Archive for August, 2006
Dear Ms. Mueller,
 I read about your books on the Historical Delights yahoo group then followed the link to your website. There I would swear that I found a page of all your short stories then followed a link from them to where I bought this book. But upon going back to try and get a book cover image, I can’t find any of your books listed at Diskus Publishing. Have I lost my mind? Don’t answer that. ;)
Anyway, except for some editing problems, I had a good time reading your interesting short story about a 17th century French woman’s encounter with ruthless pirates, a pirate hunter sent to track them down and her revenge on her perfidious husband. And I also liked her revenge on the pirate who held her captive for two weeks. I must say that certainly put the fear of God into the pirate hunter’s crew!
You don’t shirk from placing your heroine into a difficult situation nor making the story as realistic as you can. Good for you. It’s also filled with an emotional depth that’s hard to achieve in a novella much less a short story. I’d like …
I think I am up to 5 4 book pimping posts. In my email box yesterday, I received notice from Borders/Waldenbooks of a coupon of 30% off of any one book. Now you have to be a member, but signing up is free.
I’ll be getting Crown Duel and Inda by Sherwood Smith that Nicole blogged about the other day. Talk about an awesome cover!
Oh, and romances are still 10% off until September 24 so JR Ward’s book, Lover Awakened, will be discounted along with books like Viva Las Bad Boys by HelenKay Dimon.
edited to add: damn bookstore had neither Smith book. worthless coupon.
Dear Ms. Roberts:
 As you can tell by my book pimping post, I was excited to read this book. It was exactly what was promised: A Nora Roberts take on the paranormal. The characters and the magic felt familiar. The vampire lore followed traditional paths. I hadn’t read a Roberts book, though, with as many action scenes. I appreciated the way in which they were written because I was able to follow them (which I can’t always do).
Hoyt Mac Cionaoith is beset with rage and grief when his twin brother is taken and turned by an old seductive vampire. He attempts to vanquish Lilith, the vampire, and during the fight is attacked by his newly turned brother. This is a heartbreaking scene. The goddess Morrigan comes to Hoyt and tells him that he has been chosen to be part of a group to battle Lilith and her minions as she attempts to control this world and all others. Morrigan tells him that he must join forces with five other individuals and form a circle that will defeat Lilith. Hoyt agrees in exchange for concessions …
Dear Mrs. Osborne,
 Some of your other novels have made my “Best of” lists. You wrote westerns and stuck with the genre even when it fell out of favor. You never tried to incorporate the latest “trend” in your books but wrote about basically decent, honest people working hard and trying to make a living. “The Bride of Willow Creek” has many of these elements in it but suffers from the plot set up and the story resolution.
Angie Bertoli and Sam Holland fell in love as teenagers, eloped then were separated by Angie’s father who felt that Sam would never amount to anything. Sam headed west and for ten years they were married but not married. Now, Angie’s parents are dead, she has a man who wants to marry her and all she needs is a divorce. Her problem is that she has no money. So she shows up expecting Sam to have struck it rich in the mines of Colorado and be able to 1) pay for the divorce and 2) support her in a separate household for a year until the divorce comes through. Does she write to him ahead …
Dear Sunny,
 Ordinarily I wouldn’t address my letter so familiarly given the fact we don’t know each other but your nom de plume is just one word: Sunny. Apparently, you are the wife of big name author, Da Chen. I assume the connection should be mentioned in the review because it is mentioned a number of times (4?) in the accompanying promotional literature. I would have probably bought this book because of its smoking cover and the cover quote by Patricia Briggs along with the Publisher’s Weekly review that says “Mona Lisa shares many traits with LKH’s heroines, including having lots of hot sex for good causes, but mercifully without their kvetching and self-doubt.”
However, a friend of mine who does not read books in the first person sent it to me because she knows I really enjoy the Merry Gentry series by Laurell K Hamilton. The Merry Gentry series is a story about a mixed race member of the Sidhe who is destined to be the one who ultimately brings life, fertility, and future back to the Sidhe. The stories mostly revolve around court intrigue and the …
Dear Ms. Hart,
 Hallelujah you’ve published something again. After reading, and enjoying, “The Forest Whispers” and “The Assassin’s Blade” two years ago, I’d almost given up on seeing anything anything else from you. I was a very happy person when I saw this newest story out.
Mali lives in a primitive world where mere survival is a challenge. Over the years, something has affected the fertility of not only the land but the people as well. Any woman who can possibly conceive is obligated to attempt it with any man available to act as a breeder. Mali’s problem is that there are no more men in her village capable of it. When a stranger is captured and dragged there, she’s insulted when he acts insulted to be offered the chance. Instead of jumping at the honor, he has to be chained down for her to attempt to take his seed. Not that she’s much good at it since she’s never had any experience.
Things go from bad to worse when the village elders discover who he is and decide to kill him. Thinking it’s a worse crime to execute this man than face any possible retaliation from …
 Not that Nora Roberts needs anyone to buy her books, but I saw that her Morrigan’s Cross book is for sale at ereader.com. It’s $7.19 if you have the newsletter with the discount code. I don’t buy alot of books in eReader, but I’ll make an exception this time as Morrigan’s Cross is not supposed to be in the bookstores until September 5 even though the book is in stores NOW because I can’t stand to see an ebook for sale that I want and not buy it.. I won’t be commenting today. I’ll be reading.
