Archive for the 'A Reviews' Category
Dear Authors and Readers.
 If you will excuse a personal history, you will see its relevance to my review. I enlisted in the Army National Guard after 9/11. I became a US citizen and commissioned (became an officer) in 2003. I accepted a medical retirement in May of this year, at the rank of Captain, after 7 ½ years of service. I never went overseas, but I served in the Katrina response in Louisiana. I was a soldier and damn proud to be so.
But I am also bisexual (with some extra kinks outside the Kinsey continuum). This is the first time I’ve been able to admit this in public (well, I came out on Twitter on National Coming Out Day) since figuring it out because of the US military’s destructive Don’t Ask Don’t Tell policy. My sexuality in no way affected my service. All outward appearances show a happily married, monogamous, heterosexual soldier, which is mostly what I am. But every now and then the issue came up and I had to bite my tongue. I could have been kicked out of the service if anyone had dug too deep, for a reason …
Dear Ms. Wolf:
 I re-read your book recently in preparation for a year end list.  I was shocked when I checked the DA Archives and did not see a review for it.  I had to rectify that immediately.  His Lordship’s Mistress is one of my favorite books and your work in the Signet Regency line was really wonderful.  There are so many that I enjoy revisiting and I am so grateful that you decided to resell your ebook rights to Belgrave House so that I could buy ebook copies of many of them.  I do think that His Lordship’s Mistress is the best of your stellar work in that line and I’ll do my best to convey why.
As Janine noted in the review of another of my favorite Wolf traditional regencies, A London Season, your writing style is simplistic and spare. Â I really enjoy that style and it’s out in full force here. Â His Lordship’s Mistress contains all the classic elements of a Wolf book: the heroine in trouble, gambling leading to despair, Shakespeare, and horses.
Jessica Andover has just buried her stepfather, a wastrel that gambled away her mother’s small fortune and left …
Dear Ms. Hart,
 Two of the many things I enjoyed about your erotic novella collection, Pleasure and Purpose, are the setting and the heroines’ background. All three novellas take place in a fantasy setting which resembles mid nineteenth century Europe in terms of its technological development. As far as I can tell, this world does not seem to contain magic, but underlying all the stories is a fascinating mythology that plays an important role in the characters’ lives.
It is the prevailing religious belief that each time a soul finds perfect solace, even if only for a moment, an arrow appears in the god Sinder’s quiver. According to legend — and many people’s faith — when the quiver is full, Sinder, his wife and his son, The Holy Family, will reunite, bringing peace and harmony to mankind.
To that end, the Order of Solace was created. The women who enter the order, called handmaidens, make it their task to bring solace to the patrons who engage their services. Sometimes doing that involves sex, but there is more to it than that. To give an idea of the handmaidens’ outlook, here are …
Dear Ms. Lin:
 I don’t review many non romance books here at Dear Author because it’s a) a romance oriented blog and b) I rarely read anything that isn’t romance except for the books I read to my daughter. For the most part, the books I’ve read to my five year old are mainly old classic standbys such as Dr. Seuss stories and the Magic Tree House series which are educational but nothing to write home about in terms of storytelling.
My husband read an excerpt of Where the Mountain meets the Moon and bought it. (You can hear an excerpt here read by the author). Â We are always on the look out for any girl positive stories.
We started the book about three weeks ago, reading a few chapters every night in alternating succession. I would read one night and my husband, the other. My tot was mostly interested in the dragon, but my husband and I were so captivated with the book that we would give each other recaps after we had finished. Sometimes we would ask the tot to tell us what had happened when Mommy or Daddy had read the …
 Starting this month, all of the Dear Author recommended reads will be given a discount at digital bookseller, Books on Board. Â The discount page is here. (In the future, we’ll always try to post this on Tuesday so you can get the discount the day of the release).
- Written on Your Skin by Meredith Duran (recommended by Jennie, Janet/Robin and Jan)
- Hot Under Pressure by Kathleen O’Reilly (recommended by Smart Bitches, Jayne and Jane)
- Mistletoe Mommy by Tanya Michaels (recommended by Jayne who also recommends forgetting what the title is because it has nothing to do with Mommy or Christmas)
- One Week As Lovers by Victoria Dahl (recommended by Janet/Robin and no, I don’t know what it will take for Victoria Dahl to get an A here at Dear Author)
- Goddess of the Hunt by Tessa Dare (recommended by Jane because I loved the immature, big hearted Lucy who had to have that fearless belief in life in order to bring about the brooding Jeremy).
