Daniels, Angie

PERSONAL:

Born in Chicago, IL; married; children: three. Education: Columbia College, B.S.

ADDRESSES:

Home—Columbia, MO. E-mail—angie@angiedaniels.com.

CAREER:

Author. Has worked as a human resources management professional. Military service: Air National Guard, beginning 2008.

AWARDS, HONORS:

Romance in Color Reviewers' Choice award, 2003; Affair de Coeur award, 2004, for Hart & Soul; Best African American Romance of 2005 award, Romantic Times Online, 2006.

WRITINGS:

Intimate Intentions, Genesis Press (Columbus, MS), 2000.

Hart & Soul, Genesis Press (Columbus, MS), 2003.

Endless Enchantment, Arabesque/BET Publications (Washington DC), 2003.

Time Is of the Essence, Genesis Press (Columbus, MS), 2004.

When It Rains …, Dafina Books (New York, NY), 2005.

Love Uncovered, Dafina (New York, NY), 2005.

Destiny in Disguise, Arabesque/BET Publications (Washington DC), 2005.

A Will to Love, Genesis Press (Columbus, MS), 2005.

When I First Saw You, Dafina Books (New York, NY), 2006.

In the Company of My Sistahs, Dafina Books/Kensington Publishers (New York, NY), 2006.

A Delight before Christmas, Parker Publishing (New York, NY), 2006.

The Second Time Around, Kimani (New York, NY), 2007.

Trouble Loves Company, Dafina Books (New York, NY), 2007.

The Playboy's Proposition, Kimani Books (New York, NY), 2008.

Contributor to anthology Big Spankable Asses.

SIDELIGHTS:

Though Angie Daniels enjoyed a successful career in human resources management, her first love has always been writing. As a child she entertained herself and her younger sister with elaborate soap-opera tales, and she wrote and produced a play in elementary school. She also started her school's first newspaper. A great fan of romance fiction, she decided in 1999 to try her hand at writing novels. Her first book, Intimate Intentions, was accepted after only two submissions; since then she has published steadily. Her books have attracted a devoted readership, earning her a Romance in Color Reviewers' Choice award in 2003 and an Affair de Coeur award the following year. She has also won the Romantic Times Online best African American romance award.

Intimate Intentions combines elements of romance and mystery. The story begins when Diva Designs chief executive officer Terraine Andrews hires model Sasha Moore to star in the new lingerie ad campaign he hopes will save his company from bankruptcy. Though Terraine makes it clear that he would like an intimate relationship, Sasha brushes him off—until a series of unsolved murders forces her to seek Terraine's protection. Citing the novel's "sizzling characters" and its detailed depiction of the luxurious world of high fashion, Romantic Times Online reviewer Hope Stephenson called Intimate Intentions a "suspenseful and entertaining read."

In Hart & Soul, thirty-something Calaine Hart is reunited with old acquaintance David Soul. Calaine has just learned, to her intense shock, that she is not the biological child of the woman she had always known as her mother. Though she is not especially pleased to run into David, she hopes he can help her unravel the mystery surrounding her birth. David, meanwhile, discovers that the feelings he once had, but never expressed, for Calaine are as strong as ever. The novel follows the couple's deepening relationship as they search for the key to Calaine's past.

A rekindled romance is also at the center of Endless Enchantment. When Charity Rose, the head of a shallow clique in high school called the Cutie Pies, reluctantly decides to attend her ten year class reunion, she encounters her childhood best friend Keelen Brooks. Brooks has had a crush on her since their earliest years but never felt confident enough to woo her. Now a successful cruise line chief executive officer, Keelen immediately impresses the more mature and compassionate Charity, and they begin a passionate affair. When someone vows to take revenge on the Cutie Pies, Keelen promises he will always protect Charity.

Time Is of the Essence recounts the developing relationship between Captain Mark Saunders and Essence Monroe. When their affair ended two years earlier, Essence was pregnant, but she never told Mark because she thought she would never ever see him again. Mark vows to make it up to Essence and be the man and father she wants him to be. Admiring Daniels's independent yet feminine characters, Romantic Times Online writer T.L. Burton "highly recommended" this novel.

A sequel of sorts to Intimate Intentions, When It Rains … finds Terraine and Sasha happily married. At their wedding, Terraine's business partner Jay meets and falls in love with Sasha's best friend, Honey Love. His feelings, however, are not reciprocated, and he must make a special effort to convince Honey to change her mind about him. Things get complicated, though, when Jay learns that his former girlfriend, Kendra, is expecting his child. Lillian Lewis, writing in Booklist, described this novel as an "entertaining story with surprising twists."

