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

Dear Mrs. French,

This is a series I’ve always meant to read but just never quite got around to. When I saw book three, “The Warrior” in the store, I decided to jump in and start there. The first thing I noticed is that it’s got an older style. Romance isn’t the main focus of story and it’s more historical fiction with romantic elements. The second thing is that from what I can tell by a cursery cruise through the internet, you’ve made this story up wholesale.

In ancient Times, tales were told of fierce warriors and the brave women who risked everything to love them. Alexander was one such man, and well he knew it. The only son of Alexander the Great, he had a destiny to fulfill. He intended to marry a princess and carry on his noble lineage. But in the heat of the Egyptian desert, a beautiful slave girl named Kiara called to his deepest desires. Her emerald green eyes beckoned him to put down his sword and open up his heart. And for once, Alexander wanted nothing more than to defy expectation and follow this willful …

Dear Ms French,

Once again we’re back on the secluded Chesapeake island of Tawes where they have their own way of doing things. Island Justice, they call it. And once again the heroine is told from almost the beginning of the book that evil lurks on the island. Well, the locals sure aren’t kidding about that as similarly to the first book, the body count is high and the descriptions of them are gruesome.

People have lived on Tawes Island for centuries and few outsiders ever move there so it’s not surprising that most of the town are cousins, second cousins, kissing cousins or some variant. So when archaeologists Abbie Night Horse and her mother Karen Knight (I still never really got why the name difference) arrive to do a preliminary excavation of what could be an ancient Indian burial site, they don’t catch all the nuances of life there. I like how you show how the possible sale of some property to mainland developers was beginning to divide the people of the island. Some want change and the jobs that would come and some are ready to defend Tawes any way they can. …

Dear Ms French,

Having read and enjoyed several of your previous historical novels, I was keen to see how you’d handle contemporary romantic suspense. Would there be a good balance of romance and suspense? Could I figure out who dunnit by the end without it being too easy? And would it hold my interest since this subgenre isn’t usually the first one I reach for in a bookstore?

I like the heroine Bailey Elliott. She’s nice without being syrupy sweet and as the outsider in the book she acts as the means for you to tell us all about Tawes Island. A remote and secluded place, Tawes has been inhabited by the same families for generations which means everyone’s kin to just about everyone else. And not much goes on here that most people don’t know about in 30 minutes. Which makes it more amazing that Bailey’s young teenaged mother managed to hide who the father of her illegitimate baby was. Because of the dark and murky events which followed Bailey’s birth and her mother’s death in childbirth, you conveniently remove her from the island for decades via adoption then bring her back when …