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

Click to Adjust Font

medium text xLarge text

Posts Tagged ‘Historical’

REVIEW: Shadows of the Night by Lydia Joyce

By Janine • Mar 5th, 2008 • Category: B Reviews, B Reviews Category, Reviews

Dear Ms. Joyce,
When we first encounter Colin Radcliffe, the hero of your fifth book, Shadows of the Night, it is the morning of his wedding day and he has just risen from the bed he shared with Emma Morel, his married mistress. Colin agrees to Emma’s suggestion that they spend a few months apart [...]



REVIEW: Lieutenant Samuel Blackwood (deceased): A Georgian Ghost Story by Emma Collingwood

By ジェーン(Jān) • Feb 26th, 2008 • Category: B Reviews Category, Reviews

Dear Ms. Collingwood,
I both liked and didn’t like your novella Lieutenant Samuel Blackwood (deceased).
I was attracted to it as soon as Jane offered it to us, because your email mentioned it was a penny-dreadful styled ghost story, and I love the ghost stories of the Victorian era (it’s set in Georgian times but the style [...]



Readers Choose their Favorite Romance Stories

By Ned • Feb 14th, 2008 • Category: Publishing News

From the Washington Post, the Short Stack blog recently posted their favorite love stories as listed below;
Classics and Old Chestnuts
Anna Karenina, by Leo Tolstoy. A married woman looks for love in forbidding St. Petersburg.
Brideshead Revisited, by Evelyn Waugh. Charles plans to divorce his wife so that he can marry Julia.
The Charioteer, by Mary Renault. A [...]



REVIEW: The Wicked Ways of a Duke by Laura Lee Guhrke

By Janet • Dec 31st, 2007 • Category: B Reviews Category, B- Reviews, Reviews

Dear Ms. Guhrke:
Except for a quick skim of Conor's Way a year or so ago, The Wicked Ways of a Duke is the first of your books I have read. And after finishing it, I think I understand the source of your popularity: an ability to create a vivid portrait of characters who [...]



REVIEW: An Affair Before Christmas by Eloisa James

By Janet • Nov 26th, 2007 • Category: C Reviews, C Reviews Category, Reviews

Dear Ms. James:
An Affair Before Christmas is the first book of yours I read, and I did so without knowing where it is in your canon or how it relates to any other books (now I know that is it second in your Desperate Duchesses series). The title of the series reflects a heroine-centric [...]



DUELING REVIEW: Forbidden Shores by Jane Lockwood

By Janine • Oct 17th, 2007 • Category: B Reviews, B Reviews Category, B- Reviews, Reviews

Dear Readers,
Just as I had finished reading Forbidden Shores by Jane Lockwood (a pseudonym for Janet Mullany) and was getting ready to review it, I had a conversation about the book with my good friend Jennie F., who had also recently read it. Jennie’s comments were so insightful and thought provoking, and [...]



REVIEW: Challenge the Wind by Debra Tash

By Jayne • Sep 8th, 2007 • Category: B Reviews, B Reviews Category, Ebooks, Reviews

Dear Ms Tash,
It was the plot of this book which led me to buy it knowing nothing about you or your writing style. I love me some American Revolutionary books and was interested to see that this one would feature some regular British troops in addition to the upper class officers I’m used to [...]



REVIEW: Lord John and the Brotherhood of the Blade by Diana Gabaldon

By Jayne • Aug 27th, 2007 • Category: A Review Category, A- Reviews, Ebooks, Reviews

Dear Mrs. Gabaldon,
A few years ago when the first Lord John book (Lord John and the Private Matter) was released I made a mental note to myself that I ought to try this one out. After all I had enjoyed Outlander (though got bogged down in the next one and never finished it). Alas, [...]



REVIEW: Another Man’s Wife by Denyse Bridger

By Jayne • Jul 12th, 2007 • Category: B Reviews Category, B- Reviews, Ebooks, Reviews

Dear Ms Bridger,
Last year, I tried one of your short stories which was bundled with some other pirate tales by Amber Quill Press. It was not a pleasant experience. Though I had already purchased one of your novels, I was in no hurry to dive into it. This story has left me with a [...]



