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Wed Reading Meme...
Nov. 5th, 2014 08:21 pm1. What I just finished reading
* Darling Beast by Elizabeth Hoyt - and I think part of the reason this genre has such a bad rep is its titles and covers. Seriously, Darling Beast? Anyhow, the book was interesting up until the halfway mark, where it sort of got derailed by the author's need to provide five lengthy and explicitlicking sex scenes. Which stopped the action completely and almost derailed the book. I'm not adverse to erotica, as you well know - read quite a bit of it, but this just didn't work. It was as if the author thought, oh, now, I need to add a sex scene - but where to put it? Oh I know I'll randomly insert several here - while they are at house party, ignoring the fact that the hero is allegedly there to uncover who framed him for a violent murder which resulted in him being imprisoned in Bedlam for 4 years, getting raped, and losing his voice for six months. Or for that matter the heroine, who is performing in a play she wrote and worrying about the abusive father of her kid finding out about said kid and bullying her. Both storylines get pushed to the back-burner for the sex scenes. Then we're back to the storylines - but it's a mad rush to the finish line, and we lose all the momentum.
If you want an example of how to ruin a perfectly good plot with lots of sex scenes, read this.
Shame, because the characters were by far the most likable of Hoyt's series. The male hero was unique, in that he was not pretty, and a landscape designer.
* Unlocked by Courtney Milan - better than the Hoyt novel. But I also prefer Milan's writing style to Hoyt's - it's more focused on character relationships and less on external and at times cliche plots. Milan also does a better job depicting class and social issues. Plus, I just like her dialogue and sex scenes better.
This one delves into bullying but from a different angle - the hero ten years ago relentlessly teased and bullied the heroine - he was 19, with a big crush on her. But insecure, and aided by an equally insecure cousin, he made fun of the heroine - hoping she'd take notice of him but not realize he adored her. He hadn't really intended to hurt her - but inadvertently did. Realizing his teasing had the exact opposite affect from his intention, that she hates him, etc - he flees. Becoming a mountaineer. He returns finally to make amends. Is he too late? Can he convince her that he has changed? Will she forgive him? And will he manage to make his cousin see the error of her ways? The book shows how bullying and teasing can hurt both the bully and the victim, in some cases the bully more than the victim. The cousin is a pathetic creature with no true friends and an older husband who travels and is never home. She's alienated everyone with her nasty words. In addition it discusses how a woman, who is brilliant at a traditionally male profession such as astronomy or mathematics - can be ridiculed. A popular theme with Milan. Often the ridicule is from women not men. Women who fear her ability to succeed in what had been a male world, and what this means in regards to their roles.
2. What I am reading now?
Unveiled by Courtney Milan - this is the first book in a the book series. Unlocked is a novella and companion novel to Unveiled, featuring the heroine of Unveiled's friend. In Unveiled, the hero is severely dyslexic. He can't read or write - except for a few phrases and his name. The words slip off the page or he just can't remember the symbols - the slide and flip around on him. Numbers however, he has no difficulty with. I can relate to this - while mine wasn't that severe, and was a bit different (more auditory than visual, and more in regards to numbers than letters),
it took me until late in the second and third grades to figure out how to read. Painful - since I wanted to read and write more than anything. So I worked hard to do it. But it has always been difficult. And it runs in my family - my maternal grandfather was almost illiterate but brilliant with math, and his father was illiterate. My brother, mother and I are all dyslexic in various ways. I was the only one who got diagnosed - because I ran into a brick wall in law school. Was able to compensate for it up until then - the reason was that law school was focused primarily on "lecture method" and "multiple choice tests". I wonder if teachers who rely on these methods realize how many students they are discriminating against?
I'd have made straight A's and B+'s in school if it weren't for the lecture method and multiple choice tests. Sad, isn't it? If I could outlaw that teaching method - I would. Teaching should focus on enabling others to learn, nothing else. At any rate, once I was diagnosed - I got a few special allowances regarding tests as required under the Americans with Disabilities Act, since we couldn't do away with them completely. (ie. More time, private room, and someone else to fill in the computerized sheet - I just circled the answers in the test book. )
Ahem, sorry for the tangent. Anyhow, in Regency England and the Victorian Age - they had no idea what dyslexia was. So, the hero's disability was not diagnosed. Actually it has only been within the last 20 years that clear diagnosis have been made and teaching methods altered to handle it. We've made progress. The hero, while ashamed of his illiteracy, is driven and much like my grandfather, finds a way to work around it. He's a self-made man. But, alas, neither brother knows.
