Come Love a Stranger by Kathleen E Woodiwiss

Come Love a Stranger by Kathleen E Woodiwiss

A woman with no name and no memory...The two men who claim her: one with love, the other with fear...A dazzling tale of secret passions--and a love tragically lost and miraculously reborn--by the incomparable storyteller.

Mere days after Ashton Wingate's wedding to the enchanting Lierin, capricious Fate stole the Mississippi plantation owner's beloved from him. Now, three years later, his carriage has collided with a cloaked rider on horseback: a woman who bears an uncanny resemblance to the young bride who was swallowed up by the merciless river.

She awakens from unconsciousness in his magnificent home with no memory of who she is. Yet the tenderness of this noble, caring stranger who lovingly calls her "Lierin" soon captures her heart and enflames her with wanting. Then another enters their lives, threatening to destroy the happiness they have rediscovered in each other's arms--the dark and dangerous Malcolm Sinclair, who claims the enigmatic beauty is, in fact, his own wife, Lenore. But Ashton has sworn that he will not lose his adored one a second time, and he will risk any peril to preserve their newfound joy--no matter what the unremembered secrets of his lady's past ultimately reveal.

Kathleen E. (1939-2007) was a woman who lived from 1939 to 2007. Woodiwiss, the father of the contemporary historical romance, died in Minnesota on July 6, 2007. She was 68 years old at the time. William Messerlie, her attorney, claimed she died after a protracted illness. Mrs. Smith was born on June 3, 1939, in Alexandria, Louisiana.

Woodiwiss was the youngest of a family of eight children. She'd always enjoyed making up stories, and by the age of six, she started telling herself stories to fall asleep. She first encountered a U.S. soldier when she was 16 years old. At a dance, she met Air Force Second Lieutenant Ross Woodiwiss, and the two married the following year.

When stationed at a military outpost in Japan, she began writing her first book in longhand. Woodiwiss is credited with inventing the modern historical romance book when she published The Flame and the Flower in 1972, which became an instant New York Times bestseller and set a literary precedent. The Flame and the Flower, an epic historical romance with a strong heroine and passionate sex scenes, changed conventional publishing. E. Kathleeen Kathleeen E. Kathleeen E. Kath

According to Carrie Feron, vice president/editorial director of HarperCollins Publishers' William Morrow and Avon Books labels, Woodiwiss is the founding mother of the historical romance genre. Avon Books is thrilled to have been Kathleen's exclusive publishing partner for her paperbacks and hardcover novels for more than three decades, says Feron, who has been Woodiwiss's editor for 13 years. Mrs. Avon Books, which has remained a pioneer in the historical romance category to this day, is still Mrs. Mrs. Woodiwiss's first and only paperback publisher; Mrs. Woodiwiss's first and only paperback publisher; William Morrow, Avon's sister business, publishes Mrs.

Hardcovers by Woodiwiss. Agents and hardback publishers turned down The Flame and the Flower because it was too long at 600 pages. Rather than heeding the rejection letters' suggestions and rewriting the manuscript, Mrs. Instead, Woodiwiss sent it to paperback publishers.

The manuscript was soon purchased by Avon, the first publisher on her list, and an initial print run of 500,000 copies was planned. The novel's success sparked a new form of writing romance, focusing mostly on historical fiction and tracing the monogamous connection between a vulnerable heroine and the hero who rescued her, even if he had been the one who put her in peril. Longer stories, more contentious events and characters, and more intimate and hot sex scenes characterized the romance books that followed her lead. Feron observes that her statements elicited a great deal of emotion from the audience.

Woodiwiss helped women want to read, says best-selling novelist Julia Quinn. She provided them with a viable alternative to Westerns and hard-boiled cop dramas. I grew up seeing my mother and grandmother read and enjoy romances, and when I was old enough to read them myself, I felt like I'd been accepted into a particular sisterhood of readers. We all owe our careers to her, says New York Times bestselling author Susan Elizabeth Phillips, a pioneering voice in women's fiction.

As readers, she introduced us to the realm of romance. She paved the way for us to pursue a career. Over the period of 35 years, the pioneering novelist has published 13 novels, all of which have been New York Times bestsellers. Kathleen E. (Kathleen E.) is

The impending Everlasing, Woodiwiss' final literary work, will be published by William Morrow in October 2007. Kathleen's ultimate gift to her admirers is Everlasting, according to Feron. Kathleen E. (Kathleen E.) is Woodiwiss is survived by her sons Sean and Heath, as well as numerous grandchildren. She was predeceased by her husband and son Dorren.