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

In this political season, the candidates have received endorsements from people that they have had to “reject and denounce*”. The Good, The Bad, and the Unread, featured a promo for the September release of Double Enchantment by Kathleen Kennedy which is the second book in her Relics of Merlin series. Kennedy’s world is set in the Victorian era and has a unique way of assigning nobility according to the strength and type of magic one can perform. What I remember from the first book which I forgot to review, Enchanting the Lady, the shapeshifters were considered lower class individuals. (They are animals, after all).

Ms. MacGillivrey** showed up in the comments to provide this endorsement:
Kathryne’s books are indeed enchanting. She’s is one of the best new voices to debut in the past few years. I highly recommend her books.
This led Sybil, the blog owner, to ponder whether DAM was stupid or clueless and whether a recommendation by DAM was actually harmful to Ms. Kennedy. It’s unfortunate, but given DAM’s past behavior and the coterie of authors who assisted her in achieving her goals of review deletion***, a reader can …

SB Sarah got a heads up from a Janet Evanovich fan that early reviews were disappearing from the Barnes and Noble site. Of course, the only deleted reviews were the negative ones. Google cache which preserves snapshots of past versions of a webpage showed at least two negative reviews that are nowhere to be found on the Barnes and Noble site.

It really does damage to consumer confidence when the reviews are so easily gamed at these corporate sites. While no reader is being stalked here, it still seems wrong and violative.

Dear Ms. Evanovich:

As a fan of your Stephanie Plum series (and as a reader who masochistically enjoys being tortured by the unresolved love triangle), I have been slowly reading your early category Romances as they are re-released. Naughty Neighbor was released recently on Fictionwise for a 100% micropay rebate, making it an instant purchase for me. And of the four or so early Romances of yours I have read, Naughty Neighbor is my favorite so far. Its strengths - snappy dialogue, snappish hero and heroine, a slightly outlandish mystery to be solved - are those I enjoy in your later work, and its weaknesses - inelegant transitions to the actual romance and discomfort around romantic sentimentalism - make me glad you chose to shift away from straight Romance in your later writing.

Louisa Brannigan has recently celebrated her thirtieth birthday and is focused on career success as pres secretary to an up and coming U.S. Senator. She lives in a modest suburban house that has been converted into two apartments, and Louisa is on the bottom floor. Which would be wonderful if it weren’t for her upstairs neighbor, award-winning screenwriter …

Bestsellers Janet Evanovich and Stephen J. Cannell have inked a deal with Warner Books to coauthor a series of adventure novels. The hardcover titles will be set in Orange County and follow the adventures of a former Special Forces operative, Benjamin Cannon. The first book, No Chance, is set to bow in fall 2007. . . . Evanovich was even more enthusiastic about the project. “Benjamin Cannon and crew are going to kick ass Jersey style in the world of OC glam,” she said of the books. Robert Gottlieb of Trident Media brokered the deals (on behalf of both authors) and Beth De Guzman, editor-in-chief of paperbacks, will edit the series. Via Publisher’s Weekly.

Edited to ad: This appears to be scrapped.