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

Dear Ms Cassidy,

My bio states that I’m currently sort of paranormaled out but I will make an exception for authors known to me. After reading and enjoying your werewolf series last year, I was happy to try “The Accidental Werewolf” and delighted it gently skewed a few of the standards of the genre.

Some readers might not like Marty Andrews. At first she kind of comes across as, well let’s not beat around the bush, a dumb blonde who’s way to interested in makeup and selling of makeup. Her sarcasm might grate as well. But as I was reading her, I wasn’t bothered by that. I could see the initial denial and sarcasm as her way of coping. What she is told, from out of the blue, is a life altering change plus not something you hear every day and this is Marty’s way of dealing with it.

Once she got used to and accepted the idea that the chance encounter while getting her teacup poodle away from the large dog in the alley had made her a werewolf, she handled it fairly well. She didn’t get snippy with the …

Dear Ms Cassidy,

Finally, I finished reading this series. Though it’s not your fault, the final grade for this one ends up being affected by the fact that at this point, I’m tired of the same old same old in the paranormals I’ve been reading lately. I won’t list specifics to avoid spoilers for this novella.

In the first three Wolfmates books, we meet the Adams family. No, not “that” Adams family. This one is a pack of unusual, to say the least, werewolves. The alpha marries a human, his younger brother marries a domestic house cat, their sister hooks up with a lion and their cousin is a vegetarian. And their grandmother can cook up some mean chicken soup which she claims will fix just about anything. It’s no wonder that Emerson Palmer, a female werewolf with “issues,” feels like she’s finally found a family with them. Her own pack is far too straight-laced and she never really felt at home with them. But the Adams took her in and accepted her and for that, she’ll fight for them with all she’s got.

Who’s she fighting? Lassiter Adams that’s who. The despicable man intent on …

Apparently book deals don’t happen over the Christmas holiday.

This will make Jayne happy
Dakota Cassidy’s THE ACCIDENTAL WEREWOLF, about a multi-level cosmetics sales woman who finds herself accidentally bitten by a werewolf while walking her poodle Muffin, to Cindy Hwang at Berkley,
in a pre-empt, in a two-book deal, by Deidre Knight at The Knight Agency (NA).

I wasn’t going to post this one, but it was listed twice so I thought what the heck. They are trying hard. It’s a labeled a fiction sale even though it sounds like a non fiction story.
Rock lyricist and publicist for musicians and celebrities Rocci Hills’ 3 MINUTES ON LOVE, based on the real story of the first woman to break into the field of rock photography (with a shot of a legendary blues musician she took at age l7) and her struggle with drugs and stormy affair with a rock star to Martin Shepard at The Permanent Press for publication in 2008 by Jodie Rhodes at Jodie Rhodes Literary Agency.

Everyone’s succumbing to the erotic fiction side. I would laugh my head off if this was Elizabeth Merrick who edited This Is Not Chick Lit.
Geneva Holliday’s HEAT, the third in a …

Dear Ms. Cassidy,

I think I like Moon Over Manhasset the best of your Wolfmates books. Julia Lawrence, cousin to the heroes of An American Werewolf and What’s New Pussycat, is a werewolf living in Manhasset. Um, sorry, make that she-wolf. Julia loves her doggie boutique business and makes tons of money with it. Now she needs some help investing all that lovely money and who better to help her than Xavier Wolf of Pride Investments. He’s intelligent, he’s handsome, he’s hot enough to melt paving materials and he doesn’t seem to mind when Julia’s tail appears after a bout of hot sex on his executive desk. In fact, he’s got a tail too only his is a lion tail. Julia’s cousin married a housecat but could a she-wolf ever hope for happiness, beyond nuclear meltdown boinking, with a werelion?

This is two heroines in a row who have taken charge of their sexuality, reveled in it and called the shots. I love it. Julia’s no shrinking virgin who goes from innocent to vixen (oops, that would be another shapeshifter, right?) after having sex one time. I did have to wonder at the fact …

Dear Ms Cassidy,

I have to say that you’re taking a typical werewolf romance story and turning it in a different direction that I’ve read before. I mean, how many werewolves are fated to marry/mate with domestic housecats? Not too many. As with “An American Werewolf in Hoboken,” I loved the cat heroine’s feline POV. Yes, cats are finicky, yes they only want the best (as everyone knows they deserve only the best, thank you very much),no they don’t like fingers waggled in their faces and anything in a house is theirs. You must have cats to have nailed that attitude so well.

Once again, the sex scenes are well done and I appreciate a heroine who knows what she wants sexually and is willing to go for it. No shrinking virgin heroine here! I loved the hero’s discussions with his penis.

So, what didn’t work so well? I don’t think this story can really stand that well on its own. If someone hasn’t read Wolfmates I, I guess they can muddle through the relationships and set up but it certainly helps (a lot) to have read the first installment. And the buildup of the …

Dear Ms. Cassidy,

An American Werewolf in Hoboken is the first of your Wolfmates trilogy and starts the series off with a bang. I love that so much of the hero’s POV is told while in his shapeshifted werewolf state. And from someone who owns a large dog and spends a fortune on dog “things” I can feel JC’s pain when she walks out of Petsmart after “adopting” Max from the local animal shelter. Thank you for making JC just an average Jane earning a living instead of some high profile lawyer or glamorous model. I do wonder how Max and his pack survive even if it is out in the sticks of New Jersey. Wouldn’t someone report seeing wolves running loose, even if one of them is a vegetarian who keeps pet rabbits? And what’s with grandma Eva’s predictions of lifemates obtained from reading messages in a bowl of chicken noodle soup? Shouldn’t she at least be reading alphabet soup?

As I’m coming to expect, the frequent sex in this book is hot without being silly or crude. Do I want to know if you did research for the “sex on a dining room table” …

Dear Ms Cassidy,

And now for something completely different. The other two books of yours I’ve read have been heavy on the paranormal and had more of a humorous feel to them. Though “Sex with Your Ex” has humor and a paranormal element, it’s mainly a marriage in trouble book. It’s also got such an emotional depth to it. Just as your heroine, Melina, does, readers will have to decide whether or not they can forgive a hero who’s committed the ultimate betrayal.

I thought you handled the payoff scene brilliantly. I mean, how many times have I wanted a wounded heroine to really let the hero have it with both barrels only to have her forgive and forget too quickly? Too damn many. And I love how Melina’s actions and feelings are a product of how she was raised. I appreciate that Brady knows he f*cked up, knows how much he hurt the woman he loves so much and is willing to work to save his marriage. Melina’s honesty with herself was refreshing too.

I have one niggle that keeps this from being an A grade and since it’s kind …

Dear Ms. Cassidy,

I needed to pick a Changeling Press book for my epublisher review and yours caught my eye. I’m still not quite sure about the cover art (what happened to the heroine’s head?) but the book is great fun. Kind of “The Incredibles” crossed with a romance book.

Kennedy Smith isn’t quite sure what to make of this guy who’s telling her she’s some long distant relative of an Egyptian goddess and that she’s been picked to join OOMPH. The Organization of Magnificent Paranormal Heroes needs her as a positive spin-meister type, kinda person.