When I read a romance novel (or romantic novel, or erotic novel, or novella, or short story… You get the idea) that I like, I always set it aside with a happy sigh and the very best intentions of writing a review. And then I get busy doing something else – Writing of my own, if all goes well. Usually, it’s dishes, alas – and never get around to it.

I recently burned through a short stack of Regency-or-thereabouts romances (a genre I really enjoy as a reader, though I doubt I’ll ever want to write in it) one after another, though, and they’re sitting here on the edge of my desk, reminding me to review them with haughty looks from elegantly-dressed ladies and men with no shirts on. Instead of putting it off and feeling guilty every time I see their pouty little lips on my bookshelf, I think I’ll quickly dash off some rapid-fire reviews.

First, I Kissed an Earl, by Julie Anne Long. This novel continues Long’s loosely-connected Pennyroyal Green series (which includes The Perils of Pleasure, which is one of my all-time favorites), and was a nice look at some familiar characters from a new angle. Beyond that, it didn’t do a whole lot for me. I found Violet Redmond more irritating than sympathetic, unfortunately, but what really got on my nerves was the number of mistakes in the manuscript that should have jumped out at an editor somewhere along the line at least as vividly as they jumped out at me. Long’s intricate plotting really deserves to be presented to the reader free of typographical errors and grammar flubs.

Next up is At Last Comes Love, by Mary Balogh. So, I sort of have a thing for marriage of convenience narratives. This book has one of those, written extremely well, with characters who I would totally hang out with in real life (assuming the existence of time travel, etc.). On top of that, the secondary characters aren’t just background – the heroine’s family are a big part of her life, and important to the progression of the story.

But what really set this book apart for me was that even though the plot is convoluted and sometimes farcical (in the good way!), the main characters actually do talk to each other and tell the truth about things, most of the time, instead of dragging misunderstandings out. And though a lot of the background plot material is really grim, the central love story is sweet in the best way. I’d never read any of Balogh’s books before this one, and am delighted that there are several for me to catch up with.

Third is Surrender of a Siren, by Tessa Dare. This one was definitely worth picking up. That characters fall in love within days of meeting each other all the time in historicals sometimes gets on my nerves, especially when I’m reading a handful of them back-to-back (notably, that’s not really the case for any of the books I’m reviewing today, but still!). Sophia and Gray spend a really long time together in a socially constrained space before their spark starts to transform into something more lasting, though, and I thought it was a very believable transition. Some aspects of the “big misunderstanding” phase of the story didn’t work very well for me, but on the whole it was a fun book, and had some interesting departures from the norm. And a scorching hot guided masturbation scene, if you’re into that kind of thing.

Finally, One Dance with a Duke, also by Tessa Dare. Now, this book, I loved. I sort of have a thing for marriage of convenience narratives, as I might have recently mentioned. Apparently, one of those combined with a hero who acts like an Alpha male in all of the most irritating ways and is viewed by other characters as being outrageous slams right on a button that I didn’t have a name for until now. And that name is One Dance with a Duke. If you like historicals, read it. If you like marriage of convenience stories, read it. If you actually genuinely like Alpha males, read it. If you… You know what? Just get a copy. You’ll thank me.

I have a new piece of microfiction up at Every Night Erotica, a story called “Letting Him.” I don’t often write stories without a speculative fiction slant to them, so this was an interesting piece to work on. I hope my readers will enjoy it!

I meant to link to and endorse a review my friend Marie Carlson wrote a couple of weeks ago, and then got super-busy (reading and writing, naturally. Oh, and doing dishes. Much less glamorous) and forgot. But now I have remembered!

The reason I’m linking to Marie’s review instead of writing up my very own is pretty well summed up in her introduction:

I will start this mini-review with a bit of funny that happened. The other day I sat down to continue reading Wolf Signs, the awesome Elizabeth Reeve popped up on IM, and we had this exchange (mostly paraphrased):

Eliza: I read some short stories I liked. They were about werewolves. You like werewolves. Let me tell you about them! (She also thoughtfully provided links, because she is awesome. Because I am also awesome, I will pass those links on to you: “First Howl” and “Second Howl” by Vivian Arend.)
Eliza: *talks a little about the short stories and the things she likes about them*
Eliza: And a female lead who is deaf!
Me: *double take* I think I am reading these books! I was just going to tell you about this free book I got for the Kindle. (Because I am still awesome, I will include a link, though I can’t guarantee how long the freebie will last: Wolf Signs.)
Me: Shared brain for the win!

