Your book was another one recommended to me by Denise Rossetti. Because I loved the first one she recommended so much, I thought I’d try this one too. And boy, I’m glad I did.

This book has a very similar storyline to Zero at the Bone: two men navigate protective custody because one has witnessed something that could put away a very bad man for a very long time. As they spend time together, they fall in love. Despite the surface similarities, however, the stories are very different. In Shades of Gray, Danny Butler is a drug runner, working for a drug kingpin. He’s finally been caught by the cops on a weapons charge and Miller Sutton, FBI agent, manipulates Danny into witnessing against his boss. While in protective custody with Miller acting as Danny’s babysitter, they fall in love.

Unlike Zero at the Bone, this book isn’t a suspense book. There’s a couple of twists at the end that are brilliantly done, but almost all of the page space is given over to the relationship between the two men. The plot is there, it’s important, it’s beautifully written and pretty-much hole-less, as far as I can tell, but it’s secondary to the relationship. But the problem with this review is that I really can’t talk about that relationship without giving away unacceptable amounts of the plot. That said, however, you don’t hold back on how much these two men each have to compromise their own deeply held beliefs in order to save each other and be together. Miller has to overcome 30 years of denial over being gay and has to either lose or overcome (depending on how you look at it) his FBI “everything is black or white” mindset:

As a novice, Miller had assumed criminals were different in all ways from the average law-abiding citizen. But over time he had come to realize that drug dealers, murderers, and gang leaders all had people they loved, people they would do almost anything to protect, the same way the successful business man or suburban mom next door looked after their own. Involvement in the criminal world didn’t necessarily erase those basic emotions of loyalty and love. It sometimes made Miller uneasy, the knowledge that in fundamental ways men like Danny were more similar to him than they were different. For Miller,
life worked better when the lines didn’t blur.

Danny has to cut himself some slack, and see the good in himself. These are equally hard things for these men to do.

I also love how the narrative itself is all about the “shades of gray” that Miller has to embrace. Danny is terrified of his boss, but loves him, fears him, but is always looking for his approval, recognizes that he’s a Bad Man but doesn’t want to testify against him because of his deeply-felt loyalty to him. The justice system Miller believes in fails him at the end, as he himself does, too, and he has to figure out how to live with himself after that.

Not only are these characters perfectly consistent in their characterization throughout the novel, their changes are also consistent. That is, the narrative consistency of their characters is upheld even through the character growth and maturation they undergo, something that can be extremely difficult to pull off. And as this book was mostly about the characters figuring out how to be better people, both together and apart, in order to deserve each other, this consistency of characterization was vital to the quality of the book.

I think I’m failing miserably to say how damn GOOD this book was. I love romances that are primarily character driven and this one is so — I’m sorry, but I have to swear — abso-fucking-lutely perfect. These men have been through hell before their story starts, they go through hell during the book, they put *each other* through hell emotionally, and find themselves irrevocably different at the end of the book, wiser, all illusions shattered, all emotional disguises stripped, unable to be other than perfectly honest with themselves and with each other. I also like a lot of angst in my romance and you deliver perfectly. I like some grovel to my ending as well, and the Affair to Remember quality to the ending is perfect for drawn-out grovel from both characters.

Your writing never once tripped me up. The sex scenes are perfect. I liked the flashbacks, although occasionally they were slightly repetitious. I really can’t find anything wrong with this book at all. Angsty, romantic, hot, brilliant, and just plain GOOD. Thank you.

Grade: A

Best regards,
-Joan/Sarah F.

P.S. You really need a webpage. Like, really. How can an author today not have any sort of webpage at all?

| Goodreads Page | Kindle | Amazon
Amazon | no Nook | BN | no Borders |
Fictionwise | Books on Board

That’s why her thyroid pounded like a murderous hippopotamus’ conscience when she heard that Harlequin Books, publisher of such romantic novels as “Tough To Tame” and “His Convenient Virgin Bride,” was to be the first non-Japanese publisher to be inserted into Nintendo DS in Japan.

Plagiarism Today asks a provocative question: Is adblocking a form of piracy? I haven’t thought this all the way through yet, but I think its kind of interesting. The question was prompted by an Ars Technica experiment. Ars coded the site so that anyone running an adblocker would see a blank page. Those who whitelisted the domain or had a paid subscription would continue to see the content.

However, ad blocking essentially short circuits that model. Since the ads are never loaded, the site pays for the content, bandwidth and server costs to deliver the material to the reader but never has a chance to recoup the costs. In short, every person who blocks ads on a site is a mathematical loss for the site, albeit a small one.

In an effort to maximize the digital platform, publishers are looking to a thing called “enhanced ebooks.”  The idea is that the publisher will include more content and then be able to charge a higher price.  The latest iteration is David Baldacci’s Deliver Us from Evil which will include a video tour of his office. You pay a $1.00 more to get access to this video so $15.99 for the book + video or $14.99 for just the ebook. What do you think? Would you pay more for exclusive video?

Here’s an excerpt: “In addition to this B&N blog post, this week’s eBook Showcase enables Nook owners to download a free essay by Skloot if they bring their Nook into a B&N store, through the company’s “More in Store” program.”

Mike Shatzkin blogs about the rise of the niches and the challenges general publishers will likely have in the future, particularly if there is a loss of a major physical bookselling chain.  Shatzkin’s thesis also applies to a move toward internet purchasing, whether it be digital or paper.

So for just about all the books that aren’t novels, memoirs, celebrity-driven, or epic works of popular history or politics, trade publishers are increasingly handicapped. Unfortunately for them, things are going to get worse.

The obvious problem is that the capacity of the general trade market to merchandise and move product is diminishing.

I can’t remember if I blogged this before and if I did, sorry for the repetition.  Pink Floyd won the right to prevent EMI from selling its songs unbundled.  Pink Floyd argued that its contract protected the ‘artistic integrity’ of the album. As commenters noted, Pink Floyd’s artistic integrity was repeatedly violated by the single play of songs on the radio but it’s an interesting argument.