If you email me at jane at dearauthor.com, I’ll forward you the newsletter.
Dear Ms. Laurentson:
 The Hunting features everything I like about your writing and everything I don’t like. Your heroine is strong. Your langauge, while coarse, is fitting for the setting. The hero is hot. What I don’t like is that your book is all crescendo and no diminuendo. Even in the “downtimes” or the non action sequences, the characters are yelling at each other (in jest sometimes) and that creates a tenser atmosphere which in turns gives me a headache.
Skuld has her winged warriors called the Crows and Odin has his Ravens. Neecy Lawrence is a member of the Crows or The Gathering. These women are chosen by Skuld to serve from the forgotten and the mistreated. They are taught to be strong and fearless and to go out and do her bidding (which usually involves beating up and destroying bad men). Neecy is second in command in the Jersey Crows. Her Odin counterpart is Will Yager. Will has had the hots for Neecy for, oh, a loooong time. (I love this kind of storyline). But Neecy doesn’t want to fall for Will for fear …
Dear Readers,
 Allardyce wrote books set mostly in the mid 18th century and the closest description I can come up with is that they are trad Georgians. Her style is older and more reminiscent of Sheila Bishop. Usually there is some kind of mystery to clear up but since the reader knows “who dunnit,” solving this is not the purpose of the book. I first read this one about 25 years ago and lost most of my copies of her books in a move a few years later. Thank God for the internet that has allowed me to find new copies. I enjoyed the book then and am glad to say that it’s held up over the years.
Fran Morley lives in tiny, quite St. Barnabas, a coastal town that rarely has anything happen in it. She’s 25 and unmarried, not because she’s plain, but because she can’t see herself marrying any of the boring men there, as her younger sister did. Then two events occur to spice up the hum drum town. A 9 year old chimney sweep who’s been convicted of theft and sentenced to be hanged escapes and the notorious highwayman, The Moonlighter, begins stealing …
The mantra going around last week amongst author blogs was “buy new”. At least one author says to readers
Don’t gripe about how they aren’t publishing anything you like if you aren’t buying new books because you gave up your right to vote on what’s being published.
Another author said
The “swap readers” appeared, in fact, baffled when I explained that their “free” enjoyment of the book is hurting the authors’ livelihoods and skewing the publishers’ impressions of what people enjoy reading.
When I was recording my purchases the month, I was a bit shocked at how much I was spending. What really breaks the book budget are the hardcovers and the trade paperbacks. This month I bought two hardcovers: PJ Tracy’s Snow Blind and Stephenie Meyer’s New Moon. I bought three trade paperbacks (albeit in ebook format): Karin Tabke’s Good Girl Gone Bad, HelenKay Dimon’s Viva Las Bad Boys, Sylvia Day’s Ask for It and the rest were mass market.
Maybe three or four years ago, I don’t have more than a handful of purchases from the hardcover and trade format. Nowadays at least half of …
 The lads at Gearlog and Teleblog are great believers of multi function devices. Multi function devices do it all: it’s a cell phone, camera, calendar, contact, ebook reader all in one. Gearlog opines that the reason that women tend to buy a cell phone separate from a PDA is the ubiquitous purse. Of course, the only purse that Gearlog could find was a laptop bag (not a real purse guys). Teleblog did a llittle better but not by much. No self respecting chick lit heroine would carry either bag.
I chose to go the two device route when buying an ebook reader for a variety of reasons. I didn’t want my phone to be with me in the bedroom while I read. The Smartphones were either way to big to hold up to my ear or the smaller, sleeker Smartphones had too small of a viewscreen for reading books. I went PDA over a dedicated device (like the Ebookwise) because I wanted to use the PDA for ebook reading but I still wanted to be able to surf the internet. …
Dear Mrs. Stuart,
 Boy howdy some of your earlier regencies, gothics and contemporaries sell for a mint. Are they worth it? Well, in this case, yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Clause and this one is worth the money. It’s a light hearted romp with the proverbial regency characters of a spinster and a rake. Now really, what else should readers expect from the title?
The Spinster, Gillian Redford, is not a bluestocking but rather a woman who’s played nursemaid and housekeeper to her two older sisters and sister-in-law and is fast approaching thirty. Old-maidhood. While traveling back to the London home of her stiff-rumped brother, her carriage runs off the road and she ends up being rescued by The Rake, Ronan Patrick Blakley, the new Marquis of Herrington along with his drunk friend Vivien Peacock. After dropping Gilly off, the two make a wager that Ronan can get Gilly to fall for him within two months. He does but winds
up falling for her at the same time. After a flurry of plot twists, all’s well that ends well between the two plus we get a nice secondary romance for Gilly’s niece and …
Someone needs some attention. Let’s, as Sybil would say, give her some. You see, Rosina Lippi, in an attempt to keep things on the downlow, posts on her blog an explanation of an online kerfluffle that happened at the Gabaldon yahoo group. Thanks to my reader tip, I moseyed over to see what the drama was about that Ms. Lippi was trying to keep from blowing all out of proportion.
