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, the heroine, is a complicated and messed up character that is both likeable and unlikeable afraid of her own sexuality and ashamed of her past. She is full of prejudice and bias and anger and shame and in order to achieve her happy ending, she has to overcome these things.

It’s often acceptable to read about the damaged hero finding redemption but I appreciate Jane’s road to acceptance just as much as an infamous rake redeemed story.

There is a memorable scene in the Princess Bride wherein Valerie, cries “Liar, Liar” and shakes her finger at Miracle Max for denying that Westley said “True Love” after Max extracts breath from Westley’s mostly dead body. Valerie says that ever since Miracle Max was fired by Prince Humperdink his confidence was shattered and he was afraid to perform any magic.

Jane is like Miracle Max only she never had any confidence. Jane’s mother was a prison groupie who moved from prison town to prison town latching on to various lifers. Jane’s biological father was a lifer who wrote to her from prison regularly until she was twelve. She had no male role model in her life and she thirsted for affection and approval from someone. After Jane suffered one rejection too many at a young age, with her newly blossoming body, Jane went out looking much older than she was to find the only kind of affection that she could from boys and men who never should have touched her.

She ran with a hard crowd and after allowing herself to be used one too many times, Jane had a wake up call and she changed her entire life. She dyed her hair, changed her name, moved away from her family, and suppressed every instinct that she had ever had and became, to the best of her ability, plain Jane. She works as the office manager in Quinn Jenning’s architectural firm. She is efficient, responsible, and very good at her job. She dates upwardly mobile professional men like lawyers, vetinarians, dentists. She is certainly not attracted to a man like William Chase with his beat up pickup, his tattoos, his big rough body, and his job as a excavation specialist, even if he does own his own company.

The truth is that a woman with confidence and self respect (as Jane would like to see herself) would not care whom she was seen with as long as she loved that man. But Jane lives under specter of hurt and shame. She has rebuilt but to a large extent it’s all a facade. Jane refers to herself as faking her way through each day. With Chase, she can let go and be herself but Jane isn’t even sure who she is anymore, only who she wants to be. What she doesn’t understand and has to come to grips with is that she needs to love and accept herself, all her flaws, her past mistakes, her weaknesses and her strengths because who she is is worth loving. And she’s strong. When you read about her past and how she recreated herself, you realize how strong of a person Jane really is.

As for Chase, he understands the embarassing past. He has one. He’s accepted his mistakes. He loves his alcoholic father while being saddened and angered by his father’s addiction. He’s in a good place in his life. The question, of course, is what attracts Chase to Jane who plays hot and cold, who tries to use Chase as a sexual object, who really is embarassed to be seen with Chase.

At first, Jane appeared to be an uptight secretary who might be interested in being messed up by a bad boy and then Chase realizes Jane is far more complicated. Something about her draws Chase and while he knows he’s being dicked around, he sees something worthwhile in Jane. Even more importantly, Chase knows that he can’t fix Jane, that she has to fix herself. And Jane, well, she can’t control everything:

Ending the kiss with a faint taste of her bottom lip, Chase framed her face in his hands so she’d have to meet his gaze. "I’m falling for you," he repeated.

"No."

He let her go. "You have no say in it. Sorry." Reaching past her, he opened the truck door. "Where to?"

"Chase, we can’t… There’s no future for us. None!"

"You want to go to your grandma’s house?"

She put her hand flat to his chest and pushed him. He took a step back so she’d feel some satisfaction. "Listen to me!"

"I’ll do whatever I want, Jane. I just thought you deserved fair warning."

What makes this such an easy read is though the subject matter might be weighty, the overall tone of the book is fairly light. Chase and Jane have great dialogue. There are very humorous moments interspersed throughout the book. One of my favorite is when Chase and Jane are at a biker bar and a bosomy redhead comes on to Chase while Jane is off talking to someone else, trying to get some information on her parole skipping brother.

Chase’s head jerked up so fast the room spun. Smack in the middle of that spinning was a tight bundle of angry Jane.

Her lips flattened into a thin line as she narrowed her eyes at the woman. "Would you please remove your hands from him?"

"I don’t think so, darlin’," the woman drawled, tightening her hold on Chase. He raised up his free arm to show his helplessness.

…
Jane drew in a deep breath, her nostrils flared, and he saw the flash of rage in her eyes as she went to the dark side. "Get your tits off him, you heifer!"

"Jane!" Chase coughed, a shocked laugh choking off his voice. But the woman finally let him go.
…
Arms crossed, Jane watched until she was at least ten feet away before turning her glare on Chase. "You want me to leave so you can get a closer look at those?"

"No!" He held his hands up in complete surrender. "I couldn’t get away from her."

"Funny, because you look awfully big and strong. Almost like a full-grown man."

Chase gave her his best puppy dog eyes, silently begging for forgiveness.

Further, the story is very sexy and the sex scenes, while hot and explicit, actually mean something. They advance the story, the character arc, the romance. It’s not like you can skip these scenes because they aren’t just descriptions of sex but exhibits of the state of mind of the characters and where they are in the relationship. For Chase, he tries to show her she’s worth more than a quick lay and for Jane, it’s a release, but as Jane and Chase’s relationship matures, so does their interaction during sex.

It’s really beautiful to see Jane gain her courage and embrace her confidence at the end of the story.

So why the B+ grade? Jane and Chase were so carefully drawn and so were Jane’s family, her mother, her irresponsible brother, her stepdad, and even her grandmother. Yet, conflict was inserted toward the end with Jane’s ex boyfriend Greg in a hamfisted way. Greg’s actions lack organic motivation and his portrayal seemed obviously manipulative of the events at the end of the story.   Fortunately, the story does not end on this note.

This story has a lot of depth and I think it takes quite a bit of skill to write such a deep story with such a light hand. B+

Best regards,

Jane

P.S.   I still think we readers deserved one last sex scene with Chase and his shaved head.

This mass market can be purchased at Amazonor eHarlequin.com in ebook format from eHarlequin.com or other etailers.

This book was provided to the reviewer by either the author or publisher. The reviewer did not pay for this book but received it free. The Harlequin Affiliate link earns us an affiliate fee if you purchase a book through the link.

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When I saw that the novella you sent to Dear Author for review was published by Drollerie Press, I eagerly snagged it for review. Unfortunately, it’s been a while getting to the review, but I at least hope I can encourage a few readers to try Over Her Head, a sweet, nicely-crafted romance that takes place at the turn of the 20th C and offers a refreshing take on the merman/mermaid myth.

Frances Schmidt is a doctoral student in history in Massachusetts, and her doctoral dissertation is on merfolk. However, there is very little primary research on the subject – except for an enormous collection held privately by one Garrett Hathaway of Ipsiquinguit, Maine. When Frances travels alone to Maine, she does not know what to expect; she is merely compelled by curiosity, a desire not to return a failure to her family in Minnesota, and the need to protect her work from a fellow-grad student, Norbert, who has taken Frances’s topic and is trying to beat her to Hathaway’s collection. What she finds, however, is a relatively young man, a “New Yorker” with a summerhouse in Maine, who has an extensive and eccentric collection of merfolk literature. And, despite the inviting beach right outside his back door, very little sun on his fair skin.

If you’re thinking that Garrett is a vampire, rest assured that he’s not. But he does have a secret that makes him a bit more than the mere mortal Frances finds herself growing more and more attracted to, after, that is, she wins him over to letting her into his library with a tasty plate of homemade spice cookies. A somewhat unorthodox form of scholarly argument, but successful, nonetheless, in gaining her access to a house adorned with almost every iteration of mermaids, mermen, and other underwater decorations, built not by Garrett, but by another fan of mythic sea folk.

