Elizabeth's Story

According to her family, Elizabeth Boyle has always been a storyteller. That is if you count the far-fetched tales she used to make up about her imaginary cow, John Clapper, or the fictitious accounts she'd conjure as to who exactly broke the cookie jar. So it was no surprise to them when Elizabeth's first novel, Brazen Angel arrived on the scene with a great splash, snagging the Dell Diamond Debut Award (snapshot of the winning moment at left) and went on to win the Romance Writers of America RITA for Best First Book.

Since then, Elizabeth has penned fourteen more adventurous and romantic novels, with eleven of them hitting bestseller lists including the New York Times (Love Letters from a Duke and Hero, Come Back) and USA Today (One Night Of Passion, Stealing The Bride, It Takes A Hero and His Mistress By Morning). In addition, Elizabeth has been nominated for the RITA twice more since 1997 (This Rake of Mine and His Mistress by Morning), won the Romantic Times Love and Laughter Award, a Career Achievement Award for Innovative Historical Romance, and been nominated for the National Reader’s Choice Award, numerous Romantic Times awards, the Bookseller’s Best award, as well as other honors. Elizabeth has been interviewed by The Chicago Tribune and Booklist, and seen her books mentioned in Writer’s Digest and The Economist. Elizabeth is a popular speaker, and was honored to keynote the Portland Reader’s Luncheon and the Richardson Library's Buns and Roses Reader Tea, both in support of literacy charities.

Her numerous fans call her work "fast-paced" and "tremendously fun," with the most common complaint being that her books have kept them up too late at night reading. Her most recent Avon titles include Tempted by the Night (August 26, 2008), Confessions of a Little Black Gown (April 2009) and Memoirs of a Scandalous Red Dress (May 2009).

Prior to publishing, Elizabeth discovered that aspiring writers still had to eat and pay their rent while following their muse. Working as a paralegal, she compiled case profiles on insurance fraud (arsons, faked burglaries, faked accidents) and police misconduct cases (assaults by officers, shooting inquests). Eventually she was offered a position with a software firm as a paralegal handling software piracy cases in North America. During her time "pirate hunting" she participated in civil and criminal seizures with the FBI, US Customs and the Canadian RCMP. After years of these modern day adventures, it is no wonder that counterfeiting, forgery and espionage find their way into her page-turning tales of romance, which she now writes full-time.

In addition to writing, Elizabeth loves gardening, knitting, reading, traveling, exploring tea shops and trying to find low-fat recipes that taste like something her grandmothers would have made. When not writing, Elizabeth chases after her two active sons, or as she likes to call them, her "heroes-in-training." She lives in Seattle with her husband Terry, and considers her hectic life the best slice of heaven one could ever wish for.

4.12.09 •• Confessions of a Little Black Gown becomes a New York Times bestseller.

4.01.09 •• Something About Emmaline is being developed into a comic book series for Japanese readers.

8.26.08 •• Elizabeth was interviewed in the September 2008 issue of Romantic Times about how she creates her quirky and interesting characters. Click the image on the right to read the interview.

4.15.08 •• Elizabeth receives a Career Achievement Award in Innovative Historical Romance from Romantic Times.

1.01.08 •• Love Letters from a Duke was nominated for a Romantic Times Reviewer's Choice Award as Best Love & Laughter Historical of 2007.

9.15.07 •• Love Letters From a Duke makes the New York Times Bestseller list. Two weeks in a row.

4.18.07 •• His Mistress by Morning is nominated for the coveted RWA RITA award as Best Paranormal Romance.

5.01.06 •• Who wouldn't want to be featured in a magazine, especially one as respected as Writer's Digest? So imagine Elizabeth's surprise when she found herself in the May issue!Of course they weren't asking Elizabeth's, ahem, learned opinion on writing, rather it was a tongue-in-cheek look at books where the title may mislead the reader, and they included her book, This Rake of Mine. They wanted to warn readers that this was not a book about gardening, and charged her with misrepresenting innocent lawn implements and glorifying disreputable men. Elizabeth's response: Guilty as charged.

5.01.06 •• This Rake of Mine is nominated for a RWA RITA award as Best Long Historical. This is Elizabeth's third RITA nomination.

2.01.06 •• This Rake of Mine and Something About Emmaline are named as two of the Top Ten Romances of 2005 by the Oakland Press. The only other author to have two of the Top Ten slots is Nora Roberts.

5.02.05 •• Something About Emmaline was featured in Pandora's Box, the monthly review column at All About Romance.

4.01.04 •• Elizabeth is interviewed at the Passionate Pen.

10.01.03 •• Stealing the Bride was named as of the Top Ten Romances of 2003 by Booklist magazine. Booklist is the highly respected review journal of the American Librarian Association. Needless to say, Elizabeth couldn't have been more proud to be included on a list with such notables as Jill Marie Landis and Kathleen Korbel.

9.01.02 •• In the July 25, 2002 edition of The Economist, they mentioned One Night of Passion as one of the summer's recent bestsellers in an article they did on the rising sales of romance novels. Yes, you read that correctly, The Economist.

5.01.00 •• No Marriage of Convenience is given a Reviewers Choice Award for Best Historical Love and Laughter by Romantic Times.

8.02.99 ••Elizabeth is interviewed by The Chicago Tribune.

8.01.98 •• Brazen Angel wins the RWA RITA award (statuette pictured at right) for Best First Book. It was also nominated for Best Long Historical.