Susan Kay Law is an author I have been trying to glom for a while. And her backlist was a bitch to get my hands on. Lucky for me I got some help and now have them all, almost.

SKL has been a guest blogger over at Squawk Radio. I haven’t been to this blog much so I am not certain how long a ‘guest’ blogger blogs. But so far she has up about 4 or 5 posts. I am hoping there are more, she really needs a blog.

The blog titled:
The one about why Susie doesn’t have a book out next year
(which I have no fucking clue how to link to directly… sorry)
Basically she tells that she is no longer under contract at AVON (something that prolly makes kristiej happy 😉 ). And regarding what she has been working on sez:

I wrote. I wrote rather a lot, actually. Small bits of two historicals and a healthy chunk of a contemporary that is absolutely NOT a romance. It was interesting. The contemp’s not as much FUN to write – not nearly as much of an escape from real life, not as much of a fantasy. But it some ways it’s easier. You can use all sort of your personal frustrations and steal all kinds of ideas from your friends and neighbors’ lives. (Though you have to disguise them better.)

ACK!!!!!! I am so sad about this and so hope she doesn’t leave american history/westerns whatever you want to call them behind! Her coming soon page say next is a historical but not much else. But that doesn’t match up well with the blog so who knows. I just have my fingers crossed it isn’t women’s fiction, cuz ick.

But back to the backlist. SKL does something on her site I wish more authors would do, she give a lil history to each book. Very cool to read.

OOP first:
Journey Home
LOVE this book. It is your basic road romance with a wagon trip west. Jessamyn Johnston has spent the last three years taking care of her sick father. She is now alone and wants to make her way to California to find her brother. Of course the wagon train won’t let a single woman join them. Enter Tony Winchester, who is off to CA to find his best friend who left taking their money, horses and dreams of starting a business together. He overhears Jessie trying to join the train and comes up to ask his ‘wife’ if she has taken care of everything.

Great first novel, great novel period, if you enjoy Amer Hist/Westerns get your hands on this.

Traitorous Hearts
summary on site: They were on opposites sides of a war, held apart by duty, family, and danger, but brought together by a love that overcame it all.

This is tbr.

Reckless Angel
summary on site: Sprawling fun in post-Gold Rush San Francisco – a control freak hero, a resolutely uncontrollable heroine, a wild saloon, and a cast of outrageous and eccentric characters.

Another great book and a sequel to Journey Home. It follows Jessie brother J.J. and takes place at his saloon The Naked Rose. Not as wonderful as JH but very good.

Home Fires
summary on site: A woman with too many secrets and a man with too many memories are brought together by two young boys and a love that could rescue them all.

another tbr that I didn’t realize tied in character from two later books I have read. YAY

Heaven in West Texas
another tbr but honestly a book I go back and forth on reading…

summary on site: Joshua West had been a lot of things — a lover, a drifter, a soldier, a cowboy. What he’d never been before was dead, and he wasn’t too crazy about it. Especially when he found out he was assigned to do the very last thing on heaven or earth he wanted to do: watch over the woman who jilted him when he was alive.

I am very eh on ghosts in books. I am thinking I should read the end first and do a pulse check. But since it is OOP and I adore the SKL books I have read, I figured I better get it. Cuz otherwise I would decide later I MUST have it and then not be able to find it.

One Lonely Night
summary on site:On a desolate night in the Dakota territories, fate deposits a mysterious drifter at the door of a lonely spinster. It was supposed to be just one passionate night … instead, it became the love of a lifetime.
Great review on AAR.

SKL writes a hell of a good cabin romance. And I love those type of books, where the H/H are stuck together for most of the book.

hmmmm there is one I don’t have… Baby on the Doorstep
I am thinking I was blocking out that she is in an anthology with Cassie Edwards. Anyone read this book?

The Last Man in Town
summary on site: One man faces an unusual dilemma when he finds himself the only able-bodied, red-blooded man in a town full of lonely women.

A friends to lovers story. Very sweet and I loved the H/H, my only issue is it moved a little slow and took too long lusting after one another. But once we get to the lovers part it is certainly hot and well written.

The Most Wanted Bachelor
summary on site: Kathryn has set her sights on the most wanted bachelor in Denver. But, once she realizes his love is worth more than his loot, will she be forgiven?

This is the my least favorite of all her books. By way of the plot the H/H spend most of the book apart, even when they are in the same room, due to keeping so many secrets from one another.

The Bad Man’s Bride
summary on site: When her priviledged world falls apart, Anthea Bright just builds a new life a life for herself. She knows the one thing she absolutely cannot afford to do is get involved with the town’s most disreputable citizen, Gabriel Jackson… oops. Too late!

This is the second book by SKL I read and what pretty much sent me in the direction of glom. SKL has great female characters. They are generally strong, able to care for themselves and not afraid of life. Anthea displays this perfectly. And the hero, is not at all as he is painted by the town. What he is, is the stuff dreams are made of.

Marry Me
summary on site: The rugged loner Jake Sullivan has finally returned home – to find a brazen, beautiful trespasser in his bed. Emily Bright intends to stay. But has Jake been saddled with an unwanted intruder…or blessed with a bride?

This is the second in the Marrying Miss Bright trilogy and is tbr. AAR has a review up.

A Wedding Story
summary on site: Kate Bright Goodale has no intention of meekly accepting her suddenly straightened circumstances. But her best plan for a comfortable future requires entering an uneasy alliance with the one man she’d never been able to control. . . the one man she’d never been able to forget: dashing adventurer Lord James Bennett.

This is the third in the Marrying Miss Bright trilogy and is tbr. AAR has a review up.

And last but not least her most recent book and one of this years RITA winners (one of the few I have read)
A Wanted Man
summary on site: Sheltered Laura Hamilton, traveling to the Silver Spur Ranch, is tasting thrilling freedom for the first time. Mysterious Sam Duncan is a loner by choice, but has vowed to attach himself to anyone who can get him where he needs to go. And if that means playing upon the wide-eyed dreams of a pampered heiress, then so be it.

This is the first book by SKL I read, which lead me to look her up on AAR and find her website and of course ended up with reading Bad Man’s Bride and then the year+ search for the backlist.

I adore the H/H in AWM. Laura is different from many of SKL heroines in she is seeking her independence and trying to learn how to stand on her own. Laura and Sam play off each other well, and again we have road romance which is great. But with a beginning that was so strong it takes too long to reach the climax, and the ending felt rushed. Regardless of the pace, I would recommend this to anyone looking for a western or a road romance.

So regardless of what she writes next, I have at least 5 tbr. And I wish her all the luck in the world with writing whatever kinds of books she wants to. I just cross my fingers there will be westerns in there somewhere :).