There’s another (yet again) clash in one very small, limited corner of the internet, but as it happens to be the corner I inhabit, and as I would prefer this not blow out of all proportion, I am going public right here and now.
Lippi tries to be careful not to reveal the parties involved by using their initials. Very sneaky, I will never figure out who those people are. Someone at the DG group didn’t like Lippi’s latest book. A fan of Diana Gabaldon posted her opinions that Sara Donati was a DG wannabe who “tapped into a HUGE fan-base by dangling ‘an appearance of Jamie and Claire’ into her story.” The DG fan was specific in her complaints and cited passages and characters that she felt were …
Dear Ms. St. Claire,
 So I am on my way to a small town for a business trip and I have a Pocket PC full of books to read. This one made my four hour trip seem like 1 hour. And I gleefully reminded myself that I only paid $3.89 at SimonSays.com.
Thrill Me to Death is an action packed book that reunites two old lovers. Cori Paker nee Cooper is the widowed wife of billionaire mall developer William Parker. Theirs was a May to December romance that lasted five years. William died of a heart attack in his bed but Beckwith International, the insurance company, questions whether this is really a homicide. Cori is concerned for her safety and contacts Beckwith who refers her to Bullet Catchers. Now, it bothered me a lot that BC was hired both by the insurance company and by Cori. It was a huge confict AND BC took on the case with no real loyalty to Cori.
Lucy, the enigmatic head of BC, taps Max Roper to be the muscle. She does so intentionally because Max …
Dear Ms. Anderson,
 This was my first book by you and I bought you because I read some of your comments on Bam’s website and because Bam gave you a positive review for The Assignment. I bought that one too, but started with this book. You may not know this but I like police procedure books. :)
None of the plot related below is a spoiler as the information is included on the blurb page at Loose ID.
Detective Cole Berkley and Detective Alex Reed are homicide investigators in Tampa. They are tapped to question a survivor of one of an attack that may be related to a previous homicide. There is a serial killer who is starting to kill off erotic romance writers. He has their pen names and through his research locates the person behind the name and proceeds to torture and kill them according to a scene in one of their books, usually involving some BDSM. (note to erotic romance authors, you should a) lock your doors at night and b) do a better job of hiding your identity online). Oh, right, this is just a …
Dear Mrs. Balogh,
 Most of us have been eagerly awaiting Sydnam Butler’s HEA for years. I know I have. I just wish that I could have gotten it without dragging the whole Bedwyn and Butler clans into the story as well. Having read, or in the case of Lady Morgan, attempted to read each of the individual Bedwyn books, I can assure you I have read a gracious plenty about the Bedwyns. I neither need nor wish to have each and every one, plus spouses and children — both natural and adopted — along with all the members of the Ravensburg Butler family, trotted out in every book to convince me of their felicity and fecundity. But it did make reading the book much easier when I could skip whole scenes of sugary sweetness, Bedwyn style.
“Simply Love” involves two characters familiar to long time readers of Mary Balogh’s single title “Slighty” series. Anne Jewell is the unwed mother introduced in “Slighty Scandalous” who became a teacher at a school for young ladies in Bath. Sydnam Butler is the younger brother in “A Summer to Remember.” He had wanted to be a painter but headed off …
Dear Ms. St. Claire,
 Alex Romero has a bad habit of allowing his libido interfere with his jobs. He signed on to Bullet catchers, not just for its super rich salary, but for the opportunity to guard “presidents, princes, and the head of Scotland Yard.” His boss, Lucy Sharpe, assigns him to guard the body of a tv news anchor in Miami. Alex recognizes this is both punishment and probation. He resolves to be on his best behavior despite the fact that his principal (the body to be guarded) is well, let me just quote you:
she added, “Don't let me down, Alex. You know the rules.”
“Jeez, Luce. It's insulting that you think I'm such a dog that I can't resist one measly news‗
She heard the folder flip open, then his long, slow whistle.
“Those are real,” she said without taking her attention from her handheld device. When he didn't answer, she finally looked at him, seeing a glint in his eyes that was both threatening and amused.
“You're evil, Lucy. Truly black-hearted and evil.”
The principal is supposed to be Jessica Adams, but Jessica has asked her twin sister, Jazz, to impersonate her …
Dear Ms. Merrick,
My newsletter from PaperbackDigital.com came and one of the featured books is your anthology titled “It’s Not Chick Lit.” I know that this topic has been debated to death. I am simply late to the party. My excuse is that I am running this blogging experiment about a book that *gasp* ends happily ever after and that I was spending time doing some virtual shopping with my BFF at Anthropologies’ website. We can’t decide which sweater coat we like the best.
I just had to write you this letter, in between debating over whether the high heeled boots or the flats are more trendy, because I think you are really struggling to articulate what you really mean. Let me see if I can help you speak to the illiterate masses that read the vile pink covered objects. In an interview you gave, you said:
The publishing industry is an industry that people are involved with because they’re passionate about literature, and they’re generally pretty overworked and working with very tight budgets and a diminishing audience so I think it just will take a little more time
…
Dear Mrs. Rosenberg,
 I adore a good chick lit book but it’s got to have more than just a series of funny events linked together. It also needs to make me laugh and not cringe at the heroine making a prat of herself, some depth to the characters, enough grounding in reality that I can believe the plot and I prefer a hero who isn’t a mystery up until the end of the book. “Fate and Ms. Fortune” satisfies all my requirements. Robyn Fortune is only looking to polish her stand up act when she agrees to perform at a younger cousin’s Bar Mitzvah. What she doesn’t expect is that her life will be turned even more upside down than it already is or that she’ll be hooked up with the love of her life. But before she gets her HEA, she and her family will discover some truths about themselves, uncover some family secrets, meet up with old friends and find out just how much of a role fate plays in their lives.
