This Duchess of Mine by Eloisa James
Reviewed by Stacey Agdern
Publisher: Avon
5 Stars

I’m not sure of the responsible party, but whoever decried the prologue as a literary device is responsible for an epidemic of misguided flashbacks.  Scenes beyond scenes that alter an author’s trajectory can make a reader feel disoriented if not entirely seasick.

Well used flashbacks can be a wonderful illustrative tool, but too many of them suggests the need for a larger fix.  For some authors, the answer might involve splitting the story into two parts-the before and the after.  For others, the problem might be solved with a prologue.  At bare minimum, it’s crucial that the author pays attention to the reader’s ability to follow the story, because, quite simply, a reader won’t adore what they can’t follow.

The larger…

Zen and the Art of Vampires: 4.5 stars

Crouching Vampire, Hidden Fang: 5 Stars

In a climate where authorial desire for innovation and reader expectations have clashed in very notable ways, Katie MacAlister’s latest ‘Dark Ones’ novels stand out as examples of how best to deal with both concepts and come out with a home run.

No matter how many times people try to deny it, both authorial desire for innovation and reader expectations, are necessary and important parts of the author-reader relationship.  Readers anticipate future volumes of long standing series as if they are old friends, and treat them accordingly.  But if an author has written a large number of books in a series, they might, and sometimes do, get tired of the same patterns.  So how are these two important principles…

‘Till there was You’: Lynn Kurland
Five Stars

Where are all the time travel romances?  What is the appeal of a Time Travel Romance?  Believe it or not, I think the answer to those two questions are much more linked  than separate.  In fact, when talking to fellow romance readers over the years, it seems that one of the elements that make Time Travel romances so appealing is the fact that they are so hard to find.  But at the same time, they are difficult to put together convincingly because they involve a balance of fact and fiction, of contemporary and ‘other’, and the necessity of a voice that works well describing both.

Many authors try.  Some are unable to convince the audience that the ‘other’ worlds they’ve created are realistic, some bog…

Mortal Sins by Eileen Wilks
Reviewed by Stacey Agdern
5 Stars

When an author is writing a continuing series that seems to expand with each succeeding book, it is fundamentally important to have a focus point.  And when that focus point is a couple, it is doubly important for that couple to ‘crackle’.  In her ‘World of the Lupi’ series, Eileen Wilks has that central point in Lilly and Rule.

But what happens when a couple ‘crackles.’  To put it mildly, when couples ‘crackle’, it means that an author has managed to translate that indefinable tension, that absolute and utter chemistry which happens between real couples…onto paper.

‘Mortal Sins’ , the fifth story in the World of the Lupi series, and the fourth to feature Lilly and Rule, is about bonds.  The kind of bond…

“This love drives us crazy but nobody’s walkin’ away; So, I guess we’ll have to do it the hard way”
Keith Urban, The Hard Way.  Be Here 

Duke of Slut.  The Bad Boy.  It all comes down to the same difference, in whatever subgenre of romance you happen to be talking about.  They are arrogant and take the world as they wish to, including the woman at the center of the story.  However, such a dissolute, seemingly connectionless lifestyle gets boring.  And as a result, sometimes, you see a character change right before your eyes…just before they’re brought back to life by the woman they love.  Garret Langham, the Earl of Mayne, is one of those characters.

Most of the characters profiled this week are at their worst when their stories are told. …

Reviewed by Stacey Agdern
4.5 Stars

When reading stories that reunite old loves, it sometimes strikes me how easily trust and understanding return in the face of undeniable physical chemistry.  And in a world where most people fantasize about ‘the one who got away’, a story like that one has a broad appeal.

But every once in a while, a story comes along that’s refreshingly, honestly, realistic, where an author chooses to show the hard road of reconciliation, even when it might even be understandable to do otherwise.  Hope Tarr’s ‘Every Breath You Take’ is one of these books.

At the core of this book lie reunited lovers Alex and Cole.  Cole met Alex while on an undercover mission with the FBI.  Now in private security, Cole is responsible for protecting Alex while she’s…