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

You may have noticed that we have been delinquent in putting this up. The sad truth of the matter is that we have few books to recommend this month. Jia liked, but did not love, Barb Hendee’s Blood Memories. I liked Deirdre Martin’s Power Play and the upcoming Samhain release by Maya Banks, Into the Lair (reviewing coming next week).

Given that we don’t have many books to recommend, please feel free to use this thread as an open one for your reader recommendations.

Dear Ms. Martin:

So I’ve bemoaning the economy this past week (so glad I’m not retiring for decades) and I got an email from a publicist declaring that in this depressing time I had to read a book about a doomed tsarina and it would sweep me away. My first response was, um no, during this time of sturm und dang, I need happiness, not doomed tsarinas. Thank god, I read romance and in particular, thank goodness I had to read this book. Admittedly, I didn’t have to. I wanted to.

Power Play tells the story of Eric Mitchell, the hotheaded, playboy twin brother of the hero in Chasing Stanley. The two are pro hockey players and Eric has just been traded to the NY Blades. The Blades aren’t having a great season and some look at Eric with resentment. One of the team favorites was traded to get Eric’s stick on the NY Blade ice and because the team is not winning, many of them don’t believe he was worth the loss.

Monica Geary is an established soap star on the top rated The Wild and the Free. …