When I make my monthly round-up of book releases and cover updates this weekend, the following authors will be included:

1. Mary Balogh
2. Julie Garwood
3. Debbie Macomber
4. Kinley MacGregor

If you have any authors to suggest, please feel free to stop by the official suggestion thread.

I’ll see you this weekend!

I have completed my September check of all new releases by the authors featured at this site. I missed August, so the update was probably a little larger than normal. I will do a monthly check of all authors around the middle of the month.

In other news, I am looking into finding ways to enhance this site — perhaps add some interactivity. I know that people are visiting the site, I see the stats but I really haven’t received any feedback — no authors requested, no suggestions as to how to make the site better. I’d love to know if anyone is finding this kind of thing useful. I know I certainly am I was at Barnes & Noble on August 26, 2008 when just about every single book I wanted to read had been released.

I will be adding a few reviews over the next few weeks.

Title: A Seduction at Christmas Author(s): Cathy Maxwell Series: Seductions and Scandals Release: October 28, 2008 Purchase: Amazon

She never expected it would come to this

Desperation and an empty stomach forced Fiona Lachlan to agree to a plan that ended up luring the wickedly notorious Duke of Holburn into trouble. Everything went terribly wrong, and now she has found herself posing as his ward! And while she swore nothing could make her desire a scoundrel, even if he was a duke, she is now drawing ever closer to the one man she cannot have . . .

“Beware of innocence!”

The Duke of Holburn had spent years heeding this warning, and in doing so, managed to avoid the virginal young ladies who had been put in his path. But now his wild ways have gotten him into real danger. There are killers at the door and a temptingly beautiful woman in his arms. He is about to find himself seduced . . . and he isn’t quite sure he wants to resist this time.

Title: Running Hot Author(s): Jayne Ann Krentz Series: Arcane Society Release: December 30, 2008 Purchase: Amazon

Ex-cop Luther Malone, lifelong member of the secretive paranormal organization known as the Arcane Society, is waiting to meet Grace Renquist. Hired as an aura-reading consultant in the quest for a murder suspect, she’s got zero field experience. She’s from tiny Eclipse Bay, Oregon. She’s a librarian, for heaven’s sake.

As for Grace, she’s not expecting much either from Malone, who walks with a cane and isn’t so good with a gun. Nice résumé for a bodyguard . . .

But even before they reach their hotel in Maui—where they’ll be posing as honeymooners—Grace and Luther feel the electric charge between them. Problem is, they need to remain vigilant day and night, because it soon becomes clear there’s more going on here. Rogue sensitives—operatives for the underground group Nightshade—are pouring into the luxury resort like there’s a convention. Grace recognizes those dark spikes in their auras. She saw the same pattern in someone else in another life—a life she hasn’t revealed to Luther or anyone else. And she understands how dangerous these people can be . . . especially with those para-hunters at their sides.

While the pair’s employers at Jones & Jones scramble to get them backup, Luther and Grace have to think on their feet. The criminals in their midst aren’t just high-level sensitives: They’ve enhanced their talents with a potent—and unpredictable— drug. And as Grace knows all too well, if you don’t control your powers, your powers will control you. . . .

Title: Dogs and Goddesses Author(s): Jennifer Crusie, Lani Diane Rich, Anne Stuart Series: Release: February 3, 2009 Purchase: Amazon

No summary yet available.

Title: So Enchanting Author(s): Connie Brockway Series: Release: February 3, 2009 Purchase: Amazon

No summary yet available

Title: Memoir of a Scandalous Red Dress Author(s): Elizabeth Boyle Series: Bachelor Chronicles Release: May 1, 2009 Purchase: Amazon

When a lady loves a pirate the memories can be quite scandalous

Lady Philippa Knolles has loved Captain Thomas ‘Dash’ Dashwell since he first stole a kiss from her in This Rake of Mine. Now after what seems like a lifetime of waiting, Pippin is offered a chance to renew her scandalous affair with Dash. But the man from that first heady kiss and the man she rediscovers all these years later are hardly the same. But a red dress, the one she wore long ago to win his heart, may have enough memories left inside it to rekindle a passion she’s never forgotten.

Title: Confessions of a Little Black Gown Author(s): Elizabeth Boyle Series: The Bachelor Chronicles Release: April 1, 2009 Purchase: Amazon

When your luggage goes missing and the wrong trunk arrives, a trunk that contains the perfect gown, would you put it on? You’ll never know what will happen . . .

Miss Thalia ‘Tally’ Langley has longed for two things all her life: adventure and true love. So when her luggage goes missing on the way to her sister’s house party, and a similar but wayward trunk ends up in its place, she discovers inside a black gown that is nothing but pure seduction.

And when she dons it and catches the eye of the handsome Lord Larken, she discovers everything she’s ever wanted, an adventure into the passionate world of love and a dangerous man capable of uncovering all her secrets.

Title: The Lost Duke of Wyndham Author(s): Julia Quinn Purchase: Amazon Grade: B +

The Lost Duke opens with Grace Eversleigh traveling with her employee, the Dowager Duchess of Wyndham. I’ve read the companion with an annoying noble employer before, but I have to say the Dowager was on a whole other level of pain in the ass. The fact that Grace not only puts up with it, but lets it slide over her most of the time is both a testament to her character and shows that she clearly doesn’t feel like she has much choice in the world. She has to put up with the Dowager because there’s no other place for her.

Grace and the Dowager are accosted by a highwayman who is, naturally, charming and probably handsome (it’s dark, there’s a mask). Something about this man makes the Dowager sit up and look closer — his bottom features are almost an exact match for her long dead son. And so begins the story.

Jack Audrey (born Cavendish) is indeed the son of the Dowager’s middle son. His father perished at sea, and his mother died shortly after his birth. The reader is let in on this very early in the book so the suspense of that moment is done with. Will he take his place as the Duke or will he allow the current duke, Thomas, to continue as he has so ably?

I liked this book. I’m not surprised by that fact, of course. JQ’s one of my favorite authors and I don’t believe I’ve come across anything by her that I don’t love to pieces. (I even thoroughly enjoyed the last Bridgerton book, though some of my friends felt the series had run its course a few books earlier. Crazy people.) The characterizations were great, though yes, sometimes Jack was just a bit too charming. If only the men in my life had that problem, right?

I think that this book could have easily been an A grade, except I think Amelia and Thomas stole the story in a lot of places. Where I should have focused on Grace and Jack, I was more interested in what could come out of Thomas’s mouth or how Amelia might react. That’s the problem with some characters. You bring them onto the stage but then they kind of direct the action from there.

Another excellent addition to my bookshelf, of course, and I’ve already marked my calendar for September 30 and the next book, Mr. Cavendish, I Presume.