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

This is only to note that despite the poor sales of previous blogger books, certain types still sell. A significant deal in PublishersMarketplace parlance is $251,000 - $499,000. Part of the deal could have been based on her years as a columnist and not as a blogger.
NYT health columnist and “Well” blogger Tara Parker-Pope’s THE SCIENCE OF MARRIAGE, practical, evidence-based advice about what makes relationships work — and not work — based on marital health research, to Amy Hertz at Dutton, in a significant deal, in a pre-empt, for publication in late 2009/early 2010, by Lynn Johnston at Lynn Johnston Literary (world).

Not sure who Tropper is but apparently he must sell alot of books. The major deal denotes advances of $500,000 and up.
Jonathan Tropper’s two upcoming novels, including one on fatherhood, moving to Ben Sevier at Dutton, in a major deal, in a pre-empt, for publication beginning in 2009, by Simon Lipskar at Writers House (NA).

Tamera Alexander is, I believe, an inspy author. Given the major deal status of this sale, I wonder how Avon Inspire is doing. I don’t read Inspy fiction but my mother does. I’ll have to buy her a few Alexander …

Dear Ms. Mead,

I don’t share Jane’s reservations about the succubus story, even in novels billed as romances. These days I take the romance label on spines with a grain of salt since there are an increasing number of books shelved in the romance section that are anything but. So I had no problem with the idea of a succubus having sex with everyone except for her boyfriend. It made sense to me. On the other hand, that doesn’t mean I don’t have any criticism. Because in addition to not being very romantic to a romance reader, its meandering plot and inconsistent characterizations failed to work for this fantasy reader as well.

Let’s start with Georgina. Ignoring the discussion of the strict heterosexuality of the succubi/incubi and preachy moralizing brought up in Jane’s review (which I also agree with), Georgina just doesn’t act and think like a succubus. When Seth’s novella is published and her co-workers assume the elevator-loving dominatrix character is based on her, her first reaction is outrage and embarrassment. Why? She’s been a succubus for several centuries. That can’t possibly …

Dear Ms. Mead:

Thank you for sending us a copy of this book. I know that Jia will be reading it sometime so you may get a different review from her than from me and won’t regret sending it. Overall I think that I am not well suited for the succubus story, particularly one that is trying to be a romance. Having sex with other guys while professing to love the one you aren’t having sex with never seems terribly romantic to me.

I didn’t have a super clear recollection of what went on in book one of the series, Succubus Blues, so I think that readers who are new to you won’t have a trouble entering the series at book 2. The series is based on the life of succubus, Georgina Kincaid, who has lived for over 400 years.

Currently, Georgina is in a sexless relationship with her boyfriend, Seth, due to the fact that when they have intimate contact, Georgina can suck the life energy out of Seth and reduce his life span. So they sleep together and have other small intimacies but mostly their relationship is defined …

Dear Ms. Mead:

When I pulled up your book out of the stack to read, I thought that if I had to read one more female first person narrated paranormal that I I may poke out my eyes and never read again. Then I began to read and remembered why I had read so many female first person narrated paranormals in the first place. When the lead is charming and unaffected and the alternate reality is richly drawn, it is easy to escape into the author’s world.

Georgina Kincaid is a succubus who draws life energy from having sex with mortals. She sold her soul to Lilith many thousands of years ago to rectify a mistake she made and she now pays for it with her life. Georgina does not, in any way, feel sorry for herself. She has made the best lemonade she can from her situation but the hundreds of years that have passed have only heightened her state of loneliness. She cannot love because every intimate touch draws life away from the mortal and who kills the person that they love the most? [rhetorical question, of …