• Laura B.
• Bettie
• Pearl

Contact Alyson H. at daintrointerview AT gmail DOT com.  Happy reading!

In a genre full of nice, nurturing, morally upright, and unflinchingly kind heroines, I find myself drawn more and more to the somewhat unlikeable heroine. Not the “bad girl,” per se, nor the hopelessly complicated and in need of rescue woman, but the female protagonist with an edge to her, the woman whose traits women in real life often find themselves trying not to be identified with or emulate.

You know the heroine I’m talking about: the women like Nora Roberts’s Eve Dallas, who is famously intolerant of other people and terrified that someday people will stop calling her a bitch, or like Jane Morgan from Victoria Dahl’s Lead Me On, a woman willing to use a kind, loyal man who doesn’t fit her stereotypical mate and then ruthlessly cast him to the side.

Jane and I were recently talking about Alexia Tarabotti from Gail Carriger’s Soulless, and we were both struck by how much we liked Alexia despite the fact that she has a propensity toward unlikeability: she’s quite the snob, she’s impatient and often overtly rude, and you’re never sure if she’s going to bash the besotted Connall Maccon over the head with her parasol or kiss him passionately. She’s even condescending to her best friend on a pretty regular basis. I realize that The Parasol Protectorate series is not properly Romance, but it does have a strong romantic storyline that I believe is applicable here, as well.

These are women who have the ability to exhibit kindness, generosity, gentleness, and love, but for whom those qualities are not always first in play. They are not necessarily the women who represent traditional male roles or qualities, either. Cybelline Caldwell, from Jo Goodman’s One Forbidden Evening, is a proper widow who anonymously seduces a stranger at a party, only to reject and then resist his honorable intentions once he finds out who she is. She just doesn’t seem to want the love that so clearly grows in Ferrin’s heart for her, and every act of kindness burns her like a brand. Intense anger over her first husband’s suicide animates her character like an aura.

So what is it? Are these simply the anti-heroines of the genre, the female equivalents of the Sebasian Verlaines and Sheridan Drakes?

It’s not that I don’t love the likeable heroines, too. I think, for example, of two of my favorite Kinsale heroines, Tess from Laura Kinsale’s The Hidden Heart and Melanthe from For My Lady’s Heart. On the surface, at least, Tess is kind and nurturing, while Melanthe appears cold and domineering. Both exude strength of character and vulnerability, but where Tess is softer and more open with her emotional attachments, Melanthe seems closed and defensive. Even at the end of For My Lady’s Heart, after her safety has been secured and Ruck has proven his love, Melanthe is still pretty unyielding, fighting against him in bed, struggling to maintain a large share of the power in their relationship. Does that make her more or less “heroic” than Tess?

In a genre that idealizes its protagonists with the shorthand of “hero” and “heroine,” where is the idealization in these heroines who are not always so likeable? Are they an aberration? Is the idealization in the love relationship itself?

Often it seems these women are paired with kinder heroes. Roarke, for example, takes care of Eve at an incredibly high level of maintenance as husband/personal shopper/nurse/nutritionist/masseuse. He dotes on her, anticipates her every need, and keeps her stocked in adequate chocolate and coffee. Ruck is pretty much the epitome of “honor” in keeping both his vows to his late wife and to his “lady” Melanthe. So is it merely a matter of maintaining a balance in the relationship, or are these less than perfect heroines intended to showcase a more heroic hero – to idealize the hero and his forever love for the heroine?

For some readers, these heroines may be more akin to the keepers of the irredeemable character trait, but I often like them immensely. I often find their heroism in the lack of compromise to their characters, their lack of subservience to the traditional fairy tale model of Cinderella, the ultimate “cinder girl,” who humbly accepts social ostracism and the abusive attentions of the “wicked stepmother” (aka the Bad Mother). And it’s not just that I want to see these heroines “rewarded” with love. In fact, I appreciate that the genre can celebrate these women without changing them overmuch, even as I wonder sometimes if I am in the minority for liking them so much.

So tell me: what do you find heroic in the genre’s heroines? What kind of heroine do you like most and where is your line of unlikeability in heroines?

So I use a software program called Turbo Tourney to run this tournament but in order for it to work, I have to upload a new set of files each time I have new entries so that you can see your entry and the rankings are calculated, etc. For some reason, the site isn’t allowing me a rebuild right now and the ENTER YOUR PICKS link is missing.

I’ve got a customer support request in but in the meantime, the ENTER YOUR PICKS link is working and it’s here but it can’t be accessed via the mainsite. Keep entering your picks in the meantime.

Has it ever been a long wait for the follow up book to “Disappearing Nightly!” Which I’m sure I don’t need to tell you about. When I read, and loved, it in late 2005, I was peeved that it would probably take a year to find out if Esther and Lopez would get together. Little did I know…So I was a happy camper when news of “Doppelgangster” reached me and even happier after I’d finished it and read that there should be at least two more books to look forward to in the series.

Esther Diamond, aspiring actress in New York City, finds a whole new set of Evil People up to no good in the five boroughs. After the show she was in closes, Esther returns to waiting tables at Bella Stella, a restaurant frequented by several members of the Mafia. When she witnesses a mob hit, even though she didn’t actually see anything – and isn’t that the excuse all would be witnesses tell the police? – she and Max Zadok, along with wise guy Lucky Battistuzzi, find themselves frantically racing to eliminate someone who’s clever, connected to magic, and trying to start a mob war in the Big Apple. Oh, and keep Detective Lopez, who’s just been transferred to the Organized Crime Control Bureau, from figuring out what the three of them are really up to.

