Ghost Moon

 

By Karen Robards

There is a kidnapper in southern Louisiana. He has taken several young girls who were never found again. 

After being away from her home in rural southern Louisiana for nearly a decade, Olivia has returned with her eight-year-old daughter, Sara. But her arrival is viewed by some as a bad thing and by others as a good thing. She is convinced to stay awhile and her daughter gets to know a girl about her age who is also living there, Chloe.

Olivia finds that she is developing feelings for Chloe's dad, Seth. Olivia and Seth didn't get along very well when she was a rebellious teen. But now that she has grown up a bit, she and Seth are getting along a lot better, despite the fact that Seth in engaged to be married in a few months. Added to that, Chloe, Seth's daughter, doesn't like Seth's fiancée and friction has been building up between the two. 

Meanwhile, there is the unresolved disappearances of several little girls about the same ages as Chloe and Sara. And Olivia's memory gaps relating to the time when she was a little girl and lost her mother who died  by drowning.

This was an OK story. I really didn't like the whole child murder part though. It was a gruesome frame for the story. But the author needed a traumatic event to give the child version of Olivia amnesia about the happenings of the night her mom died, I guess. 

Here is a review by Publishers Weekly.

Night Magic

By Karen Robards

Clara Winston writes romance novels. John McClain is a CIA agent in possession of vital national security information. His girl friend left one of Clara Winston's novels at John's place. For some strange reason, KGB agents who are after John find the novel and decide Clara is John's girl friend. (This part of the story didn't make any sense to me) So they come looking for Clara and grab her, thinking they can use her for leverage against John, once they get their hands on him, which they do. Of course, Clara and John are total strangers but the KGB thugs refuse to believe it.
Clara and John manage to escape and are on the run together. The relentless KGB are close behind, along with the police and the CIA who are now convinced John is a rogue agent and a murderer. And that Clara is involved too.
So Clara and John are being chased pretty much by everyone and find themselves escaping from the bad guys and the good guys by turns. Of course they end up naked and having sex in between escaping from their various pursuers. Clara's cat Puff is an important character in the most of the first part of the book, but gets put aside in the second half, which was too bad.

This was an OK book. Typical romance novel with the two strangers falling head over heals in love and who manage to have sex despite being constantly on the run and despite John being shot in the chest and nearly dying.

Beachcomber

By Karen Robards

Christy Petrino is sick of the mob. Her dad was a minor mobster who was murdered by the mob. So when Christy discovers her fiancé is "connected" she runs away to Oracoke Island with her cat, Marvin. But she gets roped into running an "errand" for the mob and in the process trips over a body on the beach and comes under FBI surveillance.

In some ways, I think this novel was intended to be a lighthearted romp, but it never quite pulls it off. Some of the scenes were just too contrived. An OK read.

Publishers Weekly review:   https://www.publishersweekly.com/978-0-7434-5348-6.