Adventures in Romance
Oct. 20th, 2009 08:48 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
alias_sqbrSo I've been reading lots of romance novels recced from various places.
Marjorie Lui I've reviewed already a bunch of times, she's not
the Best Author Ever but her characters are pretty engaging and the
complex fantasy plots exciting. She's rather prone to having her
characters be driven and talented but Hurt By Life so they will Never
Love Agin but they somehow feel an immediate connection/trust/attraction
with their love interest which is pretty much only not consummated within
the first few chapters because evil supernatural creatures are trying to
kill them.
I've read two books by Laura Kinsale: Midsummer Moon
was lots of fun, A
Hidden Heart was..not.
But my favourite so far is Jennifer Crusie. Her stuff is all contemporary
and NOT SPEC FIC OMG but I've really been enjoying them. They're
funny and clever and engaging and fairly feminist. Has sex scenes which
actually contain interesting characterisation and plot
development, and are frequently quite funny. The heroes do tend to
fall a bit into the "I've been screwed over by women so will have lots of
meaningless sex with bimbos (until the heroine makes me Believe In Love
again)" type, but at least they do respect women as friends/colleagues
even if they have dodgy attitudes to relationships. The only real
complaint I have is that the cast are all very white and straight (this
seemed less of a downside after "The Hidden Heart"). Not all
middle class though, huzzah!
Anyone but you: A 40 year old divorcee is setting up a new life for
herself and befriends her hot 30 year old neighbour. They're both sick of
being expected to conform to the 2 kids-big-house workaholic
husband/houswife ideal but take a while to realise that the other one
doesn't want that either. This is adorable, they sit there
eating cookies and watching MST3K and being clueless about each other.
Does contain gratuitous adorable dog.
Welcome to Temptation: A pair of wannabe film-maker sisters set up in a
small town. The more sensible sister watches in horror as the film slowly
turns into porn. Hijinks ensue involving the conservative townsfolk and
local politics. Meanwhile she tries to resist the charming mayor who
reminds her of all the rich boys who screwed her outsider family family
over growing up.
What the Lady Wants: Somewhat cheesy fluffy modern noir. My least
favourite, but ok.
Marjorie Lui I've reviewed already a bunch of times, she's not
the Best Author Ever but her characters are pretty engaging and the
complex fantasy plots exciting. She's rather prone to having her
characters be driven and talented but Hurt By Life so they will Never
Love Agin but they somehow feel an immediate connection/trust/attraction
with their love interest which is pretty much only not consummated within
the first few chapters because evil supernatural creatures are trying to
kill them.
I've read two books by Laura Kinsale: Midsummer Moon
was lots of fun, A
Hidden Heart was..not.
But my favourite so far is Jennifer Crusie. Her stuff is all contemporary
and NOT SPEC FIC OMG but I've really been enjoying them. They're
funny and clever and engaging and fairly feminist. Has sex scenes which
actually contain interesting characterisation and plot
development, and are frequently quite funny. The heroes do tend to
fall a bit into the "I've been screwed over by women so will have lots of
meaningless sex with bimbos (until the heroine makes me Believe In Love
again)" type, but at least they do respect women as friends/colleagues
even if they have dodgy attitudes to relationships. The only real
complaint I have is that the cast are all very white and straight (this
seemed less of a downside after "The Hidden Heart"). Not all
middle class though, huzzah!
Anyone but you: A 40 year old divorcee is setting up a new life for
herself and befriends her hot 30 year old neighbour. They're both sick of
being expected to conform to the 2 kids-big-house workaholic
husband/houswife ideal but take a while to realise that the other one
doesn't want that either. This is adorable, they sit there
eating cookies and watching MST3K and being clueless about each other.
Does contain gratuitous adorable dog.
Welcome to Temptation: A pair of wannabe film-maker sisters set up in a
small town. The more sensible sister watches in horror as the film slowly
turns into porn. Hijinks ensue involving the conservative townsfolk and
local politics. Meanwhile she tries to resist the charming mayor who
reminds her of all the rich boys who screwed her outsider family family
over growing up.
What the Lady Wants: Somewhat cheesy fluffy modern noir. My least
favourite, but ok.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2009-10-20 01:32 am (UTC)I will now try Jennifer Crusie - you make her sound pretty appealing.
no subject
Date: 2009-10-20 12:20 pm (UTC)I can't guarantee you won't like my description of Crusie more than the author herself but hopefully not :)
no subject
Date: 2009-10-20 02:08 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-10-20 10:55 am (UTC)Assuming I survive the Aubrey series without my head exploding, that is.
no subject
Date: 2009-10-22 01:49 pm (UTC)