While the plot, as a whole, is creepy enough to give me the same willies it does to Max, Esther and Lucky, it doesn’t exactly zip along despite the short length of time the action actually encompasses. First our three principles have to get a rough idea of what’s going on, then it all gets rehashed every time someone new has to be told about it and then the basic information must be honed and new insights discovered, usually through improbably circumstances, just when needed. As bored as Esther and Lucky got reading and researching in Max’s antique book collection, I was still more bored reading about them doing it.

There’s a lot of talking and more talking and still more talking that goes on in this book. And the sparkling dialogue that delighted me in the first book makes only sporadic appearances here. Without the A grade I gave to “Disappearing Nightly” and my anticipation for this book, I’m afraid I might have tossed in the towel before getting to the good parts here. The scattered “now why aren’t they clueing into the glaring warning signs” moments didn’t help either. It’s not that I expect this plot to make total sense, things come from seeming nowhere on a routine basis, but I expect the main characters, who’ve spent the whole book fixated on what they think the problem is, to recognize the problem when it shows up right in their faces.

I had also hoped for more romance between Esther and Lopez. They’re certainly willing and give it their best shots but I need more. And then the ending, while it does make sense, isn’t the reward I’d hoped for them for the whole book. However, I will continue to cross my fingers that you have more planned for them. And I’m also willing to overlook a lot of disappointment for Lopez’s last line in Chapter 25. Yes, it’s that line that boosts the total grade to B-.

~Jayne

| Book excerpt | Kindle | Amazon | Nook | BN | Borders |
Fictionwise | Books on Board

***

My journey to publication has been an enlightening experience, to say the least. Exactly one year ago, I was in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico on an annual family vacation. While everyone was sunning themselves around the pool, I snuck off to check emails at a local internet café. Lo and behold, I spotted a familiar name in my mailbox: Champagne Books. At this point, I had already received letters from approximately eighteen publishers – kind and complimentary mind you, but still rejections. So you can imagine my state of mind as I sat there on a metal chair determining if I really wanted to open that message and ruin a perfectly good vacation.

I took a deep breath, glanced around at other customers typing away, and then returned by attention to J. Ellen Smith’s letter. I am pleased to offer you a contract… I almost fell off of my seat. Was it really possible that someone saw the potential in my story? Ten minutes later, I was back at the pool with a strawberry Margarita in one hand, a printed out message in the other, and a huge grin on my face.

However, arriving at this point in my journey was an adventure in itself. Sixteen years ago, my world was turned upside down. I lost my beloved father to colon cancer after an intense two and a half year battle. I was angry at him, at God, at the world in general. I needed an outlet and found it by sitting down in front of my computer, releasing emotions that were racing through my head and heart. This therapeutic exercise gradually evolved into a related fictional story about a woman’s personal journey to find faith and forgiveness. In the process of writing Flaherty’s Crossing and exploring my main character’s growth, I found myself learning and growing as well.

I entered this “genre-blending” story in numerous contests, knowing that agents and editors would be involved in final round judging. I was amazed that I won time and time again, but there was never a request for a full manuscript. I set to work creating a great query letter. I requested reviews from my rough-draft manuscript, and participated in pitch sessions at various conferences. Although I eventually received numerous requests for full copies, I learned a very difficult lesson from trying to market a book that is “out of the box”…so to speak. Although Flaherty’s Crossing was truly a labor of love and the agents who read it consistently loved my voice and writing style, they weren’t sure how to market it or where it would sit on the shelf.

Now this didn’t prevent my manuscript from grabbing the interest of one visionary agent in New York. She complimented me for being original, and absolutely fell in love with this story. However, after being under contract for only six months and having received rejections by eight of the largest publishing houses, she felt that changing the story line completely and emphasizing romance would ultimately be the best solution. Long story short, we parted ways and since I no longer had agent representation, I sought out smaller houses on my own.

In closing, all I can say is…persistence pays off. On February 1^st, Champagne Books officially released Flaherty’s Crossing and I’m proud to announce that I’ve chosen to donate all my proceeds to the colon cancer research project at Providence Medical Center in my father’s name. In the meantime, I’m busy writing again and have discovered my passion for creating action-adventure stories. It’s my hope that once Severed Threads is completed, it will touch lives and inspire readers as deeply as Flaherty’s Crossing.

You can visit Kaylin online at www.kaylinmcfarren.com or visit her book’s website at www.flahertyscrossing.com.

And now… it’s time to pick your brackets! And read a truly informative and utterly important FAQ.

How do I enter my picks?

PLEASE PAY ATTENTION TO THE FOLLOWING WORDS.

To enter your picks, click ENTER YOUR PICKS in the top menu.

Then, at the top right, select “NEW” and enter your name LAST, FIRST. i.e. “Litte, Jane,” or “Sarah, Smart Bitch.”

Enter your email address in the box provided.

Make your picks by clicking on the title you think will win each competition.

Enter the tiebreaker, which is the TOTAL NUMBER OF ENTRIES in the Tournament. We are limited to 999. We know that it says points, but its TOTAL NUMBER OF ENTRIES you think we are going to get.

This is the important part: when you click “SUBMIT PICKS” in the bottom left, your entry will not appear right away.

Let me say that again: Your entry will not appear right away.

But whyyyyyy am I not seeing my entry right away?

Because each entry is stored off line and must be compiled and uploaded into the server in batches. This is done manually. By Jane. So she’ll collect the entries in groups through the selection period and upload them in groups.

What’s the deadline for making my selections?

8 PM, EST, Wednesday, March 17, 2010.

Ready to make your picks? Head on over to check out the 2010 DA BWAHA Tournament Bracket.

Christine
Robyn B.
Mary S.
GSM
EmilyW
willaful
Margay
Ellie
Sue A.
D.L.
Kim A.
Nastassia D.
Bev Stephans
Lisa

Later today we will announce the finalists and allow you to start filling out your brackets. For a look at the tentative finalists head on over to DABWAHA.

***

London, 1760

She was going to die!

