One thing that Sarah and I know is that romance readers love a good debate as much as they love their books.

Stay tuned for more content from editors, authors, and other readers on the internet. We will be reposting reader reviews left for romance books here at the blog as well as answering questions from readers about upcoming books, seeking out authors in their natural habitats, and generally nattering on about the great world of romances. We hope you join us in our quest to get everyone to read a romance. (and hopefully love it).

Most importantly, we want to hear from you. There are a ton of ways to get a hold of us. You can leave a comment. You can email us (our email addresses are on the sidebar). You can twitter us. We love to tweet. This blog is all about you, the reader. So type up those comments, drop us an email or tweet us to let us know what you want to see in this space.

I picked up your book DEADLINE because my middle teenage daughter has a problem sitting still for long enough to read her required books for English, and when she does read them, she needs help absorbing them. She started your book, handed it to me and demanded to know “Is the main character really dying????”
As in she couldn’t believe her eyes. So I opened the book and read.

Yes, the main character is dying. Almost stopped reading right there because my kid-in-jeopardy tolerance is pretty low. But here’s the thing. I couldn’t. You sucked me right in with your easy, sardonic wit and devastating charm coated in a bluntness that as an author myself, I loved. Our hero is Ben Wolf, a pint-sized, eighteen year old who lives in a small town in Idaho. He has big things planned for his senior year, big things that don’t include a fatal blood disease.

But he takes the cards he’s dealt. Because he’s eighteen, he’s allowed to keep his terminal disease a secret from his crazy mother, distanced father and beloved brother. It’s a decision Ben claims to be positive about, but his inner id, whom he affectionately calls Hey-Soos, keeps poking at him with a stick to wake up and smell the roses, because by not telling, he’s living a lie, a lie that will devastate those who love him.

I loved how Ben sticks his head in the sand about this and goes about doing things that he’d never trusted himself to do before. A bucket list for the teenager set if you will. He decides to go out for football, all 123 pounds of him. He decides to try to get laid by the prettiest girl in school — Dallas. He decides to drive his closed-minded teacher crazy. And he decides to help the local drunk become sober.

And shock of all shocks, it turns out that he can play football more than decently, even with his diminutive statue. And the pretty girl, Dallas, is even prettier on the inside, and best of all, she likes him back. And his teacher isn’t so hard to drive crazy after all. And the town drunk appears to be a shockingly normal guy when he’s sober.

Except.

Except . . . living with a secret sucks. Especially when his brother wants and needs Ben to go to college with him and continue to interpret his football plays to make him look like a superstar. And Dallas. God, Dallas. Ben falls for her, and falls hard, but even more of a miracle, she falls for him. Which means she’s not the throwaway adventure he’d thought. And he’s leaving. There’s no getting around that. He’s out of here. Off Planet Earth in less than six months. As he begins to understand what his dying is going to do to those who love him, his resolve to keep his secret starts to crumble. Even more unsettling, he’s not the only one with secrets. Big secrets. Life destroying, soul crushing secrets that I’m not going to reveal here and ruin the plot because this is a book worth reading, more than once, if only for the gut wrenching realization that we should live every damn day the best that we can.

Suffice it to say, Mr. Crutcher, you hooked me. You hooked me with how real the teens were depicted, including profanity, fear, sex, everything. You made me care about these characters, about their relationships, and the tangled web they wove. You shocked me, more than once, and that was good. My daughter actually read a whole book, and that in itself is probably the biggest compliment I can pay you. I loved this book, I was both destroyed and enlightened by this book, and look forward to more from you.

Jill Shalvis
When she’s not reading, USA Today bestselling romance author Jill Shalvis is at work on her next novel. INSTANT ATTRACTION is in stores now. See her daily blog for more details, her crazy mountain adventures, and contests.

This book can be purchased in hardcover from Borders.com.

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I don’t have a blog and I don’t write books, but I love to read and I love to talk about what I read.

I have been reading since I first learned how in school. My Dad used to take me to the library once a week and it was a magical place. All those books and I could only choose a few each time. In time, I had read all the books at my reading level and started on the next level.

Then we moved and we had a library nearby that I could walk to all by myself. What a treat. This wonderful library not only had more books than the previous library, but they had a marvelous doll’s house that I spent hours looking at.

Then we moved again and there was no library nearby. I was devastated and started stealing my mother’s paperbacks to read. Some were romances, but most were mysteries. My mother loved Perry Mason stories and I just never cared for them. She also liked the Agatha Christie mysteries which I loved. This started me on a life-long love of Ms. Christie (or Dame Agatha).

