B+ Reviews

Review: More than a Man by Emily Ryan-Davis and Elise Logan

Review: More than a Man by Emily Ryan-Davis and Elise Logan

Dear Ms. Ryan-Davis and Ms. Logan, I’ve never read anything by either of you before. I have seen the cover to your book on Amazon, but barely spared it a glance. It seemed like generic SF romance and the title seemed nice if unexciting. What caused me to purchase this book, you ask? Someone on(…)

REVIEW: Powder and Patch by Georgette Heyer

REVIEW: Powder and Patch by Georgette Heyer

Dear Readers, Tuesday August 16th would be La Heyer’s 109 birthday and to celebrate Jane urged us to dust off our copies of her books and write reviews. I pondered and thought and recalled how much I’ve always enjoyed “Powder and Patch.” I know it’s not one of the best beloved of her books but(…)

Guest Review: Northern Lights Trilogy by Cindy Gerard

Guest Review: Northern Lights Trilogy by Cindy Gerard

Book #1: The Bride Wore Blue The cheesy title refers to the epilogue, but I’m glad I took the time to dive into The Bride Wore Blue. JD “Blue” Hazzard fell in love with Maggie “Stretch” Adams when they were teenagers, and his unrequited love has remained for fifteen years. He followed her career (she(…)

REVIEW:  The Disgraced Playboy by Caitlin Crews

REVIEW: The Disgraced Playboy by Caitlin Crews

Dear Ms. Crews: The Disgraced Playboy is the second in the Notorious Wolfe series (or Bad Blood to the UK readers).  The first, by Sarah Morgan, was reviewed here.  The story treads familiar tropes: low self esteem hero plays at being a dilettante so that no one can see how empty he is inside paired(…)

REVIEW: The Amorous Education of Celia Seaton by Miranda Neville

REVIEW: The Amorous Education of Celia Seaton by Miranda Neville

Dear Ms. Neville: When I was offered the chance to review The Amorous Education of Celia Seaton I had no idea what to expect. I’ve had mixed reading experienced with Avon historicals, and while I have enjoyed our few brief exchanges on Twitter, I really had no sense of where your books fit in within(…)

REVIEW: “Bound…” trilogy by Ava March

REVIEW: “Bound…” trilogy by Ava March

Dear Ms. March. I really really REALLY thought I’d reviewed this series already but I can’t find it anywhere. SUCH a hardship it was to reread it so I could review it. Or…not. ;) It’s totally worth a reread. And what better recommendation is there than that? This series is three novellas: “Bound by Deception,”(…)

REVIEW: Vampire Mistress and Vampire Trinity by Joey W. Hill

REVIEW: Vampire Mistress and Vampire Trinity by Joey W. Hill

Dear Ms. Hill, I’m back. Remember me? I read Vampire Instinct a few weeks ago and while it was a nice read, it was just that. Nice. I like you when you’re crisp and edgy and take me to dark, weird places. So I picked up Vampire Mistress and Vampire Trinity and decided to give(…)

REVIEW: Gold Ring of Betrayal by Michelle Reid

REVIEW: Gold Ring of Betrayal by Michelle Reid

Dear Ms. Reid: Romance is equated with porn quite often.  Porn, of course, is traditionally labeled as a creative activity that has no literary or artistic value other than to stimulate sexual desire.  If romance is porn in any way, it is emotional porn in that the romance novel stimulates emotional responses.  HPs are like(…)

REVIEW: Attachments by Rainbow Rowell

REVIEW: Attachments by Rainbow Rowell

“Beth and Jennifer know their company monitors their e-mails, but like many, they don’t take it seriously. Jennifer tells Beth everything she can’t seem to tell her husband. And Beth tells Jennifer everything, period. Lincoln hates that his job is to monitor their e-mails, but he’s captivated by Beth and Jennifer’s stories. In fact, he’s(…)

REVIEW: Goldilocks and His Three Bears by A.M. Riley

REVIEW: Goldilocks and His Three Bears by A.M. Riley

Dear Ms. Riley. I requested this book by saying, “I’ll trust A.M. Riley to take me anywhere.” I was not blown away by the blurb and the excerpt looked flippant so if it had been anyone else, I would not have requested it. But you? I trust your writing (despite not being able to finish(…)

REVIEW: Cat’s Tale: A Fairy Tale Retold by Bettie Sharpe

REVIEW: Cat’s Tale: A Fairy Tale Retold by Bettie Sharpe

Dear Ms. Sharpe, I was a big fan of your previous reworking of the story of Cinderella, Ember, so when I heard you had another novella out based on a fairy tale, I was intrigued. I was slightly dismayed to discover that Cat’s Tale was based on Puss in Boots, which is a fairy tale(…)

REVIEW: Silk Is for Seduction by Loretta Chase

REVIEW: Silk Is for Seduction by Loretta Chase

Dear Ms. Chase: “He truly did love her. After all she’d told him. He truly believed she could do anything.” That’s an amazing showing of love.  He believed she could do anything.  The Duke of Clevedon falls so in love with Marcelline Noirot, shopkeeper, that he believed she could convince the entire world that they(…)

GUEST REVIEW: Ten Ruby Trick by Julia Knight

GUEST REVIEW: Ten Ruby Trick by Julia Knight

A while ago I mentioned some troubles with a DRMed book I got at Diesel Books in one of Dear Author’s open threads for readers. I tried everything in my power to open it but failed, the nice people at Diesel Customer Service weren’t able to help me, so I just gave up on it.(…)

REVIEW: The Wild Marquis by Miranda Neville

REVIEW: The Wild Marquis by Miranda Neville

Dear Ms. Neville, I had enjoyed your book, The Dangerous Viscount, enough that I wanted to read the upcoming The Amorous Education of Celia Seaton. The rub was that I hate reading series out of order. What’s an anal reader to do but backtrack and get the first book in the Burgundy Club series, The(…)

REVIEW: Magic Slays by Ilona Andrews

REVIEW: Magic Slays by Ilona Andrews

Dear Ms. Andrews: Having been a long time reader of series, I’ve come to expect that a series will generally start losing direction or steam or focus around the 5th book or so.  Fortunately, this series has not sagged at all and I think it has to do with not only the tight writing, but(…)