Marlene Suson (December 22, 1936 - January 22, 2005)

Joan Sweeney (December 22, 1936 – January 22, 2005) was a former editor at the Los Angeles Times who later wrote Regency romance novels under the pseudonym Marlene Suson. One of only three female reporters in the L.A. Times City Room when hired in 1971, she died at her home in Manhattan Beach. She had long suffered from amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, also known as Lou Gehrig's disease, a degenerative disease of the nerve cells that control muscular movement.

Sweeney, a successful novelist after she left The Times in 1984, was a popular member of the Old Farts, the organization of retired Times employees. She turned out 17 novels over the years for Avon and Fawcett, selling as many as 100,000 copies each. Set in the stratified society of early 19th century England, her books were especially popular in Britain and known for their meticulously researched descriptions of the era's clothing, customs and mores.

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Marlene Suson's Books on Amazon: Marlene Suson

Source: http://articles.latimes.com/2005/jan/23/local/me-sweeney23

( Cover Art by Max Ginsburg for Scarlet Lady by Marlene Suson )

Starfall by Chris Quinton

When I was a little girl, one of my favourite movies was Starman; what I liked of that movie is that the sci-fi elements were blended in the ordinary/contemporary setting, and in the end, it was not so different from a today love story. Starfall is pretty much the same: Ash, the alien, is apparently like a man from earth; apparently since the difference are easily hidden (eyes wearing glasses, hair faking a trendy coloring, 6 digits wearing gloves, and well, genitalia, not having sex).

To his own breed, Ash is “ugly” but to earth eyes he is gorgeous, and that is what will think Conn, former marine a little in the closet. Conn was in love with a fellow soldier, but when he died in a mission, Conn buried him and his feelings in the closet; he married and was, of course, a wreckage, and he had a one night stand with his partner in the PI firm he is employed now. Faye is a wonderful woman, and if not for the fact that she doesn’t want a relationship with Conn, I would have felt pity for her. But the awkwardness between Conn and Faye is mostly due to the fact that Faye hadn’t any suspicious Conn was gay more than being jealous of the relationship between Conn and Ash.

The main theme of the novel is, from Ash’s side, the search for his lost sister, and for Conn the mission to find and take back home a runaway underage girl. But as soon as they met, the focus shifts on their relationship, and the resulting sex scenes are hot and with that touch of “strangeness” that inspires without being too much of an oddity. Ash feels a mate-bond towards Conn, and from Conn’s side, he calls it love at first sight, but it’s probably the same. They dance a little around each other, but they then move pretty fast into a full-fledged relationship, and so it starts also the questioning on how they will manage to be together when they are from far away planets from each other.

As I told at the beginning, the author didn’t pushed too much on the alien thing, and I liked that. This was more a romance than a sci-fi novel, and I think it was also sweet and romantic. The alien details were good, well-balanced, and just enough to make the story believable.

https://spsilverpublishing.com/product_book_info/paperbacks-c-83/starfall-print-p-346

Amazon: Starfall
Amazon Kindle: Starfall
Paperback: 360 pages
Publisher: Silver Publishing (November 18, 2011)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1614953295
ISBN-13: 978-1614953296
 
Reading List: http://www.librarything.com/catalog_bottom.php?tag=reading list&view=elisa.rolle

Starfall by Chris Quinton

When I was a little girl, one of my favourite movies was Starman; what I liked of that movie is that the sci-fi elements were blended in the ordinary/contemporary setting, and in the end, it was not so different from a today love story. Starfall is pretty much the same: Ash, the alien, is apparently like a man from earth; apparently since the difference are easily hidden (eyes wearing glasses, hair faking a trendy coloring, 6 digits wearing gloves, and well, genitalia, not having sex).