Searing her fingers on the door, she tested it and found it locked. Heat emanated through the solid wood. Thick billows of smoke filled the room with noxious fumes. It tasted bitter on her tongue, and she closed her lips tightly to keep it out. Shrieks and cries pierced the night. Glancing at the window, she gritted her teeth at the sight of the nails which held it closed. If not for her defiance, and if not for her nightly excursions, it would not be nailed shut. She cursed herself for the night that she had been caught sneaking in. But that still didn’t tell her why the door was locked.
She surveyed her small room. The room that her uncle had given her when she had become his ward several months before.

She shuffled around the bed, a large monstrous thing that took up most of the minimal space. In the mirror, a small pale blonde stared frightened from its depths, her face drawn with panic. Smudges of soot from the smoke that now billowed under the edge of her door covered her dress at the base of her skirt, and a large streak of it was smeared across her face.

This was without a doubt the worst spot that twenty year old Charity Delaney had ever found herself in. Though definitely not the first.

I know I’ve said in the past that I’m tired of vampires, and it would appear many other people would agree. In the YA genre, we’ve seen many a trend come and go over the past couple of years: faeries, werewolves, zombies, and angels. That said, I’ve yet to see one of those supernatural creatures really stick the way vampires have because for all that I (and other readers) complain about overexposure, vampires truly are a perennial hit. To acknowledge that fact, I think it’s fair to say that the general weariness with vampires has less to do with the topic and more to do with the execution. A person can only read so many Twilight clones before wanting something new. So after hearing some good things about your debut that piqued my interest, I decided to get over my vampire-aversion and give it a try.

Solange Drake comes from a long line of natural-born vampires. In her world, there are two kinds: vampires who are born and vampires who are made. The natural-born vampires are rarer. Even rarer are natural-born female vampires. In fact, Solange is the first, and only, female vampire ever born in history. That’s bad enough all on its own. With Solange’s transition fast approaching, she’s become the recipient of many proposals, courtship offerings, and just plain all-around stalking behavior that warrants restraining orders if such things were observed by vampire kind. However, it also appears that a long time ago, someone prophesized the coming of a vampire queen from the Drake bloodline who’d unite the fractured vampire races. Solange, being the novelty that she is, is widely assumed to be said vampire.

But Solange wants nothing to do with that. She’d much rather throw pots and anyway, she’s squeamish around blood, which is an unfortunate trait for a vampire to have. She already has to cope with seven overprotective older brothers. Does she have to deal with vampires who want to kill her because people think she wants to overthrow the current vampire queen too?

What sets this novel apart from other vampire YA of its ilk are the awesome female characters and the great depictions of relationships. I adored the friendship between Solange and her human best friend, Lucy. Because their mothers were best friends since before Solange’s mother became a vampire, the girls grew up together and Lucy has no fear of vampires whatsoever. The contrast between them was great: Solange, daughter of an ancient vampire bloodline and whose mother is a fearsome martial artist that puts those skills to work regularly, who hates blood and Lucy, daughter of peace-loving vegan hippies, who has a violent streak.

I also loved how Solange’s family was portrayed. Solange is very much suffocated by her overprotective family — something that Lucy strives to mitigate as much as possible. Their concern is not without reason, of course, since I imagine most families would be paranoid if people kept trying to kidnap their only daughter so she could bear a score of vampire babies. But despite their paranoia and coddling, it’s obvious those actions arise out of nothing but love and affection. I can’t really emphasize enough how much I loved the Drake family. Coming from a large extended family myself, I certainly know what it’s like to have eccentric relatives with varying degrees of reputation and influence. The only difference here is that many of Solange’s relatives are several centuries old.

The burgeoning attraction between Lucy and Solange’s older brother, Nicholas, was great too. I loved how Nicholas was very much aware of the fact that he’s been in love with Lucy since forever but Lucy was slower to accept the truth. They’re a great example of how stories about schoolyard romance (boy pulls girl’s pigtails) carrying on into adolescence and beyond can have their charm when done well. Solange also has a love interest in a young vampire hunter named Kieran, but I admit I wasn’t very interested in that couple because it’s a dynamic I see more often in these kinds of books. I admit I was more entertained by Lucy’s steadfast refusal to be impressed by Kieran’s mysterious, stealthy vampire hunter background. (I will never stop laughing about how she simply looked him up in the phonebook, called him up, and then proceeded to blackmail him. And then later used the idea of crank calling Kieran to cheer up Nicholas.)

If I have one criticism about the book, it’s that a lot of the background on the vampire races is cursory and not explained very clearly. I know part of that can be chalked up to space but there are two other major types of vampires in addition to the natural-born and standard made ones. If I understood it correctly, they’re variations on the standard made ones but the details can be confusing. I hope these differences get clarified in the next book in the series (of course it’s a series) because judging by the ending, they will play larger roles.

All in all, however, that’s not a major flaw in a book that’s otherwise a quick, funny read. I especially think readers who like snappy dialogue and solid depictions of female friendship and family relationships will like this one a lot. B

My regards,
Jia

| Book link |  Amazon |  BN | Borders |

There is currently no digital format for this book but I’ll update the links if the digital version becomes available.

When I put this in my Netflix queue, I had no idea how truly revolutionary it would be. Even as I started to watch it, I didn’t know what was coming but found myself charmed, delighted and emotionally connected to the story and the storyteller. For, you see, both become entwined as Nina Paley tells of her marriage and its failure along with an abbreviated version of the Ramayana. WTF? you say. Yes TF I say, it’s true. And we also get a healthy dose of a wonderful jazz age singer named Annette Hanshaw whose songs are just perfect to help tell the tale.

Paley uses 5 distinct styles of animation plus some amazing music – including modern Indian as well as jazz singer Hanshaw – as she winds her story together with that of Rama and his wife Sita. All the animation is fantastic and clever but my favorite are the parts narrated by Indonesian shadow puppets. The voices behind the puppets are three Indians from various parts of the country who provide the basic details of the story – though they sometimes disagree on and mess up the details of the complicated tale which leads to some comic moments as they correct each other and worry about how it will make people mad.

