Karen Robards

Karen Robards


Pursuit
(2009)

New York Times-bestselling author Karen Robards weaves a complex tale of political conspiracy and a steamy love affair, in her sizzling new novel Pursuit.

W hen rookie lawyer Jessica Monaghan gets the call from John Riordan, the senior partner at the illustrious law firm for which she works, she thinks the plum assignment he offers her might be a life-changing moment. And she's right, it is - only not in the way she hopes. It's late on a Saturday night, and Riordan is busy - and, Jess can tell, well on his way to being drunk. He needs Jess to meet First Lady Annette Cooper, for whom Riordan is a personal lawyer, at a Washington, D.C., hotel. Jess is thrilled: This high-profile assignment must mean she's on her way to bigger things. But bigger isn't always better.

Jess doesn't remember much; only that in the course of the meeting with Annette Cooper she ended up in the backseat of a speeding car. All she knows is that the car crashes en route, killing the First Lady. Badly injured, Jess is the only survivor of what is trumpeted around the world as a tragic accident.

Although she has no memory about the events leading up to the accident, Jess still wonders: Was it really an accident? The FBI agent on the case, Mark Ryan, senses Jess is hiding something. As Ryan's suspicions grow, Jess's world starts falling apart. Riordan suddenly dies of a heart attack, and his personal secretary also dies in a car accident on the way to his funeral. In fact, everyone who might possibly know the details about the First Lady's meeting is dead. And then Jess understands: if she remembers that night, she'll be dead too.

Terrified and certain the First Lady's death was no accident, Jess has only Mark Ryan to turn to...




Scandalous
(The first book in the Banning Sisters series)
(2001)

England, 1810: When Lady Gabriella Banning receives word that her half-brother, the Earl of Wickham, has died on his tea plantation in Ceylon, she faces the reality that she and her younger sisters, Claire and Elizabeth, are suddenly penniless. The family's riches will pass to the next male heir -- a distant cousin -- and the Banning sisters are doomed unless Gabby thinks fast.

Which she does. Pretending that Marcus is still alive, Gabby arranges beautiful Claire's London season. She'll keep up the pretense just long enough for Claire to marry a fabulously wealthy nobleman. But when a handsome gentleman arrives at the door and claims to be Marcus, Gabby's plan backfires. For if she exposes this mysterious stranger's deceit, she exposes her own. Bound by secrets and lies, Gabby and the roguish adventurer strike sparks off each other -- and soon London society is abuzz over the scandalous pair of "siblings" who appear to be falling in love...




Irresistible
(The second book in the Banning Sisters series)
(2002)

Claire Banning fulfilled every debutante's dream when she married a rich nobleman. Soon, however, the celebrated beauty realizes she wed a dissolute wastrel. Bitterly hurt and desperately lonely, Claire vows nonetheless to take her expected place in society. Then on a journey home to her husband's estate on the coast of Sussex, she is abducted, and her life--and her heart--are changed forever.

Hugh Battancourt--a dark and dangerous nobleman who long ago turned his back on the ton and now leads a life secretly dedicated to his country's service--is determined not to be swayed by his prisoner's beauty as they share a cabin on a ship bound for France. Lives depend on his retrieving from her a letter full of secrets she intends to turn over to the enemy. But even as Claire and Hugh engage in a battle of wits and wills, captor and captive find themselves drawn irresistibly to each other. Is it possible, Claire wonders, that she could discover the true meaning of love that has eluded her with this handsome stranger? One who will lay his life on the line in order to protect her from someone who is intent on placing Claire in the path of danger?

Amanda Rose
(1984)

A REBEL PIRATE WAS HER ONLY MASTER...

Impetuous English beauty Lady Amanda Rose was determined to escape the loveless, marriage that her cruel stepbrother would force on her. But it was a black-haired rogue from the New World who was to change the course of her destiny forever.

Fugitive of the Crown, unjustly accused of murder, Matt Grayson lay wounded and near death when Amanda first discovered him on the rocky shore. But her promise not to betray him was soon replaced by a still greater vow — to possess this dark and mysterious stranger who aroused in her a passion unlike any she had ever known.

