Book reviews...

[shadowkat]

Finished Silivia Day's Bared to You the other day, was a bit disappointing, but if the sequel ever comes out, I may get it - just to see where she goes with it. Day isn't that good with dialogue. And focuses too much on the sex scenes, which get rather repetitive after a bit (granted it is erotica, but it would help greatly if they were less plain vanilla erotica...this is similar to fight scenes actually, if you don't spice it up the reader feels like they've read the same scene over and over again and starts skimming.)
Her characters also aren't quite believable, too OTT. Gideon is too beautiful for words. Eva is too pretty for words. Both are insanely wealthy. And have horrible sexual abuse in their background. It's sort of the 50 Shades storyline amped up to 100, with none of the quirkiness or humor filtered in. If you like this particular trope - tortured guy who falls insanely in love with quirky gal...skip Day and go to 50 Shades. You can thank me later or not as the case may be. James, possibly due to having a television script writer as a hubby and being in the tv industry herself, is a lot better at dialogue than Day is. A lot better.

That said? Currently reading Lisa Keyplas Rainshadow County, which is better written than both, and has better dialogue and more interesting female characters than both. Not sure of the male characters yet...they are on the fringes at the moment. It has it's standard romance novel cliches and tropes, and is fairly conventional too (if there is an unconventional romance novel out there - I've yet to find it, no wait, I did find one but I'm not sure I'm up to reading it - here - Captive in the Dark - which is about an ex-sex slave seeking vengeance on his captors years later, so he kidnaps an innocent girl and turns her into submissive sex slave in order to get into the inner circle and they well, fall in love. - I don't think I want to read that. According to the reviews and blurb - the writer sort of gets graphic about how the hero turns the girl into a sex slave. A bit too Story of O for my taste and I couldn't read Story of O. But it is definitely unconventional...The dark erotica genre can definitely be unconventional. ) The Lisa Keyplas book is a step away from all that - a very big step away...it's more chick-lit romance than erotica romance. Everyone is sane. No tortured souls. No BDSM. But there is magic in the book - the lead character can turn glass into butterflies and fireflies. I'm enjoying it so far, but it's conventional. Not recommended to people who aren't heterosexual. Actually I've only read two romance novels in my life time that weren't heteronormative, maybe three? Poppy Z Brite's book (can't remember the name of it - was a ghost story/paranormal, romance between two men), Nancy Kay Shapiro's What Love Means to You People, and something by Jeannette Winterset.

IF you know of an unconventional romance lurking out there somewhere...feel free to rec it.
I'll try a sample. I'm willing to try anything...you should see my Good Reads account.

Comments

[elisi]

I'm not sure this'll be your thing at all, but it's one of the only romance novels I've ever read. Well, it's a romance inside historical novel... or the other way around. The book is Désirée by Annemarie Selinko, and here's a bit of a review from amazon:

In his memoirs, dictated while he was in exile on the island of St. Helena, Napoleon named his first love as Desiree Clary, a silk merchant's daughter from Marseilles. In the breathtaking novel simply titled Desiree, author Annemarie Selinko chronicles the life of the woman who was Napoleon's fiancee, a woman who rose from being a commoner to becoming a wife of a General to Queen of Sweden and Norway.

It's just a wonderful story, and one I've loved for years. And I mean years, I was probably only 12 or 13 when I read it for the first time.

[shadowkat67.livejournal.com]

Hmmm...sounds like a historical novel/romance similar to what Phillipa Gregory writes? May try it...some time. Napolean was an interesting character.

[beer-good-foamy.livejournal.com]

Poppy Z Brite's book (can't remember the name of it - was a ghost story/paranormal, romance between two men),

Sounds like every novel Poppy Z Brite has ever written, tbh. :)

Have you read anything by Sarah Waters? Fingersmith or The Night Watch are both excellent, and about as non-heteronormative as you get.

[shadowkat67.livejournal.com]

No, have not read Sarah Waters...may have to look her up.

Wouldn't know about Poppy Z Brite, I only read one of her books - it was for a book club, but I can't remember the name of the book.

[ponygirl2000.livejournal.com]

I just finished The Captive Prince (http://freece.livejournal.com/) over the weekend and found it a really great read. It's an original fic, a historical fantasy m/m romance, with a really zippy plot once it gets going and more UST than graphic sex. I'm usually not fond of stories with serious power imbalances between the leads, but this one navigated it in a way that acknowledged said imbalance and dealt with it in a way that allowed both characters agency. As well, I was impressed to see a romance that had both leads able to be awesome in very different yet complementary ways. So many times the POV character - unfortunately usually a female, but I had the same problem with Patrocolus in the novel Song of Achilles - is so caught up in describing the wonder of their love interest that the author forgets to show us why such a paragon would be interested in the other person at all. Often there's a late speech about their beauty or heart, but it's so often a tell rather than a show - that's not the case here.

[shadowkat67.livejournal.com]

So many times the POV character - unfortunately usually a female, but I had the same problem with Patrocolus in the novel Song of Achilles - is so caught up in describing the wonder of their love interest that the author forgets to show us why such a paragon would be interested in the other person at all. Often there's a late speech about their beauty or heart, but it's so often a tell rather than a show - that's not the case here.

Oh this is so true. Why are romantic heroines so incredibly shallow?
In the book I just finished - Bared to You - she's constantly going on about how beautiful he is physically, but that she also sees the vulnerable tortured man inside, but whole paragraphs are spent on his physical beauty. (I personally think the author is a Vamp Diaries fan and shipping Damon Salvatore fiercely, because that's the description.)
It's laughable at times and incredibly repetitive. 50 Shades did it too. Yet, a point is also made by the lead male character being objectified (who to be fair is objectifying the heroine as well), that he wants to be loved for what lies beneath his face. So the writer relies on these standard cliches - telling us all the marvelous charities he supports, and marvelous things he does with his money.
LOL!

Captive Prince sounds interesting. I might like m/m better than f/f.