Robyn’s got a quintessential Chick Lit job, good enough but she still gets flack from her boss. As a make …
This letter contains a spoiler for Working for the Devil
Dear Ms. Saintcrow,
 Your first book in the series, Working for the Devil, received a lot of online acclaim. I picked it up but was disappointed. The first book and the second is full of weird, made up names that alternately confused me and made me giggle. North New York Jersey? Giggle. Some of the terms were defined in a circular manner ie. “Republic of Gilead” was defined by terms “Old Merican” “Novo Christer” and “Seventy Days War”. “Seventy Days War” was defined by “the end of the Republic of Gilead”. Oh, and Korea must have fell into the ocean because it was not included in either one of the two superpowers? Confused. There are also a number of terms that are used that are not defined. Once you used a proper noun, Faraday cage, and just assumed the reader would understand that reference. I am not sure what Faraday is or what it means. There were a number of terms that you used that had no precise meaning.
Even though I had read …
“A wedding… or a funeral?
Rose Golighty and Lord Richard Strang anticipate their long-awaited wedding. But dark whispers reach Richard’s ears of smugglers threatening the county’s peace. Events escalate until Rose’s life is threatened. Richard knows he must act to save her and her friends from disaster. Even if his bride has to trade her wedding gown for widow’s weeds.”
Dear Mrs. Connolly,
 You’ve given us a strong sequel to your first book in this series, Yorkshire, which follows the on going romance between Richard Kerre, Lord Strang and his love, Miss Rose Golightly. We watched these two fall in love at first sight in Yorkshire and now, six
months later, they are counting down the last weeks until their marriage.
We get to see Rose triumph at the Exeter Assembly when she arrives with her beloved (and very handsome) fiance. Shy Rose had suffered many an evening there passed over by the young men and it was a joy to see her blossom. We see the county gentry being convinced by the obvious love between the two that this is no rash marriage and that Rose really has gained the heart of this notorious lord. We …
Dear Ms Singh,
 Perhaps the praise I’d already heard about your book colored my expectations. Maybe the larger than usual number of shapeshifting books I’ve read recently has filled me with ennui. While I liked much of “Slave to Sensation,” it didn’t wow me.
Sascha Duncan is a member of the Psy race. Years ago, in an effort to reduce the level of violence in the Psy community, the Council decided to begin a program to eliminate emotions. After several generations, the conditioning is complete. Psy operate on logic and practicality. They feel nothing. They feel that this makes them superior to humans and changelings who are ruled by emotions. Changelings, of course, feel differently.
Lucas Hunter is the alpha of the DarkRiver leopard pack. Shrewd, powerful and cunning, he intends to use the joint real estate development project he and the Duncan family are working on to further a secret aim. There is a serial killer on the loose who is preying on changeling women and Lucas needs an “in” into the Psy community to hunt him. He’s hoping to use Sascha to learn anything he can to nail the killer. After a few meetings with her, …
Dear Ms. Singh:
Your story presents a complex but not complicated paranormal inhabited by strong personalities. The plot is fairly simple. Lucas Hunter, the alpha of the DarkRiver leopard pack, is searching for a Psy serial killer who is kidnapping, torturing and killing changeling women. In order to find out more about the mysterious Psy, he offers his business services as a consultant and agent for a construction project run by the Duncan family. This puts him in direct contact with Sascha Duncan, a cardinal Psy.
The Psy are a species who have been trained from birth to not feel emotion. The Silence was a program to stamp out emotion in order to rid itself of violence. But some Psy do feel and Sascha Duncan is one of them. The problem is that Sascha understands that to feel is weak and that the Psy do not allow for weakness within its group. The weak are culled from the herd and basically institutionalized.
The setup creates instant conflict. Sascha a Psy who must feel no emotion is thrown together with Lucas, a changeling whose entire existence is built upon feeling. Lucas …
CONTEST HAS CLOSED AS OF SEPTEMBER 5, 2006. See updated note below
WIN $200 AMAZON Gift certificate from DearAuthor.com by participating in a blogging experiment
UPDATE To see if you have been entered, please check this post. I have listed all the entrants that I know of. If I haven’t caught you, leave a comment and I’ll get you on the list. No worries if the image doesn’t load. Contest will end on September 5, 2006. The contest is only open to those who are 18 years or older. I don’t want to get an unhappy parent suing me for corrupting their children!
UPDATE To see if you have been entered, please check here. I have listed all the entrants that I know of. If I haven’t caught you, leave a comment and I’ll get you on the list. No worries if the image doesn’t load. Contest will end on September 5, 2006. The contest is only open to those who are 18 years or older. I don’t want to get an unhappy parent suing me for corrupting their children!
