Obsession by Karen Robards

O.K. I freely admit, up front, that I am not a romance genre fan. It drives me crazy that people come into the library and check out Harlequin/fill in the blank romance paperbacks by the bag full and many an excellent book remains on the shelf unread. I jokingly call the whole romance genre "bodice-ripper" romance. They are cranked out too fast and are too formulaic to be of interest to me. The only way I like to read this particular genre is if you throw in a little history or humor or something.

In the case of Karen Robards, first of all she's a Kentucky author, and I'm kind of partial to those Kentucky authors. She does have a lot of humor in what she writes, so I like that too. She has an interesting website and a household full of boys and pets. And her books are a fast pleasant read.

In Obsession, Katharine Lawrence finds herself and a friend lying bound and gagged on her kitchen floor while two masked gun wielding thugs are searching her house. She doesn't know what they are searching for, only that she could wind up dead if they don't find what they are looking for, or even if they do find it. In the aftermath of this breakin, her friend is killed and she finds herself in the hospital with something drastic going on in her brain. She doesn't recognize herself when she looks in the mirror. The doctor at her bedside is kind of familiar, but her mind is totally at odds with herself. All she knows is she can't trust anyone, not even her own memories.

Robards manages to make the book interesting enough to keep you turning the pages to see how this all plays out and there is even a neat little twist at the end that wraps it all up together nicely. So though I don't read this kind of book much, it is a pleasant enough diversion. It may be for you too.