Dear Author: Romance Novel Reviews, Industry News, and Commentary

The winner of the last week’s ebook contest was Jenny. I’ll send you an email.

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Dear Ms. Chase,

When you started publishing again, I breathed a sigh of relief since it meant I didn’t have to hoard my supply of your trad regency books amymore. Sometimes I almost envy Cassie Edwards’ fans the huge backlist they can look forward to reading.

FROM DISTRESS TO DISASTER
“Catherine Pelliston simply would not abide by her father’s wishes and marry
the slovenly Lord Browdie. But her escape through the streets of London only seemed to lead her from bad to worse. First, she was robbed. And then, her supposed “rescue” by a kindly old woman stranded Catherine in a bordello–where the handsome Viscount Rand was intent on sampling her wares!

A dire predicament indeed–especially when the dashing aristocrat decided to assume full responsibility for the ravishing runaway by taking her, quite against her will, into his home. But little did Catherine know that her struggle to preserve her virtue had inflamed the debauched gadabout’s heart…and might well net her a husband worth desiring!”

Another bit of delightful, fun fluff from you, this is the prequel to “The Devil’s Delilah” (but I don’t think they need to be read in any order). I really enjoy your witty, smooth writing, excellent …

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wouldn’t the military love to get their hands on this!

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Dear Ms. Neggers:

I saw from your website that this is your first hardcover. I read your book directly after finishing Linda Howard’s Cover of Night. You would suppose that given La Belle Howard’s huge popularity and my love for many of her works, your placement in the reading order would result in a negative. Fortunately, I kept thinking throughout The Widow that this is how Linda Howard should have done it. Your book and Linda Howard’s have a couple of similarities.

• Suspense thread
• Grieving widow
• Mild unrequited love (in Howard’s, this is a bit more pronounced).

On every level, this was a better story. Abigail Browning is a widow whose FBI Agent husband is killed on their honeymoon when the two of them went to stay in his home in upper Maine. One day, Abigail is attacked by someone and her necklace is stolen. Her husband, Christopher, comes home to find her injured. He is angry and believes he knows who is responsible. Later that night he goes out to confront the attacker. Chris does not return. Instead, he is found shot in the head …

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Dear Mrs. Macnish,

Reviewers who have said your book “Veiled Promises” is a step back to the sweeping sagas of yesteryear with lovers who endure much to be together yet are separated for a lot of the book, but without the asshat hero, are correct. I can’t recall reading anything like this, at least that was written within the past 15 years, in a long time. But I do have to ask, did you hate your heroine? Were the trials and tribulations you put her through a cathartic exercise or therapeutic revenge on someone? Because I closed this book thinking to myself, “Sheesh, I’d hate to be one of her heroines.”

Camille Bradburn is a woman most people would think has it all. She’s young, beautiful, cultured, educated and the daughter of a Duke when that really meant something. But in reality, her life is hell on earth. Her father couldn’t care less about her and her mother is one bitch-ass, whack job. The FBI profilers would have a field day with this woman. Camille has been controlled, through beatings and deprivation, all her life. She yearns for freedom but knows she’ll never get it. …

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Dear Ms. Roberts:

This is the second in your famed paranormal series called the Circle Trilogy. I’ve learned through reading Morrigan’s Cross and Dance of the Gods that you write actions scenes really well which is something I didn’t know you had in you. Apparently you can write anything. Let’s see you try your hand at some erotic romance, huh? Just kidding. As much as I wanted to love this book like Bookseller Jolie, I was, well, bored in the first half. The story ended with a bang and left me excited to read the next in the series but I wondered if this was another author whether I would have given up before the half way point. The story continues the group of 6’s fight against Lilith and her horde of vampires.

The second book focuses on Larkin, the shapeshifter, and Blair, the vampire hunter. Blair is classic Nora Roberts. She is smart of mouth, strong willed and savvy. Larkin is from an older, more chilvarous age and doesn’t quite know what to do with Blair. Blair is a loner who has spent her …

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Dear Ms. McKade,

As other reviews have stated, it’s hard to sell a Western romance today. Everyone wanted Regencies and now they want paranormals with vampires, werewolves and whatnot. I’ve always had a special love for Westerns and am glad to see such a nice addition to the genre.

The story of Laurel Covey and Creede Forrester is gently told but has a powerful impact. Set in post Civil War America, it’s about a broken country coming back together and two broken people who just might be able to help heal each other. Laurel, though born in Massachusetts, married a Southern man and was a nurse for the Confederacy. Creede used to be a hired gun before marriage settled him down. Then he learned of the death of his only son in the waning days of the conflict. After he journeyed from Texas to Virginia, a doctor told him that Laurel might be able to tell him more of his son’s death. So he sets off after her on her mission to relay messages to the families of men she nursed yet ultimately watched die.