WIN $200 AMAZON Gift certificate from DearAuthor.com by participating in a blogging experiment to bribe encourage bloggers to participate, we are putting up some semi-cash, a book, goodies, and an ARC. Here’s what you can WIN:
- $200 Amazon gift certificate
- Signed copy of Slave to Sensation
- New Zealand goodies chosen by Singh
- ARC of Christine Feehan’s October release: Conspiracy Game
Jane here from Dearauthor.com. We are running a viral blogging experiment to see if bloggers can have an affect on the real world market. This idea was inspired by Anne Frasier’s blog entry about her dwindling print runs. (I can’t find the exact post). The “hand” term is stolen from a famous …
Dear Ms. Tracy,
 I was unsure how to address my letter because you are a mother-daughter writing team. Neat. I understand that you are a bestseller in the UK but not here in the US. Those Brits have good taste. As a general rule, I don’t read books without romances and your books are solidly within the mystery/police procedure. However, I do love a good police procedure book. What keeps me reading, besides your excellent plotting, characterization and mysteries is the lovely, understated romance thread that meanders through all four of your books.
If the reader wants to grasp the true magic of this relationship, she will have to start at the beginning which is Monkeewrench. I loved MonkeeWrench and Live Bait. I liked Dead Run less because the plot seemed a bit too implausible. Overall, though, your research appears to be impeccable. Your detectives utilized appropriate investigative techniques to catch criminals and solve crimes.
Leo Magozzi and Gino Rolseth are two homicide detectives with the Minneapolis Police Department. Gino is scheduled to do a charity event during WinterFest, an event that happens each year in …
Dear Mrs. Norman,
 One thing I can always count on in your books is that I’ll get to read about one or more strong women. And that these women won’t be doing silly things like swinging broadswords while in full suits of chain mail. “Taking Liberties” gives us two female lead characters and a unique way to view the American Revolution.
Diana, Lady Stacpoole and Makepeace Hedley, expatriate American, are determined to get different people out of an English prisoner of war camp. As women, no one takes them seriously, something they use to their advantage later on. Makepeace is brash while Diana employs more subtle methods. Both are appalled at the conditions under which the American prisoners are being held and as the book progresses, they decide to work together to accomplish their goals.
I think that in order to warm to Makepeace readers need to read “A Catch of Consequence” and see what Makepeace has already gone through. Makepeace isn’t spunky. She’s no nonsense, get the job done, straight to the point and no beating around the bush. And I love her for it.
Diana …
Dear Ms. Greiman:
 This book started out so well. The dialogue was sly and fun. There was an air of mystery introduced by the vague prologue and background of the heroine. But the book kept meandering along with NOTHING happening and the ending left me unsatisfied, as if I had only read half the story.
Sir Nairn O’Banyon made a mistake early on in life. As a lover of women, he allowed himself to be seduced and enchanted by a golden goddess. Said golden goddess wanted him to kill his friend, Killian of Hiltsglen. O’Banyon refuses and is cursed by the golden goddess to turn into a wolf or “Irish Hound” when his passions overtake him.
Much of the story is told in a veiled fashion where you hint at the truth without ever fully revealing it. I am not even sure what the plot is. I think it’s that O’ Banyon falls for the Countess of Colline, a woman with a mysterious past. It is said that Antoinette Desbonnet is a witch whose touch adversely affects everyone around her. Antoinette herself believes that if …
Dear Ms. Riley,
 I spent my formative romance reading years devouring the “Angelique” series which begins in 17th century France at the court of the Sun King and have enjoyed movies using this time frame. So, when this book was mentioned at AAR after someone posted asking for books which are rich in period detail and historically accurate, I took notice.
The time and the background (during the reign of the Sun King and involving the Parisian underworld of poisoners and the occult) sounded intriguing. Genevieve Pasquier is an engaging lead character. The daughter of a loveless marriage in a time during which women have little if any power or control over their lives and smart women are a nuisance, she manages to gain wealth and independence. La Voisin, a real life person, grooms her to present herself as the 150 year old reader of an oracle glass, a sort of scrying bowl in which the future can be seen. Genevieve thinks it’s all a crock but goes along with it. Along the way, she will see the worst in humanity, manage to find her true love and barely escape with her …
Dear Ms. Meyer:
 This was a greatly anticipated book. Twilight, the prequel, was my 2005 book of the year. New Moon, however delightful it was, seemed to throw all of the faults of Bella in sharp relief. You portrayed her, either intentionally or not, as a selfish user who seemed to only be able to exist with the help of a man in her life. It seemed ironic that her ability to cope with life so closely paralleled her mother’s which Bella, and you, appear to decry.
The story opens with Bella celebrating her birthday with the Cullens, a family of vampires. Edward Cullen, a perpetual 17 years of age, is Bella’s soul mate. He is a vampire, though, and while Bella longs to be one, Edward refuses to change her as he believes it would rob her of her soul. During the party, Bella cuts a finger on wrapping paper. The smell of her fresh blood is too much and Edward is forced to shield her from family members. This event causes Edward to …
I am an ebook junkie. While I like to buy all of my books in ebook format if I can, I do my level best to buy the ebooks as cheap as possible. So let me share some good deals with you. I can’t vouch for the book, only the price:
From Paperbackdigital.com
- Simply Love by Mary Balogh (mobipocket format only) $12.03 or almost FREE at Fictionwise. There’s a 100% Micropay rebate.