Perhaps the popularity of the merfolk stories keeps Frances’s curiosity about Garrett’s extensive collection to a minimum, because she seems relatively content to merely enjoy the burgeoning friendship between her and Garrett, with whom she shares a profound sense of not wholly fitting in to society’s expectations. For both, there is both pain and opportunity in this situation. For Frances, there is a sense of not measuring up to other, more attractive, women:

When she was a teenage girl, she’d dreamed that one morning she’d wake up beautiful. On the day she put her hair up and started wearing long dresses, she’d wished for a miraculous change. For some of her friends, it had been like that. But she was doomed to stay plain, lumpy Frances. And the horrible thing was that she loved just like a pretty girl.

Not that Garrett sees her as dumpy, though, even though at first she appears to him as somewhat “stout” and plain. But as their friendship grows, so does his experience of Frances as a lush, beautiful woman. But his perceptions of himself are less embracing:

And for Garrett, the moment seemed to freeze. The beautiful summer’s day, the happy picnickers, the distant brass band faded away until he was confronted by the face of the only living human being who had ever seen his true shape. He had always known how fragile it was, his life – music, the law, all his pleasures, everything that made him more than a beast in an aquarium. He would lose it all, despite his caution, because he wasn’t really human.

A substantial part of the charm of Over Her Head is the earnestness of both Garrett and Frances, the genuine interest they have in each other and in doing their best to live good, fulfilling lives. There is a real quaintness to the story but also a touching sensitivity around how vulnerable loving and being loved can make one feel. As Frances comes to understand it, “the mermaid stories represent the uncertainty of love, the natural fear that results from unbosoming oneself to a new lover. He is strange to one, as one is to him. But perhaps, if we are fortunate, there may come a mutual understanding.” And here is the significance and Frances and Garrett’s story and the movement of the novella.

Frances stands out, first as a female doctoral student in history, and then as a woman alone in a small Maine town that includes some who might not be so keen on a single woman so openly enjoying the company of a single man. Garrett has made an effort to blend in as a respectable lawyer who had enough income to afford a summerhouse at the beach. But he is hiding his second nature from the human world, convinced that he is tainted. Neither Frances nor Garrett believes that love, marriage, and children is likely (possible, even), and despite their obvious compatibility, something happens between them that threatens any future happiness they might share as a couple. Something that puts Frances’s degree in danger, as well as Garrett’s well being. And its resolution depends not on magic or fantasy or fate, but rather on the willingness and ability of these two people to find that place of mutual understanding.

And this is what I really like about Over Her Head – that it is ultimately a very human, very humane, story about two people, neither of whom is precisely “normal,” in society’s understanding of human terms. It is sweet, it is charming, it possesses and innocence and an exuberance, as well as a sense of hopefulness that I found touching and uplifting. I wondered why a scholar like Frances was not much more curious about Garrett’s interest in merfolk (or at least in the extensiveness and originality of his collection), and I felt that some of the secondary characters (particularly Frances’s landlady in Maine and her rival in grad school) were a bit stereotypical. And I don’t know if it is the limits of the novella or the crafting of this particular work, but at times I felt there was a polite distance from the emotional depths of the characters that may have been appropriate for Edwardian propriety but not so much for the passionate nature of the story’s protagonists. But in the main, I really enjoyed this novella and hope that others will, too. B.

~ Janet

This book can be purchased at Drollerie Press in ebook format or other etailers.

This book was provided to the reviewer by either the author or publisher. The reviewer did not pay for this book but received it free.

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Fault Line was the first book of yours that I’d read. I’ve since read more, by the way. In the past, I have worked at Intellectual Property law firms as well as in the legal department of a Bio-Tech firm, so I am intimate with the portion of Fault Line that deals with patent prosecution and the highly educated and degreed men and women who do this kind of work. I am also currently employed in the technology sector and while I do not work directly in the security end of IT, my job daily involves many of the issues involved with the security software that is at the heart of the plot of Fault Line. Lastly, I live in the Bay Area and have been to most of the Northern California areas where Fault Line takes place. I found Fault Line to be quite accurate in those respects and I say this with the painful experience of having read books in which authors did not do any research worthy of the noun into the technology they decided to write about. So thank you, Mr. Eisler, for getting it right.

Alex Treven is an intellectual property attorney who’s brought on a client of his own to the firm where he hopes to make partner. The client’s product, a computer security software application, has the potential for immense profits. His hopes unravel when his client is murdered. When the murders continue, it’s clear someone is eliminating everyone assoiciated with the software. Alex and Sarah Hossieni, a beautiful junior associate of Iranian heritage assigned to work with him on the patent application, are the obvious next targets. Correctly afraid he’s in over his head, Alex is left with no choice but to ask his estranged military-operative brother for help.

I confess I was a bit put off by the opening of Fault Lines. A great deal of backstory gets laid down in the first twenty to thirty pages (an estimate, since I was reading on my iPhone) and I started feeling anxious for things to get started.

Two main backstory lines are important to Fault Line; the security software program for which people are being killed on page one and throughout the book, and the family history between the two male protagonists, brothers Alex and Ben Treven.

Initially I was puzzled by Alex who I mistook for the protagonist and found to be oddly beta for the hero of a political thriller. Alex is quickly in physical peril, and for a bit I wasn’t at all sure how this guy was going to survive his story. Patent attorneys do not typically learn the skills required to survive attempted assassinations.

To an experienced reader of Romance (which I am) Alex’s brother Ben is immediately identifiable as Hero Material. In fact, Ben was so precisely the kind of man who is the protagonist of a military Romance that I briefly floundered a bit as I tried to figure out what kind of book I was reading. A traditional political military thriller or a Romance? Or was Fault Line going to be a book that attempted a fusion? Oh, how I have been dying for someone to do this!

Ben Treven is a shooter for US government-sponsored Black Ops, and we meet him as he is carrying out the assassination of two Iranian nuclear scientists. He’s emotionally isolated and (to a romance reader) desperately in need of the love of a good woman. But wait! Isn’t Alex in love with Sarah, the only possible Heroine of any romance that might take place? Why, yes, he is! Very interesting, Mr. Eisler. Gotta keep turning pages to find out how that works out.

Fortunately, I got myself properly oriented to the story -’ that is, open minded about where Alex and Ben were headed as dual protagonists and absorbed in the many fascinating dynamics laid out on the pages. Alex and Sarah have the smarts and knowledge required to solve the mystery surrounding the security software while Ben has what it takes to keep them alive and investiate just who is behind the killings while the software mystery is being solved. The various story lines bend back around, intertwine and intersect in intriguing and chilling ways up to and including the ending.

Ben eventually takes over as the protagonist of the story, but Alex remains a strong second protagonist who is vital to the resolution. Ben thinks he’s safe in his tightly controlled world only to gradually suspect betrayal of the worst and potentially fatal sort. Alex and Ben have a truckload of childhood issues to either resolve or figure out how to keep from igniting before the past ends up getting them killed in the present. Alex wants Sarah. Ben wants Sarah and wishes he didn’t. Sarah knows her own mind but really, what woman can resist the likes of Ben after he proves there’s a softer side under that damaged exterior? It’s this portion of the book that is most strongly a Romance. With a capital R.

Most female readers of military thrillers (we are legion, just ask Lee Child) are familiar with the traditional fate of the woman unfortunate enough to fall for the hero. At best, she’s doomed to be dumped while the hero moves on with hardly a regret. Often, however, she’s doomed to die. Fault Line breaks with this tradition. Sarah has scenes in her point of view, which means readers get a direct line to her doubts about Ben and her eventual resolution of most of them. These scenes make Sarah a more fully realized female character than is usual for a thriller.

