Really Short Reviews
Tuesday, 30 August 2016 12:34![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
lea_hazelA few weeks ago I went through a small impromptu historical romance binge. I'm not sure why. Every so often I think to myself that, even though I'm the most non-romantic person I know, I should really get in on this romance novel thing. Support women writers and etc. A few years back this led to me reading Lord of Scoundrels which I quite liked, despite it pinging any number of my f/m cold zones (not actually squicks, just things that immediately disappoint me when I see them).
This time was a mixed bag.
The Rogue Not Taken by Sarah MacLean: I actually posted about this while I was reading it. I enjoyed about 90% of the book and then toward the end it fell apart. The misunderstandings that fueled the plot drama were poorly handled. I disliked the fact that the hero's grudge against his father proved to be purely fictional, and his dead twu wuv a gold-digging bitch. When another misunderstanding causes him to turn on the heroine, he behaves appallingly and I lost all interest in seeing their "happy ending". Supposedly the "groveling" is supposed to make up for it but I was rooting for the heroine to dump his ass, right up until her conciliatory behavior made me stop liking her, too. This one was a total wash for me.
Silk Is for Seduction by Loretta Chase: The best of the bunch, and the best-suited to my particular taste. I loved the heroine, she reminded me a lot of some of my favorite female characters, and of some characters that I myself tried to write - with mixed success. The premise of the plot however requires the romantic resolution to be grossly unrealistic, on a social and political level. I gotta assume that's a given for anyone who picks up a book like this, so I didn't let it bother me too much. Maybe it was a little too saccharine and over-the-top. But Marceline Noirot (at first I struggled not to call her "Marceline the Vampire Queen") is a straight up 7KPP ambitious widow, and so I found her irresistible.
Three Weeks With Lady X by Eloisa James: Involves a heroine with trust issues and abandonment issues, so you'd think it would be pretty much up my alley. Both characters drag out their willful misunderstanding of the other's motives far, far too long. The resolution involves a plot trinket and the hero doing something predictable but still incredibly dumb. My favorite character was the discarded fake love interest of the hero, a dyslexic girl under the thumb of her domineering and emotionally abusive mother. Book was sort of worth it just for her, but I'd rather wait and see if she gets her own one. Oh, and the heroine spends ages complaining about how men don't like her big breasts and voluminous platinum blonde hair. There's a limit to my damn endurance.
I feel pretty comfortable recommending SIFS to the semi-discerning reader of relaxing candy books. I still have a small list of some others that I might want to try some day (searching "cold bitchy heroine" on a review site is not very effective). But for right now I have a deep romance fatigue.
This time was a mixed bag.
The Rogue Not Taken by Sarah MacLean: I actually posted about this while I was reading it. I enjoyed about 90% of the book and then toward the end it fell apart. The misunderstandings that fueled the plot drama were poorly handled. I disliked the fact that the hero's grudge against his father proved to be purely fictional, and his dead twu wuv a gold-digging bitch. When another misunderstanding causes him to turn on the heroine, he behaves appallingly and I lost all interest in seeing their "happy ending". Supposedly the "groveling" is supposed to make up for it but I was rooting for the heroine to dump his ass, right up until her conciliatory behavior made me stop liking her, too. This one was a total wash for me.
Silk Is for Seduction by Loretta Chase: The best of the bunch, and the best-suited to my particular taste. I loved the heroine, she reminded me a lot of some of my favorite female characters, and of some characters that I myself tried to write - with mixed success. The premise of the plot however requires the romantic resolution to be grossly unrealistic, on a social and political level. I gotta assume that's a given for anyone who picks up a book like this, so I didn't let it bother me too much. Maybe it was a little too saccharine and over-the-top. But Marceline Noirot (at first I struggled not to call her "Marceline the Vampire Queen") is a straight up 7KPP ambitious widow, and so I found her irresistible.
Three Weeks With Lady X by Eloisa James: Involves a heroine with trust issues and abandonment issues, so you'd think it would be pretty much up my alley. Both characters drag out their willful misunderstanding of the other's motives far, far too long. The resolution involves a plot trinket and the hero doing something predictable but still incredibly dumb. My favorite character was the discarded fake love interest of the hero, a dyslexic girl under the thumb of her domineering and emotionally abusive mother. Book was sort of worth it just for her, but I'd rather wait and see if she gets her own one. Oh, and the heroine spends ages complaining about how men don't like her big breasts and voluminous platinum blonde hair. There's a limit to my damn endurance.
I feel pretty comfortable recommending SIFS to the semi-discerning reader of relaxing candy books. I still have a small list of some others that I might want to try some day (searching "cold bitchy heroine" on a review site is not very effective). But for right now I have a deep romance fatigue.
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2016-08-30 11:52 (UTC)no subject
2018-08-28 19:16 (UTC)no subject
2018-08-28 19:25 (UTC)Pretty sure it was Courtney Milan. Also, ironically, I am currently trying and failing to read The Rogue Not Taken, having been recced it elsewhere.