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

Dear Ms Davison,

I had been eyeing your book “Duking Days Rebellion” at Fictionwise before you offered it to Dear Author for review. It was actually on my wish list there just waiting for my next paycheck when Jane forwarded me the review request. Talk about nice timing! It took me back to my early days of reading historical fiction before I got back into reading true romance books.

I was somewhat familiar with the facts concerning the 1685 uprising against King James II by his bastard nephew the Duke of Monmouth having read several books using it as a backdrop. This book placed me right there not only during parts of the short battle but also in the afterwards. Mentioning the persecution of the French Huguenots by Louis XIV was a nice touch to show what Protestant Englishmen would be afraid Catholic James would force on them and to suggest the reason so many were willing to risk everything to remove him from the throne.

When Helena initially began her search with Nathan Bayle for the fate of her three relatives after the fighting was over, I had an “oh …

Dear Ms. Dickson,

I should have loved this book. It’s about one of my favorite times in history. Seventeenth century England. Cavaliers. Derring do. A time when history turned on a dime. And maybe 10 or 20 years ago I probably would have enjoyed it. But instead I found it boring, filled with little history lectures, overdramatic and peopled by characters I felt no sympathy for.

The heroine is young and is forced into a marriage by her father with a man she’s never even seen before the ceremony. She’s upset that she can’t marry the man she feels she loves and takes it out on Marcus. I have no problem with that. I do have a problem with her continued stupid actions that last throughout the entire book. The twit doesn’t learn. She stamps her feet and acts with no thought at all beyond twitting Marcus. He actually treats her very well considering the fact that after the marriage she hauls ass to Holland with a man not her husband or a relative then gets mad with Marcus for coming after her! Even though she admits to her maid that he probably will …