Britton, Pamela

PERSONAL: Married; husband’s name, Michael (a rodeo cowboy); children: Codi.

ADDRESSES: Home—Cottonwood, CA. E-mail—pamela@pamelabritton.com.

CAREER: Writer. Worked variously as a model, as an artist, and for NASCAR race teams.

WRITINGS:

“AMERICAN ROMANCE” SERIES

Cowboy Lessons, Harlequin Books (New York, NY), 2003.

Cowboy Trouble, Harlequin Books (New York, NY), 2004.

Cowboy M.D., Harlequin Books (New York, NY), 2006.

Cowboy Vet, Harlequin Books (New York, NY), 2006.

The Cowgirl’s CEO, Harlequin Books (New York, NY), 2007.

NASCAR LIBRARY COLLECTION

Dangerous Curves, HQN (Don Mills, Ontario, Canada), 2005.

In the Groove, HQN (Don Mills, Ontario, Canada), 2006.

On the Edge, HQN (Don Mills, Ontario, Canada), 2006.

To the Limit, HQN (Don Mills, Ontario, Canada), 2007.

Total Control, HQN (Don Mills, Ontario, Canada), 2007.

OTHER

My Fallen Angel, HarperPaperbacks (New York, NY), 2000.

Enchanted by Your Kisses, Harpertorch (New York, NY), 2001.

Seduced, Warner Books (New York, NY), 2003.

Scandal, Warner Books (New York, NY), 2004.

Tempted, Warner Books (New York, NY), 2004.

(With Cherry Adair, Leanne Banks, and Kelsey Roberts) Red Hot Santa, Ballentine Books (New York, NY), 2005.

ADAPTATIONS: Seduced was adapted for audiocassette.

SIDELIGHTS: Pamela Britton’s first book, My Fallen Angel, is a Regencyera historical romance that finds Captain Garrick Asquith-Wolf fighting pirates off the Barbary Coast when he is struck by lightening and killed. Returning to Earth under the guidance of a heavenly counselor, Garrick meets and becomes attracted to Lucy Hartford, although, as his counselor frequently reminds him, he is not allowed to pursue her. The character of Lucy, who is trying to prove that a boy living with her aunt and herself is heir to an earldom, was critiqued by Romance Reader’s Lesley Dunlap as “excessively irritating.” The critic also remarked that Lucy “specializes in clumsy accidents, devises dopey schemes that get her into trouble every time, and her conversation can cause eyes to glaze over.”

Anne Bulin, also of Romance Reader, reviewed Britton’s second historical romance, Enchanted by Your Kisses, writing that Britton’s storytelling “engages the reader and the characters jump off the pages with their personalities.”Lady Ariel D’Archer nearly loses her virginity at age eighteen when she and her bumbling and inept fiancé meet in an inn but are found in bed by her father; Lady Ariel is subsequently shunned by British society. Nathan Trevain, who has returned from the colonies to save a brother who was forced to serve in the Royal Navy, is hoping to exploit his relationship with Ariel, whose father is first lord admiral. The handsome Nathan, who has been wounded in love, gradually comes to trust the woman he first considers only as a means to an end, but not before he kidnaps her for, he thinks, betraying him.

Britton wrote Cowboy Lessons, the first in a series of books for Harlequin, then returned to historical romances with Seduced. In this novel, Lucien St. Aubyn is called the “duke of death” because everyone who has been close to him has died, the most recent being his brother, leaving Lucien with the family fortune and title. Lucien is a rake who ruins young ladies and from whom mothers hide their daughters. He also manages, with a touch, to destroy the reputation of Elizabeth Montclair. Humiliated, Elizabeth is forced into marrying him but swears he will never have her physically and that she will take lovers if she wishes. Ultimately, Lucien persists and takes on the challenge of teaching Elizabeth the art of love himself.

