more romance novels
Jan. 4th, 2014 12:28 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
psocopteraI'm way behind on books.
Courtney Milan's Countess Conspiracy is the romance novel of my heart. I mean, if romance as a genre is all about wish fulfillment (both in the relationship and HEA and also in the lifestyle details, whether that's a fantasy of earls and silk dresses or prairie self-sufficiency or whatever) then this book fulfilled wishes that I wouldn't even ever have formulated to say "oh yes I'd like to see *that* in a romance novel". But there it was. SO GOOD. To squee further would be full of spoilers, so let me just say: Victorians doing science. It does not get better than this.
I also liked Ravishing the Heiress by Sherry Thomas a lot. I can see how many people might not - the heroine is all about the stoic acceptance, which some people would find too passive, and she accepts her husband-of-convenience having affairs (before they figure out they really do want to be married, this is not a spoiler if you've ever read a romance novel) which I can see as a turn-off if you're big on fidelity. I am not big on fidelity - I'm big on honesty - and I felt that this book did a much better job than many romance novels of showing an actual *marriage* as a friendship and working partnership and collection of inside jokes etc and not just a sexual romance. (Also there is massive hardcore pining which, okay, yes, pretty much my bulletproof kink.)
However, then I read Sherry Thomas's Not Quite A Husband and it was not good. Like, really icky nonconsensual sex not good, which I suppose I used to take for granted in romance novels back when I used to read Johanna Lindsay all the time, but I have now gotten rather used to not just stumbling into. Also 80% of it manages to take place in India without any Indian characters, which, um.
Courtney Milan's Countess Conspiracy is the romance novel of my heart. I mean, if romance as a genre is all about wish fulfillment (both in the relationship and HEA and also in the lifestyle details, whether that's a fantasy of earls and silk dresses or prairie self-sufficiency or whatever) then this book fulfilled wishes that I wouldn't even ever have formulated to say "oh yes I'd like to see *that* in a romance novel". But there it was. SO GOOD. To squee further would be full of spoilers, so let me just say: Victorians doing science. It does not get better than this.
I also liked Ravishing the Heiress by Sherry Thomas a lot. I can see how many people might not - the heroine is all about the stoic acceptance, which some people would find too passive, and she accepts her husband-of-convenience having affairs (before they figure out they really do want to be married, this is not a spoiler if you've ever read a romance novel) which I can see as a turn-off if you're big on fidelity. I am not big on fidelity - I'm big on honesty - and I felt that this book did a much better job than many romance novels of showing an actual *marriage* as a friendship and working partnership and collection of inside jokes etc and not just a sexual romance. (Also there is massive hardcore pining which, okay, yes, pretty much my bulletproof kink.)
However, then I read Sherry Thomas's Not Quite A Husband and it was not good. Like, really icky nonconsensual sex not good, which I suppose I used to take for granted in romance novels back when I used to read Johanna Lindsay all the time, but I have now gotten rather used to not just stumbling into. Also 80% of it manages to take place in India without any Indian characters, which, um.
