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

Are you looking for a review of Robert McCammon’s Boy’s Life? We’ve done some housekeeping here at Dear Author and the link can be found here.

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Dear Ms. Guhrke:

Except for a quick skim of Conor's Way a year or so ago, The Wicked Ways of a Duke is the first of your books I have read. And after finishing it, I think I understand the source of your popularity: an ability to create a vivid portrait of characters who are standard Romance types brought to credible life through solid and accessible prose. A year or two ago I might well have been enchanted by this book, because the characters would have been newer to me, their story fresher. Like the story's hero, however, I am a bit too familiar with the various turns these characters take on their path to love to be swept so easily away, and so when the story ended I still had my somewhat jaded sensibilities intact. While entertaining, The Wicked Ways of a Duke was not a love match for me.

Girl-bachelor Prudence Bosworth, unmarried at 28 and convinced she is plain and plump, is a seamstress living alone in London in a women's boarding house. Rhys De Winter, the Duke of St. Cyres, has just returned to England …

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Author Julie Leto offers up a guest review of Boy’s Life by Robert McCammon. Boy’s Life was a book challenged by a parent in the Hernando County School District as “inappropriate” because of bad language. Mr. McCammon flew to the Hernando County School Board meeting to defend his book and prevailed.
***
At its most basic level, Boy's Life by Robert McCammon is the story of Cory Mackenson, a twelve-year old boy growing up in Zephyr, Alabama in the late fifties. But McCammon, a lyrical author with a flair for seeing the world through the eyes of a child, has skillfully framed the story by telling it in a balanced combination between Cory's perspective as a child and his adult point of view. There's no flashback&emdash;or, in a way, the entire story is a flashback, with only the first and last chapters happening to the adult Cory. But this is not a new literary device and it works especially well here. The reader is immediately drawn into Cory's coming-of-age story and we live his experiences with him, …

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As if you couldn’t tell. We’ve some complaints about how slow the website loads so we’ve (I’ve) re-designed the blog. There will be some growing pains and not all the pages have been recoded but I hope that this provides a good compromise between the old site’s familiarity and the new site’s convenience. Please feel free to comment on what you like and what don’t like so that we can make Dear Author a better community for everyone.

Edited to add: If you don’t like it, let me know why. You can even comment anonymously. My feelings won’t be hurt.

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Author Sandra Schwab of The Lily Brand and Castle of the Wolf bought a new Cybook and wrote up a wonderful review of it. I asked for permission to republish the posts here for the Dear Author readership. The Cybook can be ordered directly from Bookeen, a French company, or through Baen’s Bar.
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So last week I finally got my Cybook Gen 3, the new e-reader from Bookeen. Since this is my first e-reader EVAH!, I was extremely excited and documented each step of the unravelling of the FedEx package:
The FedEx package:

If you open it on one side and peer inside,
that’s what you see:

And here’s the Cybook box itself (pretty cool, eh?):

And inside this box, there’s another white box.
And when you opened it, you’re presented with this view:

The leather cover for …

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Maybe this has always been true, but as I was reading Romance Writers Report, the RWA monthly publication, I noticed that Avon is seeking new authors and accepts unagented queries. According to its new submission guidelines, any romance or women’s fiction author can submit a query by e-mail to avonromance@harpercollins.com.

The word “QUERY” should be put in the subject line and the query should be brief, no more than a two-page description of the book. No chapters or synopsis at this time. A response is promised in one or two weeks! Zoinks that is a quick turn around.

I have been debating for a month or so about starting a new Saturday feature for DearAuthor. At Fangs, Fur, & Fey, a large (almost too large in my opinion as it is hard to keep track of everyone now) fantasy author community, the members posted their queries, pointing out what worked and what didn’t work. It was very interesting reading. I thought it might be fun for authors with new books coming out to share their queries, to show what caught an agent/editor’s eye, and …

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Dear Ms. Drennen,

There’s no way to sugarcoat this review. I found “Mauvelous” to be just ghastly. Sorry but that’s the word that comes to mind. This book is bad. It’s supposed to be about some agents from a security firm called Aztec. I have no idea what they do but mention was made of villains being traitors so I guess there’s some tie in with the government. If they’re what’s standing between civilization and anarchy then God help us all.

The hero comes across as a smarmy used car salesman with a bad toupee who still thinks he’s the hottest thing on two legs where women are concerned. He smirks when women check out his “package,” drives a muscle car because it seems to be a projection of his manhood, and flubs up almost everything he tries to do.