- Beloved Vampire by Joey Hill (recommended by Jane. The review will come at noon. Needless to say its a star crossed lover + vampire + love saves people
…
Dear Ms. Duran,
 Since I’ve acquired my lovely Sony PRS-505, I’ve used the handy-dandy “bookmark” button to mark notable pages in a book that I may want to refer back to when I write a review. Depending on the book, the bookmarks may be noting something that worked for me or something that didn’t. When reading your latest book, Written on Your Skin, I hit the bookmark button so many times I was afraid I was going to wear it out. All 32 bookmarks (and it easily could’ve been 132 if I hadn’t restrained myself a bit) noted bits of prose or characterization that I just loved. So it’s no surprise that Written on Your Skin is easily one of the best books I’ve read in a long while.
The book opens in Hong Kong in 1880. Phin Monroe and Mina Masters have been carrying on a flirtation for several weeks when they encounter each other at a party. Phin thinks that Mina is an empty-headed flirt and Mina thinks Phin is an American businessman. They’re both wrong. Things get interesting when Phin collapses, the victim of poisoned brandy. Each quickly realizes that the other has hidden …
Dear Ms. Duran:
 I was probably the only member of the Dear Author reviewing team that didn’t love your freshman debut, DUKE OF SHADOWS. For me, it read like a love story between you and India and not so much a love story between the characters. I admit that despite the urging of your critique partner, Janine, that I was reluctant to read your follow up book. I put off reading it until recently when I cracked it open just to read the first couple chapters and ended up not being able to put it down.
It’s obvious from the categorization of this post that I gave the book an A. It’s the first without qualification A I’ve given in a long time but I tried to look for flaws and couldn’t find them. This is a story that was technically masterful as well as being a great love story. I think it’s a book in which I would find new layers and meaning each time I read it.
Lydia Boyce is a spinster, living with her sister who is married to the man that Lydia thought she would marry. She’s plainer than …
Dear Ms. Marchetta,
 I have a bone to pick with you. I’ve got a packed read-and-review schedule for the next month or so, and I need to be able to move from book to book. But you’ve made that impossible. Yes, I blame you. It’s your fault that your book, Jellicoe Road, left me so drained and dazed that I can’t read anything else.
I tried. I tried a sexy historical romance. I tried a contemporary erotic novel. I tried a thought-provoking science fiction story. I tried one of my very favorite books from last year. I even eyed another YA. I put them all back down after a page or two.
It’s not that they were bad. They just weren’t your book. They weren’t Jellicoe Road.
It really isn’t fair of you to write a book that’s so beautiful and powerful that everything else pales in comparison.
Now that I’ve gotten that off my chest, let me explain that when I picked up this book to read for Keishon’s TBR challenge, I was cheating a bit. Yes, technically speaking Jellicoe Road was …
Dear Mr. Asher,
 Not too long ago I wrote a review for this site, my first review. I’m a writer not a reviewer but that book moved me, almost unbearably. At the time, I couldn’t imagine another book moving me as much.
I stand corrected.
Your book, THIRTEEN REASONS WHY . . . where do I begin? I’ve been trying to figure that out for hours, trying to figure out how to tell the readers here only enough about the plot to make them read it, because once I say too much, many of them are automatically going to say Not For Me.
But this book IS for them, it’s for everyone. Yes, it’s a Young Adult. Yes, it’s about forbidden topics, especially for teens. Yes, there’s death, a tragic, horrible death. A suicide, actually.
Sounds depressing to say the least, but stick with me on this. I write romances for a living, contemporary romances with a guaranteed happy ending. Always. When I watch a movie, I demand the same. When I read, even more so. I am a …
Conversational Film Review: Silther (2007)
Genre: horror comedy
Reviewers: Jaili and Dionne Galace (a.k.a. Bam)
I asked Bam if she would do a conversational review with me. Without a blink, she agreed. She even did an awesome summary:
Slither (2007) is a splatter-horror and dark comedy about a beautiful, hapless schoolteacher Starla Grant (Elizabeth Banks) and her husband, the small town’s wealthiest douchebag and the unfortunately named Grant Grant (Michael Rooker), who falls prey to the mind-altering alien slug that burrows itself into his chest after he pokes it with a stick while out for a moonlight stroll with the town slut, Brenda.
