Apr 11 2012
Dear Ms. Everett, I requested this book from Netgalley because I was intrigued by the blurb, which begins, “Dogged for years by painful gossip about his father’s homosexuality, the Marquess of Beningbrough—Ben, to his friends—has protected himself by becoming the ultimate man’s man.” I don’t know that I’ve ever seen a romance hero with that [...]
Apr 4 2012
Dear Ms. LaFevers, One advantage of being offered books for review is that it has made me more adventurous as a reader. Even reading a bad book has some value to me if I can get a review out of it, so it’s not as much of a risk for me to take a chance [...]
Mar 22 2012
Since last I wrote, I read and reviewed Patricia Gaffney’s Crooked Hearts. Here’s what else I’ve been reading: The Great Famine: Ireland’s Agony 1845-1852 by Ciarán Ó Murchadha: Because apparently one book about innocent people starving to death just wasn’t enough for me. Actually, it wasn’t until I started this book that I realized I had [...]
Feb 22 2012
Dear Ms. Gaffney, Back when I was devouring your backlist, in my early days as a romance reader, I avoided Crooked Hearts at first. I had very rigid notions of what I liked and what I didn’t like, and “Western” and “humorous” were on my “do not like” list, as far as romance went. I was pretty [...]
Feb 13 2012
Dear Ms. Baggott, With the buzz over The Hunger Games trilogy, YA dystopian novels are hotter than ever right now – even an infrequent YA reader like myself knows that. I’ll admit to being party to the general enthusiasm. I like dystopian novels in general (at least in theory; in practice I’m careful about which ones I [...]
Jan 25 2012
I haven’t been finishing books that quickly lately; first the holidays interfered and then work interfered. I read and reviewed The Lost Book of Mala R. and Lily. Here’s a rundown of what else I’ve been reading: The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins: I started this on the recommendation of a friend; it’s her favorite book. I’m about halfway through, and…it’s [...]
Jan 5 2012
Dear Ms. Gaffney, When I heard the news that many of your romance titles were being released as ebooks by Open Road Integrated Media, I felt a pang of jealousy for those newer romance readers who would have the opportunity to discover your work for the first time. When the opportunity came to interview you, Jane [...]
Dec 28 2011
Dear Ms. MacDowell, When your book was offered to us for review, I was intrigued enough by the blurb to request a copy. When I received the book and started reading it, I wasn’t sure what had initially drawn me to it. Not that it looked bad; it just seemed like the sort of literary [...]
Dec 14 2011
Dear Ms. Bagwell, Earlier this year, I read and enjoyed your book about Nell Gwynn, mistress to Charles II, The Darling Strumpet. When the opportunity came to read a book about another woman in Charles’ life, I figured, why not? Jane Lane, like Nell Gwynn, was a real person. The romance between her and Charles [...]
Dec 12 2011
2011 does not stand out as one of my more memorable reading years; many books fell in the okay/mediocre range, with a whole lot of B range books and a handful of C range books. Only one D, and no Fs! – which I guess is a good thing, though I feel oddly nostalgic about [...]
Dec 1 2011
By Jennie Another in my sporadic updates on what I’ve been reading… Still reading Bleak House. Still. But: I finished The Brothers Karamazov and it was awesome! Okay, awesome is a bit strong, but finally, a big, important Russian novel that I felt connected to. It makes me want to read The Idiot soon. But not too soon. Also read: Stories I [...]
Nov 23 2011
Dear Ms. Harrington, I’ve been wanting to read more YA; the genre seems to have changed so much since I was a, well, young adult. There are so many fresh and exciting YA books being written these days, and that’s exciting to me, especially when I’ve just finished my umpteenth uninspired English historical. Even though [...]
Nov 2 2011
Dear Ms. Urbach,I picked up this book with a bit of hesitancy – I’ve not read Madame Bovary, and my only knowledge of the story comes from my viewing of a BBC miniseries from 2000, starring Frances O’Connor as Emma Bovary. I ended up hating it – most of all hating Emma, who was the most selfish, [...]
Oct 10 2011
By Jennie So, when last I wrote, I was reading four books at the same time; three long dense books and one other, shorter book. I’m still reading the same three long books, but figured it was time for an progress update, as well as some brief mentions of what else I’ve read. Bleak Houseby Charles [...]
Oct 3 2011
Dear Ms. Hunter, I picked up this book after Jane mentioned it in passing in an email with…some sort of positive connotation. I hadn’t read your work before, but whatever it was Jane said, it was enough for me to want to check this book out. Unfortunately, the fact that I can’t remember why the [...]
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