good characterization

Friday Film Review: Broken Trail

Friday Film Review: Broken Trail

Broken Trail (2006) Genre: Western Grade: B+ Ah, the beauty of the West, of a herd of wild horses, of a campfire crackling at night, of a group of young Chinese women being driven to a fate worse than death in a rough hewn mining camp – wait, back up, strike that. Let’s start again.(…)

REVIEW: Bleeding Violet by Dia Reeves

REVIEW: Bleeding Violet by Dia Reeves

Dear Ms. Reeves, I was casually perusing the Book Smugglers' blog when I came across this midyear list of their favorite books of 2010 and saw that Ana had given your debut, Bleeding Violet a grade of perfect 10. Since the book's genre (YA with a paranormal flavor) is one I enjoy, I looked up(…)

REVIEW: I Kissed an Earl by Julie Anne Long

REVIEW: I Kissed an Earl by Julie Anne Long

Dear Ms. Long, Violet Redmond is young, beautiful, and bored. It seems that no matter what she does, her popularity with the ton will not fade. Suitors flock to her side, even though she once threatened to cast herself into a well when arguing with one of them. In the next to last book in(…)

DUAL REFLECTIONS, PART 2: Black Silk by Judith Ivory (Judy Cuevas)

DUAL REFLECTIONS, PART 2: Black Silk by Judith Ivory (Judy Cuevas)

Black Silk was one of the first two Romance novels I read, and to this day it remains one of my absolute favorites. Submit Channing-Downs, the woman who deeply mourns the husband who was almost three times her age, is so unlike most Romance heroines. Her hair has the quality of thick yarn, her teeth(…)

DUAL REFLECTIONS, PART 1: Black Silk by Judith Ivory (Judy Cuevas)

On rare occasion, I come across a novel that seems so rich, so sumptuous, and so sublime, that I am afraid to reread it. The first reading experience is so close to perfect that I don’t think anything can equal it. Such was the case with Judith Ivory’s Black Silk. When I first read the(…)

What Makes a Hero

Barbara Vey of Publishers’ Weekly asked those attending Lady Jane’s Salon in New York City for three words that describe a hero. Many of the respondents went for the superficial (tall, dark and handsome was one answer and yet another said “Sexy, handsome and luscious”): sexy and strong. One author appeared to be stumped and(…)

REVIEW: Jellicoe Road by Melina Marchetta

Dear Ms. Marchetta, I have a bone to pick with you. I’ve got a packed read-and-review schedule for the next month or so, and I need to be able to move from book to book. But you’ve made that impossible. Yes, I blame you. It’s your fault that your book, Jellicoe Road, left me so(…)

REVIEW: Love the One You’re With by Emily Giffin

Dear Ms. Giffin, Exactly one hundred days to her marriage to her husband Andy, Ellen Graham literally crosses paths with her ex-boyfriend Leo. Ellen describes their encounter this way: From the outside, say if you were a cabdriver watching frantic jaywalkers scramble to cross the street in the final seconds before the light changed, it(…)