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

Dear Ms. Novik,

I’ve now found out that even a lesser Novik book is still pretty good. But this one should come with a warning to load up on lots of chocolate, a glass of wine or some Prozac before starting. Jaysus, there were a lot of depressing events to read and, for a while, every time I started a new chapter things just seemed to get worse for our intrepid British Aviators and their marvelous dragon, Temeraire.

The story starts off well enough in China were book two had ended with Temeraire and his crew, including his Captain Will Laurence, defeating the sinister plans of a Chinese prince to overthrow the throne. By doing so, they’ve made an implacable enemy of Lien, the Celestial dragon companion of the prince. Her rage extends past Laurence and Temeraire to include anything British. While waiting for favorable winds, Temeraire’s dragon transport is badly damaged by fire soon followed by a letter instructing Laurence to proceed to Istanbul with all speed to collect three dragon eggs which the British government has bought from the Sultan. What follows is …

Dear Ms Cach,

I said that this was one of my favorites and I’m finally writing a letter why. This has all the ingredients that make me love The Changeling Bride. Great hero, great heroine, fun, humor, everything.

George is a pro wrestler whose new age sister somehow transports him back in time while she’s trying to hypnotize him. He winds up in a small English village that has been paying a yearly virgin tribute to a dragon for 30 years. Only one of the virgins, Alizon, fought back 12 years ago and has been saving each year’s new offering, keeping them safe and hidden on the island where the dragon lives. They may be safe but they’re also trapped as the superstitious villagers would stone them if they tried to return. Alizon’s old friend has called on magic for a hero to slay the dragon in order to protect her own daughter and George is who she got.

George is great. I love this man. He has a great sense of humor and a tender heart underneath all that shiny, silver stretch Lycra. He’s intelligent, kind, cleans up after himself and can …

Dear Ms. Abé,
Imagine a place so ripe and thick with the promise of magic that the very air breathes in plumes of pearl and gray and smoky blue; that the trees bow with the weight of their heavy branches, dipping low to the ground, dropping needles and leaves into beds of perfume. A place of white sparkling mountains and black forests and one high, ancient castle. Of diamonds that churn up raw from the marrow of the earth to lace the woods, unseen, in necklaces of ice and fire.
The first book in your drákon series begins in this fashion, with a prologue that tells of a species of dragons who, in order to survive the encroachment of mankind, took human shape and traveled from their home in Eastern Europe to England. Although I am usually a fan of luxurious language, the descriptions in the prologue verge on being too rich for my blood. They are very effective at conveying that drákon’s origins are the stuff of fables, but I am nonetheless glad when the prologue gives way to chapter one and The Smoke Thief settles into a lovely style that is still poetic, but more …

Dear Ms. Abé:

The Dream Thief is a sequel to The Smoke Thief. Lia Langford, the youngest daughter of the Earl of Chasen/Marquess of Langford (one of the two), is a dreamer. She dreams of future events and many of those events involve her lover being pitted against her family, against her friends.

Zane, former apprentice of the Smoke Thief and current thief extraordinaire, is commissioned by the Earl/Marquess and the Countess/Marchionness to obtain the Dreamer’s Stone. Whispers of the stone is reaching the ears of the drákon and the drákon must have it all costs. They are willing to pay Zane a king’s ransom if he obtains it and returns it to them.

This book moves quickly and contains some great story telling. The parts where Lia dreams of Zane forcing her to do terrible things is chilling, suspenseful and frightening. Zane is an appealing hero: roguish, living on his wits. Lia is also appealing. She’s smart, crafty and driven. If I could take out certain parts of the story, this would have been an A.

The story was narrated by some unknown person telling …

Dear Ms. Betts:

What to say. Your contribution to the Pure Sex anthology featured a contemporary heroine whose work/relationship dilemna was spot on. Your three story collection here featured heroines in different states of sexual abuse. Oh sure, I get what you were trying for: forced sex fantasies are supposedly the hallmark of the repressed female professional. The problem is that starting with the first story, it was hard to see were the force stopped and the actual desire began.

My Captive is an eight chapter story wherein 6 of the chapters feature the heroine in captivity. Samantha Thornton awakes in a world that is not quite familiar and not strange but not at all in her control. Her body is not her own but rather must serve the desires of some unknown man. This story, which I am sure was meant to feed female fantasy, read like a rape to me. There are some drugs that can be given to a woman to make her body enjoy the experience while her mind is resisting strongly. This story seemed to embody that concept. It was not romantic …

Dear Ms. Novik,

Brava again for creating this imaginative world and for giving us the relationship of Laurence and Temeraire. I’m glad to see that their bond only strengthens during this book. We also get to see Temeraire growing up more and maturing into an even more thoughtful dragon. When they see slave traders off the coast of Africa, it is he who applies that situation to his own and that of the other dragons in service to England. And once he sees how dragons are treated in China, Laurence begins to have his doubts as to the outcome of their relationship. As Temeraire learns to read and write, how could he ever be satisfied to return to the life he knew in England? Plus he gets a girlfriend!

Once again, you give us believable opposition forces instead of creating some cardboard chewing villain for the sake of having one. Laurence, Temeraire and the aviator crew are ranged not only against the Chinese but there is also tension between the Navy and the Flying Corps. Your world building continues and adds a new form of creature to the dragons you’ve already created. Though the lesson that creature is supposed to teach might be shown a little heavy handedly. And even though we are entering a world filled with dragons, you keep to the known conventions of the time and thoroughly ground the story and characters.