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

Dear Ms Ruger,

After being pleasantly surprised by “Eight Minutes,” I decided to take advantage of the February romance sale at Fictionwise and try some of your other stories. I bought “Dessert for Two,” “Morning Coffee,” and “Jason Taylor Kissed Me” along with the trilogy of novellas included in “It Must Be Love.” While I enjoyed the novellas, I think you excel in distilling a story down to the essence needed for the short story length. Alas, I’m not as thrilled with the price charged by Fictionwise (even on sale). Yes, yes, I know you as the author have no control over that but those short stories are pricey.

The short stories are all contemporaries and mostly deal with slightly older characters (mid to late 30s) finding the possibility of love. The novellas are historicals (2 Regencies and 1 medieval) and with the longer length allow you to bring the romances to a HEA conclusion. I do feel the need to warn readers that you play a little fast and loose with Regency conventions which, though OK to a point, might annoy purists. Your editor might want to watch more closely for …

Dear Ms. Rusch,

I wasn’t aware when I bought this that it is a short story. But I was an ebook novice then and thought I had just gotten a good deal on the price. I know authors have no control over price and compared to Quinn’s famous Second Epilogues this one is cheap but I thought people should know how many words they’re getting (7074).

Anyway, given the info blurb I wondered how well you’d be able to tell the story of a murder, investigation and ultimate revelation about the hero’s wife in that short a story. The answer: pretty darn well but then the main focus of the book isn’t really the investigation but what the hero learns about his wife and what he, the mayor of the wild west mining town, intends to do about truth and justice.

I enjoyed your writing style and liked that you didn’t get bogged down trying to include too much information yet managed to add enough little details to fully realize the place and characters for me. The ultimate revelation was totally unexpected and the outcome wouldn’t have worked in any other setting than a historical. Readers might …