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

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 about three pages. It featured an ugly duckling of a heroine who was fat. I skimmed through it and found that the heroine wore a size 8 and decided that the book wasn’t worth reading. I also think these covers don’t help. There’s a huge difference between embarassing and bland, Penguin Art Deptartment, and these covers and the hideous new Joey Hill cover, fall into the bland.

Sorry, back from the cover tangent. In any event, because I received this book for free, I started to page through it and by the end of the second chapter, I was hooked. The story starts out a bit ordinary and predictable. Heroine (rich girl Trinity) comes home and finds her husband of six months in a shower going down on a big chested bimbo. She …

I noticed on Sybil’s blog today a cover for an Avon Red book which looked strikingly similar to the cover for Sunny Chen’s Mona Lisa Awakening. Are these too similar? They are for my tastes. It’s a great cover, but I’ll always like the first one better. Is it that there are just so many books and not enough unique ideas? Is it better to have one hot cover idea recycled continuously than have a hideous cover?

I tend to think the similar cover may backfire. I may see it and think, I’ve already read, bought, borrowed that book.