Mauve, the heroine can’t get her mind off the one night of hot luvin’ they shared and the multiple orgasms he gave her. Never mind he was blowing off enough booze fumes to fell an ox, damn he gave her some fine sex. Oh, what…watch for the villain. Yeah, but she’d rather think of …

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One thing that Julie Bindel’s piece has done is peak my interest in Harlequin Presents books. In addition, a few weeks ago, I did a piece on category romances and how I was coming to appreciate the Blazes, Harlequin Historicals, and so forth that I have been reading. A couple people suggested authors in the Harlequin Presents line and I have since started reading them.

I don’t think that I had read them since my early reading days (maybe 20 years ago). My recollection of this series were that it was peopled by really rich men and their secretaries. In the last month, I’ve read 20 Harlequin Presents. 7 of them were by Sara Craven but most of them were in the Harlequin Presents One Click Buy. It’s a program where you can buy all the HPs for one month in one big package. Incredibly, you can buy the entire 8 books at Books on Board for $9.49.

I think it’s a bit interesting to read the entire collection. I felt like I was reading an album versus a single record. The collection itself was varied, as if the editors make an attempt …

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One reason I was so disgusted when Kindle debuted with its super proprietary Mobipocket format was because of the history of companies, both big and small, to stop supporting the proprietary format of the month, leaving its consumers high and dry.

Wal-mart has announced that it will end its video download service after just one year of being open. Users who have downloaded movies through this service can continue to watch them on the device that contains the downloaded movie and the necessary software to view the movie. Because of DRM, though, it means that the movie cannot be transferred or viewed on any other device. So if the harddrive crashes on the unit that contains the movie or you choose to upgrade, the movie is lost forever.

Via Endgadget.

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According to the bio, Patrice Michelle is “a natural with a point-and-shoot camera, likes to fiddle with graphic design and, to the relief of her family, strums her guitar to an audience of one.” To those members of the online romance reading community, we know Patrice to be a straight shooter and all around nice person which puts paid to the notion that nice folks finish last. As Patrice’s first sale stories tells us, the road to writing, from inception to delivery, can be a long one, but one that can be done.
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When did I decide I wanted to be an author? When I was fifteen.

When was I mature enough to tackle writing a book? When I was in college.

When was I experienced enough to follow through and complete a book? Twelve years later, after I thought the computer file holding "the book from college I never finished" was erased from the computer.

It's amazing how motivating that scare was. After that, I started writing again. I was a woman on a mission—an author who'd finally found her passion!

Fast …

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Samhain announced a week or so ago that it was closed for submissions. When it re-opens, it will be accepting only romance oriented submissions. I would dearly love to see more urban fantasy romance. The full text of the new announcement follows:

***

When we re-open for submissions, we will be refocusing the company's efforts. To that end, we will re-open to focus only on Romance and all the various subgenres such as romance/erotic romance/erotica as well as the following with romantic elements: fantasy/urban fantasy/science fiction/paranormal/etc…

We have learned a lot in the past year, as well as our two years of operation, and one of the things we've come to realize is that we don't have the resources to do it all, as much as we'd like to. We've discovered that most of the mainstream, non-romance genres don't do as well with us, and we've decided to refocus our efforts on romance. We're still a fairly new company, still discovering who we are, so to speak. We've realized that it's unfair to the authors to continue to contract non-romance genres when the sales aren't there for you at this time.

This …

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Dear Readers,

“Beautiful Copper (it’s a nickname) Randal had come to the exotic Andaman Islands off the coast of India to visit her former school friend but before long she falls under the sultry spell of sun and ocean…and of handsome Nick Tarrent. But undercurrents of violence and betrayal run deep beneath the polite society of British colonists on this tropical isle…and now danger seems to stalk the night as Copper holds her breath in fearful anticipation. Then as storm clouds gather beyond the dawn horizon a plan of murder and revenge turns a romantic outing into a day of terror…in a paradise where love is mixed with suspicion and a killer is ready to strike again.”

Set in the exotic locale of the Andamans Islands just off the coast of India, Kaye does a great job using the “Characters cut off and isolated while a murderer is loose among them” plot. In the author’s note, she states that the idea came to her during a real life experience she had on the islands when she visited them before WWII. The timing of this story isn’t mentioned (she got the idea pre WWII but didn’t write the story …

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Dear Ms. Garwood:

Your return to the historical genre has been the subject of romance readers discussions for months now. I would have loved to have written “welcome back” but I can see we have some growth pains here. While some of the classic Garwood moments have returned, there were also some painful speed bumps along the reading road.

