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

Dear. Ms Ingram,

How I wish you’d written more books. I’d read posts touting Red Adam’s Lady and due to the generosity of another Avid Reader (thanks Keishon!), I got my hands on a copy of it. Depending on how readers like their realism, this one might be worth it though. It really gives a *you are there in the cesspool of a medieval hold* feeling. But it has humor and a great hero to balance that out.

Julitta de Montrigord is the daughter of a younger son and was raised on the tourney circuit in Europe until her father’s death when she was placed in a nunnery and then cast on the charity of her stingy uncle. She’s been ill treated by men her whole life and frankly doesn’t see much good in any of them. But she’s a realist and knows that her future will either be with a man her uncle picks for her or back in the convent. However, when faced with a forced marriage to Adam de Lorismond, she actually thinks life as a poor dependent in a convent might not be a bad idea.

Dear Ms. Bast:

Add me to your list of fangirls. Not the kind that pretends to be more than one person but the kind that haunts your blogs and marks down release dates for your books. The kind that gushes on the internet and in person at the bookstore about how hot, sexy and emotionally fulfilling your book is. That kind of fangirl. Let me say that you can send me an ARC anytime.

A Change of Seasons is a fantasy romance set in some medieval time period (horses, castles, keeps, etc. - think Lord of the Rings without the dwarves but with the hot guys like Legolas and Aragorn, if they were taller, better built, with wings, and looked alike. So maybe think TWO Sean Beans, with wings). Excuse me for a moment whilst I fan myself.

Moira, in A Change of Seasons, is endowed with magick as a result of being a direct descendant of the first born ones of New Ecasia. Moira is empathetic and as her magick grows stronger, she is forced to move to the forest away from the villagers. She begins to have powerful visions of two men: Lord Cyric and Lord Dain d’Ange. Lord Cyric’s visage is cold and cruel but Lord Dain’s is even more frightening. He is known as winged devourer of women (and not in a good way, IYKWM, and I think you all do).

Bianca Claremont, daughter of the Earl of Covey, and widow of Oscar Clairemont, skirts the edge of propriety every day. She openly takes lovers and lives a life of abandonment. Hawkins (aka Hawk) was a friend to her former husband and now a friend to Bianca. While they engage in many a teasing conversations rife with sexual innuendo, Bianca and Hawk have engaged in a sexual relationship. Hawkins has wanted Bianca, wanted her from the first but she was married to Oscar.

What Hawkins doesn't know is that the marriage damaged Bianca. She went into the marriage as a sweet young miss and emerged from it a woman who knows power only through control of the physical relationship. She is hardened by the marriage experience and while she lives life full of sensuality, it is because she was made that way.

Hawkins decides to act on his need for Bianca and engage in her in an affair, but he soon realizes that physical satiation will not be enough. Because of Bianca's marriage and the emotional trauma she suffered during the marriage, Hawkins is not able to make the emotional bond with Bianca that he desires. He is forced to respond to her in a language and in a manner which she understands: sexual dominance.

Dear Ms. Kenner,

I love Carpe Demon, last year’s prequel to California Demon, so I was ready when this one went on sale. Though it took the Waldenbooks clerk a couple of minutes to find where her co-workers had shelved it, I was able to go home happy. My credit card balance will haunt me in a few weeks with all the purchases I’ve made this month but I’ll worry about that tomorrow. ;)

In last years Carpe Demon, Kate Connor is a retired 4th level Demon Hunter when a sudden demon infestation and attempt to take over the world (or just SoCal) takes place. Reluctantly Kate heads back into the fray and saves the world. Now she’s been doing demon hunting duty for a few months. One of the places she routinely checks is a local retirement community since demons love to take over human bodies at the moment of death (you know all those miraculous medical miracles in the media? Most are actually demon infestations) and where’s a better place to find dying humans than there?