Archive for 'Sherry Thomas'
Each year, RWA recognizes excellence in romance writing through the RITAs, considered the top honor in the genre. Though awards are presented in a dozen categories, a writer has just one shot in her career to win the Best First Book award. This interview series focuses on the debut authors nominated in that category. Alyson H undertook to bring this idea to Dear Author and completed all the interviews. Alyson is a great interviewer and elicited some fun information. Alyson makes you, the reader, interested in the interviewee. It’s a great skill. Thanks Alyson and I hope the readers of Dear Author enjoy this six part series.
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 Private Arrangements was a huge debut, off like a rocket that made us startle, widen our eyes, and say ooooooh. No doubt publishers would love a formula for whatever combination of elements contributed to the book’s success, but here’s the thing that made all the rest of that stuff matter: Sherry Thomas wrote one fine story. PA is proof of the infinite freshness of the romance genre, and Gigi and Camden, while too true to be “easy,” are characters who stay with you, not just between readings, …
Dear Ms. Thomas:
 I read 18 A-level romances in 2008, an unusually rich year for me. Two of those 18 books were your first two romances, Private Arrangements and Delicious. Needless to say, your books have vaulted to the top of my “most anticipated” list. So I settled down to read Not Quite a Husband with high hopes. I’m happy to say that I was not disappointed.
Bryony Asquith and Leo Marsden have known each other forever, their family estates in rural England being adjacent. Their childhoods were very different, however, and Bryony never paid much attention to Leo, who was four years her junior (a detail I really appreciated because it was unusual and gave their subsequent relations some unexpected dimensions). Bryony finally notices Leo when he returns to London as a young man of about 23, handsome, charming and feted for his mathematical genius and his travels.
Bryony is an odd duck, on the shelf due not just to her advanced age (she’s in her late 20s) but her unusual profession: she is a doctor. In the 1890s, both female doctors and noblewomen practicing a profession were quite unusual. Thus Bryony is doubly alienated.
Jane …
Dear Ms. Thomas:
Thank you for sending me a copy of your third book. Not Quite a Husband treats the reader to the same rich and evocative prose that filled the pages of your previous two works. In mentioning new historical authors to be excited about, your name should always mentioned.
Bryony Asquith, the granddaughter of an Earl, was an extraordinary woman who fell in love with an extraordinary man, Quentin Leonidas Marsden, the youngest son of the Earl of Wyden. He was a brilliant mathematical mind who was published and presented at the mathematical society; and she was a surgeon, one of few women practicing medicine, particular one of the few women born of her lineage who actually worked.
While the lede of this review might be their accomplishments, the existence of the accomplisments tell more about the characters than the accomplishments themselves. Bryony chose to be a surgeon not so much because she loved saving people but because it was nearly a necessity for her. Bryony had grown up alone without companionship and in order to survive she withdrew well within herself, drawing a cloak of self sufficiency so …
I’m sorry for my delinquency in posting this. My lame is excuse is real world things interfering with my online fun. Without further ado, here is our May recommendations.
- To Beguile a Beast by Elizabeth Hoyt. A beautiful courtesan falls in love with a scarred, tormented lord. Recommended by Jayne.
- Gift from the Sea by Anna Schmidt. Enemies turned lovers historical set in early 20th C America. Recommeded by Jayne.
- Always a Scoundrel by Suzanne Enoch. True rogue tries to shed his past bad association and help a pratical woman about to be trapped in marriage to a man who takes pleasure in destroying others. Recommended by Jane.
- Hard and Fast by Erin McCarthy. Dyslexic stock car racer falls for sociology graduate student. Funny and sexy. Recommended by Jane.
- The Madness of Lord Ian McKenzie by Jennifer Ashley. Asperger sufferer seduces a widow who curbs his madness. Recommeded by Robin and Jane.
- Dead and Gone by Charlaine Harris. Robin says this is one of the best in the series.
- Not Quite a Husband by Sherry Thomas. Estranged couple reuintes and rekindles their love after overcoming past betrayals. Recommended by Janine, who by way of disclosure, is Sherry’s critique partner.
- The Conqueror by Kris Kennedy. Medieval knight
…
Janine was our third “Ja(y)ne” here at Dear Author. She provides beautifully written, well articulated reviews. She has varied tastes and puts an emphasis on well written prose. Janine is a slow, but careful reader:
- DELICIOUS by Sherry Thomas*, Grade A
- CRY WOLF by Patricia Briggs, Grade A
This week we’ll post the “best of 2008″ list for each reviewer. Feel free to use this as a commenting launch pad but also as a way for you to measure your taste against the reviewer’s taste.