The romance element of this story is wonderfully done and done without sacrificing the unraveling mystery and resolution as the disparate plot lines come together. Unlike Alex and Ben, however, Sarah is not in a situation that requires her personal or emotional transformation in order to survive. Ultimately, the story is not about the relationship between her and Ben. For this reason, Fault Line is not a romance. That isn’t a criticism, by the way. It’s merely an observation.

I suspect that for readers of military thrillers the deeper focus on Sarah and the relationship between Sarah and Ben must seem novel. Ben is challenged and transformed (in part) by his relationship with Sarah. And yet, she’s not there just so Ben gets to have sex. In fact, I’d even say that in at least one key scene, Ben is there so Sarah gets to have sex. The focus given to the sex scenes and their unusal flip from the male-centric to the female-centric is refreshing. For readers familiar with romance, of course, this is nothing new.

Fault Line is a gripping political/military thriller that moves quickly and features one of the more fully dimensional female characters I’ve seen in the genre. I thoroughly enjoyed Fault Line for all the reasons I enjoy military thrillers and for many of the reasons I enjoy romance.

A-

~Carolyn Jewel

This book can be purchased at Amazon or in ebook format from Sony or other etailers.

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I’ve had an on again off again relationship with this series. I adored Midnight Awakening but struggled with Veil of Midnight.   I liked Shades better than the last two but not as much as Midnight Awakening.   One of the things that I enjoyed about Shades was that the story was more about the characters and less about the overarching battle between the Rogues and the Order which has a certain staleness for me.

Alexandra Maguire is an Alaska bush pilot living in a small town called Harmony. She does supply runs and serves as a guide. She and her father moved to Alaska after a horrific attack on their family down in Florida which resulted in the death of her younger brother and her mother.

Out on a supply run she spots what looks like blood and bodies on the pristine snow covered ground which comprises the settlement of a few Natives. After landing, she views the savagery up close and is uncomfortably reminded of the attack in Florida that happened so many years ago.

A local troublemaker overhears the report of the attack on the scanner.   He videotapes the remains and uploads it on the internet.   The video comes to the attention of the Order in Boston, a group of super vampires devoted to eliminating rogue vampires who threaten the entire existence of the vampires.   Kade, a former Alaskan, is dispatched to investigate the matter.

Kade is both reluctant and happy to return to Alaska.   He left behind Alaska a year ago because his twin brother, Seth, became increasingly dark in his kills.   Kade couldn’t be responsible for Seth, couldn’t continue hiding his deviancy, and Kade couldn’t bring Seth’s nature to their clan’s attention.   But Alaska, for a vampire, is a beautiful place.   It has short daylight hours and long expanses to run and hunt without fear of discovery.   Kade must discover who is responsible for the killings, stop them, save his brother, repair his relationship with his father, and figure out what to do with his attraction toward Alex.

Alex must decide whether Alaska is safe for her any longer and whether there is anything to hold her in the remote wilderness now that her dad is gone and her best friend is sinking into a troubling malaise.

There were several opportunities to play up conflicts between Kade and Alex.   When Alex puts the moves on Kade, welcome moves, Kade notices that she is a Breedmate.   Breedmates are genetically enhanced females with whom vampire males can make lifelong blood bonds and procreate.   Breedmates are rare and treasured. Each Breedmate gets the honor of choosing her own mate. I know this because I’ve read the series.   I don’t think it was well articulated in this book.   Kade recognizes that he should not allow a blood exchange and that even having sex with her is in some way not in keeping with how Breedmates are chosen.   Kade’s struggle with this lasts about two seconds.

The second major area in which I thought a conflict between Kade and Alex could have been explored was that Alex’s family was destroyed by a vampire attack.   Kade is a vampire.   Unfortunately, the conflict that could have been generated was tepid at best despite the foreshadowing when Alex declares herself a black and white kind of person and Kade tries to tell her there are shades of grey.   Alex’s response to Kade’s revelation is simply to have sex with him again.

Suffice to say that the conflict is largely external rather than internal.   External conflict comes from the Alien vampire running amok, Kade’s concern over Seth, and Kade’s conflict with his father.

Toward the end, Kade engages in some late game info dumping which I thought could have been introduced far earlier to flesh out the unease Kade has with Seth and their twinship   rather than the three paragraph monologue that Kade gives to one of his Breed buds.

I liked that the story was away from Boston and the sameness of what exists there (capping Rogues and hunting the bad guys). Even though Kade was essentially doing the same thing in Alaska, the story was less about vampires and more about families and surviving.   Further,  Kade isn’t one of those tormented guys who hates the women. He’s attracted to Alexandra and isn’t opposed to getting to know her.   This entry advanced the series intriguingly and I didn’t get overloaded with the past characters.   C+

Best regards,

Jane

This book can be purchased at Amazon or in ebook format from Sony or other etailers.

This book was provided to the reviewer by either the author or publisher. The reviewer did not pay for this book but received it free. The Amazon Affiliate link earns us a 6-7% affiliate fee if you purchase a book through the link (or anything for that matter) and the Sony link is in conjunction with the sponsorship deal we made for the year of 2009. We do not earn an affiliate fee from Sony through the book link.

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I listed this book as one or my Top Books of 2009, so I should do a review of it. I had such fun rereading it.

I love meta books: books that are enacting the very thing they’re about as they’re relating it. Books about romance authors are a favorite of mine (Jayne Ann Krentz has a Harlequin Temptation trilogy from 1990 that I love and recently re-acquired, much to my delight: The Pirate #287, The Adventurer #293, and The Cowboy #302). Your ePistols at Dawn is not only meta, it’s meta about its meta. There are so many layers, so many folds and twists, it’s like an exquisite origami mobius strip, if such a thing is possible. The literary critic in me was running around its little cage so very very happy (gotta keep them caged, those literary critics–you don’t know where they’ve been or what they’ve been or will get up to). But the thing that you managed to pull off that made all of me happy was that ePistols at Dawn was also a damn good story and a hot, exciting romance.

When he was very young, one Keiran Anders wrote Doorways, a book that has since become the seminal coming out book, the lifeline of gay youth everywhere. It is the self-proclaimed “sacred cow” of Jae-Sun Fields, a reporter for a gay tabloid devoted to outing closeted celebrities. And Jae’s pissed that one Kelly Kendall has written an e-published, erotic spoof of Doorways called Windows. He admits that Windows is fun and hot and cute, but he hates that it pokes gentle fun at Doorways, he’s convinced that the author of Windows is a woman, and he’s determined to unmask her, so he takes on an online female persona to correspond with Kelly Kendall, which of course, blows up in his face about half-way through the story.

This in itself would be a brilliant meta-m/m-romance. You’re a woman, writing about a man posing as a woman to hunt down the woman who wrote an erotic m/m spoof of a brilliant gay coming-out story. I could have fun just with that. But you don’t stop there, because of course the author of Doorways and the author of Windows are the same person, Kelly Mackay, a reclusive, OCD, agoraphobic screen-writer who lives with his fuck buddy, “houseboy, factotum, and general all-around slut” Will Lanier.

To make it all the more brilliant, Kelly (and Will) and Jae meet at the funeral of an actor, Hunter Leighton, who committed suicide a year after being outed by Jae’s newspaper when Jae was going out with him. (It’s losing a bet to Will that The Adversary would next out Hunter Leighton that made Kelly write Windows in the first place.) Jae was not the reporter who outed Hunter, didn’t know that his newspaper was writing the story, but feels guilty for leaving Hunter even though he was convinced Hunter would never want to see him again. The thing that I love about the obvious political and social commentary in this story is that it never seems heavy-handed. It’s just life (or death). It’s just people. And although there’s a definite message to be taken away (Silence is Death), it’s not unalloyed with commentary of its own (where does privacy begin and end? whose truth is the right truth?). There are too many layers to the story, to the narrative itself, for anything to be absolutely right or wrong. And that’s as it should be.

