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

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 …

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 …

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 …

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 …

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 …

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 …

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 …

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 …

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.

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 …