And then there’s the Intermission! Yes, the film has an intermission and don’t skip through it as it’s hilarious watching the various characters head to the concession stands for popcorn, hot dogs and drinks. You can even use it as an intermission was intended if you need to.

The DVD I bought, as well as the website, has various subtitles available – including LOL – and I suggest that, at least the first time through, people watch the film with them on since the accents can be hard to understand at times if you’re not used to them. There’s also a commentary track that’s interesting to listen to. For further details on the movie, there’s a FAQ section at Paley’s website for the film www.sitasingstheblues.com. There’s also a blog and a wiki.

Apparently when the film was first released, there were problems with how it was viewed as a religious story as well as copyright issues with the Hanshaw songs. The songs stuff has been worked out but some viewers might still object to the way Paley chooses to portray the various people of the story. The various versions of the Ramayana are thousands of years old and though Paley doesn’t tell the whole story, what she does tell is definitely from a feminist slant yet some stuff modern feminists might find hard to swallow. But it is what it is and she felt that animating it was a cathartic experience for her after the break up of her marriage.

So, you want to try it? Well, you can rent it, you can buy a copy and it’s available on the internet. Yep, that’s right. Paley has made it freely available to do anything with except copyright it. I know that you can watch it at the Sitasingstheblues.com site as well as youtube and the IMDB. Once I’d seen it, I had to own a copy and gladly paid for it from the website. It’s amazing. It’s funny. It’s inventive. It’s unique and I hope that people check it out and enjoy it as much as I do each time I watch it.

~Jayne

It costs, at a minimum, about $10,000 to get a mildly functional app developed. Whether your App is approved is totally up to an unknown cadre of app approvers. Further, content based rejections are common even if the content isn’t built in such as when Eucalyptus was rejected because the Kama Sutra could be downloaded using the book app.

This is the basis for app rejection:

“Applications must not contain any obscene, pornographic, offensive or defamatory content or materials of any kind (text, graphics, images, photographs, etc.), or other content or materials that in Apple’s reasonable judgement may be found objectionable by iPhone or iPod touch users.”

The fact is that Apple has and will ban content in ways far worse than the episode of #amazonfail. Despite Apple’s concern about the end user and its current quest to seek out and destroy sexually explicit content based apps, Playboy is still a pay option.

For now, though, it appears Apple is ready to let the dirty into their bookstore. Forbes says that there is an “Erotica” category under general fiction and for romance in the iBookstore. These categories may change, however, before launch:

These categories may shift again before the iPad hits stores April 3. Since announcing the device in late January, Apple has changed its classification system several times, says Kastelein. In late February the company listed about 35 top-level e-book categories. It later whittled them down to the current 20.

If you don’t want to contribute to Apple’s desire to control all your media content but you love the tablet idea, be with cheer. Several other companies like HP, Toshiba, and Asus are going to have slate tablets at the end of the year. Here’s a video of the HP one which looks just as lust worthy as the iPhone one. Even better, if it plays iTunes, you can have a lot of the functionality of movies and music, without giving into the Jobsian world rule.

The HP Slate interests me because I am a hulu.com addict and hulu is flashbased. The iPad won’t run flash but the Slate would.

Via Teleread.org.

At Slashdot, a commenter brought up the fact that Amazon’s 1 click patent has been reexamined and will not expire until September 2017. The one click patent has prevented online retailers from providing one click buys with shopping cart model unless a licensing fee is paid to Amazon. Apple is one company that licenses the one click application.

Hachette has had a good year despite Meyer sales slipping out the stratosphere to hover somewhere just below it and well above mere mortals. (Like she is no longer Zeus, just a slightly lesser god). In fact, when Hachette did suffer a decline in sales it was directly attributable to drop offs of Meyer book sales. Meyer doesn’t have anything in the publication shoot and it’s questionable how many tweens and moms haven’t already purchased this book. eBook sales comprised 3% of over all sales and $5 million in December.

For those playing publisher Bingo at home, 2009 was a good year for Harlequin, Penguin, Hachette, and not so bad for HarperCollins. Still to be heard from are Simon & Schuster and Random House.

Denise Rossetti recommended this book to me late last year, but it took Maili ALSO recommending it to me recently to finally make me read it. I think I had about 7 hours of sleep in the three days since I started it. It’s just…brilliant. As I write this review a few days after finishing it, I’m still lost in your world, thinking about the characters, wishing them well.

Dr. Jack Francisco is a maxillofacial surgeon who witnesses a mob murder and is taken into protective custody. He gives up his life and his job (OMG, all that training!) in order to do the right thing and testify about what he saw. But he’s quickly found by a hitman, known only as D, who refuses to kill Jack because he’s been mysteriously blackmailed into taking the hit and can’t bring himself to do it. He’s one of those mythically moral hitman who will only take the hit if the mark “deserves” to die. One might roll one’s eyes at the cliche and might even, in a dorky moment, quote Gandalf (“Many that live deserve death. Some that die deserve life. Can you give it to them, Frodo? Do not be too eager to deal out death in judgment. Even the very wise cannot see all ends”), but by this point, your writing and characterization had pulled me in so perfectly, I really didn’t care about quite how much disbelief I was suspending.

D takes charge of Jack (if HE found Jack in protective custody, someone else would too, and in sparing Jack’s life, he felt he’d taken responsibility for it), and they wander around the country, avoiding death from the many people on their tail (mob hitmen, mysterious people after D, Federal Marshals who want Jack back), and falling in love. One thing I ADORED about this book was that they only started noticing each other physically and being attracted to each other and falling in love AFTER the danger was (mostly) over. When they were running for their lives, they were running for their lives and not stopping to fuck like bunnies, or even stopping to make eyes at each other. And yet the sexual tension, the unacknowledged attraction was still there and I’m not sure how you did it. Brilliantly done.

