Lisa Valdez’s long awaited Patience is being released on April 6th, almost five years after the release of Passion.

Karen Robards’ third book the Banning Sisters Trilogy, Shameless, is being released eight years after the release of Irresistible.

When you think about the staggering amount of time between releases, it could make you wonder. Why now? Does anyone care after all this time?

The first historical book I ever read was a Karen Robards. She branched out into romantic suspense and was very successful at it. It was after Claire Banning’s book came out that Karen Robards told her readers that she didn’t know when and even if Beth’s book would ever come out. Why? Because she was writing romantic suspense. She wanted to write Beth’s book for her readers, but business is business. If you’re doing well in one thing, why would you abandon it? Obviously Karen Robards didn’t abandon her readers. She never promised Beth’s book, but now here it is.

Which leads me to Lisa Valdez. I read Passion back when it came out. I was looking forward to Patience. Then I started losing respect for Valdez b/c of the continual excuses. One excuse I read was that the readers that reacted badly to Passion hurt Valdez so badly that it messed up her writing mojo. She had to do Patience justice and wasn’t able to do that. Then it was going to come out about two years ago. Again it was delayed. I want to know when she had the book completed. Was it completed four years ago and she was just too cowardly to put it out after the backlash of Passion? I read what people wrote about Passion. I read about how offended people were by what they deemed was the vulgarity of a regency historical. Then there were readers like me who thought it was a breath of fresh air.

Lisa Valdez had a real chance to become a big name in historical romance. I really think she blew it with Patience. Now I’m questioning if I even want to read it.

What book have you waited for? How long is too long?