Jennie F is one of our “new-ish” reviewers. She reviews sporadically and has ecletic taste. Her list includes a variety of fiction books, not all of which are romance:
Dear Ms. Fisher,
 You are one of the greatest food writers of the 20th century. But I didn’t know it when I first came across you work 2003, completely by chance, in a vacation condo in Corpus Christi. The bookshelf in the condo had a few magazines on coastal living and three books by you. That night, after I’d put my baby to sleep, I sat in the bathroom—all the other rooms were filled with snoozing relatives—and read your tightly wound account of a once-superb waiter become alcoholic and dismal, a punch-to-the-stomach tragedy in a dozen pages.
At the end of my three-day stay, I was seriously tempted to take your books home with me. I didn’t. But I never forgot the strange, stark powers of your narrative. So when I saw The Art of Eating, an omnibus collection of five of your best-known books, in early 2007, again accidentally, while looking for a copy of Larousse Gastronomique to help with my research into 19th century French cuisine, I began reading immediately.
Or rather, I began reading The Gastronomical Me, the fourth volume in The Art of Eating and your memoir, immediately, because as much …
Dear Ms. Thomas,
 When I read your historical romance debut, Private Arrangements, in February of this year, I was enchanted. The note I wrote in my book log reads as follows: “Excellent, excellent debut. Beautifully written and characterized, and quite different from the usual historical romance (especially in allowing a heroine to be less than saintly). My only complaint is it could have been a little longer – the ending felt a bit rushed.”
So, my anticipation level was quite high when I opened Delicious. Happily, I was not disappointed.
The story begins with this irresistible line:
In retrospect people said it was a Cinderella story.
…that line and my experience with your earlier book were enough to signal that I was in for one subversive fairy tale. And who doesn’t love a subversive fairy tale?
In 1892, Bertie Somerset unexpectedly drops dead at his Yorkshire estate. The death comes as a shock to everyone; Bertie was only 38 years old and not known to be in bad health. Among the surprised mourners are Bertie’s notorious cook and erstwhile lover, Verity Durant, and his estranged half-brother, barrister and rising politician Stuart Somerset. Bertie’s tangled and fraught relationships with both …
Dear Ms. Thomas,
Book two and all is still well between us. Keep this up and I’ll stay a happy woman and keep writing you nice reviews. I used to think I didn’t care for Victorian era historicals – something about the facial hair of the men and hairstyles of the women – but you’re still luring me into parlor palms and antimacassars.
I’ll admit that when I started the book, I wasn’t too sure for a while exactly what was going on. The heroine is a fallen Lady who cooks divinely, yea even unto making English people sit up and notice. I got that. She’s got an illegitimate son but he’s in a good home and being raised to be a gentleman. So far so good. Her employer just keeled over during the soup course and, what’s this?, they’d had an affair and he refused to marry her after she thought he would? And then she remains his cook for 10 years? Even after she had a ‘one night to remember all my days’ with his illegitimate half brother. Oh my. What’s going on here?
And the half brothers who used to …
 Magic Burns by Ilona Andrews. Both Jane and Jia would recommend this sophomore effort by newcomer, Ilona Andrews. The “Magic” series features a smart mouthed, sword wielding Kate Daniels who helps to enforce the law in an alternate universe Atlanta. For the crossover genre reader (i.e., the romance reader that likes to cross the genre aisles), Curran, the Beast Lord of the Pack of Atlanta, plays the alpha male who likes to tweak Kate’s chain. Jia particularly likes “how their relationship is unfolding slowly, developing over the course of what I hope will be several books. It makes things more believable considering the two people involved: the Beast Lord of the Pack and the lifelong loner with a dangerous heritage.”
 First You Run by Roxanne St. Claire is recommended by Jane as a fast paced road romance featuring a hot Austrialian bodyguard and a Mayan scholar. The suspense revolves around the end of the world theory that some believe is predicted by the Mayan long calendar. So you get a bit of historical facts, a bit of suspense, a bit …
Dear Mrs. Thomas,
 By now I’m sure you’ve heard the accolades from other review sites of how this title might herald The Return to Great Historicals of yesteryear. How it takes a Victorian setting plus two well thought out lead characters and mixes them to yield a scrumptious book for those of us tired of yet one more Regency set historical much less those who’ve given up on historicals at all. True, it’s flush with Dukes or near Dukes but I’ll forgive you those since you don’t inflict a nobleman spy on me. I’ll allow much authors who resist that worn out and threadbare plot.
