Jun 18 2013
Posts by Sunita :
Jun 11 2013
JOINT REVIEW AND GIVEAWAY: The Firebird by Susanna Kearsley
Dear Ms. Kearsley: I’ve been eagerly awaiting the U.S. release of this book for months. It incorporates characters and settings from two of your previous books, The Winter Sea and The Shadowy Horses. Since I reviewed and recommended the former and Jayne the latter, we thought it would be fun to do a joint review(…)
Jun 8 2013
REVIEW: Never A Hero by Marie Sexton
Dear Ms. Sexton: When Sarah Frantz stopped reviewing for Dear Author and took a new position as editor at Riptide Publishing (where she is now Acquisitions Editor), we instituted a one-year moratorium on reviewing books from Riptide. The moratorium ended earlier this month, and a Tucker Springs book seemed like a great way to reacquaint(…)
May 26 2013
REVIEW: An Invitation to Sin by Sarah Morgan
Dear Ms. Morgan: It’s well known around here that you are on my list of auto-buy authors, whether you’re writing Harlequin Medicals or Presents. When I saw the blurb for your latest release, I thought it might resemble A Night of Scandal, which I thought was terrific. An Invitation to Sin is actually quite different,(…)
May 22 2013
REVIEW: River of Stars by Guy Gavriel Kay
Dear Mr. Kay, I’ve been a fan of your books since I read The Lions of al-Rassan and lamented the fact that it was a standalone. While I haven’t read every GGK book published, I’ve read enough to know that they are part of an impressive and imaginative body of work. When I learned that(…)
Apr 29 2013
REVIEW: Never Too Late by Amara Royce
Dear Ms. Royce: I have talked to you a bit on Twitter and wanted to read your debut, so when I saw it was available on Netgalley I snapped it up. Never Too Late is set in 1851 Victorian England, an increasingly popular time period, and it features one of my favorite pairings: older woman/younger(…)
Mar 10 2013
REVIEW: Wildfire at Midnight by Mary Stewart
Dear Ms. Stewart: Among my first and most beloved romantic novels are the novels of Mary Stewart. Although probably best known for the Merlin fantasy trilogy, I first discovered the romantic suspense novels. When I saw that at least one was being rereleased I quickly asked to review, despite the fact that it was a(…)
Feb 21 2013
REVIEW: The Lady Who Broke the Rules by Marguerite Kaye
Dear Ms. Kaye: While I’m afraid I’m getting burned out on traditional European historicals, I’m always looking for novels with a different setting or unusual characters, and this book certainly fit the bill. It’s set in Regency England and is part of Harlequin Historical’s Castonbury Park series; the hero is an American ex-slave and the(…)
Feb 5 2013
When we defend romance reading as escapism, the critics win
Over the last couple of months it seems as if a lot of romance community members have been writing about how reading romance is a form of escape from everyday life. This isn’t new, of course; genre fiction has always been treated as primarily escapist (as opposed to educational or enlightening) , and romance reading(…)
Feb 4 2013
REVIEW: Ballroom to Bride and Groom by Kate Hardy
Dear Ms. Hardy: I’ve read Kate Hardy’s Medicals and Presents novels for years, and the Posh Docs series is on my keeper shelf. When I saw a new novel in the Harlequin Romance line, I was intrigued, because it seemed a good fit in terms of voice and style. Polly Anna Adams has just been(…)
Jan 28 2013
REVIEW: Sold To The Enemy by Sarah Morgan
Dear Ms. Morgan: You’ve taken a number of standard fairy-tale and romance ingredients and turned them into something fresh and original in this book. I’ve always enjoyed your disadvantaged, yet plucky and intelligent, heroines, and in Selene Antaxos you’ve created a character that ranks for me with the heroines of Doukakis’ Apprentice, Twelve Nights of(…)
Jan 11 2013
REVIEW: The Chocolate Kiss by Laura Florand
Dear Ms. Florand: I have been eagerly awaiting the next installment in your Chocolate series, and I’m delighted to say that it was worth the wait. You are writing my favorite type of series: all the books are set in the same world, but while the characters from past books make an appearance, they don’t(…)
Jan 9 2013
REVIEW: Back to the Good Fortune Diner by Vicki Essex
Dear Ms. Essex: I’m always looking for books with unusual settings, and as soon as I saw the cover and title of your book at Harlequin, I put it into my cart. Back to the Good Fortune Diner is aptly named: Tiffany Cheung escaped Everville, New York and her parents’ Chinese restaurant for New York(…)
Dec 31 2012
Sunita’s Top Reads of 2012
I struggled to come up with my list this year, and that is my excuse for being pathetically late (is it still 2012?). A few books went on automatically as soon as I read them, while others took more agonizing over. Slightly more than half are by authors I’ve read and admired in the past,(…)
Dec 30 2012
REVIEW: The Echo by Sarah Lockhart
Dear Ms. Lockhart: I came to your book cold. It was in the DA submissions folder, but the excerpt was confusing, so despite the recommendation from Naomi Novik, I passed the first time. But something in the language stayed with me, and I went back and started to read it. I almost abandoned it in(…)



















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