Dec 28 2012
Dear Ms. Milan, I hope you are having a lovely holiday season. This year, as in 2011, you enriched my December by releasing a stellar Christmas tale. A Kiss for Midwinter is not quite as brilliant as This Wicked Gift (mentioned here in my list of favorite holiday stories) but it’s still wonderful. Thank you. The heroine of your novella, Miss Lydia(…)
Dec 27 2012
Dear Ms. Milan: When your books and novellas work for me, they are among my favorite historical romances. When they don’t, it’s not always clear to me why, and often I wonder if it’s my reading approach rather than the book itself. I wanted to read your latest novel for a couple of reasons: it(…)
Dec 24 2012
Most books that I finish get their own reviews but here are some that either I didn’t finish or I didn’t think warranted a separate review. The Terrorist – Caroline Cooney / Fabulous writing. Intense, page turning, I was 50 pages into it before I even realized it when I finally came up for air.(…)
Dec 9 2012
When Jane asked for lists of our “Best of 2012,” I got stuck on what best meant. Did it mean the best in terms of quality? The best in terms of most enjoyable? The best in terms of standouts? Did books I called best this year have to be as good as books I called(…)
Oct 11 2012
Dear Ms. Jewel, Ms. Milan, and Ms. Thomas, I’ve been waiting for this anthology since I first heard about it last spring. The authors are among the strongest writing historical romance today and the premise linking the three novellas is clever and unusual: each is set in the same location but in a different time(…)
Jul 2 2012
This anthology contains stories by Tessa Dare, Leigh LaValle, Courtney Milan, and Carey Baldwin. The four authors–who call themselves The Bodice Rippers–published this anthology to raise money for the fight against breast cancer. When the women were interviewed by USA Today, Ms. Baldwin said: We are a group of four friends who, inspired by the many examples of(…)
Jun 11 2012
Modern Love by edited by Daniel Jones I’m a long-time fan of the New York Time’s Modern Love column. I recently picked up this book which is a collection of some of the best posts from the past fifteen years. Some of them will break your heart–the now famous ones by Ann Hood are almost too(…)
May 2 2012
Dear Ms. Milan: It’s difficult to give a grade to each one of your books because your prose is so fine that my complaints, if I have any, always sound so mean (as in small not cruel). There are some brilliant things in this book, so brilliant that I needed more time spent with each(…)
Dec 30 2011
Dear Ms. Milan: Thank you for sending me “Unraveled” for review. I have enjoyed (but been somewhat critical) of your past works but your novella, “Unlocked,” was one of my best reads of 2011. Smite’s book was hotly anticipated. Part of the problem I had with “Unraveled” was the result of my own expectations and(…)
Sep 26 2011
Dear Ms. Milan: Toward the end of the review it is going to sound like I didn’t like this book but that would be the wrong impression. I did like this book. I liked it but in a lot of ways I found Mark, like his older brother Ash, to be almost saintly in his(…)
May 30 2011
Dear Ms. Milan: I’ve been chomping at the bit to talk about this book with other readers. I’ve felt, in the past, that your works were smart and thoughtful but sometimes lacking in emotional engagement. I particularly struggled to connect with Ned Carhart in Trial by Desire. But Unlocked packs an emotional punch from the(…)
Feb 2 2011
Dear Ms. Milan: I have heard such good things about your early Victorian-set novels that I kept meaning to read one. When the controversy over the Publisher's Weekly review erupted, I knew I would have to read Unveiled. While more confused than ever about that infamous review, I have been thinking a lot about the(…)
Sep 29 2010
If I were to describe this plot, I would say that it is a plot of estranged spouses. Ned has gone from boy to man, as is most often the result of journeys. And Lady Kathleen has suffered the rumor of her husband’s swift removal for the past three years. But this book is so much more than the reconciliation of estranged spouses. It is more than the two protagonist’s getting to know each other as they fall in love, despite the forced marriage. No, this is a book about what makes a hero.
Dec 31 2009
Dear Ms. Milan, I had been hearing positive buzz from several quarters for this, your debut romance, so I approached it with perhaps higher-than-usual hopes. Maybe because of those high hopes, the read started out a little rocky for me. The heroine and hero encounter each other in the first scene, and I found myself(…)
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