Warwick and the Crowne Plaza Hotel played host to more than 120 rabid romance readers this past weekend, in town for Rhode Island author Marie Force’s Fourth Annual Reader Weekend.

Marie holds the event to bring readers of her more than 60 novels to the state where many of the books are set. She’s sold more than six million contemporary romance novels worldwide and has been on the New York Times bestseller list 28 times. Her Gansett Island series has sold more than 3 million books and is set in a fictionalized version of Block Island.  

In addition to the Gansett Island Series, Marie is the author of the Fatal Series, the Butler, Vermont series and the erotic Quantum series, written under the name of M.S. Force.

“I’ve come a few thousand miles since my tenure as a Warwick Beacon intern nearly 30 years ago,” Marie said. “Not only did I meet my great friend Cheryl Serra at the Beacon, but I also learned a lot about writing, and I carry the skills honed in the Beacon and other newsrooms with me to this day.” 

Attendee Jane O’Brien works for the East Greenwich School Department and is a voracious writer who once read 563 books in a year. She got hooked on Marie’s books after attending a book-signing event Marie hosted in Garden City. She met Marie, who was “so lovely” and she brought Treading Water, the first book Marie finished in 2005 and published in 2011 (read about Marie and her road to publishing success at marieforce.com/about). There was no stopping Jane after she read that book and she’s borrowed or bought nearly every one of the books Marie’s published since then. Now she and Marie are on a first-name basis, so when Jane and her co-workers talk about Marie’s books – as they often do – she speaks with authority. 

“It’s great to see readers like Jane, who’ve become friends over the years, at Reader Weekend,” Marie said. “One of my favorite things about the annual weekend is how many new friendships are born each year.” 

Jane’s “baby” sister Sarah, who’s nine years younger than Jane, said Jane had often talked about Reader Weekend in RI and how “invigorating” it was. While Sarah, a middle school art teacher, has only read one of Marie’s books so far, she decided to come from Utica, N.Y., to join her sister at Reader Weekend. It gave her a chance to see Block Island, which she’d never seen before despite the fact the pair grew up in East Providence.

This year, more than 120 readers from Ireland, Canada and Trinidad & Tobago and 20 U.S. states attended the event. And it’s not just for women. Thomas and Maribel Campagnolo from Freehold, N.J., danced like pros as the DJ spun music Friday. Maribel later said she first became hooked on Marie’s Maid for Love, the first book in the Gansett series. She since read nearly all of that series in addition to all books in the Fatal series and several in the Quantum series. Maribel follows Marie on Facebook and Instagram. She loves how this award-winning author shares so much of her personal life and humor with her fans. Thomas surprised Maribel with the gift of Reader Weekend, allowing them to visit RI for the first time. “This is my version of Disney,” she said as she took in the view from the ferry to Block Island. 

Brent Hockins from Justin, Texas also surprised his wife, Karen, by buying them tickets to the event for their 25th wedding anniversary. She was also surprised when she arrived to find that he’d ordered her signed copies of Marie’s books. Karen had read Marie’s Gansett books and on an earlier trip to Block Island with Brent, she pointed out all the places discussed in the books. He wanted to know more about the world of Gansett and the people who populated it, so Karen soon began reading them to him during road trips. Soon Brent, too, was following Marie on social media. 

“I actually like the books, they’re great stories,” he says. Often, Karen says, he’ll ask what happens next at the end of a book and she’ll say, “It’s in the next book.”

 “I love that Karen reads the books to Brent,” Marie said. “That’s so awesome. I have a lot of male fans who enjoy the books, and I always say that if more men read romance novels, they’d understand the women in their lives a lot better.”

Reader Weekend attendees enjoyed a Friday night Tiki reception with a New England-style clam bake, drinks and local guitarist (and Marie’s high school pal) Pat Cotrell, who played some of Marie’s favorite tunes from Gansett Island. Fans later danced to the music of DJ Chris. Attendees bid on original paintings donated by Marie’s husband, Dan. The money raised from the auction will be donated to Lucy’s Hearth, an organization that provides housing and services to homeless women and their children in Marie’s hometown of Middletown, RI. Marie’s cousin, Jennifer Barrera, is the program director.

Saturday morning guests boarded buses to Point Judith to catch the ferry to Block Island. For the fourth year in a row, the unpredictable New England weather delivered a spectacularly sunny day for the trip to Block Island, aka Gansett. Reader Weekend attendees often set out looking for particular characters or places Marie writes about.

Readers enjoyed cab tours of the island, shopping and local restaurants. Once back at the Crowne Plaza, readers had a barbecue buffet, participated in a Q&A with Marie as well as a book signing. It was also announced that the next Reader Weekend would be held June 15-16, 2018 at the Crowne Plaza.

“Our Fourth Annual Reader Weekend was so much fun,” Marie said. “I’m thankful to all the readers who came from near and far to see me this year. I can’t wait for next year!”

Author’s note: I met Marie in the Beacon newsroom. It was my second newspaper reporting job and she was an intern. By my recollection, when (Publisher) John (Howell) brought Marie around to introduce her I was nosed into (wait for it) a romance book. I told her it was nice to meet her and asked her to excuse me because I was reading a saucy book. Through the years we’ve become friends. I was in her wedding. She introduced me to my husband. We’ve been separated by miles and life, but it’s always great to be a part of her incredible success and to learn from her entrepreneurial expertise, mad and prolific writing ability and her profound sincere gratitude to the readers who’ve allowed her to live a dream life.