Jenna Petersen

Regency/Lady Spies series

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Television could learn a lot from romance fiction, not the least of which is how to avoid the dreaded Denouement Disappointment.

Double D is that cold, hard emotion we're treated to when we've watched potential lovers in a television series feint and parry for seasons, only to find their finally hooking up ruins what was best about the show: the undercurrent of heated erotic anticipation.

Who can forget our collective national depression when the greatest pairings on the small screen bit the dust along with their ratings after the fact: Sam and Diane. Dave and Maddy. Niles and Daphne.

Yet romance writers live for creatively avoiding Denouement Disappointment. Frankly, we readers demand it, knowing as we do that part of the romance construct entails hooking up the hero and heroine, then pulling them apart so our hearts break.

Trying to figure out how our favorite author will stoke the passion again while getting those crazy kids back together is just a bonus.

Author Jenna Petersen's particularly good at shaking things up once the consummation has gone down, especially in her newest, "Desire Never Dies."

Leads are petering out in master spy Lucas Tyler's mission to ferret out those responsible for a series of ambush murders of British agents. To add insult to injury, he's ordered to work the case with Lady Anastasia Whittig, member of a genteel group of "Lady Spies" doing undercover work for the Crown.

Widowed five years, shy Ana would rather crack codes and invent clever espionage aids in her basement laboratory than be thrust into "the field" with the arrogant, overbearing, and too-handsome-by-half Lucas. But his initial marginalizing of Ana's abilities – and her own Lady Spy friend's near-murder on assignment with Lucas – spurs Ana to step into the field, and back into life and Society.

When Lucas begins to admire Ana for her skills as well as the lush little body she keeps hidden under widow's weeds, he's frustrated to learn she wants to keep things purely professional out of deference to duty, as well as loyalty to her deceased husband.

And Lucas' aggravation grows exponentially when Ana finally looks in his direction, although not for romance: Ana believes Lucas already knows who's offing His Majesty's spies.

Petersen's "Desire Never Dies" is entertaining and sensual -- a romance that's spun along by passion, not only between Ana and Lucas, but also in the way each examines his or her motivations for having lived life avoiding intimacy.

It's that type of conveyance of emotion that makes a good romance engaging. And it's Petersen's ability to pass on through prose and dialogue her own joy in writing the novel that makes her romances very good, and oh, so much fun to read.

So, avoid Denouement Disappointment, America. Put down those remotes and --

Buy the book.

www.JennaPetersen.com