But a cruel twist of fate forced Matt to flee her embrace. Suddenly Amanda was prisoner on a ship bound for New Orleans— accused of betraying the man she loved more than life itself. Now when her beloved fugitive took her in his arms, it was as his most passionate enemy...



To Love a Man
(1985)

Under the searing African sun they fought as fiercely as they loved...

She was Lisa Collins, beautiful and willful, a spoiled rich girl recovering from a tragic marriage, now in Africa as a journalist. He was Sam Eastman, a hardened soldier of fortune, fighting in Rhodesia's civil war. He saved her from a terrorist attack. And from that moment on, Lisa could not resist the red-hot desire he awakened with his touch.

Sam would make her his captive, his woman, taunting her, teasing her, treating her no better than a slave. He would take her when and where he chose, hurting her pride even as he healed her wounds. She would love him, hate him, fight him, need him--as he needed her, as she strove to tame his wild, embittered heart, as he had taught her TO LOVE A MAN



Dark Torment
(1985)

SHE WAS MISTRESS, BUT PASSION MADE HER HIS SLAVE.

A landowner's daughter, honey-blonde Sarah Markham was a virgin furiously dedicated to dreams of a just world - yet feverishly yearning for a man's clasping arms... Then she met a black-haired Irishman named Dominic Gallagher. Tall and arrogantly handsome, he was a rebel convict lusting for freedom.

Transported to Australia for crimes against the crown, Gallagher became Sarah's servant, saved by her from death by flogging. His dazzling blue eyes mesmerized her, his wild maleness enthralled her. He longed to crush her with kisses, seduce here, and take her. And make her the captive of his raw and untamed passion, a love that would be her... Dark Torment.



Wild Orchids
(1986)

He wanted her hungry--hot and wild, burning with desire for him. She wanted him forever.

All her young life Lora Harding had dreamed of
a man whose touch would teach her passion. Then suddenly, on a Mexican vacation, there he was... in her car ... holding a gun to her head! The most attractive man she had ever laid eyes on was kidnapping her!

He called himself Max. A soldier of fortune, dark eyed and fierce looking, he was a man on the run, forcing Lora to help his outlawed rescue missions. Lora was both terrified and entranced by his presence. But in a lush jungle hideout high in the mountains, her fear melted into liquid fire when her captor crushed her creamy curves to his body with iron-hard arms, claimed the honey-sweetness of her lips, and tormented her with the sweet promise of ecstasy -- and total surrender...



Loving Julia
(1986)

"You'll have to learn to speak, to dress, to conduct yourself as a lady." Those orders were intoned by Sebastian, the cold haughty Earl of Moorland to Jewel Combs, the cockney commoner defiantly facing him in his luxurious drawing room. Despite his icy demeanor, Jewel couldn't help but notice that the Earl was a breathtakingly handsome man. Still, the only thing that checked her saucy reply was the realization that the Earl's outlandish plans would give her a home, and she would never be hungry, shivering, or frightened in dark dockside alleyways again.

Fate had brought Jewel to the mansion on Grosvenor Square, now she was going to grab the gold ring of chance and become "Julia Stratham," a genuine upper-crust, silk-and lace aristocrat. She didn't know why blue-blooded Sebastian had accepted the challenge to transform her from a diamond in the rough into a glittering gem. She did know she had a surprise in store of her own.

She would teach this titled nobleman that although she wasn't a lady, she was all woman... and the one with whom he was going to madly, unwisely, and passionately fall in love with!



Night Magic
(1987)

WHAT DO YOU MEAN YOU’RE A SECRET AGENT?

Author Clara Winston was snuggling in for the night when the strange men burst into her carriage house apartment. Terrified, she couldn't make sense of their heavy Russian accents, but they seemed to be demanding the whereabouts of the “real” Magic Dragon -- the one she had dedicated her last romance novel to. "Under the bed," she managed to squeak out, wondering why in the world they wanted her old gray Persian cat, Puff...

When they went to look, Clara escaped out into the darkness and right into the strong arms of a magnificent stranger -- a man as sensual and exciting as the perfect lover she described in her books, but had never found in real life. He was CIA agent Jack McClain, code-named "Magic Dragon," a man running for his life and taking Clara and Puff with him into a wild spill of hair-raising adventure, deadly espionage... and unforgettable love.




