents; a chance encounter leads her to the question of whether or not to open her heart . In her second novel, The Birthday Gift, which takes place in Connecticut, Cole has twice fallen in love with the same girl – once when he’s five and again when they are reunited twenty-two years later. Will he have the confidence to let Jerica know how he feels? Her third, Sleepless Tides, has the main character search for escape and find herself and love on the coast of Maine. Winter Waltz, set at a Vermont ski lodge, has Autumn Sterling forced to make an adjustment to her way of life. Thrown into her turmoil of recovery from an accident and family struggles is the temptation of Mick Silver. And Virginia’s most recent release, A Family of Strangers, explores the life of Wendy who suffers from anmensia and is brought to a family she doesn’t know in a place that is only slightly familiar. But haunting recollections of an old farm gate, fields of flowers, and the name Rachel will not release her until she uncovers the truth.

Marissa Doyle mixes mystery and magic with heroines who discover their own unique strengths and abilities, and heroes who are worthy of them. According to Marissa, these are the perfect ingredients for a book! You’ll find these items in her young adult historical fantasies Bewitching Season, Betraying Season, and Courtship and Curses, all from Henry Holt Books for Young Readers. Kirkus Reviews wrote that Courtship and Curses is “[A] cheery Regency fantasy….Doyle’s gift, on display in earlier historical fantasies (Bewitching Season, 2008, etc.), lies in creating vivid female characters and the bonds between them.”

The fourth panelist has just released his first novel, Rite of Passage, through Wild Rose Press. Kevin Symmons, who also serves as the President of the Cape Cod Writers Center, left the world of business to pursue his dream of fiction in print. If the phrase: He had everything…until he met Courtney isn’t enough of a draw, the novel begins in June, 1947 at Sebago Lake, Maine. Robert McGregor, 23, has a life worthy of envy. He’s a Boston Brahmin, soon to attend Harvard Law School, and has a lovely young woman awaiting him back in Boston. His perfect life takes an unexpected turn when he meets Courtney Wellington. She is the stuff that dreams are made of: exquisite, vulnerable, and desperately alone…or so it seems. But Courtney’s identity is more extraordinary than he could imagine. The 40th in a line of Wiccan Goddesses, Courtney and her friends have special plans for Robbie. The passion, non-stop action, and constant plot twists make it a story both sexes will find engaging.

These authors, as well as their books, are sure to engage. Their love of writing and success with honing their talents will lead the audience through a fantastic evening of finding out what makes romance a key factor in their work.

The event will be hosted by Riverhaven Books owner Stephanie Blackman. Her company, which opened in August, 2010, has published fourteen books to date. More projects are on the printing press. To find out more, please visit www.RiverhavenBooks.com.