Our next two moves brought us to towns that had decent public libraries and I was in heaven again. The last town was finally where my parents settled and my sister still lives in their house.

As you can see, I have had a good grounding in the printed word that started a long journey to where I am today. I read because I can’t imagine a life without books. I can do without television and I could even do without my computer (gulp!), but I could never do without a book.

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If you would like to contribute a guest essay on why you read, why you write or why you blog, please send an email to Jane at dearauthor.com with “Essay” in the subject line.

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I love to read. No, I looooove to read. And I read fast. I read about 300 books a year (counting re-reads). So when I saw the Ja(y)nes offer to post essays on reading, writing and the love thereof, I got to thinking—WHY do I love reading and writing so much.

It’s the stories. My cousin Diane taught me to read when I was just four, and from that moment, I’ve been caught up in the worlds opened up to me by books. But I think my addiction to story must go earlier than that, because my mother likes to talk about taking me to see Bambi with my multitude of cousins when I was three. (Mama is the youngest of four sisters, each of whom had four kids, except for Aunt Bettye, who had six…The family Thanksgiving is massive.) For weeks afterward, my invisible friend Bambi went everywhere with me. Hey, at least Bambi was a deer and didn’t require his own plate at the dinner table, like the fella’s invisible friend Mister. (Mister got on a plane one day and flew to Chicago, never to be seen again.)

Stories fire my imagination and, for a little while, let me live in That world, instead of this—often boring—one. In the world of story, ANYTHING can happen.

Which is why I write. I still have invisible friends. No, really. TIME magazine quoted researchers who discovered that fiction writers’ relationships with their characters is virtually identical with a child’s relationship with his invisible friends. We know they’re not real. Honest. We do know. But we still have no control over them. They go off and do stuff just because they want to, and we have no way to stop them.

Back to the topic. I don’t write just because I get to hang out with invisible friends. I write because I get to tell stories. And in those stories, ANYTHING can happen. Dragons are real. Soul mates can find their destiny. People can recover from tragedy. Even all of the above. And, despite the fact that characters can go their own way, I can still tell the story I want to tell. (The characters usually know better than I do.)

I started wanting to tell stories MY way back in—junior high, I think. That’s when I inherited a bunch of my dad’s old books. Copies of Robin Hood in archaic English. The originalTarzan by Edgar Rice Burroughs. I literally read the cover off Tarzan. The only problem I saw was that Tarzan didn’t have a sister. Jane really didn’t cut it as a place-holder for the role I wanted to play in the book. I wanted to live in the jungle too. So I made up one.

I graduated from fan fiction sometime in college, eventually learned to finish a book, and here I am. I still love to read, and I still love to write (even though these days it sometimes can feel like work). Because it’s all about the story.

***

If you would like to contribute a guest essay on why you read, why you write or why you blog, please send an email to Jane at dearauthor.com with “Essay” in the subject line.

(I could not have written this post without the help of Maili aka McVane and her near encyclopedic knowledge of the history of internet community on romance)

One thing that does not get enough acknowledgment is how past communities on the internet have blazed new trials in romance criticism and readership involvement in books. Michelle Buonfiglio’s piece about good communities and bad communities wasn’t just a swipe at Smart Bitch Sarah but it was an indictment of all communities that foster robust discussion. It raised old and tired arguments and worse dismisses or refuses to acknowledge the communities that formed the foundation of internet communities that we have today. The main reason why internet is good for romance? Because the community keeps us loyal to and passionate about the romance genre and that results in greater sales. The basis for my post today is threefold:

1. to honor and give due to those who went before us.
2. to recognize that critical discourse leads to strengthening of the community.
3. to enforce that romance needs an internet community of vibrant, contrary, smart readers.

My earliest memories of criticism of the romance genre came in the form of reviews at The Romance Reader. (Founded by Leslie McClain.) According to its current owner, Dede, Leslie started the site in 1995. There was no TRR domain but it could be found searching for romance reviews. In 1996, Leslie turned the site over to Dede and TRR still puts out quality reviews today. One of my favorite reviewers of romances was Susan Scribner who introduced me to more than one awesome five heart review during her turn as a reviewer.

