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

Dear Ms. Kendall:

I can’t recall if I have ever read a book by you before so this might be my first of yours. It was a very uneven ride, but there were enough good aspects that I would definitely read you again.

Avy Hunt is an art recovery agent for ARTemis. She breaks the law to obtain art that is taken by thieves. Her clients are art collectors, museums, and insurance companies. Her latest assignment is a plum one. She is to steal back the Sword of Alexander, rumored to the sword given to Alexander the Great by his father and used in the Battle of Issus in 333 B.C. The catch is that thief extraordinaire Liam James is purportedly holding the sword. Obtaining an object held by another thief is much harder than an ordinary owner and Avy loves the challenge.

The problem is that Liam is almost always one step ahead of Avy. While Avy is getting her assignment, Liam is casing her house so well that Avy never catches it. While Avy is on the plane to England, Liam is only a few rows …

Dear Ms Jones,

Last year I wrote you a letter about your first book, “The Seventh Unicorn.” Now, in your second book, you explore an art area close to my heart, Renaissance Italy, and include much more romance than in the first book.
Thirty years after leaving Florence with a broken heart, Suzanne Cunningham is thrilled to finally be going back to teach art history. But preparing for her course, she comes across something she never expected. A book reveals that a small but significant painting, Madonna and Child, was destroyed in the flood of 1966. But Suzanne knows this isn’t true. She knows, because with the help of her former lover, Stefano, she rescued it-after the infamous flood…

Now back in the magical city that once captured her heart, Suzanne is determined to solve the mystery of what happened to that priceless painting-and to the man who forever changed the course of her life …
While this book does have more romance in it, it’s still mainly a women’s fiction style of book and focuses on Suzanne, an older woman, and her history with Florence and art. …

Dear Ms. Pace:

Jayne raved about this book when it first came out and it has only taken me a year to read it. I am not sure why I waited other than the fact that I can be a cheapskate at times and didn’t want to splurge on a trade paperback. But you showed up at my library and I snapped you up. Now I am wondering why I waited so long?

The book is standard chick lit fare: plucky heroine finds her world falling apart and must spend the book reorienting her life. Jane Laine finds out her boyfriend of two years has started a new relationship without telling her. She has a job at an art gallery working for the most horrible man on earth. The gallery’s main claim to fame is the representation of Ian Rhys-Fitzsimmon. Ian is the hottest modern artist of our time, according to the book. Ian plans to do a summer art festival tour that takes him all over the world. His art sells best after the art fairs and he requests that Jane …

Dear Ms. Kelly,
As an art lover, I have to tell you that your book is a delight. A delight with some problems as a true romance book but perhaps you intended it to be more of fiction with a romance element. I like the way you parallel your idea of the creation of the famous Cluny Unicorn Tapestries with the modern day hunt to find a possible lost seventh one.
A major niggle for me is that you do a lot of telling in places instead of showing. And I did get impatient with the love story. I like a reunited lovers story but this one is too drawn out. Right til the end of the book. And both Jake and Alex have their moments of childishness and misunderstandings. You also tip your hand a little early and I had a pretty good idea how the ultimate fate of the seventh tapestry would play out.

But I also like how there are ups and downs in the story. Frustrations as well as triumphs as Alex and Jake head down the road towards the final destination. It’s …