In Love Uncovered, Daniels returns to the realm of crime fiction. After her partner is killed by a bullet, police detective Chenoa Campbell is reluctantly assigned to work with Zearl Sinclair, a sexy type who feels women belong behind a desk, not chasing sleazy criminals. Naturally, the two discover an intense mutual attraction as they work to find Chenoa's partner's killer. Though Romantic Times Online reviewer Dana Perry found the lovers' relationship unconvincing, the critic added that the novel's "shocking truth" ends the book on a satisfying note.

A Will to Love focuses on the sparks that fly when Jesse James, who must either marry or bear a son in order to receive an inheritance, decides to enter a marriage of convenience with musician William Jones. Marriage is also on the mind of A Delight before Christmas protagonist Berlin Dupree, a professional woman on the lookout for a rich doctor to wed. Though sexy entrepreneur Reginald Hodges does not meet all Berlin's criteria, his attraction is magnetic. A writer for the Romantic Times Online called A Delight before Christmas "pure sensuality and sex."

Daniels touches on the world of online dating in When I First Saw You, in which Chante Campbell's nosy grandfather poses as the young woman to find her a fiancé on the Internet. To her surprise, when Chante meets the man to explain the situation and end the on- line affair, she discovers she is attracted to him. Miscommunication also features in The Second Time Around. Wealthy Jabarie Beaumont had jilted Brenna Fathers at the altar years earlier, but when Brenna returns to town she sees that she still wants him. He also learns that his father had lied when he claimed Brenna was only interested in Jabarie's money. Now Jabarie aims to show Brenna how sorry he is—and how sweet their renewed love can be.

In the Company of My Sistahs follows the adventures of a group of women friends vacationing in Jamaica. Renee, a divorced romance writer, wants to have a fling; Nadine, an attorney, is uncomfortable with the knowledge that she may be a lesbian; and Kayla has recently embarked on an affair with a married minister. Lisa has just learned that her cancer has returned, but hopes this news will inspire the others to break free of the constraints that have kept them from attaining happiness. Booklist reviewer Lillian Lewis predicted that readers will enjoy "every dramatic but sensitive page" of this novel.

The tangled romantic affairs of three friends provide the plot of Trouble Loves Company. Renee, a writer of erotic fiction, has a wonderful husband but longs for more than he can provide in bed. Kyla, an administrative assistant, has found the man of her dreams in the kind and sensitive pastor who seems to love her—the only problem is that he is married. Nurse Danielle must reconsider her taste in younger, hypersexed men after her daughter, Portia, claims that Danielle's boyfriend has made her pregnant. Patricia Woodside, writing in Fresh Fiction, suggested that "if one likes their romance hot, then Trouble Loves Company may be just the read."

The steamy relationship between Sheyna Simmons and her boss, Jace Beaumont, takes center stage in The Playboy's Proposition. Sheyna has kept Jace at arm's length for a long time, but that seems about to change dramatically when at a party Jace places a winning bid of fifty thousand dollars on a forty-eight-hour Las Vegas getaway with Sheyna. Though she is determined to resist him, he is equally determined to entice her into his bed. This anticipated romantic conquest, however, might end Jace's career as a carefree playboy.

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Booklist, February 15, 2005, Lillian Lewis, review of When It Rains …, p. 1067; February 15, 2006, Lillian Lewis, review of In the Company of My Sistahs, p. 43.

ONLINE

Angie Daniels Home page,http://angiedaniels.com (January 23, 2008).

Fresh Fiction,http://freshfiction.com/ (January 23, 2008), Patricia Woodside, review of Trouble Loves Company.

Grits Book Club,http://www.thegritsbookclub.com/ (January 23, 2008), review of Hart & Soul.

Literary Group,http://www.theliterarygroup.com/ (January 23, 2008), profile of Angie Daniels, and review of Trouble Loves Company.

Midwest Book Review,http://www.midwestbookreview.com/ (January 23, 2008), Harriet Klausner, review of Big Spankable Asses; Harriet Klausner, review of Trouble Loves Company.

Mrs. Giggles,http://www.mrsgiggles.com/ (January 23, 2008), review of Endless Enchantment.

Romance in Color,http://www.romanceincolor.com/ (January 23, 2008), interview with Angie Daniels.

Romance Reader,http://www.theromancereader.com/ (January 23, 2008), Cathy Sova, interview with Angie Daniels.

Romantic Times Online,http://www.romantictimes.com/ (January 23, 2008), review of A Delight before Christmas; T.L. Burton, reviews of A Will to Live, In the Company of My Sistahs, Time Is of the Essence, When It Rains, and Destiny in Disguise; Deborah Brent, review of Endless Enchantment; Debbie R. Sims, review of Hart & Soul; Hope Stephenson, review of Intimate Intentions; Dana Perry, review of Love Uncovered; Debbie R. Sims, review of The Second Time Around; Jacqui McGugins, review of Trouble Loves Company.

Urban Reviews,http://www.urban-reviews.com/ (January 23, 2008), interview with Angie Daniels.