Worth the Risk to include Nora Roberts' Partners and The Art of Deception

Nora Roberts' fans get twice as lucky as usual on November 24, 2009 with the release of two of her early titles in one. Worth the Risk, a Harlequin omnibus reprint edition, contains Roberts' early Silhouette Romance novels, Partners (1985) and The Art of Deception (1986).

Harlequin has, since 1997, regularly issued similar omnibus reprint editions of the novels Roberts originally wrote for Silhouette Romances, a company Harlequin acquired in 1984. Worth the Risk follows Harlequin's October 2009 release of Western Skies. 

Partners, the first of the novels included in Worth the Risk, focuses on reporter Matthew Bates. Mathew fell in love with Southern belle Laurel Armand in college when he first saw the photograph of her that Laurel's brother kept.

Years later Matthew accepts a job with a New Orleans newspaper, hoping to get closer to the elusive Laurel. But Laurel, who is also a reporter, is very competitive and resents having to share credit for her stories with Matthew. When they are assigned to the same murder investigation, Matthew becomes concerned that Laurel herself may become the killer's next target.

Artist Adam Haines places his relationship with Kirby Fairchild "at risk" in the second story in the collection, The Art of Deception. Adam pretends to be visiting the Fairchild mansion simply for a rest. In reality, he is investigating Kirby's father, a world-famous painter, in a case involving a missing Rembrandt.

Adam's fascination with young Kirby is tempered by what he considers to be her "fluid" sense of ethics. Could she be a party to the crime he believes her father has committed?

Harlequin has already scheduled an additional reprint omnibus to appear before year's end. Duets, due out December 29, will contain The Name of the Game (1988) and Once More With Feeling (1983).