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

Dear Ms. Kittredge,

When I read your debut novel, Night Life, I’m afraid I found myself among that group of readers who considered your heroine Luna Wilder abrasive, obnoxious, and borderline stupid.  But even so, the Nocturne City setting stuck with me and while I felt that I might not be a perfect reader-writer match in terms of the types of characters portrayed, I thought your plotting was strong and sound.  Both of these were enough to make me willing to give your series another chance.

It’s been three months since the events of Night Life.  Since then Luna’s been on extended medical leave and she’s only just now returning to her job as a police detective.  It’s not an easy transition.  Newspapers have outed her as a werewolf.  She has a new female boss who remains unimpressed with Luna’s headstrong grandstanding.  And even better, she has a new partner who could pass for a Barbie doll.

Luna’s personal life is no better.  Her cousin Sunny has left and moved back in with their grandmother who hates Luna.  Her last boyfriend, werewolf pack leader Dmitri returned to Russia after …

Dear Ms. Kittredge,

I was introduced to your writing by your short story, “Newlydeads”, in My Big Fat Supernatural Honeymoon. While that story didn’t work as well for me as I’d hoped, I still looked forward to your first novel. Sometimes short stories aren’t the best indicators of good novelists and since Night Life was set in a different world from that of your Black London stories, I hoped I’d enjoy it more.

Night Life takes place in Nocturne City, a dark and gritty place where magic and the supernatural co-exist with the mundane. Luna Wilder works as a detective — with one difference. In addition to being a woman in a male-dominated field, she’s a werewolf. Made into one against her will when she was just fifteen, Luna fled the man who changed her and now lives as an Insoli: a werewolf with no pack, no rank, and no respect. Luna has kept the fact she’s a werewolf a secret from her human co-workers but she finds it more difficult to control her shapeshifting as the full moon approaches.

Luna’s latest case involves …

Dear Ms. Bishop,

Ten years ago, I went through a reading dry spell. Nothing within the fantasy genre appealed to me. I’d grown tired of ignorant farmboys discovering it was their destiny to save the world. I had yet to discover George R.R. Martin. It was still a few years before the urban fantasy subgenre exploded. But I wanted something new. I wanted something fresh. And I was having the hardest time finding it. Then one day I was in the bookstore browsing the fantasy aisle and I stumbled across Daughter of the Blood.

I’ve read many of your books since then and I’ve liked some more than others, but the ones that worked for me best were those set in the Black Jewels universe. In retrospect, I can see the numerous flaws: Jaenelle is a Mary Sue, the plots tend to lose steam towards the end, the antagonists are E-V-I-L, and sometimes the worldbuilding just doesn’t make much sense. But I discovered those books at a time when I was ready to give up on the fantasy genre and because of that, I remain fond of them.

Reading Tangled Webs was like meeting up with an old …

Dear Ms Handeland,

Your books are like potato chips or popcorn or anything smothered with chocolate. I can’t stop reading them anymore than I can restrict myself to one serving of a snack that’s bound to go straight to my hips and stick there like superglue. Sigh. Just when I think that you must be running out of supernatural legends or myths to bring into the Jager Sucher world, you trot out another one and write a book about it. And yes, I did google the subject of the latest paranormal beastie to bedevil your characters and also noticed a bunch of other legends listed at one site in particular. Seems like every group/clan/bunch of people have their own particular bugaboo to scare them in the dark.

After reading last years entry in your Nighcreatures series, “Hidden Moon,” I knew that Cherokee sheriff Grace McDaniel would a heroine at some point. She’s another of the “tough as nails” women you seem to specialize in and of whom I can’t get enough. But while some heroines like this end up grating on my last nerve, yours have enough of a sense of humility and poke fun …

Dear Ms. Bast:

I’ve read most of your backlist at Ellora’s Cave and really, your books have been the impetus for trying more. You have almost always been able to capture and convey the emotional connection while still bringing the heat. I think you are one of the best of the epublished authors and was not at all surprised that New York snapped you up.

Your strengths have always been the emotional connection of your characters; your weakness, world building. Most of your prior work that I have found so appealing have been your novellas. You pack a great deal of emotion in a short amount of space. Unfortunately, in novel length form, you seem to have lost your way.

Mira Hoskins is an air witch who had no knowledge of her powers. She was an ordinary woman, living an ordinary life: divorced and trying to make ends meet by waiting tables. Jack McAllister is a firewitch whose father is one of the worst, most evil men on earth. Crane, Jack’s father, killed Mira’s parents in a demon summoning when Mira …

Dear Ladies,

Whenever I read a book which has a NA character, I take a deep breath, cross my fingers and hope that I’m going to get one more like those written by Kathleen Eagle than the tripe churned out by Cassie Edwards. Luckily, your hero passes in that regard. Unfortunately, the relationship between the hero and heroine gives this effort a grade you’re not going to be happy with.

Lina Brennen longs for a place to call home and people who understand her and still accept her for what she is. She’s faced too much suspicion and moved too many times in her life for this to be more than a dream to her, regardless of what her granna tells her. When her next move places her in the tiny town of Ungega, AZ, she just wants to blend in. But the antics of her granna, who incidentally is a ghost, make this impossible. The town lone lawman, Trey Godfrey, is immediately attracted to Lina but he’s beginning to think there’s something strange about her. But the fact that his mother and his young daughter both accept Lina in his life keeps him interested and …

Dear Ms. Hallaway,

The cartoon cover, the back blurb and lots of the reviews/descriptions at Amazon would lead people to think this is a comedic Vamp Lit. Let me tell readers that it’s not. There are a few humorous jokes and situations but for the most part, you’ve made this book pretty serious.

Garnet Lacey is a witch on the run. The Vatican has a new witch hunting group and they murdered all the other members of Garnet’s Minneapolis coven. Now, she’s relocated to Madison, WI and is the manager of an occult store. When Sebastian Von Traum enters her store looking for mandrake (preferably harvested under a full moon by naked witches, oh and could you get some that was grown under a gallows?) she knows she’s in trouble because he’s gorgeous, he’s available and he’s dead. No aura, you see.