Guilty
(2008)

One cold November night when Kat Kominski was fifteen years old, she and some friends held up a convenience store. In the heat of the moment, one of the others shot and killed an off-duty cop moonlighting as a security guard. Kat and her pals fled the scene in a panic, and no one was caught.

Thirteen years later, Kat - now Kate White - has built a new life for herself. Now a single mom with a nine-year-old son, she works as a prosecutor in the Philadelphia DA's office. But her dark past returns to haunt her when she walks into court one day and has a devastating encounter with a prisoner, Mario Castellanos, one of her companions from that terrible night.

Hardcore criminal Mario is facing a possible sentence of twenty years. He lets Kate know that he is counting on her, his old friend turned prosecutor, to make sure he goes free instead. If Kate doesn't do what he wants, he'll claim she was the one who killed the off-duty cop.

Kate is in a bind: If the truth about her past gets out, she stands to lose everything, including her son. But she can't do what Mario wants, either. As Mario ups his demands, blackmailing and terrorizing her, she is forced to turn for protection to a sexy homicide detective, Tom Braga, who suspects her of...something. The two clash repeatedly as Tom keeps digging into her past, trying to learn the truth.

Then another, far more menacing, threat rears its head, and Kate realizes that her life - and her son's - are in terrible danger. Frantic, she sees that she has nowhere to turn. Except, maybe, to Tom....



Obsession
(2007)

Katharine Lawrence has no idea what hit her. The attack came out of nowhere. Only hours earlier she had been enjoying a girls-only weekend with an old college friend. Now she finds herself lying bound and gagged on her kitchen floor, staring with terrified eyes at her friend Lisa while two masked gunmen search her house for - what? She doesn't know. She knows only that, unless they can escape, whatever it is they are searching for could end up getting both her and Lisa killed.

But Katharine's nightmare is just beginning. When she awakens in the hospital, her nose crushed, her body battered, her brain tells her that things aren't right - and it's not the attack that's disorienting her. She doesn't recognize herself when she looks in the mirror: her slim body, her manicured hands, her blond bob. And the smiling, handsome doctor at her bedside - Dr. Dan Howard - is familiar, but in a totally unfamiliar way. Perhaps the trauma of the attempt on her life has given her some kind of weird amnesia. She's twenty-nine, the special assistant to the head of the CIA, and she's lucky to be alive. She also knows she can trust no one.

Acting on instinct, Katharine runs for her life, with Dan, her newfound protector, at her side. By turns grateful and unnerved by his presence, and unable to shake a feeling of profound dread, she allows him to spirit her to a secluded safe house. Instead of finding a haven, they stumble into a tangled web of government conspiracy, and Katharine is left confused, frightened, and desperate to uncover the truth. As the pair is drawn further into this shadowy world where almost nothing is as it seems, as fear gives way to a firestorm of attraction, thecat-and-mouse game grows more deadly, and soon both their lives are at stake.



Vanished
(2006)

Seven years ago, Sarah Mason's five-year-old daughter vanished during an outing at a park in Beaufort, South Carolina. Despite a frantic search, little Lexie was never found, and Sarah was left to pick up the pieces of her shattered life and go on the best she could.

Then, one hot August night, Sarah comes home to hear the phone ringing. When she picks it up, a child's terrified voice whispers, "Mommy, help, come and get me..." The call is cut off, but not before Sarah's heart goes into overdrive: she is sure the voice belonged to Lexie. Five-year-old Lexie. Though seven years have passed, she sounds exactly the same.

Frantic, Sarah turns to the police, the FBI, and her co-workers at the County Prosecutor's office, none of whom takes the call seriously. The only person she can count on to help her is Jake Hogan, her closest friend in the world, the man who has provided a strong shoulder for her to lean on throughout the long search. A former FBI agent, Jake is now a P.I., and though he is skeptical about the authenticity of the call, the attraction he feels for Sarah pushes him to help her. He is convinced someone is deliberately tormenting the grief-stricken mother.

Their long friendship explodes into a romance as they try to figure out who, and why - and what happened to Lexie. When the torment escalates to murder, Jake is the only one who can keep Sarah safe. Together, they are caught up in a nightmare search for Lexie that just might end with Sarah's death.