Mary Jo Putney is a brilliant, original writer. She doesn’t stick to the beaten track, rehashing the clichéd plots that we’ve all heard a millions times before. Instead, she tackles the hard stuff of life – alcoholism, spousal abuse, prejudice – all those things that ignorant readers of Literature think you can’t find in a [...]

~buy this book~ I absolutely love plots that spring from cruel parents: don’t ask me why. My parents were deeply loving and wouldn’t have dreamed of casting me out into a rainy night with no money and harsh words. More the opposite, now that I think of all those nights when my mother waited up [...]

~ buy this book ~ One of the most frequent reader comments I get springs from my Essex Sisters series. Readers don’t like Imogen in the first two books. They write me foreboding, worried letters. They range from the worried –“I loved Much Ado About You,” but I don’t like Imogen and I think I’m [...]

~ buy this book ~ Sexuality is a very perverse thing, and frankly (in case none of you noticed) it doesn’t tend to be all that pc. Just look at the 1970’s label bodice-ripper, which is still being plastered onto any romance featuring a man and a woman. The connotations are unpleasant – of a [...]

I have a fascination with twins. I never let myself ask people who are as identical as drops of water whether they’re twins because I figure they’ve heard it so many times before that I earn a halo by refraining. But I’m still fascinated. My daughter and I were at a Starbucks yesterday when two [...]