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

Dear Ms. Walker,

While I’ve yet to read the first book in this series, Violet on the Runway, I enjoyed the second installment, Violet by Design, a great deal. So when Jane mentioned she’d received a copy and would be sending it on to me, I was very happy.

For readers new to the series, the Violet books are a young adult series about Violet Greenfield, a teenage wallflower who’s scouted to be an international runway model. What sets these books apart from other young adult “makeover” novels (in which the plain jane heroine is transformed into a hottie) is that Violet is portrayed as that insecure girl next door and never becomes anything less than real and sympathetic. She’s a conflicted heroine, torn between basking in the spotlight (a definite boost to the ego of a high school outcast) and realizing that maybe this isn’t the world for her.

Violet in Private picks up where Violet by Design left off, with Violet trying to leave the modeling world and start a normal life as a college girl by attending Vassar. But as she …

Dear Ms. Cohen:

I first discovered you when your book, His for the Taking, was nominated for an RNA award. I thought HFTheT was a wonderfully nuanced story but while Mistress in Private shares some similarities, it also requires a large suspension of disbelief and one that I could not get past.

Jane Miller works as an account manager for Pearce Grey Advertising. She’s been put in charge of a very important account for a difficult account — Giovanni Franco’s new cologne. Pearce Grey is the fourth in a line of ad agencies working with the difficult Franco. To make matters worse, her fiancee and co-worker has broke it off with her in a very public manner. To gain back a bit of her pride, she is determined to make the Franco account work.

Jonny Cole is a nerd turned hot model known as Jay Richard. Jonny and Jane have been great friends since they were kids but haven’t seen each other since they were 11 years old. Jonny comes to England to work on the ad campaign of Franco and sends an email divulging …

Dear Ms. Walker,

While I’ve read and enjoyed novels about supermodels in the past, I was a bit leery when I received your book. On one hand, I’m fascinated by the fashion industry. On the other hand, I hate the message it sends to teenaged girls about body image and here we have a young adult novel about an up and rising teenaged model. Add to that the unavoidable cattiness we see on shows like America’s Next Top Model, and I just didn’t know what to expect. Thankfully, not only did this book neatly sidestep the easy path of backstabbing cattiness, it turned out the main character had many of the same concerns I did.

Violet Greenfield was once a high school social outcast. Being too tall and too thin, she was just never able to fit in. Boys didn’t want to date a girl taller than them and the popular clique wouldn’t give her the time of day. That all changed during senior year when she was discovered and signed with a modeling …

Dear Ms. Thompson,

I regret that I’m writing you this letter posthumously. While I didn’t enjoy your Wild Wulfs of London trilogy as much as I’d hoped, I know many people who did and your loss affected many fans. And when Jayne sent me this book, I found myself sharing their feelings. Not only was it published posthumously, as a reader, I’m saddened by the fact there will be no more books about Lou Kinipski because I fell in love with this werewolf supermodel and her world.

I admit I wasn’t sure what to expect. I started reading with the expectation of a lighter paranormal with a chick lit tone. And while the tone is reminiscent of chick lit, there’s a solid story driving the plot and action of the book. That was a wonderful surprise.

When she was a teenager, Lou Kinipski wasn’t part of the in-crowd. In fact, she was a social outcast. But her world changed when she was taken to her high school prom by the star quarterback, who afterwards attempted to rape her. Lou successfully fought him off — by undergoing her first transformation into a werewolf. Believing she …

Women’s Wear Daily is reporting that magazines are starting to use software to make a model look less thin because thin is out in the fashion world these days. Via Media Bistro.

While not romance news per se, it is related to women. The Wall Street Journal online has a freely available article about Milan’s movement away from the super thin model. Giovanna Melandri, Italy’s minister for youth policies, and Mario Boselli, the head of the National Chamber for Italian Fashion, have led a movement within Milan’s fashion industry to ban the use of super thin models and move toward a more healthy looking woman. Via Blogging Project Runway.