Romance bigwig joins the fray

A popular romance novelist who’s been criticized for allegedly lifting material has angered the biggest name in the genre: Nora Roberts.

A romance novel website, www.smartbitchestrashy books.com, has posted numerous excerpts from Cassie Edwards’ novels and placed them alongside passages from magazines and nonfiction books that were found using the Google search program.

Roberts, whose fiction has sold hundreds of millions of copies, asserted Thursday that “it seems clear” Edwards acted improperly.

“Given the side-by-side comparisons I’ve read, it seems clear Ms. Edwards copied considerable portions of previously published work and used them in her books without attribution to the original source,” Roberts wrote in an e-mail to the Associated Press. “By my definition, copying another’s work and passing it as your own equals plagiarism.”

Both Roberts and Edwards are published by Penguin Group (USA), which on Wednesday defended Edwards, saying: “She has done nothing wrong.”