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

A couple of big deals and some unexciting blurbs. Come on people! Give us something snark-worthy.
(Insert standard disclaimer here, yadda yadda)

This is a big coup for Berkley – do we have any deets on what kind of historical romances? More regency?
NYT bestselling author Madeline Hunter’s next four historical romances, moving to Wendy McCurdy at Berkley, in a major deal, for high six-figures, by Pam Hopkins at Hopkins Literary Associates (world).

And in the category of “Wow, that’s kind of weird.”
Musician and author of And the Ass Saw the Angel, Nick Cave’s THE DEATH OF BUNNY MUNRO, to Mitzi Angel at Faber, in a six-figure deal, by Jamie Byng at Canongate (US).

Continuation of a classic, like SCARLETT was a sequel to GONE WITH THE WIND.
Paula Reed’s HESTER, as cryptically alluded to in the conclusion of Hawthorne’s classic The Scarlet Letter, the story of what happens to Hester Prynne and little Pearl when they travel to England to find notoriety, intrigue, love, fortune, and social success, but must also face the most formidable Puritan of all, Oliver Cromwell, to Nichole Argyres at St. Martin’s, at auction, by Kristin Nelson at Nelson Literary Agency (NA).

Chef themes are popular right now. I’m not sure if …

Dear Ms. Hunter:

I know that you are a gifted writer and I certainly feel like I am supposed to understand the underlying dynamic of the characters’ motivations but I admit to being lost. I do think that you are challenging norms here and I appreciate that but somehow I could never quite connect with the heroine.

Roselyn Longworth is the sister of Timothy Longworth and the cousin of Alexia, heroine of Rules of Seduction. Timothy fleeced a bank of thousands of pounds and fled England when his perfidy was discovered. Rose retired to the countryside. Alone and scandal-ridden, she allowed herself to be seduced by Lord Norbury. She believed that she was his paramour and goes with him to a weekend party. Norbury humiliates her while there and offers her up for auction amongst other licentious nobles.

Kyle Bradwell, a man of affairs and part time architect, has a strange past with Norbury and is present at the party. He impulsively bids on Rose in a manner calculated to suppress the others and wins her even though he really can’t afford to …

Madeline Hunter is famous for her rich detailed works. There’s not a wallpaper historical in her catalog of books. Last year’s publication, Rules of Seduction, was one of my favorites in 2007. Hunter’s latest release, Lessons of Desire, is out now and can be purchased in paperback or in ebook format at Books on Board.

I am sure that there are writers who have unusual first sale stories. The slam-dunk wonders certainly do. Or at least I always thought so. Since it took me so long to make my first sale I just assumed it took everyone that long. The common wisdom says it does.

Then I went on a signing tour with a dozen other writers. We found ourselves one day in a library, doing a panel discussion on writing. The first question was about our first sale.

I was sitting in the middle of that long table. To my amazement, every writer ahead of me described how she had sold her first manuscript. Not how she made her first sale, but …

Dear Ms. Hunter:

I really enjoyed Rules of Seduction and was greatly anticipating Lessons of Desire and the story of the independent and unconventional Phaedra Blair. When I began the book, I was even more interested because I could see that the story that was going to unfold was an exploration of a fundamental feminist issue of alone and unhappy v. together and happy. Because I knew how it woud end, I was intensely curious to see how the issue of female independence would be handled.

Phaedra Blair is the daughter of a famous independent female thinker Artemis who taught Phaedra to love freely. Her father, Richard Drury, was a respected member of Parliament and another intellectual. Richard and Artemis shared a “great love” but never married as Artemis maintained that marriage would rob her of her independence. On Richard’s deathbed he gives his memoirs to his illegitimate daughter, Phaedra, and extracts her promise to see the memoirs published. Upon reading them, though, she discovers that her mother had strayed from her father’s bed and that the lover that her mother took may have led …

Dear Ms. Hunter:

So, for many years, I have been bemoaning the state of historicals. Particularly bemoaning the fact that a brilliant author such as yourself seemed to slide from vibrant and emotional books to recycled plots and lackluster characters. I had not bought your most recent two books and thought this one was a reprint. The title sounded so familiar. Slowly, word began to seep through the internet from website to blog to mailing list saying that this Hunter was a must read. Jayne and I had to read something for our December dueling reviews and we thought we would give this one a try. As Jayne would say “Huzzah!” I am so glad we did.

Rather than belaboring the excellent plot summary Jayne did, let me just dive right into the details of why this book resonated so well with me. First, there is the heroine, Alexia, who acts with more than petulant emotions. Not once did I envision her stamping her pretty, but poorly shod foot. She was a poor relation and she understood this. She also understood that this was life and …

Dear Ms Hunter,

It was with reluctance that I tried to follow you to Regency era books. Your medievals were so good and (though I hate to admit it) the few Regency ones I tried just didn’t seem to cut it. I was disheartened. Then “The Rules of Seduction” started getting rave reviews. Jane suggested it for one of our dueling reviews and I thought, WTF, why not. So here goes.

Miss Alexia Welborne and Lord Hayden Rothwell don’t start out on the best foot. When Alexia’s father was ruined through bad investments, her cousins took her in. For a while, she had hopes that the eldest, Ben, would offer for her when he returned from fighting the Turks in Greece but when Ben was lost at sea on the way back, she abandoned those dreams. Now she finds her life about to be overturned again. Unknown to his family, cousin Tim has been stealing from the accounts of the family bank which looks like it might fail as have several others around the country. Hayden’s family has kept their massive holdings there despite rumors that it’s about to fail but when Hayden discovers the truth, he …