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

This week features some big names in epic fantasy and a gangsta chef. Really.

Not sure if this will be mainstream or fantasy (PM is mixed) but the rumor is that this went for a ridiculous amount of money.
NYT bestselling author Terry Goodkind’s contemporary thriller set in an American city, and two other novels, moving to Ivan Held at Putnam, in a joint venture with Berkley, with Susan Allison editing.

I have to admit that this sounds clever. Win!
Anne McCaffrey and Elizabeth Ann Scarborough’s BARQUE CATS, like sailing ships of old, spaceships have cats but in space they are rare and valuable; what humans do not know is that the cats are plotting to take over the universe, to Sue Moe at Del Rey, in a good deal, in a two-book deal.

The Dabel Brothers are cleaning up: Jim Butcher, LKH, Patricia Briggs, and now Jordan.
Comic-book format editions of Robert Jordan’s bestselling 12-volume Wheel of Time series, to Dabel Brothers Publishing, for publication beginning in December 2008.

500 Blazes! Holy cow.
Stephanie Bond’s book for the 500th Blaze release, a single-author anthology, for publication in October 2009; and a story patterned after A Christmas Carol about a prickly woman who has an encounter with a …

Dear Mrs Bond,

I gotta love a woman who puts a review quote from her husband on the front of her book! Did you really make him read it? Bad you, bad, bad you. When Jane first sent me the arc, I didn’t realize it was actually book two in this series. Once the realization dawned, I debated trying to find and read book one but quickly decided there just wasn’t time to do so and still get this review done in August. Plus I also wanted to see if newcomers to the series could be caught up to speed. Answer? Yes, they can.

The first chapters of the book did have a lot of information to impart to new readers as we learned how Carlotta and Wesley’s father had been accused (framed if you ask Wesley) of financial hanky panky leading to the loss of their lavish Buckhead lifestyle in Atlanta. How their father and mother had fled and left 18 year old Carlotta to support and raise her younger brother. How he’d gotten into trouble with a) loan …