In the light of the morning, Starla feels guilty for being a bad wife and attempts to make it up to Grant by seducing him to the tune of “Every Woman in the World” by Air Supply, but Grant returns from his evening walk… changed. Suddenly, he’s a little more aggressive, ravishing Starla senseless. And then there’s his unyielding appetite meat, the bulk of which he buys from the local grocery store and the rest he takes from his neighbors and by that I mean their pets. He stocks his meat supply in the basement and puts a giant lock on …
Dear Ms. Harris:
 There is a point in your newest Sookie Stackhouse release, Dead and Gone, where Diantha, demon niece of supe lawyer Mr. Cataliades, warns Sookie of war brewing among the fairies. This spells danger for Sookie because of her connection to the fairy prince Niall, and like the weres in the last book, fairies are not united under one leader. When Sookie asks Diantha why Mr. Cataliades would potentially endanger himself to warn her, Diantha explains “Didyerbest,” which Sookie understands refers back to the horrific explosion at the Pyramid of Gizeh hotel a couple of books ago. Sookie and Barry the bellhop had searched for survivors among the rubble, even though they knew they risked being discovered as telepaths by law enforcement looking for an edge in crime solving. Together, they found many humans and vampires who otherwise would have perished.
This sentiment – doing one’s best – appears several times in the book, and it has become a hallmark theme for Sookie; she continues to do her best in increasingly difficult and dangerous situations. And she continues to find herself more entwined in the supernatural world, and more vulnerable to …
What can I say that
Has not already been said
By Joan’s fab review?
 Not a non-fic fan
Was not expecting to like
As much as I did
For me, the best joke?
The list of eye-colors for
Building a hero
Best, that is, until
I saw the â€heroines list’
Then I wept laughter
But…then I kept going
And giggled at â€alpholes’ and
The dictionary
By the time I came
To â€Choose Your Own Adventure’
And Chapter 30?
I HEART YOU, Bitches.
Take my fifteen dollars, cause
It was so worth it.
This book was breezy,
Smart but irreverent, light
But very filling.
I learned a lot, too.
Like Candy’s Pirate fetish
Sarah’s is secret
(my vote is for sheikh romances)
If I had to bitch
About something, I’d have made
Following changes:
One: Loved, loved the list
Of heroine types. But there’s
No hero types list?
Two: Chapter on your
Blog kerfluffles. Bit odd
In a reference guide
Despite my nitpicks
This was well worth the money
And an A from me.
So when does the Bitch
Encyclopedia of
Romance come out, hmm?
This book can be purchased in trade format from your favorite independent bookstore or ebook format from the Sony Store and other etailers.
Dear Ms. Beecroft:
 Rarely, oh so rarely, I’ll read a book that is so sublime, so transcendent, I actually come away from it a little melancholy, because it’s over and I can never read it for the first time ever again, because I know I’ll never be able to do justice to it in my review or analysis, and because I know I won’t meet its equal for many a year. But the process of devouring the book, of eking out its layered, textured meaning, of savoring its descriptions, and the emotions–oh, the emotions!–leaves me flying for days and the melancholy only makes it all the sweeter.
This is one of those books. It ravished me. It scoured my insides. I feel like I’m stuck in it and I don’t ever want to get out.
False Colors is one of two debut releases (April 12) for Running Press’ new M/M Romance line that is being shelved in Romance in bookstores (and my mother, who works in Barnes & Noble [30% off all the time, baby!], checked for me–yes, it will be shelved in romance, at least in B&Ns across the country, and her store …
Maili, an old friend of the blog (and truly a vanguard of romance reader bloggers) has extensive film knowledge and offered to write a review of a romantic film every Friday. Â I was delighted to accept. Â Henceforth, every Friday, we will feature a film review so that if you aren’t sure what to do on the weekend, this might provide you with an idea. Â We will be moving First Sale stories to Monday to accommodate our new addition to Dear Author. – Jane
Grade: A
Genre: Black comedy / Romantic comedy (US)
Dear Hal Ashby,
You and scriptwriter Colin Higgins passed away in the same year almost twenty one years ago, but your cinematic legacy still lives on. Especially your second directorial effort, Harold and Maude, which I’d describe as one of the best love stories in the history of cinema.
I wondered sometimes how the studio people reacted when you and Colin Higgins decided to film a love story about a suicidal rich-kid teenager and a 79-year-old feisty woman. Not to mention having this smart-dressed teenager Harold (Bud Cort) to hang himself in the living room during the film’s opening scene.
But as we quickly discover, it’s a fake suicide attempt to attract his …
Dear Ms. Jewel,
 Scandal is the first book of yours I have read, but it won’t be the last.
The book begins when Gwilym, Earl of Banallt, arrives at Havenwood in autumn of 1814. Banallt is a guest of John Mercer, who does not realize that his widowed sister Sophie has a previous acquaintance with Banallt.
