A Review Category

REVIEW:  Dark Soul: Volumes 3, 4, and 5 by Aleksandr Voinov

REVIEW: Dark Soul: Volumes 3, 4, and 5 by Aleksandr Voinov

Dear Mr. Voinov, Your Dark Soul series has been a roller-coaster ride for me. It is not a genre romance, even though it has some very romantic moments. It features themes I rarely seek out, including menage, BDSM, and protagonists in organized crime. Purchasing all five volumes is not inexpensive. It is quite brutal in(…)

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:  Her Best Worst Mistake by Sarah Mayberry

REVIEW: Her Best Worst Mistake by Sarah Mayberry

Dear Ms. Mayberry— I think your novel Hot Island Nights is splendid—I love the rapport between Elizabeth and Nathan—and I was happy to learn your new self-published novel Her Best Worst Mistake is a companion/sequel to that tale. Her Best Worst Mistake chronicles what happens between Elizabeth’s wild best friend Violet and Elizabeth’s stuffy ex-fiancé(…)

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: 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:  The Price of Innocence by Susan Sizemore

REVIEW: The Price of Innocence by Susan Sizemore

Dear Ms. Sizemore, I loved The Price of Innocence. And, I expect to get grief from a few for doing so. The relationship between your leads, Jack and Sherrie, begins with what could be called at best forced seduction and what will be seen by some as rape. This trope makes many crazy. Before I began(…)

REVIEW:  Mariana by Susanna Kearsley (and giveaway)

REVIEW: Mariana by Susanna Kearsley (and giveaway)

Dear Ms. Kearsley, It’s no secret that I love your books. The Winter Sea and The Rose Garden made my Best of 2010 and Best of 2011 lists, respectively, so it’s probably past time that I let one of my DA colleagues have a chance to review you. But when I heard that Mariana was(…)

REVIEW:  At Your Pleasure by Meredith Duran

REVIEW: At Your Pleasure by Meredith Duran

Dear Ms. Duran— As I read At Your Pleasure, I wondered if you will ever write a book I dislike. It seems unlikely. I love three of the books you’ve written and the two I don’t love—A Lady’s Lesson in Scandal and Wicked Becomes You—I like tremendously. I am enamored of your use of language, your deftness of(…)

GUEST REVIEW: Requiem for Ashes by David Crossman

GUEST REVIEW: Requiem for Ashes by David Crossman

Dear Mr. Crossman: You had me at “Your head’s on fire.” The first time I read Requiem for Ashes was under its original 1994 title, Murder in a Minor Key. I was working at the now-closed and much mourned Scotland Yard Books in Winnetka, Illinois, where I’d earned a reputation for liking books with quirky(…)

REVIEW: Oracle’s Moon by Thea Harrison

REVIEW: Oracle’s Moon by Thea Harrison

Dear Ms Harrison, While I enjoyed Dragon Bound, the first novel in your Elder Races series of paranormal romances, I had a hard time finishing the second novel, Storm’s Heart. The third book, Serpent‘s Kiss, felt rushed and left me unsatisfied. I went into your latest novel, Oracle’s Moon, hopeful, but worried. I wanted the(…)

REVIEW: Crucible of Gold by Naomi Novik

REVIEW: Crucible of Gold by Naomi Novik

Dear Ms. Novik, Though I fretted for almost two years waiting for this book, I can see from your author’s notes that you’ve had a lot to keep you busy having had your own little egg, as the dragons would say, in the interim. Still, what a book you’ve written for us. Excitement, danger, new(…)

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(…)

REVIEW: Heat by R. Lee Smith

REVIEW: Heat by R. Lee Smith

Dear Ms. Smith, This book was not what I expected when I picked it up. In fact, I’d even venture so far as to offer a caption. Heat is probably the best independently published book I have read, and one of the best books I have read in a long while. It is also one(…)

GUEST REVIEW: Surprises According to Humphrey by Betty G. Birney

GUEST REVIEW: Surprises According to Humphrey by Betty G. Birney

Allow me to engage in some nepotism here.  Yesterday, tot came home and reported that she had started her own review blog pursuant to instruction from the teacher. Instead of the book reports that I used to write as a school child (or perhaps in addition to), tot and her class are learning to write(…)

REVIEW: Sprig Muslin by Georgette Heyer

REVIEW: Sprig Muslin by Georgette Heyer

Dear Readers, When I reviewed The Nonesuch a few months ago during Sourcebooks’ summer Heyer sale, I mentioned in passing that I really wanted to review Sprig Muslin, but it hadn’t been digitized yet. Now it is, so as promised, here’s a review. This book wasn’t in my Top 10 Heyer Regencies during the first decade(…)