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

Dear Ms Ruger,

After being pleasantly surprised by “Eight Minutes,” I decided to take advantage of the February romance sale at Fictionwise and try some of your other stories. I bought “Dessert for Two,” “Morning Coffee,” and “Jason Taylor Kissed Me” along with the trilogy of novellas included in “It Must Be Love.” While I enjoyed the novellas, I think you excel in distilling a story down to the essence needed for the short story length. Alas, I’m not as thrilled with the price charged by Fictionwise (even on sale). Yes, yes, I know you as the author have no control over that but those short stories are pricey.

The short stories are all contemporaries and mostly deal with slightly older characters (mid to late 30s) finding the possibility of love. The novellas are historicals (2 Regencies and 1 medieval) and with the longer length allow you to bring the romances to a HEA conclusion. I do feel the need to warn readers that you play a little fast and loose with Regency conventions which, though OK to a point, might annoy purists. Your editor might want to watch more closely for …

Dear Ms. Greiman:

I have never read a Greiman book before. I always meant to read and have, in fact, purchased your contemporary books, Unzipped and Unplugged before. But with the muscle bound chests and arms and titles with “Highlander”, I wasn’t terribly excited about reading the historicals. As I said a few days ago, I kind of feel that my Scottish historical days are past. My blogging partner, Jayne, puts her Scottish malaise down to too many book with faux Scottish dialect but this is a book I would recommend to her and, in fact, I am going to send this to her.

While there is plenty of dialect in this book, none of its seems faux. In fact, its downright lyrical. I loved the speech patterns of the characters that held true not only in their conversations with each other but in their own internal dialogue.

“I did na ken what I was doing.” And that was the bloody truth. “I swear to the saints. I did na ken. And I was hungry. ‘Twas three days …

I admit to drinking alot of bottled water, particularly when I read (this is my attempt to make this post relevant to books). I hate the taste of my local tap water and if I didn’t have bottled water, I am sure I would be in a constant state of dehydration. However, I don’t buy bottled water believing that it is taken from a pure mountain spring. I assume, unless it states otherwise, that it is filtered and purified.

However, the labeling of bottled water leaves something to be desired. Consumer action group, Corporate Accountability International, has been working to get bottled water manufacturers to be more truthful in its labeling and marketing. Pepsico’s Aquafina, the largest bottled water brand in the US, is purified water from municipal sources rather than a natural mountain spring water. The Aquafina logo is a mountain which makes a statement that could be misleading. On future labels, the words “public water source” will be included.

Corporate Accountability International is urging Coca Cola (Dasani) and Nestle Waters North America (Pure Life) to follow lead since their …

Larissa Ione and Stephanie Tyler are the writing duo named Sydney Croft. The name is part Sydney Bristol, part Lara Croft and the story is all steamy action. Their first book, Riding the Storm, is due out September 2007. This is their story of how two action heroines, disguised as writers, made their first single title sale.

* * *

Larissa starts: Stephanie and I met online around four years ago. I don't even remember how we started critiquing, but somehow it happened. I'm pretty sure it was me who one day, out of the blue, said, "We should write something together!� I think she thought I was nuts.

Steph continues: I thought Larissa was nuts. For the record, I still do. But sometime in February of 2006, we were both really getting impatient, both waiting to hear on individual projects that we'd submitted. So I sent her the first scene of a story I'd started back in back in September of 2006, the day …

Bookstores are scaling back on the comfy chairs because they feel too many people are lounging around and not enough people are buying the books. Shelf Awareness pointed out an article in the Baltimore Sun by Rob Hiassen that bookstores are reducing “soft seating” because of “homeless squatters, overly enthusiastic young lovers, food trash left behind.”

Borders has eliminated 30% of the soft seating replacing it with benches and backless stools because they are finding many people are staying for hours but not actually buying books. Some are reading entire books while at the store and then leaving a mess behind.

Barnes & Noble hasn’t reduced the “soft seating” yet because it believes that bodies in the chairs means eventually sales at the register. Mitchell Klipper, COO of Barnes & Noble,says. “Let them read all they want. We encourage them to stay a while. They will show up at the register eventually.”

Dear Mr. Moore,

A few things I know for sure when I start one of your books: it’ll be different, it’ll be funny, and somebody will die. In the case of this book, lots of people will die but then when the main character is a Death Merchant, it kind of goes with the territory.