All about Romance reviewer Marguerite Kraft felt that Seduced has “a split personality. The first two-thirds of the book are so light and fluffy they almost read like a sexy parody of a Regency. The last third, where Lucien is carted off to Newgate for the alleged murder of his brother, is much darker and unfolds as a murder mystery. Unfortunately, the two parts of the book don’t fit well together.” In conclusion, however, Kraft said the book is “fun, sexy, and features some memorably outrageous characters.”

Britton’s Scandal features an earl who, in order to gain his inheritance, must survive a month in a slum, and her novel Tempted is about customs board official Alexander Drummond, who hires a nanny to care for his obstinate daughter. The young woman, Mary Callahan, who is also a stunt rider in the Royal Circus, is forced into taking the position at the instruction of her father, a smuggler who wants to use her to seek revenge on the man who has put a halt to his operation. Library Journal’s Kristin Ramsdell called this a “fast-paced, highly sensuous tale,” while a Publishers Weekly reviewer noted “crucial cameo appearances by the Prince Regent (later George IV) and, eventually, some spectacular yet sensitively portrayed sex scenes.”

With submissions to Harlequin’s NASCAR Library Collection, Britton aimed to capitalize on the large number of racing fans who are romance-reading women. “The romance premise is always the underdog heroine and the hero who’l conquer everything,” she told Entertainment Weekly contributor Mandi Bierly, concluding that racing’s “modern-day gladiator thing translates nicely.” Britton’s series includes On the Edge, which follows a widowed NASCAR wife who is drawn to a relationship with a newly hired driver. In her Booklist review of the novel, Shelley Mosley called Britton “talented” and the story “a wild ride.” The protagonist in To the Limit is a female engineer who is hired by a NASCAR team, only to be the focus of romantic attention from both the team’s owner and its hotshot driver. Mosley pointed out the novel’s “well-drawn characters and fascinating details on the world of racing” in another Booklist review, concluding: “Britton has written another entertaining romance.”

Britton told CA: “I was tired of reading books that made me want to throw them across the room and so I decided to write my own figuring they couldn’t be any worse than some of the stuff I was reading. I don’t have a college degree and so I’m very proud of what I’ve accomplished.

“I’m a workaholic. I write a minimum of ten pages a day, sometimes up to twenty. It takes me a month or two months to complete a book (depending on the length of the book I’m writing). After I complete the first draft, I print it out and do a hard copy read, then insert the line edits, then do a soft copy read (on my computer screen). Usually, a book is done in about three months.

“I don’t hope to change the world, but I do hope to spread a little happiness and joy. That has always been, and always will be, my goal with each book—to make a reader laugh and cry and sigh at the ending.”

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Booklist, February 1, 2003, Shelley Mosley, review of Seduced, p. 978; January 1, 2004, Shelley Mosley, review of Tempted, p. 836; September 15, 2006, Shelley Mosley, review of On the Edge, p. 37; March 15, 2007, Shelley Mosley, review of To the Limit, p. 31.

Entertainment Weekly, February 3, 2006, Mandi Bierly, “In the Bed Vroom,” author interview, p. 74.

Library Journal, November 15, 2003, Kristin Ramsdell, review of Tempted, p. 54.

Publishers Weekly, March 3, 2003, review of Seduced (audio), p. 59; November 24, 2003, review of Tempted, p. 47; June 28, 2004, review of Scandal, p. 37.

ONLINE

All about Romance Web site,http://www.likesbooks.com/ (June 20, 2004), Blythe Barnhill, review of Enchanted by Your Kisses; Marguerite Kraft, review of Seduced.

Bookloons.com,http://www.bookloons.com/ (June 20, 2004), Rashmi Srinivas, review of Seduced.

Pamela Britton Home Page,http://www.pamelabritton.com (July 3, 2007).

Romance Reader Web site,http://www.theromancereader.com/ (March 3, 2000), Lesley Dunlap, review of My Fallen Angel; (April 19, 2001) Anne Bulin, review of Enchanted by Your Kisses; (April 22, 2003) Judi McKee, review of Seduced.