Showalter, Gena

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Showalter, Gena

PERSONAL:

Born in OK.

ADDRESSES:

E-mail—managergenashowalter@yahoo.com.

CAREER:

Writer and novelist. Worked as an aircraft title searcher and in the medical field.

WRITINGS:

The Stone Prince, Harlequin (Don Mills, Ontario, Canada), 2004.

Heart of the Dragon, HQN (Don Mills, Ontario, Canada), 2005.

The Pleasure Slave, HQN (Don Mills, Ontario, Canada), 2005.

Jewel of Atlantis, HQN (Don Mills, Ontario, Canada), 2006.

Oh My Goth!, MTV/Pocket (New York, NY), 2006.

Playing with Fire: Tales of an Extra Ordinary Girl, HQN (Don Mills, Ontario, Canada), 2006.

Animal Instincts, HQN (Don Mills, Ontario, Canada), 2006.

Catch a Mate, HQN (Don Mills, Ontario, Canada), 2007.

Red Handed ("Teen Alien Huntress" series, Book 1), MTV (New York, NY), 2007.

Blacklisted, MTV (New York, NY), 2007.

The Darkest Night, HQN (Don Mills, Ontario, Canada), 2008.

"ALIEN HUNTRESS" SERIES

Awaken Me Darkly, Downtown Press (New York, NY), 2005.

Enslave Me Sweetly, Downtown Press (New York, NY), 2006.

Savor Me Slowly, Pocket Star (New York, NY), 2007. Contributor to anthologies, including Not That Innocent, Pocket (New York, NY), 2008.

SIDELIGHTS:

Gena Showalter is a novelist whose numerous books fall largely into the romance genre but often combine genres to produce paranormal romances, seductive science fiction stories, and contemporary romances tinged with fanciful elements. Showalter's "wildly sensual page-turners" mix romance, humor, and sex in a "combination sure to enthrall," commented a biographer on the eHarlequin Web site.

In Oh My Goth!, protagonist Jade and her group of friends are part of their school's Goth group. They bear a keen dislike for the clique of popular kids at the school who look down on them and call them freaks. After the most recent conflict between Jade and Mercedes, the leader of the popular clique, the two are taken to an unusual laboratory and placed under sedation. There, they enter a virtual reality world where their roles are reversed, where Goth is popular and the beautiful rich kids are considered outcasts. To find their way out of their predicament, Jade and Mercedes must overcome their differences and cooperate in order to find the path out of this new, artificial world and back to their normal lives. Showalter "weaves a scary story about the effects of stereotypes and conformity on teens' lives," observed Holley Wiseman in Kliatt.

Naomi Delacrox, the main character of Animal Instincts, is still reeling from the aftermath of a betrayal by her husband. Determined to overcome what she sees as her passivity and weakness, Naomi struggles to assert her aggressive and outgoing side. When she is hired by wealthy businessman Royce Powell to arrange his mother's birthday party, she finds herself in frequent company with a powerful man who has fallen in love with her from afar. Royce offers many of the qualities that Naomi is looking for in a man, but her troubles with her husband, and past problems with her father and other men in her life, render her unable to trust Royce no matter how much she wants to, or how sincere he may be. Showalter "writes with a sparkling humor that keeps the story light without losing poignancy," commented Booklist reviewer Shelley Mosley.

The first novel in Showalter's "Alien Huntress" series, Awaken Me Darkly, combines science fiction and romance elements to create the story of Mia Snow, a woman whose day-to-day mission is to hunt down and eliminate hostile, often murderous aliens who have arrived on Earth. Her main foes are the Arcadians, a particularly violent and unpleasant group of aliens implicated in a series of murders of handsome young men with dark hair and eyes. As the novel progresses, she seeks out Kyrin en Arr, a prominent Arcadian and a prime target. However, she is surprised to find herself attracted to Kyrin. Worse, after her best friend and second-in-command David Gutierrez is badly wounded, she realizes the deadly alien Kyrin is David's only hope for survival. Duty, loyalty, and love all clash as Mia struggles with her conflicting emotions and the difficult choices set out before her. Mosley, in another Booklist review, called the novel an "action-packed adventure" in which "Mia Snow is perfect as the alien hunter with a secret."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Booklist, May 1, 2005, Shelley Mosley, review of Awaken Me Darkly, p. 1536; April 15, 2006, Shelley Mosley, review of Animal Instincts, p. 33; May 1, 2006, Shelley Mosley, review of Enslave Me Sweetly, p. 76; September 15, 2006, Shelley Mosley, review of Playing with Fire: Tales of an Extra Ordinary Girl, p. 51.

Kliatt, September, 2006, Holley Wiseman, review of Oh My Goth!, p. 28.

MBR Bookwatch, February, 2005, Harriet Klausner, review of The Pleasure Slave.