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

Dear Ms. Lucke,

Nothing beats a good old-fashioned ghost story. When I was a child, I loved tales of haunted houses and would soak them up every Halloween when they’d get touted out. But while I enjoyed ghost stories then, I’ve discovered that I’m far pickier about haunted house novels as an adult.

After putting her life on hold to put her husband through law school, only to discover he had an affair with a younger classmate, Claire Scanlan serves him divorce papers and moves cross-country to San Francisco to start over. There, she lands a position at a prestigious real estate firm and soon acquires her first property to sell.

Unfortunately, Claire has two problems. The firm has also hired another rookie agent who’s younger, more aggressive, and not above using her sex appeal to get her way. And if none of those things work, she resorts to deliberate sabotage. Secondly, the property she needs to sell was the site of a vicious multiple murder where the son of the previous owner killed his entire family before taking his own life. Two real estate companies previously tried to sell the mansion with no …

Dear Ms. Nelson Douglas,

The thing I like about the Juno imprint is that it offers a wide variety of fantasy novels featuring strong female protagonists. The titles have run the gamut from sword and sorcery to fantasy romance. So when Dancing with Werewolves arrived on my doorstep, I looked forward to reading this urban fantasy. Ultimately, however, the experience left me feeling confused and disappointed.

Like many other urban fantasies, Dancing with Werewolves is set on an alternate earth where vampires, werewolves, and other things that go bump in the night are known to the general public. I liked how you tied this revelation to 2YK, known as the Millennium Revelation in the book. It’s obvious that a lot of thought went into how their existence would affect the world and how their going public changed society. As a reader who loves fully fleshed out worlds, I really appreciate that although I wish it hadn’t been presented in a way that made the first several chapters drag.

I also loved the characters and how they weren’t ones commonly seen in urban fantasies. The heroine, Delilah Street, works as an investigative reporter in a …

Dear Mr. Cook,

I’ve always thought the Juno covers were lovely and eye-catching, and the cover for this book is no exception. Timothy Lantz did an excellent job capturing the dark and moody tone of a story that is one-half sword and sorcery tale and one-half grim horror. From what I understand, Blood Magic was Juno’s first mass market paperback offering as well as the imprint’s first novel by a male author and after I finished reading, I saw why.

Shy and studious, Kirin grew up in the shadow of her vivacious twin sister and followed her lead in nearly everything. When her sister weds the town’s handsomest bachelor, Kirin weds his best friend. But while married life turns out not to be everything her twin dreamed it would be, Kirin makes the best of a bad situation and befriends a wisewoman who teaches her the art of healing, as well as the forbidden art of necromancy. I’m sure Kirin never expected to make practical use of the latter in such a violent fashion, but one night she finds her sister murdered and the act of vengeance she commits in retaliation changes her …

Paula Guran edited an anthology featuring romances “that incorporate sueprnatural, fantasy or SF elements.” The authors included are probably of whose who of fantasy/sci fi authors such as Catherine Asaro, Elizabeth Hand, and Elizabeth Bear but only a few of the stories will end with a standard HEA.

A few of these “stories of love and wonder” end with a standard HEA (romance-speak for “happily ever after”), but all avoid cliché.

Publisher’s Weekly states that the introduction by Guaran discusses the rise of paranormal romances and what is and is not paranormal romance. Via Paula Guaran’s blog.

I’d be interested in reading the anthology and the introduction but the idea that only a few of the “romances” end with an HEA is a bit disturbing to this romance reader. I have my own ideas about what is paranormal romance and somehow I suspect that it is not in concert with Ms. Guran’s. Tomorrow, I’m ranting blogging about how mislabeling of romances will hurt the new author.