And for all that, the relationship between Jae and Kelly is completely sweet. Kelly is a mess of psychoses, that he freely admits and bravely deals with as they hit him. He’s OCD, agoraphobic, has panic attacks, and you don’t hide them. They’re there and they’re real and Jae loves him with his issues, not despite them, because they make Kelly who they are. I watched these two men fall in love with each other and believed it completely. They were perfect for each other and so individual as characters and so wonderful as a couple.

And funny, dammit! Your writing is wonderfully funny. Jae (who is 6’5″ which is an issue in the story) and his colleague get in her car:

They walked to the parking garage, and he girded his loins before folding himself into her tiny car.

"Clearly, they didn’t think of you when they designed the Beetle."

"No, it’s like a fucking clown car. All we need now is about forty-three of our closest friends and we’d be in business."

"May I remind you that if you take public transportation to work, you’re going to have to take what you can get?"

"I know."

"And of course when you drive, you drive that sexiest of all street machines, the cock-rocking Honda Element. Isn’t their advertising slogan, "So square, it’s significant’?"

"No, it’s "Because outside every über cool Asian dude there’s a pencil-necked geek dying to get in.’ You just don’t like my car ’cause it’s a GeekBoy Magnet."

Funny and poignant, though. After Kelly kicks Jae to the curb:

Jae’s eyes burned. "I broke his heart. I really, really let him down, and now he’s not going to look at me anymore at all."

"Time to go home, Jae," Shannon said gently, signaling the bartender. He knocked back his final drink and nodded dumbly. The man came over and handed him the receipt to sign. He left a large tip.

"I’ll cry in your car," he warned.

"As long as you don’t puke." Shannon caught Jae’s arm.

The crowd of people milling by the door watched as he walked past unsteadily. He tried not to lurch like a drunken giant, knowing how terrifying it was to look up at him and imagine that he was going to topple over. Somehow, that feeling of being outsized and out of control, foreign and immense and possibly frightening was the last straw. When they finally made it to Shannon’s car, he put his head in his hands and wept.

The two issues I had with the story: Kelly tells his story about writing Windows–the cause of all his psychoses–to Jae’s boss, not to Jae. We do not see Jae’s response to the horror in Kelly’s background, and while it fit with the story, it seemed contrary to the characters of Kelly and Jae to avoid that confrontation. And second, the plot of Doorways is never described. We know very little about it at the end of the novel: the main character’s name is pretty much it. It must be difficult to write about a novel that is described as being so brilliant and amazing and it’s probably tempting to leave it to be all things to all readers, but I would have preferred to know at least something about it (did it end happily for the protagonist, for example).

That aside, I adored this book. I’ve been recommending it to everyone as a truly good romance, but also brilliant commentary on the issues of m/m romance, on what it means to be gay where your sexual preference automatically becomes a political statement, on what it means to write about gay people, and on what a romance novel is, who reads them, and why.

Thank you so much. I can’t wait to find the time to read your other stuff.

Grade: A-

Best regards,
-Joan/Sarah F.

This book can be purchased at Samhain in ebook format or other etailers.

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I remember a number of people raving about your debut in the If You Like Debut books thread. I bought the debut book, Knight of Desire, but by the time I got around to reading it your second book, Knight of Pleasure, was out. So I read that one first. While I felt that I would have appreciated some of the nuances in the character of Stephen, the hero, more had I read the first book in the series, I was not lost.

Lady Isobel Hume was married off the age of 14 to a neighboring lord with quite a bit of money and power. Her father promised her that when Hume died, she would have her independence. No one really thought Hume would live as long as he did. He eventually dies when Isobel is 22 and she finally thinks she is free. But somehow, because she and Hume did not have children, a bastard born to a woman of quality convinced Hume that he was Hume’s son. In Hume’s will, he leaves his entire estate to the purported son, Graham. Isobel is enraged and turns to her father for aid.

Her father turns to Bishop Beaufort, the uncle of King Henry, to have the property given back to Isobel. Bishop Beaufort gives her three choices: marry Graham, marry someone your father picked out (and didn’t he do a good job the first time), or go to Caen and marry someone politically advantageous to the Crown. Isobel chooses to go to the court of Henry and await a marriage to be arranged with a Norman lord.

Once at the court Isobel is reminded that she is to dutifully serve her King, particularly when her father did not. She is instructed to determine whether her new spouse will be loyal to the Crown or is fomenting some insurgency. Sir Stephen Carleton is appointed to be an assistant to the bailli of Caen. Stephen chafes at this because he is a knight.

When Isobel and Stephen first see each other, they are quite taken with one another, but they both know their duty. Further, when Isobel is introduced to her future mate, she is delighted. Philippe de Roche is wealthy, extremely handsome, attentive without being overbearing.

This is not a triangle though for Isobel’s heart is never engaged by Phillipe and he is often gone from Caen while Stephen is there. I liked that the story took place over a period of time. Isobel arrives in Caen in November 1417 and the story culminates in April 1418.

The best and worst part of the story was Stephen’s character arc. Stephen arrives in Caen believing he can never love a woman because the one woman he wants has already been taken. It’s his sister in law, apparently the heroine in the first book. Stephen was a young boy but he seems to believe that he won’t grow out of his “love” for Catherine. While I appreciated that he did, there wasn’t any internal recognition that his feelings for Catherine were simply infatuation. At one point, Isobel watches Stephen with Catherine and even Isobel sees his heart in his eyes, even after Stephen was supposedly in love with Isobel.   I really needed to see this issue dealt with but it never was. We are simply to assume that his feelings for Isobel overrode those longings for Catherine. "For the right woman," he said, meeting his nephew’s eyes, "I would give up all the others without regret."

As for Isobel, I felt like this was a case of making lemonade out of lemons.   A woman of that time period was chattel, to be used to gain money for the father or alliances with the king.   In trying to provide her a measure of independence, you gave her the ability to be a sword fighter and yes, this played a small role in the story, overall I found Isobel to be terribly bland.   The sword fighting thing felt so contrived and not well integrated into Isobel’s overall storyline.

The interaction between Stephen and his nephew were well done and the Isobel’s struggle as a woman, her futility for independence, was also well portrayed. There were definitely high points and I would read your work again. C

Best regards,

Jane

This book can be purchased at Amazon or in ebook format from Sony or other etailers.

Related posts:

1. REVIEW: The Viscount’s Kiss by Margaret Moore
2. REVIEW: Pleasure for Pleasure by Eloisa James
3. REVIEW: Beyond the Dark by Angela Knight, Emma Holly, Lora Leigh, Diane Whiteside

I came away from this book thinking that I should have liked the story more than I did and I wasn’t sure why.   Your prose is good, as always.   You have thoughtful characters.    I liked the premise – the story of a man whose honor was totally stripped away by a false accusation and how his life is redeemed.

Alexander Hayes has been dead to his family for the last five years.   He was reported to have died on the battlefield and letters were found in his affects containing correspondence with the French.   He was denounced as a traitor by Wellington himself.   Alex was not a traitor but discovered that he was suspected when he found a friend of his on the French countryside.   Alex was given the opportunity to spy for England so he changes his name and remains dead, cut off from his family, his friends, his home.   In the meantime, he seeks evidence to clear his name.