Laurel is a wreck. The ghosts and nightmares which haunt …

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Dear Ms. Clare:

It makes me kind of sad to write this letter as your historical books are so strong. I also think that your first book in this loosely related series was received well. This book had all the trappings of a good story but it never managed to work together for me. The concept is compelling: an investigation to bring to a close the use of underage minorities, mostly illegal immigrants, for prostitution. There is really no greater despicable act that to violate the weak and innocent in such a way.

Julian Darcangelo worked for the FBI and was close two years ago to identifying and arresting Burien who was thought to be the head of underage, illegal prostitution ring. Due to circumstances that aren’t fully explained until the latter part of the story, Julian lost a couple of agents, his investigation and he gave up on his job. 2 years later, Burien resurfaces in Denver and Julian is invited to be a special investigator on the scene.

Tessa Novak, a young investigative reporter, is trying to make her mark in Denver. She hasn’t had a …

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Dear Ms. St. John,

As a woman of curves, I was happy to be offered the chance to read your book “Real Women Don’t Wear Size 2.” But while I enjoyed some things about it, there was an equal amount that just didn’t work for me.

Clarise Robinson is tired of just wishing for a relationship with Ethan Eubanks. She’s worked for his family’s fine clothing store for three years and been friends with Ethan for as long. She got a hint that maybe he might think of her as more than a friend at the company picnic party and has decided to make her move. Armed with a sexy new wardrobe to accentuate her curves, she’s determined to try her luck during the annual company bonding done at the Gasparilla Pirate Festival held in Tampa, FL.

Ethan has been wondering if Clarise might want more than their friendly relationship but is hesitant to risk it. What if Clarise doesn’t want to progress to being lovers? But when she agrees to finally attend the wild city party that is Gasparilla, he thinks his chance to test the …

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According to Mobile Read, the Sony Reader is ready for release. You could get it before the end of the month or at least by the beginning of the month. I’ll be at Borders in October to check it out.

One of the pics from Nathan shows a booklight attached. Cumbersome but usable. I am thinking that Ned would love one of these for reading manga which is currently unreadable (because of the smallness of size) on our IPAQs. I may just have to buy one to let you all know whether it is worthwhile. :)

I don’t know if anyone besides me noticed but this month Harper Collins released all of its romance books in ebook format except for Angel in a Red Dress. Go Harper Collins.

Links for reviews:

• Video Review If you are interested at all in this product, take a look at this video. The screen refresh looks like it would drive me batty.
• Mobile Read 1
• Mobile Read 2
• Gizmodo
• Endgaget

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Dear Ms. Tarr:

Tara Marie’s brief post is what got me to buy this book. She said “It was dark and erotic.” Those are two compelling adjectives for a romance book these days. She was right, it was both dark and erotic. I’ll add one more adjective: brave.

Hadrian St. Claire was the son of a prostitute who begged and stole on the streets of London until he was saved and put in an orphanage. There, a patron took interest in him and St. Claire remade himself into a successful portrait photographer. He specializes in capturing women, in immortalizing their deep desires and thoughts in pictures. He doesn’t hesistate to bed the women either. Unfortunately, St. Claire has another vice which is more dangerous: gambling. After a deep night at the tables, St. Clare finds himself owing 400 pounds to Bull Boyle who liked to extract a pound of flesh for every 100 pounds a debtor owed him.

St. Claire arrives home one day to be offered a proposition. Ruin Calendonia Rivers, the leader of the London suffragette movement. St. Claire, …

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Dear Mrs. Sherwood,

I’m just a sucker for books/movies/documentaries on WWII. Good was good, evil was just that and people seemed willing to make any sacrifice for the war effort. “Wave Me Goodbye” shows us the lengths to which the ordinary citizen went to do his or her part for final victory.

Cilla Watson, along with every other Briton, is already doing her part to win the war. But since over half of her school girls have been evacuated to the countryside or overseas, she feels she could do more. Her longtime neighbor, Ted Evans, is appalled at what she decides. Ted is in the Royal Navy and knows exactly how dangerous the North Atlantic is. Packs of German U-boats roam looking for convoys to torpedo and he is sick thinking of Cilla traveling to Canada as a chaperon for a boatload of evacuee children. But nothing he says or does, including asking her to marry him, will change her mind.

Cilla can understand Ted’s fears, and even shares them, but she’s made a commitment and won’t back out of it. Someone needs to be with these young and frightened children leaving their homes and families. …

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Stay tuned for some exciting features at Dear Author (exciting for us at least). The week of October 2nd through October 8th we will be featuring an interview and several reviews of an author that the Two Ja(y)nes and Janine love. Today marks the first of a three part series on Romance Publishers Promises to Romance Readers. Today’s articles addresses Advertising (the delivery of the promise), next week will feature an article on Branding (the promise), and finally we’ll end with What to Do When a Good Author Goes Bad (or when the promises are broken).

