Fantasy Romance

REVIEW: Cast in Silence by Michelle Sagara

REVIEW: Cast in Silence by Michelle Sagara

Dear Ms. Sagara, You are easily one of my favorite authors.   These days it’s very rare for me to follow a series past a certain point, but I find myself doing that for the novels you write under both the Michelle Sagara and Michelle West names.   It also helps that thus far, they haven’t disappointed(…)

REVIEW: Healing Heart by Thom Lane

REVIEW: Healing Heart by Thom Lane

Dear Mr. Lane: As I immediately emailed to you when you sent met his book, “Good God, the fairy godmother of cover images likes YOU, doesn’t she?!” I adore this cover, as I did the cover of the first Amaranth novel. (Anne Cain did the art. One might almost say “Of course, Anne Cain did(…)

The Pioneers of Paranormal Romance

see more Lolcats and funny pictures I was telling a friend of mine about Christine Feehan the other day. I had picked up Dark Slayer to read after a long absence. I realized that if my friend picked up Feehan today that she would think Feehan was derivative. After all Feehan’s books are marked by(…)

REVIEW: Strongman by Denise Rossetti

REVIEW: Strongman by Denise Rossetti

Dear Ms. Rossetti: This book recently won a Passionate Plume Award from Passionate Ink, the erotic SIG for RWA. I’ve long been intrigued by the blurb on EC, so thought I’d check it out. I’m very glad I did. It’s part of a series, but completely stands alone-’I haven’t read the rest of the series,(…)

REVIEW: Pleasure and Purpose by Megan Hart

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(…)

REVIEW: [SFR Classics] Dragon Bones / Dragon Blood by Patricia Briggs

REVIEW: [SFR Classics] Dragon Bones / Dragon Blood by Patricia Briggs

Dear Ms. Briggs, I always approach an old favorite with trepidation. So often they were favorites because of the person I was at that time in my life, and having changed, they no longer affect me as they once did. But sometimes I’m lucky and I find that it was something more timeless and I(…)

REVIEW: Naamah’s Kiss by Jacqueline Carey

Dear Ms. Carey, I think it’s no secret that you’re one of my favorite authors.   Even though the Sundering duology didn’t do much for me, I loved the original Kushiel trilogy featuring Phedre and Joscelin.   I’ve also been in something of a reading funk, finding myself unable to finish any book at all.   I don’t(…)

REVIEW: Darkborn by Alison Sinclair

Dear Ms. Sinclair. I first heard of your novel when someone posted the cover on their blog.   And speaking for myself, I can safely say the cover did its job.   It caught my interest, stuck the title and your name in mind, and when I got the chance to review it, I was positively gleeful.(…)

CONVERSATIONAL REVIEW: Clockwork Heart by Dru Pagliassotti

Janine: When Jaili (Maili) and I recently found out we were reading the same little-known book from 2008, Dru Pagliassotti’s Clockwork Heart, we thought it would be fun to discuss it here at Dear Author. But first, a plot synopsis: Clockwork Heart takes place in a fictional Industrial Age city-state called Ondinium. One of Ondinium’s(…)

REVIEW: Silver Phoenix by Cindy Pon

Dear Ms. Pon, I fall into that category of people who wish more fantasy novels set in non-Western settings were available to the general readership at large.   And while I’m it, I want more than just those non-Western settings; I also want the stories of the non-white characters that live in those worlds.     Diversity, multiculturalism(…)

REVIEW: A Strong and Sudden Thaw by R.W. Day

REVIEW: A Strong and Sudden Thaw by R.W. Day

Dear Ms. Day, Last May, when I reviewed Wicked Gentlemen, Ann Somerville recommended some m/m romances to me. I checked out excerpts from the books she mentioned, and of them all, A Strong and Sudden Thaw stood out the most. I purchased a copy of the book intending to read and probably review it, but(…)

Friday Film Review: Ladyhawke

Film revew: Ladyhawke (1985) Grade:B Genre: Historical romantic fantasy (US) Dear Richard Donner: I really enjoyed your 1980 film Inside Moves, a romantic black comedy about a young man who, after a failed attempted suicide, acquires a permanent disability that takes him into an underworld of people with disabilities and a dark sense of humour.(…)

REVIEW: New Blood by Gail Dayton

REVIEW: New Blood by Gail Dayton

Dear Ms. Dayton, Unlike some of my fellow reviewers here at Dear Author, I don’t try books by new-to-me authors as frequently as I probably should. A lot of that is simply due to the fact that I am a slow reader and it takes a lot of my reading time to keep up with(…)

REVIEW: The Shadow Queen by Anne Bishop

REVIEW: The Shadow Queen by Anne Bishop

Dear Ms. Bishop, While your other novels have been hit or miss (mostly miss) for me, I’m a longtime fan of your Black Jewel books. I discovered them at a time when I was about to give up on the fantasy genre and because they rekindled my love for a genre I’d become disenchanted with(…)

REVIEW: The King of Attolia by Megan Whalen Turner

REVIEW: The King of Attolia by Megan Whalen Turner

Dear Ms. Turner, Last month Jane, Jia and I embarked on Keishon’s TBR challenge 2009. This time Keishon’s suggestion is a book that AAR has rated as a DIK (Desert Isle Keeper). While scanning through AAR’s list of DIK reviews, I was excited to unearth Rike’s review of your Thief Series. Back in July of(…)