Dec 6 2011
Dear Mrs. Kelly, I know that when I start a Carla Kelly book, I’ll get a certain number of things. An honorable hero, an unflappable heroine, some idiot secondary characters who may bluster and threaten to cause the hero and heroine some problems but who usually are mainly all hot air and dismissed as the [...]
Nov 30 2011
Dear Authors, Steampunk is that subgenre I want to love, that I think has so much potential. Unfortunately, we have a rocky relationship. I’ve attempted to read too many novels in which the steampunk trappings are superficial — put a pair of goggles on someone, mention an airship, and have someone drink some tea seem [...]
Oct 18 2011
Dear Mss. Andrews, Brook, Shinn, and Singh, Are angels the new vampires in romance novels? It seems like the number of books starring angels continues to expand exponentially. When choosing to write about angels (or winged beings, in the case of the Guardians), authors invite introspection from readers about the nature of good and evil [...]
May 9 2011
Oh dear. Yes, that’s what I said when I finished reading this book. During the various stories I also said the following: WTF!?, Shut UP!, No way…, and Huh? Three to Tango is a collection of four novellas all featuring m/f/m ménages and the tag-line on the cover says “sex is best when it’s one-on-one [...]
Dec 6 2010
Carina is putting out three (invitation only) holiday anthologies, one contemporary, one paranormal, and one male/male. It is apparently possible to buy the stories grouped in the anthology, but also separately, individually, which I think is a fascinating choice. I was thrilled when I saw the m/m lineup: L.B. Gregg, Harper Fox, Josh Lanyon, and [...]
Sep 30 2010
Dear authors, I actually remember the various blog posts that inspired this anthology. Which was better: the zombie or the unicorn? It was a hilarious debate that suited the blog format. What I wasn’t sure about was how well this idea would translate to book form. I thought a lot of it depended on the [...]
Jun 3 2010
Dear Authors. The theme of this anthology is gay male threesomes, so I’m not sure where the title comes from. I opened the volume because it has stories by some of my favorite Dreamspinner authors (Merrow, Cullinan, Black) and because I love m/m romances AND threesome stories. Some of the stories have a HEA for [...]
Feb 17 2010
Dear Ms. Black. I reviewed a short story of yours in my review of Sindusty I from Dreamspinner Press. It was one of my two favorites of the anthology. I had this to say about it: “I adored this sweet little story. Patrick is a video game designer, working the final kinks out of a [...]
Nov 25 2009
Okay. So before I begin reviewing the anthology NEVER AFTER I have two warnings. #1: YE OLDE SPOILERS AHOY. Seriously. I am incapable of talking about stories without-talking about stories. #2: This will be disjointed as hell. There are plenty of reviewers who are capable of smooth, cohesive, intelligent reviews. I am not one of [...]
Sep 16 2009
Dear Authors: I only opened this volume when Dreamspinner sent it to us because Madeleine Urban had a co-written story in it. I adore her longer co-written stories with Abigail Roux, and the volume started off with “Reluctant,” so I thought I’d have a great little story and then skim through the rest. Instead, “Reluctant” [...]
Sep 1 2009
Dear Ms. Hart, Two of the many things I enjoyed about your erotic novella collection, Pleasure and Purpose, are the setting and the heroines’ background. All three novellas take place in a fantasy setting which resembles mid nineteenth century Europe in terms of its technological development. As far as I can tell, this world does [...]
Mar 24 2009
Dear Authors, This anthology is subtitled “Forensic Mysteries from Today’s BEST WRITERS.” I’d heard of some of your names but forgive me if I say that mysteries, though I enjoy them, aren’t my first reading choice so there are some of you I’d never heard of before. What can I say except – I have [...]
Feb 12 2008
moar funny pictures You might have seen the news in Publishers Marketplace that Meljean Brook sold an anthology story to Cindy Hwang at Berkley this past weekend. What you didn’t read is who else is in that anthology. Are you ready? Do you want to make guesses? Shall I torture you with the knowledge until [...]
Jan 9 2008
Dear Ms. Kelly, I’m not usually a fan of Blaze books nor of anthologies. Often elements of a story I love such as characterization and believability are sacrificed for the hot sex that the imprint is known for and anthologies in general sometimes irk me due to the short word count that demands I believe [...]
Jan 4 2008
Dear Authors, While many readers dislike anthologies because the good stories are often outnumbered by the bad, I’m not one of them. I love anthologies. They let me sample many different authors at once — old favorites and new-to-mes. And sometimes all it takes is one perfect story to make an anthology worthwhile. The follow-up [...]
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