Romantic Times had message boards as far back as 1998 although the archives of those conversations do not readily exist. From 1998 to approximately 2002, there were only four main threads but as more readers began to populate the message boards, the more that they wanted to talk about both the good AND the bad of the books they were reading. A month-long debate on the ‘Favourite Books and Authors’ threads gave birth to two to three additional threads to allow ‘critical posts’ of novels. One of those is the still in existence ‘Readers’ Roundtable.’

Laurie Gold, formerly of All About Romance, founded a Prodigy Romance Listserv for fans to engage each other about the genre. When Prodigy died, the list was moved to ONElist and it was renamed AARList. This ultimately morphed into the yahoo group, AARlist. Some time after this, a new yahoo group was announced called “canwetalk”. The list was open to readers only; no authors allowed. It was to be a place for readers to discuss books openly without dealing with or fearing the reactions from defensive authors. This caused a massive uproar.

However, the anonymous poster made a response to a criticism and accidentally revealed herself to be no other than LLB herself. LLB owned up and explained she was fed up with authors not allowing to give readers the freedom to discussion books with freedom and thus tried to create a haven for readers. Authors were suspicious of ‘canwetalk’ enough to go undercover and “spy” on discussions. One author subscribed under her own name and announced that her “fans” had passed on critical comments from the list to her and so, she entered the list because she wanted to “tell y’all I am okay with negative reviews and anti-romance readers”.

RRA-List is another long running entity, possibly the oldest in existence. Dubbed the RRA-L (Romance Readers Anonymous List), it was founded in 1992 by Leslie Haas and Kara Robinson, two librarians. RRA-L gave out awards at the end of the year which are often cited by authors. Readers and authors alike mingled on this listserv and it was from this listserv that commonplace terms such as TSTL wallbanger, comfort read, and the like were coined. Preeti Singh lovingly maintained that awards list and fostered the listserv along with all the other inhabitants and contributors. The busiest period seemed to be between 1995 and 1997. 1997 was the inception of AAR and it’s possible that many on the list migrated to the open forum that AAR offered. RRA-L still exists although as a Yahoo group now.

Since early 1990s, Romance readers learned HTML from each other or books to create a web site or CGI for a message board. Romance-focused web sites then began to spring up all over the internet. Online databases of romance novels were formed. Book swapping sites for romance readers developed. Sites that devoted to galleries of romance book covers. Sites that specialised in certain sub-genres. BYRON (Books You Read Old & New) was the result of a passionate romance reader who, with her brother, created a software program as a comprensative book database for romance readers. Although many were author-friendly, review web sites were a common sight. Serious discussions among readers began.

For nearly as long as there has been an internet, there have been readers coming together to talk about books, both the good and the bad. There wasn’t a typical reader nor discussion. There were discussions of identifying and defining themes (friends-turn-lovers; revenge; beauty and the beast), types (tearjerker, epic, dark), then-unofficial sub-genres (western, pirate, regency, adventure, office), archetypes (Alpha/Beta/Gamma heroes, antihero/ines, experienced heroines), common plots, and pet peeves. There were also many discussions about definitions of terms, types of romance novel, historical fiction, reader types, ethics and the future of the genre.

Readers were quick to embrace or reject a new sub-genre or trend. When Chick Lit became popular, there were discussions in the romance community whether it should be part of the Romance genre, Women’s Fiction or Comedy. Discussions regarding placement of books within the genre applied to novels such as Robin Schone’s books Awaken My Love (1995) and The Lady’s Tutor (1998) that sparked many an online war over the definition of ‘erotic romance’. Some believe that she (and Susan Johnson to some extent with Bertrice Small) created the sub-genre of erotic romance.

There were even discussions about the conduct and ethics of authors’ online behaviour. There were different types and depths of discussions but all discussions have included both the negative and the positive. You simply CANNOT eliminate negative or contrary voices. These voices will rise up in different formats and attract readers because we are not solely about sunshine and light. We want to talk about every aspect of romance from the very great to the very ugly. Debate, even heated debate, is part of what makes the communities endure.

During this period, established authors and long-time readers, some who saw authors as celebrities, did not appreciate a growing number of new-generation readers voicing their less-than-complimentary opinions about romance novels and the flaws of the genre. Some called on their loyal readers to battle with these “anti-romance” readers, which caused tension and flame wars. It took years of several reader-author discussions to create a quiet agreement on how they should conduct their online relationships and revised the ethics of reviews. 2000 brought in a new generation of authors, formerly readers and familiar with the history of the online community, that made it easier for readers and authors to have book discussions and issues.

