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

Dear Mrs. Riley,

As I look back on the books of yours that I’ve read, two central themes stand out. 1) How helpless women were during most of history and 2) how it’s better for the little people to get out of the way of the powerful ones when those people are throwing their weight around. “The Serpent Garden” is no exception.

Susanna Dallet thinks she’s a happily - well, sort of happily, and she does try with The Good Wyfe’s Book of Manners - married woman. Her childhood nurse Nan knows differently. In fact, almost everyone in London knows that Master Dallet is a swine who’s dallying with a married lady and who only married Susanna for the painting secrets her father taught her. It takes his dead body delivered by his mistress’s husband’s men along with all his creditors descending on Susanna for her to learn the truth. And then what is she going to do? Women aren’t allowed to be master painters and she’s got bills to pay.

And this is where she begins to break the law, get in trouble by becoming involved with the High and Mighty men of the day …

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 is a man with a mission. He needs to prove to his fight loving aristocratic father and his obtuse Abbott that he really does have a vocation for the holy life. For now, he’s trying to eke out a living in London by hiring himself out to write letters for the mostly illiterate population of the mid fourteenth century city. He knows he’s hit rock bottom when a woman wants to hire him to write her life story. What’s next, writing the autobiography of a horse? They’re one and the same to Gregory. But his stomach demands food before it will allow him peace to seek visions of God so he grudgingly agrees and in doing so, he learns the life story of an incredible woman. Margaret of Ashbury might have been born in a small English country …

Dear Ms. Riley,

I spent my formative romance reading years devouring the “Angelique” series which begins in 17th century France at the court of the Sun King and have enjoyed movies using this time frame. So, when this book was mentioned at AAR after someone posted asking for books which are rich in period detail and historically accurate, I took notice.

The time and the background (during the reign of the Sun King and involving the Parisian underworld of poisoners and the occult) sounded intriguing. Genevieve Pasquier is an engaging lead character. The daughter of a loveless marriage in a time during which women have little if any power or control over their lives and smart women are a nuisance, she manages to gain wealth and independence. La Voisin, a real life person, grooms her to present herself as the 150 year old reader of an oracle glass, a sort of scrying bowl in which the future can be seen. Genevieve thinks it’s all a crock but goes along with it. Along the way, she will see the worst in humanity, manage to find her true love and barely escape with her …