I feel “Dirty Job” is a cross between the film “Jack and Sarah” and the short lived cable show “Dead Like Me.” Charlie is left to raise his daughter alone after his wife’s sudden death following the delivery and it’s at the moment of her death that he joins the others in San Francisco whose job it is to retrieve the object containing the soul of each dying person. No soul retrieval equals horrific Underworld upheaval. Like George, the teenage soul releaser who didn’t understand her job and didn’t initially want to do it, Charlie is left to flounder around until he finally gets his hands on “The Great Big Book of Death” (”The cover was shiny, like a children's picture book, with a colorful illustration of a grinning …

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows sold a purported 8 million copies within the first 24 hours but because of deep discounts bookstores made almost nothing on the sales. What it did do, however, was sell alot of other books, mostly Potter related books. In another first, the top 15 is dominated by one author with nearly every entry in the Potter collection selling enough copies to outpace authors like Rhonda Byrne, James Patterson and Nora Roberts.

I had predicted that Linda Howard’s Up Close and Dangerous would debut in the top ten but I had forgotten about Pottermania. It appeared at number 19.

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, J.K. Rowling, art by Mary GrandPré (Arthur A. Levine/Scholastic), $34.99, No. 1 (debut).
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (Book 6), J.K. Rowling, art by Mary GrandPré (Scholastic), $9.99, No. 2 (Peak 1). 93 weeks on list.
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Deluxe edition, J.K. Rowling, art by Mary GrandPré (Arthur A. …

Dear Ms. Carlyle,

At this point, I think I’m going to stop with this trilogy even though the hero who’s left is a character I initially had the most interest in. I had problems with Never Lie to a Lady and they’ve only got worse with Never Deceive a Duke. For one thing, the plot of commoner suddenly being raised to the height of the British peerage is not a favorite of mine and for another, none of the main characters in this book ended up appealing to me. I got tired of their angst, I didn’t see them fall in love and the suspense plot was even weaker than in “Lady.”

First thing: Need does not equal Love. Gareth needs to be needed and Antonia is very needy so in the end, I guess they found the Right Person and might be very happy together - as long as Antonia doesn’t become the independent woman she tells Gareth she wants to be.

Antonia - you tell us she so strong (actually she tells …

Just found this old post.

It’s raining assassins this fall.
Author of ‘Scuse Me While I Kill This Guy Leslie Langtry’s next two fun contemporary romances in the Bombay family of Assassins series, to Leah Hultenschmidt at Dorchester, by Kristin Nelson at Nelson Literary Agency (World).

Sounds maybe, kind of, maybe not, interesting. Am on the fence on this one.
Dan Begley’s MS. TAKEN IDENTITY, in which a failed male novelist decides to write a chick-lit novel under a female pseudonym, becoming a better man through the process and rocketing to fame and bestsellerdom, to Melanie Murray for 5 Spot, in a nice deal, by Laura Langlie (world).

Sounds very good.
Brooke Taylor’s UNDONE, in which a troubled teen fulfills the five enigmatic last wishes of her daring best friend only to discover the dark secrets of a shared past that she never knew, to Emily Easton at Walker, by Kristin Nelson at Nelson Literary Agency (NA).

Can we say, malpractice? Loss of license? Big honking lawsuit?
Mary Margret Daughtridge’s SEALed WITH A KISS, in which a “high maintenance” family therapist tries to facilitate a father/son bonding session and ends up head over heels for a hard-headed Navy SEAL, to Deb Werksman at …

Dear Ms Leone,

Most American Civil War books I’ve read are set in the South so finding that takes place in Pennsylvania is a treat, especially when it deals with the Underground Railroad.

As the Civil War rages, Kay Lane does what most women do–she works to keep her country home intact, struggles to manage her family’s small shop and waits for word that the chaos that’s invaded their lives will soon come to an end. She hopes, too, for word of the man who has claimed her heart. Marsh was one of the first to volunteer for duty, and now that he’s gone Kay wishes they had married before he left. But regrets won’t win a war, and as Marsh fights his battles, Kay wages her own crusade for freedom. She becomes a conductor for the Underground Railroad, using her ancestral brooch to signal the arrival of new fugitives. But will Kay and Marsh’s shared love and unerring belief that freedom belongs to all be enough to shelter them through the next big battle? Gettysburg looms and the hands and hearts that hold the brooch will be …