CRAVEN, Sara 1938-

PERSONAL: Born Anne Bushell, 1938.

ADDRESSES: Agent—c/o Author Mail, Harlequin, P.O. Box 5190, Buffalo, NY 14240-5190.

CAREER: Writer.

WRITINGS:

ROMANCE NOVELS

Garden of Dreams, Mills and Boon (Richmond, Surrey, England), 1975.

Gift for a Lion, Mills and Boon (Richmond, Surrey, England), 1977.

Wild Melody, Mills and Boon (Richmond, Surrey, England), 1977.

Temple of the Moon, Mills and Boon (Richmond, Surrey, England), 1977.

Place of the Storms, Mills and Boon (Richmond, Surrey, England), 1977.

Strange Adventure, Mills and Boon (Richmond, Surrey, England), 1977.

Past All Forgetting, Mills and Boon (Richmond, Surrey, England), 1978.

Devil at Archangel, Mills and Boon (Richmond, Surrey, England), 1978.

Dragon's Lair, Mills and Boon (Richmond, Surrey, England), 1978.

High Tide at Midnight, Mills and Boon (Richmond, Surrey, England), 1978.

Moth to the Flame, Mills and Boon (Richmond, Surrey, England), 1979.

Solitaire, Mills and Boon (Richmond, Surrey, England), 1979.

Flame of Diablo, Mills and Boon (Richmond, Surrey, England), 1979.

Moon of Aphrodite, Mills and Boon (Richmond, Surrey, England), 1980.

Fugitive Wife, Mills and Boon (Richmond, Surrey, England), 1980.

Shadow of Desire, Mills and Boon (Richmond, Surrey, England), 1980.

Dark Summer Dawn, Mills and Boon (Richmond, Surrey, England), 1981.

Summer of the Raven, Mills and Boon (Richmond, Surrey, England), 1981.

Witching Hour, Mills and Boon (Richmond, Surrey, England), 1981.

Unguarded Moment, Mills and Boon (Richmond, Surrey, England), 1982.

Counterfeit Bride, Mills and Boon (Richmond, Surrey, England), 1982.

Sup with the Devil, Mills and Boon (Richmond, Surrey, England), 1983.

Pagan Adversary, Mills and Boon (Richmond, Surrey, England), 1983.

Bad Enemy, Mills and Boon (Richmond, Surrey, England), 1983.

Dark Paradise, Mills and Boon (Richmond, Surrey, England), 1984.

Alien Vengeance, Mills and Boon (Richmond, Surrey, England), 1985.

Act of Betrayal, Mills and Boon (Richmond, Surrey, England), 1985.

Promise of the Unicorn, Mills and Boon (Richmond, Surrey, England), 1985.

Escape Me Never, Mills and Boon (Richmond, Surrey, England), 1985.

A High Price to Pay, Mills and Boon (Richmond, Surrey, England), 1986.

The Marriage Deal, Mills and Boon (Richmond, Surrey, England), 1986.

Night of the Condor, Mills and Boon (Richmond, Surrey, England), 1987.

Outsider, Mills and Boon (Richmond, Surrey, England), 1987.

Witch's Harvest, Mills and Boon (Richmond, Surrey, England), 1987.

Comparative Strangers, Mills and Boon (Richmond, Surrey, England), 1988.

Devil and the Deep Sea, Mills and Boon (Richmond, Surrey, England), 1988.

King of the Swords, Mills and Boon (Richmond, Surrey, England), 1988.

Island of the Heart, Mills and Boon (Richmond, Surrey, England), 1989.

Flawless, Mills and Boon (Richmond, Surrey, England), 1989.

Storm Force, Mills and Boon (Richmond, Surrey, England), 1989.

When the Devil Drives, Mills and Boon (Richmond, Surrey, England), 1991.

Desperate Measures, Mills and Boon (Richmond, Surrey, England), 1991.

Dark Ransom, Mills and Boon (Richmond, Surrey, England), 1992.

