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

Today the California Supreme Court’s decision dropped on the constitutionality of a same sex marriage ban. Specifically, the court addressed this question:

The question we must address is whether, under these circumstances, the failure to designate the official relationship of same-sex couples as marriage violates the California Constitution.

The Court found that the “right to marry is a basic, constitutionally protected civil right — “a
fundamental right of free men [and women]” without regard to sexual orientation and that the Legislature cannot limit it.

In light of the fundamental nature of the substantive rights embodied in the right to marry — and their central importance to an individual’s opportunity to live a happy, meaningful, and satisfying life as a full member of society — the California Constitution properly must be interpreted to guarantee this basic civil right to all individuals and couples, without regard to their sexual orientation.

The majority goes on to state (in this 121 page majority opinion):

In light of this recognition, sections 1 and 7 of article I of the California Constitution cannot properly be interpreted to withhold from gay individuals the same basic civil right of personal autonomy and liberty (including the right to establish, with the person …

Mildred Loving was the female half of the seminal court case Loving v. Virginia wherein the Supreme Court found anti-miscegenation laws unconstitutional. She passed away on May 5, 2008. She never intended to be a political figure or stand for anything but when confronted with not having the right to marry Richard Loving, she and Richard took their case to the highest court in the land and won.

Mildred believed that everyone who loved deserved the right to marry that person, regardless of sex.

I am still not a political person, but I am proud that Richard’s and my name is on a court case that can help reinforce the love, the commitment, the fairness, and the family that so many people, black or white, young or old, gay or straight seek in life. I support the freedom to marry for all. That’s what Loving, and loving, are all about.

You know what I can’t wait to see? The gay marriage of convenience story! Is that out there?

Ladies,

Who doesn’t enjoy reading about a wedding? Especially one in Paris? Or the romantic city of Paris as you all felt compelled to repeat several times in each story just to make sure we got it. I got it though I did wonder if some French board of tourism had bribed you all to say it so many times in order to sweeten the city’s image.

Ms. Bretton you get us started in “We’ll Always Have Paris” with an older couple, the parents of the bride, who already know each other from long marriage that’s gone sour and are a week from signing the divorce papers. I find plots with couples who already know each other work better for me if a HEA is included in the story because the resolution of the love problem can be handled efficiently and believably in such a short story. But the reason for the estrangement needs to be a good one. I thought the reasons behind what caused them to decide to divorce were rather vague. It seems like all they needed was a good, long talk which then made me wonder …

Dear Ms Didion,

I found your account of your first year after the sudden and tragic death of your husband, all while dealing with your critically ill daughter’s many admissions to various hospitals, to be deeply moving yet in some ways offsetting and disjointed. I guess that’s due to intermixing the two narratives in a kind of stream of consciousness but at times it was very difficult to follow or make sense of.

It’s the telling of the story of a 40 year marriage that’s filled with joyous highs and unbearable lows and musings on death and grieving which ultimately show how wonderful a man you married and how happy you both were. I think it was the little details that struck me most: how you couldn’t let go of some of his clothes because he’d need them when he came back, how it would be the first time he wouldn’t be there to edit one of your stories, wondering what word he’d been looking up that day in his dictionary, happiness that he’d been there for your daughter’s wedding, the fact that due to her illnesses you had to tell your …

Dear Mrs. Waldron,

After reading your latest book last year (Independent Heart), I had to wait for the publisher to reset the type on Mozart’s Wife before it was available in paperback form.

It’s not a romance book but does tell the love story of Mozart for his darling little wife and of Stanzi Marini for him. It also takes you back to Germany, Austria and Prague in the 18th century to watch the trials their love undergoes, the bitter jealousies, the constant worries about bills and money, the heartbreak of losing four of their six children and the horrible toll on Constanza’s health. She’s been alternately reviled as a woman who wasn’t worthy of her genius husband and praised for her efforts to ensure that his musical legacy lives to this day.

This book shows a middle ground probably closer to the truth. It also immerses the reader in the day to day struggle to survive in those times and offers another possibility to explain Mozart’s mysterious death and burial. I like that neither Mozart nor Constanza is turned into a villain and both their strengths and
weaknesses are presented. Details of daily life …