The tagline on New York Times bestselling author Julie Garwood’s website — Suspense that Cuts Straight to the Heart — aptly describes her latest contemporary title, ‘Murder List’.

I’ve read most of Julie’s historical romances and loved how she always manages to weave such poignant emotions around her main characters. Her heroines are usually feisty, resourceful and courageous in one way or another. My very first Julie Garwood romance was ‘Saving Grace’ and to this day it has remained on my bookshelf, even while I read and return the other novels. The other titles I love include ‘The Secret’, ‘Ransom’, ‘The Wedding’ and ‘The Bride’. She uses lush descriptive language and tight narrative to bring medieval Scotland to glorious life in these books revolving around the central theme of loyalty, honour and passion.

With ‘Murder List’ (see synopsis here), she transports the reader to a dark and seedy Chicago, using the third person perspective of a mentally unbalanced and tortured murderer interchangeably with the victim, hotel heiress Regan Hamilton, to give one a glimpse into a twisted mind and the quiet bravery of a heroine with a true heart of gold. She strings you along with suspense and intrigue that builds steadily, interspersing the story with heart-stopping moments of panic as well as some heart-warming snippets of the budding romance between Regan and her police detective bodyguard. You don’t learn the name of the psycho until nearly the end, and it does make for some good mystery solving.

Having read Lisa Keyplas on and off since I first stumbled upon ‘Stranger In My Arm’, I thought I was well acquainted with her unconventional pairing of opposites and refreshing focus on a Regency society outside the aristocrats’ circle. Well, I was wrong.

I was reminded of her uncanny ability to capture the mood of the period and make it come alive for the reader when I read ‘Secrets of a Summer Night’, which launches her Wallflower series. The series follows four young ladies who, tired of being relegated to the sidelines, made a pact to help each other find their dream match. (Go visit her website for a peek at the trailers, and while you’re at it, have some fun with the Wallflower Quiz).

Against the backdrop of a Victorian England on the cusp of industrial modernisation, Lisa has brilliantly evoked the subtle tension and conflicting emotions surrounding an impoverished genteel lady, Annabelle Peyton, and an ‘upstart’ commoner with the Midas touch, Simon Hunt, when they fall for each other in ‘Secrets’ … and rather unwillingly on Annabelle’s part I might say. The story doesn’t end at the altar though, Lisa went on to give her readers a glimpse of their married lives and the shifting of their mindsets as they adjust to a world where the ranks between nobility and commonality are slowly being blurred by the advent of industrial revolution, such as the invention of the steam locomotive.

With ‘The Paid Companion’, Amanda Quick is officially on my list of favourite authors.

I’ve only ever read a couple of her other books, but could recall only two of them — ‘Mistress’ and ‘Dangerous’. However, from the moment I read the prologue of ‘The Paid Companion’, I was hooked. Having already been acquainted with Quick’s tart sense of humour, vivid detailing and exciting plots in her two other books, I knew from the first pages when she introduced the reader to the heroine and hero, that this is going to be a fun romp through elegant Regency London.

The mystery ended for me yesterday when I read the final email from the creators of The Daughters of Freya.

I went through three weeks of suspense and intrigue via email to experience this who-dun-it that Michael Betcherman and David Diamond have chosen to deliver digitally, and boy it was worth every penny of the US$4.99 that I paid. There was a hint of voyeurism in the way you accidentally stumble across emails sent between the central characters of the mystery.

For the clueless, Daughters is one of the major breakthroughs in the online writing community. Michael and David has chosen an excellent genre to deliver their story. And what a story it is … there’s a cult, murder, hi-tech crime and a little car-chase drama involved, althugh you get to read some parts of the news secondhand through external links. (Am not going to give away the story here so if you wish to read a synopsis, go to the plot site). There were times when I was so immersed in the story, as the story occurs in real time, I wished I could jump right in and email the heroine to share my suspicions and theories with her.

I’ve been fascinated with mythology since young, and grew up with on a steady diet of fairy tales, Greek myths and Arthurian legends.

One of my favourite Olympians is strong, silent Hades, also called Pluto by the Romans. Not for me his promiscuous and lascivious brothers, Zeus and Poseidon, whose exploits make them seem heartless. Hades, the King of the Dead (not death — that’s Thanatos), has had to make do with a realm that is harsh, cold and unforgiving compared to the bountiful ones that Zeus and Posiedon had chosen as theirs. I can certainly appreciate why he carried Persephone (which means dazzling brightness, or brilliant destroyer, in Greek) off to his underground kingdom to be his Queen. His poor lonely heart must have yearned for a soulmate to understand and love him. This was the central theme explored to its fullest by Roberta Gellis when she retold the story of Hades and Persephone in ‘Dazzling Brightness’, giving it a very plausible but romantic spin. And fleshing out Hades as the misunderstood hero I’ve always imagined him to be.

She followed up this marvellous tale with ‘Shimmering Splendour’, which immortalised the love between Eros and Psyche, and ‘Enchanted Fire’, a magnificent revival of the timeless romance of Orpheus and Eurydice. Each book presents a fresh perspective of well-loved Greek myths while the emotions experienced by the books’ characters are very human. It is not far fetched to expound that the Olympians are powerful mages that the awe struck ancient Greeks elevate to gods, and then attempt to recreate in their own image.

I fell in love with Madeline Hunter after reading ‘By Arrangement’. This poignant historical romance is set in 14th century England, during the reign of a young King Edward III. It tells the story of one of her most swoon worthy heroes, David de Abyndon, a seemingly ordinary merchant with extraordinary charisma, poise and honour, and how he won the love and heart of his lady, Christiana Fitzwaryn, a baron’s daughter who was married to him by the decree of their ambitious king.

The story has all the ingredients of an utterly engrossing historical romance. There’s historical intrigue (David is also a spy for King Edward), powerful emotions aplenty and compelling main and secondary characters. Hunter was very effective in painting a vivid picture of the historical setting, a trait that she kept up for all her historical novels. I was so moved by David and Christiana that I went on to read about other related characters in ‘The Protector’, ‘Lord of a Thousand Nights’ and ‘Stealing Heaven’, which brings the reader back to when David was slightly younger. I was totally seduced by David the character. He is everything a hero should be: honourable, kind, passionate and intelligent.