REVIEW: Samburu Hills by Jennifer Mueller

By Jayne • Jul 7th, 2007 • Category: B Reviews Category, B+ Reviews, Ebooks, Reviews

Dear Mrs Mueller,
I don’t think any of your stories has been less than a B grade for me and “Samburu Hills” continues that tradition. The unusual settings and eras you choose for your books are heavenly for me. My blogging partner Janine once said if there were a romance set in Timbuktu, I’d be [...]



REVIEW: The Roman’s Virgin Mistress by Michelle Styles

By Jayne • Jun 29th, 2007 • Category: Reviews

Dear Michelle,
Thanks again for sending me an advanced copy of your newest Mills and Boon/Harlequin Historical release “The Roman’s Virgin Mistress.” As you hoped, I can honestly say that a) I enjoyed it and b) I think you’re still improving with each book release. The cover is lovely too. You certainly have been smiled [...]



REVIEW: How to Engage an Earl by Kathryn Caskie

By Jane • Jun 23rd, 2007 • Category: D Reviews, Reviews

Dear Ms. Caskie
I picked up your book with the vague impression that I had read you before and enjoyed you. Unfortunately that is not the impression that I was left with at the end of How to Engage an Earl. How to Engage an Earl had all the standard regency hooks: a [...]



REVIEW: The Outsider (Men of Pride County Book II) by Rosalyn West

By Jayne • Jun 12th, 2007 • Category: B Reviews Category, B+ Reviews, Reviews

Dear Ms West,
As promised, here’s my letter for book number two of your Men of Pride County series and it carries on wonderfully from the first one with just enough of the leads from book number one and other secondary characters but without them clogging up the scenery unnecessarily. I’m going to include some [...]



REVIEW: The Secret Rose by Laura Parker

By Jayne • Jun 11th, 2007 • Category: B Reviews, B Reviews Category, Reviews

Dear Ms. Parker,
This book goes to show that a good author can write about anything and make you believe. From your bio I know you were a microbiologist and that you’ve visited Australia but never lived there. Well, this book swept me away to the Outback of Australia during their goldrush and sucked me into [...]



REVIEW: Mistress of Willowvale by Patricia Veryan

By Jayne • Jun 8th, 2007 • Category: B Reviews Category, B- Reviews, Reviews

Dear Readers,
While not strictly part of the Golden Chronicles, MoW sets the stage for it and features lots of characters who appear throughout it and the follow up series, the Jewelled Men. It’s one of Veryan’s rarer titles and as such sells for lots of money. This is my second reading and while it’s [...]



REVIEW: Almost a Bride by Jane Feather

By Jane • Jun 2nd, 2007 • Category: B Reviews Category, B+ Reviews, Reviews

Dear Ms. Feather:
I admit to being totally befuddled at the title as it appears to have nothing to do with the book at all. After all, the heroine becomes a bride and a wife and is never an “almost” anything.
Jack Fortescu, Duke of St. Jules, ruins Frederick Lacey, Earl of Dunston, in a game [...]



REVIEW: If You Deceive by Kresley Cole

By Janet • May 29th, 2007 • Category: C Reviews, C Reviews Category, Reviews

If You Deceive, the third and last installment in Kresley Cole's entertaining MacCarrick brothers series, gives the oldest and most difficult brother, Ethan, the chance to find his "forechosen mate . . . For his true lady alone his life and heart can save.� Not surprisingly, the most difficult brother also proves to be [...]



Everything We Know About Scotland, We Learned from Romance Books

By Jane • May 1st, 2007 • Category: Letters of Opinion, Misc

.orderedlist1 {padding-bottom: 5px;}

All Scottish men are named Jamie. But that’s only if they’re not called Alistair.
All Scottish men wear kilts, even when they were outlawed and even when they didn’t exist. All clans have an identifying tartan.
All Scottish men carry claymores.
Everyone is a Highlander because the Highlands [...]



REVIEW: If You Desire by Kresley Cole

By Janet • Apr 16th, 2007 • Category: B Reviews, B Reviews Category, Reviews

So here's the thing about Kresley Cole's books: they completely blow my nice, logical grading curve, and the most recent re-issue of the second MacCarrick brothers historical, If You Desire, is no exception. Use whatever tired metaphor you want – this is where the rubber meets the road, caught between the devil and [...]



REVIEW: Secrets of the Night by Jo Beverley

By Jayne • Apr 9th, 2007 • Category: B Reviews Category, B+ Reviews, Reviews

Dear Mrs Beverley,
Once again you manage to take an almost unbelievable plot and get me totally involved in it. This is book four of the Malloren series and truly exemplifies the unofficial Malloren motto: With a Malloren, all things are possible.
Rosa, Lady Overton is in a fix. Well, actually everyone on her husband’s estate is [...]



