Avon Romance Editors are in the Daily News! Yes, yours truly and a fellow editor appear in an ARTICLE all about Erotica–or, as the less bold call it, Romantica! I tried to duck the photo shoot, but it was in vain. Now, I’m ready for strange men both old and young to send me emails asking me about “favorite positions.” (I already got one of these!) I also recently had a man named “Walter” who had a possibly made-up foreign accent pitch me something about “the freedom a woman finds when she lets herself go.” Since most of NYC has probably seen this, you all might as well see it, too. Check out the link…and remember, this was definitely in the name of duty.

By Amanda Mackenzie Stuart On a November day in 1895, crowds of curious sightseers gathered outside St. Thomas Church on Fifth Avenue in New York, intent on spotting a small dapper bridegroom whom they knew to be a great English aristocrat awaiting his bride-to-be. When she arrived, twenty minutes late, anyone who caught a glimpse beneath Consuelo Vanderbilt’s veil would have seen that her face was swollen from crying. When Consuelo’s grandfather died, he was the richest man in America. Her father soon started to spend the family fortune, enthusiastically supported by Consuelo’s mother, Alva, who was determined to take the family to the top of New York society. She was adamant that her daughter should make a grand marriage, and the underfunded Duke of Marlborough was just the thing. It didn’t matter that Consuelo loved someone else; as Alva once told her, “I don’t ask you to think, I do the thinking, you do as you’re told.” However, the story of Consuelo and Alva is not simply one of the emptiness of wealth, of the glamour of the Gilded Age, and of enterprising social ambition. This is a fascinating account of how two women struggled to break free from [...]

By Lynn Montana Trouble’s easy to find . . . if you know where to look for it. My mother thinks I’m a delicate Southern flower. But believe me, Lexie Chandler’s not someone to take lightly! I’m a gemologist, a karate black belt, and can accurately fire any gun out there. Plus, I won’t back down . . . ever! And right now, my sights are set on the Heart of Burma, a magnificent, blood-red ruby that’s currently in the hands of a rebel gunrunner holed up in the tiger-infested Burmese jungle. I hate to admit it, but I can’t do this one alone. Luckily, nails-tough American expatriate Cole Bannon is willing to partner up. But this guy’s so drop-dead gorgeous and blisteringly hot, how am I going to keep my mind on the mission at hand — especially since we’ll be facing a small army, and maybe even a hungry jungle predator or two? Besides, who knows what Cole’s true agenda is . . . or if the survival of Lexie Chandler is part of it. ISBN13: 9780060742577; ISBN: 0060742577; Imprint: Avon; On Sale: 02/28/2006; Format: Mass Market PB; Trimsize: 4 3/16 x 6 3/4; Pages: 384; $5.99

By Lorraine Heath The handsome duke whom Victoria married is more deliciously exciting than the cold-hearted rogue she was engaged to… How could he possibly be the same man? ISBN13: 9780060749767; ISBN: 0060749768; Imprint: Avon; On Sale: 09/27/2005; Format: Mass Market PB; Trimsize: 4 3/16 x 6 3/4; Pages: 384; $5.99

By Julianne MacLean A picture of deception… Annabelle Lawson knew nothing about the breathtaking stranger she met on the train — only that he’d make an ideal model for the budding young artist…and that she desired him more than she believed possible. But after she’d been seduced, she learned that she’d also been betrayed. The man she thought she loved was really Magnus Wallis — a scoundrel like his father before him, the loathed cousin of Annabelle’s benefactor, the honorable Earl of Whitby. A landscape of love… No longer the naively romantic girl who would tumble for a rogue, Annabelle cannot avoid a reunion with the despicable Magnus, who wants to include her portraits in his new London gallery. She means to show him her coldest face — but upon seeing him again, her every intention melts from the heat of his touch. It is clear that Magnus still burns with love for her. But is he still the villain he once was, or can he be reformed into a man Annabelle can dare to love? ISBN13: 9780060819354; ISBN: 0060819359; Imprint: Avon; On Sale: 02/28/2006; Format: Mass Market PB; Trimsize: 4 3/16 x 6 3/4; Pages: 384; $6.99

So I was woefully wrong about OSCAR®. I’d have never guessed CRASH in a million years. I really thought the cowboys would take both of the biggest awards, and my mistake probably cost me my place in the office Oscar® pool. (Getting all the special effects right means absolutely nothing in the grand scheme of things!) I was also wrong about Clooney, but for the third year in a row somehow managed to figure out Best Documentary. Those penguins might have been the best thing about the night, which, for all the controversy about the movies themselves, was really one of the most boring ever. I spent half the time trying to figure out if Michelle Williams’ dress was fantastic or just plain awful. On a DIFFERENT subject, check out yesterday’s post about Shanna. Next to THE FLAME AND THE FLOWER, this book is mentioned by more people I talk to as their second favorite Kathleen Woodiwiss novel. “They” don’t write ‘em like that anymore, and most of the time I think it’s kind of a shame!

