Dear Author: Romance Book Reviews, Author Interviews, and Commentary

Dear Mrs. Poff,

I tried. I really tried to finish Chase for an Angel. But I just couldn’t. The book starts too slowly with a whole chapter of flashback. Then your style, more telling than showing, distanced me from the characters and the story. Then you separate the hero and heroine for years. The way I had the book paginated in my IPAQ, at one point you spend 25 pages telling those years from the heroine’s POV then about 40 pages with the hero. You’ve obviously done your research into the American Civil War but by putting so much of that in such a dry form into the story, it turns it into some kind of CW battle travelogue.

And then once the story picks up, it gets incredibly hard to read because of the villains and what they do to the heroine. I must warn readers of this. The heroine is raped, abused, raped some more then kidnapped by the villains and taken with them on their terror spree from New Orleans through Texas. You do not spare readers from the extreme viscousness, brutality and horror of her weeks in the hands of these monsters.

Amber Quill Winners are announced. When we did our ebook weekly review of Amber Quill’s post, Amber Quill offered up two free books to dearauthor readers. Those readers have been picked by AmberQuill and the readers will receive their free books today.

#34 — Keishon: Smuggler’s Bride by Darlene Marshall
#177 — Phyllis P: A Most Unsuitable Bride by Jane Toombs

Thanks to Amber Quill for their contrbution and thanks to the readers to participate.

On Friday, I posted a video of David Hasselhoff in a terribly cheesy music video. The video is quite entertaining from an “I can’t believe this is real” sort of way. Perhaps this video is so over the top that it is actually good. Perhaps this is the Shatner effect, where something uncool hits the lowest level of uncoolness and starts to circle around. It’s like the opposite of jumping the shark. Or perhaps it is where you can go after you’ve jumped the shark.

DISCOUNT! Changeling Press is offering DearAuthor readers a discount. The promo code is DearAuthor06 and is for 5% off a total purchase, good only once. Check out their offerings and save some moolah while doing it!
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.

This week we are featuring a new ebook reader. Keishon of AvidBookReader is a very new ebook reader and I was curious to see why she took the plunge.

How did you become interested in reading ebooks? 

I’d had a interest in reading ebooks when I started to think about the advantages of having them. You have 1) instant gratification 2) no worries over bookcovers and thank goodness for that since some of the covers for most ebooks still suck and 3) storing them on a memory card and you don’t have to worry about yellowed pages or where to put it on the bookshelf. And last and not least is the ability to carry your library with you anywhere you go. Kudos for that. You know how most people have to pack up books to take with them on vacation? All I need to do is bring my charger with me – my books are on the device.

Dear. Ms Ingram,

How I wish you’d written more books. I’d read posts touting Red Adam’s Lady and due to the generosity of another Avid Reader (thanks Keishon!), I got my hands on a copy of it. Depending on how readers like their realism, this one might be worth it though. It really gives a *you are there in the cesspool of a medieval hold* feeling. But it has humor and a great hero to balance that out.

Julitta de Montrigord is the daughter of a younger son and was raised on the tourney circuit in Europe until her father’s death when she was placed in a nunnery and then cast on the charity of her stingy uncle. She’s been ill treated by men her whole life and frankly doesn’t see much good in any of them. But she’s a realist and knows that her future will either be with a man her uncle picks for her or back in the convent. However, when faced with a forced marriage to Adam de Lorismond, she actually thinks life as a poor dependent in a convent might not be a bad idea.

When I first saw this video, I was sure it was a spoof. I have since come to learn it is not only NOT a spoof but the Hass is hot in Germany. So hot that Dirk Nowitzki of the Dallas Mavericks hums Hasseloff’s music whilst at the foul line or in tense situations during games. It calms him down. But perhaps Hasselhoff is retro cool. Is he undergoing a Shatnerization because the video, his music, his body of work (minus Nightrider but possibly including Baywatch) is so bad, its good?

Which brings me to romance books and Monday’s Op Ed column. What books are so bad that they are good? I have a few that spring to mind. I hope you can think of some to share on Monday too. Have a great weekend!

Dear Ms. Bast:

Add me to your list of fangirls. Not the kind that pretends to be more than one person but the kind that haunts your blogs and marks down release dates for your books. The kind that gushes on the internet and in person at the bookstore about how hot, sexy and emotionally fulfilling your book is. That kind of fangirl. Let me say that you can send me an ARC anytime.

A Change of Seasons is a fantasy romance set in some medieval time period (horses, castles, keeps, etc. - think Lord of the Rings without the dwarves but with the hot guys like Legolas and Aragorn, if they were taller, better built, with wings, and looked alike. So maybe think TWO Sean Beans, with wings). Excuse me for a moment whilst I fan myself.

Moira, in A Change of Seasons, is endowed with magick as a result of being a direct descendant of the first born ones of New Ecasia. Moira is empathetic and as her magick grows stronger, she is forced to move to the forest away from the villagers. She begins to have powerful visions of two men: Lord Cyric and Lord Dain d’Ange. Lord Cyric’s visage is cold and cruel but Lord Dain’s is even more frightening. He is known as winged devourer of women (and not in a good way, IYKWM, and I think you all do).

Bianca Claremont, daughter of the Earl of Covey, and widow of Oscar Clairemont, skirts the edge of propriety every day. She openly takes lovers and lives a life of abandonment. Hawkins (aka Hawk) was a friend to her former husband and now a friend to Bianca. While they engage in many a teasing conversations rife with sexual innuendo, Bianca and Hawk have engaged in a sexual relationship. Hawkins has wanted Bianca, wanted her from the first but she was married to Oscar.

What Hawkins doesn't know is that the marriage damaged Bianca. She went into the marriage as a sweet young miss and emerged from it a woman who knows power only through control of the physical relationship. She is hardened by the marriage experience and while she lives life full of sensuality, it is because she was made that way.

Hawkins decides to act on his need for Bianca and engage in her in an affair, but he soon realizes that physical satiation will not be enough. Because of Bianca's marriage and the emotional trauma she suffered during the marriage, Hawkins is not able to make the emotional bond with Bianca that he desires. He is forced to respond to her in a language and in a manner which she understands: sexual dominance.

Dear Ms. Novik,

Brava again for creating this imaginative world and for giving us the relationship of Laurence and Temeraire. I’m glad to see that their bond only strengthens during this book. We also get to see Temeraire growing up more and maturing into an even more thoughtful dragon. When they see slave traders off the coast of Africa, it is he who applies that situation to his own and that of the other dragons in service to England. And once he sees how dragons are treated in China, Laurence begins to have his doubts as to the outcome of their relationship. As Temeraire learns to read and write, how could he ever be satisfied to return to the life he knew in England? Plus he gets a girlfriend!

Once again, you give us believable opposition forces instead of creating some cardboard chewing villain for the sake of having one. Laurence, Temeraire and the aviator crew are ranged not only against the Chinese but there is also tension between the Navy and the Flying Corps. Your world building continues and adds a new form of creature to the dragons you’ve already created. Though the lesson that creature is supposed to teach might be shown a little heavy handedly. And even though we are entering a world filled with dragons, you keep to the known conventions of the time and thoroughly ground the story and characters.