When you guys read this post I'll be on my way to the airport to catch a plane to London, England!
After an amazing trip to the US (Los Angeles) in June, I am a lucky woman about to meet one of my fave romantic suspense authors, Karen Rose...

About the Author
Website
Internationally bestselling, RITA-award winning, author Karen Rose was born and raised in the Maryland suburbs of Washington, DC. She met her husband, Martin, on a blind date when they were seventeen and after they both graduated from the University of Maryland, (Karen with a degree in Chemical Engineering) they moved to Cincinnati, Ohio. Karen worked as an engineer for a large consumer goods company, earning two patents, but as Karen says, “scenes were roiling in my head and I couldn't concentrate on my job so I started writing them down. I started out writing for fun, and soon found I was hooked.”

Her debut suspense novel, DON'T TELL, was released in July, 2003. Since then, she has written ten more novels and a novella. Her third novel, I'M WATCHING YOU, received the Romance Writers of America's coveted RITA award for Best Romantic Suspense for 2005. In that same year her second novel, HAVE YOU SEEN HER? was also a RITA finalist.

Her fourth novel, NOTHING TO FEAR, a 2006 RITA finalist, was nominated for Romantic Times Magazine's Best Suspense and for the Southern Independent Booksellers Alliance Book Award for Fiction. Karen's ninth novel, DIE FOR ME, was a RITA finalist for Best Romantic Suspense and won the Romantic Times' Reviewers' Choice Award for Best Romantic Suspense of 2007. SCREAM FOR ME (January, 2009) was also a RITA finalist. To date, her books have been translated into eighteen languages.

A former high school teacher of chemistry and physics, Karen lives in Florida with her husband of more than twenty years, her two teenage daughters, a dog and two cats. When she's not writing, Karen enjoys traveling and skiing.

“I love happy endings,” says Karen, “and I think other readers love them, too. Sometimes real life can be overwhelming. It’s nice to escape to a place where you know everything will come up roses by the last page. Reading has helped me during rough periods in my life as well as through times when everything was just a bit hectic. I hope my stories provide a good escape to my readers as well.”

Karen’s characters generally face tough challenges. In DON'T TELL, Caroline is a survivor of spousal abuse. She has Dana, her best friend, to encourage and guide her, but a lot of abused women don't have a "Dana" in their lives. However, there is help out there for this and many other life situations. Karen came up with the idea of LIFE LINKS, a set of links that provide resources of help for a variety of different issues. “Thank God, I've never been a victim of abuse, but I've been in other situations where I needed to reach out for help,” Karen says.

I read DON'T TELL last year and was blown away by it and am really excited to meet Karen in person!

My review of DON'T TELL

I'm going to her book-signing first and in the afternoon I have the pleasure of joining her for an afternoon Tea. I just finished packing my bag and also made room for some of my Karen Rose books for the signing. And hope to get SILENT SCREAM (Karen's newest) at the signing! And I'm definitely going to look for a new copy of YOU CAN'T HIDE to replace the tattered secondhand copy I purchased a few years ago ;)

I'll be back tomorrow (Friday), hopefully with some pics and a wonderful experience, because besides meeting Karen Rose, this will also be my first ever trip to London and I hope to do some touristy stuff on Friday before flying home again.