- Into the Storm by Suzanne Brockmann (mobipocket format only) $12.03. Am not buying it.
- Sleeping with Fear by Kay Hooper (mobipocket format only) $12.03
From Powells.com
…
Dear Ms Adams,
 “Reality Check” might be short but it has what I need in a novella. Semi-believable plot (OK, honestly are there families out there who will drive people to invent fake finace(e)s?) that tells a story beyond just hawt sex scenes, nice lead characters, fun but not too nutty families (well, maybe the heroine’s mother verged on nutty), not too much action-comes-to-a-screeching-halt mental lusting and hawt sex. Sure, I want hawt sex but I want a story too.
Rachel and Doug are nicely done lead characters. They’re normal people I might meet anywhere. And the misunderstanding leading to the office rumor about Doug’s sexuality is a scream. His response when finding out the whole office thinks he’s gay is hysterical. I like how he sees the true Rachel under her cool facade. That lends credence to a real HEA for me. I also appreciate that the main story ends with “this could be love given time to get to know each other” rather than a forced “we’ll love each other 4evah after only being together for three days!” I dunno about having hawt sex in a house filled to bursting with family members, …
Dear Ms. Peterson:
 Your series has been advertised as loosely based on the Charlies’ Angels and it was the reason that I picked up your book. What a novel idea (pun sort of intended)–women Regency spies. I have always been a fan of the franchise, both in its original ideation and in the modernized version. One of the things I love about Charlie’s Angels is the action and with the current version, the campy over the top nature of the stories. Other than the opening scene, however, this story crawled by slower than a snail on Prozac.
Meredith Sinclair, widow, is living an ordinary and routine existence when she is tapped to join a newly formed group of female spies. She undergoes two years of physical and mental training. Her next mission is her most difficult. She must investigate Tristan Archer, Marquis of Carmicheal, who once saved Meredith’s life. Tristan is under suspicion of treason and as much as it breaks Meredith’s heart to be the one to expose him, her duty comes first. Meredith, like any good spy, will do anything including …
See how well controversy sells? Reader Jaine (not her real name as we require all contributors to have a “J” name) bought the book and offered up a review for Dear Author. Currently, Highland Fling is No. 8 on the Fictionwise Romance Bestseller List.
Dear Ms. LaBrecque:
 You know those romance books that are so bad, they’re really funny and somewhat campy? “Highland Fling†isn’t one of those; it’s worse. It’s boring. It’s very boring. It’s not even parody material.
Did any of your writing instructors talk about how tricky writing dialects can be? MacTavish was no Meryl Streep. He had a Scots brogue–sort of. He’d be dinna and lassying and bluidying along when he’d start sounding like Barry Fitzgerald, switch to Midwestern, 21st Century hip, and pepper the whole shebang with Hillbilly and pirate. (“mebbeâ€?! and “Aye. We be Jacobites.â€) But the poor laddie needna fash himself over much, since his personality and character had a LOT of facets too. Sort of an attributes du jour kind of guy. You name the trait, MacTavish had it. He was …
Dear Mrs. Handeland,
 Well, we’re up to book five in your “Nightcreature Novels” series. Most have featured werewolves but this time you dish up something different.
Something very different. And this is perhaps some of the problem I have with this book.
Priestess Cassandra was introduced in the last book, “Crescent Moon.” She’s in the witness protection program after having testified against her drug dealer husband who’s bad business dealings lead to the death of their only child, Sarah. Now Cassandra is a voodoo priestess in New Orleans and from an experience in “Crescent Moon,” the word is getting around that she’s got power, lots of voodoo power. Because of this, she’s been sent to Haiti by the secret agency formed to hunt down monsters let loose by Hitler’s minions in the death throws of the Third Reich. Here she’s supposed to learn the secret to raising the dead in order to end a curse featured in “Crescent Moon.” She hasn’t told anyone that she also plans to use the knowledge to raise her dead daughter.
Devon Murphy is the man she finds in Haiti to lead her to the bokor, the powerful voodoo priest with …
Dear Author started in April of 2006 as a reader blog. It is still a reader blog. All we do is talk about the books we read, devices that make our reading life better (or not), and topics of interest to readers, primarily romance. In this virtual reality, we are trying to be as honest and forthright about books that we like, we don’t like and that we feel “meh” about. That’s it, nothing more. We have no agenda. We aren’t out to ruin anyone. (and we don’t believe that we have the power to do so either).
We aren’t writers nor are we associated with the publishing industry in any way. We don’t work in a bookstore. We don’t belong to RWA. We don’t know any authors personally. There might be one or two authors that we don’t particularly like given their online persona, but we don’t blog about those authors’ books because of that. We do try for impartiality as best we can. Most importantly, we try for honesty. Honesty about our feelings regarding books. No one would find this site valuable …
Dear Sony,
 I just wanted to let you know that I received your email on July 25, 2006, announcing the fall release of your new Sony Reader. The idea of a portable reading device that mimics printed pages is highly appealing. I read that answers one of your staff members gave to various websites about the features of the upcoming Sony Reader at Mobile Read. Of interesting note, is the following:
- It will read these formats “natively” (meaning no conversion): TXT, RTF, PDF (Unencrypted), BBeB (Encrypted and Unencrypted)
- It will not resize the PDF so you are stuck reading it in a small, compressed state.