That’s pretty much the plot for half the book. The second half is taken up with trying to keep both Jack and D alive through the trial and then trying to clean things up enough that they could get their HEA. But this bare bones summary does the story such an injustice. You don’t shy away from the moral issues these two men have to face, you don’t shy away from showing their struggles with themselves and with each other. And OMG, you don’t shy away from their emotions. You show Jack struggle with his feelings for a hired killer. You show D’s slow return to emotional life so carefully, so perfectly, I literally couldn’t put the book down:

D shut his eyes, every cell in his body pushing and pulling at him…pulling him toward Jack, pushing him away, a tug-of-war where nobody won. He shuffled forward, slow and hesitant steps that drew him up behind Jack. He didn’t turn from the window although he surely knew D was there. D’s hand rose from
his side, a marionette arm on strings, his breath going shaky and panicked like a spooked horse. Jack didn’t move.

Fuck it. D let his hand fall to Jack’s shoulder. He felt him flinch a little at the contact, but he didn’t turn. The feeling of Jack beneath his hand, warm through his shirt and solid and strong and alive, sent another blast against that vault door, shuddering it on its hinges. He put his free hand on Jack’s other shoulder, his head sagging down. He could feel Jack thrumming, like putting his hand on the hood of a car with the engine
running.

D gave up. He couldn’t fight this, at least not now. [ . . . ]—it was all too much, even for him. He tilted forward until his forehead was resting against the back of Jack’s neck. A great exhale rushed from him and
he found himself hanging on to Jack’s shoulders for dear life.

I’m still drowning in these characters a full day after finishing this book.

Also, the suspense was unbelievably good. I am not a mystery reader and I rarely read suspense, so the fact that I had no idea about the course of the plot might not say much, but I think it was wonderfully done. My heart was in my throat for HOURS on end and I could NOT put this book down. (It might have helped that I was reading on my iPhone — it’s so difficult to read ahead.)

Niggles: Jack had a doctor’s bag and it had stuff in it. Do doctors REALLY have doctor’s bags nowadays? Especially specialists like Jack? If they do have doctor’s bags, would he really still have it all through the many transfers of protective custody? And if he DID keep it with him, would it really have medicine in it? And syringes? Really?

Also, Jack’s profession is not fully integrated into his character. He chafes a little at losing it in the protective custody, but considering how what D does is SO much a part of who he is, in comparison there’s no discussion of WHY Jack chose to do what he trained for. It’s part of his Type A personality and it’s used to discuss moral issues:

“How about deciding whether you’re going to treat the woman with the head trauma or the drunk driver who mowed her down? Or whether to let a man die of gunshot wounds because you know he shot a cop on his way down? How about treating a woman who’s been beaten nearly to death and having to watch her walk out the door back to the husband who nearly killed her while she tells you that he didn’t mean it, not really! Don’t you fucking talk to me about hard choices, and harsh reality. Just because I didn’t tote a rifle around Kuwait and never put a bullet between someone’s eyes doesn’t mean I live in some world of sunshine and rainbows, D. I live in a world where I spend months putting a four-year-old’s face back together after her own father smashed it in with a bowling ball. You think you’ve got it so hard, and maybe you do, but the shit is tough all over. Fucking suck it up, man.”

But his career is not as brilliantly a part of him as being a hit man is part of D. But that’s really an “in comparison” niggle rather than anything else. If D hadn’t been so brilliantly done, I don’t think I would have noticed this about Jack.

D’s “dialect” is…slightly annoying. When he’s thinking to himself about whether or not to kill Jack:

Just do it. Fuckin’ do it. You can live with it. You cain’t live with what’ll happen if you don’t, and that ain’t no figure a speech. Only takes a second. Two shots. Shut them eyes a his lookin’ at you like they see through ta yer bones. Fucker; why does he keep lookin’ at me like that? Most folks look away. Look at the floor, at the ceiling, at their own hands, anywhere but at me. Biggest damned eyes I ever saw on any man, and bluer’n the sky down in Bryce Canyon. Big enough ta hold all the life in him so’s I can see it, the life they want me ta take, the life I’ll hafta stand here and watch leave him. Stupid motherfuckers killin’ their own and makin’ me clean up for ’em like they fuckin’ branded me.

It’s part of him. It’s perfectly sustained throughout the book. But it’s never explained by where he came from (either geography or class). And it slowed down my reading sometimes enough to be mildly irritating. But not enough to stop. Never enough to stop. Did I mention I couldn’t put this book down?

And finally, there’s a 15 page Epilogue that should have been cut completely. Even before the Epilogue, you’ve got two endings. I’m glad you went beyond the first ending to the second ending, but then adding the Epilogue as well was just too much. And the short stories on your webpage are just…sad? I understand another sequel’s coming, but don’t give Jack and D problems before they’ve even settled into their happy ending.

That aside, your writing is amazing. The individual words you choose surprised me in a good way. The sentences you string together flow beautifully. The paragraphs you make are perfect:

With his shorn hair and stubble, D’s head looked like it had been sandblasted and weather-stripped. Jack had spent most of his professional life cutting people’s faces open, and his surgeon’s eye showed him the bones beneath D’s skin, although his seemed much closer to the surface than most people’s. His jawline was like a flying buttress, his brow like one of the table mesas that lurked on the horizon. His skull was geologic in its architecture. One could only imagine the seismic events and plate tectonics that had gone
on in his life to shape him into this…whatever he was.

The story as a whole is still glowing bright in my mind. I would pretty much read anything else you wrote, no matter what. I’m torn how to grade this book. Logically, looking at all the niggles I had, it should get a B+ or even a B but the book FELT like an A- book, so I’m going to go with my gut.

