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dangermousieI am not ashamed to admit that occasionally I read (and like) romance novels - sometimes you just crave something sweet, junky, and light.
But if I had any shame, I'd be ashamed to admit that one of these romance novels is a huge guilty-pleasure favorite comfort reread.
That book is Judith McNaught's Perfect. It is one of the banes of my life that it's not available on Kindle so I can hide my shame in peace.
Perfect is just so...cheesy. And angsty. And cheesy. With a side of cheese. And OTT melodramatic and full of dysfunctional families and falsely imprisoned hero who used to be a famous director and wholesome heroine who teaches disabled children and illiterate women and probably has a halo.
It's basically like one giant kdrama only with a lot more sex.
So why a guilty-pleasure status? Because it has two things I normally hate (and hate in this book, too, but I still like the book, go figure).
Our hero, the formerly-famous-director-now-a-convicted-felon (framed for the murder of his ex-wife. Should have saved yourself for Jesus, boy!) escapes from prison and kidnaps our heroine (devout, saint-type person). That's Thing I Hate Number 1 - I don't necessarily blame the guy for dragging heroine along (he wants her car and she has to go along so as not to spill the beans) but the whole 'woman falls for kidnapper' thing never made sense to me (see The Parallax View movie etc - how does that work?)
Blah blah blah they travel and fall for each other but then comes Thing I Hate Number 2 - this is an older romance novel so we know what follows - what romances like to call a 'forced seduction' scene but I like to call 'rape.' I don't care if her body is enjoying it, if she is saying no, it means no, even if she isn't biting your nose off. I know you just got out of prison and all but...
But seeing that he ends up almost freezing to death out of guilt and then later she turns him in to the cops and it's back to jaiiiiiiiiil for our hero, at least it's not all consequence-less.
Anyway, I normally should loathe a book like that and it's trashy and cheesy and morally questionable as all hell BUT I LOVE IT. I love wholesome saintly Jesus-loving heroines getting it on with falsely-imprisoned, dysfunctional-family-having famous directors/movie star. Heeee. Such trash and such love.
But if I had any shame, I'd be ashamed to admit that one of these romance novels is a huge guilty-pleasure favorite comfort reread.
That book is Judith McNaught's Perfect. It is one of the banes of my life that it's not available on Kindle so I can hide my shame in peace.
Perfect is just so...cheesy. And angsty. And cheesy. With a side of cheese. And OTT melodramatic and full of dysfunctional families and falsely imprisoned hero who used to be a famous director and wholesome heroine who teaches disabled children and illiterate women and probably has a halo.
It's basically like one giant kdrama only with a lot more sex.
So why a guilty-pleasure status? Because it has two things I normally hate (and hate in this book, too, but I still like the book, go figure).
Our hero, the formerly-famous-director-now-a-convicted-felon (framed for the murder of his ex-wife. Should have saved yourself for Jesus, boy!) escapes from prison and kidnaps our heroine (devout, saint-type person). That's Thing I Hate Number 1 - I don't necessarily blame the guy for dragging heroine along (he wants her car and she has to go along so as not to spill the beans) but the whole 'woman falls for kidnapper' thing never made sense to me (see The Parallax View movie etc - how does that work?)
Blah blah blah they travel and fall for each other but then comes Thing I Hate Number 2 - this is an older romance novel so we know what follows - what romances like to call a 'forced seduction' scene but I like to call 'rape.' I don't care if her body is enjoying it, if she is saying no, it means no, even if she isn't biting your nose off. I know you just got out of prison and all but...
But seeing that he ends up almost freezing to death out of guilt and then later she turns him in to the cops and it's back to jaiiiiiiiiil for our hero, at least it's not all consequence-less.
Anyway, I normally should loathe a book like that and it's trashy and cheesy and morally questionable as all hell BUT I LOVE IT. I love wholesome saintly Jesus-loving heroines getting it on with falsely-imprisoned, dysfunctional-family-having famous directors/movie star. Heeee. Such trash and such love.
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no subject
Date: 2010-02-22 05:25 pm (UTC)... um, you were saying?
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Date: 2010-02-22 05:48 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-02-22 05:27 pm (UTC)This reminds me of the first time I watched Gone With the Wind and Rhett carried Scarlett up those stairs. All I could think was "Wait... so we're supposed to think that rape is romantic?" Scarlett was happy when she woke up, so everything is OK?
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Date: 2010-02-22 05:50 pm (UTC)But I never had a problem with GWTW because of that scene because both Rhett and Scarlett are such fucked up, fucked up people it all seemed in character.
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Date: 2010-02-22 05:39 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-02-22 05:51 pm (UTC)It reminds me of those 1920s novels where rape out of jealousy and revenge was an awesome manly thing to do.
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Date: 2010-02-22 07:36 pm (UTC)no subject
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Date: 2010-02-22 11:39 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-02-23 10:07 am (UTC)I donated most of these to charity in my mid-20s when i started to read a lot of fantasy and realised that i simply didnt have enough room to store all of them.
However, i will confess to hanging on to my Teresa Medeiros (ther are currently living under my side of the bed, for easy access on a sunday morning!) for dear life (they have survived 5 house moves up and down the length and breadth of the UK!), even as The FIANCE reads chapters out at me in jest and mutters under his breath about how is it someone who is boyish, bloodthirsty and operates mainly in a intellectually demanding environment can read these things! i usually point out my collection of korean/jap/taiwanese/wuxia dramas out to him by this point.lol!
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Date: 2010-02-22 08:29 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-02-22 08:26 pm (UTC)i read it again recently and it's just so trashy, and sometimes just makes me want to scream and tear my hair out, but then, i get a maniacal grin on my face too!
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Date: 2010-02-22 11:40 pm (UTC)Btw, ep 13 of Pick the Stars is out with subs on viikii
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Date: 2010-02-23 10:11 am (UTC)i've been sitting on my hands, trying desperately NOT to peek at the leaked episodes of Ella and Jerry's Down with Love that are ALL OVER the internet right now! yep, the whole lot, every single episode, leaked. i keep telling myself that watching them would be immoral and wrong and disrespectful to everyone who worked so hard on it and that the line MUST be drawn somewhere! If only i didnt understand mandarin, and needed subs! yikes!
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Date: 2010-02-24 04:35 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-02-22 08:32 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-02-22 11:40 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-02-23 12:26 am (UTC)Oh, catholic all-girls school, how I miss thee!
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Date: 2010-02-23 03:13 am (UTC)no subject
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Date: 2010-02-24 04:35 pm (UTC)