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

Dear Ms. Davis:

I mentioned after reading the anthology Hell With the Ladies that I thought it would be interesting to read a full length novel of yours as you had a good voice. Bookseller friend informed me that you wrote both chick lit and romantic suspense. I was interested in reading a romantic suspense book and she came back from Christmas vacation with this book, Eye of the Storm.

Eye of the Storm is a marriage in trouble book featuring Simone Sheridan, former CIA black ops, and Reece Sheridan, former Army Ranger turned prosecutor. Simone has hid her past for the 6+ years she has known Reece. Her inability to tell the truth when confronted by Reece led to their separation and pending divorce. But they still love each other and neither is quite moving on.

Simone’s past comes back to haunt them both when an assassin tries to snuff Simone and her brother in law, Martin, who was with her at the time. Martin is injured. Reece tracks them down and soon …

Dear Ladies:

Here’s the sttory behind how this book was chosen for the dueling review and why it’s late (it’s supposed to be a November dueling review). Jayne and I were tossing around ideas. I suggested Drop Dead Gorgeous but Jayne confessed to not having read Linda Howard in years. Billionaires Prefer Blondes came up but Jayne couldn’t make it past the first chapter (or was it two chapters). We agreed upon this Anthology given that Jayne liked Kathleen O’Reilly’s Diva’s Guide to Selling Your Soul.

Alas, while Jayne was prompt and had her review done in November, I could not get into the second story. I emailed Jayne, doing many mea culpas and asking if we could just do away with the belated November dueling review. Jayne suggested our dueling reviews be her review on this book and my review of Billionaire’s Prefer Blondes (which will go up next week), but because of the ending of the second novella and the kick ass third novella, I was glad to participate. Mostly my opinions mirror Jayne’s which seems rare these days.

My overall …

Ladies,

I think most romance readers view anthologies as a mixed blessing. Readers get a chance to read favorite authors or try new ones in a short format. Sometimes the stories work but usually there’s at least one which doesn’t. I’ll cut short your suspense and say that in “To Hell with the Ladies” that usual premise didn’t hold true for me: two stories were OK while one was quite good.

Ms. O’Reilly, you start things out with the story of Lucifer’s oldest son. Jack has waited almost 1000 years for the chance to follow in his father’s footsteps. His current occupation is running a casino in Vegas but he jumps at the chance to fulfill his father’s demand and thereby take over the family business, namely running hell. All Jack has to do is go to an old, family run bookstore in NYC and buy one little book, The Book of Souls. Piece of cake, Jake thinks. Especially when Jack finds that the store is run by a pretty but naive young women. A little wining and dining, some killer shopping sprees and great sex later, Jack learns that not every women will be satisfied with the material …