Advertising is the one way that the promise of an author or publisher is delivered to readers. Of course, the writing is the ultimate delivery of the promise that authors and publishers are making but to get a reader to read the promise. In romance, the promise is that there is a committment, a love, between a core group of people. In mainstream romance, generally one woman and one man overcome obstacles to achieve a lifelong togetherness. Publishers deliver the promise a couple of ways:

• spine labeling
• bookstore placement
• advertising online, in trade

…

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I had a mini debate/discussion with the readers over at MobileRead about whether backlights were important. I thought that they were and wouldn’t buy a reader without one. Most everyone over there thought that backlights were really secondary to the better display of an e-ink device. What say you?

{democracy:3}

If you don’t have an ereader with a backlight, you’ll have to get a booklight. Here are some booklights that I have used in the past:

• Zelco bitty booklightI bought at Barnes and Noble because a) BN would have the best booklight available, right? And this one is packaged just for readers. It also had a battery pack and an AC adapter. I thought I would really appreciate the convenience of the battery pack while traveling and the AC adapter at home. Yet, the AC adapter cord was short and I often found myself fumbling around for an outlet near the bed. (hotels weren’t always so tech friendly). The battery pack convenient but it relied on 4 C! batteries which turned the itty bitty book light into a behemoth

…

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The winner of the last week’s ebook contest was Rocky. Please email me with your address so I can get you the copy of the much loved Nalini Singh’s Slave to Sensation.

11 out of 11 bloggers think Nalini Singh’s Slave to Sensation is the bomb. That’s a quorum, right? I’ve excluded DA as I think Jayne and I cancel each other out. Click on the More link for the contact form.

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Dear Ms. Ames:

I hope this letter gets to you as I do not see that you are publishing any longer. Or it may be that you are publishing under a different name. Your book was recommended to me after I had finished reading Almost a Gentleman by Pam Rosenthal. I had expressed dissatisfaction at how certain parts of AAG played out. I wanted to see more of how the masquerade affected the lives of the participants. Teller of Tales is AAG only much, much better.

Jenner Page was raped as a young girl. She became pregnant and subsequently lost her baby rendering her incapable of having children. Based upon those two factors, Jenner was simply not marriagable material. She was allowed to go her own path. This lack of coddling made Jenner self reliant and very different than the average Regency female. When she was on the way to London, disguised as a male, she was nearly run over by a carriage driven by Lacey Raines.

Let me stop here for a moment and let me tell you how genius it was for you to provide Jenner with the manly name and Lacey with …

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“Doireann is the proud daughter of a Scottish chieftan, her beauty renown
through the land of her father, and yet she chose to remain unbound and alone, free from submitting to the desires of any man. As the tides of war and pillage reach her homeland, she finds herself sold into the hands of the fearsome Viking pirate Thorsten, the wild leader of the frenzied Norse Bear Cult. She must survive the humiliation of being Thorsten’s woman, through pagan rituals and violent battles, as only her pride keeps her from submitting to his passion….”

Dear Ms Davis,

I first read The Winter Serpent years ago in the late 70s and lost my copy during a move. I thought vaguely about getting another but when I checked prices of OOP ones, I was shocked at the amounts. So when this was re-released in trade paperback a few years ago, I began to look for another copy. I will warn anyone wanting to read it, that this edition has a few errors in the typesetting but it’s nothing major.

This is more a historical novel than a romance. To be honest, by the end, there …

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Dear Ms. Kozak:

This book. Well, let’s just say that words are not sufficient to describe my feelings about this book. So I resorted to pictures. You have my permission to use this is an ad for your book, if you like. Just wondered if your book was James Frey inspired or girl with a one track mind inspired?

edited to add summary:

Passion Flower is a writer who decides she wants to learn to ride a horse. Ivan Kozak is a professor spending his summer helping out a friend at his stables. Ivan and PF engage in various sexual escapades wherein PF is mostly dominated and humiliated but after their first sexual encounter comes to realize that she looooves Ivan. When I realized that the hero’s name and the heroine’s name matched the author and her dedication, I wanted to poke my eyes out with the pencil. That’s the story.

Best regards,

Jane

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I noticed on Sybil’s blog today a cover for an Avon Red book which looked strikingly similar to the cover for Sunny Chen’s Mona Lisa Awakening. Are these too similar? They are for my tastes. It’s a great cover, but I’ll always like the first one better. Is it that there are just so many books and not enough unique ideas? Is it better to have one hot cover idea recycled continuously than have a hideous cover?

I tend to think the similar cover may backfire. I may see it and think, I’ve already read, bought, borrowed that book.

