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

Dear Mrs. O’Reilly,

You came close to a trifecta. You really did but it’s with sadness that I’m going to have to grade this book down. Don’t worry, it’s not a D grade because so many things are still right about it that were right about the first two books in the series. But a few things missed and that’s enough.

It’s not that Sean O’Sullivan changes radically from the easy talking, female pleasing man we’ve seen already. The guy knows how to talk, kiss and finesse his way through relationships, racketball games and courts of law. Want something fixed? Sean’s the man who can. And he’ll leave most everyone with a smile on their face after he’s gotten his way.

It’s not that I don’t like Cleo Hollings, one of the Deputy Mayors of NYC who’s got a pair and who isn’t afraid to show that she does. This woman gets off on negotiating union contracts, thrives on the pressure of getting a strike bound city moving again, enjoys Town Hall meetings in which she knows she’s going to get yelled at. And she’s sexually aggressive too.

The dialogue is still wonderful. As I read the book, …

Dear Ms. Gayle,

When Jane forwarded to me our copy of your first release My Summer of Southern Discomfort I wondered if she’d read it first and what she might have to say about the legal aspects of the book. And then I wondered if this was going to be a “trash the South” story. I also pondered if the title could refer to the humid, heat wave we’ve been sweltering through for most of the month of August. The answers are 1) no and not bad, 2) no and 3) yes the heat was mentioned. It’s also one of the nicest surprise reads I’ve had this year. Since I am lazy and the work has already been done for me, I’m going to steal this nice synopsis from Carol Haggas at Booklist:

Having suffered professional and personal humiliation at the hands of her boss and lover, promising young attorney Natalie Goldberg beats a hasty retreat from the prestigious Manhattan securities law firm where her career precipitously derailed from its fast track and surprises everyone by taking a low-paying, demanding, …