Princess Gabrielle of St. Biel has been betrothed to Lord Monroe, a Scottish Highlander, in order for King John to pacify and shore up the borders to the North. Gabrielle is greatly desired. She hunts, shoots, and rides like a man. She has been trained in all the feminine arts and she is uber beautiful. But super nice. Because someone who is super rich, talented in everything, and gorgeous always has zero ego.

Despite being from a small country called St. Biel, formerly known as Monchanceux, which is somewhere in the Middle East, Gabrielle is pure anglo saxon with violet eyes and softly curling black hair and pure creamy skin. (Sounds Welsh to me). I just couldn’t figure out why a) St. Biel had a French origin, …

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Harlequin is giving away one free ebook per day until January 1, 2007. These are full length ebooks from the most popular lines such as Harlequin Presents and Harlequin Blaze. I will confess to having gorged on Harlequin Presents this holiday season. My two favorite HP authors are currently Sara Craven and Helen Brooks (neither of which are being given away, but I thought I would just throw that out there).

For those who are wondering what an ebook looks like, here is your opportunity.

Via Ann Bruce.

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Dear Ms. Ganter,

My blogging partner Jan reviewed this series earlier and I was so impressed by the review and by the artwork she included that I posted to her review. She graciously offered to loan me the volumes of “Sorcerers and Secretaries.” I’ll be honest and say that I’d never tried any manga and in fact hadn’t read any type of comic or graphic arts book since childhood. Yep, manga has swept the world but hadn’t swept me. That is until I read this book. Now I begin to understand the appeal. I might not be a convert but this is one novel I might just have to search out.

I’ve included ‘manga’ tags on this review so it will show up on our website along with Jan’s original review but I’m not reviewing it as manga. Since I don’t know the genre enough to speak with any authority on it, I’m talking about it as a romance. And a delightful romance it is. Nicole and Josh have to work through their problems as any romance couple I normally read about do. Nicole is one smart cookie. Though she initially likes …

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Dear Jane,

I would not describe myself as a science fiction fan-and not because I haven’t tried it. Thanks to my college habit of taking only classes that met Tuesday-Thursday, I’ve read the whole SF canon, everything from Left Hand of Darkness to Snow Crash. And while I didn’t hate it all (Because, really, who could hate Dune?) literature about dystopian feminist/fascist/droid-ruled/war-mongering societies just doesn’t get my blood pumping. And, though I have nothing against space operas in theory, many “composers” seem so besotted with the nifty little worlds they’ve created they forget details like characterization and lucid plots. But last January, in a post about genre labels, you mentioned Lois McMaster Bujold’s Vorkosigan books as a series often embraced by romance readers. I needed something to read, so I gave them a shot.

Cordelia’s Honor is the first installment in the Vorkosigan series, but it reads like a stand-alone novel. It also reads like one of the best damn books I’ve ever owned. It’s primarily SF, but the relationship thread is very strong and the book ends with a HEA, so it more than …

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Last week I made a few statements that conflated fetish fiction publishing with shady fly-by-night publishing. As Emily Veinglory pointed out on her blog, this really isn’t an appropriate charge. The conflation of unsucrupulous publishing and the content of the publishing matter was wrong and I apologize for that. A house that does publish what I term fetish fiction can still be an ethical place of business.

I do wonder, though, what the next five years of e-publishing will hold. Will epublishing be about the margins of erotica and erotic romance? Will it be about niches that fill gaps in mainstream publishing? Will houses like Samhain, Loose ID, Amber Quill Press become major players in the publishing market because of the rise of ebooks? I think that e publishing is at a crossroads.

It was about eight years ago that Tina Engler started Ellora’s Cave. It started to take off in 2003 with a reported $1.2 million in revenues. With seemingly no start up revenue, Engler turned an e publishing business into a multi-millionaire dollar concern. There was no …

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Dear Ms. Janzen:

This is the 8th book in the Steele Street series featuring fast cars and the military operatives who love them. While Cutting Loose has your trademark features such a special vehicle with a cute nickname: Charlotte, the Harlot, a Shelby Mustang Cobra GT500KR. It has the special agent/Steele Street chop shop boy, Zachary Prade, who has been deep undercover with the CIA for years. It has a surprisingly resilient and likeable heroine, teacher and rancher’s daughter, Lily Robbins. And finally, it has a fast paced, action packed plot. All those things combined make this an above average book. The problem is because you have done it so many times before and more effectively, it makes it only a slightly above average book.

