Dear Ms. Spencer-Fleming,
My friend Keishon has been telling me for years to read this book. She’s a huge fan of your series featuring Episcopalian priest Clare Fergusson and police chief Russ Van Alstyne. Now that I’ve read In the Bleak Midwinter, the first book in the series, I can see [...]

edited to correct city name
Dear Ms Haney,
After a weekend spent watching “The Mummy” and “The Mummy Returns,” I was in the mood for ancient Egypt. When I saw your books listed at Fictionwise and they were offering Buywise discounts, well it was a good deal. I’m slightly confused about the order in [...]

Dear Ms. Cumbie and Ms. McClanahan,
Your first book was a delight, second I haven’t read, third was a disappointment and fourth I almost didn’t read. Ha. Let that be a lesson to me. From the blurb, I knew that this would be more comedy and mystery than romance and in the [...]

Dear Mrs Belmond,
When I finished reading “A Rather Curious Inheritance,” I knew there ought to be more about Penny Nichols (who is aware of the silliness of her name) and Jeremy Laidley (her sort of English cousin) after their show of interest in each other and in combining the actually rather [...]

Dear Ms. Hale,
I first heard of your book, Wicked Gentlemen, when it was nominated in the GLBT category of our DA BWAHA March Madness tournament. Wicked Gentlemen made it to the third round of the tournament, which means it was the runner-up in the GLBT category.
At the time we were [...]

Dear Ms. Mallory:
I’ve pledged to myself to try and be more diverse in my reading because I do have the luxury of choosing among a number of books without financial risk. This is my first book from you and while I had several issues, I like the voice and would try you again.
Marietta Winters [...]

Dear Ms. Joyce,
When we first encounter Colin Radcliffe, the hero of your fifth book, Shadows of the Night, it is the morning of his wedding day and he has just risen from the bed he shared with Emma Morel, his married mistress. Colin agrees to Emma’s suggestion that they spend a few months apart [...]

Dear Ms. Long,
Of the authors writing historical romance, you are one of my absolute favorites. Not too long ago, I sang the praises of your previous book, The Secret to Seduction, in what is one of the longest, most detailed reviews I have ever written.
After I finished reading that book, I was tremendously excited [...]

Dear Readers,
“Beautiful Copper (it’s a nickname) Randal had come to the exotic Andaman Islands off the coast of India to visit her former school friend but before long she falls under the sultry spell of sun and ocean…and of handsome Nick Tarrent. But undercurrents of violence and betrayal run deep beneath the polite society of [...]

Dear Ms. Cabot:
Everyone knows by now I have an inappropriate girl crush on you and that I squeal a bit every time I get a new book of yours (okay, maybe only Ned knows that I do this squealing thing . . . and now everyone else). But I wondered, after I finished, if [...]

Dear Jane:
There's certain comfort in the familiar read. My husband can't understand why, with a stack of new books piling up on my night stand, I can often be found with a book I've read hundreds of times before in my hands. I love new books, but sometimes you just want something safe that you [...]

Dear Mrs Mittman,
Thank you for the autographed copy of your latest Teddi Bayer mystery. Did you and Jane meet up at RWA or something? She said nothing to me about it but all of a sudden, here’s this nice surprise in the mail. I’m glad to say I think book four is humming along [...]

Dear Ms. Notaro,
I admit it was the great title and the book cover which sold me on trying this book. And then the subtitle, “a novel of sewer pipes, pageant queens, and big trouble” didn’t dim my interest either. It’s neither a romance novel nor women’s fiction nor Chick Lit but kind of a [...]

Dear Mrs Bond,
I gotta love a woman who puts a review quote from her husband on the front of her book! Did you really make him read it? Bad you, bad, bad you. When Jane first sent me the arc, I didn’t realize it was actually book two in this series. Once the realization [...]

Editorial note: This review/letter may contain spoilers. It is also not entirely a review but more of a diatribe. If you read this series, you may not want to read this post. Again, if you do read this and are spoiled, don’t blame us. We warned you. The book [...]

Dear Mr. Mills,
Your first novel takes place in the summer of 1947 on Long Island, in and near the Hamptons, where the wealthy have summer homes. Not far from the Hamptons is Amagansett, a working class community. The two communities coexist side-by-side, but not without tension. Through political maneuverings in the state government, the wealthy [...]

Dear Ms Alexander,
I was delighted with my impulse buy of your first novel “And Only to Deceive.” Luckily for me I didn’t have to wait too long before book two in the series was released. Now all I can say is write quickly so I don’t have to mope too long before getting to [...]

Dear Ms Douglas,
When I picked up a copy of “Wedding Bell Blues,” I didn’t realize that it is the fourth book in your Maggie Skerritt mystery series. I thought briefly about trying to track down the other three books since I prefer to read a series in order but realized that I probably wouldn’t be [...]

Dear Ms Alexander,
Victorian era books are just not my favorites. I freely admit that is due to shallow reasons such as the ugly way most men wore their facial hair and the drabness of their clothes, ghastly women’s hairstyles (all slicked down with sugar water) and the image that I have of a repressed society. [...]

Dear Ms. Cabot:
I’m a full on fan girl of yours. I read all of your books, even your young adult ones. The first in this series, Size 12 is Not Fat, was very cute and fun to read with a hint of a future romance. This second book was a cute, fun [...]

Dear Ms. Belmond,
Reading “A Rather Lovely Inheritance” was kind of like stepping back in time and enjoying something by Mary Stewart. You know, one of her 50s and 60s mystery stories when the heroine gets swept up in something she never expected that’s kind of glamorous and a teensy bit dangerous and at the [...]

Dear Ms Howard:
I wasn’t really much of a Blair fan the first time around and with any book in the first person, if you don’t love the narrator, you aren’t going to love the book. I didn’t find her as irritating as I did in To Die For, but I don’t think I’m up [...]

Dear Ms. Waddell:
I was talking to a sci fi aficionado the other day and bemoaning the fact that there are so few true sci fi / futuristic romances these days. When Tara Marie mentioned that she liked it, I paid attention and picked it up.
Cullon Gavriel and Danna MacFadyen are part of [...]

Dear Ms. Halladay:
I know this letter isn’t fair because I picked up your book thinking you were another author, Gemma Bruce. In my defense, you were in the romance section, but I think your book is better classified as a chick lit whodunit with all the accoutrements of the chick lit book. All the [...]

Dear Ms. Rusch,
I wasn’t aware when I bought this that it is a short story. But I was an ebook novice then and thought I had just gotten a good deal on the price. I know authors have no control over price and compared to Quinn’s famous Second Epilogues this one is cheap but [...]

Dear Ms Smith,
Gather Ye Rosebuds is kind of a Regency crossed with a mystery. It’s fun and interesting but maybe not as cuttingly humorous as some of your other Regency set trads I’ve read.
Zoie Barron lives a quiet life until after her uncle dies. While cleaning out his room to turn it [...]

Ms. Davis:
I bought this book at Elibron.com. Elibron carries no cover images and no descriptions so my purchase was based solely on a) the name and b) the publisher. I was in the mood for something chick lit and I was buying something else at the time . . . [...]