dangermousie (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
dangermousie) wrote2011-08-28 09:20 am
dangermousie) wrote2011-08-28 09:20 am
Entry tags:
Latest Romances...
Thank you, everyone, for your comments! I do get some awesome anons and non-friends comments and after sleeping on it, I am less aggravated. I banned some people and from now on will flock any entries I think are with potential for drama, but the rest are staying open.
And now onto the topic of this post - latest romance novels I've been reading (in order from least-liked to most).
1. Gaelen Foley, My Irresistible Earl - oh, but sadly, quite resistible. Blahblah secret society, hero is an agent for same, heroine is fashionable widow and his first love. It was so boring - I never cared if both of them fell into a sinkhole and got eaten by an alien. Also, the hero is a major jerk - he is mad at heroine for not waiting for him but marrying someone else. After they were not engaged, he was gone for a year without contacting her in any way and she had a horrid family situation he knew about. WTF? Heroine didn't have enough personality to dislike.
2. Gaelen Foley, My Dangerous Duke - I am not sure how one makes a romance between an aristocratic killer for a secret patriotic order and the daughter of his enemies boring, but this book succeeded.
3. Laura Kinsale, The Shadow and the Star - everyone and their cousin recommended it. I liked it but didn't love it (and I wish the whole subplot about the cursed sword was dropped because pointless and I can see why some may think it orientalizing). Hero is a blond ninja virgin with major hangups about sex being evil who was adopted by English aristocrats in Hawaii. All it lacked was the author making him a vampire pirate. I liked him but I was all about the heroine, Leda, a very proper Victorian seamstress. I want to be her BFF in real life and for her to teach me when gloves are appropriate and how many inches one must have between self and gentleman friend when conversing. Book gets points for being the only romance novel I read which has first sexual encounter btw hero and heroine be more confusing and awkward than sexy as they are both virgins. I think Kinsale is a superior version of Foley for me - when I love her books, I really love them, but most of them don't leave me in exstacies. In case people need warnings for these things - mention/discussion of child abuse/rape, nothing graphic.
4. Loretta Chase, Captives of the Night - I met the protagonists of this novel, Leila Beaumont and Comte d'Esmond, as minor characters in Lord of Scoundrels, and have been panting to read about them ever since. Leila is a well-known portrait painter and d'Esmond is an agent on a mission, false identity and all. When her dissolute, criminal husband is murdered, they band together to discover who did it. It was a fun, solid novel. I prefer more angst in my romances (big shock, I am sure!) but this was v.v.v.v. good.
5. Gaelen Foley, The Pirate Prince - MY FAVORITE! And that is why I keep reading Foley books even though most of them range merely from 'meh' to 'OK' for me. When she writes something that works for me (this, The Duke) is really works! This combines pirates/sworn family enemies/hidden royalties tropes into one delicious, super-angsty mix. Prince Lazar of the tiny fictional kingdom of Ascencion (think Corsica) is the only survivor of the murdered royal family. He escaped when he was 13 and now, at 28, as a ruthless powerful pirate, he returns - not to rule the place or anything, mind you. He merely wants to complete his vendetta against the Monteverdi clan, whose head murdered his family and now runs the country. He plans the loot the place blind, execute all the Monteverdis, and make the Governor suffer by killing his beloved daughter in front of his eyes. And later, with his mission complete, he can finally kill himself. Yeah, Lazar is a dysfunctional suicidal mess. That is why I like this book. You know me and trainwrecks. Only his plans go awry when he meets Allegra Monteverdi - the target daughter in question - who is smart, fearless, is all about justice and reform, and with a hidden crush on the martyred boy-prince (and certainly won't believe this psycho is the same person, grown-up version). And so it goes, with them embarking on a passionate, dysfunctional, codependent relationship...Anyway, Lazar is mmmmm and Allegra is my girl-crush (she knifes the Big Bad in this and rescues Lazar, without bothering to dwell even for a second that she killed a man, how is that for a change of pace?) There are some tropes that may bother you that arise out of their dysfunction, but I had no problem with them (and no, I am not trying to obliquely indicate he rapes her). Also, Warning: mention/discussion of child rape/adult rape/drug use/suicide, nothing graphic. (That whole rape thing is a WEIRD trend in this latest batch. I wouldn't mind if it was short-lived).
