About Janine

http://dearauthor.com

Janine Ballard loves well-paced, character-driven books. Examples include novels by Shana Abe, Loretta Chase, Patricia Gaffney, Cecilia Grant, Judith Ivory, Carolyn Jewel, Laura Kinsale, Julie Anne Long, Alison Richardson, Nalini Singh and Pam Rosenthal. Janine also writes fiction. Her critique partners are Sherry Thomas, Meredith Duran and Bettie Sharpe. Her erotic short story, "Kiss of Life", appears in the Berkley anthology AGONY/ECSTASY under the pen name Lily Daniels. You can email Janine at janineballard at gmail dot com. or find her on Twitter @janine_ballard.

Posts by Janine :

REVIEW:  Moon Over Soho by Ben Aaronovitch

REVIEW: Moon Over Soho by Ben Aaronovitch

Dear Mr. Aaronovitch, Back in March, I read and reviewed your terrific debut, Midnight Riot (Rivers of London in the UK), an urban fantasy/police procedural narrated by an endearing London police constable named Peter Grant. Peter is a new recruit in a secret (and very small) department of the London Metropolitan Police which investigates supernatural(…)

REVIEW:  Gaijin by Remittance Girl

REVIEW: Gaijin by Remittance Girl

Dear Remittance Girl, Your novella, Gaijin, caught me by surprise. A friend recommended it to me on Twitter and then loaned it to me through my Kindle. I had heard about it and investigated purchasing it once before, but shied away from making an actual purchase. Somehow, I wasn’t expecting as much thoughtfulness as I(…)

My Sunday at the 2012 Los Angeles Times Festival of Books, Part 3

My Sunday at the 2012 Los Angeles Times Festival of Books, Part 3

On Sunday, April 22, I attended the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books. Part 1 of my report on the festival Part 2 of my festival recap And now for Part 3: Fiction: Love, Actually My friend Bettie and I left the Anne Rice panel while Anne Rice was taking questions from the audience and(…)

My Sunday at the 2012 Los Angeles Times Festival of Books, Part 2

My Sunday at the 2012 Los Angeles Times Festival of Books, Part 2

I attended the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books on Sunday, April 22. The first part of my report on the festival can be found at this link. And now onto Part 2. Anne Rice in Conversation with Scott Timberg After the mornings panels described in part 1 of my report, we stopped at the(…)

REVIEW:  Silent Surrender by Barbara J. Hancock

REVIEW: Silent Surrender by Barbara J. Hancock

Dear Ms. Hancock, After reading and reviewing your impressive novella, Ghost in the Machine, I was eager for more of your work and curious as to what your writing was like in other genres. Silent Surrender, your new Spice Brief, caught my attention and I decided to try it. Alexia arrives at the Rivera hotel(…)

My Sunday at the 2012 Los Angeles Times Festival of Books, Part 1

My Sunday at the 2012 Los Angeles Times Festival of Books, Part 1

  Last year on I attended the Los Angeles Festival of Books and reported on the event for DA. My biggest negative takeaway that year was that the romance genre was not represented at the festival. This year (Halleluja!) they actually had a panel devoted to romance. A single, lonely panel mind you, but it(…)

What Janine is Reading in February and March 2012

What Janine is Reading in February and March 2012

I was really, really lucky in my choices of reading material in February and early March. Five of the nine books I read between the beginning of February and the first day of spring have been books I would grade at B+ or above, which means that they’re recommended (by me) reads. It made me(…)

REVIEW:  Thunder and Roses by Mary Jo Putney

REVIEW: Thunder and Roses by Mary Jo Putney

Dear Ms. Putney, I was a big fan of your books in the 1990s. They came along at a time when I had not read anything like them. If the characters made mistakes or committed wrongs, your books actually examined the of the characters’ motives for doing so in some depth. And your characters actually(…)

REVIEW: A Monster Calls: Inspired by an idea from Siobhan Dowd by Patrick Ness

REVIEW: A Monster Calls: Inspired by an idea from Siobhan Dowd by Patrick Ness

Dear Mr. Ness, I feel like quite the scrooge because while I liked your YA novel, A Monster Calls, I didn’t love it the way everyone else I’ve seen reviewing it seems to have done. The book has a powerful and moving story of how it came to be. The idea behind it was the(…)

REVIEW: Confessions from an Arranged Marriage by Miranda Neville

REVIEW: Confessions from an Arranged Marriage by Miranda Neville

Dear Ms. Neville, I should probably preface this review by saying that I’ve chatted with you on Twitter and what I know of you, I really like. Ever since they met in The Dangerous Viscount, book two of your Burgundy Book Club series, I’ve wanted to see Minerva Montrose and the Marquis of Blakeney (known(…)

REVIEW: Midnight Riot by Ben Aaronovitch

REVIEW: Midnight Riot by Ben Aaronovitch

Dear Mr. Aaronovitch, I’ve been recommending enough books here lately that I have started to worry that my grades are overgenerous. But when a book is as much fun as your debut urban fantasy/police procedural, Midnight Riot, what is a reviewer to do? I picked up Midnight Riot (also known as Rivers of London in(…)

REVIEW: A Promise of Spring by Mary Balogh

REVIEW: A Promise of Spring by Mary Balogh

The following review contains SPOILERS. The spoilers from late in the book are hidden, but others are visible. If you have never read A Promise of Spring and prefer to avoid spoilers, read this review at your own risk. Dear Ms. Balogh, A Promise of Spring, now being reprinted in a 2-in-1 volume with The(…)

REVIEW: The Temporary Wife by Mary Balogh

REVIEW: The Temporary Wife by Mary Balogh

Dear Ms. Balogh, I first read The Temporary Wife, one of your most beloved trad regencies, several years ago. At the time, I liked it but was distracted by an initial similarity to another of your regencies, The Ideal Wife, which I had read first and liked even better. The opening premises of the two(…)

What Janine is Reading – Late 2011/Early 2012

What Janine is Reading – Late 2011/Early 2012

It’s been over three months (!) since my last “What Janine is Reading” post. I don’t know why it’s taken me so long to do one of these – the holidays got in the way, but it’s been six weeks since they ended and for that I don’t have a great excuse. Here’s what I(…)

REVIEW: Not Wicked Enough by Carolyn Jewel

REVIEW: Not Wicked Enough by Carolyn Jewel

Dear Ms. Jewel, I loved your 2009 book, Scandal, and very much enjoyed Indiscreet, which came out later the same year. So when I learned that you were publishing a new historical called Not Wicked Enough I got excited, and asked Jane if she could send me the ARC. Having now read it, I have(…)