Then his brother dies and Alex inherits the title.   He must return home.   There he finds his beloved sister can’t even sit in the same room with him and tells him that he would have been better off to stay dead.   He displaces his cousin, a good man.   The entire village, no, the entirety of England, believes him to be a traitor.   Only his mother is filled with welcome.

Cressida Turner and her widowed sister, Callie, live in a small home near the Penford estate, the home of Alex.   Their father has gone missing and the family funds are perilously low.   Alex has been discharged by his superior to look into the matter and while Cressida first views Alex with suspicion she realizes that she has little choice but to allow Alex to assist her.

Both Alex and Cressida are understated characters.   Alex, in particular, seemed to have an inexhaustible supply of patience, particularly with his sister Julia.   When Alex does have a strong emotional response, it is all the more powerful because of the contrast.

I could see how the two were well matched.   Cressida, like Alex, was not particularly flamboyant.   She was the plainer of the two sisters and had not been able to make a match.   She’s resigned to be a spinster.

The story was not told in a linear fashion with the present time frequently interrupted to move backward to unravel the story about how Alex became known as a traitor.   I found that the backstory was interesting but really provided nothing to advance the story.   It didn’t provide me with any greater insight into Alex as a character.   It had nothing to do with Cressida and there was nothing in the flashbacks that provided keys to unlocking the present day mystery.   It fell a bit like filler to me.

There was early mental lusting by both Alex and Cressida which didn’t seem to match the overall tone.   Because both Alex and Cressida seemed to be restrained and because their initial meeting put each other at odds with one another, it was jarring to read about the tightening of Alex’s loins just looking at Cressida or Cressida’s thrill of appreciation at Alex’s blue eyes and sinfully handsome face.

I wanted to see more of how Alex dealt with the fall out of his treason.   Was his sister unmarried because of it?   We see small glimpses of it in his local church, but other than that, most of the story takes place at either Penford or Cressida’s home and the isolation makes you feel like there is no fall out, other than Alex’s sister’s issue with it.

Again, I liked the tone and I did like the characters but the whole story didn’t mesh well for me. I couldn’t connect emotionally. C

Best regards,

Jane

This book can be purchased at Amazon or in ebook format from Sony or other etailers.

This book was provided to the reviewer by either the author or publisher but I did purchase an ecopy for myself. The Amazon Affiliate link earns us a 6-7% affiliate fee if you purchase a book through the link (or anything for that matter) and the Sony link is in conjunction with the sponsorship deal we made for the year of 2009. We do not earn an affiliate fee from Sony through the book link.

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2. REVIEW: What a Woman Needs by Caroline Linden
3. REVIEW: What a Gentleman Wants by Caroline Linden

• Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins (review by Jia)
• Bound By Your Touch by Meredith Duran
• Written On Your Skin by Meredith Duran
• Pleasure And Purpose by Megan Hart (review by Janine)
• Scandal by Carolyn Jewel (review by Janine)
• Indiscreet by Carolyn Jewel
• Smooth Talking Stranger by Lisa Kleypas (review by Joonigrrl or read the haiku review)
• Since The Surrender byJulie Anne Long (review by Jane
• Not Quite A Husband by Sherry Thomas

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3. Best of 2008 List: Reviewer Jennie F

I am ordinarily not a fan of the holiday focused book although I know that these are popular with many many readers (including my dear blogging partner, Jayne).   However, I did enjoy your first book with Harlequin, A Christmas Wedding.   That book contained quite a few out of the ordinary elements including the age of the couple as well as the characterization of the matriarch that I wanted to give this one a try.   I was glad I did.

The Christmas Present is more traditional in its plot (lovers from the opposites sides of the track) but the characterization is still strong.   Vivian Wentworth is a young divorce attorney in a large, prestigious firm in San Francisco.   Her senior partner takes on a pro bono case representing a young man accused of murdering his pregnant girlfriend and assigns this case to Vivian.   She does not have any experience in a criminal law and feels that this can only turn out badly.

Rafael Cardoza runs the community center, Helping Hands, where Vivian’s client is currently residing. Rafa believes strongly that Diego is innocent and is just as convinced that Vivian is out to screw Diego over.   Rafa learned early on that rich girls liked to have men like him to be a dirty side secret and at the first hint of a public relationship and the rich girl would cry assault.   Rafa went to prison because of a rich girl.

Vivian begins to investigate the murder and becomes convinced that Diego is innocent.   Her beliefs become cemented as she interviews dirty cops and fields threats to back off.   Her parents, interested more in their social standing, become concerned with her insistence on trying the case instead of arranging for a plea.   The case is beginning to get increased attention.   Vivian’s father and mother remind her that she needs to be concerned about her standing with the firm because it is clear that Richard, the senior partner, assigned this case knowing Vivian had no experience in criminal law. It’s as if he is waiting for her to fail.

Rafa has a big chip on his shoulder.   He struggles between thinking that he’s not good enough for Vivian and that Vivian isn’t good enough for him.   As Rafa and Vivian spend more time together, Rafa sees how smart Vivian is, how steadfast she is, and how attractive she is.   He is drawn to her but against his wishes.   He is afraid of what his family will say and how being with him will cause rifts in Vivian’s family.

Vivian and Rafa’s family are polar opposites.   Vivian’s father and mother plan holiday trips without their daughter.   Their family get togethers are to ensure that Vivian is upholding the family name.   Rafa’s family is big and colorful.   Their family celebrations are to enjoy everyone’s company.

Vivian simply didn’t care enough for the San Francisco social scene to be bothered either by Rafa’s criminal background or his less than perfect job. The only thing that prevented them from being together was Rafa’s fear and his pride.  I enjoyed the legal part of the story although Vivian’s initial meeting with Diego took place in front of Rafa which I think would be a violation of the attorney client privilege.    The mystery surrounding Diego and the murder of his pregnant girlfriend seemed a bit far fetched but it didn’t detract from love story between Vivian and Rafa.

I appreciated Rafa as a non caucasion, WASP male protagonist.   While class played a bigger role in the conflict than race, Rafa couldn’t have been replaced by any other white male character.   The story didn’t revolve around Christmas but it did use the holiday as a scene to bring the two together.   B-

Best regards,

Jane

This book can be purchased at eHarlequin.com or in ebook format from Sony or other etailers.

This book was provided to the reviewer by either the author or publisher. The reviewer did not pay for this book but received it free. The Harlequin Affiliate link earns us an affiliate fee if you purchase a book through the link and the Sony link is in conjunction with the sponsorship deal we made for the year of 2009. We do not earn an affiliate fee from Sony through the book link.

Related posts:

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2. Give Yourself an Early Ebook Christmas Present
3. REVIEW: Blue Christmas by Mary Kay Andrews

This is another book I don’t think I would have picked up on my own because author’s name made me think of the hair color. Huzzah for review copies.

Antonia “Toni” Kearney and Grey Richards have been a couple for about two years.   Grey had solicited Toni’s services as a logo designer but upon meeting fell into instant lust.   Their affair turned into a relationship and Grey has managed to infiltrate every corner of Toni’s life, living in her small apartment, making sure her car gets fixed, paying her rent, eating regular dinners at her parents house, and having regular and passionate sex as often as possible.   Except Grey has never told her that he loves her.   He’s not proposed to her and Toni maintains a façade of not wanting to get married. It’s a dated institution anyway.

Toni loves Grey but one day Grey’s business partner comes to town.    Heath Solis is a loner.   Some call him Grey’s attack dog.   Together they make a formidable land development team.   Heath’s only relationship has only ever been with Grey.   He holds himself aloof, his bedroom a revolving door, because for all of his life the only constant has been Grey.    Heath would never do anything to hurt Grey except Grey has Toni.