Tower of Shadows, Mills and Boon (Richmond, Surrey, England), 1993.

Dawn Song, Mills and Boon (Richmond, Surrey, England), 1993.

Dark Apollo, Mills and Boon (Richmond, Surrey, England), 1994, Harlequin (New York, NY), 1996.

Thunder on the Reef, Mills and Boon (Richmond, Surrey, England), 1994, Harlequin (New York, NY), 1995.

Deceived, Mills and Boon (Richmond, Surrey, England), 1996, Harlequin (New York, NY), 1997.

Ultimate Temptation, Mills and Boon (Richmond, Surrey, England), 1997, Harlequin (New York, NY), 1998.

One Reckless Night, Mills and Boon (Richmond, Surrey, England), 1997, Harlequin (New York, NY), 1998.

A Nanny for Christmas, Mills and Boon (Richmond, Surrey, England), 1997, Harlequin (New York, NY), 1998.

Marriage at a Distance, Mills and Boon (Richmond, Surrey, England), 1998, Harlequin (New York, NY), 2000.

Marriage under Suspicion, Mills and Boon (Richmond, Surrey, England), 1998, Harlequin (New York, NY), 1999.

Seduction Game, Harlequin (New York, NY), 1999.

Irresistable Temptation, Mills and Boon (Richmond, Surrey, England), 1999, Harlequin (New York, NY), 2000.

Bartaldi's Bride, Mills and Boon (Richmond, Surrey, England), 1999, Harlequin (New York, NY), 2000.

Marriage by Deception, Mills and Boon (Richmond, Surrey, England), 2000, Harlequin (New York, NY), 2001.

Mistress on Loan, Mills and Boon (Richmond, Surrey, England), 2000, Harlequin (New York, NY), 2003.

The Tycoon's Mistress, Mills and Boon (Richmond, Surrey, England), 2000, Harlequin (New York, NY), 2001.

Rome's Revenge, Mills and Boon (Richmond, Surrey, England), 2001, Harlequin (New York, NY), 2002.

Smokescreen Marriage, Mills and Boon (Richmond, Surrey, England), 2001, Harlequin (New York, NY), 2002.

The Marriage Proposition, Mills and Boon (Richmond, Surrey, England), 2002, Harlequin (New York, NY), 2003.

His Convenient Marriage, Mills and Boon (Richmond, Surrey, England), 2002, Harlequin (New York, NY), 2004.

The Forced Marriage, Mills and Boon (Richmond, Surrey, England), 2002, Harlequin (New York, NY), 2003.

The Marriage Truce, Mills and Boon (Richmond, Surrey, England), 2002.

The Token Wife, Mills and Boon (Richmond, Surrey, England), 2003, Harlequin (New York, NY), 2004.

His Forbidden Bride, Harlequin (New York, NY), 2004.

The Bedroom Barter, Mills and Boon (Richmond, Surrey, England), 2004, Harlequin (New York, NY), 2005.

Mistress at a Price, Mills and Boon (Richmond, Surrey, England), 2004.

The Marchese's Love Child, Mills and Boon (Richmond, Surrey, England), 2005.

In the Millionaire's Possession, Mills and Boon (Richmond, Surrey, England), 2005.

OMNIBUS VOLUMES

Devil and the Deep Sea [and] King of Swords, Mills and Boon (Richmond, Surrey, England), 1988.

The Sara Craven Collection, Mills and Boon (Richmond, Surrey, England), 1990.

Alien Vengeance [and] Dark Paradise, Mills and Boon (Richmond, Surrey, England), 1992.

The Sara Craven Duet, Mills and Boon (Richmond, Surrey, England), 1993.

(With Lindsay Armstrong) Marriage of Convenience: Marrying Game; Marriage Deal, 1995.

(With Jacqueline Baird and Emma Darcy) Passion with a Vengeance, Mills and Boon (Richmond, Surrey, England), 1998.

(With Michelle Reid and Sophie Weston) Hot Latin Lovers, Mills and Boon (Richmond, Surrey, England), 2003.

