Grade: D

Jane at Dear Author did a post recently ‘coming out’ as a lover of category romance. It was one of those posts that hit a nerve, generating a lot of comments. Readers were falling over themselves (myself included) to ‘fess up and wax lyrical over their favourite authors.

I’ve got about 20 Harlequins on my Keeper Shelf. Most of these are great books but a few are the equivalent emotional porn. Cheap thrills with no troublesome character development to hold up the action. Give me immediate angst, an alpha hero acting like a cockhead and a huge grovelling apology at the end and I’m in heaven.

An author who does this well is Julia James. In the past, I’ve liked her books, but her latest offering, Bedded, or Wedded? is disappointing to say the least.

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Grade: C+

Dear Bam,

You’ll have to forgive me. I know I’ve been delinquent of late, seeing as how I’ve been busy studying for the big exam [Ed. Note: Which she passed. Holla at yo gurl!] and *ahem* spawning, as you so eloquently put it to someone else. Since this is the case, I am stealing your fabulous review format (which I plan to use from now on, ’cause I’m a lazy bitch…and when you do something right it should be repeated often). Believe it or not, I have read a few books that had nothing to do with Taxation, Accounting or Corporate and Securities Law. While I know you would find reviews of those books scintillating, I’ve read Sasha White’s Trouble and will review that rather than Executive Stock Options and Stock Appreciation Rights. Everyone… don’t sigh with relief quite yet.

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[REPOST!]

Grade: B+

Sharon Cullars is awesome. Her first book Again was both scary and sexy and after reading it, I found myself looking for more to read by this lady. I was psyched beyond belief when I checked out Amazon and found this book available for pre-order. It releases on April 24, but I couldn’t possibly wait that long, so I emailed the lady and begged her for an ARC. She was kind enough to send me this copy and kids, let me tell you, the very moment I had this book in my hand, I shoved everything aside and read it from cover to cover in one sitting. You can’t tell from the man-titty on the cover, but what’s inside is actually plenty creepy, yet sexy at the same time. There’s really two stories in this book: one is about a grieving woman who had just lost her twenty-one year old son in a senseless accident and takes solace in the arms of her son’s twenty-one year old best friend. The other is about an angry, angry ghost who can’t seem to let go because he sees his mother being seduced by his former best friend and wants to make sure that the two of them never ever end up together even if he has to resort to murder. Individually, the stories work quite well without the other, but don’t blend as well together. It is not seamless. They don’t flow together, which is why in some places, the supernatural aspect feels slapped on. But more on that later. The romantic aspect of the story doesn’t quite work for me, either, but the two leads do have some sizzling sexual tension between them and the fact that they’re such flawed, damaged characters trying to reach out to each other made for a compelling read. (more…)

Grade: C+

A preface — this isn’t a romance. It’s more women’s fiction or even, dare I say it, literature. Unfortunately, in the way of lit-ruh-chur, it leaves me feeling glum and wanting to eat a chocolate bar to get my seratonin levels back into the “I really, truly don’t need a Xanax prescription” zone.

Nightswimming is well written. It truly is. The prose is clean and elegant. In places, it’s even evocative. However, this is so not my thing. The plot is fine (even though it makes me want to stick both my thumbs in my eyes to see if that hurts less than reading this story). It’s written in high literary style, where you begin at the end of the story, and then construct what has come before via POV vignettes. This is accomplished with expertise and artistry.

As a Lit major, I’ve encountered enough literature to recognize it when I read it. I just never liked it. You see, literature is so often depressing. Crappy things happen to people and lessons are learned. When I’m reading, I don’t necessarily want a moral or a life lesson or to be enriched. I want to be entertained. Nightswimming is eminently readable, but far from festive.
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Grade: A-

[Ed. Note: Is it Dean Winchester on the cover or am I just crazy?]

Authors are either getting better at gauging what I like, or I’ve just gotten a good crop of submissions in the last few weeks. At any rate, Dirty Shame rocked. I know the conventions say not to write about people in famous professions like rock stars, actors, etc, but this story worked for me. Among other gifts, Ms. March has knack for smart banter in dialogue.

Josephine (Joey) Fiorello is a short brunette in a world of tall, leggy Barbie types. She wants to make a living as an actress, but there isn’t enough “character” work to keep her from starving and she doesn’t qualify as a leading lady. Because she doesn’t fancy being homeless, she interviews for a job as a personal assistant.
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