My real name is Susan Berger and I'm a certified bookaholic. I'm also an actor and I love my work. Being older has been very lucky for me. I wrote children’s books as Susan J Berger. COVID closed my publisher and I'm not actively submitting at the moment. I write romance as Susan B James because I didn’t want my children to have to acknowledge that their mother knew anything about sex. Falling in love and living happily ever after is an ageless state. But in romance novels heroines are mostly under thirty. I happen to be chronologically gifted myself. And many of my favorite romances feature older heroines. I think we need more.
I am a sucker for dry wit and feisty independent heroines who aren’t looking for love but find it as an incidental to the story. I first read an Elizabeth Peters novel when she was writing as Barbara Michaels.
Once I discover an author I love I have to read everything they wrote. I found out Barbara Michaels had another identity— Elizabeth Peters. O Frabjous joy! Another author to devour! I read Crocodile on The Sandbank and fell in love with her takeoff on Victorian literature and her intrepid heroine, Egyptologist Amelia Peabody. Crocodile on The Sandbank is the first book in what turned into a series spanning a thirty-nine-year period—1884 through 1923. I bought every book as soon as it was published. The only book of the series I own in paperback is Crocodile and I have lent it and/or given it away to so many people. In this first book Amelia journeys to Egypt to find a tomb to excavate and encounters a mystery and the brilliant irascible Egyptologist Emerson Radcliffe. She and her beloved Radcliffe are a romance for the ages.
Amelia Peabody is Elizabeth Peters' most brilliant and best-loved creation, a thoroughly Victorian feminist who takes the stuffy world of archaeology by storm with her shocking men's pants and no-nonsense attitude!
In this first adventure, our headstrong heroine decides to use her substantial inheritance to see the world. On her travels, she rescues a gentlewoman in distress - Evelyn Barton-Forbes - and the two become friends. The two companions continue to Egypt where they face mysteries, mummies and the redoubtable Radcliffe Emerson, an outspoken archaeologist, who doesn't need women to help him solve mysteries -- at least that's what he…
In 2014 I went to my first Romance Writers of America Conference in New York City. On the first day, a five-author panel discussed the romance genre and read excerpts from their work in a shaded area of the park at the back of the NYC public library. One of the panelists was my favorite author, Susan Elizabeth Phillips (which is why I was at the discussion.) At the time I had never read a Beverly Jenkins book.
When I heard her speak and read an excerpt I knew I wanted to read her books. I bought the two books she had with her.
When I got back to the hotel room I was sharing with my editor and her best friend I realized the books were numbers four and five in a series. Bummer.
I wanted to start reading her right away.
I went online and bought the first—Bring on The Blessings. And I adored it. The book had a great premise. (She bought an entire town and planned to fix it up to raise foster kids and their chosen families.) It was filled with humor, heart, and so many relatable characters and romance. I read through all the published books in the series and then bought each one as it came out. Book 11—A Christmas To Remember—will be coming out in October. I’ve pre-ordered it. And I will save it for my Christmas read. Beverly also introduced me to African American Historical romance. I just got a copy of her latest historical—To Catch a Raven.
Bestselling author Beverly Jenkins makes the move to trade paperback with this rich and moving story that introduces us to the beautiful Kansas town of Henry Adams, and the townspeople who make it unique
Bernadine Brown is a woman with money to spend. Henry Adams is a town in desperate need of cash. But after Bernadine puts up the money, she has some ideas about how the town should be run. Will the townspeople be willing to shake up their comfortable lives to share the gift they’ve been given with others who really need it?
A contemporary romance novel about second chances, love in the workplace, and balancing single parenthood with a career. Bailey Grant and Fox Goodman have given up on love. They’re working hard, they’re raising kids—romance is the last thing on their minds. Until they get seated next to each other on…
Susan Elizabeth Phillips is hands down my favorite author for her humor, her voice, and her willingness to put older heroines in her books.
Natural Born Charmer has a wonderful B Story about a charismatic but aging rock star and a beautiful fifty-two-year-old woman trying to make peace with her rock and roll past. I don't want to admit how many times I’ve read it.
