0310–Featured Author: Sandra Brown

[Melody]

In a recent blog post, SB Sarah talked about the relationship between romance and mystery and how authors, publishers, and readers define (and find) it.

Sandra Brown is a prolific mainstream author of what are commonly termed thrillers. But here in Romancelandia might we recognize her works as romance or romantic suspense novels, or are they simply novels with romantic elements?

What is it it that makes a novel a romance, a mystery, or even women's fiction (and where do we find them in the bookstore)? We're the readers, we get to decide (well, not about the bookstores).

[~Sara~]

I've never read anything by her so I'm going to try Envy. It looks interesting, has a high rating and the library has it.

[BJ Rose]

This is great! I just checked Envy out from the library for another challenge, so I'm set to go.

[BJ Rose]

The Sandra Brown books I read in the 1980s *Adam's Fall, Honor Bound, etc.* were definitely romance books, but everything of hers that I've read in the last decade - Charade, The Witness, and now Envy - I definitely place in the contemporary suspense with romantic elements category. Envy is a good read; a well-told story with some predictable plotlines but also some surprising twists.

[Kasia]

Oh goodness! A BHB author that I actually read, how great?! I felt really bad having read so few of the previous selections.

I'm with BJ Rose Envy is a great read. That and Chill Factor are my favorite of Brown's. But it's all somewhere inbetween of mystery thriller and romance (not that I mind).

[Vanessa]

Envy was my first novel by Sandra Brown, and I really loved it. I've heard some of hers are good and others are not. I just found a couple of her romances at a book sale; they are A Treasure Worth Seeking and French Silk. Both of them seem to have got average ratings. Since I'm late for this discussion, I'll put them on the shelf and give them a try one of these days. Usually I pick up a book as the mood strikes, and so it could be tomorrow or the next year, who knows.