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

Dear Ms. Melton:

I had read and enjoyed the voice in the first book of yours that I had read and so I was interested in reading the next in the series, Too Far Gone, which picks up where book 2 left off on a couple of secondary characters.

Mother of three, Ellie Stuart, is struggling to go to school and to raise her boys. She rents a home from Navy SEAL Sean Harlan. Harlan is strongly attracted to Ellie but has a no single mother rule because of Harlan’s committment issues.  He is supposed to be a womanizer who enjoys the strings free relationships he has with several woman. For Ellie’s part, she doesn’t believe that strong, gorgeous and together Navy SEAL Harlan would want anything to do with her.  Her three boys get kidnapped and Sean charges in to help. The story then changes to a road romance as the two set off to find her kids.

Once the two start their search for the kidnapped children, the story started losing me.  Ellie and Sean are suspects by those in authority but are not instructed to stay in the area.  Instead, …

Dear Ms. Webb:

The romantic suspense market seems crowded these days and it’s hard to pick out a new author. It’s not because the suspense market isn’t full of good authors. It is actually one genre that seems to be full of competent authors and competent books. The problem is that from one to another, they all seem to have the same storylines (law enforcement officers solving crimes), the same hooks that drive the suspense (serial killers), the same time frame (twenty four hours to a few days).

What makes a RS standout for me, then, is the characterizations of the lead law enforcement officers. They must have a compelling narrative, outside of the suspense, in order for me to want to pick up the next book in the series. So while I might come to an RS book different ways*, I won’t go back to the same RS writer unless I found the issues outside the suspense to be interesting.

Such is the case of Nameless. Keishon’s review, while positive, said that the character growth was marginal, but I thought it was large part of …

Dear Ms. St. Claire:

I availed myself of the Simon & Schuster early ebook release program and snagged the ebook version of Take Me Tonight (Bullet Catchers, No 3) a few weeks ago. This week, the print version makes its way into bookstores. I had enjoyed the previous Bulletcatcher books. Unfortunately this novel required one to make an incredible suspension of disbelief. I tried to make that leap but ended up falling into a crater of implausibility that was too large for me to escape.

Sage Valentine is an investigative reporter whose best friend and roommate supposedly committed suicide after a fantasy kidnapping/sex experience run by Take Me Tonight. Keisha was a member of the Blizzards dance team and as part of a bonding experience, all the dance members have to be kidnapped and then rescued. This is all orchestrated by a company called Take Me Tonight. As part of the package, the participant who gets rescued can have sex with the rescuer. Or not.

Sage is convinced that Keisha did not kill herself and tries to investigate …