Even the Princeton conference wasn’t the first academic discussion of its kind. In 2000, Bowling Green State University held a symposium regarding romance. The featured speakers were Jayne Ann Krentz, Jenny Crusie, and Kay Mussell, Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences at American University, where she served as Professor of Literature and American Studies.

Dear Author is but a microcosm in the universe of romance communities that have come and gone and that have endured. (We, of course, want to be one of those that endure). Dear Author would not be here if it weren’t for those listservs. If it weren’t for TRR and AAR. If it weren’t for Mrs. Giggles. Or bloggers like Rosario, who started blogging in August of 2002! and Wendy, the Superlibrarian, whose archives stem back to 2003, Maili who helped so many of us (including Dear Author) get our start, and launched a whole new era of reader blogs. Readers have never viewed each other as competitors. Instead, we share information. We riff off each others ideas. It is this proliferation of strong voices on the internet that has helped, in some small ways, in creating the idea in others’ minds that romance is a legitimate genre; wholly different than porn and worthy of literary recognition.

One of the strengths of the Beyond Heaving Bosoms book is that there are bad works of fiction published under the romance umbrella. Owning that gives us credibility when we say that there are great books in the genre. But even beyond the embrace of criticism of the genre is the creation of community. Communities full of readers (of which authors are a subset) help to foster devotion and loyalty to the genre as well as ensuring the improvements and further developments of the genre with a critical eye.

Through these communities we find new authors but even better new reasons why we love the genre, it empowers us to talk to other people, helps shed some of the shame associated with reading romance. It makes us prouder, more articulate, and better ambassadors of the genre.

I would love to hear about what brought you into the romance community. What your earliest memory of it was. What you like most and what you like least about internet romance communities. How you believe it will evolve. These are my memories (spurred by Maili). What are yours?

All fiction readers will enjoy this book. Look for BED OF ROSES on sale in November.”

Thanks for your contribution, A Romance Reviewer. We’ll be sending you an ARC of Nora’s follow up _________.

A week ago I pounded out an article that I was going to offer up as my guest blog post for the Love of Reading Book Fair. It was all about how tension between print reviewers and bloggers is unnecessary because blogging fills the niches that print reviewers don’t have the space or inclination to service.

Yesterday I pulled it up to polish a bit and realized it that it was dullness personified. I figured that if there were new readers from the Book Fair, I didn’t want them to get the idea that romance was full of sex and boring. What kind of representative would I be? I put away the article to bore you with another day because I’m all about treating the regulars right.

To those who might not be familiar with Dear Author, we love romance books. We love the stories that end happily. We love the stories with the pink covers. We love the stories that have, wait for it, sex.

I decided to write about my affection for reading love, sex, vampires and the escapist factor of paranormal/fantasy books that are purportedly dominating the market today. (This seems to be debunked a bit in the recent Business of Consumer Publishing 2006 which suggested that only 9% of the romance books being published are paranormals).

This past weekend, I read two upcoming books: Lara Adrian’s Midnight Awakening (December 2007) and Meljean Brook’s Demon Night (February 2008). Both paranormals. Both feature vampires. Both were compelling emotionally. Both were smoking hot because you can’t separate the blood from the sex. However, to say that these stories are the same would be like saying that cities from Boston to Seattle are the same.

There is one thing that I can point to and one reason (among many) why I think that paranormal and fantasy books are hitting the high notes with readers. The paranormal allows for an amplification of loss and sorrow which makes the emotional conflict more compelling. The best I can do to explain this is provide examples from each book.

Lara Adrian, Midnight Awakening.

Tegan is a centuries old vampire who is engaged in an epic, but heretofore semi secret battle against vampires who have lost control and gone rogue. In order to preserve the safety of the existing vampires, Tegan, and a number of others, work to eradicate these Rogue vampires. The war is not without casualties. Tegan’s mate was stolen from him, raped, drained to the point she became a Minion, or servant, of one of these Rogue vampires. She is returned to Tegan, physically alive but emotionally and mentally gone.

The merciful thing to do is for Tegan to kill her but he cannot kill his beloved. Instead, Tegan attempts to keep her alive by feeding her more and more blood which makes his own demands even greater until his control is eroded. His band of brothers lock him away and the leader puts Tegan’s beloved out of her misery. Tegan realizes that her death was the fault of the Rogues and he re-dedicates his life to the war but cuts himself off emotionally.

As the heroine comments, Tegan’s cavalier treatment of her is not cruel, because cruelty would require him to feel.

