Melissa Senate

Everyone who's read my novels knows I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE stories about sisters. Writing them and reading them. I recently finished the wonderful Garden Spells (I was late to the party on that) and now I'm about to start Ellen Meister's new novel, which sounds so good!

Ellen Meister, author of the hilarious The Secret Confessions of the Applewood PTA returns with THE SMART ONE, a funny and sexy tale of love, family, and transcending the childhood identities that mark us all.

Beverly Bloomrosen has always been the smart one, the middle sister sandwiched between Clare, the beautiful and popular older one, and Joey, the rebellious rock-star younger one. But she’s hit a bit of a slump lately. Now 35, she’s embarking on a new career as an elementary school teacher and not exactly living up to her family’s expectations (“Maybe she can work her way up and eventually teach high school. That wouldn’t be so bad,” her mother helpfully comments). Bev has moved back into her parents' home on Long Island while waiting to see if a job opportunity in Las Vegas materializes, seeing it as her chance to start afresh…but before she knows it, life back at home starts to get very interesting.Kenny Waxman, Bev’s childhood neighbor—and the boy who almost became her high school boyfriend until she found him in bed with Joey—returns. Now a successful comedy writer in Los Angeles, he can still make her heart pound…and the attraction is still mutual.Things take a turn for the sinister when a pregnant woman’s body is found in an industrial drum buried in the Waxmans’ backyard. As Bev and her sisters begin to unravel some mysteries of the past, some secrets of the present are revealed: Bev learns that the perfect Clare may not be as perfect as her glamorous, well-coiffed suburban life may suggest, while rebellious Joey is still attempting to exorcise some of the demons that have haunted her for years. In the end, the curse of being the smart one may just turn out to be a blessing.This summer, discover the surprising side of suburban life in Ellen Meister’s darkly funny and vividly told sister story, THE SMART ONE.

About the Author
Ellen Meister grew up in the heartland of suburban Long Island. She spent her early career in advertising and marketing, and later worked as editor for a literary magazine and published numerous short stories. Her first novel was Secret Confessions of the Applewood PTA (Morrow/Avon, 2006). Meister lives in New York with her husband and three children. To find out more, visit her website at ellenmeister.com.

Praise for THE SMART ONE

"Wonderfully funny, irreverent and entirely unexpected. I loved it!"
- Jane Green, bestselling author of The Beach House

"A perfect beach read!"
- Booklist

Enjoy!

The Girlfriends Cyber Circuit is a very talented and very diverse group of authors who blog about each other's new novels. I'm happy to present  HOTTER THAN HELL by Jackie Kessler. That is one hot guy on the cover. He reminds of the hot actor who I've completely lost track of, and of course I can't even remember his name, but he was in the drug movie Rush with Jennifer Jason Leigh a bunch of years ago.

Anyway! In HELL’S BELLES and THE ROAD TO HELL, Jackie Kessler brought readers into an unforgettable Underworld populated by alluring demons and sexy devils. Now Daunuan, the most irresistible incubus of all, is facing one Hell of a challenge… So whose soul do you have to damn to get a promotion around here? Daunuan was never the ambitious type. There's so much to love about his job just the way it is—mind-blowing sexual prowess, the power to seduce any human, excellent dental plan. But now Pan, the King of Lust, has offered to make Daun his right-hand incubus—a position other demons would give their left horn for. All he has to do is entice a soul destined for heaven into a damnable act of lust. Should take, oh, seven minutes, tops. Then he meets his target, Virginia Reed. She’s cute. Funny. Smart. Unfathomably resistant to his charms. He can’t understand it. But Daun has centuries of seduction to his credit. He’s the best there is. Sooner or later he’ll transform this polar icecap of a female into a pool of molten desire, and every instinct tells him she’ll be worth the effort.

Meanwhile, he has to deal with a plague of rogue demons Hell-bent on taking him down, sent by an unknown enemy with a serious grudge. And one other problem: the dawning realization that he’s falling in love—that unholiest of four-letter words—with the woman he’s about to doom for all eternity…

Praise for HOTTER THAN HELL:
"Jackie Kessler is firmly on my list of favorite authors. Hotter Than Hell is edgy and filled with hot temptation–in the form of an incubus so sexy, daring, and delicious that you'll be offering him your own soul. Fast paced and clever, Kessler's writing shines."
— Cheyenne McCray, New York Times bestselling author of Shadow Magic

"Kessler has outdone herself by giving readers a glorious book three of her deliciously sinful series, Hell on Earth. Daunuan's sexy supernatural antics make sparks fly, and if you're not careful you'll singe your fingers as the pages speed by. It's packed with quirky characters, a spicy, fast-paced plot and witty dialogue. Be prepared for a demonic treat that's hotter than hell."
— Romantic Times, 4.5 stars (top pick for August 2008)

Happy Reading! More reading recommendations coming soon. I've been reading like crazy. 

  Exactly 20 years ago on this very day, 8/8/88, I began my first day at work at Harlequin, the romance publisher. I was a very fresh-faced 22-year-old from New York City and had never seen a horse close up. Most people think women read romance novels for the romance, but I read them and loved them for the ranches and farms and cowboys. When I first started reading  category romances for work, 75% of them were set on farms or ranches, and I was crazy for that setting. I have no idea if cowboys in real life are like the cowboys in Harlequin romances, but I hope they are. 

I worked for the Silhouette Books division from 1988 to 1998, then left to be the editor of the New Adventures of Mary-Kate and Ashley ("We'll solve any crime by dinner time!"), then  became the editor of Sweet Valley University (Jessica and Elizabeth were in junior high, high school and college simultaneously), and then I wrote my own novel, SEE JANE DATE, which Harlequin bought for their Red Dress Ink imprint in 2001. They bought six more, including my latest, QUESTIONS TO ASK BEFORE MARRYING, which was published this past June. All these years later, I am still working for Harlequin as a freelance copywriter and editor. If you're reading a Harlequin book right now, turn it over to the back cover–there's a good chance I wrote that. 

Anyway, it's hard to believe it's been 20 years since that first day. That was a lucky day of 8s, and now this is another. We'll see what happens. At this very moment, I am writing a back cover for a Harlequin NASCAR romance, then will start chapter 8 of my new novel, THE LOVE BUS, which will start my new life with Simon & Schuster's Pocket Books (THE LOVE BUS–and I'm not sure if we'll keep that title–will be likely published late 09). I like how it feels to have one foot in the familiar comfy world of Harlequin and one in the shiny new. A good way to start 8/8/08. 

Happy 8/8/08 to you.

Melissa