Loveswept
Harper
March 2008
On Sale: March 1, 2008
Featuring: Louisa Brannigan; Pete Streeter
256 pages ISBN: 0060598921 EAN: 9780060598921 Mass Market Paperback (reprint) Add to Wish List
In a previous life, before the
time of Plum, I wrote twelve short romance novels. Red-hot
screwball comedies, each and every one of them. Nine of
these stories were originally published by the Loveswept
line between the years 1988 and 1992. All immediately went
out of print and could be found only at used bookstores and
yard sales.
I'm excited to tell you that those nine
stories are now being re-released by HarperCollins.
Naughty Neighbor is the eighth in the lineup, and
it's presented here in almost original form. Usually when I
edit these books I do some modernizing. For instance, I
change VHS to DVD, and roller skates to Rollerblades, and
sticks of gum are now pieces of gum. I do this because the
books were meant to be contemporary (as opposed to
historical), and I don't want the reader to have a time
disconnect. In the beginning of the original Naughty
Neighbor, my heroine throws a handheld phone into the
toilet, and the next morning she goes into the bathroom and
sees the "slim silver antenna caught between the toilet lid
and seat." Okay, so most phones don't have extended antennas
anymore, but I just loved the image . . . so I left it in.
And I don't know how many women wear front-closure bras
anymore, but that got left in, too.
Naughty
Neighbor is probably the most romancey of all the
Loveswepts I wrote, but there's still a small mystery to
unravel. Louisa Brannigan is a no-nonsense, hardworking
press secretary, fighting her way to the top of Capitol
Hill, with no help from her annoying neighbor, Pete
Streeter. He receives phone calls all night long, he steals
her morning paper, he thinks jeans are formal wear, and
worst of all he's involved Louisa in the disappearance of a
pig. So this is the story of a pig in Witness Protection and
love being found by a workaholic woman and a fun-loving man
who makes terrible pots of coffee.