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Dear Ms. Matthews,

With the seeming demise of the printed trad regency, I worried about how I’d get my regency fix. Thank goodness for ebooks and an opportunity to read older treasures.

“Widowed Vanessa Damery had two young children to raise, a deteriorating estate to improve, and a household full of pseudo-relatives and dependents to placate. She did not need the advent of her late husband’s cousin (and her co-trustee in his estate). And if Lord Alvescot expected gratitude for his interference, well, he’d have to look elsewhere!”

I’ve no idea when it was originally published but it’s now available as an ebook at Belgrave.com. I’ve never read a bad book by you and I’ve found that you’re a good author for delivering a charming, quieter style but very period regency. Nothing is too highly exaggerated and I’m left with a good feeling when I finish them. But readers wanting more Sturm und Drang, a feisty heroine, or modern language might need to look elsewhere.

Vanessa is a delightful heroine just trying to improve her son’s estate, raise her children and deal with a pack of relatives who’ve set up housekeeping there. She …

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Dear Ms. Crigger,

I wasn’t quite sure what to expect from “The Prince’s Cousin” but the description of an intelligent heroine caught my attention. Usually when reading an action/adventure type story, the poor heroine gets turned into some TSTL character so that the hero can “save” her. What a relief to finally find a book which really does feature a woman using her smarts to help solve her problems.

Tomasella Icassian is the daughter of a retired mercenary, the niece of the reigning Queen of the Inner Islands and the nursemaid for the six year old Prince Rhian. She’s slightly bored while waiting for things to get started at the Prince’s sixth birthday party. After hired mercenaries strike, killing the Royal Guards and abducting both the Prince and her, she’s not so bored anymore. The nasty, aristocratic thug behind all this readily admits his plan to force the widowed Queen to marry him by holding her son captive. He also quickly informs Tomasella that he remembers killing her father and raping her five years ago and that he intends to enjoy himself with her on the trek to his stronghold. Oh, and the evil wizard …

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Dear Ms. Betts:

What to say. Your contribution to the Pure Sex anthology featured a contemporary heroine whose work/relationship dilemna was spot on. Your three story collection here featured heroines in different states of sexual abuse. Oh sure, I get what you were trying for: forced sex fantasies are supposedly the hallmark of the repressed female professional. The problem is that starting with the first story, it was hard to see were the force stopped and the actual desire began.

My Captive is an eight chapter story wherein 6 of the chapters feature the heroine in captivity. Samantha Thornton awakes in a world that is not quite familiar and not strange but not at all in her control. Her body is not her own but rather must serve the desires of some unknown man. This story, which I am sure was meant to feed female fantasy, read like a rape to me. There are some drugs that can be given to a woman to make her body enjoy the experience while her mind is resisting strongly. This story seemed to embody that concept. It was not romantic …

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Dear Ms. Howard,

I've been reading your books since the days when you wrote for Silhouette and I don't plan on stopping. Few authors of romantic suspense deliver great chemistry between their main characters as well and as consistently as you do. There is something so satisfyingly thorough about this aspect of writing: not only do you understand women's enthusiasm for strong, large, and overwhelmingly male creatures, you also have an intuitive grasp of the resounding response men feel in return, or in any case, of what they feel for us in our dreams.

A Linda Howard hero is never going to ignore the woman he is with to watch a Redskins game, even if he is a former linebacker himself. He is simply too focused on her to ignore her for anything. Nor is the fact that his work probably involves killing people who want him dead likely to put him a bleak mood, make him sullen, or bring on a case of PTSD.

That's because a hero in one of your novels is the stuff of female fantasies, fantasies you understand and fulfill so well that I only grumble a little about …

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Dear Mrs Schroeder,

I was lured into buying this ebook by the cute premise. The heroine mistakes the hero for the gigolo hired by her best friend to celebrate her birthday. After a night of hot sex, during which no real names are exchanged, the hero wakes up alone. Three months later the two meet in business circumstances and take up their relationship again. But can uptight, control freak Marlow relax enough to let Liam into her life? And does footloose and fancy free Liam want into her life for good?

This is listed as an erotica novel and it does have some sex scenes but by the time I got to most of them, I was on skim mode. Marlow was just like every uptight, “needs a good screw” heroine I’ve ever read in a romance novel. She wears boxy suits, pins her hair up in a tight bun, wears glasses and has never had an orgasm during sex. Liam is tall, lean hipped and sexy. He doesn’t want to settle down but can’t quite get over the fact that Marlow is saying “no” to him. Now he’s determined to get in her pants again to …

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Dear Ms. Whiteside:

I wanted to like this book. It had a nice cover (albeit very modern in feel) and it was a Western. I know that Jayne gave River Devil a poor grade but Jayne and I don’t always see eye to eye on books. A perfect example of this is the fact that I love Dream Man by Linda Howard and Jayne couldn’t finish it. I should have listened to Jayne.

