Darlene's Digest

Brown-Eyed Girl by Lisa Kleypas My rating: 4 of 5 stars Quite enjoyable, moved along at a good pace, had a great heroine, hero and secondary characters (not to mention Coco). I was worried about the resolution of the heroine's career vs. love dilemma, but found the ending quite satisfactory. In addition, there's a set up for another Travis Family related story. View all my reviews

Siren's Call by Jayne Castle My rating: 3 of 5 stars This was the perfect airplane book. I could read & enjoy it on a long flight without feeling like I had to work my brain too hard (I'm convinced they decrease the oxygen on the flights). It had a satisfactory mystery, trademark Jayne Castle H&H, and best of all, it had a great Dust Bunny, Lorelei. I recommend it to fans of the series. View all my reviews

The Privateersman by Frederick Marryat My rating: 5 of 5 stars Now this was a ripping good yarn! Swashbuckling! Pirates! Privateers! Romance! Really, what more do you want from your reading? Capt. Marryat was one of the premier authors of naval fiction in the 19th c., and his stories still hold up over 100 years later. In this tale we have the story of a young man's journey from callow sea rover to an adulthood filled with drama and command, turmoil and travail, but at the end of the story is the love of a good woman and a just reward. I recommend the Privateersman to armchair sailors who enjoy Forrester and O'Brien. You can't go wrong with the author other authors (Melville, for example) credit with inspiring them to write their own tales of life at sea. View all my reviews

The Pirate's Secret Baby is one of the books mentioned in this week's podcast. Lots of great authors and books are discussed, along with conversation about romance tropes and how the romance publishing industry is viewed. As always, the @SmartBitches podcasts are entertaining and well worth a listen. 154. An Interview with Kelly Faircloth from Jezebel - Smart Bitches, Trashy Books  

I'm very pleased to announce  The Pirate's Secret Baby   won the Colorado Romance Writers Award of Excellence for Historical Romance. It's thrilling to see my love story of pirates, puppies, poppets and a befuddled governess receive recognition from other writers. This is the second national award for The Pirate's Secret Baby . Earlier this year it received the New England Chapter RWA Readers' Choice Award for best historical. As always, I'm grateful to my publisher, Amber Quill Press , to my editor, Catherine Snodgrass, and most of all, to my many readers and fans. Thank you all for making my books winners. I couldn't do it without you.

The Prince by Tiffany Reisz My rating: 4 of 5 stars I'm enjoying this series tremendously, and readers should know this one ends in a cliff-hanger. There are multiple storylines: Kingsley & Soren, past & present, and Nora and Wes reconnecting on his home ground. Readers should again be cautioned that there are severe depictions of S/M behavior and this series is clearly not for every reader. However, for those who've been fascinated since The Siren , it's bound to be a winner. View all my reviews

Turns out August 13 is a salute to those people who smear the ink when they're using fountain pens. Who knew they had their own special day? I've got a couple of southpaws in my family, so I'm glad they're getting recognition, especially since they were always made to sit at the end of the table so their elbows wouldn't jab the normal people in the side during supper. I have such fondness for those odd types that I wrote an entire book about a character whose name is a clue. No, I'm not going to tell you what book it is, you'll have to figure it out for yourself.  All I'll say is, there are some advantages to being of the widdershins persuasion. .

Maud's Line by Margaret Verble My rating: 3 of 5 stars I'm conflicted about this novel. I wanted to like it. A lot. The writing is lovely and lyrical, the sense of place is reminiscent of novels like The Yearling, Their Eyes Were Watching God , even A Tree Grows in Brooklyn . Stories of community and struggle and family. Verble's debut novel brings to life the hardscrabble Cherokee and Seminole communities of Oklahoma in the 1920s. Maud Nail is part of that community, living on the government allotment given to her family by the US government, a valuable commodity for people who've had everything taken away from them. When a handsome peddler with a wagon full of goods comes down Maud's section line she's immediately attracted to him. Booker represents all she desires--learning, city life, an existence with indoor plumbing and modern temptations like bobbed hair and short dresses. Most importantly, he has books, and it's her love of reading that brings the...

Of Noble Family by Mary Robinette Kowal My rating: 4 of 5 stars A very satisfying conclusion to a most entertaining series. Watching the lovers grow and develop as a couple was a fun and moving journey. In this final book we're in Antigua where Vincent has to deal with family business, but finds things are not as they seem at his family's property. I'm looking forward to more and different projects from Ms. Kowal in the future. View all my reviews

What? Only ten? When the Alachua County Library District contacted me about listing my top ten picks for Read-A-Romance-Month , I knew it wouldn't be easy. After all, I've been reading romance since I was a young girl and checked Mara, Daughter of the Nile   by Eloise Jarvis McGraw out of my school library (that was a sneaky way of adding an eleventh book). However, I understand that we can only talk about books in limited time and space, otherwise we'd be here well into the new year. Since I'm willing to do almost anything for my public library district, I ruthlessly pared down a list to come up with my ten picks from various genres in romance. The modern romance novel is defined by Romance Writers of America this way: "Two basic elements comprise every romance novel: a central love story and an emotionally satisfying and optimistic ending.   A Central Love Story: The main plot centers around individuals falling in love and struggling to make the relati...

