Recommended Reads

DUELING REVIEWS:  Untamed by Anna Cowan

DUELING REVIEWS: Untamed by Anna Cowan

Dear Ms.Cowan, Your historical romance debut, Untamed, centers on Kit Sutherland, child of a fortune hunter and an earl’s daughter. Brought up in a shabby country manor, Kit lacks the manners of a well-born young lady. By contrast, Lydia, Kit’s younger sister, is poised, beautiful, and has made a successful entry into society thanks in(…)

Dear Author May 2013 Recommended Reads

Dear Author May 2013 Recommended Reads

This month we are weighing heavily on the contemporary side of the romance genre with a few categories and full length novels.  We are trying to add more paranormal and historical reviewers so as to provide good balance to the review selection here at DA. An Invitation to Sin by Sarah Morgan, recommended by Sunita(…)

REVIEW:  A Prior Engagement by Karina Bliss

REVIEW: A Prior Engagement by Karina Bliss

Dear Ms. Bliss: This was such an interesting plotline.  Juliet Browne has been playing the mournful fiancee to presumed dead SAS soldier Lee Davis.  But Davis comes back to life and confronts Browne because not only is she not his fiancee, she turned him down when he asked her.  And now she is living in(…)

REVIEW: Dead Ever After by Charlaine Harris

REVIEW: Dead Ever After by Charlaine Harris

Dear Ms. Harris: Now that I read so much in digital, I don’t pay as much attention to book covers as I used to. But the cover for Dead Ever After says so much about the book itself, that I’m tempted to tell people who wonder how the series ends to take their cues from(…)

REVIEW:  Down London Road by Samantha Young

REVIEW: Down London Road by Samantha Young

Dear Ms. Young: Last year’s On Dublin Street was one of my Top 10 picks of 2012, so I was most eager to read Down London Road. I’m delighted to say that I enjoyed it as much as I did On Dublin Street. Johanna Walker is a young, smart woman who has been handed a(…)

REVIEW:  A Spear of Summer Grass by Deanna Raybourn

REVIEW: A Spear of Summer Grass by Deanna Raybourn

Paris, 1923 The daughter of a scandalous mother, Delilah Drummond is already notorious, even amongst Paris society. But her latest scandal is big enough to make even her oft-married mother blanch. Delilah is exiled to Kenya and her favorite stepfather’s savannah manor house until gossip subsides. Fairlight is the crumbling, sun-bleached skeleton of a faded(…)

REVIEW:  Wedding Night by Sophie Kinsella

REVIEW: Wedding Night by Sophie Kinsella

  Lottie just knows that her boyfriend is going to propose during lunch at one of London’s fanciest restaurants. But when his big question involves a trip abroad, not a trip down the aisle, she’s completely crushed. So when Ben, an old flame, calls her out of the blue and reminds Lottie of their pact(…)

REVIEW:  The Seduction Hypothesis by Delphine Dryden

REVIEW: The Seduction Hypothesis by Delphine Dryden

Dear Ms. Dryden: The Seduction Hypothesis is the sweetest book I’ve ever read involving stainless steel butt plugs and a spreader bar with a set of neoprene ankle cuffs. The hero Ben is just adorable. A few months ago he stupidly broke up with his now ex-girlfriend Lindsay because he’d panicked, an act he’s regretted since(…)

REVIEW:  Her Hesitant Heart by Carla Kelly

REVIEW: Her Hesitant Heart by Carla Kelly

On the frontier of a new life… Tired and hungry after two days of traveling, Susanna Hopkins is just about at the end of her tether when her train finally arrives in Cheyenne. She’s bound for a new life in a Western garrison town. Then she discovers she doesn’t even have enough money to pay(…)

April Book Club Pick: Love Irresistibly by Julie James

April Book Club Pick: Love Irresistibly by Julie James

Today we are hosting the April Dear Author Book Club pick: Love Irresistibly by Julie James.  If you haven’t read Jayne’s A- review, take a gander here.  The following is a Q&A with the author to prime our discussion pump.  If you haven’t bought the book, you can find it at most bookstores or via these(…)

REVIEW:  Love Irresistibly by Julie James

REVIEW: Love Irresistibly by Julie James

  He’s used to getting what he wants A former football star and one of Chicago’s top prosecutors, Assistant U.S. Attorney Cade Morgan will do anything to nail a corrupt state senator, which means he needs Brooke Parker’s help. As general counsel for a restaurant company, she can get a bug to the senator’s table(…)

REVIEW:  Escorted by Claire Kent

REVIEW: Escorted by Claire Kent

Dear Ms. Kent: I’m not sure where I received the recommendation for your book but I do remember I picked it up because it was free. Ordinarily the premise – male prostitute – wouldn’t appeal to me but from the opening scene I was hooked. The heroine, Lori Addison, is a virgin and she’s having(…)

REVIEW:  Real by Katy Evans

REVIEW: Real by Katy Evans

Dear Ms. Evans: When Jane contacted me and said that there was a new book coming out with an underground fighter hero, I immediately requested the book. I love fighters, and the high stakes physicality of them. Your new book, Real, features Remington Tate, a disgraced boxer, who now is fighting on the Underground circuit,(…)

REVIEW:  After Hours by Cara McKenna

REVIEW: After Hours by Cara McKenna

Dear Ms. McKenna: After Hours is a gritty romance. It’s set in the economic wreck that is much of the state of Michigan. The protagonists work a “high security ward designed specifically for men who suffered from persistent, disruptive psychotic episodes.” The story contains poverty, violence, and people who just barely make it through each day. The(…)

REVIEW:  India Fan by Victoria Holt

REVIEW: India Fan by Victoria Holt

Drusilla Delaney, daughter of an English Victorian vicar has grown up near and with the aristocratic Framling children – handsome Fabian and spoilt Lavinia. While she isn’t in contact with Fabian as much until they are adults, she has been tutored along side and then sent off to boarding school with nearly out-of-control Lavinia, since(…)