And now onto the topic of this post - latest romance novels I've been reading (in order from least-liked to most).
1. Gaelen Foley, My Irresistible Earl - oh, but sadly, quite resistible. Blahblah secret society, hero is an agent for same, heroine is fashionable widow and his first love. It was so boring - I never cared if both of them fell into a sinkhole and got eaten by an alien. Also, the hero is a major jerk - he is mad at heroine for not waiting for him but marrying someone else. After they were not engaged, he was gone for a year without contacting her in any way and she had a horrid family situation he knew about. WTF? Heroine didn't have enough personality to dislike.
2. Gaelen Foley, My Dangerous Duke - I am not sure how one makes a romance between an aristocratic killer for a secret patriotic order and the daughter of his enemies boring, but this book succeeded.
3. Laura Kinsale, The Shadow and the Star - everyone and their cousin recommended it. I liked it but didn't love it (and I wish the whole subplot about the cursed sword was dropped because pointless and I can see why some may think it orientalizing). Hero is a blond ninja virgin with major hangups about sex being evil who was adopted by English aristocrats in Hawaii. All it lacked was the author making him a vampire pirate. I liked him but I was all about the heroine, Leda, a very proper Victorian seamstress. I want to be her BFF in real life and for her to teach me when gloves are appropriate and how many inches one must have between self and gentleman friend when conversing. Book gets points for being the only romance novel I read which has first sexual encounter btw hero and heroine be more confusing and awkward than sexy as they are both virgins. I think Kinsale is a superior version of Foley for me - when I love her books, I really love them, but most of them don't leave me in exstacies. In case people need warnings for these things - mention/discussion of child abuse/rape, nothing graphic.
4. Loretta Chase, Captives of the Night - I met the protagonists of this novel, Leila Beaumont and Comte d'Esmond, as minor characters in Lord of Scoundrels, and have been panting to read about them ever since. Leila is a well-known portrait painter and d'Esmond is an agent on a mission, false identity and all. When her dissolute, criminal husband is murdered, they band together to discover who did it. It was a fun, solid novel. I prefer more angst in my romances (big shock, I am sure!) but this was v.v.v.v. good.
5. Gaelen Foley, The Pirate Prince - MY FAVORITE! And that is why I keep reading Foley books even though most of them range merely from 'meh' to 'OK' for me. When she writes something that works for me (this, The Duke) is really works! This combines pirates/sworn family enemies/hidden royalties tropes into one delicious, super-angsty mix. Prince Lazar of the tiny fictional kingdom of Ascencion (think Corsica) is the only survivor of the murdered royal family. He escaped when he was 13 and now, at 28, as a ruthless powerful pirate, he returns - not to rule the place or anything, mind you. He merely wants to complete his vendetta against the Monteverdi clan, whose head murdered his family and now runs the country. He plans the loot the place blind, execute all the Monteverdis, and make the Governor suffer by killing his beloved daughter in front of his eyes. And later, with his mission complete, he can finally kill himself. Yeah, Lazar is a dysfunctional suicidal mess. That is why I like this book. You know me and trainwrecks. Only his plans go awry when he meets Allegra Monteverdi - the target daughter in question - who is smart, fearless, is all about justice and reform, and with a hidden crush on the martyred boy-prince (and certainly won't believe this psycho is the same person, grown-up version). And so it goes, with them embarking on a passionate, dysfunctional, codependent relationship...Anyway, Lazar is mmmmm and Allegra is my girl-crush (she knifes the Big Bad in this and rescues Lazar, without bothering to dwell even for a second that she killed a man, how is that for a change of pace?) There are some tropes that may bother you that arise out of their dysfunction, but I had no problem with them (and no, I am not trying to obliquely indicate he rapes her). Also, Warning: mention/discussion of child rape/adult rape/drug use/suicide, nothing graphic. (That whole rape thing is a WEIRD trend in this latest batch. I wouldn't mind if it was short-lived).