Jane Litte's Blog, page 961

My Sunday at the 2012 Los Angeles Times Festival of Books, Part 2

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I attended the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books on Sunday, April 22. The first part of my report on the festival can be found at this link.

And now onto Part 2.

Anne Rice in Conversation with Scott Timberg

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After the mornings panels described in part 1 of my report, we stopped at the food trucks for lunch, which took longer than we expected due to long lines. We ended up hoofing it to the darkened Bovard Auditorium where Anne Rice and Scott Timberg sat on stage discussing various aspects of he...

Debut Print Book: Overseas by Beatriz Williams

I’ve had some concerns by readers who are primarily print readers that the coverage at Dear Author has been too focused on ebooks. When I asked the readers what they were interested in seeing, they responded that they would like to know more about print debut authors. We developed a little questionnaire and every Wednesday at 10:00 AM CST (as long as we have content) we’ll post the questionnaire answers along with links to the author’s site and a buy link to her book. I hope this helps people...

REVIEW: Homefront Hero by Allie Pleiter

Dashing and valiantly wounded, Captain John Gallows could have stepped straight out of an army recruitment poster. Leanne Sample can’t help being impressed–although the lovely Red Cross nurse tries to hide it. She knows better than to get attached to the daring captain who is only home to heal and help rally support for the war’s final push. As soon as he’s well enough, he’ll rush back to Europe, back to war–and far away from South Carolina and Leanne. But when an epidemic strikes close to ho...

REVIEW: Lady Maggie’s Secret Scandal by Grace Burrowes

Dear Ms. Burrowes—

I’d read your debut novel, The Heir, and enjoyed it. When Lady Maggie’s Secret Scandal came available for review, I snapped it up and I’m glad I did. It’s not the best historical romance I’ve read recently–2012 has thus far been a very good year in historical romance–but it was a pleasure to read and routinely made me laugh. However, before I launch into a more detailed analysis of it, I must make a declaration to the readers of this review.

[image error]Many reviewers of historical roman...

Tuesday Midday Links: Romance Dominates Library Lending, Maurice Sendak Dies

OverDrive Data Shows Majority Still Like To Browse the Virtual Shelves — The Digital Shift – “Nearly 60 percent of readers browsed public library ebook collections to discover new content, rather than searching for a specific title. Among those, romance was the most popular genre, followed by all fiction, mystery and suspense, historical fiction, and science fiction and fantasy. Ebook browsing is an evening activity, evidently: Visitors are most active from 8-9 p.m. in their respective region...

REVIEW: Silent Surrender by Barbara J. Hancock

Dear Ms. Hancock,

After reading and reviewing your impressive novella, Ghost in the Machine, I was eager for more of your work and curious as to what your writing was like in other genres. Silent Surrender, your new Spice Brief, caught my attention and I decided to try it.

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Alexia arrives at the Rivera hotel and resort for a vacation harried by her phone. Alexia is a trader on Wall Street and it is difficult for her to carve out even two days to get away from her stressful job. She doesn’t know...

My Sunday at the 2012 Los Angeles Times Festival of Books, Part 1

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Last year on I attended the Los Angeles Festival of Books and reported on the event for DA. My biggest negative takeaway that year was that the romance genre was not represented at the festival. This year (Halleluja!) they actually had a panel devoted to romance. A single, lonely panel mind you, but it was still a huge improvement to my mind. Here’s hoping for more next year!

I spent the day taking so many notes for my report on the festival (which is long enough to run in three pieces) that I...

The Relaunch of the DA Book Club (May Book Club)

Someone, I think it was DA January, suggested we revive the DA Bookclub. We hosted a book club very irregularly in the past but it seemed like a cool thing to revisit. Here is how we will do it. I’ve collected a bunch of recommendations or nominations from the DA reviewing crew. The readers here will vote on which book should be the May book club book. We all get two weeks to acquire and read the book. Then the DA reviewer will post some questions/thoughts about the book to prime the pump. Co...

REVIEW: Out in the Field by Kate McMurray

Dear Ms. McMurray.

I picked up your book because of a recommendation by someone whose taste I trust and because I liked the excerpt. The story was cute, but the flaws outweighed the cuteness for me.

This is a book about Being a Gay Athlete. This was NOT a romance. Oh, it had a love story in it and the love story had an HEA, but that HEA was never threatened. There was no barrier, no conflict, no tension integral TO the love story. The barrier/conflict/tension was all located in the Being a Gay...

Monday Midday Links: Cover Contest Is Alive, Scripts Released as Ebooks, Used Bookstores and Digital Books

The annual cover contest is ready for your votes. Go forth and vote for the best and the worst. The worst are really bad.

The Gift of Charles – CNN.com – “Charles fell into the family’s arms in November 2007. Tremica’s cousin, Charles’ biological father, had been imprisoned for illegal possession of a firearm, his third felony conviction in California. That made Ray Charles Daniel a lifer. “Will you take care of my son?” he asked. “Absolutely,” Forest replied. “You always take care of family.”...