Cutting Loose picks up where On the Loose leaves off. When Lily Robbins was in Morazan Province, El Salvador, she witnessed the beating of an American soldier. When the beating was concluded and she attempted to assist him, the soldier passed her a macrame bracelet and died. Unbeknowst to Lily, intertwined into the threads of the bracelet was a polymer strand …

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Borders and Sony will launch a co-branded eBookstore with 25,000 titles which sounds about right if the plan is to stock mostly fiction books. It sounds like you will have to have a special eBook Library software in order to purchase the titles or access the new bookstore front. Only those who purchase a Sony Reader will have this access. Borders will allow T-Mobile customers to wirelessly access the new eBookstore and purchase an ebook if you are inside a Borders store.
It sounds like a great idea made innumerably complicated by the restrictions. Why does there need to be special software? Is it going to be yet another super proprietary ebook format? Don’t you have pay for T-Mobile access at Borders? So you have to pay to get wireless connectivity and then you pay for the book? It’s like charging a cover charge to get into Borders to buy a book. This is not my idea of making ebooks easier to obtain by the reading public.

Via Publishers Weekly.

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Dear Ms. Campbell:

I realized reading your new release Untouched that for me your books are fundamentally a revisiting of older Romance motifs, with both retro and current elements. At your best, your work brings out the best of both past and present Romances, because you are often examining some of the more provocative elements in the genre, making them both larger than life and relatable at the same time. And because of that, perhaps, when something in your book misses, it really misses. Claiming the Courtesan is a book that hit much more often than it missed for me, while Untouched is a book with more misses than hits.

Impoverished in widowhood and banished from her wealthy and titled family, Grace Paget is kidnapped on her way to meet her uncle, mistaken for a common prostitute and nabbed for the pleasure of Matthew Lansdowne, the reclusive Marquess of Sheene. Having lost his parents as a child, and not seen in society since he was fourteen, Matthew is a prisoner of his greedy and conniving uncle, Lord John, who uses a fever Matthew contracted at fourteen to have …

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Essence magazine is hosting its first annual literary awards. Storyteller of the Year award is determined by reader vote and the other eight categories are determined by a panel of publishing folks. The awards ceremony will be held in NY on February 7, 2008 and hosted by Hoda Kotb and Dr. Ian Smith. Terry McMillan will recieve the first Lifetime Achievement Award.
The categories include fiction, memoir, non-fiction, inspiration, photography, current affairs, poetry, and children’s books.
FICTION

• Red River, Lalita Tademy (Grand Central)
• Casanegra, Blair Underwood, Steven Barnes, and Tananarive (Atria)
• The Pirate’s Daughter, Margaret Cezair-Thompson (Unbridled)
• New England White, Stephen L. Carter (Knopf)
• Knots, Nuruddin Farah (Riverhead)

STORYTELLER OF THE YEAR You may need to be a subscriber to vote for this.

• Eric Jerome Dickey
• Lori Bryant-Woolridge
• Trisha R. Thomas
• L.A. Banks (authors the urban fantasy series called “Vampire Huntress Legend”)
• Tananarive Due

Via Publisher’s Weekly.

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When Lori Devoti earned her Bachelor in Journalism, it wasn’t to write, but to work in advertising. Twenty years later, Devoti finds herself writing long copy in the form of novels, contemporary, dark paranormal romances and urban fantasy novels “with a little death and a lot of adventure.” She has three books under her belt, a fourth, Guardian’s Keep, that is on shelves near you.
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My first sale story is the tale of a lightning bolt hitting. I wasn’t supposed to sell that book, and certainly not when I did.

It was my second completed manuscript and first romance. Writing it was a complete learning process-meaning it was way harder to write than it should have been (if I’d had a clue).

I’d joined RWA in late summer, around the time I started the book, and forged ahead. Somewhere along the way I learned about things like antagonists (yeah, you need them) and GMC and all that other stuff that is like breathing to me now. I also learned about pitching to editors at conferences, and more importantly I learned from the RWAonline board that the editor …

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Scholastic wants to maintain its position as King of the Kids and with the Harry Potter book franchise in the past, it has decided to announce the Harry Potter successor. The winner is a 10 book seres called “The 39 Clues”. The first book goes on sale September 2008 and will be accompanied by promotional tools such as web-based games, collector’s cards, cash prizes. The books are authored by several individuals and Scholastic hopes to cash in on the “series” rather than any particular author. Smart by Scholastic, of course, because it can use unknown authors if the brand becomes successful.

