Karen Robards Books

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Karen Robards is a bestselling American novelist that writes historical and contemporary romantic suspense. She was born in Louisville, Kentucky. She attended the University of Kentucky from where she took a creative writing class.

For a time, Robards attended law school. She is fairly certain that she would have pursued a career in the legal field if her writing hadn’t taken off. Two events compelled her to experiment with publishing. First, while she was working for her father, an orthodontist, in her teenage years, Robards saw a magazine that asked readers to submit funny anecdotes.

Fascinated by the challenge, Robards wrote a two-paragraph story. She wasn’t sure what to expect when she submitted it. But she was quite happy when Reader’s Digest published her story in 1973, sending her a $100 check for her efforts.

And then, during her time at the University of Kentucky, a professor asked the class to write a 50-page story that was worthy of publishing. Robards took this assignment quite seriously. She studied the publishing industry to identify the kind of storytelling it responded to.

This eventually drove her to write 50 pages within the historical romance genre. When she was penning it, Robards knew that her subject matter was far from conventional for her class. But she wasn’t perturbed by her choice, not until she realized that she would have to read her work to the class.

Naturally, everyone laughed at her. However, Robards now perceives those 50 pages in a positive light. This is because they created the foundation that she used to write her debut novel, ‘Island Flame’ in 1981.

‘Island Flame’ wasn’t necessarily a big hit. It only stayed in stores for three weeks. Publishers were not convinced that the author had much of an audience. This discouraged them from buying more of her work.

However, Karen Robards was not perturbed. In fact, she was so confident in her ability to succeed as a writer that she abandoned her studies in law school so that she could focus on her writing career. Because she had to survive until her next novel was written and published, she secured a temporary position in an orthodontic clinic.

The position had its challenges. But Robards always found time to write during her lunch break. Within three months, she had a second novel. This one sold even faster than the first one and it gave Robards’ career a much-needed boost.

She initially specialized in historical romance. But then she landed a new publisher who tasked her with publishing a contemporary romantic suspense novel each year. Robards did accordingly. But over time, questions about the viability of contemporary romance rose.

Her publishers came to the conclusion that the genre was dead. They wanted Robards to stick with historical fiction. But Robards wasn’t convinced. After dipping her toes into the contemporary romance genre, she became certain that it had more to offer, and she found a publisher who allowed her to experiment with it.

‘One Summer’, the contemporary romance novel she wrote soon after, was a success and it convinced her publishers that Robards belonged in the contemporary romance genre. The author has a husband and three sons.

Karen Robards Awards

Robards has won numerous RT Reviewers Choice Awards over the years.

Best Karen Robards Books

Robards has been commended for her humor and characterization, with some of the best books in her bibliography including:

Shattered: Lisa Grant had to come home to care for her mother, a woman whose health was failing her. She was fortunate to land a position on the District Attorney’s team. Her job was to pull cold case files. She did not give them much thought until she came across one particular file that detailed an incident from three decades ago in which an entire family disappeared. What caught Lisa’s attention was the fact that the mother looked a lot like her.

The Last Victim: Charlie survived a massacre. The information she gave the police forced the Boardwalk Killer to go into hiding. But that was a long time ago. Today, Charlie works as a criminal pathologist who spends her days trying to make sense of the motivations behind the actions of demented killers.

Considering the visions that have continued to plague her, Charlie knows that she hasn’t fully recovered from her encounter with the Boardwalk Killer. But that doesn’t stop her from jumping into the fray once he makes his return.

When Does The Next Karen Robards book come out?

Karen Robards doesn't seem to have an upcoming book. Their newest book is Some Murders in Berlin and was released on June, 25th 2024.

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