You know how they say authors should start with the action? I believe that wholeheartedly. The book should start with the action. It shouldn’t pretend to start with the action with a two page teaser which then plunges into several hundred pages of backstory. It was Chapter 5 before we were back where we started in the opening two pages. And those first four chapters were such snoozers that I can barely remember why I continued reading the book.

What did I learn in the backstory? That Morgan and Jessamyn were promised to each other. That Morgan betrayed Jessamyn’s trust early on. That Jessamyn married someone else and had good sex …

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When Jane asked me to write about erotic romance, I was initially going to comment more on the difference between erotica and erotic romance. To over simplify it, it's like comparing Penthouse Letters to Ellora's Cave. It goes without saying that most who read Dear Author will know the difference. So as I began to put my thoughts down I was taken in a completely different direction. Is erotic romance here to stay or just a trend? Do readers want a happy ever after? Are readers interested in a plot and storyline? And finally, will New York publishers ever find their groove and become frontrunners in the industry or will they always be trailing after the much more successful e-publishers?

There can be no doubt that the erotic romance trend has become a major player in the romance industry. When New York publishers scramble to fill a niche and develop new lines completely devoted to a sub-genre, you know it's here to stay. Unfortunately, I mean the trend and not necessarily the lines.

Aphrodisia (Kensington), Spice (Harlequin) and Avon Red (Harper Collins) have all established their own erotic romance …

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Many times I hear from people that the ebook reader is too expensive and that is what is holding them back. Not true. I present to you the top 10 reasons why buying an ebook reader is economical and may just save your marriage.

• 10. Ebooks don’t take up any space. The average bookshelf costs about $30.00. A 2GB SD card can run as low as $28.99 and can store over 4000 books. In order to store over 4,000 books you would have to buy approximately 25 bookshelves (assuming 160 books per shelf) which costs you $750.00. Savings of $720.00.
• 9. Because of the need for 25 bookshelves, your out of town guests must stay at a hotel for which you must pay (if you are any kind of host). The ebook reader allows you to reclaim that space for a guest room or a special reading room. Or prevents the cost of an addition. Savings between $80 for a hotel room and $80,000.00 for an addition.
• 8. Ebooks don’t require a separate suitcase for vacation. 10 books weigh about 5 lbs and require at least half

…

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So, using the random number generator, the first two numbers were 20 and 18. So the winners are Keishon and Miki S. Please contact Jane and let her know where to send the book. Keishon gets first choice between Morrigan’s Cross and Conspiracy Game. Click on the “more” link for the contact form.

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Dear Ms Rowe,

After having heard such great things about your book, I finally a) got my hands on a copy and b) had a moment to read it. It’s good. Really good, but….ah the buts in life.

Yes, it’s funny but it takes a little while to take off. Or it did for me. Plus there are a lot of characters to keep track of, each with his or her own backstory and place in this story. Often I had to stop and go back to remember who someone was and why he/she
was important. And the convoluted plot got even more convoluted as the story went on. This is definitely not a book to put down for any length of time.

I do agree with my blogging partner that each character was distinct. If not, it would have been even more confusing trying to sort everyone out. And I’ll give it to you that in the end, you wove that plot into a whole which made sense. And I am looking forward to reading the next book (due this autumn). Plus it’s one of the funniest books I’ve read …

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Yep, next week will be a week full of awful books. Sorry about that.

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Dear Mrs. Styles,

After years of Harlequin Historicals that made me think the only past acceptable for romance authors to write about was the Regency time frame, we finally (finally!) seem to be getting more of a range of eras. Praise Him (or Her, if that’s your preference) from whom all blessings flow. When I learned that there is a HH set in Caesar’s Rome and which has a fairly decent cover too, I was out the door to Waldenbooks.

Valens the Thracian is used to bored Roman matrons giving him the eye. So when a young woman makes eye contact with him at the baths, he assumes she wants an afternoon tumble. Julia Antonia didn’t realize that the curiously familiar man had any such ideas and quickly tries to set him straight. They part only to meet again when Valens arrives at her father’s house. To allay senatorial fears that he’s building a private army, Caesar has decided to house his gladiators amongst his clients and extended family and Valens has been quartered with the family of Julius Antonius.

Julia’s horrific former marriage has made her wary of a men in general and a second marriage …

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Dear Ms. Banks,

You know what made me buy this book? Some people had commented on how closely it paralleled Shiloh Walker’s My Best Friend’s Lover. I had to buy the book myself to see if those accusations were true. See how well controversy sells? Suffice to say that these two books were very dissimilar despite the same plot: Friends to lovers story with a deception overlay. Oh, and in the cover contest area SS wins marginally. What the hell is with huge pager/cell phone on the hero’s pants in MBFL? But then again, what the hell is the expression on the SS hero’s face?