The storyline is about the hero wanting revenge on his distant cousin the Duke of Parford who refused to help his sister, who was dying. Parford was a first class jerk.
The hero's mother had been a religious fanatic who gave away all their money and refused to take his sister to a doctor. The hero walked 24 miles at the age 14 to his cousin the Duke to request aid. And the Duke threw his plea in his face. To add insult to injury, the Duke allowed his brothers to live off the streets. And when the hero finally managed to save them, and get enough funds to put his brothers through school, the Duke's sons attempted to have his youngest brother thrown out of Eton.
So, the hero discovers a means of enacting vengeance, he locates the Duke's previous wife - and declares the Duke a bigamist, and his children illegitimate. (Personally, I always thought the whole illegitimacy bit was ass backwards. It's the parents who should be punished and declared illegitimate not the innocent children.) This means that the title goes directly to the hero, along with the money, lands, and power it entails. Although he doesn't need the money (there isn't that much anyhow since the Duke was a horrible businessman), he's wealthy in his own right. But the power ensures that he can give his brothers anything they want and heal their wounds. He feels guilty for abandoning them to seek his fortune at the age of 16 in India.
Unfortunately, he didn't account for the heroine, the Duke's daughter, who stays behind to care for the Duke and spy on the hero, pretending to be the Duke's nurse.
They fall in love and much chaos ensues.
Milan has sex scenes in her books - but they actually seem to lead somewhere, and add to the conflict - also add to the characters. Plus there's less licking and more, ahem actual sex. And it's not quite as graphic.
3.What I'll be Reading Next?
Probably Unclaimed - the next in the series, then Unraveled.
Also flirting with a medieval romance by Madeline Hunter entitled Stealing Heaven about a Welsh Princess who is fighting an English Knight, during a border conflict between Wales and England in the 14th Century. This intrigues me - mainly because I'm a sucker for anything about Wales, Welsh history, and Welsh folklore. Goes back to my undergrad years. Hunter was recommended by an Amazon reviewer, who stated that Milan's developed her characters similar to Hunter. And that Hunter was the only other romance novelist who focused on family relationships in the same manner. Since I adore Milan's style - thought I'd try out someone similar, who writes historicals set in an earlier decade. Admittedly not a fan of "the medieval period" in part because it is so poorly done in novels. Novelists tend to romanticize the period. When it was well...a nasty period of history particularly for women, they don't call it the dark ages for nothing.
* Darling Beast by Elizabeth Hoyt - and I think part of the reason this genre has such a bad rep is its titles and covers. Seriously, Darling Beast? Anyhow, the book was interesting up until the halfway mark, where it sort of got derailed by the author's need to provide five lengthy and explicit
If you want an example of how to ruin a perfectly good plot with lots of sex scenes, read this.
Shame, because the characters were by far the most likable of Hoyt's series. The male hero was unique, in that he was not pretty, and a landscape designer.
* Unlocked by Courtney Milan - better than the Hoyt novel. But I also prefer Milan's writing style to Hoyt's - it's more focused on character relationships and less on external and at times cliche plots. Milan also does a better job depicting class and social issues. Plus, I just like her dialogue and sex scenes better.
This one delves into bullying but from a different angle - the hero ten years ago relentlessly teased and bullied the heroine - he was 19, with a big crush on her. But insecure, and aided by an equally insecure cousin, he made fun of the heroine - hoping she'd take notice of him but not realize he adored her. He hadn't really intended to hurt her - but inadvertently did. Realizing his teasing had the exact opposite affect from his intention, that she hates him, etc - he flees. Becoming a mountaineer. He returns finally to make amends. Is he too late? Can he convince her that he has changed? Will she forgive him? And will he manage to make his cousin see the error of her ways? The book shows how bullying and teasing can hurt both the bully and the victim, in some cases the bully more than the victim. The cousin is a pathetic creature with no true friends and an older husband who travels and is never home. She's alienated everyone with her nasty words. In addition it discusses how a woman, who is brilliant at a traditionally male profession such as astronomy or mathematics - can be ridiculed. A popular theme with Milan. Often the ridicule is from women not men. Women who fear her ability to succeed in what had been a male world, and what this means in regards to their roles.