To his own breed, Ash is “ugly” but to earth eyes he is gorgeous, and that is what will think Conn, former marine a little in the closet. Conn was in love with a fellow soldier, but when he died in a mission, Conn buried him and his feelings in the closet; he married and was, of course, a wreckage, and he had a one night stand with his partner in the PI firm he is employed now. Faye is a wonderful woman, and if not for the fact that she doesn’t want a relationship with Conn, I would have felt pity for her. But the awkwardness between Conn and Faye is mostly due to the fact that Faye hadn’t any suspicious Conn was gay more than being jealous of the relationship between Conn and Ash.

The main theme of the novel is, from Ash’s side, the search for his lost sister, and for Conn the mission to find and take back home a runaway underage girl. But as soon as they met, the focus shifts on their relationship, and the resulting sex scenes are hot and with that touch of “strangeness” that inspires without being too much of an oddity. Ash feels a mate-bond towards Conn, and from Conn’s side, he calls it love at first sight, but it’s probably the same. They dance a little around each other, but they then move pretty fast into a full-fledged relationship, and so it starts also the questioning on how they will manage to be together when they are from far away planets from each other.

As I told at the beginning, the author didn’t pushed too much on the alien thing, and I liked that. This was more a romance than a sci-fi novel, and I think it was also sweet and romantic. The alien details were good, well-balanced, and just enough to make the story believable.

https://spsilverpublishing.com/product_book_info/paperbacks-c-83/starfall-print-p-346

Amazon: Starfall
Amazon Kindle: Starfall
Paperback: 360 pages
Publisher: Silver Publishing (November 18, 2011)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1614953295
ISBN-13: 978-1614953296
 
Reading List: http://www.librarything.com/catalog_bottom.php?tag=reading list&view=elisa.rolle

On January 30, Goodreads will no longer display book information that comes from Amazon

I'm not really sure what is happening but I thought others wanted to know. I have more than 3.000 books on Goodreads, mostly Gay Romances, and when I read about this news, I went to see how many of my books were affected: 160. Well that is a good share, and I noticed they were mostly from Ravenous Romance, Amber Quill and Total-e-Bound. My impression is that, publishers who are not so active on Amazon are in danger of seeing their books deleted from Goodreads since they didn't find any alternative source other than Amazon to retrieve the book details.

From this link:

http://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/776968

there is a link to the list of books in your library you can "rescue"; I rescued all mine, simply confirming Title, Author and an official link (Author's website or Publisher's website). In this way, from what I understood, all the reviewes I posted for those books are safe. I suggest you to do the same, then, if later one you want to complete the details, you are always in time.

As I said I don't know what is happening, before Goodreads I used LibraryThing, and still am, and LibraryThing is still using Amazon search engine to retrieve the books details and covers. My major effort is in maintaining that library up to date, Goodreads is more or less a back-up, so for me is not an issue if they don't link Amazon, at worst I will not record some books. But if you use Goodreads as your main library, than this could be a problem for you.

On January 30, Goodreads will no longer display book information that comes from Amazon

I'm not really sure what is happening but I thought others wanted to know. I have more than 3.000 books on Goodreads, mostly Gay Romances, and when I read about this news, I went to see how many of my books were affected: 160. Well that is a good share, and I noticed they were mostly from Ravenous Romance, Amber Quill and Total-e-Bound. My impression is that, publishers who are not so active on Amazon are in danger of seeing their books deleted from Goodreads since they didn't find any alternative source other than Amazon to retrieve the book details.

From this link:

http://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/776968

there is a link to the list of books in your library you can "rescue"; I rescued all mine, simply confirming Title, Author and an official link (Author's website or Publisher's website). In this way, from what I understood, all the reviewes I posted for those books are safe. I suggest you to do the same, then, if later one you want to complete the details, you are always in time.

As I said I don't know what is happening, before Goodreads I used LibraryThing, and still am, and LibraryThing is still using Amazon search engine to retrieve the books details and covers. My major effort is in maintaining that library up to date, Goodreads is more or less a back-up, so for me is not an issue if they don't link Amazon, at worst I will not record some books. But if you use Goodreads as your main library, than this could be a problem for you.