So, you can see that Marie and I had very similar thoughts on this series right from the beginning, including the “oh, hey, I want to recommend these stories to someone!” thought.

The rest of Marie’s review can be found here: I Recommend…Wolf Signs by Vivian Arend (spoilers). As you can guess from the title, she spoils bits of the plot of the first book of Vivian Arend‘s Granite Lake Wolves series, so be aware of that before you click through.

We continued to have very similar thoughts on Wolf Signs right through the end of reading it, so you can look to Marie’s review for a more in-depth take on some of the things about the book that didn’t quite work for me. But the things that did work were very appealing. I loved the heroine, Robyn Maxwell. She’s a fun character, and I was really pleased to see a deaf heroine whose disability wasn’t treated like some kind of horrific, over-the-top curse. Robyn’s deafness makes some things in life more complicated for her than they might be for a hearing person, but she’s resourceful, and perfectly capable of taking care of herself.

Arend also avoided going too far in the other direction in her portrayal of a character with a disability. Robyn isn’t some kind of inhuman (well, okay, a little bit inhuman, but not like that) paragon, either. She’s not a cautionary tale, or an object of pity, or an inspiration to “the rest of us.” She’s a person, and a well-developed heroine.

I would have enjoyed the book for Robyn alone, but the other characters in Wolf Signs are equally engaging. Combine that with a really appealing setting and an intriguing take on werewolves and pack politics, and you’ve got a series-starting book that I’m happy to recommend. And I’ll be picking up the next book in the Granite Lake Wolves series as soon as I’ve caught up some with my backlog of reading material.

And my dishes.

I downloaded “Fall, Falling, Fallen,” by Karalynn Lee because it was offered as a freebie from Samhain Publishers, knowing absolutely nothing about the it. I’ve been stocking my new e-reader with as many free short stories and novellas as I can get my hands on, the bulk of which have failed to move me. “Fall, Falling, Fallen,” however, caught my attention right from the beginning and held it firmly straight through to the end of the story.

The heroine is Melea, one of the daughters of the lord of Jenne, who spends her time breeding and working with hunting hounds, even though it’s considered an unsuitable pastime for a woman of her status. She prefers to chase after a missing dog rather than stay in Jenne to greet visiting Prince Kaen and, in true romance fashion, winds up running into him alone in the wilderness. The attraction and flirtation proceed from there just as any fan of romance might expect.

Though the basic plot outline is conventional, “Fall, Falling, Fallen” has plenty of interesting and unexpected details of character and setting which keep the story fresh. Instead of a typical, vaguely European setting for a story featuring royalty and magic, the characters are dark-skinned, and the hunting hounds pursue gazelles through a landscape dotted with baobabs. Lee also manages to pack a lot of personality into just a few pages, and Melea and Kaen are so appealing that I wished the story would turn out to be the first chapter of a novel.

Lucky me! Karalynn Lee has a novella available from Samhain right now, Summer-set, featuring the same setting, though it focuses on Kaen’s companion, the wolf-born Ryuan, and his own romance. I’ll be purchasing my copy today, and if it’s anything like as engaging as “Fall, Falling, Fallen,” I’m sure I’ll be recommending it here soon!

Wow, it has been way too long since my last post! But I am happy to report that I was given an e-reader for my birthday by my extremely wonderful parents (who support my career even though I tell them they’re not allowed to read my sexy stuff), and I’ve been busily loading it up with titles that will help inspire me and also give me some things to recommend in this space.

In the meantime, it turns out that if you’re interested in “Lunacy,” my short story in the Like an Animal anthology from Circlet Press, you can read part of it as the preview for that book at Scribd. Just click through to Like an Animal‘s listing, and scroll on down in the preview window.

I think it’s only fair to warn you, though, that the sample cuts off right in the middle of a sex scene. You’re probably better off getting your own copy of the book.