Gigi and Camden are not perfect people. Far from them. Gigi is almost breathtaking in her pursuit of a man she, in her budding youth, feels is the perfect man for her. One Duke has slipped through her fingers at the last minute by slipping off a four story building after a night of drinking. She’s not about to let his cousin do the same. Much less when he’s so wonderful a man. His long-standing bespoken arrangement with a spineless young European aristocrat is too tepid to be allowed and an …
Dear Ms. Thomas:
I know your debut book, Private Arrangements, has already been reviewed well here and elsewhere, so I don’t know if I can add anything new to the chorus, but this book made such a positive impression on me, especially in your crafting of the heroine, Gigi, that I wanted to review it simply to articulate my appreciation for such supple and nuanced characterizations.
Philippa Gilberte Rowland is a young woman with no particular confidence in her womanly charms but a strong and practical faith in the appeal of her considerable fortune. Saved in a most bizarre fashion from marriage to a dissolute duke, Gigi becomes quickly captivated by the duke’s young cousin, Camden Saybrook, who may be at least one death away from the dukedom but who is intelligent, handsome, and as immediately taken with Gigi as she is with him. Between the strong mutual attraction, however, lies a promise Camden has made to another woman, an incredibly shy beauty who continued to waffle on a final decision to marry Camden, despite his honorable intentions to wait her out. Gigi is not so patient, however, and despite Camden’s refusal of her proposal, …
 Sherry Thomas came to my attention last year when the buzz began about her remarkable debut novel. I had the pleasure of meeting her at RWA in Dallas. Her writing is big and exuberant and I find her a welcome addition to our romance genre family. I hope you all check her out for yourself. You can read an excerpt of Private Arrangements on her website.
If you won a book in the contest that we ran, I had a delay in getting the books out but I did mail them priority mail. I am so sorry about the delay though.
This is Thomas’ promotional book trailer. You have to wait for the credits.
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In a way, Private Arrangements is my first story. It started all the way back in 1998, when I was a young, overwhelmed stay-at-home mother. One day, during my son’s nap time, I read a new book by an old favorite author. I hated the book–it was beyond stupid. And the thought popped into my …
Dear Ms. Thomas:
I first learned about you when Sybil sent me a link to your excerpt (this is a link to your blog because your website? It is gone!). It was enticing but your book wasn’t due out for months and months so I tried to put it out of my mind. But then my friend, Janine, mentioned that she was your critique partner and that she loved your book and maybe she could wheedle a copy out of you to read.
As you know, I stayed up late to read it. As is my normal course when I love a book, I begin emailing everyone I can to share the love which, in the case of early books, is like the author. I remember that I read this into the early morning hours and even forgot to set up a post for the blog for the morning.
Gigi is a very rich young girl who wants to marry well. Through a series of incidents, Camden Saybrook becomes Marquis of Tremaine. Camden has promised himself …
This special guest review is from author Sherry Thomas. You’ll want to read the entire thing down to the end because Sherry and I are sponsoring a pay it forward Bettie Sharpe giveaway. You see, Bettie Sharpe gave away a fantastic retelling of the Cinderella story. Only we got it in drips and drabs, one installment a week on the blog of Dionne Galace.
But it was so good that I think everyone was salivating for Bettie’s release from Samhain. I suspect that Bettie is bound for New York. You heard it here first. (okay, maybe not here first since I think any number of people said that on Dionne’s blog).
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Dear Ms. Sharpe,
Brace yourself. I’m going to French-kiss you—I’m talking about serious, messy, slobbering tonguing—and I don’t know if I’ll be able to stop at just that.
I’ve railed on my blog that although romance is largely a genre by women for women, there is a lack of memorable heroines that almost rivals that of Hollywood action flicks. This is, of course, one picky woman’s opinion. But I don’t think I’m at all alone in it. Romance, …
Dear Ms. Stuart,
 Black Ice is my favorite of all your books — the ones I’ve read, that is. You have a huge backlist and I have not come anywhere near reading them all, but I’ve read several of your most popular titles, including A Rose at Midnight, To Love a Dark Lord, Moonrise, Nightfall, Ritual Sins, three more books in your Ice series and others as well. I have enjoyed some of them more than others, but not until Black Ice came along did one of them blow me out of the water.
Twenty-three year old Chloe Underwood is a translator of children’s books living in Paris and longing for a little more sex and violence in her reading material. Little does Chloe know that she’s about to get more of both, but it won’t be in the pages of a book.
Chloe’s British roommate Sylvia is a fellow translator who had lined up a side job for herself, translating for some business people over the weekend in a chateau. At the last minute, Sylvia’s wealthy lover invites her to spend the weekend in his company. Sylvia’s dearest hope is to …
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