Toni (heroine), Matt (brother), AJ Spinelli and Simon Andrews all live at Matt and Toni’s house and have for several years (which is kind of weird in and of itself but at least it doesn’t feature the three men laying next to each other. IN BED. NAKED. like some other guys we know in romancelandia). Toni decides to move out because she can no longer disguise the strong feelings she has …

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Dear Ms. Michaels,

I’ve not tried any of your books before but after finishing “Marriage by Design” I plan on changing that. It has a lot of elements I like and avoided some of the typical romance pitfalls that I abhor. It’s not without some niggles but they’re fairly minor and didn’t affect my enjoyment that much.

Mia Savard lives and breathes fashion. Which is not surprising since it’s the family business. Savard Creations is known for their custom designed bridal gowns and trousseau apparel and Mia is one of their top designers. That doesn’t mean that she gets along with her artistic and volatile father better than anyone else who works there but she’d rather wear thrift store rejects than hurt him or the company. When the design for her masterpiece creation, a wedding dress for the governor’s daughter, suddenly appears in a bridal magazine under the banner of Savard’s chief rival, she forgets her differences with her father and vows to help the PI hired to find the traitor who’s betrayed Savard.

Joe Kerr doesn’t think that finding the person who stole the design for a wedding dress is a minor job, …

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Dear Ms. LaFoy,

I’d enjoyed lots of your historicals and was curious to see how well you’d do with a contemporary. The answer is well enough that I’d love to see you write more of these. I enjoy sports romances and even though I didn’t know too much about ice hockey when I read this, a hockey mom friend of mine assured me that you got the details just right.

Cat Talbott never expected to inherit her half brother’s minor league hockey team. But she does know that she’s got to do something fast to turn things around or the whole franchise will go bust. She’s had a few offers to buy it but wants to give it at least one season to see if she can keep her brother’s dream going. And the man she hopes can help her turn the Wichita Warriors around is former player and friend of her brother, Logan Dupree.

Logan used to be a Warrior before he got called to the pros. Now, he spends his time drinking on his houseboat in Tampa and trying to forget the sudden injury that ended his pro career. He’s got …

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Dear Ms. Chase,

I haven't always gushed over your books. Captives of the Night failed to captivate me, and it was a struggle for me to finish The Lion's Daughter. I even admit that although I enjoyed Lord of Scoundrels, I've also puzzled over the fact that so many readers consider it the very best example of writing in the romance genre.

But when I first read Mr. Impossible, and then Miss Wonderful (ideally they should be read in the reverse order), I was thrilled to discover that like a fine champagne, your writing seems to have improved with the passage of time. It still has its effervescence, but its flavor has matured and deepened, I am happy to say.

Lord Perfect is not only the title of the third book in your series about the Carsington brothers, it is also the nickname given to the novel's male protagonist, Benedict Carsington, because he is so very proper and respectable. As the book begins, Benedict, Viscount Rathbourne, has brought his nephew Peregrine to an exhibition of Egyptian antiquities. Though he is not immediately aware of it, he is being more-or-less ogled by …

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Dear Ms. Lee:

This was the first book that I read by you and the writing was good enough to get me to hunt down and purchase some of your backlist titles. I only wish that you or your publisher had told buyers that this book had already been released as an ebook with LooseID so that the buyer wouldn’t inadvertently buy the book twice.

Mercy, an assistant director of a major gallery in Boston, is attempting to cement her position as next in line for the directorship. She has a promise from one of the premier artists in the world to show an exclusive at her gallery. The catch is that she must pose for a piece to be included in the collection. Her goals are impeded by Milton Storey, the current director. And, her past. Mercy is recovering from a rape from a former co-worker. When a current project brings her former co-worker to Boston, Mercy’s attempts at recovery are tested.

Mercy moved to Boston from NY on the basis that she would be given the directorship at the gallery. One of the main …

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Dear Ms Murray,

I picked up your name from a thread at AAR. Lots of people had good things to say about you and this book in particular. After reading this, I can see why.

The basic story is about a young Scottish woman who first trains in London with Florence Nightingale and works at St. Thomas hospital then travels out to the American frontier town of Argentana, Colorado in 1867. Euphemia Witherspoon’s father was a doctor and after his death she is left with the choice of an arranged marriage to her father’s partner or working as an unpaid governess/maid/drudge for her sister. She decides on door number three and travels to London to train at the one thing she knows a little about which will allow her a decent living, nursing.