REVIEW: And Only to Deceive by Tasha Alexander

By Jayne • Mar 15th, 2007 • Category: B Reviews, B Reviews Category, Reviews

Dear Ms Alexander,
Victorian era books are just not my favorites. I freely admit that is due to shallow reasons such as the ugly way most men wore their facial hair and the drabness of their clothes, ghastly women’s hairstyles (all slicked down with sugar water) and the image that I have of a repressed society. [...]



REVIEW: Voices of the Night by Lydia Joyce

By Janine • Mar 6th, 2007 • Category: A Review Category, A- Reviews, Reviews

Dear Ms. Joyce,
I've been reading your books since The Veil of Night came out. I thought it was a bit above average for a debut, but conventional. The two books that followed were somewhat stronger in my opinion. All three showed a talent for conjuring an atmosphere, and main characters of diverse [...]



REVIEW: Something Wicked by Jo Beverley

By Jayne • Feb 14th, 2007 • Category: B Reviews, B Reviews Category, Reviews

Dear Mrs. Beverley,
Book three of the Malloren series takes up right where book two left off. With the Mallorens neck deep in intrigue and sophisticated plots.
Lady Elfred Malloren has been pampered and over protected for all her 25 years by her four brothers. When fate leaves her alone in London with a married friend, she [...]



REVIEW: A Vision of Light: A Margaret of Ashbury Novel by Judith Merkle Riley

By Jayne • Jan 24th, 2007 • Category: B Reviews Category, B+ Reviews, Ebooks, Reviews

Dear Ms. Riley,
After reading “The Oracle Glass” I knew I needed to look into getting your other books. I just wish more than “Vision of Light” were available as ebooks. Ah well, I’ll keep looking for others and in the meantime, I’ll point out to other readers that they need to buy this one.
Brother Gregory [...]



REVIEW: Devil in Winter by Lisa Kleypas

By Janine • Jan 2nd, 2007 • Category: B Reviews, B Reviews Category, Reviews

Dear Ms. Kleypas,
I realize I’m probably the last person in the solar system to read this book, but read it I did. It took me a while to get to it because I was disappointed in the previous entry in your Wallflowers series, It Happened One Autumn, so I am happy to say that I [...]



REVIEW: The Slightest Provocation by Pam Rosenthal

By Janine • Oct 11th, 2006 • Category: A Review Category, A Reviews, Reviews

Dear Ms. Rosenthal,
What a wonderful, challenging, envelope-pushing, smart and astonishing book you’ve written. Reading it wasn’t always easy or comfortable, but in the end, it was more than worth every penny of the $14 I spent on it and the effort it demanded of me as a reader.
At first glance, the relationship between Kit [...]



REVIEW: By Love’s Command by Helen Carras

By Jayne • Jul 20th, 2006 • Category: B Reviews Category, B+ Reviews, Reviews

Dear Ms Carras,
This one starts out as a tad more like a historical novel than a historical romance. Kind of in the Plaidy/Lofts style. But the second half turns up the romance.
It’s 1558 and 17 year old Jean Hamilton is a spirited Highland lass who’s been sent to the French court to wait [...]



REVIEW: CB- Chase for an Angel by Christy Poff

By Jayne • Jun 26th, 2006 • Category: DNF Reviews, Ebooks, Reviews

Dear Mrs. Poff,
I tried. I really tried to finish Chase for an Angel. But I just couldn’t. The book starts too slowly with a whole chapter of flashback. Then your style, more telling than showing, distanced me from the characters and the story. Then you separate the hero and heroine for years. The way [...]



REVIEW: CB - Wager of Sin by Jess Michaels

By Jane • Jun 22nd, 2006 • Category: B Reviews, Ebooks, Reviews

Bianca Claremont, daughter of the Earl of Covey, and widow of Oscar Clairemont, skirts the edge of propriety every day. She openly takes lovers and lives a life of abandonment. Hawkins (aka Hawk) was a friend to her former husband and now a friend to Bianca. While they engage in many a [...]



REVIEW: Throne of Jade by Naomi Novik

By Jayne • Jun 22nd, 2006 • Category: A Review Category, A- Reviews, Reviews

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 [...]