Thanks to a great idea from Kassa, this month we're celebrating our favorite authors with a Fan Letter to Author Blog Crawl. For a complete list of the participants, click on the button above. Smokin' Hot Books posted her fan letter to Josh Lanyon yesterday, and be sure to check out Rain on the Roof's letter tomorrow. But, for today, I decided to kick it a little old school with an author I wish was still writing...
Dear Sandy Hingston,
It's rare that I read several books by an author and they all consistently draw me in, make me care about the characters, make me laugh, and make me swoon, but nearly every book by you that I've ever read has done so.
The first book by you that I read was How To Kiss a Hero, which a was delightful! I instantly identified with Nicola, and "Bollocksing Brown" was an awesome hero. The novel was more of a coming-of-age tale for Nicola than anything else, with her learning to be independent and accepting of herself through fencing. But the setting--a girls' school in the Scottish Highlands--and the characters were fantastic, and the romance between Brian and Nicola felt so organic, that it easily became one of the best romance novels I'd ever read.
Then I waited years--YEARS--for the series to continue, which it finally did with The Suitor. At first I wasn't too sure about this one, as stuck-up Katherine wasn't exactly my favorite character out of the four who girls who shared a room in How To Kiss a Hero. I was (and still am) hoping to see the other two girls' stories. Be that as it may, this book was completely different from How To Kiss a Hero, but still drew me in with the frothy romanticism of Alain's attempts to woo Katherine. I loved his poems! And I loved when she ran away to France to be with him! Again, I thought this book was about adventure and finding oneself, even though Katherine did it in a very different way from Nicola.
After The Affair, I hoped you were back to publishing regularly, but instead I was saddened to find out on the intrawebz you were dropped by your publisher. Yet I still expected you to get another publishing contract--instead, you seem to have given up writing all together.
I understand how an experience like that would have turned you off of publishing for good, but I think it's a shame to lose such a gifted writer just because a few people in a whole industry were assholes. To me your books were what every historical romance should be--the past coming to life with a great story and a unique point of view, with adventure and romance and comedy and sadness all included.
And just so you know, if you ever do decide to publish again, I will be waiting for the next book--even it takes another ten years.
Sincerely,
Tasha B.
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