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

Ladies,

I think most romance readers view anthologies as a mixed blessing. Readers get a chance to read favorite authors or try new ones in a short format. Sometimes the stories work but usually there’s at least one which doesn’t. I’ll cut short your suspense and say that in “To Hell with the Ladies” that usual premise didn’t hold true for me: two stories were OK while one was quite good.

Ms. O’Reilly, you start things out with the story of Lucifer’s oldest son. Jack has waited almost 1000 years for the chance to follow in his father’s footsteps. His current occupation is running a casino in Vegas but he jumps at the chance to fulfill his father’s demand and thereby take over the family business, namely running hell. All Jack has to do is go to an old, family run bookstore in NYC and buy one little book, The Book of Souls. Piece of cake, Jake thinks. Especially when Jack finds that the store is run by a pretty but naive young women. A little wining and dining, some killer shopping sprees and great sex later, Jack learns that not every women will be satisfied with the material …

Dear Ms. Crusie, Foster and Phillips:

I would have never thought the three of you were a good match in an anthology but, for the most part, it worked. For the readers edification, however, only Hot Toy by Jennifer Crusie is a new contribution. Christmas Bonus by Lori Foster was previously published in All I Want for Christmas in 2000 and Naughty Under the Mistletoe by Carly Phillips was previously published in Naughty or Nice? in 2001. One thing I noticed about each of these anthologies is that each couple had a previous connection before the start of the story and none of the stories ended with babies.

Hot Toy by Jennifer Crusie
For Crusie fans disappointed (or delighted) by Don’t Look Down, Hot Toy is much more in keeping with traditional Crusie writing. It features great dialogue, a mouthy heroine, and a fast moving plot. On Christmas Eve, Trudy Maxwell is searching for a MacGuffin, the season’s Hot Toy, for her nephew Leroy. Leroy’s father just ran off his his nanny and his mother is desperate for Trudy to find this particular toy. Only, because of …

Dear Ms. Dimon:

After this book, I am on an anthology diet because as a general rule, I find them dissatisfying. Your stories, particularly your first two, were like a breath of fresh air through the stale anthology shelf.

Viva Las Bad Boys is set, well, in Las Vegas, of course. It features three stories that take place at the The Berkley Hotel and Casino, a premiere luxury destination on the Strip. All three stories feature great dialogue with funny and smart exchanges between the hero and heroine. If that is your hallmark, I’ll be buying alot of your books. Good dialogue, particular flirtatious funny banter, is as rare as it is enjoyable. The last story didn’t really live up to the standards set in the first two but not by too much.

I hesitate to say much about your stories because I don’t want to spoil the fun reveal that takes place while reading. Jackpot features a jilted bride and a man jilted by his business partner. Not all is what it seems. This is a deception story and what makes it work is that …

Boys of Summer

This whole “acknowledging your illness as the first step to recovery” is not working for me. I have already said that I don’t like anthologies but I keep buying them. I blame this mistake on the fact that I love sports and who can resist the ass on that guy? No straight woman or gay guy that I know of. Boys of Summer is a compilation of three short stories featuring heroes who are employed by the Louisville Slammers, a major league baseball team. The sex scenes are quite explicit in this story, as explicit as the ones sold at Ellora’s Cave. Do Elizabeth Bevarly or Jill Barnett or Jan Butler know about this? Because these stories and the authors who wrote them are every bit as pornographic as those accursed epublished books.

These stories all suffer from the same problems

1) lack of showing
2) minimal dialogue
3) attempt to fit an entire romance into a compressed space
4) a blushing herione

Dear Ms. Leto:

Your story set the stage for the entire collection and involved baseball errors so large that I could not get past it to enjoy the …

Dear Authors:

I’ll be straight up and cut to the chase. This is the first anthology I have liked in a . . . . well, I can’t remember the last time I really enjoyed an anthology. Even though there were some quibbles I had with each story, overall, I felt that they were hot, modern and romantic. I can see alot of my contemporaries enjoying this collection. Overall, I would grade the anthology a B-.

Dear. Ms. Jordan,
While “The Legend of Black Robert Flynn” isn’t awful, neither is it any better than just average. It starts well with young, innocent friends then fast forwards to the heroine running away from an abusive marriage straight into the hands of the now pirate hero who saves her after she’s nearly raped by an entire ship of other pirates. After recognizing her as his lost love, he vows to “have her” and makes a bargain to keep the others off her if she gives herself to him. For a woman who’s endure 5 years of marital hell followed by a narrow escape from a gang bang, she sure gives herself over to hot loving quickly enough. But the lovin’ is hot and he does truly love her, even if he’s not going to tell her who he is just yet. But her husband appears on the scene and a fight is in the works. But then, suddenly we’re fast forwarded yet again but this time back to London where a faithful subordinate has delivered our girl who now mourns her recognized love until suddenly he appears and it’s The End. C- for you, as Jane says.

Dear Ms. …