When Heath first started hearing Grey talk about Toni, he paid no attention. Grey was as inconstant as Heath, only engaging in a more serial monogamy.   As time progressed and Toni remained, Heath began to pay attention and at first he was happy for Grey and then he began to be jealous of Grey’s Toni.   He began to fantasize about having a Toni for himself.

When Heath comes to Chicago, he discovers that Toni is attracted to him and he tells Grey, in the opening scene of the book, “Your woman wants me.”   Grey and Heath shared women in their very wild teens and Heath suggests that perhaps Grey will share Toni.

At first, Grey is torn apart by jealousy over Toni’s desire for Heath and Heath’s desire for Toni.   Toni puts on a brave face initially and admits that she reacted to Heath but that it’s nothing.   It will go away.   Grey, however, decides that he will give Toni the threesome that she wants for one weekend in Cabo.

This is a very sexy, hot book.   The sex scenes are graphic and messy and very evocative.   They are some of the most erotic I’ve read in a long time.   After I had finished reading the book, I felt conflicted. Part of the story was quite emotional but there were holes in the characterizations that bothered me.

First is Toni.   Toni was a fairly bland character.   There were certain features that I liked about her such as her willingness to admit her attraction for another man, her very real insecurity about her relationship with Grey, and her longing for an unconventional relationship.   But the point was made time and again by both Grey and Heath that Toni was not particularly gorgeous or leggy; not Grey’s usual type.   Toni seemed deliberately styled as an “every woman”. She’s completely nonthreatening.

Next is Grey.   Grey is the most arresting character of the story. He is given the greatest emotional range. I think that I was supposed to believe that he and Heath had a latent attraction toward each other.   There is a point late in the book where Toni accuses Grey of trying to make Toni love Heath like Grey loves Heath.   The problem with this is we were never shown that by Grey or Heath at any point in the story.   We readers had to take Toni’s word for it, but she was an unreliable narrator at this point. We know that Toni wants both Grey and Heath so her accusations that this was the fault of Grey don’t have any justification other than her wanting it to be true.   Yet Grey remains the focal point of this story. The man always in control and so when he breaks down, totally taken under by his love for Toni and his seeming inability to be with her, it is heartrending.

Heath Solis.   I had quite a few problems with Heath. Heath is a womanizer. At one point, we are told that Heath had 27 women since…he either first learned of Toni or first started longing for Toni or since he met Toni. It wasn’t clear.   Grey asks Heath if he was tested recently, but frankly that simply wasn’t enough. Heath clearly had no problem seeking out prostitutes and I had a hard time buying into the concept that he was totally clean.    Further, it seemed like the idea of Toni was what Heath was in love with.   The idea of Toni being a placemarker for belonging.

And for the first time in his memory, he wanted to weep in joy. He had never felt so connected, so free. Through his rioting mind, amid the hunger and longing spreading like a firestorm through him he held on to one thought alone: I’m home.

Unacknowledged was that Grey’s devotion to Toni meant Heath was left out.   This seemed to be obvious but it was never addressed. Instead the entire focus was on Heath not wanting to hurt Grey by taking Toni away.

I did love the little details that fleshed out the intimacy of the characters or made a larger point about the narrative.   When Heath went to check out a property on which Grey wanted to build a hotel, Heath noted that the land was already taken.   The best things were taken, according to Heath, but he and Grey would capture it if they wanted it enough.

Other details showed Grey taking care of Toni, checking on her tires, making her drive his Porsche.   He loved to buy things for her and Toni loved to be pampered.   Toni interrupting his days of business for a little hooky.   Her being so lively when his whole life had been so rigid.   They had an endearing habit of calling each other Sir Richards and Ms. Kearney.

I loved the emotional drama around the threesome, but for the story to fully work as it was set up, I needed to see Grey need Heath and Toni. As it was, it seemed that the story was more about Grey fulfilling Toni’s needs and wants.   In the end, Grey’s sole focus was on breaking the rules for her, not just for himself. I think the idea was that he could be more than his father, not by being in a threesome, but by living life on his terms, regardless of the judgments of others. Unfortunately I just wasn’t shown this emotional struggle.

Still, I really liked this story despite its serious flaws. It’s hard to find a really good erotic romance these days and this one tried hard to sell us on the emotional component of the menage as well as the physical one. I waiver between a C+ and B- on this one.

Best regards,

Jane

This book can be purchased at Amazon or in ebook format from Sony or other etailers.

This book was provided to the reviewer by either the author or publisher. The reviewer did not pay for this book but received it free. The Amazon Affiliate link earns us a 6-7% affiliate fee if you purchase a book through the link (or anything for that matter) and the Sony link is in conjunction with the sponsorship deal we made for the year of 2009. We do not earn an affiliate fee from Sony through the book link.

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I confess that the title of the this book was a bit offputting (not to mention factually inaccurate for the story).   I was initially put off by the title and the blurb but the book was sent by the publisher and after the first chapter, I was very interested in what came next.

Douglas Eston has changed his life from poor pickpocket to wealthy investor and scientist (thus no Laird).   He has developed a process by which he can recreate diamonds and he goes to the Duke of Herridge to offer Herridge an opportunity to invest in Eston’s business venture.   As Eston is meeting with Herridge, Lady Sarah Baines arrives to confront her father.   Sarah’s mother is very ill and Herridge is threatening to send them both to her mother’s family in Scotland.   Sarah knows that her mother, Morna, will not survive a journey.   She despises her father but is willing to abase herself, beg in front of this stranger to keep this trip from occurring.

Douglas is completely engaged by this confrontation.   He is not made uncomfortable by the family contretemps, instead he is arrested by the spectacle and particularly impressed with the strength of Sarah Baines. Her father, without acknowledging Sarah or her pleas, continues to speak with Douglas, offering him Sarah’s hand in marriage. When Sarah protests, her father tells her she can either marry Douglas or move her mother to Scotland.

Douglas has this instant attraction, not a physical one, but an emotional one. Some may call this love at first sight and the reader must buy into this in order for the romance to work. I thought you did a good job of selling Douglas as a bit of a romantic. I didn’t completely understand Douglas’ motivation. I thought it could either be related to the fact that Douglas’ life was changed in an instant or because Sarah needed saving like Douglas needed saving so many years ago.

Sarah is an unwilling bride and Douglas disarms her by not only acknowledging that she is right to be unwilling but that he plans to set out to woo and charm her. Sarah is her father’s daughter. Douglas points out that for all that she hates her father, she spouts his lessons and comports herself to the model that he prescribed. She often refers to herself as “the Duke of Herridge’s daughter”. Her life is defined by being a Herridge and besides being devoted to her mother, she is bound to the Herridge estate. Everyone defers to her to the point that the servants often slack off, allowing Sarah to take on more and more of the responsibility.

When Sarah is unable to attend to the Estate’s duties, Douglas fills in. He makes changes by telling others that they must live up to their duties and not rely so much upon Sarah. Douglas doesn’t fix things for Sarah or take control over her domain, but merely shifts some of the burden off her own shoulders.

Douglas’ wooing reaps quick success. Part of the story moves to Scotland and while there were hints early on that Scotland might play an important part, I found this part of the story, while entertaining, to be more filler. Sarah’s devotion to her home, like her opposition to Douglas, seemed to fade into the mist.

At times I thought the portrayal of Herridge as inconsistent. He’s written as a flittergibbet, worried about no more than how to look fine and live fine. The effort in which he goes to maintain his lifestyle seemed at odds with his intentional and heartless cruelty. He seemed to put so much effort into beating down others. I was also completely taken aback by the ending scene which I thought was quite over the top and did not fit in with the tone of the previous chapters.