RWA has issued a response to concerns over an offensive novel being a finalist for the RITA award, romance publishing's top award. I won't rehash the details here, but after reading the organization's response, I felt compelled to reply. For the record, I am a member of PAN (Published Author Network), and of RWA for many years: "There's a difference between censorship and judging a book's subject matter to be so tasteless and offensive that it should not be considered suitable to win Romance's top award. RWA's own guidelines say: " An Emotionally Satisfying and Optimistic Ending: In a romance, the lovers who risk and struggle for each other and their relationship are rewarded with emotional justice and unconditional love." It boggles one's mind that a relationship predicated on an unequal status of mass murderer and victim can lead judges to find that "emotional justice". In addition, we're not talking about a book in a...

A Revenue Marine officer looked down on the crowd, his gaze seeking out one dancer, and Julia felt that stare from across the room like a hit from a nine-pounder. He was standing with [redacted], and as with the other Revenue Marine officers, [redacted] dress uniform was more subdued than that worn by the navy men, but he hardly needed gold braid to stand out. When he left [redacted] side, more than one pair of feminine eyes followed him as he crossed the ballroom, his dark blue coat set off by black braid and a black silk cravat. There was a flash of gold from the epaulette on his right shoulder, and from his service sword with its spread eagle beneath the Roman hilt. The sword with its gold bullion and silk sword knot was the most elaborate accoutrement of the revenue uniform, but it said what it needed to say. The Revenue Marine was a service that battled during peacetime, guarding the young nation’s borders and pro...

“Whew! This young’un’s givin’ me what-for today,” a pregnant matron complained as she straightened and rubbed the base of her back. “I’m glad it’s coolin’ off some, because I’ve had ’bout as much of summer I can handle, carryin’ this one around.” “I ate so much watermelon when I was carryin’ my Jeremiah, I wouldn’t have been surprised if he had popped out spittin’ seeds,” said one lady with a grin. “That was the only good thing about bearin’ a July baby—gettin’ as much melon as I wanted. That summer I must have eaten a wagonful." --Smuggler's Bride I was blessed with an August baby a few decades back, and all that summer I craved watermelon. The sweet fruit was hydrating and full of fiber, along with plenty of vitamins. It was one pregnancy craving I didn't worry about indulging. Fortunately for me, it's a Florida crop and North Central Florida is bursting with watermelon of all varieties this time of year--heirloom, seedless, yellow-fles...

Shards of Hope by Nalini Singh My rating: 5 of 5 stars I loved this book, and am in awe of Ms. Singh's ability to continue to craft a complex and involving universe in her long running Psy-Changeling series. Too many paranormal franchises lose steam after a while, running out of original material.  Not Psy-Changeling. The characters and society evolve and change in the finest science fiction fashion, and the world building continues to be a major part of the joy of reading these books. Then there's the romance. It's steamy. It's intense. It'll bring the feels. I have a special fondness for stories about the psy characters with their repressed emotions, because you just know when they let loose it's going to be like pon farr to the nth degree. And it is in the story of Aden & Zaira, both Arrows--highly trained assassin/enforcers trying to navigate their way through the post-Silence world. If you've never read the Psy-Changeling novels, I would not rec...

The Program is set for Sasquan, the 73rd World Science Fiction Society convention (Worldcon). Here's my schedule, and I'm looking forward to these lively panels and to meeting old friends, making new ones, and attending some great parties in Spokane. I also have to figure out what I'm going to read from the WIP, What the Parrot Saw.  For more information, go to Sasquan.org. PG-13: Violence, Sex, and Teen Readers (Moderator) Thursday, August 20 2015, 2:00 pm 303A (CC) with Wesley Chu, Fonda Lee, Jenn Reese, Alaina Ewing We Won: How SF, Fantasy and Comics Have Taken Over TV (Moderator) Thursday, August 20 2015, 5:00 pm 300C (CC) with David Peterson, Andrea G. Stewart, Annie Bellet The Ties Between Romance, SF and Fantasy (Participant) Friday, August 21 2015, 12:00 pm Bays 111B (CC) with Cynthia Felice, Louise Marley, Sharon Shinn, Fred Lerner Reading - Darlene Marshall (Participant) Saturday, August 22 2015, 11:00 am 303B (CC) Demigods, Chosen One...