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REVIEW: Capturing the Silken Thief by Jeannie Lin

REVIEW: Capturing the Silken Thief by Jeannie Lin

“Tang Dynasty China, 823 A.D. Musician Jia needs a valuable book of poems by a famous courtesan to buy her freedom…and she believes Luo Cheng has taken it. Her attempt to steal the book from him fails, but the tall and powerful scholar unexpectedly offers to help her quest! But when they finally find the [...]

REVIEW: Darkness at Dawn by Elizabeth Jennings

REVIEW: Darkness at Dawn by Elizabeth Jennings

Dear Ms. Jennings, I’ve been reading thrillers since high school. My mom introduced me to Eric Van Lustbader’s series, The Sunset Warrior Cycle, which is more fantasy/sci fi than straight up thriller, but in a search for more Lustbader I found a whole lot of Robert Ludlum in the mass-market section at my little neighborhood [...]

REVIEW: Follow My Lead by Kate Noble

REVIEW: Follow My Lead by Kate Noble

Dear Ms. Noble, This is the story of a Duke and a Scholar. But you know that already. Winnifred Crane is an art historian. She is also female, as both her name and the attached pronoun would suggest. It doesn’t matter that she’s brilliant. It doesn’t matter that she’s turned the art history world on [...]

REVIEW: Scoundrel by Zoe Archer

REVIEW: Scoundrel by Zoe Archer

Dear Ms. Archer: This review is testimony to the strength of the second half of Scoundrel. A strong beginning plus a strong ending almost eclipses a somewhat muddled middle of this romantic adventure. Still, the unique and well-described setting (Greece), likeable characters, enjoyable and fun adventure tale, and the interesting fantasy aspects of the book [...]

A Room of Our Own: Romance Book Community & Virginia Woolf

A Room of Our Own: Romance Book Community & Virginia Woolf

This past weekend, I was part of a small panel sponsored by International Association for the Study of Popular Romance (IASPR) which was held during the Popular Culture Association conference in St. Louis. The panel that I sat on was about romances safe spaces. Dr. Pam Regis presented a paper based on the concept popularized [...]

REVIEW: Bound by Your Touch by Meredith Duran

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

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 [...]

CONVERSATIONAL REVIEW: The Edge of Impropriety by Pam Rosenthal

CONVERSATIONAL REVIEW: The Edge of Impropriety by Pam Rosenthal

Janine: Since Pam Rosenthal’s previous book, The Slightest Provocation, provided us with some discussion fodder, we thought her newest, The Edge of Impropriety, might be fertile ground for a conversational review. Here is a description of the book, followed by Jennie’s thoughts and my own: The Edge of Impropriety begins with a prologue set in [...]