Lee, Jade

(Katherine Greyle)

PERSONAL: Female. Education: University of Michigan, A.B. (cum laude), 1984; University of Southern California, M.P.W., 1987.

ADDRESSES: Home—Champaign, IL. Agent—c/o Author Mail, Leisure Books, 200 Madison Ave., Ste. 2000, New York, NY 10016. E-mail—[email protected].

CAREER: Novelist.

MEMBER: Romance Writers of America, Novelists Inc.

AWARDS, HONORS: Houston Worldfest awards, 1997, for screenplay Oracle, 1998, for dramatic adaptation of A Lady Does Not …; Worldfest Flagstaff award for Isn't It Romantic?; Holt Medallions for best first book and best paranormal, and PRISM awards for Best of the Best and Best Futuristic/Fantasy, all 1999, all for Oracle; Hero's Kiss award, Romantic Times Book Club, 2001, for Major Wyclyff's Campaign, 2003, for No Place for a Lady.

WRITINGS:

ROMANCE NOVELS

Devil's Bargain, Dorchester Publishing (New York, NY), 2004.

White Tigress, Leisure Books (New York, NY), 2005.

Hungry Tigress, Leisure Books (New York, NY), 2005.

Desperate Tigress, Leisure Books (New York, NY), 2005.

ROMANCE NOVELS; UNDER PSEUDONYM KATHERINE GREYLE

Oracle, LionHearted Publishers (Zephyr Cove, NV), 1998.

Rules for a Lady, Leisure Books (New York, NY), 2001.

Major Wyclyff's Campaign, Leisure Books (New York, NY), 2001.

Miss Woodley's Experiment, Leisure Books (New York, NY), 2002.

(With Karen Harbaugh, Sabeeha Johnson, and Cathy Yardley) Playing with Matches (anthology), Signet Books (New York, NY), 2003.

No Place for a Lady, Leisure Books (New York, NY), 2003.

Almost an Angel, Love Spell (New York, NY), 2003.

By Fate's Hand, Imajinn Books (New York, NY), 2004.

Also author of unproduced scripts, including A Lady Does Not …, Isn't It Romantic?, Unbridled, and a screenplay adaptation of Oracle.

SIDELIGHTS: Jade Lee, who often uses the pen name Katherine Greyle, has written romance novels with plots that range from historical—including some Regency-era romances—to fantastical time-travel fiction and romances with supernatural elements. Her first novel, Oracle, is one of her most experimental, featuring a time-travel adventure in which the heroine, Jane, is transported from the year 2012 to the twenty-third century. The future is a difficult place, and the modern conveniences of twenty-first-century life that Jane is used to are gone. Jane wakes to find King Daken performing an erotic ceremony over her that allows them to communicate with each other. Cultural differences become fodder for character conflict and amusing banter as the characters embark on an adventure and fall in love. While Laurie Shallah, writing for the All about Romance Web site, felt the book "flawed by an impulsive, totally off-the-wall decision made by the heroine midway through the story," the reviewer enjoyed the book overall, noting that "the plot is action-filled, but amazingly, the relationship does not suffer because of it."

Oracle earned the author a Holt Medallion and a PRISM award, encouraging her to embark on a prolific career writing novels that, for the most part, are set in Regency England. According to a biographer on the author's home page, there are reasons why she is attracted to that period of history in England: "As the daughter of a Shanghai native and a staunch Indiana Hoosier, Jade Lee struggled to find her own identity somewhere between America and China. Her search took her to regency England where the formality of culture hid a secret sensuality that fascinated her." Her first book placed in this setting is Devil's Bargain, a work that All about Romance online contributor Lynn Spencer observed "explores the darker side of the Regency world." In the story the daughter of a parson is given an education in the sensuous arts by Viscount Marlock, a lecherous man who runs a sort of school for training sexually innocent women to be better lovers for the men they are meant to marry. Although Spencer found the subject matter of a "marriage market" unpleasant and the happy conclusion of the book out of character with the darker atmosphere that precedes it, she felt Lee does an "excellent job of creating a very dark and tense mood in her story."

Some critics have noted that Lee's female characters are often impulsive and unpredictable, which can lead to implausibility but also comedy. In Rules for a Lady, for example, the main character, Gilliana is meant to be unconventional and humorous. However, Jane Jorgenson commented in her All about Romance review that "Gillian acts in extremely illogical ways" and some aspects of Gillian's personality "could have used more development." Nevertheless, Jorgenson found the character "extremely likable" and the dialogue between Gillian and the novel's hero, Stephen, reminiscent of the banter between Katherine Hepburn and Gary Grant in the comic movie Bringing up Baby.

Lee has received a more enthusiastic critical reception for her "Tigress" series of books, set in pre-Communist China. In these books, including White Tigress, Hungry Tigress, and Desperate Tigress, the author plays on cultural differences between English and Chinese characters to add tension and interest to her stories. The first book features Lydia Smith, who finds herself sold into the slave market during a search for her fiancée. Ru Shan, a student of Taoism, comes to her aid in a tale that works primarily because of the setting, according to Alyssa Hurzeler in Romance Reader. "I found myself engrossed in Lee's depiction of the exotic culture," the critic commented. In a Booklist review of Desperate Tigress, Nina C. Davis appreciated Lee's story of a Chinese couple trying to put their marriage back together, as well as the author's "unabashed" use of "historic social and cultural detail."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Booklist, October 1, 2005, Nina C. Davis, review of Desperate Tigress, p. 41.

ONLINE

All about Romance, http://www.likesbooks.com/ (November 26, 2005), Laurie Shallah, review of Oracle; Liz Zink, review of Almost an Angel; Lynn Spencer, review of Devil's Bargain; Ellen D. Micheletti, review of Miss Woodley's Experiment; Mary Sophia Novak, review of Major Wyclyff's Campaign; Rachel Potter, review of No Place for a Lady; Jane Jorgenson, review of Rules for a Lady.

Best Reviews, http://www.thebestreviews.com/ (November 26, 2005), Harriet Klausner, review of No Place for a Lady.

Jade Lee Home Page, http://www.jadeleeauthor.com (November 26, 2005).

Romance Reader, http://www.theromancereader.com/ (November 26, 2005), Alyssa Hurzeler, review of White Tigress; Nancy J. Silberstein, review of Rules for a Lady.