(With Jacqueline Baird and Cathy Williams) Passion in Paradise, Mills and Boon (Richmond, Surrey, England), 2004.

(With Penny Jordan and Anne McAllister) Greek Millionaires, Mills and Boon (Richmond, Surrey, England), 2004.

(With Jessica Matthews and Margaret Way) A Christmas Engagement, Mills and Boon (Richmond, Surrey, England), 2004.

SIDELIGHTS: British romance novelist Sara Craven is the author of many old-fashioned romance novels that are, as a contributor noted in Twentieth-Century Romance and Historical Writers, "reminiscent of the novels of the 1920s and 1930s." Many of her stories center on marriages of convenience and coercive relationships that grow into genuine love. For example, in Desperate Measures Alain de Courcy agrees to pay Philippa Roscoe's critically ill father's medical bills if Philippa will marry him. Alain is in trouble over an affair that he had with a powerful politician's wife, and he needs a wife to make the scandal go away. In a similar story, Adrien, the title character of Mistress on Loan, is persuaded by her now-rich childhood friend, Chay, to move in with him and become his lover; in return he will help her out with her financial difficulties.

His Convenient Marriage features another impoverished young woman who is offered financial security in return for a relationship. In this book the young woman is Francesca "Chessie" Lloyd, an orphaned young woman now working as a housekeeper-cum-assistant to the man who bought her family home. This man, acclaimed author Miles Hunter, proposes what he intends to be simply a marriage of convenience, but Chessie soon finds herself falling in love. "His Convenient Marriage … is a sweet tale of love, romance and happily ever after," Shannon Short wrote on the Romantic Times Web site. In The Token Wife, Alex Fabian's grandmother will write him out of her will if he does not get married. He becomes engaged, but then his fiancée runs away with another man, who just happens to be her sister's betrothed. Running out of options, Alex decides to blackmail the sister, Louise Trentham, into marrying him instead.

Some of Craven's other books chronicle marriages that seem to have failed. In Smokescreen Marriage Kate and Mick's seemingly blissful relationship ends only six months after their wedding day, when Kate finds Mick and one of his old flames in flagrante delicto. Then, through flashbacks, Craven shows how Kate and Mick found themselves in this position. Smokescreen Marriage "is a compelling read with two dynamic characters," Shannon Short wrote on the Romantic Times Web site. Thunder on the Reef begins three years after a wife has been abandoned by her husband; the story of their marriage comes out after the two find themselves stranded together on the husband's private island in the Bahamas.

Marriage by Deception and Rome's Revenge both feature relationships that blossom into love despite the fact that one or both parties entered into them with ulterior motives. In Marriage by Deception, neither of the two people on a blind date are actually who they claim to be. One is a bored romance novelist just looking for a little fun, and the other is a journalist who is working on a story about people who respond to personal ads. Rome, the title character in Rome's Revenge, lets his grandfather talk him into breaking the heart of Cory Grant, the granddaughter of his grandfather's fiercest enemy, but he falls in love with her instead.

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

BOOKS

Twentieth-Century Romance and Historical Writers, 3rd edition, St. James Press (Detroit, MI), 1994.

ONLINE

All about Books Web site, http://www.likesbooks.com/ (May 27, 2005), Lynn Spencer, review of His Forbidden Bride.

Romantic Times Web site, http://www.romantictimes.com/ (May 27, 2005), Shannon Short, reviews of A Nanny for Christmas, Bartaldi's Bride, Dark Apollo, Deceived, His Convenient Marriage, His Forbidden Bride, Irresistible Temptation, Marriage at a Distance, Marriage by Deception, Marriage under Suspicion, Mistress on Loan, One Reckless Night, Rome's Revenge, Smokescreen Maiden, The Bedroom Barter, The Forced Marriage, The Marriage Proposal, The Seduction Game, The Token Wife, The Tycoon's Mistress, Thunder on the Reef, and Ultimate Temptation.