B+ Reviews

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:  Bring Him Home by Karina Bliss

REVIEW: Bring Him Home by Karina Bliss

Dear Ms. Bliss: Your last few books have had a sort of a madcap adventure feel to them and so “Bring Him Home” is a change in tone and pace. It deals with grief and recovery and discovery and relies less on external conflict and more on the internal changes that the leads experience. Nathan(…)

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:  Princess Furball by Charlotte Huck

REVIEW: Princess Furball by Charlotte Huck

Dear Ms. Huck, Your book “Princess Furball” was recommended to me by etv13, one of our readers here, after I posted a review of the movie “Donkey Skin.” I instantly fell in love with the name since I have two little Princess Furballs at home. Well, I finally got my own copy of the book(…)

REVIEW:  The Saturnalia Effect by Heidi Belleau,Violetta Vane

REVIEW: The Saturnalia Effect by Heidi Belleau,Violetta Vane

Dear Ms. Belleau and Ms. Vane. I found this story by clickingclickingclicking through the various posted responses to our post about M/M romance and Fan Fiction. Heidi gives good blog and then I was intrigued, as I always am with prison stories, by the short she wrote with Violetta Vane. This story is fabulous, I’m(…)

REVIEW: Unraveling by Elizabeth Norris

REVIEW: Unraveling by Elizabeth Norris

Dear Ms. Norris, I admit I went into your debut novel not knowing much about it. I knew it was a YA. I had an idea about the basic set-up: a girl dies in a car accident and is brought back to life by a classmate. This somehow leads into a race against the clock(…)

REVIEW:  The Midwife of Venice by Roberta Rich

REVIEW: The Midwife of Venice by Roberta Rich

Dear Ms. Rich, I have a love/hate relationship with historical novels. When they work, they can be wondrous – taking me to foreign lands, to different eras, into the rich and complex lives of the characters. Bad ones can seem endless and are worse if I get the feeling that these are just people dressed(…)

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:  A Week to be Wicked by Tessa Dare

REVIEW: A Week to be Wicked by Tessa Dare

Dear Ms. Dare, As I read A Week to Be Wicked, I kept thinking about Cyndi Lauper’s assertion “Girls just want to have fun.” The heroine of this book, Minerva Highwood, prior to hitting the road with your hero, Lord Colin Payne, really hasn’t had much fun. She certainly hasn’t had any fun where men(…)

REVIEW: Frat Boy and Toppy by Anne Tenino

REVIEW: Frat Boy and Toppy by Anne Tenino

Dear Ms. Tenino. I loved this book. Just loved it. I read it in one sitting, finally going to sleep at 3am on Friday night, damn you. In retrospect, it has flaws, but I didn’t notice them as I was reading. Brad is a football player and in a frat. I really REALLY love the(…)

REVIEW: Confessions from an Arranged Marriage by Miranda Neville

REVIEW: Confessions from an Arranged Marriage by Miranda Neville

Dear Ms. Neville, I should probably preface this review by saying that I’ve chatted with you on Twitter and what I know of you, I really like. Ever since they met in The Dangerous Viscount, book two of your Burgundy Book Club series, I’ve wanted to see Minerva Montrose and the Marquis of Blakeney (known(…)

REVIEW: Owned and Owner by Anneke Jacob

REVIEW: Owned and Owner by Anneke Jacob

Dear Ms. Jacob. Readers: This book is hardcore, heavy-duty, almost-but-not-quite non-consensual BDSM. I hesitate to call it a romance and yet it really almost is. It’s total 24/7 dehumanization of the female submissive. It is NOT for everyone. I loved it and I heartily recommend it, but readers, please read my review before buying, because(…)

REVIEW: Midnight Riot by Ben Aaronovitch

REVIEW: Midnight Riot by Ben Aaronovitch

Dear Mr. Aaronovitch, I’ve been recommending enough books here lately that I have started to worry that my grades are overgenerous. But when a book is as much fun as your debut urban fantasy/police procedural, Midnight Riot, what is a reviewer to do? I picked up Midnight Riot (also known as Rivers of London in(…)

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: The Revenge of Lord Eberlin by Julia London

REVIEW: The Revenge of Lord Eberlin by Julia London

Dear Ms. London— I really enjoyed your latest novel, The Revenge of Lord Eberlin. Recently, thanks to the many thoughtful and well-written reviews here at Dear Author, I’ve been reading books out of what I think of as my comfort zone. And it’s been great. I loved Heat, disliked Beautiful Disaster, and am reading my first(…)