Feb 14 2013
I became a George Eliot fangirl after reading and loving Middlemarch a few years ago. I had previously only read Silas Marner by Eliot, in high school English, and while I had kind of liked parts of it, I recalled it as a bit of a slog (but then, a lot of 19th century fiction(…)
Feb 11 2013
Dear Ms. Lohmann: (Dabney’s disclaimer: I know Jennifer and occasionally attend a book club she runs.) I’d wanted to read this book for quite some time. Jennifer Lohmann entered Harlequin’s “So You Think You Can Write” contest in 2011 and was offered a contract. I’d met Jennifer earlier in that year when I interviewed her(…)
Feb 7 2013
Dear Ms. Kleypas: The biggest thing missing in this book was why/how the two fell in love but it’s one of the most romantic stories I’ve read and the caretaker alpha character archetype is taken to a new level of sensuality. Yes, this is the Kleypas’ bondage book, Japanese style. Justine Hoffman is the daughter(…)
Feb 1 2013
Dear Ms. Bernard: For the record, the first two books didn’t really work for me but I picked this book because I wanted to read about the female firefighter. There were some moments of gentle humor and real hilarity and the romance was sweet. Sabina Jones is one of two female firefighters of the San(…)
Jan 29 2013
Dear Molly O’Keefe: I first read Crazy Thing Called Love a couple of months ago, and my immediate response upon finishing was that I found it riveting but a little bit of a mess – much like Billy and Maddy’s relationship. When I re-read the novel in preparation for my review, I had the same(…)
Jan 24 2013
NOTE: This was orignally published under the title “The Respectable Miss Parkington-Smith. London, 1750 “Vibrant, titian-haired Cassandra Shelbrooke adored her husband Francis. Not only had he taken her from the stage and made her mistress of his elegant home in Hanover Square, but he pleasured her in ways that none of her dozens of former(…)
Jan 22 2013
“Holding Eleanor’s hand was like holding a butterfly. Or a heartbeat. Like holding something complete, and completely alive.” Dear. Ms. Rowell, In 2011, your book, “Attachments,” was one of my surprise delights and, like any book lover, when I find an author whose book moved me this much I immediately head to online stores (used(…)
Jan 17 2013
Dear Ms. Wylde: I picked this up even though I had to buy it direct from the Ellora’s Cave site and even though I have never read you before (although my records indicate I purchased a book by you that was published in 2002, Price of Pleasure). The motorcycle club angle intrigued me as did the(…)
Jan 15 2013
Dear Ms. Scheidt: I think the blurb gives a fairly good feel for what kind of read this will be, but even so I don’t think I was prepared for the emotionality of it. The story is told in the first person present tense. The purpose of using this tense, generally, is for immediacy. The(…)
Jan 14 2013
Dear Michelle West: I’ve made no secret of the fact that I have mixed feelings about the first three books of your House War series. I loved the fact they expanded on the pasts of Jewel and her den, but I also disliked that we retread familiar scenes from other books set in this universe.(…)
Jan 4 2013
Dear Ms. Harrington, Chocolate seems to be the new “thing” in romance books. And here we have luscious, organic, single estate, premo, “to die for” chocolate. Chocolate that makes chocolatiers swoon with delight and weep with envy – if they don’t have access to it. We also have a hero convinced of the wonder of(…)
Jan 1 2013
Dear Ms. Metzger, When I was scanning my memory for good Christmas stories to recommend here, I remembered reading two of your other holiday theme books but this one didn’t ring bells for me. Turns out that’s because though I have an older OOP paper copy, I’d never read it. Time to rectify that! “If(…)
Dec 26 2012
“Come forth with an open mind, for an unconventional tale of love.. Dublin native Freda Wilson considers herself to be an acquired taste. She has a habit of making offensive jokes and speaking her mind too often. She doesn’t have the best track record with first impressions, which is why she gets a surprise when(…)
Dec 23 2012
Janine: We’ve all read Christmas stories which feature cynics whose hardened hearts soften during the holiday season. From Ebenezer Scrooge in Dickens’ A Christmas Carol to the Grinch in Dr. Seuss’ How the Grinch Stole Christmas, such figures are not uncommon in holiday stories in or out of the romance genre. But they are almost(…)
Dec 21 2012
Dear Ms. Matlock, One of the first books I read when I was getting back into romance was one of yours: “If Wishes Were Horses” which I think helped cement my interest in more working class/down to earth characters. This is another one which starts evocatively with the image of a hard working people at(…)
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