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

Dear Jane,

I just read The Lost Memoirs of Jane Austen by Syrie James. It’s a ‘what if‘ story. ‘What if‘ Jane Austen had experienced romantic love. After all these years, how would we find out about her ill-fated romance? When and where could it have happened? Who would have been her love? Why didn’t Jane have her own happily-ever-after?

I have to tell you, Jane, this book answers every one of those questions in a completely believable way. Syrie James uses Jane’s real life travels, letters, and interactions to tell us a story that not only leaves you believing ‘it could have happened’, but wishing ‘oh, if she couldn’t have it all, I hope she had this’.

The story is written as Jane’s journal. Through it we are introduced to not only, my dear Mr. Ashton, but her large and loving family, as well as fictitious characters who are incorporated into Miss Austen’s work. We learn so much about Jane; from her love of country life to her struggles with her inner demons.

The Lost Memoirs of Jane Austen is a very easy read (I set it down once thinking I …

There has been some tension between romance blogs and the romance website, All About Romance. When I first read the threads over at AAR that turned from why some didn’t like the message board change to why blogs are exclusive and narcissistic, my first instinct was to reach out and say that we welcome commenters and hope that we aren’t exclusive. That’s my opinion still but I realized as I was writing this piece that there will always be some that won’t find Dear Author welcoming or interesting. That a blog, a website, or a message board cannot be all things for all people, least of all a blog.

We do have a viewpoint here at DearAuthor and because I pen most of the opinion pieces, most of the viewpoint that is espoused is mine. Jayne and I write most of the reviews for DA and our opinions vary widely and so do our writing styles so to that extent I think we have some depth but it’s not a great variety such as is provided at a place like All About Romance or Romantic Times.

I admit that when I began Dear …