I did think that there were a lot of details that fleshed out the relationship of Douglas and Sarah as Sarah began to enjoy the companionship and partnership with Douglas. Douglas remained fairly static throughout the story. The prose is lovely and the romance was satisfying. B-

Best regards,

Jane

This book can be purchased at Amazon or in ebook format from Sony or other etailers.

This book was provided to the reviewer by either the author or publisher. The reviewer did not pay for this book but received it free. The Amazon Affiliate link earns us a 6-7% affiliate fee if you purchase a book through the link (or anything for that matter) and the Sony link is in conjunction with the sponsorship deal we made for the year of 2009. We do not earn an affiliate fee from Sony through the book link.

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2. REVIEW: Desert Guardian by Karen Duvall
3. REVIEW: Overnight Sensation by Karen Foley

I just have to tell you about this manga. This isn’t a typical manga for me to review because it’s not a romance manga, and it’s not really about the characters. It’s about food. I’m a serious foodie. I love exploring foods of all cultures, from low cuisine to high. And I love reading about it as well. Viz Manga has decided to bring over to the US part of one of the most influential food manga series of all time, and if you’re a foodie you’ll probably love it.

First, a note about food manga. The Japanese love them. There are a surprising number of action manga where the hero of the series has special food talents. Yakitate! has a boy with a gift for creating breads unique to Japan. Addicted to Curry is about a chef dedicated to, yep, curries. Kitchen Princess is a shoujo (girl’s) romance about the orphan daughter of pastry chefs who has inherited their talent to please everyone with some dessert.

There are also manga that seek to educate adults. The Drops of the Gods is fairly new one that’s educating the Japanese about Western wines. It has sparked an enormous rise in the sales of wines, especially those discussed in each chapter.

The granddaddy of these manga series is Oishinbo. This massive and extremely popular series of 102 volumes, still ongoing, started in 1983 and sought to educate the Japanese about their cuisine and food customs and give them pride in them. The author says in a short essay that the best word for Japanese cuisine(s) is washoku. The wa means Japanese, but also means harmony. That, he says, is the essence of eating Japanese style. All the elements are present and recognizable, but in harmony. This series attempts to explain all the elements and how they fit together.

Now, Viz can’t bring all 102 volumes over. Well, they could, but they’d probably lose money on a lot of them. Even though I’d buy every one. But they are bringing over select chapters and sections on things Westerners tend to be curious about: sake, rice, noodles, sushi/sashimi.

This first volume covers quite a few basics. Some chapters seem downright silly, as in the cook-off between the demanding bastard father and the (anti-)hero over rice. The father’s chef wins because he goes through every grain of rice and pulls out the ones that are broken or odd shaped so each grain finishes at the same time. It’s so anal it’s ridiculous, but it also serves to support a point all cooks know, and that’s that you want portions you’re cooking to be of equal size so they finish cooking together. It’s a good principle applied in a goofy manner so you remember it.

The book covers why sashimi is an art and not just chopping up raw fish, simplicity as a technique, etiquette with chopsticks, purity of ingredients and letting them stand on their own, and making sure your palate as a chef is clean. It explains several dishes (though doesn’t provide recipes) like daishi broth; it’s more concerned with explaining the heart of it than the how of it, though often the how is involved. There’s also a lengthy section of footnotes, 14 pages in the back, that explain all Japanese customs and words that might not be clear to Western readers. It’s quite thorough and good.

There is a plot of sorts. A young man, Yamaoka Shiro, is a gourmet with a very discriminating palate and an ability to cook that matches it. However, he now works at a newspaper and his main concern is betting on the ponies. One day his editor decides that for their 100th anniversary they will serve the ultimate feast, and knowing Yamaoka’s background appoints him to be in charge (along with a young woman to whom he eventually gets married in a minor part of the story which we don’t really see).

This appointment angers the most important gourmet in town, Yamaoka’s nasty father, a renowned potter who demanded such perfection from his wife in their food that it drove his wife to her grave. Yamaoka in revenge destroyed all his father’s artwork. Needlesstosay, they’re not getting along. Yamaoka’s father sets up a rival feast and constantly challenges his son. (He seriously needs his ass kicked.) The most annoying chapters are when he’s right. But even jerks can teach us things.

The graphics in this are really old-style manga. They’re not bad by any means, but they may look dated to people used to newer manga, especially in their use of block panels a la Western comics. They always illustrate points clearly though, and that’s what concerns me most. Here an American friend of Yamaoka’s has been training in how to make water-chilled sashimi to teach some know-it-alls a lesson (as usual, please start reading from the top of the right page, and please forgive my homemade scans).

As you can see, expressive as they are, the faces leave something to be desired. But the portraits of the food and technique come through clearly. I also included a page from the notes from the back of the book so you could see how useful they are.

The book itself is quality, softbound and larger with a dust-jacket. Viz did a lovely job with it.

I’d read parts of this before, but none of these sections in this first volume. I seriously couldn’t put it down once I got it in the mail yesterday. I found everything about it fascinating, even the irritating father and how he was dealt with by the author, and the anal-retentive bits, because being picky about techniques and ingredients is part of being a good chef. I think anyone with an interest in Japanese cuisines or culture would eat this up. It’s a little choppy because of the way the story was taken apart and put back together, but it should just be read as a series of related short stories, A-.

Sincerely,
ジェーン
(Jān)

Oishinbo, by Kariya Tetsu, illus by Hanasaki Akira. Viz. Retail: $12.99. 272 pages. 1/8 compilation volumes. Rated T for teen (probably because kids probably wouldn’t understand terms and such, but there’s no sex or violence; if you’ve got smart young-uns though go for it.). This book is available for discount at most manga stories like Rightstuf.com

Related posts:

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2. REVIEW: Manga: The Complete Guide
3. Harlequin to Distribute Manga Via Cellphones in Japan

(Yes, I made the latter two survey results up.)

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The fact is that the demise of print reviews is meaningless to me. The Atlanta Journal Constitution never reviewed books that interested me. Ditto for the LA Times (books are now merged with opinion section). The same for the San Francisco Chronicle (section cut from 6 to 4 pages).

When the LA Times re-purposed its book review section, it also launched a website aimed at increasing book coverage. I was heartened to hear that it planned to expand its coverage, at least online. Then I read what type of books would be reviewed: “For books there will be columns be about mysteries, science fiction, children’s literature, literary news and more reviews than in print.”

I emailed LA Times to inquire about its conspicuous exclusion of the romance genre. I’ve been holding my tongue for a while now awaiting a response from the LA Times but having read the cry for the bigger tent discussions at Critical Mass, my teeth have let go. Critical Mass, the blog of the National Book Critics Circle, noted in a blog entry that while blogs may have their place, the purpose of newspapers is that they provide a place for “bigger tent discussions”.

With book stores carved up into smaller and smaller genre fields, from chick lit to lad lit to graphic novels and so on, it’s important that there’s a place where books by writers, regardless of their genre, can be reviewed in front of a large audience by critics who have experience in the field

The problem is, NBCC, your big tent discussion clearly has no place for writers like Deborah Smith, Madeline Hunter, or Julie Kenner. If science fiction and fantasy is becoming mainstream, why no straight press reviews of the amazing dragon shifting series by Shana Abe?

The LA Times and nearly every other print book review section, other than the Chicago Tribune and the Detroit Free Press, has basically given me and every other romance reader the big old fuck off sign for decades now. Or since forever.

