Apr 26 2012
I was really, really lucky in my choices of reading material in February and early March. Five of the nine books I read between the beginning of February and the first day of spring have been books I would grade at B+ or above, which means that they’re recommended (by me) reads. It made me [...]
Mar 14 2012
The following review contains SPOILERS. The spoilers from late in the book are hidden, but others are visible. If you have never read A Promise of Spring and prefer to avoid spoilers, read this review at your own risk. Dear Ms. Balogh, A Promise of Spring, now being reprinted in a 2-in-1 volume with The [...]
Mar 8 2012
March is sparse with recommendations but save your money because April has a full slate. Historical The Temporary Wife by Mary Balogh (reissued in a 2-in-1 with A Promise of Spring, which I’m NOT recommending). Recommended by Janine and Sunita. Reviewed here. PNR Fair Game by Patricia Briggs. Recommended by Josephine, Janine, and Jane (The [...]
Feb 29 2012
Dear Ms. Balogh, I first read The Temporary Wife, one of your most beloved trad regencies, several years ago. At the time, I liked it but was distracted by an initial similarity to another of your regencies, The Ideal Wife, which I had read first and liked even better. The opening premises of the two [...]
Feb 23 2012
It’s been over three months (!) since my last “What Janine is Reading” post. I don’t know why it’s taken me so long to do one of these – the holidays got in the way, but it’s been six weeks since they ended and for that I don’t have a great excuse. Here’s what I [...]
Dec 22 2011
This year was a bit of a crap year for me. I actually haven’t read all that much—at least in so far as romance is concerned. Between the final semester of school, exams, work and the most severe case of reading burnout I have ever had in my life, I honestly wondered if there would [...]
Dec 7 2011
Dear Ms. Balogh, Recently The Famous Heroine and The Plumed Bonnet were rereleased together in a 2-in-1 edition after many years out of print, and I reviewed and recommended The Famous Heroine. That book left me wanting to know more about Alistair, Duke of Bridgewater, one of the hero’s friends. In The Famous Heroine Alistair, [...]
Nov 17 2011
I read a bit more than I usually do in the first half of November. Here is my latest reading list: Tis the Season to be Sinful by Adrienne Basso This book arrived in a package from Jane. I had heard good things about Basso’s writing so I opened it with high hopes, but after [...]
Nov 9 2011
Dear Ms. Balogh, Who knew you could be this funny? Cora Downes is the titular heroine of this 1996 book, now being rereleased in a 2-in-1 volume with The Plumed Bonnet, as well as (to borrow a phrase from the back cover copy on my old Signet edition) a fish out of water in London [...]
Nov 7 2011
It is a sparse recommended reading month for us here at Dear Author. We’ll need help from you guys in the comments. Reviews (if not linked) to come. GLBT Master Class by Rachel Haimowitz, Recommended by Sarah F Sublime by Rachel Haimowitz, Recommended by Sarah F The Closer You Get by L.A. Witt, Recommended by Sarah F YA Ashfall by [...]
Sep 26 2011
For the past few weeks I have been reading three historical romances focused at least in part around conceiving an heir. This was coincidental, as I had not really thought about the first book in those terms until I’d read the second, and then the third arrived at the library where I had put a [...]
Sep 8 2011
Haunting of Miss Trentwood by Belinda Kroll, Self_Published Mary Trentwood’s father is dead, but not gone. His ghost lingers, interfering with Mary’s life. Things become even more complicated with the arrival of Alexander Hartwell, a barrister looking into the blackmail of his elder sister. An interesting and different historical romance. There are some problematic aspects, [...]
Mar 16 2011
Dear Ms. Balogh, For two whole weeks everything that happened in the Maynard household revolved around one fact: Felicity was coming home. So begins The Trysting Place, one of your early, out-of-print trad regencies (and a prequel to The Notorious Rake). I loved the opening of this story, in which we see eighteen year old [...]
Nov 15 2010
Janine: It's been roughly four years since the first time I read Mary Balogh's A Christmas Promise. At the time, I loved the book, so when I heard it was being reissued, I thought this would be a great time to review it. I felt a little trepidation though, because sometimes books I used to [...]
Nov 11 2010
Dear Ms. Balogh, Lately, after enjoying A Chance Encounter very much and The Wood Nymph to a lesser degree, I've been spending some time reading more of your older traditional regencies. A Masked Deception is your first book. Here is a description of the novel taken from your website: Margaret, the new Countess of Brampton, [...]
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