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

Of the three books reviewed below, two have that distinct HP feel to them replete with the high powered arrogant hero and the less empowered female. The two with the distinctive HP evoked more emotional response than the first one, His Mistress by Arrangement, but I gave higher marks to HMbA because it focused on more emotional development than the other two, primarily because the emotional response invoked by the other two were negative ones. However, if you are an HP lover, I would think that the second two books better provide that specific emotional fix.

Also, until June 1, 2008, the following books are only for sale at the eharlequin website in eformat.

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His Mistress by Arrangement by Natalie Anderson. Emma is a hotel manager whose co workers think she is all work no play and a very dull girl. An old friend shows up at her local hotel and gives her an opportunity to show her co workers that she’s actually quite adventurous. Jake Rendel is a little miffed at first but then sees an opportunity to unwind Emma during his five weeks …

Dear Ms. Cohen:

I first discovered you when your book, His for the Taking, was nominated for an RNA award. I thought HFTheT was a wonderfully nuanced story but while Mistress in Private shares some similarities, it also requires a large suspension of disbelief and one that I could not get past.

Jane Miller works as an account manager for Pearce Grey Advertising. She’s been put in charge of a very important account for a difficult account — Giovanni Franco’s new cologne. Pearce Grey is the fourth in a line of ad agencies working with the difficult Franco. To make matters worse, her fiancee and co-worker has broke it off with her in a very public manner. To gain back a bit of her pride, she is determined to make the Franco account work.

Jonny Cole is a nerd turned hot model known as Jay Richard. Jonny and Jane have been great friends since they were kids but haven’t seen each other since they were 11 years old. Jonny comes to England to work on the ad campaign of Franco and sends an email divulging …

Dear Ms. Smith:

Winter Wedding is a bit of a fantasy tale with a very sweet misunderstanding that separates the hero and heroine. The story is fluffy and I wouldn’t be able to read several in this vein in a row without getting a toothache, but for a holiday story, it might help set the right mood for gift giving and falling in love.

Clara Christopher, age 22, is an orphan who goes from aunt to cousin to uncle to friend as way of life. Two years ago while Clara was at a house party, she was romanced for by handsome Lord Allingcote but he had to leave abruptly when his father fell ill. Clara hasn’t seen him since. She’s heard of Lord Allingcote, not that she’s kept track or anything, but it always seems she misses him. He’ll show up at a house party that she thought of going to but turned down. He’ll arrive at a party just as she is leaving. They are like two ships in the night.
They seemed to go to many of the same places, unfortunately at different …

Dear Mrs. Treanor,

As I started to read The Other Sea, I was all set to brave Triskelion and buy all your backlist at once. Despite the editing problems that I’m coming to associate with that publisher (smiles at Angie), I was prepared to glom. After finishing this book, I’m still willing to try your backlist, but I will restrain myself, buy them one by one and hope that they don’t have the same problems as this one.

Overall, my impression of this book is favorable. You have a wonderful, little used setting (1068 in Scotland or Scotia as some of your characters call it) and you appear to have done your homework regarding the politics and people of your story (thanks Maili). You use period names (again, thanks Maili for the pronunciation lessons) instead of incongruously expecting us to believe that medieval women were named Chelsea or medieval men were called Cody. Your descriptions seem accurate and thank God you don’t attempt to have the characters speak in dialect nor use anachronistic words. Huzzah!

I like that you don’t spoon feed us by stopping to awkwardly insert information nor dump a history lecture on …