Stephanie Bond

Contemporary/Voodoo Series

Overall:
Sensuality:
Cover Cheese:

What’s in a name?

Well, we all know that a romance hero named Myron Broadschmidt isn’t gonna get the girl.

But Flynn Granger? Aston Dane? Devlin O’ Neil?

Now those guys have what it takes to save the day and win the hearts of their indomitable heroines.

Same thing goes with book titles. They’ve got to sound just right to catch our imaginations, and are as important to getting us to buy books as the cover art.

Ain’t it grand that the playful nature of romance allows for some of the wittiest and most clever book titles going?

Titles like:

“Jude’s Law.”

“The Givenchy Code.”

“Pride and Petticoats.”

But my favorite title to-date is “In Deep Voodoo,” the name of the suspenseful, humorous, and wickedly off-beat new novel from Stephanie Bond.

In every chapter, Bond serves up a heapin’ helpin’ of southern-fried quirkiness while introducing the off-beat residents of Mojo, Louisiana -- where murder, mayhem, and naughty gag gifts crop up with tantalizing regularity against the backdrop of the town’s annual voodoo festival.

Mojo health food emporium goddess Penny Francisco’s having a tough time dealing with the finality of her divorce from her lyin,’ cheatin’ ex-husband, Deke.

Then, doesn’t he go and get himself murdered, his body found with a with a pink-flagged lawn stake from Penny’s organic herb patch stuck in his chest?

The local sheriff, and most of the town, thinks Penny’s the culprit, what with her having been seen jabbing a pin into the torso of a Deke look-a-like voodoo doll the night of the murder.

Private investigator B.J. Beaumont is inclined to believe Penny’s innocent, and the smooth and sexy Cajun is more than jazzed to come to her aid with all kinds of services.

But can Penny trust a guy who’s just passing through Mojo and, even more unsettling, eats fried foods with reckless abandon?

Stephanie Bond is a talented writer who’s just terrific at character-driven plot.

She knows well how to tease the reader with bits of those characters’ stories, making one champ at the bit to know the rest.

Bond strings us along gladly, expertly whetting our appetites as she decides how much to reveal about our favorite characters’ tales, and what we’ll have to wait to learn until “Voodoo or Die” comes out next year.

It’s a cheesy and gratuitous way for me to end this column, but, “voodoo” the right thing --

Buy the book.

Stephanie Bond wants to know: If given the chance, who would you voodoo? Visit www.StephanieBond.com and let her know!

Next Week’s Review and Special ExtraView: “Kiss Me, Annabel, ” by Eloisa James.