A bunch of Loretta Chase romances
Jan. 1st, 2010 11:22 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
alias_sqbrI've read a whole heap of Loretta Chase recently. She writes funny clever engaging sex-positive regency romances whose plots and characters are actually interesting. Her heroines are confident, competent, and don't take anyone's crap. Unfortunately she is creepily exotifying of anyone the slightest bit non-Anglo eg half her heroes who are "passionate half-Italians".
Short reviews for the ones I've read recently, then some longer ones from when I didn't know I'd have so many to review :)
Carsington Family series:
About the four aristocratic Carsington brothers. Can be read stand alone and out of order, but it is cute noticing the little references to previous books.
"Captives of the Night": Hero is a blond blue eyed Albanian muslim (or Christian who swears by saying "Allah", it's not clear) posing as a French aristocrat. There's a scene near the end that's so creepy and exotifying I had to stop reading for two days, and overall not the best book. He is actually fairly three dimensional and likable despite the objectification and silly backstory but..meh.
"Lord of Scoundrels" was very good if not quite my thing: it's pretty much the pinnacle of light bantering "Beauty and the Beast"-esque bad-boy Romantic woobie with a bad childhood turned to mush by the love of a good, sensible, feisty woman. I did love the fact that she doesn't just act feisty but have it all be nothing but charming spunk that goes nowhere, if she wants something done then she gets it done, even if she has to shoot someone to do it.
"Your Scandalous Ways": bought from a secondhand bookshop because the heroine is a courtesan and I felt this might be a nice antidote for the "Hero is all experienced, heroine all innocent and pure" thing I'm already sick of. And it was! He's an English spy sent to seduce her (I don't remember why :)) and they spend the whole book trying to seduce each other and being all "My interest in you is entirely professional but you have SO fallen for me". And at no point does she ever regret being a courtesan! It's not a perfect book and being set in Italy has the loveable outdated ethnic stereotypes in full force but I still enjoyed it. Apparently caused no end of a scandal in the romance novel community since the heroine actively pursues and enjoys sex! Outside of marriage! With men OTHER THAN THE HERO, EVEN AFTER THEY MEET.
So I plan to read the rest of her catalogue except those with the slightest mention of non-white people or cultures. Apparently these include "The Sandalwood Princess" and "The Lion's Daughter".
Short reviews for the ones I've read recently, then some longer ones from when I didn't know I'd have so many to review :)
Carsington Family series:
About the four aristocratic Carsington brothers. Can be read stand alone and out of order, but it is cute noticing the little references to previous books.
- Miss Wonderful: Feisty spinster running her father's estate spars with disabled war veteran trying to build a canal across it. Great.
- Mr Impossible (read first) Racist but otherwise awesome adventure through Egypt.
- Lord Perfect: Not the best, though there was nothing actively wrong with it and some parts were fun. A "perfect" lord has to team up with a social pariah artist when his nephew and her daughter run off on a treasure hunt.
- Not Quite a Lady: Ok. Not offensive, but the plot was sufficiently uninteresting I can't be bothered summarizing it :)
"Captives of the Night": Hero is a blond blue eyed Albanian muslim (or Christian who swears by saying "Allah", it's not clear) posing as a French aristocrat. There's a scene near the end that's so creepy and exotifying I had to stop reading for two days, and overall not the best book. He is actually fairly three dimensional and likable despite the objectification and silly backstory but..meh.
"Lord of Scoundrels" was very good if not quite my thing: it's pretty much the pinnacle of light bantering "Beauty and the Beast"-esque bad-boy Romantic woobie with a bad childhood turned to mush by the love of a good, sensible, feisty woman. I did love the fact that she doesn't just act feisty but have it all be nothing but charming spunk that goes nowhere, if she wants something done then she gets it done, even if she has to shoot someone to do it.
"Your Scandalous Ways": bought from a secondhand bookshop because the heroine is a courtesan and I felt this might be a nice antidote for the "Hero is all experienced, heroine all innocent and pure" thing I'm already sick of. And it was! He's an English spy sent to seduce her (I don't remember why :)) and they spend the whole book trying to seduce each other and being all "My interest in you is entirely professional but you have SO fallen for me". And at no point does she ever regret being a courtesan! It's not a perfect book and being set in Italy has the loveable outdated ethnic stereotypes in full force but I still enjoyed it. Apparently caused no end of a scandal in the romance novel community since the heroine actively pursues and enjoys sex! Outside of marriage! With men OTHER THAN THE HERO, EVEN AFTER THEY MEET.
So I plan to read the rest of her catalogue except those with the slightest mention of non-white people or cultures. Apparently these include "The Sandalwood Princess" and "The Lion's Daughter".
