Love, Kathy

PERSONAL:

Married; children: Emily Elizabeth.

ADDRESSES:

E-mail—kathy@readkathylove.com.

CAREER:

Author.

WRITINGS:

Getting What You Want, Zebra Books (New York, NY), 2004.

Wanting What You Get, Zebra Books (New York, NY), 2004.

Wanting Something More, Zebra Books (New York, NY), 2005.

Fangs for the Memories, Brava (New York, NY), 2005.

Fangs but No Fangs, Brava (New York, NY), 2006.

I Only Have Fangs for You, Brava (New York, NY), 2006.

My Sister Is a Werewolf, Brava (New York, NY), 2007.

Any Way You Want It, Brave (New York, NY), 2008.

Contributor to anthology, The Night before Christmas.

SIDELIGHTS:

Love would seem like the perfect name for a romance writer, and for Kathy Love it perhaps figured as prophetic. Giving a nod to the story of Cinderella, one of the most popular romance heroines ever, Love took an alternative route. Her debut—a trilogy of novels—features the three grown Stepp sisters of Millbrook, Maine, who had been raised by a grandmother after their parents' deaths. During high school Abby was known as the brainy one, Ellie, the heavy one, and Emma, the tall one. None enjoyed romance during her teen years, but this changes in Getting What You Want when Abby, a respected scientist, returns to Millbrook temporarily to work at nearby Rand Labs; in Wanting What You Get, when stay-at-home Ellie finds a longtime high school crush reciprocated; and in Wanting Something More, when it is finally Emma's turn for fulfillment.

Love's romances caught the attention of reviewers. Her "strong debut," as Ellen D. Micheletti on the All about Romance Web site dubbed it, includes "characters [who] are likable, and the love story … [that is] tender." "Getting What You Want starts out slowly," she continued, "but once it picks up steam it moves quickly." Also highly recommending the novel was Betty Cox of Affaire de Coeur, who found it a "humorous yet poignant story." The second book of the series fared equally well. For example, Booklist contributor Shelley Mosley described Wanting What You Get as a "poignant and engrossing tale," and a Fallen Angel Reviews contributor wrote, "This story is not a light-hearted read, even though there are some very light-hearted scenes in it. Ms. Love has some pretty challenging issues in this story, but I believe she has handled them with just the right touch of sincerity and heart-breaking emotion."

After the success of the Stepp sisters trilogy, Love returned to the theme that had first ignited her passion for writing: vampires. Fangs for the Memories, which, as her first manuscript, had originally been rejected for publication, tells the story of harried New Yorker Jane Harrison and her love for a 200-year-old vampire, Rhys Young, whom she meets when he rescues her from an attacker outside a bar. After Rhys is injured by his vampire brother, Christian, he develops amnesia and believes himself living in the 1800s and engaged to marry Jane. With the help of Rhys's other brother, Sebastian, Jane begins to understand what is at stake for her and Rhys. Shelley Mosley, writing in Booklist, hailed the novel as a "darkly erotic" work filled with suspense and sensuality. According to Romance Reader reviewer Alyssa Hurzeler, Jane and Rhys are a "convincing couple" in a novel that is a "fun and satisfying addition to vampire romance."

Christian moves from New York City to West Virginia to try to change his life in Fangs but No Fangs. He wants to learn to become human, but has been avoiding the necessary personal contact until he meets Jolee Dugan, who is struggling to defend herself from her drug-addicted brother's demands for money. Opposites in many ways, the two fall in love, and, as Hurzeler observed in Romance Reader, "the way they come to know, care for, and understand each other is very touching."

Sebastian's story, told in I Only Have Fangs for You, was also described as "touching" by Romantic Times contributor Jennifer Madsen. Having watched his brothers succumb to love, Sebastian plans to remain aloof. But he is irresistibly drawn to a shy, clumsy new waitress at his nightclub. Madsen enjoyed the book's outrageously exaggerated vampire cliches and humor; Nina C. Davis, writing in Booklist, praised Love's unique take on vampire life and her ability to create vampires that are "more than [just] flat characters with fangs."

My Sister Is a Werewolf focuses on the Young brothers' sibling, Elizabeth, who had been turned into a werewolf centuries earlier and now lives in a small town, hoping to find a cure for her condition. She falls in love with a human veterinarian, but when she goes into heat and is pursued by a pack of lust-crazed wolves she finds herself in danger. Davis, reviewing the novel in Booklist, described it as a "suspense-filled, super-sexy" story.

Love shifts to New Orleans for the setting of Any Way You Want It, in which Maggie Gallagher, a visiting musicologist, makes a wish for a fling on the grave of a voodoo priestess and promptly meets Ren Anthony, leader of a pop band, the Impalers. He is, of course, a vampire, and in mortal life had been an Italian classical composer. Though Maggie and Ren are attracted to each other, she must convince him to overcome his reluctance to enter a relationship. A writer for Publishers Weekly noted that though the novel's plot is rather thin, it is nevertheless enjoyable to watch what happens as Ren tries to decide whether to take another chance at romance.

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Booklist, May 15, 2004, Shelley Mosley, review of Getting What You Want, pp. 1603-1604; November 1, 2004, review of Wanting What You Get, p. 471; July, 2005, Shelley Mosley, review of Wanting Something More, p. 1909; September 1, 2005, Shelley Mosley, review of Fangs for the Memories, p. 73; February 15, 2006, Nina C. Davis, review of Fangs but No Fangs, p. 53; November 1, 2006, Nina C. Davis, review of I Only Have Fangs for You, p. 35; June 1, 2007, Nina C. Davis, review of My Sister Is a Werewolf, p. 49.

Publishers Weekly, October 15, 2007, review of Any Way You Want It, p. 40.

ONLINE

Affaire de Coeur,http://www.affairedecoeur.com/ (February 9, 2005), Betty Cox, review of Getting What You Want.

All about Romance Web site,http://www.likesbooks.com/ (February 9, 2005), Ellen D. Micheletti, review of Getting What You Want.

Curled up with a Good Book,http://www.curledup.com/ (February 10, 2008), Helen Hancox, review of Any Way You Want It.

Fallen Angel Reviews,http://www.fallenangelreviews.com/ (February 9, 2005), review of Wanting What You Get.

Kathy Love Home Page,http://www.readkathylove.com (February 10, 2008).

Romance Reader,http://www.theromancereader.com/ (February 10, 2008), Alyssa Hurzeler, reviews of Fangs but No Fangs and Fangs for the Memories.

Romantic Times Online,http://www.romantictimes.com/ (February 10, 2008), Jennifer Madsen, reviews of Any Way You Want It, My Sister Is a Werewolf, and I Only Have Fangs for You; Susan Mobley, review of Wanting Something More; Tara Gelsomino, review of The Night before Christmas.