When millionaire Dean Robillard meets Blue Bailey, she couldn't be more down on her luck; her ex has stolen all her money and she's got no place to go. A football hero, Dean is taking a holiday while recovering from a career-threatening injury. He'd planned a solo road trip to get his head together. The last thing he needs is a damsel in distress tagging along for the ride.
However, despite Dean's misgivings the two find themselves thrown together and soon Blue has moved into his home and is merrily turning his world upside down. Their attraction is mutual but…
Sarah Addison Allen’s books enchanted me at first read. In her books, what others consider weird or magical are an ordinary part of life.
Josey Cirrini still lives with her unloving mother. She hides her favorite thing in her closet. A stack of romance novels and a stockpile of sugary treats. This was her sanctuary until Della Lee Baker, a cranky waitress in the town, moves into Josey’s closet.
Chloe Finley’s life is sprinkled with books that follow her around.
Sarah weaves their lives together into a beautiful magical story where the color red has startling powers and passion can make eggs fry in their carton. Oh, try her, please?
Twenty-seven-year-old Josey is sure of three things: winter in her North Carolina hometown is her favorite season; she's a sorry excuse for a Southern belle; and sweets are best eaten in the privacy of her hidden closet. For while Josey has settled into an uneventful life in her mother's house, her one consolation is the stockpile of sugary treats and paperback romances she escapes to each night . . . Until she finds her closet harboring none other than local waitress Della Lee Baker, a tough-talking, tender-hearted woman who is one part nemesis - and two parts fairy godmother .…
Katie's Gamble is an unexpected, unique story about a young woman who's trying to support her younger siblings by keeping her family's confectionery shop open.
In order to do that, she has to take on her older brother, who's a notorious gambler in Louisiana. Additionally, she has to outsmart Rowdy…
Jennifer Crusie writes some of the funniest heroines I ever met. I adore her voice and I wanted to add her to my list. When I went to Jen’s blog ArghInk to ask her which of her heroines was over forty. She said Andie.
Andie’s ex-husband North wants one last favor from her as closure. Help him settle the two delinquent orphans he inherited from a distant relative. He knows Andie can handle anything.
Her new fiancée isn’t pleased. When Andie meets the two children she quickly realizes things are much worse than she feared. The place is a mess, the children, Carter and Alice, aren't your average delinquents, and the creepy old house where they live is being run by the worst housekeeper since Mrs. Danvers. What's worse, Andie's fiancé thinks this is all a plan by North to get Andie back, and he may be right.
I read Maybe This Time a long time ago. Twice. When I went to read it again this week, I discovered I’d lent it. I couldn’t check it out of the library. I was 15th on the hold list. So I rebought it.
Andie Miller is ready to move on with her life. She wants to marry her fiancé and leave behind everything in her past, especially her ex-husband, North Archer. But when Andie tries to gain closure with him, North asks one last favor: Since the death of a distant cousin, he's become the guardian of two orphans who have already driven away three nannies. North needs someone to take care of the situation―and he knows Andie can handle anything.
Carter and Alice aren't your average delinquents, and the creepy old house where they live is being run by the worst housekeeper…
Two women in their sixties time travel to 1969—London and Los Angeles. One finds an old love. One finds a new. But time travel has rules. And that's a problem...
Being in their sixties has its perks. Sherry is a successful businesswoman. Lorena’s an actress on a popular sitcom. Sherry’s husband dumped her for a younger woman eighteen years ago. Lorena’s husband died of cancer. Sherry wants a second chance at love. Lorena doesn’t think second chances are possible. She can’t imagine loving anyone but Dave. But when a glitch in a Virtual Reality Adventure game sends them back to 1969 London, “possible” takes on a whole new dimension. Are they willing to pay the price to alter their future?
Riley Masterson has moved to Greenbrier, SC, anxious to escape the chaos that has overwhelmed her life.
Questioned in a murder in Alabama, she has spent eighteen months under suspicion by a sheriff’s office, unable to make an arrest. But things in gentrifying Greenbrier are not as they seem. As…
After her mother is killed in a rare Northern Michigan tornado, Sadie Wixom is left with only her father and grandfather to guide her through young adulthood. Miles away in western Saskatchewan, Stefan Montegrand and his Indigenous family are displaced from their land by multinational energy companies. They are taken…