- The DRM rules allow any purchased eBook to be read on up to six devices (at least one of those 6 must be a PC).
- If the Sony Reader or your PC breaks, you can always log-in to your CONNECT account and “re-download” your purchased eBooks to a new PC
- Does not work for MACs
- No distribution outside the US
It appears that it does not support htmls in any version. Booooo. I wonder if that means it won’t support htmls when converting from BBeB. This is so
…
Dear Ms. Tabke:
 I have a feeling that after this review, you aren’t going to like me very much. Please try to remember that this letter is about your book and not about you. Because I hated it – the book, that is. It was the worst piece of drivel that I have read in a while (and that’s saying something since I just read some drivel last week). There are so many things that I thought were wrong in this book, I barely know where to start.
Let’s just begin with the fact that I have no idea where this story took place. You never name a town, a city, a county, an unincorporated municipality or even a village. Not even a fake one like they used to do in those old Silhouettes. There was some reference to “I hope you like California penal-orange” but that was it. So this book takes place somewhere in America, possibly in California and, I think, in the present day. But who knows. It could have taken place in Oregon or Idaho for all the detail you …
My brother is always calling me with book recommendations. My response? Is there any romance in it because if not, I am not interested. Yesterday, he sent me this with the following message
Cause u R such a romantic funny bunny
I am thinking that his version of “romantic” is more traditional than mine. You’ll have to wait until the end for the payoff.
Charlene,
 I love this book! I love Luke and I love Jordan and I love how they interact. I love their families and I really, really love Luke’s bathroom. I want that bathroom, damn it. But WTF? I went to your website and Fictionwise looking to snag a cover download and the book isn’t being sold now. This sucks. This so totally sucks. I want people to read this book. Now. I’m so glad I bought it before whatever happened to it, happened to it.
Usually contemporary fake fiance(e) books make me cringe. But I hit the fake fiance(e) jackpot with my past two books. I actually believe in them now. How’s that for good writing? From Jordan’s initial personal ad for a man to help her battle her four older brothers’ attempts to set her up over the fall holidays to Luke’s response due to a similar need to dodge his family’s same idea, this book snagged me. Jordan is outrageous without going overboard while Luke’s reactions are stuffed shirt while being realistic. This is screwball comedy at its best.
The sexual tension and situation set ups are fantastic.
She
…
Dear Ms. Lee,
 This is a good police procedure book that is hobbled by the villian (like many a police procedure book) and two major police procedure errors or at least two scenes which featured police procedure actions which seemed impossible to me. It’s spicy love scenes; strong, assertive, capable heroine; and quick pace kept me reading to the end.
Inspector Kyra Moray is called to the scene of a ritual killing. The way in which the victim was killed and subsequently mutilated spells out serial killer. This is confirmed when another young woman appears dead in featuring the same mutiliation. In the meantime (which is a good way to describe the romance), Kyra meets up with her best friend Glory at Still Waters, a classy bar/restaurant establishment. Glory gets attacked by her boyfriend and Kyra lays him out, attracting the attention the owner, Alex Waters. Alex and Kyra have an attraction to each other that neither are afraid to act on (how refreshing!).
The romance plays a secondary role and is sometimes forgotten although I can see where trying to fit more face time between Kyra and Alex would have …
 Received in the inbox today a notice that Waldenbooks and Borders Express are having a 10% off sale for all romances until August 27. You do have to be a Borders Rewards member but that’s a free deal. Here’s your opportunity to pick up Nora Roberts’ Angels Fall, Helen Kay Dimon’s Viva Las Bad Boys, Yvonne Collins and Sandy Rideout’s Speechless, and Jo Goodman’s One Forbidden Evening or any of the other books you have been thinking about but haven’t yet purchased. Go for it. You know you want to. ;)
As for me, I’ll be stopping off to pick up Primal Heat by Susan Sizemore. Is it just me or does anyone else get Susan Sizemore and Susan Squires mixed up? Anyone else got a recommendation for Jayne and I? Because I know Jayne is all over this sale too. After all, 10% means we can save as much as $.80 on some books. Which means we have $.80 more to spend on books. :)
Dear Ms. Moore,
 I had high hopes for this book as the premise was interesting. Unfortunately, I found that there were inconsistencies in the world building and characterization all through the book. Plus when you’re reading a first person POV story and you spend almost the whole book wanting to smack down that person, it’s really hard to like the book. Dunleavy is one of the most whiney, unpleasant, and prejudiced characters I’ve read about in ages. She’s heard all kinds of things about the Source with whom she’s bonded and instead of either getting to know him, or just observing how he really is, she insists on believing everything long past when she should have opened her stupid eyes and seen how he really is. She bitches and complains about everything, she judges everything by how it will affect her personally and is always willing to jump to the worst conclusions about everyone else. And her poor Source is stuck with her for life. They can’t leave their jobs and if one dies, the other dies. I felt so sorry for Karish and would have suggested he gut her like a fish …
Dear Mrs Quinn,
 Thanks for a fine ending for your Bridgerton series. Or is it? Could you be headed in the direction of Victoriana with all the Bridgerton offspring? Only time will tell.
