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

Sayuri commented in my Harlequin (not so) Lightning Reviews last week that she enjoyed Sarah Mayberry. I bought three of her books at Fictionwise: Amorous Liaisons, Island Heat, and Anything For You.

The thing I like most about Mayberry’s characters is their self honesty and the sense that these individuals could be real people. They aren’t fantasy creatures but instead, like Borrill’s characters, there’s a sense of normalcy about them (even if they are artists, chefs, or business people). Their interactions rarely are over the top and it’s like Mayberry is simply serving as the narrator of a real life couple which is really one of the best fairy tales of all. I recommend starting with Anything For You, which was my favorite.

Amorous Liasons

Maddy Green is a dancer who has been told that she hasn’t been able to recover to the tear to her ACL and that she must “hang up her slippers.” Max Laurent left dancing to care for his father. His father has just passed away and Max is ready to start his life anew (not going to say what, it’s …

Welcome to First Page Saturday. Individual authors anonymously send a first page read and critiqued by the Dear Author community of authors, readers and industry others. Anyone is welcome to comment. You may comment anonymously.
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Serena was pacing around her hotel room for the second time when her cell phone rang. She picked up on the third ring.

“Miss Chirk?”

“Yes.” What a stupid question. Only Jones knew where to find her. But if she didn’t answer, he might send someone to this faceless hotel to check on her.

“Not good enough,” the male voice snapped. “Ms, not Miss. Remember your persona. Young, sassy, independent. Get it right every time, you hear me?”

She sighed. “Sure.”

Jones continued to harass her, as he always did, treating her like a child. “You can speak freely if you wish, but only on this phone. You understand?”

“Yes.” She was new to this business, not stupid. But she knew if she tried to tell him that, he’d only repeat what he’d told her a thousand times before and make her recite it back to him so she didn’t think it …

NOTE: Moonlit Romance is closing their epublishing doors December 31st so if you’re interested in any of their books, better buy now.

Dear Ms. Appel,

When I saw this at Fictionwise, the book blurb sounded fun instead of, well, preachy. And it was. I’ve been reading a lot of contemporary suspense novels lately so a plain, old regular contemporary about two people falling in love with no spies, killers or other suspenseful elements was just what I needed.
Jonathan could do nothing to aid his wife’s losing battle with cancer. With twenty years into the ministry, he can’t believe the Lord would leave him suddenly with both an empty nest and empty spot on the other side of the bed. Kat, music teacher and mother of grown twins, feels “settled” in small town Texas. Life may be dull, but at least it’s predictable–unlike her life with her late ex. Kat has come to the conclusion that a happy, committed relationship with a male is impossible thing, so she makes peace with herself and with God. If nuns can live celibate for years, then why can’t she make it the next fifty?
Only since …

Welcome to the My First Sale series. Each Friday, Dear Author posts the first sale letter of bestselling authors, debut authors, and authors in between.  Maya Rodale comes from a writing family.  She even toured with her grandmother, Ardie Rodale, promoting Ardie’s book, Every Day Miracles along with Maya’s debut book, The Heir and the Spare.  (I don’t know why but I find that totally endearing!) Her second in the series, The Rogue and the Rival, is in stores now.
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It all begins with the book of the heart, doesn’t it? Mine was a tale of duels, disguises, heiresses and fortune hunters, distracted chaperones, an American heiress snaring a duke, and true love conquering all. It was titled The Heir And The Spare.

Thinking a book deal was easier to get than a Real Job, I sent my beloved manuscript out into the world. Thinking Grad School was a great back-up plan, I applied to many institutions of higher learning. And then for the following six months I regularly received rejection letters. Sadness ensued.

There was only one thing to do: admit defeat and apply for a Real Job (the salaried sort with …

Dear Ms. Melton:

I had read and enjoyed the voice in the first book of yours that I had read and so I was interested in reading the next in the series, Too Far Gone, which picks up where book 2 left off on a couple of secondary characters.

Mother of three, Ellie Stuart, is struggling to go to school and to raise her boys. She rents a home from Navy SEAL Sean Harlan. Harlan is strongly attracted to Ellie but has a no single mother rule because of Harlan’s committment issues.  He is supposed to be a womanizer who enjoys the strings free relationships he has with several woman. For Ellie’s part, she doesn’t believe that strong, gorgeous and together Navy SEAL Harlan would want anything to do with her.  Her three boys get kidnapped and Sean charges in to help. The story then changes to a road romance as the two set off to find her kids.

Once the two start their search for the kidnapped children, the story started losing me.  Ellie and Sean are suspects by those in authority but are not instructed to stay in the area.  Instead, …

Got a book you want to talk about? Frustrated with a book or series? In love with a new one? Found a buried treasure? An issue that keeps popping up in the books you are reading? Just want to chat about stuff in general? Post away.

Dear Ms. MacNish:

Veiled Passions is the first book of yours I’ve read, and perhaps because of that, this is a very difficult review for me to write.  I wanted so much to like this book, because it has a number of elements I look for in Romance:  settings other than Regency England (this book is set in 1777 Venice and England), a seemingly hefty word count, a heroine who actually comes from a loving, intact family.  But for a number of reasons, some of which I still haven’t identified, I just did not connect emotionally to Veiled Passions or find myself engaged in the main couple’s rocky journey to love.

On the surface, Kieran Mullen has just about everything going for her:  beauty, a close, loving family, a wealthy, honorable, and protective brother who also happens to be a duke, and bright marriage prospects.  But she bears the scars of a three-year-old trauma that halted her emotional development and turned her into a veritable recluse.  Her family is baffled and concerned, tolerating her eccentricities and allowing her freedom from meeting societal expectations.  And when, at a party in Venice, she faces a specter …

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 …

Dear Ms. Hansen,

Currently I’m on a Love Inspired Suspense kick. In the past, romantic suspense books have been problematic for me as the balance between romance and suspense is hard to get right. Perhaps books without overt sex in them help this subgenre work better for me? ::shrugs:: Anyway, on to my thoughts.

Marie Parnell is on the run with her young daughter. Her ex-boyfriend has warned her that his partners in crime might come after her to learn where the missing ransom money he held back from them is. When Marie sees him being none to gently hauled off at gun point, she makes the choice to flee with Patty taking only what she can fit into her old car. When it suddenly breaks down in a small Arkansas town, she’s fairly sure it’s been tampered with. And anyone who’s ever had car trouble in a small town knows how long it can take to get parts and get back on the road. If only she knew what was in store for her.

Seth Whitfield has secrets of his own that have lead him to assume his new identity as a …

Dear Ms. Shinn,

I’m embarrassed to admit I’ve never read any of your novels before. Given how long I’ve been a fantasy reader, I don’t know how I managed to accomplish that. I hope my blogging partners here at Dear Author won’t hold it against me since several of them love your books. Better late than never, right?

To be honest, this probably wasn’t the best novel of yours to start with. First of all, it’s the fifth installment of an established series. While I didn’t get lost or confused at any point in the book, I could tell I was missing a lot of texture and richness when it came to the characterizations and relationships. I don’t think the book suffered because of it but I feel that people who’ve read previous books in the series would have gotten more out of it than a new reader like me would. That’s a just a theory though. I’d be interested in hearing from any other new readers who started with this book and what they thought about the presentation of characters and events.

I liked the idea …