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Oh, hells to the nah!
Oct. 20th, 2008 10:24 pmSo, as you should all know by now, I am a fan of trashy books romance novels. Though to say I'm a fan strikes me as slightly weird -- my life doesn't revolve around them, I don't have expectations of life based upon them, in fact find a whole crapload of things wrong with a lot of aspects of the romance "standard", and they're by no means the only genre I read -- but I guess there isn't another word for it.
Unless, does anyone know of a phrase for someone who enjoys something but is fully aware of that thing's many flaws? Snarker, by some people's definitions of snark, I guess.
But I don't go into a romance novel expecting the LOLZ. Every time I pick one up, I go, "Wow! Maybe this will be the one! The book with minimal anachronism, no punishing kisses, nobody callously ripping apart anybody's clothes, no TSTL heroines, and heroes that are confident but not assholes. Oh, book! Please be this book!"
Yeah, that usually doesn't happen. Mary Balogh delivers consistently, as does Patricia Gaffney (who sadly doesn't write historicals anymore.) But most other authors? Oh, it's a tough call. It could go either way.
So, that's why I picked up a book of novellas, where Mary Balogh received top billing. Because Mary Balogh can do very little wrong in my mind. She pulled off one of the hardest things in a historical romance -- the hero was a virgin, and the heroine was way experienced. If you can do that convincingly, then . . . well, wow. Congratulations!
So, I grabbed a copy of Timeswept Brides for a quarter, and settled in for a good time.
The Mary Balogh story was, of course, quite good. Man goes back in time via a family heirloom ring, which he gave to his fiancee despite having some serious doubts about marrying her. In the past, he discovers his One True Love, who is married to the man whose body he happens to have appeared in. Who is also his direct ancestor, which sort of makes the MC his own grandpa. Anyway, the man in olden times scoots forward to the modern age, and falls in love with the MC's fiancee, because their respective SOs were more suited for the other guy. Yeah, it's confusing. But good! Very fluffy, because 72 pages isn't really enough space to explore serious issues.
And then I flipped to the next story, with high hopes. And it got . . . squicky. Like pedophilia squicky, which I was not expecting.
I'm not even sure where to start with this novella, there are so many things wrong with it. Historically, ethically, other -cally's. So let's start with the setting and the names of the characters and work from there.
( A Dream Across Time by Constance O'Banyon )
So. Yeah. Bad novella. Pretty creepy.
Unless, does anyone know of a phrase for someone who enjoys something but is fully aware of that thing's many flaws? Snarker, by some people's definitions of snark, I guess.
But I don't go into a romance novel expecting the LOLZ. Every time I pick one up, I go, "Wow! Maybe this will be the one! The book with minimal anachronism, no punishing kisses, nobody callously ripping apart anybody's clothes, no TSTL heroines, and heroes that are confident but not assholes. Oh, book! Please be this book!"
Yeah, that usually doesn't happen. Mary Balogh delivers consistently, as does Patricia Gaffney (who sadly doesn't write historicals anymore.) But most other authors? Oh, it's a tough call. It could go either way.
So, that's why I picked up a book of novellas, where Mary Balogh received top billing. Because Mary Balogh can do very little wrong in my mind. She pulled off one of the hardest things in a historical romance -- the hero was a virgin, and the heroine was way experienced. If you can do that convincingly, then . . . well, wow. Congratulations!
So, I grabbed a copy of Timeswept Brides for a quarter, and settled in for a good time.
The Mary Balogh story was, of course, quite good. Man goes back in time via a family heirloom ring, which he gave to his fiancee despite having some serious doubts about marrying her. In the past, he discovers his One True Love, who is married to the man whose body he happens to have appeared in. Who is also his direct ancestor, which sort of makes the MC his own grandpa. Anyway, the man in olden times scoots forward to the modern age, and falls in love with the MC's fiancee, because their respective SOs were more suited for the other guy. Yeah, it's confusing. But good! Very fluffy, because 72 pages isn't really enough space to explore serious issues.
And then I flipped to the next story, with high hopes. And it got . . . squicky. Like pedophilia squicky, which I was not expecting.
I'm not even sure where to start with this novella, there are so many things wrong with it. Historically, ethically, other -cally's. So let's start with the setting and the names of the characters and work from there.
( A Dream Across Time by Constance O'Banyon )
So. Yeah. Bad novella. Pretty creepy.