By Kathleen E Woodiwiss Behind the foreboding walls of Newgate Prison, a pact is sealed in secret — as a dashing and doomed criminal consents to wed a beautiful heiress . . . in return for one night of unparalleled pleasure. In the fading echoes of hollow wedding vows, a promise is broken — as a sensuous free-spirit flees to a lush Caribbean paradise, abandoning the handsome stranger she married to the gallows. But Ruark Beauchamp’s destiny is now eternally intertwined with his exquisite, tempestuous Shanna’s. And no iron ever forged can imprison his magnificent passion . . . and no hangman’s noose will deny him the ecstasy that is rightfully his. Behind the foreboding walls of Newgate Prison, a pact is sealed in secret — as a dashing and doomed criminal consents to wed a beautiful heiress. . .in return for one night of unparalleled pleasure. In the fading echoes of hollow wedding vows, a promise is broken — as a sensuous free-sirit flees to a lush Caribbean paradise, abandoning the handsome stranger she married to the gallows. But Ruark Beauchamp’s destiny is now eternally intertwined ewith his exquisite, tempestuous Shanna’s. And no iron ever forged can imprison his [...]

By Mameve Medwed What do a chamber pot, a famous poet, a family feud, and a long-ago suitor all have in common? In this delicious laugh-out-loud new novel of love and loss, rivalry and reconciliation, treasure and trash, by acclaimed author Mameve Medwed (Mail, The End of an Error), we see what happens when past and present collide. . . . Elizabeth Barrett Browning might have written about the length and breadth of love, but Abby Randolph has given up on all that, preferring to spend her time between her cluttered “needs work” apartment and the overcrowded antiques mart — the optimistically named Objects of Desire. Yet Abby can’t help but wonder what happened to her earlier passionate self who rejected the path set out for her, dropping out of Harvard and falling headfirst into an ill-fated love affair. . . . Then the Antiques Roadshow comes to town, and Abby turns up at the crack of dawn, artifact in hand, standing alongside thousands of Boston’s hopefuls. But there, among the carousel horses, pipe sets, potbellied stoves, and bedraggled stuffed animals, it is Abby’s rather ordinary — and squalid — piece of porcelain that gets the star treatment. Abby is [...]

By Karen Hawkins Just ask Reeves! Dying without legitimate issue, the late Earl of Rochester sent his butler extraordinaire, Reeves, to find his wild, illegitimate children and “civilize” them. Reeves must seek out the first of the earl’s arrogant sons, Captain Tristan Llevanth, a one-time pirate, and teach him to be a gentleman. A will of steel…Tristan Llevanth gave up his free-wheeling life as a pirate to fight at Admiral Nelson’s side. Wounded, Tristan will never again sail the seas he loves. Life has no more challenges. Or so he thinks, until Reeves brings a certain outspoken lady into the captain’s uncultured househol… An iron-clad spirit…Reeves believes Tristan needs a spark to relight the fires of his soul. And who better than lovely Prudence Thistlewaite, the bane of the captain’s existence? Prudence wants nothing to do with her wickedly handsome, ill-tempered neighbor. Still, she cannot refuse the outlandish sum Reeves offers to smooth Tristan’s rough edges. Can Prudence tame the rakish captain? Or will Tristan gain what he most wishes, to become…

While it has little to do with romance (or, at least, with romance novels) it’s no secret that Avon Romance Editor is obsessed with the OSCAR®. Or, rather, she is obsessed with finally winning the damn Office OSCAR® Pool. Last year, she was first runner-up, which does about as much good as winning Miss Congeniality in the Miss America Pageant or, perhaps, being voted as having Nicest Eyes in high school. So for the record here are Avon Romance Editor’s best guesses for OSCAR®. Best Picture: BROKEBACK MOUNTAINBest Director: Ang LeeBest Actress: Reese WitherspoonBest Actor: Philip Seymour HoffmanBest Supporting Actor: Jake No one can pronounce or say his last name will most likely win by a slim margin over Paul no one can spell last name.Best Supporting Actress (also known as Best Actress generally playing a hooker or sainted character): Rachel Weisz (she is playing the latter) Of course, they completely overlooked, yet again, Viggo Mortensen for Best Chistled Jaw In Subsquent Movies (all LORD OF THE RINGS plus A HISTORY OF VIOLENCE).