Dear Author: Romance Novel Reviews, Industry News, and Commentary

Pane et Tulipani (Bread and Tulips) 2000
Genre: Comedy/Romance/Drama
Grade: Delightful
In looking over my Friday film reviews, I realize I’ve been remise. Of all the ones I’ve done, most have been set and made in the US or are English language films. Don’t think I don’t watch foreign films with subtitles. I do. Let me correct this [...]

Never Say Goodbye (1946)
Genre: Romantic Comedy with screwball elements
Grade: B
I hadn’t planned on doing a review of this movie just yet but when I saw it was being shown on TCM on December 17th, I jumped. Why? Well, it’s another movie which hasn’t been released on DVD yet and the only VHS copies are used. [...]

Jack and Sarah (1995)
Genre: Dramedy, romance
Grade: B
Richard E. Grant can do neurotic better than almost any actor I know. And this film affords him ample opportunity to show this. But don’t think it’s a total downer as he also gets to display his comic timing and is backed up by some of the best talent [...]

Dear Ms. Minton,
There is a lot of stuff you are trying to cover in this book. Some of it is done just right, some of it is skimmed too quickly for me and some of it just seems to be on an eternal repeating loop.
The small Kansas town of High Plains is still digging out [...]

Dear Ms. Smith,
Your regencies novels have been among my favorites for years. I’d heard conflicting things about your contemporary mysteries but decided to take the plunge and try one that seemed, from the blurb, to also include some regency stuff.
Belle Savage, American romance writer, rents a cottage in England for inspiration. And she [...]

Dear Ms. McAllister,
Click here to go to eHarlequin.com
Recently a friend of mine recommended you as a “Presents” author whose heroes aren’t assholes. She said something like, “They don’t suck.” Telling me something is different from the normal is like baiting a juicy worm on a hook for a hungry fish. So yeah, I bit. And [...]

Dear Ms. St. Claire:
Of all the Bullet Catcher books, Hunt Her Down is the one I most enjoyed reading. That is because I was pretty much glued to the book the whole way through, my internal critic entertained into submission.  The protagonists were well-drawn and sympathetic, their attraction palpable, the suspense aspects of the book [...]