There are emotionally powerful books labeled romance whose contents are summarily dismissed as not worthy because of a title, a cover or even because it ends happily. Deborah Smith never was reviewed by the now unemployed Teresa Weaver. Smith has always written emotional, touching Southern novels which focused on the family dynamic but for some reason, her books never were interesting enough for Weaver, a purported champion of Southern writers.

Karen Rose writes consistently good suspense novels but perhaps because they involve sex and end with a committed couple, they somehow lack gravitas that PJ Tracy or Robert Parker enjoy. Elizabeth Hoyt‘s fall release, The Serpent Prince, is breathtaking in its emotional scope, with its heightened violence underscoring the tenderness between the main protagonists. There’s something glorious in the ability to be swept away into Meljean Brook‘s June release, Demon Moon, a complex world where vampires battle for rights amongst the supernatural. In September, Eve Kenin breathes new life into the urban fantasy world with Driven whose post apocalyptic vision of the future (or alternative dimension) balances intricate world building with character development.

If you truly are interested in literary criticism and discussion to take place under a bigger tent, why not include the genre that comprises over 50% of mass market sales? Whose umbrella includes everything from high fantasy to urban fantasy to contemporary dramas to costume dramas. Whose writers have backgrounds that vary from scientist to pilot to doctors and lawyers and professors? Whose readership is in the 60 millions and 42% of the readership has a bachelor’s degree or higher? Whose books are reflective of the changing mores of society as well as the variance within the body of readers regarding the definitions of sexuality, desire, hope, fantasy, redemption, and love?

We’ll never be included in that big tent discussion and frankly I am happy to give you all the finger right back. I won’t be signing your petitions, sitting at your rallies or blogging about your terrible quandry of declining readership and advertisers. Perhaps if you understood that women’s fiction which ends happily isn’t a disease that requires antiseptic solution if you even breathe the same space as the pulp, you wouldn’t be in dire straights.

I’m not at all sorry that your big exclusionary tent, that has no room for me and my people, is falling down around your ears. The whole point of book reviews seems to be to get people to read more books. Of course, those mainstream lit critics want the “right” books to be read. But if literacy is what is at stake here, don’t sneer at those of us who read a book a night. It might not be your choice, but it’s reading. We readers beget readers. Maybe if you made space for us, you might still have a print review section and advertisers.

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Changeling Press, LLC opened its edoors in 2004. It publishes erotic short stories and novellas. It also has an Ezine (A Cheeky Changeling) with information, contests and giveaways, and two yahoo groups (one for a newsletter and one for a reader’s loop).

There is a link to an author information page which has bios and further links to individual author pages.

Goodies-There is a ‘first time visitor’ link which shows available discounts. CP has an affiliate program.

Books in print- CP sells some of its books through Amazon and Barnes and Noble.

CP does not sell any other epublisher’s books at its site.

Submissions- CP encourages submissions from both published and unpublished authors.

There is a ‘help link which appears on almost every page of the website. It answers FAQ and has a contact link. The contact link lists snail mail and email contact information along with a list of contact people.

• Navigation-by author name, theme, book title, genre, recent releases and upcoming releases. You can also type in author name or book title into the search function.
• Excerpts-CP lists short, one page excerpts for its books. It also has warnings as to sexual content and language.
• Reviews-CP allows buyers to rate purchased books and write reviews. You can see individual rankings and average rankings. It posts short excerpts from reviews at other sites.
• Series-CP does note which books are part of a series
• Word Count- books have ranges. When checking this, I was confused. In its submissions section, CP states that it accepts MS from 10-25K yet one book I bought states the length as 28-35K.
• Wishlist- I did not find a place to store information about books I might be interested in buying later.
• Bookshelf-Past purchases are saved in your account information section. It appears that you can dl them again.
• Payment-credit cards and mail orders. CP has secure online ordering and does not store cc numbers at its site. You can set up an account and deposit money for future purchases with credit cards or Paypal and Paystone. CP does not accept payment from Paypal due to Paypal’s restrictions on adult themed purchases.
• Downloads-Once you have completed your purchase, you will be taken to a page which confirms your purchase and has a download link. Click on the dl link and you will be taken to a page with your order history. It will allow you to dl a book or email it to yourself.
• Confirmation-no confirmation email is sent. Instead, see above under DL information.
• Formats-PDF, LIT, HTML-zipped, PDF for PDAs, PRC, HTML-self extracting (note: MAC users should not choose this format).
• Irks- well the main one would have to be the price. The cheapest offering is about $1.99 for 3-8K.

I emailed the owner, Margaret Riley, with some questions about Changeling Press.

Thanks Jayne! I’m so glad to have this opportunity to talk to the readers at Dearauthor. Hehe. Love the name!
1. What is your niche in the publishing market?
I’m glad you mentioned Niche — to me that’s what E-pub’s all about. We’re here to bring you what you can’t find anywhere else — if it was mainstream enough to be sold it mass market paperback, we’d all ready be board with it.

Changeling features romantic Sci-Fi, Fantasy, Futuristic, Paranormal, and Action Adventure for women. Not strictly speaking Romance, as we don’t like to follow much of any rules, but we like a strong romantic element. We sell short stories and novellas, many of which are series or serials — episodic fiction. Think Space bounty hunters, shifters, futuristic BDSM, Elves in the future, werewolves, vamps, space vamps… M/M vamps… And hot. We love kink.

2. What makes an ebook publisher successful?
Niche marketing. LOL. For us, mostly the fact that what we set out to be was/is author friendly. Changeling was started by authors to give a home to orphan work — the kind of thing no one else was publishing. Apparently readers like it as much as we do.

3. Where do you see your publishing house in 5 years?
Well, we just moved out of the “pantry” into our first real office, so 5 years from now we should have a bigger office, yes?
Seriously, we’re always open to new ideas and new media. We’re Sci-Fi. We’re buys predicting the future, so we’ve got to be part of it….

4. How responsive are you to reader demands in determining content?
Depends. We try to be really open minded. We’re open to almost any new kink! The only thing that concerns me is being true to the genre. Readers kept asking for interracials. I didn’t see it working, cause, well, to me in a true interracial, the race has to play an important factor. When one of the characters in green, do we really care if the other one’s Latino? However we added an interracial theme, as opposed to a genre, and it’s doing well. NOTHING would convince me to ad cowboys, amnesiac brides, and secret babies — but then we’ve never had a reader — not even one — request such a thing. Again, Niche market. Thank the gods. But when readers asked for more aliens — yeah. We can do that…

5. Why should a reader be buying from you?
Err… cause they want to read the books? I mean really. Anything else is just hype. It all comes down to great stories written by great authors. What other reason is there? It’s got to be all about the books.

6. Are there any things about your site you\’d like to be sure get featured in the Dearauthor post?
One of our unique features is our credit system. If you know you’re going to buy $20 worth of books this month, at the beginning of the month, buy yourself a $20 account credit. (You get a credit of $21.00, because we give you a 5% bonus.) This allows you to only have to enter your credit card info when you’re buying the credit, and readers tell us they can buy books in less than half the time. AND we don’t have to store your credit card info anywhere to do it, so its totally secure. (This started with readers asking if we could save credit card info to cut down on filling out the buy stuff, but security precautions steered me away from that idea.) account credits are available in amounts of $30, $50, and $100. Customers love the convenience! We can also use this system to apply money orders to your account.

 

Love and Laughter,
Margaret Riley
A. K. A. Shelby Morgen
Changeling Press LLC

Overall, this site is easy to navigate and very self explanatory. The book I purchased was available immediately and the shopping cart was easy to use. CP adds help notes at various points throughout the website and during the purchase process. I would rate it a B+.

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