Dec 6 2011
A couple of weeks ago the Brookings Register ran an article titled “Not your mother’s romance novel.” The article spoke to two women who have recently become interested in romances. Two women who had not read older romances, but had formed negative opinions regarding those older romances: Gill said she believes the romance genre of [...]
Nov 23 2011
Dear Ms. Warren: Robin used the word affability to describe Jill Shalvis’ writing and for me, I would apply the same descriptor to your books. They are generally affable with likeable characters and likeable settings, however, they’ve often felt truncated to me and this one more so than previous ones that I have read. I [...]
Nov 18 2011
Emma (2009) Genre: Novel adaptation/Romance/Regency Period Grade: B This is the latest entry into the “Emma” canon, released in 2009 by the BBC. I guess it would be more accurate to call it a miniseries rather than a movie as it’s told in four roughly one hour parts. And while I didn’t think it would [...]
Nov 11 2011
Dear Ms. Featherstone: I confess that I read this book because I just loved the cover. The positioning of the characters, the color of the dress, the frills at the cuff of the man’s outfit. It was very evocative. The soft against the hard. It’s a clinch but an evocative, sophisticated clinch. This is [...]
Oct 19 2011
Dear Ms. Thomas: I’m always on the lookout for a good fantasy story. They are rare in romance, perhaps because those writers that are devoted to this sub genre are more interested in exploring heroic tropes that are common in fantasy rather than romantic tropes. The setting is in some fantasy old world country and [...]
Oct 18 2011
Dear Mss. Andrews, Brook, Shinn, and Singh, Are angels the new vampires in romance novels? It seems like the number of books starring angels continues to expand exponentially. When choosing to write about angels (or winged beings, in the case of the Guardians), authors invite introspection from readers about the nature of good and evil [...]
Oct 12 2011
Dear Ms. Andrews: Thank you for sending me a complimentary copy of this short story. Because it is short, I admit I don’t have much to say about it. When I was told that this book was connected to another short, “Silent Blade”, it made sense to read it and review it together. I had [...]
Oct 5 2011
Dear Ms. Lin: I’m thrilled that you are writing this series and thrilled that Harlequin is publishing it and giving us such in-your-face Asian covers instead headless bodies that hint at its Eastern origins. I am not super familiar with this area of history and I read this story more as if it were a [...]
Sep 7 2011
Dear Ms. Singh, Archangel’s Blade opens with a flashback in the vampire Dmitri’s POV, one that takes us back to Dmitri’s human life. In the flashback, dark, ruthless Dmitri is revealed to have once, a thousand years ago, been a loving and tender hearted man devoted to his two children and to his wife. Smiling [...]
Aug 26 2011
Roxanne (1987) Genre: Romantic Comedy Grade: B When I reviewed “Cyrano de Bergerac,” some of you said you couldn’t watch or didn’t want to watch it or hated it because of the tragic ending. I can understand that. More often I’m in the mood for a HEA too. So here one is in the form [...]