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

Dear Dr. Austin,

A dear friend of mine is a doctor. She and I graduated together over twenty years ago from UNC-Chapel Hill. I went into my profession and she headed off to medical school. Then came her internship and finally residency. The whole time she was struggling through her learning and training to become a doctor, she would occasionally moan, “I should have done what you did. I’d have a life. I’d sleep at night. I wouldn’t have to deal with patients who show up in the ER complaining that they slept crooked last night and now they have a crick in their neck.” Life’s a little better for her now that she’s an attending but the slog to get there was long and hard.

So when I read about your experiences in medical school, in training and doing your day-to-day (or evening-to-night, or night-to-morning) job in the emergency room, I had to laugh, nod and grimace as I remembered what she’d told me years ago. Yes, I know what the SCUT Monkey Manual is. I’ve laughed at the stupid things interns will do as they’re learning the actual nuts and …

Dear Ms. Laverentz,

Recently I read one of Jane’s reviews of a sports themed novel (using football instead of hockey). You use the world of the NHL as the background for your hero, Eric Cameron. I’ll be honest and admit that I know just enough about hockey and medicine, the background of the heroine Dr. Emily Jordan, to be dangerous. But I do know a lot about romance novels so I will have something knowledgeable to say in this letter.

Let me start off by saying there are a lot of issues going on here. Emily’s hectic life as a trauma doctor in the ER, Eric’s career as a high profile pro hockey player, Emily’s single motherhood and relationship with her 8 year old son, Robbie. Eric’s past as a brawler and loner. Emily’s past as an abused wife following her upbringing in a house ruled by her tyrannical father. Eric’s rough childhood with his single mom and his terrible first marriage with a gold-digging ho. And that’s all before Emily and Eric even meet and then have to work out their own relationship in this minefield of their pasts.

You …

Dear Ms. Donnelly,

When I opened the package containing the arc of your latest book “The Winter Rose” I gulped. Reason one: it’s got a very nice cover. Reason two: it’s a hella lot of book. 700+ pages of trade paperback sized book to be exact. It’s the type of book that requires a big time commitment from a reader. Not only because of the length but also because of the plot and intensity of the read. Readers who have longed for a return to the sprawling sagas of days past will rejoice, I think. That is if they really want to read this type book again. As I read it, I unfortunately found that that type of reader is not who I am anymore.

After a trip over to the Big Internet Bookstore to check out reviews of the prequel to this novel, “The Tea Rose,” I found that a lot of readers must want to read this genre again or for the first time. Reviews ran heavily towards five and four stars. However it was the three and under ones I chose to read and I found that they eerily mirrored my …

Dear Ms. Mallery:

Accidentally Yours relies on the premise that it is okay for a mother to do anything to save her child. And by anything, I mean, extortion, bribery, and emotional blackmail. The biggest problem with this book is that it plays off the mother’s actions as cute and endearing rather than reprehensible, but morally conflicting. Because there was no recognition that the mother was engaged in something morally, ethically, and even legally wrong, the entire tone of the book was offensive.

Kerri Sullivan’s son is dying from Gilliar’s Disease, a rare disease that killed the son of billionaire Nathan King. One researcher was on the verge of making a breakthrough when a fire destroyed his workplace, rendering his scientific study nearly impossible to continue. Kerri is determined that Nathan King will pay for the continued research. She first accosts him in a restaurant with a DVD of her son and then attempts to play on his own son’s death as a way to manipulate him into funding research for her son. King refuses but Kerri will not be deterred. She sends out …

Dear Ms. Vieh:

While the first book in this series is my favorite, Night Lost takes a close second. It highlights all the strong elements that I loved in If Angels Burn and brings to the forefront a very romantic tale of souls finding each other against extreme odds.

Gabriel Seran was captured by the Bethren, a sadistic group of individuals who operate under the guise of the church. Since his abduction, he has been tortured mercilessly by the Bethren but not allowed to die. In his pain, sometimes he slips off into a dreamstate where he is visited by a woman who provides him surcease.

Nicola Jefferson is a thief who is seeking the Golden Madonna. She dreams of a green man in the forest who beckons her but she cannot find him. While in France, she comes across a painting of a chapel that depicts the place where the green man may reside. She is warned that this place is one of great unrest but she must go.

Nearly equal time is given to the continuing thread of Dr. Alexandra Keller’s …

Dear Dr. Shem,

I read your book, The House of God, years ago when I was still in college majoring in my health care field. Hmmm, make that years and years ago. Anyway, I laughed my ass off then and I just did it again while rereading the (probably only slightly) fictionalized account your internship year in medicine. I gave a copy to a friend of mine when she started her internship year at the University of Florida. She slowly read it during the 3-4 free minutes she had each day that year. When she finally finished it, all she said was, “Yeah, that’s about it.” She survived her right of passage and has been practicing in internal medicine for over 10 years now.

People who don’t work in teaching hospitals will probably gasp and goggle in disbelief and horror at how you describe that first year of medical teaching as a doctor but I’ve trained and worked in teaching facilities and I’m here to tell them that it’s (mostly) all true. Every horrible, hilarious, “black as the angel of death” humorous moment of it. I’ve seen medical students and interns crack …