I AM BAFFLED, AT TIMES BY BOOK REVIEWS ON AMAZON (but I don't think I'm alone among authors, in that). The publication of Romantic Revolution Books that has sold best--better than all others combined, and then some--is "The Price of Hannah Blake." After nine months on Amazon, it averages at least one book sold each and every day; there are steady purchases in the U.K., also.

But I only rarely get reviews, now, perhaps one per week or fewer, and usually, of late, they are rotten. One or two lines, almost always with misspellings that will say, "boring," or "freaky," and "can't recommend it." Not a single particular example or criticism. And yet, notably, all of these have said, in one way or another, "I DID finish the novel," or "I had to finish the novel."

Now, "The Price of Hannah Blake" is a classic Victorian underground sex novel, along the lines of "The Pearl" or "A Man With A Maid," and many others. So its is loaded with kinky erotica. But I took this classic framework and turned it on its head, so to speak, by making the plot an outright thriller, the characters heroic, the point of view of the novel a growing outrage at what is going on in the Duke's "castle" as the forces of justice muster up for the battle. And the writing, I would say, shows the same care as does my poetry.

I wonder if some readers finish the book and are embarrassed at having read it, sort of angry at being drawn in. And feel that if they say they don't like it, it puts them on the right side. On the other hand, there may be nothing to that. It may be that my readers are mostly addicts of romances, which follow a very specific formula, within specific limits, and this book appears to masquerade as a romance but is not--and is rather shocking in what it portrays of the Victorian underground, the dark side of the rigid sexual Puritanism.

Well, as you can imagine, I wish that my friends would read this. I need some help if this novel is not to have its four-star rating chipped away. Again, at first, the reviews were mostly fives (I mean from readers I do not know, not just friends.)