Rick Riordan, author of the Percy Jackson series, pens the first book followed by Gordon Korman, Peter Lerangis and Jude Watson. The series is to feature two young Cahill siblings as they race to find the 39 clues that will lead to ultimate power. The series are mystery/fantasy books aimed at 8 to 12 years.

The unique popularity of Harry Potter was its ageless appeal. I can’t say that The 39 Clues sounds like something a bunch of adults are going to buy.
Via NYTimes.

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Now through December 31, at Fictionwise, every MultiFormat eBook is discounted 20% and every Secure eBook receives a 20% Micropay rebate. A multiformat book is one that is sold without DRM and a Secure book (usually from a NY Publisher) has DRM. Happy ebook shopping folks.

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Dear Mrs. Canham,

This one reads like one of those old, rootin’, tootin’ shoot ‘em up Western movies. I rolled my eyes in places and had a few problems but overall this is 500 pages of pure adrenaline. I do think I would be remise in not warning readers that the violence is sometimes graphic and some of it is against women.

Aubrey Blue is on her way back to Santa Fe after ten years and she’s aiming for vengeance. Her family was killed, their ranch burned and she barely escaped with her life. Now the man responsible, Maxwell Fleming, is going to pay. But first she has to get there. Posing as a prim schoolmarm, she boards the stage in Great Bend, Kansas and along with an assortment of interesting characters, braves the hot, dusty, rutted road and attack from a renegade band of Comanches. But before she arrives in New Mexico, she realizes that her greatest danger might be in the arms of Christian McBride, a man with reasons of his own to hate Fleming.

McBride has spent the last five years breaking rocks in Leavenworth after being set up for manslaughter by Fleming. …

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SB Sarah has a very interesting post and linkage on the issue of sexism, male patriarchy and
media objectification of females. The money is quote is from Joss Whedon who says:

“Women’s inferiority – in fact, their malevolence – is as ingrained in American popular culture as it is anywhere they’re sporting burkas,” wrote Buffy the Vampire Slayer creator Joss Whedo on a website recently. “I find it in movies, I hear it in the jokes of colleagues, I see it plastered on billboards� Women are weak, manipulative, somehow morally unfinished. The logical extension of this line of thinking is that women are expendable� There is a staggering imbalance in the world that we all just take for granted.”

The article in the Globe & Mail makes an articulate argument about women being victimized continuously in popular culture. It makes one think whether you want to be part of that problem or part of the solution.

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Apparently Samhain Publishing is closed once again for submissions but is looking for editors who don’t have an interest in writing. Sounds like Samhain is growing but needs the right staff to move forward.

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Publishers Weekly (and every other book rag including mine now) reported that the bookstore sales for October were up again rising 8.0% to $1.10 billion in sales. Not too shabby. This is the fourth month of increased book sales. Great news because surely the October sales can't be attributed to Harry Potter can they?

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People are either buying gift books or they aren’t buying books at all.
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Blood Brothers (Sign of Seven Trilogy, Book 1), Nora Roberts (Jove), $7.99, No. 5 (Peak 1).

Stars: Hidden Star\Captive Star, Nora Roberts (Silhouette Special Releases), $7.99, No. 66 (Peak 15).

Dakota Home (Dakota Series #2), Debbie Macomber (Mira), $7.99, No. 99 (Peak 19).

The Edge of Winter, Luanne Rice (Bantam), $7.50, No. 102 (Peak 54).

Christmas Wishes, Debbie Macomber (Mira), $7.99, No. 142 (Peak 11).
***
Out of the list:

The Widow, Carla Neggers (Mira), $7.99, No. 102 (Peak 45). This is the paperback release of the hardcover. I liked the book.

Wife for Hire, Janet Evanovich (Harper), $7.99, No. 117 (Peak 7).

For a Few Demons More, Kim Harrison (Eos), $7.99, No. 143 (Peak 14). Paperback release of hardcover.

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Dear Ms. Smith:

Winter Wedding is a bit of a fantasy tale with a very sweet misunderstanding that separates the hero and heroine. The story is fluffy and I wouldn’t be able to read several in this vein in a row without getting a toothache, but for a holiday story, it might help set the right mood for gift giving and falling in love.

Clara Christopher, age 22, is an orphan who goes from aunt to cousin to uncle to friend as way of life. Two years ago while Clara was at a house party, she was romanced for by handsome Lord Allingcote but he had to leave abruptly when his father fell ill. Clara hasn’t seen him since. She’s heard of Lord Allingcote, not that she’s kept track or anything, but it always seems she misses him. He’ll show up at a house party that she thought of going to but turned down. He’ll arrive at a party just as she is leaving. They are like two ships in the night.