“The best place for you is in the Darkhavens, Elise. Out here, like you are, you’re a liability–to yourself especially. I’m not saying it to be cruel.”

“No, of course you aren’t,” she agreed softly. “Because even cruelty would imply some kind of feeling, wouldn’t it?”

The story that unfolds is how Tegan begins to realize that the greatest loss of the past centuries wasn’t his beloved, but cutting himself off from everyone. First desire and uncomfortable lust begins to rise to the surface, desire for blood and sex, and then, finally, love.

Meljean Brooks, Demon Night

Charlie Newcombe was an opera singer whose voice rivaled the angels (real ones who know what angelic voices sound like). Her love for the bottle was greater than her love for music. A car accident that she caused while drunk stole her voice. She picked up the broken pieces and decided to make a new life for herself. She’s in the midst of studying for a degree that will enable her to get a job besides serving up drinks. Just when it seems like Charlie is on the verge of making something good of herself, she becomes a pawn in the fight between vampires, nosferatu, demons and guardians. Long lived beings view humans with some disdain and while demons and Guardians cannot affect a human’s free will, someone like Charlie is easy prey for the vampires and when one human could tip the scales in an overall battle, her value is nothing.

Ethan McCabe sacrificed his life to save his brother’s and lived over a century without knowing that his sacrifice was for nothing. The evil that haunted him years ago took his brother’s life and challenges his position as a Guardian.

But Ethan would be damned if his brother’s death meant his sacrifice was nothing, if it meant the demon had won.

Caleb had always claimed there were two things worth living for: good drink, and a pretty woman. Ethan figured he could have one for his brother, and keep on protecting the other.

When Ethan meets Charlie, he thinks he knows who she is and because of his loss, says she cannot rely on him and worse, that he does not want her to rely on him because she is just too danged needy. Ethan’s own view of himself, his weaknesses magnified decade after decade, only served to provide a barrier between the one person that existed who could be his equal.

Of course, the obvious reason that readers love the paranormal/fantasy is that it is about super hot nookie with supernatural boys. However, underneath all the super nookie and super boys is the layering of strong emotional elements.

His gaze followed the movement of her fingers as she wiped away the smoky flavor of the whiskey before she could begin to want more. His voice roughened. “I apologize, Charlie. That was awful forward of me.”

She should have been enraged, or upset, or—something. But she only said, “I stole a kiss from someone tonight, too.”

“I doubt he thought it was thievery.” He looked at her for a long moment. “And I’m hardpressed to feel true shame for stealing one from you. That was also for my brother—I’d have died for him to have something so sweet.” He glanced over her shoulder. His face hardened, his eyes cooled to emerald again. “I’d have killed to give it to him, too.”

With the losses amplified, the assauging of loss is all the more meaningful. Without a strong emotional conflict, all the lust in the world for undead hotties would crumble like a vampire in the sun. Emotional conflict is the bailiwick of romances and paranormals/fantasies with the centuries old loss magnify the emotional conflict. It also presents a challenge because without an interweaving of the worldbuilding with the emotional, the paranormal can easily fall flat. One of the more poignant moments in Midnight Awakening is the first blood exchange between Tegan and the heroine, Elise:

“You’re overdressed,” he said, his warm breath tickling the side of her bare neck.

His presence so close to her was almost as startling as his words. Elise turned an anxious glance on him. “You mean for me to disrobe? I don’t see why I sh–”

“You will,” he said, leaving no room for argument. “If I were a cultured Darkhaven male and not the crude warrior that I am, I doubt you’d expect me to receive you fully clothed.”

It was true. Respect for the act of blood-bonding between vampire and Breedmate demanded that both parties come to each other without concealment, coercion, or reservation. Naked in body, commitment, and intent.

It’s a difficult balance but when the two are done well, the impact is outstanding as can be evidenced by the paranormal/fantasy subgenres that are flying off the shelves. This is just my opinion and the comments section is for everyone else’s. Fire away. Tell me I’m wrong, I’m half right, or that you can’t believe I love the books with the pink covers.

The First Sale story will be available at noon today.

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We have lots of exciting books coming from Ace and Roc in the next few months! (Too many, in fact, to tell you about all of them—check out our website http://us.penguingroup.com/static/pages/specialinterests/scifi/index.html for more info on our upcoming releases.)

Thanks to Jane for giving me this opportunity to share some details on our forthcoming books with Dear Author readers.

In March 2009:

The Shadow Queen by Anne Bishop.