When she was only seventeen, Sophie ran off with a fortune hunter and married him over the anvil at Gretna Green. It created a scandal, and Sophie was cut off by her family. It was during the years of her marriage that Sophie became acquainted with Banallt.
It is clear from the very beginning that although he has not seen her in two years, Banallt had strong feelings for Sophie. He hopes that seeing her will confirm his hopes that those feelings are now dead and gone. Banallt, who was also married when he first met Sophie, is now widowed and needs to marry again soon in order to continue his line.
But when he sees Sophie, Banallt realizes that his feelings for her are still alive and acute. Acting on a powerful instinct, Banallt asks …
Dear Mrs. LaFoy,
 When I start a new book, this is what I hope for. It’s fun, flirty, sexy and a fabulous time. It’s what I read romance novels for. It’s a book that I read, waiting to exhale. Please let it hold up, please don’t let it go off the rails during the last little bit, please don’t let me say, “Ah, shit. It was great up until X happened.” Oh, please. Oh yes!
Emily Raines doesn’t know who the Secret Santa is who gave her $50,000 seed money to start a Senior Arts Center but she’d kiss him full on the lips if she could find out. In the meantime, she’s going to make good use of the money by buying and rehabbing a building that, let’s be honest, needs a little work. One of the citizens of Augsberg, Kansas who wants to help her is Ida Bentley, former dancer and current owner of a hella portfolio of stock.
And the man who helped her build it up and who is determined to see she doesn’t blow it on someone he considers to be a smooth talking con artist is her grandson, …
Dear Ms. Turner,
 Last month Jane, Jia and I embarked on Keishon’s TBR challenge 2009. This time Keishon’s suggestion is a book that AAR has rated as a DIK (Desert Isle Keeper). While scanning through AAR’s list of DIK reviews, I was excited to unearth Rike’s review of your Thief Series.
Back in July of 2007, I reviewed the first book in this series, The Thief, and in January of 2008, I reviewed The Queen of Attolia. While neither book received an A grade from me, the ending of The Queen of Attolia was so compelling that I was salivating to read the third book when I finished the second.
But other reviewing commitments delayed my reading it and then my life got so busy that I barely had time to read a thing. The consequence was that The King of Attolia has languished on my bookshelf far too long. Happily, the TBR challenge was the excuse I needed to pick it up and finish this set of reviews.
It is impossible to discuss the third book without giving MASSIVE SPOILERS for the …
Dear Mr. Crutcher,
 I picked up your book DEADLINE because my middle teenage daughter has a problem sitting still for long enough to read her required books for English, and when she does read them, she needs help absorbing them. She started your book, handed it to me and demanded to know “Is the main character really dying????”
As in she couldn’t believe her eyes. So I opened the book and read.
Yes, the main character is dying. Almost stopped reading right there because my kid-in-jeopardy tolerance is pretty low. But here’s the thing. I couldn’t. You sucked me right in with your easy, sardonic wit and devastating charm coated in a bluntness that as an author myself, I loved. Our hero is Ben Wolf, a pint-sized, eighteen year old who lives in a small town in Idaho. He has big things planned for his senior year, big things that don’t include a fatal blood disease.
But he takes the cards he’s dealt. Because he’s eighteen, he’s allowed to keep his terminal disease a secret from his crazy mother, distanced father and beloved brother. It’s a decision …
Oh boy, where to start?
Statement: Not a contemp fan…
But Dahl has won me.
Â
It wasn’t the plot
It wasn’t Ben or Molly
Or the hot sexxors
The story? Saucy.
The voice? Fun, frisky & light.
I am your fangirl.
Blushing Sheriff Ben
Naughty kittenish Molly
Turns life upside down
Molly’s secret? Porn.
Just kidding. She writes for an
Ellora’s Cave Clone.
How to describe Ben?
â€Metrosexual’ does it.
Want to pinch his cheeks.
There is a stalker
Molly needs a slap to head
(Bit too dismissive)
No worries out there
Romanceland! TSTL
Radar never beeps.
Was giving a B
But write up gives warm fuzzies
So…you get an A.
 Story parallel to Cade’s
What I liked: EVERYTHING
Cole can do no wrong.
Illusion Queen is
Misunderstood, not evil
(Well, a bit evil.)
Rydstrom shows his horns
Grows a personality
Bondage fetish, yum.
One part of story
Disappoints: we never see
Ryd’s piercings, alas.
I’m a dirty bird
Wanted nasty hot sexxors
This has all & more
Witty, fun romp? Check.
Sex as playful torture? Check.
Gena shout out? CHECK.
Did I mention that
The cover is hotness itself?
Grade A from this girl.
Dear Ms. Samms:
Please write more quickly. Or just, more.
