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

Dear Mr. Priest,

Ever since I read somewhere that rock stars were supposedly unacceptable in Romancelandia, I’ve been fascinated by the concept and read them whenever one pops up (nothing like telling me something’s “not done” to make me want to do it!).  In The Curtis Reincarnation, Tyler Curtis is the young (”not yet one-and-twenty” as Elizabeth Bennet would say), insanely talented, goth bad boy of pop rock.  Everyone loves him and he apparently hates everyone, sneering and swearing and acting like a spoiled asshole, with rumors of destroyed hotel rooms and a groupie-a-night policy.  The total bad boy-ness hooked me, of course.

Additionally, there’s your author page.  After the recent discussion about authors of gay male fiction “presenting” themselves online as male when they might not be, I was intrigued to find a novel written by someone definitely presenting as male, complete with yummy pictures (something the potentially non-male “male” authors definitely DON’T provide). I hasten to add that I’m not naive enough to believe everything I see or read on the internet, but I definitely thought it was worth a shot. So, I thought to myself, let’s see if I can tell …

Dear Ms. Howard:

It’s a good thing that you are going back to writing romances because Cover of Night is not a romance. It is a suspense book with a romantic theme. Frankly, it's a shitty not a very good suspense book. The setup, which pits the town of Trail Stop against a band of professional killers, is ridiculous beyond belief strains the edges of credulity.

The first half of the book is spent setting up the conflict. No real action takes place in the first 70 pages. There is little meaningful interaction between Cate and Cal, two of the protagonists (not to mention the most boring sex scene ever in a Linda Howard book). More than half the book is spent in the minds of the antagonists and watching the antagonists get their operation together (and watching it fall apart).

I found it hard to believe that these killers could stay in business or be the “best” when the whole operation turned into a giant mess. The killers were only the “best” because you told me they were. Not because they evinced any abilities to succeed on their …

CONTEST! Venus Press is offering DearAuthor readers a chance to win three gift certificates worth $5.00. You just need to post below one of the three books Jane bought in trying out Venus Press. Hint: One is from the Confessions line, one from the Paranormal line, and one from the Contemporary line. The first three posters to guess one of the books will get the $5.00 gift certificate.
Venus Press opened its doors in 2004. It publishes erotic stories in a six categories:

Confessions (2,000 to 5,000 words)

Aphrodisiacs (5,000 to 9,750 words),

Short stories (around 10,000-18,000 words),

Novellas (around 19,000-30,000 words),

Category length novels (around 31,000-45,000 words),

Novel length works (46,000 to 80,00 words).