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

NOTE: Moonlit Romance is closing their epublishing doors December 31st so if you’re interested in any of their books, better buy now.

Dear Ms. Appel,

When I saw this at Fictionwise, the book blurb sounded fun instead of, well, preachy. And it was. I’ve been reading a lot of contemporary suspense novels lately so a plain, old regular contemporary about two people falling in love with no spies, killers or other suspenseful elements was just what I needed.
Jonathan could do nothing to aid his wife’s losing battle with cancer. With twenty years into the ministry, he can’t believe the Lord would leave him suddenly with both an empty nest and empty spot on the other side of the bed. Kat, music teacher and mother of grown twins, feels “settled” in small town Texas. Life may be dull, but at least it’s predictable–unlike her life with her late ex. Kat has come to the conclusion that a happy, committed relationship with a male is impossible thing, so she makes peace with herself and with God. If nuns can live celibate for years, then why can’t she make it the next fifty?
Only since …

Dear Ms. Brooks,

I had initially become interested in reading this book after seeing it listed at Fictionwise as a pre-sale item. Right after that it dropped off their site and the possibility of an ebook seemed to vanish into thin air. Don’t know what happened with that but when I spotted it in my local Waldenbooks - and on sale! - I clutched it to my bosoms and headed for the cashier. It turns out to have been an excellent purchase.

On page 195 of my copy, you have a character neatly summarize what I think is the main theme of the book. The fact that I’m about to hand type half a page of text shows how meaningful I think it is.

“You’re right, I said. “It would be something, to be back there, when the haggadah was till just some family’s book, a thing to be used, before it became an exhibit, locked up in a vitrine…”

“Oh, I don’t know,” Raz said. He was poking at the vindaloo suspiciously. He served himself a scant spoonful and loaded the rest of his plate with dal. “It’s still doing …

Church thinkers like Saint Jerome announced that carnal relations were “filthy” even within the bounds of holy matrimony: “The wise man should love his wife with cool discretion,” Jerome opined, “not with hot desire… Nothing is nastier than to love your own wife as if she were your mistress.”

So writes Tony Perrottet in the introduction to his interesting, funny and informative piece on appropriate coitus in the Middle Ages. The Church was so obssessed with sex that it actually took to writing policies on appropriate positions and punishments for sinful positions. Only one position, of course, was appropriate. Positions not appropriate (with accompanying punishment):

Dorsal sex (woman on top): three years
Lateral, seated, standing: 40 days
Coitus retro — rear entry: 40 days
Mutual masturbation: 30 days
Inter-femural sex — ejaculation between the legs: 40 days
Coitus in terga — anal sex: three years (with an adult); two years (with a boy); seven years (habitual); 10 years (with a cleric)

Wow. Having sex with a woman on top is as bad as having anal sex with a woman but not as bad as having anal sex with a boy.

Dear Ms Pattillo,

I am delighted to meet up again with Betsy, David and the good people at the Church of the Shepherd. You’ve managed the neat trick of making a series about a the personal and professional tribulations of a female senior pastor not only interesting but also funny, warm and at times deeply emotional.

In “Heaven’s to Betsy” we were introduced to the Reverend Betsy Blessing, interim Senior Pastor at the old downtown Church of the Shepherd in Nashville, TN. That book ended with Betsy starting a romantic relationship with her long time friend and fellow minister, David Swenson, or The Lutheran, as some of Betsy’s congregation call him. Now, a few weeks later, what Betsy thinks is going to be a real first date with David turns into a proposal. Which is quickly followed by David’s mother, who works for Budget Bride Magazine, taking over the wedding planning and turning it into a Skinflint Wedding from Hell.

Add to that, Betsy and her congregation are faced with an offer from a real estate agent which might give them a chance to move their dying downtown church out to the Nashville suburbs. Just …