Grade: A-

Best regards,
-Joan/Sarah F.

| Book link (no excerpt) | DreamSpinner Press | Kindle | Amazon

| Fictionwise | BooksonBoard

I thought, why not?  Romance readers read across genres and love to read good books.  So without further ado, here is the following from Ms. Hirt:

Welcome to the forthcoming books giveaway from G.P. Putnam’s Sons and Riverhead Books!

We’re thrilled to be joining the Dear Author community and have the opportunity to connect with a new group of readers.  Putnam and Riverhead publish a number of books across all genres, and have highlighted several titles that we believe you’ll find compelling.  We invite you to visit us on Facebook (Putnam and Riverhead) to keep track of other upcoming books and to let us know what you think – we’d love to hear your thoughts!

March 2010:

CREATION OF EVE by Lynn Cullen (Putnam 3/23/10):

Embark on a trip back to the Golden Age in Spain thanks to the talented hand of Lynn Cullen in THE CREATION OF EVE.  This story deftly combines mystery, romance and history as one young painter becomes embroiled in a love triangle involving the Queen, the King, and the King’s illegitimate half-brother, Don Juan.  This novel asks the question: How well do you really know those closest to you?  And can you ever truly know another person’s heart?

“Intrigue, jealousy, misplaced love, escape and escapade–what could be more tantalizing?” —Susan Vreeland, author ofLuncheon of the Boating Party and Girl in Hyacinth Blue

April 2010:

THE LOST SUMMER OF LOUISA MAY ALCOTT by Kelly O’Connor McNees (Amy Einhorn Books/Putnam 4/1/10):

As a personal fan of Louisa May Alcott’s classic novel LITTLE WOMEN, this is the book for which I have been waiting.  Louisa taught us how to love through LITTLE WOMEN, but who taught her?  Debut author Kelly O’Connor McNees deftly mixes fact and fiction as she imagines a love affair that would influence Louisa’s writing career for the rest of her life – a wonderful story that explores how she so deftly portrayed young love and heartbreak, but did so at a cost none of us ever knew.

“A wonderfully imagined, lively novel of first love…” —Meg Waite Clayton, author of The Wednesday Sisters

BURNING LAMP by Amanda Quick (Putnam 4/20/10):

Don’t miss this second novel in the Dreamlight Trilogy from New York Times-bestselling author Jayne Ann Krentz, writing as Amanda Quick.  The Arcane Society was born in turmoil, and now psychic power and passion collide as a legendary curse comes to a burn…

“Fast-paced and cleverly constructed, the tale perfectly balances lively adventure, passionate romance, and the paranormal against an elaborate and refreshingly original background. Arcane Society fans will be thrilled, and new readers will find this stand-alone story very accessible.” – Publishers Weekly

MY WIFE’S AFFAIR by Nancy Woodruff (Amy Einhorn Books/Putnam 4/15/10):

Have you ever gotten something you wanted, but somehow, still wanted more? Georgie Connolly has. Narrated by her husband Peter, a failed-writer-turned-businessman, My Wife’s Affair is about infidelity, passion, duty, and about finally getting what you want and then wanting still more.  Don’t miss this smart, sexy novel about a woman’s search for her former self on the London stage.

Since I’ve been having good luck with contemporary British authors lately, I decided to check out your latest book, “Starting Over.” Things were bubbling along nicely until right at the end when…well, we’ll get to that in a minute.

Tess Randell is starting over. Her fiance dumped her by email just days before their wedding, she miscarried then suffered physical after effects for months while living with her smothering parents – who also seemed to have more sympathy for the bastard ex-fiance then they should have. While driving to her newly purchased country cottage, she rear ends a wrecker and damages her car. Life just keeps getting better. < /sarcasm>

The owner of the wrecker tows her into town then helps her lug her stuff to her house after which Tess starts to try to assimilate into her new life. New town, new house, new people around her but same old friction with her parents and, amazingly, old fiance showing up looking contrite. Will Tess take him back, settle for just being friends with a new possible someone or dare to try one more time for love?

Even though this initially sounds like a first person Chick Lit book de jour, it turned out to be very different. It’s not first person and there’s no immediate hero in sight. Plus Tess and the person who does turn out to be the hero don’t either instantly love each other or fight an attraction by pretending they don’t like each other. I was a bit stunned as the narrative flows on and months pass with no romance in sight. Yet I was enjoying watching Tess fit herself into her new life so much that none of this bothered me. In fact, I was tickled to be reading something different.

I also like that Tess isn’t in some dead end and boring job she hates. She’s actually a talented illustrator who is in demand and respected for her talents. And then there’s Ratty – Miles Arnott-Rattenbury – though one would never know it at first glance. The tattooed owner of a very successful garage dealing with vintage cars hides his posh background well. But then Ratty’s not posh in either attitude nor actions. He’s more a working class man whose father just happens to be a solicitor. The fact that you have the authorial guts to let time slide by without forcing sparks or attraction between Ratty and Tess delights me. And there’s no sudden about face at the end of the book with Ratty being elevated in status. No long lost Duke nonsense at all. Ratty is as he is and stays that way.

I mentioned in my review of Rosy Thornton’s book, “Crossed Wires,” that I like seeing a different country through a book. I like reading about petrol, bonnets, boots and the M5, village life, pubs and fetes, ticking things off lists, ringing people and wearing knickers. It’s nice to feel like I’ve actually traveled to a different place even if it’s just though the pages of a book.

Another good thing is that neither Tess nor Ratty are wholly likeable characters. Both of them do things which make me want to bash their heads. Ratty can be, as his mother warns Tess, very manipulative in getting his way and Tess tends to take off and flee when the going gets tough. This made some of the reading hard going but I can say that neither character bored me. Nor did I feel that this was a book I’d read a thousand times before.

I feel I need to talk a bit more about the above paragraph though. What is done to precipitate the romance does initially make me see red – as it does Tess. But I end up accepting it, as does Tess, because it gets her what she really wants and it shows how much Ratty wants a relationship with her. Plus I like that you don’t have Tess flounce off in a tiff as would happen in so many romance books.