But the nursing profession is really in its infancy and Phemie’s quick mind and sometimes quicker temper sometimes land her in hot water. When the opportunity to travel to America and set up a hospital on the frontier is offered, Phemie and Florence decide that maybe it would be a good choice. But when Phemie finally arrives after a long Atlantic crossing and even …

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Dear Ms. Putney,

Nestled between Susan Elizabeth Phillips' Ain't She Sweet and Amanda Quick's Scandal on my bookshelf are ten of your novels and your novella collection Christmas Revels. It's been over sixteen years since the first of these paper-bound inhabitants settled into my library, and they have not been allowed to gather dust.

I'm a finicky and spoiled reader: only one romance author has written a greater number of books that I have kept, and truthfully, I've mostly held on to her books out of nostalgia. They sit there unread, peering at my well-thumbed-through copies of Petals in the Storm and Angel Rogue, Uncommon Vows and The Wild Child, Shattered Rainbows and One Perfect Rose and yellowing with time and envy. To say that your books are dearly beloved is both a bad pun and an understatement.

I begin my open letter this way in the hope that you will understand that my disappointment with your latest book, The Marriage Spell, is partly a function of my great appreciation for your 1990s works. It is not that The Marriage Spell is a bad book; in fact, my opinion is that it's better than average. …

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The Top 100 Romances list compiled by AAR in 2004 has been floating around the ‘net these past few weeks. We thought it might give readers a better idea of whether she would correlate well with Jane or Jayne. Also, we have conscripted another friend to write reviews here with us. Wouldn’t you just know that her name starts with a “J” too? Janine will be offering up two reviews this week in lieu of Jane.

Book

Jayne

Jane

1

Lord of Scoundrels by Loretta Chase

Great

one of my faves

2

Flowers From the Storm by Laura Kinsale

Very Good

…

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Dear Fictionwise:

I am a long time customer and a big pimper of ebooks. Listen to me. I have some important business advice to impart. Part of the whole deal with ebooks is instant gratification. That means when the book is out, we readers want to buy it and read it. Maybe you haven’t been paying attention to readers, but alot of online romance readers (you know, the ones who actually buy ebooks v. the offline readers who don’t) are pretty savvy. They know when books are released. It’s on Tuesdays. Every NY publishing house releases books on Tuesdays. That’s the day after Monday.

I have emailed you a number of times about this, but it hasn’t seemed to sink in. Your reply to me is always “we release books on Monday.” Why would it be so difficult to change your release date to Tuesday so I don’t have to wait an entire week to buy the “new” releases. Because by the next week, I have already bought the new release from some other bookstore. Like Powells.com or eReader.com. You should, in fact, release …

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Dear Mrs. Connolly,

Forget anything I’ve ever said about British authors not writing enough sex scenes. In VENICE, you’ve finally gotten your two protagonists married and they’re off for their bride trip to beautiful, golden Italy. Only they have a slight problem. Two actually. Someone is trying to kill them and impostors have stolen their identities.

From the back blurb:

The third book in the Richard and Rose series shows Venice in all its glittering magnificence as well as its dark side.

When their wedding day nearly turns to tragedy by an assassin’s bullet, Richard takes no more chances with his beloved Rose. They will travel incognito to Venice.

Venice is as full of knaves as London. Two of the villains mark Richard and Rose as their particular quarry. Do they hold the key to the assassination attempt or are they playing a deadly game of their own?

Once again we can see that you’ve obviously done your research into everyday life of the Georgian period and it’s displayed so nicely one is never even aware of it. When they discover the impostors, Richard and Rose decide to have some fun stringing them along and take the personas of a middle …

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(Being the account of Angelica TenBroeck’s flight from New York City during the late War of Independence, her would-be lovers, and a bluebird quilt)

Dear Mrs. Waldron,

I’m a sucker for 18th century historical romances and novels so finding your books was a delight for me. So far, I’ve read two but am saving the last. I hope you have plans to publish more as I hate to finish the last of any author’s books.

The above description is listed at the beginning of the book and it about covers the plot. Angelica is a daughter of an old Dutch New York family who has fled the frontier where she was born and raised and is staying with an aunt in New York City, recently lost to the British. It is here she meets one Major George Armistead who proves himself to be no gentleman when he attempts to kidnap her and force her to marry him. A man to whom she’s recently been introduced at a ball comes to her rescue and together they set out to return her to her home. But to get there, they will have to …

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Dear Ms. Ward:

You hardly need another letter from one more fan about how much she loved your book, but what the hell.

This story is about Zsadist and Bella. Zsadist was stolen from his family as a babe and was sold as a slave. He came to be the sexual slave of a terrible woman who used him for a century in unnatural and abusive acts to the point that Zsadist was famously referred to as “ruined, not broken.” Bella is an aristocrat vampire who has been taken by a lesser who falls in love with her. Bella learns, over the course of her captivity where she is kept in a hole (it reminded me of how the guy kept the women in pits in Silence of the Lambs) that she can exert some type of control upon the
lesser by being emotionally cruel. Bella feels herself dying as she becomes a person she despises.

