Book Reviews

REVIEW:  Bound for Trouble by Envy Augustine

REVIEW: Bound for Trouble by Envy Augustine

Dear Ms. Augustine, Lately, I’ve been suffering from a problem that affects many paranormal romance fans: Sexy Vampire Fatigue. Yes, I’m kind of tired of sexy vampires. I miss the scary vampires. The blurb for your novella Bound for Trouble promised a sci-fi world in which vampires once brutally ruled humanity, but are now imprisoned [...]

REVIEW:  A Kiss in the Wind by Jennifer Bray-Weber

REVIEW: A Kiss in the Wind by Jennifer Bray-Weber

Dear Ms. Bray-Weber, I can honestly say I’ve never read a book like your pirate romance A Kiss on the Wind. Not only is it the only pirate romance I’ve read, it’s the only historical romance I’ve read where the heroine isn’t a virgin and no reason is given for that. I’ve read plenty of historical [...]

REVIEW:  Fury of Fire (Dragonfury Series #1) by Coreene Callahan

REVIEW: Fury of Fire (Dragonfury Series #1) by Coreene Callahan

Dear Ms. Callahan: I did receive a copy of your book from a publicist to review but I ended up buying the book from Amazon as I believe it was discounted at one point and I prefer to read digital over paper. I had heard good things about your book and was excited to read [...]

REVIEW:  Rules of the Game by Sandy James

REVIEW: Rules of the Game by Sandy James

“Kathryn West has it all–she’s a confident, bestselling author living it up in New York City. Too bad she doesn’t actually exist, and is only timid Maddie Sawyer’s pseudonym. Determined to attend her high school reunion with a man right out of one of her racy romance novels, she plots to find a sexy bad [...]

REVIEW:  Under the Same Sky by Genevieve Graham

REVIEW: Under the Same Sky by Genevieve Graham

  Dear Ms. Graham, I’ve been trying to read more historical romance lately, so when I was offered your book and I saw that it was a departure from the usual England as Regencylandia fare, I was happy to accept. The unusual premise (Outlander meets Last of the Mohicans) sounded promising and it looked like [...]

REVIEW: A Tryst with Trouble by Alyssa Everett

REVIEW: A Tryst with Trouble by Alyssa Everett

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 [...]

REVIEW:  The Only Gold by Tamara Allen

REVIEW: The Only Gold by Tamara Allen

  Dear Ms. Allen, This review is long overdue. I loved this book when I read it last year, so much that I put it on my Best of 2011 list. But I didn’t get the review written in proper time, and then the Dreamspinner Press debacle happened and Sarah and I stopped reviewing DSP’s [...]

REVIEW:  Hot Under Pressure by Louisa Edwards

REVIEW: Hot Under Pressure by Louisa Edwards

Dear Ms. Edwards, I’ve read all three books in your Rising Star Chef series and, of all of the couples in the series, my favorite hands down is Claire Durand and Kane Slater. This, really, is a bummer because, in all three books, they are secondary characters though their love story, finally resolved in this [...]

REVIEW:  A Private Gentleman by Heidi Cullinan

REVIEW: A Private Gentleman by Heidi Cullinan

(This one is addressed to readers, not the author) Dear Readers: As we all know, it’s impossible to be objective about a review. And this is fine, as long as we can be honest about the sources of our lack of objectivity, if we know them. This book has flaws, even major flaws that have [...]

REVIEW: The Kingdom by Amanda Stevens

REVIEW: The Kingdom by Amanda Stevens

Dear Ms. Stevens, I enjoyed your previous novel, The Restorer, about the self-styled Graveyard Queen, Amelia Gray. It’s a morbid name but a fitting one. Amelia is a cemetery restorer, as well as the owner of a niche, but popular, blog. What few people know, however, is that she can also see ghosts. Because I [...]

REVIEW: Heart of Flame by Janine Ashbless

REVIEW: Heart of Flame by Janine Ashbless

And on the One-Thousand-and-Second night, Scheherazade told this story… By day, Taqla uses her forbidden sorcery to move freely about the city of Damascus in the guise of an old sage. Her true identity known only by her faithful servant woman, Taqla is content with the comfortable, if restrictive, life that keeps her safe from [...]

REVIEW:  Bared to You by Sylvia Day

REVIEW: Bared to You by Sylvia Day

Dear Ms. Day: I requested this book from NetGalley after a prompt from KatiD.  She enjoyed it and noted that it was reminiscent of the infamous erotic romance that is sweeping the book reading world, Fifty Shades of Grey.  I have read your contemporary novella contributions to recent anthologies and really enjoyed them. I’ve often [...]

REVIEW:  Knight of Hearts by Suzie Quint

REVIEW: Knight of Hearts by Suzie Quint

Dear Ms. Quint: Thank you for sending me your book for review.  The blurb and excerpt you sent signaled a cute contemporary romance with a storyline that I had not read recently.  Mac is recently divorced and trying to enter the dating scene but he is inept.  Inept is actually a kind word for Mac’s [...]

REVIEW:  Everything You’ve Got by Erin Nicholas

REVIEW: Everything You’ve Got by Erin Nicholas

Dear Ms. Nicholas, Perhaps I wasn’t the best choice to review your latest novel Everything You’ve Got. I’m married to a physician and have worked in and around the medical field for most of my adult life. Your heroine, twenty-seven (I think) year old Dr. Kat Dayton, struck me as unbelievably immature and the problems [...]

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 [...]