redemption

REVIEW:  A Shot of Sultry by Macy Beckett

REVIEW: A Shot of Sultry by Macy Beckett

Dear Ms. Beckett: This book had me smiling up until about Chapter Nine when I started feeling uncomfortable by some serious misogynistic overtones wrapped up in a “I’m so cute” package. It was insidious and likely unintentional but I ended up having rage face for much of the latter half of the book. The hero,(…)

REVIEW:  When Summer Comes by Brenda Novak

REVIEW: When Summer Comes by Brenda Novak

Dear Ms. Novak: I read the first in the Whiskey Creek series. It introduced us to a small town in California and a group of friends who have been connected since high school. They are close friends, up in your business, friends. They have conference calls and phone trees and none of your personal stuff(…)

REVIEW: Taming an Impossible Rogue by Suzanne Enoch

REVIEW: Taming an Impossible Rogue by Suzanne Enoch

Dear Ms. Enoch: I appreciate what the Tantalus Club series is about. In the 19th Century, women held few rights. For many, there were only a few options for a life of independence. Almost all of those choices depended on the use of one’s own person as the form of currency, whether the transaction was(…)

REVIEW: Bittersweet Victories by Rachel Smith

REVIEW: Bittersweet Victories by Rachel Smith

“Marty Lopez is living with HIV. He is also a recovering cocaine addict and has done time because of his addiction, before developing a second career as a substance abuse counselor. Over his family’s opposition, he moves to Texas from California, looking for a new life in a small town. Angie Davis is divorced. She(…)

REVIEW:  Scandalous Desires by Elizabeth Hoyt

REVIEW: Scandalous Desires by Elizabeth Hoyt

Dear Ms. Hoyt: I have not read the previous two books in the Maiden Lane series.  While I loved your initial books, Jayne began to review the series and she did such a competent job that I kept putting the Hoyt historicals aside to read and review others.  I was hankering to get back in(…)

REVIEW: The Long Way Home by Cheryl Reavis

REVIEW: The Long Way Home by Cheryl Reavis

Dear Ms. Reavis, I’m so glad that by the time I’d heard of these books, the second one was already out and the third one wasn’t too much of a wait. In Little Darlin’ you make me actually like a secret baby book and toss in a marriage of convenience just for fun. In this(…)

REVIEW:  One Good Reason by Sarah Mayberry

REVIEW: One Good Reason by Sarah Mayberry

Dear Ms. Mayberry: I confess.  This book made me teary at the end.   I think it was because I became so attached to Gabby Wade and felt like she really deserved a happy ending. Gabby Wade fell in love with her boss, Ty Adamson.   They actually dated for three years but Ty could(…)

REVIEW: Fury of the Phoenix by Cindy Pon

REVIEW: Fury of the Phoenix by Cindy Pon

Dear Ms. Pon, I read your debut, Silver Phoenix, when it was first released and enjoyed it. Like Jane, I’m a big fan of multicultural stories and it was wonderful to see a YA fantasy featuring a setting based on ancient China. So I’ve been looking forward to your follow-up for a quite a while.(…)

Topic: Redemption or The Big Second-Chance

We had a run of “If You Like Posts” by Dear Author readers. It is a great series and one day, reader Laura emailed me and asked if we had done one for Redemption stories. We had not. I said to her that she should write one for us and she did. Back in December.(…)

REVIEW:  The Girl Who Chased the Moon by Sarah Addison Allen

REVIEW: The Girl Who Chased the Moon by Sarah Addison Allen

Dear Ms. Allen: I’ve wanted to read you for a long time and when this book was hand delivered to me when I was in NY, I felt like I had no excuses but to read it. I’ll tell you that it was a lifesaver. As I spent almost 10 hours at La Guardia due(…)

Is There an Irredeemable Trait?

In Linda Howard's book All the Queen’s Men, Louis Ronsard plays the villian.   He’s a wealth arms dealer who is portrayed as completely amoral.   He is targeted as the middleman who sells stolen arms to terrorists. Ronsard was a shadowy Frenchman who gave his allegiance to no one group; he was the conduit, however, for(…)

REVIEW:  Lead Me On by Victoria Dahl

REVIEW: Lead Me On by Victoria Dahl

Dear Ms. Dahl: I’m probably not going to do this book justice in the review and I actually have some fear of turning people off the book based on what I am going to write. Robin and I talked about the book and she said it was brave and I agree. It’s brave because Jane,(…)

REVIEW: Covet by J.R. Ward

Dear Ms. Ward, I don’t even know where to begin. While it’s true I’m a fan of your Black Dagger Brotherhood series, I stopped making any claims about its purported quality many books back. Romance? Unlike most readers who thought the first books were romance, only for later ones to shift into the urban fantasy(…)

REVIEW: Bound by Your Touch by Meredith Duran

Dear Ms. Duran, I was a big fan of your debut The Duke of Shadows, published last year. I can’t say how excited I was to learn that you had not one but two books scheduled for release in 2009, one in June and the other in July. Having now read the first, I can(…)

REVIEW: Bound by Your Touch by Meredith Duran

Dear Ms. Duran: I was probably the only member of the Dear Author reviewing team that didn’t love your freshman debut, DUKE OF SHADOWS. For me, it read like a love story between you and India and not so much a love story between the characters. I admit that despite the urging of your critique(…)