Dear Readers,
Last month we received an unusual request at Dear Author. We were asked to review something other than a book — a DVD set called “The Romance Collection: Special Edition.” The 14 DVD set, which can be found here, retails for $99.95 and contains nearly 30 hours of programming (not [...]

Dear Ms. Kenin:
I was anxious to read Hidden, the second in your new futuristic romance series. While not as revelatory to me as Driven, Hidden still has all the elements that attracted me to your work in the first place.
In Driven we saw the downfall of the ruler of North, leaving [...]

Dear Ms. Kantra:
Sea Witch is a departure from the paranormals that I prefer. It’s the real world with a paranormal aspect instead of fully developed alternate reality. This type of paranormal is usually not my favorite but really worked in this situation. I’ve not read a lot of Kantra [...]

Dear Ms. Haynes:
I hadn’t read you before and honestly, I didn’t think I would like this book. The reason for this isn’t grounded in any good reason, but a fairly superficial one, but I’ll articulate it in case other readers make these snap judgments.
I had started the book Fortune Hunter and read [...]

Dear Mrs. McInerney,
Since it doesn’t look like I’m going to get to Australia any time soon, your book will have to serve as a travelogue of sorts. The Australian Tourism Board can use it as a reason why people should fold themselves into tiny airplane seats for an ungodly number of hours. [...]

Dear Ms. Cumbie and Ms. McClanahan,
Your first book was a delight, second I haven’t read, third was a disappointment and fourth I almost didn’t read. Ha. Let that be a lesson to me. From the blurb, I knew that this would be more comedy and mystery than romance and in the [...]

Dear Mrs. Townend,
When I read the description for your newest book, “His Captive Lady,” all I truly noticed is that it’s a medieval and set in the fens of East Anglia. It’s not until I began reading it that it dawned on me that it’s also a Saxon vs Norman story [...]

Dear Ms. St. Claire:
This is the 7th installment in the BulletCatcher series comprised of five books and two novellas. Generally, I’ve liked each one of the installations. A lot of the times I think how well I like one of these books depends on how well I respond to the main characters.
Then You [...]

Dear Mrs Belmond,
When I finished reading “A Rather Curious Inheritance,” I knew there ought to be more about Penny Nichols (who is aware of the silliness of her name) and Jeremy Laidley (her sort of English cousin) after their show of interest in each other and in combining the actually rather [...]

Dear Ms. Dimon:
Hard as Nails is an anthology that takes place inside a house that is being rehabbed. The first story is an architect working on the project, the second is of the lawyer to the construction company and the third is the project manager of the rehabbing project. All three books [...]

Dear Mrs Justiss,
“A Most Unconventional Match” lives up to its name. I fear that the back blurb won’t give readers much enticement to choose it over any other Regency set historical though. When I first read it, I thought, “hmmmm, okay. Sounds….nice.” Which I would guess is not the “gotta buy this [...]

Dear Ms. Cabot:
This is the third in the Queen of Babble series featuring Lizzie Nichols, a wedding dress restorer and designer. I’ve read the first one but not the second (I have no explanation for not reading the second). The book begins with Lizzie confused about an encounter with her good [...]

Dear Ms. Gibson,
After Jennie did a review of “Not Another Bad Date,” I saw her grade and mentally wilted a little. In fact, I wasn’t sure I even wanted to read it at that point. But after starting, and stopping, a horrible historical - asshole hero plus virgin martyr widow! - [...]

Dear Ms. Banks:
I know you have a list of books you think I should read that you wrote and books you think I will despise but I can’t recall where this one fell on the list. Nikki has wanted JT Summers for as long as she remembered wanting a man but she’s always been [...]

Dear Ms Novik,
I’m so glad I waited until now to read “Empire of Ivory” even though I’ve had a copy in my hot little hands, well actually piled on top of my TBR heap by my computer, for months now. Something told me to wait, to keep it in reserve until closer [...]

[Jia's Note: The English translation was done by Cathy Hirano.]

Dear Ms. Uehashi,
With the increasing popularity of manga and anime in the West, it only makes sense that Japanese novels would follow. I first heard about your ten-volume Moribito (Guardian) series via various blogs discussing the anime adaptation of the first book, Guardian of [...]

Dear Ms. Gifford,
Your name was on my list of authors to try so when I spotted your latest release and realized it was about weavers in Flanders during the middle ages, I decided to try it. Hey, no knights, different setting, middle class, little used historical incident - I’m there. True it has a [...]

Dear Ms. Moran:
I can trace my fascination with Ancient Egypt back to my middle school days when I saw a picture in my social studies textbook of an Egyptian battery. I don’t think I’ve ever gotten over the amazement I experienced as I devoured information on Egyptian methods of embalming and [...]

Dear Ms. Spencer-Fleming
As I blogged a couple of days ago, this series has been a long time favorite of friend and fellow reader, Keishon. I trust Keishon’s judgment quite a bit. She’s led me to read some wonderful mystery authors. However, I long held back from reading this series because [...]

Dear Mrs. Davison,
Earlier this year I read your first novel “Duking Days:Rebellion.” As I said, it took me back to my early days of reading historical fiction rather than true romance books. When I finished it, I already had plans to read the sequel, “Duking Days: Revolution.” This story does take up exactly where [...]

Dear Ms. Carey,
I loved the original Kushiel trilogy. I found the heroine Phèdre nó Delaunay, her story as a premier courtesan and the only anguisette in generations, and the Terre D’Ange setting fascinating and compelling. All those things were enough to keep me reading the second trilogy about her adopted son, Imriel, despite the [...]

Dear Ms. Showalter,
Even though the prequel and first book of your Lords of the Underworld series failed to impress me, I wasn’t ready to give up on such a great premise. I hoped one of the later installments would work better for me. With this second book in the series, I have to [...]

Dear Ms. Donovan,
A few weeks ago I reviewed a Kathleen O’Reilly Blaze book featuring an accountant hero. I made a little joke about how unsexy that profession is and was almost run over by posters quick to correct my view point. Wow, now I know to look beyond audits, tax forms [...]

Dear Ms. Giffin,
Exactly one hundred days to her marriage to her husband Andy, Ellen Graham literally crosses paths with her ex-boyfriend Leo. Ellen describes their encounter this way:
From the outside, say if you were a cabdriver watching frantic jaywalkers scramble to cross the street in the final seconds before the light changed, it [...]

Dear Ms. Hailstock,
I have to admit it was the beautiful cover of “Wrong Dress, Right Guy” which caught my eye followed by the blurb. Yeah, I’m a sucker for weddings too as long as I’m not the one running the last minute errands or having to spring for any more of [...]