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

Summer Brooks, one of the doyennes of Dragon Page, let me know that they are featuring some romance authors on its site this week. DragonPage is running a contest to giveaway Jennifer Estep’s books. It’s nice to see the fantasy world take notice of the romance world. It can really be one big happy playground. Honestly.

Dear Ms. Estep:

I enjoyed the first book, Karma Girl, and found that the comic book homage is still fun in Hot Mama. However, like the first book, I find that there is problem of pacing which results from the difficult balance between the emotional arcs the characters and the comic book capers.
Fiona Fine, aka Fiera one of the Fearless Five, is mourning the loss of her teammate and fiance, Travis Teague, the Tornado. She’s decided to throw off her “widow’s weeds” and embarks on a hot and heavy affair with Johnny Belluci, the brother of one of her fashion rivals, Bella Belluci.

Karma Girl and Striker just got married and are off on their honeymoon leaving the Fearless Five down to Three: Fiera, Mr. Sage, and Hermit. Fiera’s the one with the most “firepower” (sorry couldn’t resist the bad quip) and on more than one occasion, Johnny and Fiona experience coitus interruptus as Fiona is called to some emergency in need of a superhero.

I found these episodes to be a bit odd because Fiona hardly ever felt the need to rush to the emergency and would encourage …

Jennifer Estep’s sophomore book, Hot Mama, was reviewed in Entertainment Weekly (the issue with Johnny Depp on the cover). The book was the only romance reviewed this week and received a grade of B. You can read the entirety of the review at Estep’s blog.

Dear Ms Estep,

I was never a comic book fan and it’s been a long time since I read one but I recognized a few givens of the standard American superhero comic book. We’ve got your big city, alter egos, intrepid newspaper reporter, heroes, villains and brightly colored spandex for everybody.

Carmen Cole steps into the dual role of reporter and possible love interest. I wasn’t so sure of her reasoning for spending so much time unmasking superheroes wherever she could. Sure her fiance turns out to be one and she discovers this 1) on their wedding day when 2) she catches him shagging a] his nemesis who is b] her best friend but since superheroes are almost duty bound to spend their time saving the average citizen who needs help and/or thwarting the villains, why is the general public so happy that she exposes them and makes their lives more difficult? The excuse that cities want the superheroes to help pay for the damage they cause while battling villains doesn’t make much sense when compared to the fact that they’re saving the city from villains and crime. Do the people of Bigtown …

;Sybil is doing some innovative Guest Author Days this month and next featuring Jennifer Estep next Monday and Kelley Armstrong the following day. Today, she’s hosting Claire Cross, author of All or Nothing, whose book I thought was touching and romantic. You might mosey over there and comment. She’s giving away 6 Claire Cross books.

Yes but No But Yes put together a list of the Top 15 Unintentionally Funny Comic Book Panels. The list includes references to the Joker’s Boner, Wonder Woman’s vanity, Archie beating off three other guys, and Robin exposing himself.

Part of me read the panels with some disbelief. Surely, these were photoshopped, but alas, no. Probably they were the comic illustrators idea of a “in” joke. A pretty good one too.

I can’t help but wonder what jokes Jodi Picuolt will write in for Wonder Woman or whether Jennifer Estep’s upcoming novel about superheroines, Karma Girl, will be a bang or a bust. I have my fingers crossed for “bang”.