Book Review: Romanced to Death

This summer I mentored an aspiring writer as part of the Barbara Burnett Smith Aspiring Writers Event. There were a lot of published authors who mentored, Susan Rogers Cooper among them. Frankly, it was like homecoming to get to see authors/friends I hadn’t visited with in a while. Susan is one of my favorites. She’s written three series.

Romanced to Death is the latest (the 8th) in her EJ Pugh mystery series. I would call Romanced to Death a cozy since the protagonist, EJ, is a housewife who gets involved in crimes because she’s curious, believes in righting wrongs, and just can’t seem to help herself. I should also mention EJ is a romance writer. In Romanced to Death, EJ is up for the top award given out for romance writers. Therefore, EJ comes to Austin for the big convention and gets caught up in backstabbing writers, crazy fans and ditzy reporters, and, of course, murder. But it’s not all about EJ. When EJ heads to Austin, she leaves behind her husband and three kids. Those three kids are headed for trouble as a brother who’s been dead for 10 years turns up on the Internet stalking one of the sisters.

If you’ve ever been to a writers’ or fan conference, you’ll enjoy Susan’s opening of the curtains on the behind the scenes shenanigans. And if you ever go to another conference, you’ll spend more time in the bar where the real action plays out.

EJ tells her story in first person. She takes you along on a wild ride. You’ll get to know her, her family and her writer friends. And you’ll worry about her kids as they do just what parents tell teens never to do - they begin to believe the Internet stalker. He may just be the long-lost brother.