• This is a new Black Jewels novel, set in the violently passionate, darkly erotic world ruled by the Blood, a race of witches and warlocks whose power is channeled through magical jewels. It features an unusual heroine for a Black Jewels novel—a lighter-jeweled Queen (which in the world of the Blood, means she has less magical power). If you have not read Anne Bishop, she is really special—and her world, where the High Lord of Hell is counted among the heroes, turns fantasy tropes on their head. Start with Daughter of the Blood, the first of the Black Jewels novels.

Deathwish by Rob Thurman

• This is the latest in the Cal Leandros series, an incredibly clever, snarky, and action-packed urban fantasy series about Cal, his half-brother Niko, and their friends (and enemies), all set in a New York City where a troll lives under the Brooklyn Bridge and a vampire lives in a penthouse on the Upper East Side. It’s got a little bit of Supernatural in it, plus it’s hugely entertaining in its own right, so fans of the TV show should definitely check Rob Thurman’s books out.

In April 2009:

Magic Strikes by Ilona Andrews

• Kate Daniels is back for her next adventure in this follow up to Magic Bites and Magic Burns. In an alternate Atlanta, magic comes and goes like the tide, and Kate is a mercenary who makes her living cleaning up the paranormal problems (and monsters) left behind when magic recedes. In addition to tough girl Kate herself, this series also addresses her developing relationship with Curran, the leader of Atlanta’s paramilitary clan of shapechangers, and features some seriously scary vampires, unlike any I’ve ever read about before. (They are monsters, not sexy love interests, in case there was any doubt!) Ilona’s books usually have a touch of unusual or non-western folklore, and MAGIC STRIKES takes on the Rakshasas of Hindu legend.

Blue Diablo by Ann Aguirre

• For those of you who know Ann Aguirre for her romantic science fiction, she’s launching a new urban fantasy series in April—and she continually impresses me with how she handles both science fiction and fantasy with ease. Her Sirantha Jax science fiction series totally sold me in spite of my prejudice against books written in the present tense. (Ann is still writing the Jax novels, never fear.) Her new urban fantasy series is about Corine Solomon, a “handler” who can touch objects and know their history. It’s got a strong voice and a unique setting, with a fantastic southwestern flavor. When the book opens, Corine is an ex-pat living in Mexico—her former lover shows up needing her help to track down a missing person and she goes with him to Laredo, Texas. Demons, zombies, ghosts, and black magic ensue!

In May 2009:

Sins & Shadows by Lyn Benedict

• This is the first in a dark urban fantasy series, about Sylvie Lightner, an unlicensed PI working in south Miami Beach. Sylvie specialized in cases involving the paranormal world, but after one of her employees is murdered, she’s ready to close up shop. Then a man claiming to be a god shows up, and tells Sylvie she has to find his missing lover, or Sylvie—and the world—will pay the price. Sylvie is definitely a character with issues to work through (which makes the book all the more interesting), and I absolutely love the characterization of the Furies (assigned to help out Sylvie by the god), and Sylvie’s ex, a government agent who’s the son of the Sphinx. (Oh, and in case you flip out like I did, the author assures me that the event at the end of the book is not as it seems. . . .)

Darkborn by Alison Sinclair

• This is NOT an urban fantasy. (I know you thought it was all I handled, but not true! <g> This is actually a gorgeously written sophisticated fantasy, set in a Regency-flavored society where centuries ago a powerful spell divided the people of the city of Minhorne into the Darkborn, who are killed by the touch of sunlight, and the Lightborn, who cannot abide darkness. Balthasar Hearne is a Darkborn physician, and his wife Telmaine is a noblewoman hiding a secret: she’s a powerful mage, which is completely unacceptable in Darkborn society. Balthasar’s delivery of a noblewoman’s twins—who can see, something unheard of among the Darkborn—draws him deeper into a web of political intrigue and magical attacks; while Telmaine’s chance encounter with Ishmael di Studier, a minor Baron ostracized for using magic, leads her to confront a power she neither wants nor can control. It’s involving, emotionally wrenching, and a ripping good read.

Anne Sowards is a senior editor at Penguin Group (USA) Inc. She has worked on Ace science fiction & fantasy since 1996, and on Roc science fiction & fantasy since December 2003. She edits a number of great authors, including Jim Butcher, Patricia Briggs, Anne Bishop, Jack Campbell, and Karen Chance. When she’s not reading, she listens to Chinese rap and spends way too much time playing video games.