Inherited this in a bag of books from a friend's mother.

Released on Thursday, November 18, 2004 at about 6:00:00 PM BX time (GMT-06:00) Central Time (US & Canada) at Sea Island Shrimp House - 322 W Rector 78216 in San Antonio, Texas USA.

RELEASE NOTES:

I used to read Brandewyne books when I was in middle school or early high school. I even once wrote to her and she replied back! Anyway, I grabbed this one for old times sake. Thanks agru.

2007 Book #12 - Glory Seekers by Rebecca Brandewyne
Ah Rebecca Brandewyne. A classic romance novel author for me. :D She was the first author I really took to when I was going through my romance novel reading phase 20 years ago. I was such a fan I wrote to her a few times and she relied. As an adult I wrote a couple of times and she didn't reply. I guess she felt compelled to write to lonely-sounding middle school girls... In my household anything related to sex was taboo and hence I did a lot of romance novel reading in the dark and in the sly. I didn't hear about the birds and the bees from my mother, but from my teenage brother and the optional O.o sex ed class in 4th? 5th? grade. I liked her books because it had a bit of a middle ground. It wasn't so simplistic as the old Harlequin Romances, but not as blatant and *ahem* vivid as some other romance novels (that came much later lol). So needless to say, somehow I came across this copy and had to pick it up for nostalgia's sake. From the back of the book:

On a sultry midsummer's night, while a full moon bathed the hazy Gulf Coast, a riptide was forming...pulling all caught in its path into the fury of the foaming sea. The noble Hampton family, with its legacy of sin and scandal, suffers the ultimate tradegy - the ruthless murder of one of its own.

The heiress to the Hampton fortune is dead, and there are only two people who can unravel the case - Jake Seringo, the cynical cop who grew up on the mean streets of life, and Claire Connelly, the beautiful but aloof broadcast journalist. They'd parted years ago on explosive terms - now they are on the trail of a bizarre and shocking family secret that could topple a dynasty.

But will their search for truth and glory reunite them forever - or utterly detroy them both?

The romance novels I used to read of Brandewyne's were some historical romances and I was partial to them from then on. The occasional contemporary one like this one isn't bad, though. Sure, it had the cliché sullen male and the indecisive female, but they weren't too annoyingly cliché. The novel actually doesn't launch right into whether or not they have a relationship since Jake is already married at the beginning. The relationship actually kind of builds, breaks up as the tease mentions, and then reunites. If you're squeamish about sex in your romance novels, this isn't too bad. Really, nothing graphic and actually few sex scenes. Overall a quick and fun read.