Zsadist was touched by Bella and seeks to find her even though most of the vampire world believe her to be dead. Even Zsadist acknowledges that she must be dead but somehow he is driven to find her. A series of …

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Dear Ms Smith,

Gather Ye Rosebuds is kind of a Regency crossed with a mystery. It’s fun and interesting but maybe not as cuttingly humorous as some of your other Regency set trads I’ve read.

Zoie Barron lives a quiet life until after her uncle dies. While cleaning out his room to turn it into her new art studio, a diamond necklace is discovered. Fearing it is the one reported as stolen from her aristocratic neighbors, Zoie and her mother decide to return it on the sly. Unfortunately, Lord Weylin catches her at it and makes it his business to find out how the necklace relates to his now deceased aunt. Neither Zoie nor Weylin fullly trust each other as they unravel the mystery behind his aunt, her uncle, past secrets, and Zoie’s uppity butler, Steptoe. And maybe find some romance along the way.

You’ve written a relatively short but delightful story with no subplots to pad the page count and distract from the main plot. The descriptive characterizations immediately give me a detailed view of each person, Regency conventions are adhered to without a lot of fuss and the mystery kept me guessing for …

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Dear Ms Stuart,

Some of your books I love and them some of them are like Blue Sage. This was your first book I was disappointed in. It’s a “bad boy” book and if that isn’t shoved down readers’ throats a dozen times in the first chapter the Pope doesn’t wear a beannie.

Charles Tanner, Jr is going back to the small Montana town where 15 years ago his Korean vet father opened fire on the July 4th celebrations and killed 15 people and wounded one. Guess who the one turns out to be. Yep, that’s right. The heroine. He doesn’t expect a kind welcome (remember, he’s the Bad Boy) and acts surly to one and all. With the exception of a few people, he’s treated like poison and acts surlier.

Ellie is the town saint. She survived the massacre and went through years of rehabilitation before marrying the Judge, a man about 40 years her elder, who wanted to be able to leave her all his money. She’s also a 31 year old contrived VIRGIN! Ugh!

Strange stuff starts happening around town. Stuff like the things that happened before Charles’ father went …

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The winner of the Nalini Singh Viral Blogging Experiment is Barbara Samuel, chosen by the Random Number Generator at Random.Org. (can’t get more random than that, right?) We had a total of 152 posts and 144 unique posters. What I did was click on the Random Sequence link and entered the numbers 1 to 149 (taking out Deidre Knight, Nalini Singh, Nephele Tempest). The first number was the winner. Which was 82. The 82nd person listed was Barbara Samuel. Congratulations! An email will be sent to you shortly.

Let’s talk about the experiment. First, we made sure everyone knew it was an experiment. I didn’t want to mislead anyone unlike other successful but questionable viral marketing campaigns. I cribbed the idea from Anne Frasier (aka Theresa Weir) who is currently running her own viral blog marketing scheme.

Frasier blogged about her …

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Dear Ms. Laurens:

It’s been a while since I’ve read you. I think the Twins book was the last one. No, I am sorry. I stopped reading the Cynster books with the Twins but I read the first in the Bastion Club series as I was hopeful that it was the neverending Cynster series that soured me on your writing, not your writing itself. While The Lady Chosen wasn’t all bad, it wasn’t enough to keep me reading the series. I thought perhaps we had grown apart as author and reader. A couple of weeks ago, To Distraction was part of the 100% Micropay Rebate offering at Fictionwise. I had to buy it. It was free, almost. I’ll try harder to resist next time.

Deverell, Viscount Paignton, recognizes it is time to marry and set up his household. His aunt, Audrey, tells him that she has the perfect woman for Deverell. Skeptical, Deverell agrees to meet Phoebe Malleson, a twenty-five year old spinster. Upon meeting Phoebe, Deverell immediately agrees with his aunt’s assessment and sets out to win Phoebe. Phoebe …

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Dear Ms. Hauf,

Thanks for sending me a copy of ‘Getaway Girl” to review. However, once you read my letter, you might not be so happy you sent it.

Jamie MacAlister loves speed and cars. Put the two together and she’s in heaven. She’s lived in Paris for years, acting as a hired driver. For anyone who wants something, or someone, taken from here to there and is willing to pay the price, she’s the best there is behind a wheel. After working for the Network, a slightly shady group which doesn’t inquire into legalities, she’s decided to break free and go straight. Only she’s finding out that someone 1) is keeping tabs on her, 2) might not want her to stay legit, 3) wanted to have her kidnapped and ultimately 4) may be trying to kill her. But is it the Network? Or the new group she works for, the Faction? And where does sexy Sacha Vital fit into all this? Is he working for the good guys or will trusting him get her killed?

I like Jamie. She is what she is and she makes no excuses for it. That doesn’t mean …

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