Dear Author: Romance Novel Reviews, Industry News, and Commentary

The list is sparse guys. It’s hard to say whether we are behind in our reading or whether January was just a bad month for us. I have four recommendations for February so I am going with the latter.

From Jayne

Whistling in the Dark by Tamara Allen
It’s post war New York City and everything is changing. Old conventions are being abandoned for the bright new possibilities as flappers bob their hair and raise their hemlines. People can actually buy a newfangled contraption called a radio and listen to music in their homes. Sleek cars cruise the streets and wild parties take place on rooftops. Jazz fills nightclubs and people are hurrying to buy up booze before Prohibition finally goes into effect. The city that never sleeps has something for everyone. You just have to know where to look.

But for Sutton Albright, New York is a last resort. He could go home to the family empire in Topeka but after what he was expelled from college for doing, the shame would embarrass his family. So he pawns most of what he owns and gratefully takes a job in a diner. It’s here, while delivering meals …

Dear Mrs. Kelly,

I admit right off the bat that I’m a Kellyphile from way back. Once I got back into reading romance years ago, friends of mine praised your trad Regency books and after the first one I read (”Reforming Lord Ragsdale”), I had to have them all. It’s a lot easier, and cheaper, to be able to buy them new. So imagine my delight to learn that you have not just one but TWO new releases this year. Nirvana….bliss…Snoopy happy dance….

Eleanor “Nana” Massie is a hardworking young woman. She really has no choice since the small inn in Plymouth owned by her Gran is her only home in the world. But it’s tucked back from the waterfront, far from foot traffic and the ships of the Royal Navy and times are hard. There’s little leisure traveling by civilians and the blockade being kept up by the warships means they’re not in port except for dire emergencies.

And it’s only such an emergency - actually an idiot fellow captain who accidentally ran his ship into the stern of HMS Tireless - that brings Captain Oliver Worthy back to port. While in …

Dear Ms. Kelly,

I have enjoyed several of your books in the past, so I rejoiced to hear that you had a new book coming out. Beau Crusoe is the story of James Trevenen, a naval officer shipwrecked on a deserted island where he spent five years in isolation. To hold on to his sanity, James began observing a subspecies of crabs that he named the Gloriosa Jubilate, and wrote a treatise about them.

After his rescue by missionaries, James returned home to find his mother had died. He retired to his estate in Cornwall, but when the Royal Society wanted to award him the Copley medal for his treatise on the crabs, James decided to come to London for a two-week stay, during which he will receive the medal.

Beau Crusoe begins when the eccentric (some might even say kooky) Lord and Lady Watchmere prepare to host James in their London home at the request of Sir Joseph Banks of the Royal Academy. Lord Watchmere wants his daughter, Susannah, to act as James's escort. Years earlier Susannah ran off to Gretna Green with …

Dear Mrs Kelly,

I was upset when I learned Signet wouldn’t be publishing any more of your delightful regencies. Then elated to hear the news that you’d been picked up by Harlequin Historicals. Then pissed when that line was due to close. Then happy when they reversed that decision then frustrated to learn the wait for “Beau Crusoe” would be 6 months, then a year. In other words, I’ve been waiting for this one. While it ends up not being one of my favorites, it’s still well worth the wait.

Lt James Trevenen gets his first command when HMS Orion splits open on a coral reef somewhere in the South Pacific. Out of the total ship’s complement, only 5 men make it into the long boat and only James is an officer, hence it’s his command. After two weeks with no food or fresh water, things get desperate. After three weeks James alone makes it alive to the small island he will call home for the next five years. To save his sanity, he begins to study and document the small crabs that live in the tidal pools of the island. After five years of …