2. What I am reading now?
Unveiled by Courtney Milan - this is the first book in a the book series. Unlocked is a novella and companion novel to Unveiled, featuring the heroine of Unveiled's friend. In Unveiled, the hero is severely dyslexic. He can't read or write - except for a few phrases and his name. The words slip off the page or he just can't remember the symbols - the slide and flip around on him. Numbers however, he has no difficulty with. I can relate to this - while mine wasn't that severe, and was a bit different (more auditory than visual, and more in regards to numbers than letters),
it took me until late in the second and third grades to figure out how to read. Painful - since I wanted to read and write more than anything. So I worked hard to do it. But it has always been difficult. And it runs in my family - my maternal grandfather was almost illiterate but brilliant with math, and his father was illiterate. My brother, mother and I are all dyslexic in various ways. I was the only one who got diagnosed - because I ran into a brick wall in law school. Was able to compensate for it up until then - the reason was that law school was focused primarily on "lecture method" and "multiple choice tests". I wonder if teachers who rely on these methods realize how many students they are discriminating against?
I'd have made straight A's and B+'s in school if it weren't for the lecture method and multiple choice tests. Sad, isn't it? If I could outlaw that teaching method - I would. Teaching should focus on enabling others to learn, nothing else. At any rate, once I was diagnosed - I got a few special allowances regarding tests as required under the Americans with Disabilities Act, since we couldn't do away with them completely. (ie. More time, private room, and someone else to fill in the computerized sheet - I just circled the answers in the test book. )
Ahem, sorry for the tangent. Anyhow, in Regency England and the Victorian Age - they had no idea what dyslexia was. So, the hero's disability was not diagnosed. Actually it has only been within the last 20 years that clear diagnosis have been made and teaching methods altered to handle it. We've made progress. The hero, while ashamed of his illiteracy, is driven and much like my grandfather, finds a way to work around it. He's a self-made man. But, alas, neither brother knows.
The storyline is about the hero wanting revenge on his distant cousin the Duke of Parford who refused to help his sister, who was dying. Parford was a first class jerk.
The hero's mother had been a religious fanatic who gave away all their money and refused to take his sister to a doctor. The hero walked 24 miles at the age 14 to his cousin the Duke to request aid. And the Duke threw his plea in his face. To add insult to injury, the Duke allowed his brothers to live off the streets. And when the hero finally managed to save them, and get enough funds to put his brothers through school, the Duke's sons attempted to have his youngest brother thrown out of Eton.
So, the hero discovers a means of enacting vengeance, he locates the Duke's previous wife - and declares the Duke a bigamist, and his children illegitimate. (Personally, I always thought the whole illegitimacy bit was ass backwards. It's the parents who should be punished and declared illegitimate not the innocent children.) This means that the title goes directly to the hero, along with the money, lands, and power it entails. Although he doesn't need the money (there isn't that much anyhow since the Duke was a horrible businessman), he's wealthy in his own right. But the power ensures that he can give his brothers anything they want and heal their wounds. He feels guilty for abandoning them to seek his fortune at the age of 16 in India.
Unfortunately, he didn't account for the heroine, the Duke's daughter, who stays behind to care for the Duke and spy on the hero, pretending to be the Duke's nurse.
They fall in love and much chaos ensues.
Milan has sex scenes in her books - but they actually seem to lead somewhere, and add to the conflict - also add to the characters. Plus there's less licking and more, ahem actual sex. And it's not quite as graphic.
3.What I'll be Reading Next?
Probably Unclaimed - the next in the series, then Unraveled.
Also flirting with a medieval romance by Madeline Hunter entitled Stealing Heaven about a Welsh Princess who is fighting an English Knight, during a border conflict between Wales and England in the 14th Century. This intrigues me - mainly because I'm a sucker for anything about Wales, Welsh history, and Welsh folklore. Goes back to my undergrad years. Hunter was recommended by an Amazon reviewer, who stated that Milan's developed her characters similar to Hunter. And that Hunter was the only other romance novelist who focused on family relationships in the same manner. Since I adore Milan's style - thought I'd try out someone similar, who writes historicals set in an earlier decade. Admittedly not a fan of "the medieval period" in part because it is so poorly done in novels. Novelists tend to romanticize the period. When it was well...a nasty period of history particularly for women, they don't call it the dark ages for nothing.