Karen Robards

Karen Robards (born August 24, 1954) is an American author of over fifty novels. After first gaining recognition for her historical romances, Robards became one of the first historical romance novelists to successfully make the switch to contemporary romantic suspense. Her work has been translated into seventeen languages, and has won multiple awards.

Early life and education Karen Robards sold her first story in 1973. As a teenager working part-time for her orthodontist father, Robards saw a Reader's Digest solicitation for funny anecdotes. She quickly penned and submitted a two-paragraph story. Several weeks later she received a check for $100, and her entry was featured in the December 1973 Reader's Digest.

Her first attempts at writing a novel came while she was attending the University of Kentucky taking a graduate-level creative writing class, when the professor challenged each student to write 50 pages that could be published. After researching what types of books were selling well, Robards chose to write a historical romance, not realizing that she would be required to read her work aloud to the class. Although her professor and classmates laughed at her choice of subject matter, those 50 pages became the basis for her first book, Island Flame. This debut novel was published in 1981, when Robards was in her early 20s.

Career At the time that Robards's debut novel was published, the typical paperback historical romance novel had a shelf life of only three weeks. After three weeks, her novel was no longer available on bookstore shelves, and her publisher was reluctant to purchase any further work without seeing the sales figures for the current book. Undeterred, Robards dropped out of law school to pursue her writing career. To pay her bills, she took a job in an orthodontic clinic, writing a new novel in the ladies' room at the clinic while on her lunch break. She finished this second book, the contemporary romantic suspense To Love a Man, in three months. The book sold quickly to a different publisher and became the true launchpad for her writing career.

Within the next several years, Robards had three additional historical romances published, including Sea Fire, the sequel to Island Flame, before To Love a Man was officially released. After the publication of To Love a Man, Robards's new publisher contracted her to write two novels per year, one a historical romance and the other contemporary romantic suspense. In the late 1980s and early 1990s, however, publishers began to fear that the contemporary romance market was "dead", and Robards was asked to write only historicals. She switched publishers in the early 1990s, moving to Dell, and convinced them to take a chance on a new contemporary romance. That novel, One Summer, was Robards' first hardcover contemporary novel, and its success convinced Dell to ask Robards to concentrate on her contemporary novels. Her novels have been translated into eleven languages.

According to Romantic Times Magazine, "Robards has a true flair for characterization and excels at adding large doses of humor to the spicy mix." She has won a Romantic Times Career Achievement Award, six Affaire de Coeur Silver Pen awards for favorite romance novelist, along with multiple other awards for her novels.

Personal life Robards lives in her hometown, Louisville, Kentucky, with her husband, Doug Robards, and their three sons, Jack, Chris, and Peter. Her parents, three brothers, and sister live nearby.

Bibliography

Historical romance

Pirate Series Island Flame, 1981 Sea Fire, 1982

Banning Sisters Series Scandalous, 2001 Irresistible, 2002 Shameless, 2010

Historical romance novels, by publication date Island Flame, 1981 Sea Fire, 1982 Forbidden Love, 1983 Amanda Rose, 1984 Dark Torment, 1985 Loving Julia, 1986 Desire in the Sun, 1988 Tiger's Eye, 1989 Morning Song, 1990 Green Eyes, 1991 This Side of Heaven, 1991 Nobody's Angel, 1992 the enigma of the moon,1997 Scandalous, 2001 Irresistible, 2002 Shameless, 2010 The Black Swan of Paris, 2020

Thriller / romantic suspense

Jessica Ford Series Pursuit, 2009 Justice, 2011

Dr. Charlotte Stone Series The Last Victim, 2012 The Last Kiss Goodbye, 2013 Her Last Whisper, 2014 The Last Time I Saw Her, 2015

The Guardian Series The Ultimatum, 2017 The Moscow Deception, 2018 The Fifth Doctrine, 2019

Thriller / romantic suspense novels, by publication date To Love a Man, 1985 Wild Orchids, 1986 Night Magic, 1987 One Summer, 1993 Maggy's Child, 1994 Walking After Midnight, 1995 Hunter's Moon, 1996 Heartbreaker, 1997 The Senator's Wife, 1998 The Midnight Hour, 1999 Ghost Moon, 2000 Paradise County, 2000 To Trust a Stranger, 2001 Manna From Heaven, 2001 (in anthology Wait Until Dark) Whispers at Midnight, 2002 Beachcomber, 2003 Bait, 2004 Superstition, 2005 Vanished, 2006 Obsession, 2007 Guilty, 2008 Pursuit (Jessica Ford #1), 2009 Shattered, 2010 Justice (Jessica Ford #2), 2011 Sleepwalker, 2011 The Last Victim (Dr. Charlotte Stone #1), 2012 Shiver, 2012 The Last Kiss Goodbye (Dr. Charlotte Stone #2), 2013 Hunted, 2014 Her Last Whisper (Dr. Charlotte Stone #3), 2014 Hush, 2015 The Last Time I Saw Her (Dr. Charlotte Stone #4), 2015 Darkness, 2016 The Ultimatum, 2017 The Moscow Deception, 2018 The Fifth Doctrine, 2019

Anthologies Wait Until Dark (2001) (with Linda Anderson, Andrea Kane and Mariah Stewart)

Karen Robards

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