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

I received an email from a reader asking me what these Eppie Awards were. I think I had heard of them before, but can’t say that they’ve ever influenced my purchases. One entry I thought was interesting was Sylvia Day’s book, Ask for It, which was released electronically but published but a print publisher so the Eppies must not be for books which are published by an e-publisher by books which are e-published regardless of the publisher’s standing.

I know Jayne is a big fan of Darlene Marshall who finaled twice in the Historical Romance category for Captain Sinister’s Lady and Pirate’s Price.

Dear Mrs. Marshall,
See I’m finally getting around to writing you a letter about the first book of yours I actually read. So, I’m a little backwards! My enjoyment of Smuggler’s Bride did lead me to read your other two books. ;)
Lady Julia Delarue has arrived in Florida to visit her Aunts and Uncles (so her parents think) and to have some adventures as her American mother did after she married Julia’s English father (so Julia thinks). But what she doesn’t count on, as she tries to help solve the mystery of who is using her family’s shipping business to smuggle goods into Florida past the noses of the understaffed and unappreciated fledgling US Revenue Marine (later changed to US Coast Guard), is that she’s going to end up in the Florida piney woods in a cabin with a man she thinks is a smuggler and with whom she knows she’s falling in love.

Dear Mrs. Marshall,

This is a nice pirate romance with a more capable heroine than most “chick in pants” stories. I think it works better than most because Christine is more a thinking pirate rather than a true swashbuckling one. She tries to outwit her victims thereby making herself and her crew richer than when they started yet at the same time still alive at the end of the sea cruise. The fact that she’s tall and is willing to cut her hair off also helps her masquerade work better than in most romance books. You give her lots of reasons for not believing in her marriage of convenience husband, Justin and I love her idea of not only getting mad at being forced into it by her uncle but also getting even by raiding his shipping line. But I wonder just how easy it would be to obtain a divorce in this era. Was it easier legally than later in the century? I would assume the social stigma would still be as bad.

Justin very quickly wises up from his initial boorishness and is truly sorry for what he did to Christine and for thinking only of his own interests and feelings in their marriage of convenience. I came to like him a lot.