Hello, and welcome back! I hope you´re all staying inside with plenty of good reading material now that winter´s made its return. I have three more January romance releases to share with you this time out. I hope you´ll let me know, either via email or the forum, what you think of these books.

First up is Mary Jo Putney´s latest,
Spiral Path (Berkley). Raine Marlowe needs her soon-to-be-ex-husband for the lead role in the movie she wants to direct. Kenzie Scott has secrets he´s kept from Raine that could make this role too painful for him to take on. This pair definitely has chemistry, but they also have huge obstacles in the way of any possibility of future happiness. Ms. Putney is a very talented writer, and her second foray into the world of contemporary romance is as good as the first. I still like her historicals best, though. I do like Raine and Kenzie, though, because they´re strong characters, strong enough to face their problems head on in hopes of getting what they most desire. Of Cupid´s five arrows, they´ve earned four.

Next up is Kasey Michaels´s
Then Comes Marriage (Warner). Brady James, Earl of Singleton, is quite happily single. His best friends´ wives, however, hope to change that state for him, and when he´s beaten, they send Regina Bliss to him. Brady is convinced that his beating and attempted murder are because of Regina, and he´s determined to get to the bottom of the matter. From there, they head into all kinds of trouble. This one´s not one of my favorites--too much going on, too many characters to keep track of. The book also has one of the "cartoon" covers, which has nothing to do with the actual story--and which I´m not fond of, so it added nothing to the book. I´m giving this one only two and a half arrows.

Finally is
Touched by Fire by Kathleen O´Reilly (Jove Seduction). Colin, Earl of Haverwood, has a secret he´s kept from polite society for years. It´s also kept him single, but now he´s decided that it´s time he married and sends his man Giles to find him a wife. Sarah Banks turns out to be not quite what he´d ordered--she´s pretty, outspoken and smart, not to mention wealthy in her own right. Colin is every inch the tortured hero, and Sarah is more than his match. This story lives up to the billing of "Seduction" and then some. But Sarah´s got her work cut out for her, convincing Colin that he´s not the man he´s been lead to believe. I truly enjoyed this story and am giving it four arrows.

Until next week, happy reading!