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

One of my favorite comfort re-reads is Robin McKinley’s Beauty. I don’t know if this re-telling of Beauty and the Beast is supposed to be Young Adult or not, (I am 31.)… all I know is that there’s something special about the journey I take with Beauty when I sit down and read Robin McKinley’s version of her story.

I always fall in love with Beauty, her family, and the world they live in — right from the beginning of the story. I love meeting Beauty’s sisters, Hope and Grace. I love hearing Beauty tell how she ended up being nicknamed Beauty, instead of using her given name, Honour… even though she was a bookworm who had not inherited the same tall, willowy beauty that her sisters have. I become one of the family with them, sharing their grief as Grace’s fiancé is lost to the sea, sharing their despair as their father’s fortune is lost as well, and sharing their determination to be happy in their new poorer life in the far magic-tainted North with Hope’s new husband.

And then the magic roses start to grow along the wall …

Dear Jane,

I just read The Lost Memoirs of Jane Austen by Syrie James. It’s a ‘what if‘ story. ‘What if‘ Jane Austen had experienced romantic love. After all these years, how would we find out about her ill-fated romance? When and where could it have happened? Who would have been her love? Why didn’t Jane have her own happily-ever-after?

I have to tell you, Jane, this book answers every one of those questions in a completely believable way. Syrie James uses Jane’s real life travels, letters, and interactions to tell us a story that not only leaves you believing ‘it could have happened’, but wishing ‘oh, if she couldn’t have it all, I hope she had this’.

The story is written as Jane’s journal. Through it we are introduced to not only, my dear Mr. Ashton, but her large and loving family, as well as fictitious characters who are incorporated into Miss Austen’s work. We learn so much about Jane; from her love of country life to her struggles with her inner demons.

The Lost Memoirs of Jane Austen is a very easy read (I set it down once thinking I …

I love reader blogs and whenever one links to us, I go and check them out. Read for Pleasure began blogging this summer. She has an affinity for numbers, statistics, and, most importantly, books. RfP, as she is known in the commenting world, published a Used v. New article last week on her blog. It was an insightful column with interesting facts and insights. I asked whether I could reprint it at Dear Author and she graciously said yes.

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Amazon.com first started selling used books in 2002. It was a huge success. By 2004, 67% of used books sales were online–a higher percentage than any other product category. (Only 12.7% of new books sales were online.)The Author’s Guild urged its members to de-link Amazon in protest, and sent an open letter to Jeff Bezos, CEO of Amazon:If your aggressive promotion of used book sales becomes popular among Amazon’s customers, this service will cut significantly into sales of new titles, directly harming authors and publishers.April 9, 2002Bezos in turn emailed Amazon’s used booksellers:We’ve found that our used books business does …

Met with Julia Quinn. Talked about family, and how she thought Jayne’s review was respectful and honest. And that because she is married to a doctor she sometimes gets mail that says in all caps “finally! The Syphillis treatment you’ve been waiting for!!!”

Leigh Court, erotic historical romance author, in Secrets, Vol 15, The Disciplinarian

Met Jami Alden, author of Delicious and Taste of Honey, she apparently loves Sybil. We ran into her again in the Goody Room with Monica McCarty and Bella Andre. McCarty has a three book series coming out from Ballantine starting in August.

Now finally leaving lunch. Going back to post pictures.

I’m back now. Lobby of the hotel. And escalator. But then, that would be stating the obvious. Off to go to the goody room for free books.

So apparently Christina Dodd is stalking Lisa Kleypas. Dodd is having lunch Sue Grimshaw, Tina Trevaskis, and Kara Cesare at the table behind us.

Lisa Kleypas is probably the nicest author. She is really drawing Kristie out and connecting with her. Kristie is glowing. Hopefully from happiness and not heat.

We finished volunteering for the day. It was a mad house. We unpacked, counted, repacked, alphabetized thousand of books.