Once in a while, I run across an author who makes everything I slog through as a reviewer worthwhile. Such authors are squee-worthy, and as soon as I develop a powerful new author crush, I immediately run off to my blog because I want to tell the world about it. I'll write a formal review of The Devil's Candy for RRT, but I want to gush a bit before I get down to business.

Meet my latest eighth wonder of the world, Lauren Sharman. Not since I stumbled on the Delaney books, written by Iris Johansen, have I had such a giddy feeling of incredulous delight. Ms. Sharman is writing a series of linked single-title books about a clan of rough and tumble men who live in Maryland. With names like Rebel and Blackie, these men embody the Old West style of men who are ready to throw down but also eager to make sweet, sweet love to their women. Imagine being the heroine, formerly alone in the world, suddenly surrounded by a close-knit group of men who love you and will protect you to their last breath. Sound delicious? It really, truly is. I've never been to Maryland, but her setting intrigues me so much that I want to vacation there now.

Ms. Sharman has almost reinvented the contemporary genre because she doesn't write about the rich and the beautiful. These are downhome people, blue collar romances. The heroines fix their own cars and shoot guns like pros. Her heroes have been to prison a time or two and maybe ran with a biker gang back in the day. Her writing style is captivating. I'm so excited by her book, The Devil's Candy, that I'm running out to buy the prequel right now. I'm sort of anal in that I hate reading books out of order, but she managed to make this book totally stand on its own, so I didn't feel like I was clueless about all the action that had come before in No Worries. I'm getting it, though. I need to read Rebel and Gypsy's story now. (How can you not love an author who can make names like this work? They're part and parcel with her setting, evoking wilderness and the Wild West right there in Maryland). Ms. Sharman's style reminds me a little of Sharon Sala, if that helps any. She wrote a fabulous book called Jackson Rule, which had an ex-con hero like these McCasseys.

Blackie was so good. Who doesn't love a big, tough man who is gentle as a lamb with the woman he loves? He could kill a man with one blow, and he has killed before, but he'd never lay a hand on his woman. For her part, Angel is a killer too; she's mean as snake, but I adore her. She's Blackie's match from the jump. I love this bit:

"If you're going to continue to do that," she said, "then you'd better kill me. I may be a woman and I may be small, but I'm evil, and as dangerous as any of you with a gun. Wasting your sorry ass would make my day, Prince. It wouldn't be the first time I've killed a man, either. And I don't have the conscience my brother did, so if you think I'd get cold feet just before pulling the trigger, you're dead wrong."

These McCassey men are rough and rugged with dark hair and deep blue eyes. When they're young, they terrorize Washington County with their wild ways, but once they're tamed by a woman's love, they become the ultimate family men, willing to lay down their lives for their ladies. If you've read Iris Johansen's Delaney books or Nora Roberts's Chesapeake Bay saga, then you know exactly what I'm talking about. You mess with one McCassey, you fight them all. Ms. Sharman evokes this feeling of devotion and family that's tearfully joyous in its warmth.

I feel like I'm not expressing just how cool her writing is. Best I can do is recommend you check her out for yourself. I could read tons of books about these McCasseys. I hope she never gets tired of writing them.

Labels: bonus post