Tess’s actions, when a past event threatens their romance, also initially makes sense given what her ex-fiance put her through. But the extent of it before she wises up and heads back to face the music put a damper on my enthusiasm for the book as a whole. She ends up way past a reasonable response and deep into selfish territory. What gets her back in my good graces is she does face what she’s done and she’s not let off lightly by those she hurt.

Good onya for writing compelling characters who are engaged in a complex relationship. While it doesn’t totally work for me, as I outlined above, I still found it fascinating and so different from the norm that I hope readers will be willing to sit back and go with the slower pace of this story to discover its nuances and charm.

~Jayne

| Downloadable Excerpt | Smashwords |

| Book Depository | Amazon UK |

Proviso: Smashwords is having a huge sale because it is International eBook Week (or something like that). Anyhoo, this book is 50% off right now which makes it all of $3.00.

A reading friend initially recommended your series to me last year with the book, Big Bad Wolf. I am a big shifter fan and was looking forward to reading this release. (It crept up on me). There were two things I particularly liked in this story: the mystery and the courtship. Ironically (or not), components of those two factors also bothered me the most.

Josie Barrett is Stone Creek, Oregon’s veternarian. She took over her father’s practice upon his retirement. Her single minded focus on becoming a veternarian has left her little time for personal relationships. At least this is the excuse given for the fact that Josie has never before recognize Eli Pace as a sexual being.

Eli Pace is the sheriff of Stone Creek, a town that is comprised primarily of Others, mostly shapeshifters. Why Eli is there is a question that is raised but never really answered. He, too, has been ignorant of Josie’s charms until he barges in one night carrying a gun shot wolf.

I liked that this was a departure from the previous book which was more urban in setting and involved pack politics. This was more of a scientific whodunit. The wolf that Eli brings to Josie is really Lupine (shapeshifter) and to her surprise and dismay, the wolf does not heal nor can she shift. Worse, once the wolf’s mate is found, he, too, shows signs of a mysterious Lupine illness which is resulting in an unexplainable high white blood count.

I really enjoyed seeing Josie use her training and skill as a veterinarian as she tried to ascertain the source of her patient’s medical problems. Her employment was an integral part of the storyline. Having no medical background myself, I can only say that the medicine sounded right and added a layer of realism to the paranormal setting.

I liked their courtship which included the sudden realization of the other as a sexual and attractive being and then the banter and flirting which followed. Unfortunately, the characters move from not even knowing the other existed to true love within five days. Love is faster than a speeding bullet in this book. The rapidity of Josie and Eli’s feelings for each other were disappointing because it seemed like care had been taken to create a basis for their relationship that extended beyond the common “mate bond” that so often fills these books.

This build up and then disappointing denouement to plot points happened more than once. For example, much is made of Josie’s levelheadedness. She promises not to interfere with Eli’s investigation, after all she is human and he is preternatural. But she violates this promise to her detriment in a kind of silly way. Eli thinks about the best way to bring the villains to justice, such as considering what testimony he will need to get a conviction but then violates basic probable cause requirements (i.e., you can’t just go breaking into someone’s home to make your case). The scientific mystery held my attention for most of the book and the resolution seemed so over the top that, again, the careful planning that went into it seemed for naught.

Paranormals have a tough time catching my attention these days so that fact that I read this in one sitting, even despite some of the disappointments, means I’ll be on the look out for the next Other book. B-

Best regards,

Jane

| Author Website | Kindle | Amazon | Nook | BN | Borders |
Fictionwise | Books on Board

Proviso: This is a St. Martin’s Press book thus the current ebook price is listed at $14.00. Also, no nook link because apparently BN isn’t selling the ebook even though its subsidiary, Fictionwise, has it.
Second Proviso: I have no idea what is going on with Warren’s website

Ms Banks blogged about her experience and it’s pretty moving:

But my speech had gone out of my head! Things I’d wanted to say—like telling the President how I took my father’s tie and my mother’s ring into the voting booth with me because they didn’t live to see him get elected… or how my daughter had just turned 18 years old and how she and I went together early in the morning to vote for her first time by pulling the lever for him. I didn’t get to say any of that. It was an amazing, ephemeral moment that went by in a flash like a dream.

Also? I found it quite endearing that she refers to Facebook as “Face Book.”

I guest blogged at The New Sleekness about how editors and publishers could participate at a greater level in reader communities. Have you got some other tips?

Sarah Weinman writes about Borders financial troubles. It laid off over 164 employees a month ago and is continuing cutting its workforce:

According to multiple sources, on March 4 — a date employees are already referring to on internal message boards as “Black Thursday” — Borders instituted a company-wide layoff of all inventory supervisors, and also let go an unspecified number of part-time employees.

Is there anyone left? A $42.5 million loan is due in April. If this loan cannot be refinanced, it might doom Borders.

The good news is that Amazon is looking to develop a good browser for the Kindle. The bad news is that Amazon’s desire to build a warehouse in Canada (thus making fulfillment of Canadian orders easier and less costly) is being opposed. More states are seeking to tax affiliate programs causing Amazon to withdraw those affiliate programs. Will this mean less sales for Amazon? More from Shelf Awareness and Daily Finance.

Not content with the nook or the Plastic Logic Que or the partnership with Iliad, Barnes and Noble opens up its bookstore platform to yet another eink reader. This time it is Samsung and it’s a stylus based touchscreen with a pull out navigation system. A year ago, I may have been excited about this but at the $299 price point, it’s a complete yawner to me.

Entertainment Weekly takes a look at self publishing and suggests that if a number of big name authors validate this alternative publishing model, the landscape of publishing could change a great deal.

Courtney Milan is doing a three part series on copyright and authors. It’s instructive for readers too. Parts 1 and 2 can be read now. We are awaiting Part 3.