I’ve always appreciated the way you manage to keep a specific Bridgerton’s personality more or less the same throughout any books featuring that character. Sure, they grow up but I’ve not seen the type of 180 degree personality transplants that readers are sometimes given when a secondary character gets his or her own book. Gregory, the seventh child and fourth Bridgerton son, has always been easy going, fun to be with and happy to tease his younger sister, Hyacinth. If you had suddenly loaded him down with a baggage train of angst and hidden torment, I’d have been pissed. I also like the way that you don’t feel the need to drag each and every past happy couple onto center stage to show how deliriously happy and fertile they are. A brief two to three line update does me just fine.
Call me weird but I love how average all these couples are. No one is the most beautiful, handsome, smartest, funniest, …
Dear Ms. Leto
 It was been debated whether you write to the market or write what is in your heart. I have always voted that I want writers to write what is in their hearts because it makes for a better read. Your heart, shows through in this story and the first one in the series: Dirty Little Secrets. You make the Latino life so colorful, so passionate that I want to be part of it (you do say in your story that Latino is a culture not a race).
The members of Titan Int’l, a security corporation, are hired to oversee security at a fundraising event. During the event, Congressman Bennett is shot and would have been killed had Marisela Morales not distracted the assassin. The assassin is carrying out a revenge hit for a murder that Bennett seems to have committed but gotten away with. After the shooting, Titan is hired by the Senator’s wife to stop the assassin.
Marisela Morales is a former street gang member. This is no Stephanie Plum who leaves her gun in the cookie jar. No, Marisela Morales fought …
Dear Ms. Dimon:
 After this book, I am on an anthology diet because as a general rule, I find them dissatisfying. Your stories, particularly your first two, were like a breath of fresh air through the stale anthology shelf.
Viva Las Bad Boys is set, well, in Las Vegas, of course. It features three stories that take place at the The Berkley Hotel and Casino, a premiere luxury destination on the Strip. All three stories feature great dialogue with funny and smart exchanges between the hero and heroine. If that is your hallmark, I’ll be buying alot of your books. Good dialogue, particular flirtatious funny banter, is as rare as it is enjoyable. The last story didn’t really live up to the standards set in the first two but not by too much.
I hesitate to say much about your stories because I don’t want to spoil the fun reveal that takes place while reading. Jackpot features a jilted bride and a man jilted by his business partner. Not all is what it seems. This is a deception story and what makes it work is that …
Ladies,
 I loved your second book, “What I Really Want to Do is Direct” and knew I had to go back and read your first, “Speechless.” It’s worth every trade paperback penny. I hope you two have something else in the works because if not, I’m afraid I’ll go into withdrawal.
Anyone who’s ever suffered under a supervisor from hell and or worked for the government needs to read about Libby McIssac. Bored with her regular job in the Education Ministry, she decides to take a chance and apply for the position of speechwriter to the Minister of Arts, little knowing what she’s getting herself into. The Minister’s ratlike assistant Margo makes Libby’s (or Lily, as the Minister insists on calling her) life into one long misery. But since Libby isn’t one to tuck her tail and crawl off, it’s hilarious watching her outfox Margo and finally begin to do the job she was hired for. If only she could get her personal life on track as well.
Sandy, while I know that your experience in government came in handy in this book and Yvonne’s film industry career helped in “What I …
Boys of Summer
 This whole “acknowledging your illness as the first step to recovery” is not working for me. I have already said that I don’t like anthologies but I keep buying them. I blame this mistake on the fact that I love sports and who can resist the ass on that guy? No straight woman or gay guy that I know of. Boys of Summer is a compilation of three short stories featuring heroes who are employed by the Louisville Slammers, a major league baseball team. The sex scenes are quite explicit in this story, as explicit as the ones sold at Ellora’s Cave. Do Elizabeth Bevarly or Jill Barnett or Jan Butler know about this? Because these stories and the authors who wrote them are every bit as pornographic as those accursed epublished books.
These stories all suffer from the same problems
1) lack of showing
2) minimal dialogue
3) attempt to fit an entire romance into a compressed space
4) a blushing herione
Dear Ms. Leto:
Your story set the stage for the entire collection and involved baseball errors so large that I could not get past it to enjoy the …
A good friend of mine, Jolie, is a bookseller who specializes in selling romances. She goes to RWA every year. This time I begged her to write up a report about what she found out at the conference about the future of romance. This is her report:
RWA 2006 – Hotlanta!
Another RWA conference has come and gone without a hitch or a huge controversy. At least not like last years' rouse of a RITA Awards, even seeing it unfold in my PJs – my usual RITA attire – was a shocker!
My conference started on Wednesday, and unlike last year there was actually a function for booksellers – a tea. I'm not much for tea, not the kind that RWA serves up anyway. I tend to be a little biased on this subject. Apparently, to the RWA, booksellers are a bother. So much so that you couldn't register for the event and no name tags were provided – well, you can't have name tags if you don't have registration. I just showed up anyway. Authors didn’t know who the booksellers were and as such, spent time talking amongst themselves. …
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