This morning my great friend Patricia Sargeant brought me the happy news that Romantic Times BOOKreviews has named Tender Secrets a Top Pick. Here’s what the reviewer said:

Top Pick! Tender Secrets (4.5) is a riveting story of family drama, betrayal and revenge. Well-written with fascinating characters, situations and a spellbinding mystery, Ann Christopher’s book displays her awesome storytelling ability.

Viveca Jackson descends on the Warner family to write an expose of their secrets, but the biggest secret she uncovers is the one that she won’t share with anyone. She blames them for the death of her father, who lost a limb in one of their factories, and she grew up longing for revenge. Although he’s CEO of the family business, Andrew Warner is miserable. But he’s determined to hang on to his heritage and inheritance, and won’t let anyone threaten it - not even the woman he loves. When the family skeletons come out of the closet, everyone is affected.

Thanks, Patricia!

My author copies came this week, which is way cool. It should arrive in bookstores in *about* a month, I think…

My formerly great friend traitor, Gwyneth Bolton, snuck in here last week, tagged me, and snuck out again. I’m supposed to do one of those meme things (I’m not fond of memes) about must-read books, books on the nightstand, and coming soon books.

Gwen, I’ll deal with you later…

I’m going to do a couple from each category because it’s dinnertime and the younglings will have their little beaks open soon.

Must-Read Books:

1. Colleen Gleason’s When Twilight Burns—book 4 in her outstanding Buffy meets Jane Austen series, The Gardella Chronicles; and

2. L.A. Banks’s Bad Blood—book 1 in her new Crimson Moon werewolf series.

Nightstand Books:

1. Caroline Linden’s A Rake’s Guide to Seduction; and

2. Eve Kenin’s Hidden.

Coming Soon Books:

1. Maureen Smith’s Secret Agent Seduction; and

2. What’s-her-name’s Make it Hot.

Okay? Okay.

No more memes.

Ever.

Well, I’m back from my beach vacation and a summer of being mostly AWOL from the blog. I inexplicably got zero pictures of the beach and lots of pictures of this tall, fearsome bird (we’ve been calling him Henry the Heron, but for all I know he’s an egret or some such) that hung out near the pool. Henry didn’t mind posing for me; he was VERY used to humans and, anyway, with a sharp beak like that, what’s he got to be afraid of?

Okay … fun and games are over.

Now it’s time for me to edit and finish Senator Jonathan Warner’s as-yet-untitled story, which is due September 15^th. *GULP*

It’s also time for me to go into shameless self-promotion mode on account of my next book, Tender Secrets, which is coming out in October. To that end, I’ve posted an excerpt. Hopefully you’ll be so excited about it you’ll run right over to Amazon and pre-order six or eight copies…

We have a visitor today. Friend and sorority sister LaConnie Taylor-Jones is dropping by to talk about one of the themes from her latest novel, When a Man Loves a Woman: betrayal. At the end of the day, she’ll give two copies away to lucky commenters.

Thanks for stopping by, LaConnie! Here she comes …

What’s the first thing you think of when you hear the word betrayal?

No doubt most people associate the term with infidelity, which is my heroine’s conflict in my latest release, When a Man Loves a Woman.

The issue of betrayal came front a center for me a few weeks ago when MSNBC re-ran their Headliners and Legends segment, which featured Susan Smith. Everyone remembers the twenty-three year-old, South Carolina mother who betrayed an entire nation for nine days before finally confessing to the drowning deaths of her two young sons, right? Well, the first time this piece aired, I viewed it through the eyes of a mother. I felt the full range of emotions betrayal causes: fury, resentfulness, heartbrokenness, numbness, humiliation, and rejection. However, it wasn’t until that night, when I allowed the maternal side of me to rest for a moment, that I began to see betrayal from a much broader perspective.

Think about it for a moment. Whether betrayal results from the unfaithfulness within in a relationship or is triggered by an unfaithful co-worker, or boss, or from the disloyalty of friends, the emotional impact is often severe.

And for every cause, there’s an effect. When betrayal occurs, we become distressed and it prompts an immediate reaction of anger. The person who was betrayed feels repulsed towards the person who committed the act of betrayal. Next, fear comes to the forefront because the probability that the relationship will be lost is quite high.

Also, betrayal forfeits trust. Trust is the foundation of any relationship, and once it’s been fractured, it becomes difficult for the person who was betrayed to trust, again. Finally, justice is more often than not, sought by the person who’s been betrayed. Every now and then you just want to give the person who betrayed you a good beat down or as I occasionally refer to it as justifiable revenge.

However, that night, at the end of the Susan Smith broadcast, I think I was more hurt by her betrayal to the world than if someone had come along and whacked me up side the head with a bat.

Am I crazy here, folks? Can an act of betrayal hurt as much, if not more, than a physical injury?

Until next time – stay well and be blessed,

LaConnie

About the Author
LaConnie Taylor-Jones, is a health educator consultant and holds advanced degrees in community public health and business administration. She has been an active member of the San Francisco Area Chapter of RWA since 2003 and received the Romance Slam Jam 2008 Emma Award for her debut multicultural contemporary romance, When I’m With You. When a Man Loves a Woman is her second novel and she’s hard at work on her next novel due to be released Spring 2009. Married, she is the mother of four and resides with her family in Northern California.

To learn more about ‘ When a Man Loves a Woman’ and LaConnie Taylor-Jones, visit her online at www.laconnietaylorjones.com
To join the Virtual Book Tour visit her blog at www.laconnietaylorjones.blogspot.com or visit TheGRITS.com Virtual Book Tour site - http://thegrits.com/virtualbooktour/?cat=105 – for more information!

When a Man Loves a Woman
LaConnie Taylor-Jones
Genesis Press, 2008
$6.99 US; ISBN: 1585712744

Tune in tomorrow when author LaConnie Taylor-Jones, who’s in the middle of her blog tour, stops by to discuss betrayal, one of the themes in her new book, When a Man Loves a Woman. And she’ll be giving away books, too …