 You’ve got five free short stories (up to 14K words) plus three interconnected mini-shorts on your website, and one recently published short at Freya’s Bower (and one other so far unrecoverable short on a defunct online magazine–if anyone can recover, I’ll love you forever). (Oh, and one more online magazine story that I wasn’t willing to read because it looked like it had an unhappy ending (from my obligatory quick skim) and considering the emotional punch of your other stories, I just wasn’t willing to read anything by you that didn’t have a happy ending.) So, six and a few bits stories. But that’s it. And that’s Just. Not. Enough. So please write more, more quickly, more expansively. Just more.
Thanks to Paul Bens’ recommendation of your published story “The Runaway,” I clicked through to your website and read the free short stories there. All in one sitting, unfortunately, because now there’s nothing left to read.
Reading all your available stories one right after another highlighted the recurring themes of love lost and recovered, …
 Janine: Since Pam Rosenthal’s previous book, The Slightest Provocation, provided us with some discussion fodder, we thought her newest, The Edge of Impropriety, might be fertile ground for a conversational review. Here is a description of the book, followed by Jennie’s thoughts and my own:
The Edge of Impropriety begins with a prologue set in Italy in 1818, in which the book’s hero, Jasper Hedges, is trying to negotiate the currents of a dangerous conversation with his sister-in-law. Jasper’s two-year-old niece, Sydney, is playing nearby while Jasper, a scholar of the classics, and Celia, a beautiful baroness, dance around the subject of their fifteen year old son, who is being brought up as the heir of Jasper’s brother John.
Neither John nor Anthony, the child Celia gave birth to fifteen years before, know that Jasper is Anthony’s biological father. Celia and Jasper have kept their betrayal of John a secret for a decade and a half, and Jasper is resolved that the secret will remain buried forever, even if the costs to himself are exile from England, and never meeting his own son. But that very night, Jasper’s plans change when Celia and John drown …
 I emailed Jane a couple of days ago, wondering if she’d be interested in reviews of BDSM romances (BDSM is a combination acronym of the sexual practices/identities of Bondage/Discipline, Domination/Submission, and Sadist/Masochism and covers under its umbrella many sexual paraphilia and fetishes). While I’m a contributing blogger at Teach Me Tonight and at Romancing the Blog, the reviews I want to do are not appropriate for either forum. I don’t want to analyze these books, I just want to pimp them. I want to show the world how brilliant these books are as romances despite the fact that a large portion of the population might find their subject matter repellent. I want to pimp the books that get BDSM relationships, that understand how they can be just a loving and supportive as vanilla relationships. So while I might be “blind, partial, prejudiced, absurd” when it comes to these books, at least I’m aware of it, right? And I’m still writing a review—showing the bad with the good, trying to be at least slightly impartial (is that like being a little bit pregnant?).
I found …
Dear Mr. Richardson,
 Jane usually gets most of the arcs and reading copies of the books sent to us by publishers. Then she emails us and we put in our dibs for certain books and she mails them out. The post office must know Jane well by now based on the number of times she must trudge down there to stand in line and support the USPS.
Your book was in my latest shipment from Jane. Amidst the ones I had asked for and ones Jane had requested for me was this slim, small volume. I stared at it, puzzled. What was this? It was, according to the back cover:
“An alphabet of the language of lovers, a beautiful fable of art and mortality: elegant, wise, and humane. I like to think of the happiness this book will bring. I’m sure it will be given as a gift between lovers, and will inspire many journeys – geographical and emotional.” — Chris Cleave
Okaaaay, I thought. But what is it? Hmmm, a captivating hour and a half read with frequent breaks to sniff and wipe away a stray tear? Yes, it’s that. A lovely view of …
Dear Ms. Collins,
 I have no doubt that many people will compare this book to the Japanese novel, Battle Royale by Koushun Takami. How can they not? Both books take place in dystopian futures and feature oppressive governments that require children to compete in a last man standing survival game. And while it’s true there are similarities in premise and plot, I think your book brings enough new to the table that it’s easily one of the must read young adult novels of the year.
Set in the future, The Hunger Games takes place long after natural disasters, war, disease, and famine destroyed society as we know it. From the ruins of North America rose the nation of Panem, which consisted of a powerful Capitol ruling over thirteen surrounding Districts. The Districts didn’t like the Capitol’s oppressive rule very much and soon rose up together in a rebellion.
The results were disastrous. The Capitol quelled the uprising in twelve Districts and completely annihilated the thirteenth. As punishment, the Capitol created the Hunger Games. Each year, every District must send one boy and one girl …
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