‘Further review’ for romance writer

Two days after dismissing allegations that romance writer Cassie Edwards lifted material from other sources, publisher Signet Books has decided to review the claims further.

“Our original comments were based on Signet’s review of a limited selection of passages,” according to a statement issued Friday by Signet, an imprint of Penguin Group (USA).

“We believe the situation deserves further review. Therefore we will be examining all of Ms. Edwards’ books that we publish, and based on the outcome of that review we will take action to handle the matter accordingly. We want to make it known that Signet takes . . . allegations of plagiarism very seriously.”

A romance novel website has posted numerous excerpts from Edwards’ novels and placed them alongside passages from reference books and magazines that were found using Google.