They seemed to go to many of the same places, unfortunately at different

…

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moar funny pictures

I have to just give a plug for my dear friend, Tina Trevaskis, who is now the new Romance/Horror & Westerns Marketing Specialist at Borders Group Inc. Tina is a huge lover of romance. I met Tina over 7 years ago (I think) due to our mutual love of romance. Of course, her goal is to sell as many romances (and horror and westerns) as possible so any marketing decisions will be geared toward that. I’m also sure she’ll take extra care to avoid misspelling names, JMC!

I am really excited that Tina, someone who loves the genre, will be leading the marketing charge at one of the largest retail book selling chains in the US. I bet if you’ve got a suggestion on how Borders can better serve its romance readers, Tina would love to hear it. (Or maybe not but eh, that’s what the comments are for, right?)

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Dear Ms Dane,

Your novella arrived at a perfect time. Both my Christmas trees are up and decorated (with lots of help from my children) and I’m really moving into the holiday mood. This is a great story to tuck into spare reading time between parties, cooking and other seasonal activities

I guess the plot could be summarized as anal-retentive lawyer and childhood dairy farmer friend realize they have the hots for each other, then decide that it might be love. Add plenty of family members to the mix, stir and bake. I like that lawyer Belle and dairyman Rafe have known each other almost all their lives so the sudden romance didn’t make me roll my eyes. As Rafe says, it was a short step to love from friendship and the two easily stepped right into it. But even better, they talk to each other. And listen to each other. And work to make their wildly different lifestyles mesh.

You add a lot of family members to the story but they add to the romance between Rafe and Belle instead of grabbing the spotlight for themselves. I love the guy talk between the men. …

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Lynne Spears' had contracted to write a book to be published through Thomas Nelson, an inspirational publisher. The book was to be about parenting and when I originally heard the announcement, I laughed myself off my chair. Today, Lynn Spears’ fans will have some bad news. Given that her 16 year old daughter has announced her pregnancy, the impending parenting guidebook is being put on hold “indefinitely.”

What could she possibly say about parenting at this point that would not draw laughing and pointing? I could understand a celebrity biop about how she and her husband leveraged their daughters to stardom, but on raising your kids to what? Dress as provocatively in public as possible? Become a laughingstock before the age of 30? Treating your children like accessories? Do parents really need help on raising their kids to be Britney and Jamie Lynn Spears?

Via People.

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Ai Yori Aoshi by Kou Fumizuki. Published by TokyoPop. Retail: $9.99. Ratings: T+, older teens, for most volumes (many sexually suggestive situations a.k.a. fan service – the cover gives you a taste for that), Mature for the last volume (tasteful sex between the h/h). 17/17 volumes published.
Dear Readers,
Two long running romance series have drawn to a close this month, and both deserve mention. This one is different from what I normally review because it’s a shounen harem story, written for boys. Oddly perhaps for those of us in the west, while the other series, Basara, was written for girls it concentrates on warfare and politics albeit emotionally; this series however concentrates on love and relationships. It’s called Ai Yori Aoshi.
Ai Yori Aoshi is, through much of the story, a typical harem manga. That means a young man finds himself living with a group of young women, generally stock characters, all of whom fall in love with him. Circumstances always keep him and the one he truly loves from being together until the end. …

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The first ever Australian Romance Reading Convention is being planned right now. Don’t miss out and please, if you go, come back and report the deliciousness of getting together with other readers and celebrating our favorite genre.

Thanks Diamondlil!

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Dear Ms. Bourne:

What a struggle I had with writing this review. I know some ask what are the hardest reviews to write and I am convinced, after drafting and redrafting this one, it is the review of the book that you love. Because as a reader, I am trying to convey the beauty that is someone else’s writing so that others will see the same beauty. The best thing I can say to readers is to go the bookstore and read the first chapter.

The Spymaster’s Lady is about secrets. It is about the secrets the characters keep from each other. It is about the secrets that you, the author, keep from the reader. Annique, the Fox Cub, is an intentional mystery to Grey, the British Spymaster. But Grey is a mystery to Annique as well. Both characters fail to fit in the predetermined slots each has set for the other. “A man itches to peel you, veil by veil, laying your secrets bare, opening you up to reveal mysteries.”

However, the truth behind the secrets, the reveal, is always there for both the reader and the …

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