So there it is! A huge pile of brand-spanking-new copies of the latest novel by your favorite author. It's sitting in all its grandeur in your local bookstore/discount wholesale club/department store, and it's on sale/marked down/on special/20% off/you've got a gift certificate/discount coupon. And you WANT IT BAD! The spine is pristine, the dust jacket shiny and untouched by human hand, the pages are unriffled and it has that wonderful new book smell. Should you buy it?

Perhaps this is one of the hardest dilemmas we romance readers face - whether or not to plunk down some of our hard-earned dollars on this new book from one of our favorite writers. Will this tale fill us with laughter and joy? Will it take us to times and places we've never been and help us experience the pleasures and adventures of love? The possibility of all these questions being fulfilled rests between the covers of a new book.

But wait... consider the following experience:

Mrs. A sailed through puberty on hot and sassy tales by a popular author. It's now well past puberty (more like a quarter to menopause) and, delighted to see a new hardcover by this writer, Mrs. A prances home with the book clutched in her hot little hands. (The heat is from excitement not a hormone imbalance!) Curled up on the couch with beverage at hand, Mrs. A turns off the phone, and prepares for an afternoon's pleasure only to find that within twenty minutes of reading, she's disgusted by the plot and couldn't give a darn what happens to the characters! Oh dear, one very disappointed reader.

This case illustrates that the writer has changed from the person she was years ago and her writing, rather than maintain that lighthearted and sensual romance that was her trademark at that time, has moved into the realm of darker romance with a heavy handed helping of ugliness and despair. Is this a bad book? No. Is Mrs. A disappointed? Yes, very. Can we avoid my er... Mrs. A's mistake? Well, it certainly helps to keep an eye on what your favorite writer is producing these days and what sort of reviews her work is garnering. Also, remember that many publishing companies re-release and re-issue works by popular writers, so that "new" paperback may in fact be a re-issue of a work from ten years ago. Meanwhile, your favorite writer is now involved in stories of mystery and mayhem - a far cry from the romances you remember.

Here's another unfortunate experience to bear in mind:

Ms. B has thoroughly enjoyed books by a certain author who has created a story line that is enormously appealing. Her books revolve around this place/family/time/event, and Ms. B has been eagerly following these adventures. Lo and behold, a new book by this author. Ms. B yelps with glee then produces her charge card and toddles home happy in the knowledge that the next rainy day will be spent in the pleasant company of old and new friends. The clouds thicken, the rain arrives and Ms. B's heart sinks into her Wellington boots as she realizes that this book has little or nothing to do with the series she's previously enjoyed. Oh dear, another very disappointed reader.

Here, I - umm, Ms. B - made the enormous mistake of not thoroughly checking the book's content, not only from the jacket notes, but by selecting a chapter at random and spending a few moments reading it. Better to spend a few moments than a lot of dollars! Does the jacket specifically mention the place/family/time/event, as in "A new "Whatever" story", or does it say "From the writer of the "Whatever" stories? Does the jacket give you a good idea of the storyline, or do they concentrate on telling you as much about the author as they can get away with? A red flag should have popped up for that one too - the publishers are trying to sell this book on the author's name and the popularity of the "Whatever" series - be careful!! I wasn't and it cost me!

Mme. C has a favorite book that she re-reads a lot; she has several others by the same author that she likes, and some by this author that she hasn't read in a while. However, that one favorite book is uppermost in her mind when she sees that gleaming new hardcover from the same author on the display rack. "Can't go wrong", she thinks, writing a check and proudly popping her package into her trunk. That evening, fortified by a glass of her favorite wine, she is devastated to find out that this is a book about an abused wife and her struggles to free herself from a life of pain and suffering. Where's the romance? Where are those steamy sex scenes? Oh dear, yet one more very disappointed reader.

In this case, Mme. C allowed myself - ahem - herself to be lured by the appeal of a new book from the author who wrote her favorite novel. She did not remember that her favorite novel was seven years old, and that since then she had read three paperbacks from the same writer that were less to her taste. I can't come up with any good excuses for this, I have to confess I was an idiot.

Lady D spends a large amount of literary time in another century. While trying to keep abreast of current releases, she missed the notice of a new one from a prolific writer of these tales, and was pleasantly astonished to see it gleaming from the front shelves of her favorite bookstore. Gathering her coins from her reticule, she happily surrendered her housekeeping money for the week, secure in the knowledge that she could survive on literature and macaroni if necessary. One hour into the book and macaroni started to lose its appeal. She put the book down and went to rummage in the pantry for tea and cookies, amazed that for the first time, she could leave this type of book and do something else, when usually she would consume the novel without a break!

Here, Lady D allowed herself to spend money without thinking about the last book from this writer, which wasn't all that great. I should have remembered - sorry, Lady D should have remembered that disappointing feeling she got when a favorite author didn't meet her expectations. All things considered, I have made some very silly mistakes when it comes to buying new hardcover releases - yes, it's the price of obsession!!

However...on the flip side,

A reviewer for a Romance Novel Website (who for the purposes of this paragraph we'll call "me") recently saw a new hardcover by an author she recognized and spent a few minutes at the rack checking the book out. She had several books by this writer, the first couple of which she had not really cared for very much, but the more recent ones had started to pique her interest. Accepting that it was a gamble, Ms. Reviewer took the book home, snuggled up with it and found to her delight that it was one of the best books she'd read all year!

The moral to this tale?

Readers who don't check review sites, especially when they write for them, are asking for trouble. (And please don't tell my husband how much I spent for those darn books!!!)