Jane Litte's Blog, page 1021

First Page: The Gift Giver, an m/m romance

Welcome to First Page Saturday. Individual authors anonymously send a first page read and critiqued by the Dear Author community of authors, readers and industry others. Anyone is welcome to comment. You may comment anonymously.

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The following is an explicit excerpt.  Please do not click if this will make you uncomfortable.

I wish I could live forever in this one moment. I'd like to burn his face in my mind: the twist of his expression as he's lost in the release of painful need. I flex my...

REVIEW: Aftertaste {a novel in five courses} by Meredith Mileti

Dear Ms. Mileti

What got me interested in trying your first book is the excerpt you sent us and the opening scene in it. Here is a woman wronged who apparently didn't take her husband's betrayal of their marriage vows lightly but who, in this modern age, found herself treated as the villain of the piece whereas in ages past she probably would have been lauded for what she did. Instead, after attacking the woman she caught in flagrante delicto with Jake on the sofa in the office of their...

Nook Tablet v. Nook Color v. Kobo Vox v. Kindle Fire Comparison

News has leaked that Nook is launching a Nook Tablet to compete with the Kindle Fire. Here is the comparison table. Price decreases of the other nooks include:

Nook Touch $99
Nook Color $199

Kindle
Kobo
Nook
Nook
Screen7″ multi-touch display with IPS (in-plane switching) technology and anti-reflective treatment, 1024 x 600 pixel resolution at 169 ppi, 16 million colors7″ AFFS+ multimedia display; 1024 x 600 resolution, Multi-touch screen with Anti-glare and...

REVIEW: Heart of Steel by Meljean Brook

Dear Ms. Brook:

I was a bit apprehensive about this book. I guess after reading The Iron Duke, I was sure that this book would be a let down. Archimedes Fox was charming but could I buy him as a male lead? Would he be strong enough for a character like Yasmeen? In order to make Fox appealing, would you have to defang Yasmeen (because that would be even worse)? All of these doubts kind of hovered around the periphery of my subconscious as I began to read. Those quickly dissipated as I found...

Friday Film Review: The Sure Thing

The Sure Thing (1985)

Genre: Coming of age romance

Grade: B

[image error]Once I'd seen "Say Anything," I knew I'd eventually have to finally, after all these years, watch this whole movie. Yep, I'd seen bits and pieces of it on TV but always ended up flipping the channel, maybe because I'd never seen it from the start. It's cute, it's sweet, it's dated but it's much better than I thought it would be.

Freshman Walter "Gib" Gibson (John Cusack) is headed to California over winter break to hook up with a...

REVIEW: The Son He Never Knew by Kristi Gold

Dear Ms. Gold:

I probably should have stopped reading at the first chapter when I figured out that the male protagonist of the story would not figure out he had a son until said son was 10 years old, but I didn't. Unfortunately, the story never got any better.

[image error]Jessica Keller and Chase Reed are supposed to be platonic friends. Jessica has been dating Dalton Wainwright on and off for years. Chase learns that Dalton has proposed and the night before Chase ships out for Afghanistan, Chase heads...

Thursday Midday Links: Amazon Launches a Lending Library

If you own a Kindle device (as opposed to using an App) AND you are a Prime member, you can take advantage of Kindle Owner's Lending Library.  It has about 5,000 titles in there and it's all non agency books.  While Agency publishers (and others) are balking at the potential loss of revenue, I would think that the Agency model would prevent participation in the lending library.  How it works is that  Kindle owners can borrow one book a month.  Amazon pays the publisher either a flat fee or...

REVIEW: Once a Marine by Cat Grant

Dear Ms. Grant.

This book is one of Riptide Publishing's initial releases as it opens its doors for business. I had high hopes for it: contemporary m/m about a member of our Armed Forces kicked out under Don't Ask Don't Tell and his hero, a writer of m/m romance. Unfortunately, this is one of the most boring books I've ever read. Not actively infuriating — I never yelled at the book, I never rolled my eyes — but just unutterably boring, with cardboard characters, speedbump conflicts, ordinary ...

GUEST REVIEW: The Black Hawk by Joanna Bourne

Reader Christine sent me this beautiful review of Joanna Bourne's book, The Black Hawk, and I am honored to share it with the DA readership.

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The novel "The Black Hawk" begins in 1818, six hundred yards from number saeven Meeks street where Justine, a former member of the French "Police Secrete," long estranged from her former lover Adrian, now Head of British Secret Service, is hurrying to his headquarters to break their impasse and warn him of a deadly plot she has uncovered being...

REVIEW: Madame Bovary's Daughter by Linda Urbach

Dear Ms. Urbach,I picked up this book with a bit of hesitancy – I've not read Madame Bovary, and my only knowledge of the story comes from my viewing of a BBC miniseries from 2000, starring Frances O'Connor as Emma Bovary. I ended up hating it – most of all hating Emma, who was the most selfish, shallow, self-destructive and irrational "heroine" I'd every encountered.[image error]I think I was influenced by my impression of Madame Bovary as being a novel with feminist underpinnings (I may have been...