Blogger M has launched a blog plea for help.  She wants to be married and not because she can’t handle a drill or open her own doors or that she is afraid of being independent.  It sounds like she wants someone to share her life with her.  Isn’t the what romances are about?  The best [...]

Dear Ms. Briggs,
Once in a while there comes a book that sweeps you off your feet, a book you fall in love with so completely that it is hard to do justice to that love in a review. Alpha and Omega and Cry Wolf made me feel that way.
Because of the way [...]

Dear Readers,
Since this review covers my responses to nine short stories and two novellas, I’ve decided that for the sake of clarity, it would be simper to address this letter to you rather than to eleven authors.
Tangle is an anthology featuring a variety of same-sex love stories. All the romances here have two heroes, [...]

more cat pictures

I just watched the first episode of Bones which I downloaded from iTunes. I’d been thinking about watching it for some time and was holed up in the basement working on a project and thought that running the show while I was working would be a great way to pass some time. [...]

Dear Ms. Duran,
One of my fellow reviewers knows you, but I went into this book without any preconceived notions. I didn’t read reviews (including those here), interviews, cover copy, even your posts here at DA. I knew nothing except Janine thought highly of your work. And while that’s usually a good recommendation for me, sometimes [...]

From Far Away by Kyoko Hikawa. Publisher: Viz. Retail: $9.99 each. 14/14 volumes released in English. Rated T for Teen (some fighting, no sex).
Dear Readers,

I’m starting to feel a little like Harriet Klausner, with all the positive manga reviews I’ve been doing. But everyone knows there’s a lot of mediocre manga out [...]

Dear Ms. Collingwood,
I both liked and didn’t like your novella Lieutenant Samuel Blackwood (deceased).
I was attracted to it as soon as Jane offered it to us, because your email mentioned it was a penny-dreadful styled ghost story, and I love the ghost stories of the Victorian era (it’s set in Georgian times but the style [...]

Basara by Yumi Tamura. Published by Viz. Retail: $9.99. Rated T+ for older teens (frank sex and violence. The sex isn’t graphic but the violence can be.) 25/27 volumes published, complete in Japan.
Dear Readers,
Some long running romance manga series are drawing to a close this month, and all deserve mention here. This [...]

Dear Ms. Turner,
Since in reality, our reviews are at least as much for readers as they are for authors, let me begin this letter with a warning to readers who haven’t embarked on your YA fantasy series beginning with The Thief. The book I am about to review here is The Queen of Attolia, [...]

moar funny pictures
Romance is an easy target for dismissal by critics, both insiders and outsiders alike. Respect that the genre deserves isn’t being earned despite the tremendous buying power that the genre readers command. Science fiction and mysteries are more honored and more respectable by mainstream press and critics.
This past summers brou ha [...]

Sorcerers and Secretaries by Amy Kim Ganter. Tokyopop. $9.99. Ages 13 and up (kisses). Reads left to right. 2 volumes, complete.
 

Dear Ms. Ganter,
I don’t try much Original English Language (OEL) manga or American graphic novels, because the stories don’t normally appeal to me, and one big reason is [...]

Cipher by Narita Minako. Published by CMX. Retail $9.99. Rating: Teen (some heavy issues, but little to no sex or violence; I’d say high school age personally). 7/12 volumes released in English, complete in Japan.
Dear CMX,

I think you are my favorite shoujo manga publisher. I’ve only tried a few of your series, [...]

Dear Ms. Hart,
Elle Kavanagh wears only black and white. She counts things — not just money at her prestigious accounting job, but also stars, marbles, ceiling tiles. She buys her boss’s wife candy to assuage her guilt for sleeping with him years before. She has been celibate for three years, but before [...]

Sharon Shinn, author of such fabulously romantic fantasy novels as Archangel and Dark Moon Defender, has launched a website at http://sharonshinn.net. Shinn’s many fans will be pleased to learn that her new site includes the author’s news, biography, links and interviews, FAQs, contact information, and even behind-the-scenes details about her books for both adults [...]

In December, we blogged about the State library of Victoria in Melbourne was offering up speed dating nights where each person must bring a book they love or loathe to help break the ice. A new love story was reported at a Lisa Scottoline signing. While waiting in line [...]

CindyS has two great posts that summarize the documentary on Bravo Canada, Who’s Afraid of Happy Endings.

FYI Part 1
FYI Part 2

I don’t know when it will be aired in the US, but it sounds like a fascinating look at publishing and romance. I highly suggest every one read both articles, but I’ll include some [...]

Dear Ms. Ward,
I admit it: I am addicted. Usually I'm drawn to subtle books, books that astutely observe the complexities of human relationships, books written with an ear for beautiful language. If that kind of reading experience is a horseback ride through lush countryside, one of your Black Dagger Brotherhood books is a [...]

For a long time, I have been badgering a friend of mine who reads manga to do reviews for us at DearAuthor. Manga is one of the fastest growing genres and is read by a broad audience of young girls and boys to adults. ジェーン(Jān) (Japanese version for Jane) is a great [...]

Dear Ms. Kleypas,
I realize I’m probably the last person in the solar system to read this book, but read it I did. It took me a while to get to it because I was disappointed in the previous entry in your Wallflowers series, It Happened One Autumn, so I am happy to say that I [...]

Dear Ms. Ward,
As everyone who has read your books knows, Zsadist is the most feared member of the Black Dagger Brotherhood. A vicious fighter in the vampire Brotherhood’s battle against the evil lessers, Zsadist is also scarred, antisocial, and rumored to kill women. But in your previous book, Lover Eternal, Zsadist began to [...]

Dear Ms. Linden,
I was intrigued by the premise of your first novel, What a Woman Needs.
Stuart Drake has to get his hands on some money, and he has to do it fast. After becoming embroiled in not one but two scandals, neither of his own making, Stuart was cut off from his allowance by [...]

Dear Ms. Howard,
I've been reading your books since the days when you wrote for Silhouette and I don't plan on stopping. Few authors of romantic suspense deliver great chemistry between their main characters as well and as consistently as you do. There is something so satisfyingly thorough about this aspect of writing: [...]

Dear Ms. Howard:
It’s a good thing that you are going back to writing romances because Cover of Night is not a romance. It is a suspense book with a romantic theme. Frankly, it's a shitty not a very good suspense book. The setup, which pits the town of Trail Stop against a [...]