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Post by Carolinian on Jul 15, 2020 22:22:48 GMT -4
I'm pretty new to the romance genre. Recently I've been listening to early Jo Beverley (early '90s), and I see what you are saying, technicolor. Beverly's characters act in what I imagine to be true to the attitudes of the period. Men are socially dominant; women accept men's societal dominance though within the romantic pairing of the books they fight for an emotional equality in their marriage. Both sexes have bonds to others of their sex from which the opposite sex is excluded. Characters have to navigate repercussions from rape, physical violence, and war, and some main characters are not sympathetic in their reactions to traumatic events experienced by other characters.
Any other suggestions of authors other than early Balogh?
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Post by Deleted on Jul 15, 2020 22:31:55 GMT -4
I think her newer books are only e-books now, but I really liked Secrets of a Lady and the prequel Beneath a Silent Moon by Tracy Grant. Unfortunately when she switched publishers, they wanted her to shake things up so they had her change the names of the main characters for the subsequent sequels (and only published electronically) and that just kind of lost me. But the first 2 original books were very, very good. I think they are still available in print/paper form. Highly recommend!
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Post by Ladybug on Aug 31, 2020 14:58:15 GMT -4
Ok, so I finally read The Bromance Book Club and I liked it well enough to read the sequel, Undercover Bromance, which I loved. It's a take on the romantic suspense sub-genre and the "enemies to lovers" trope. Mack and Liv end up working together to take down a celebrity chef who is also a serial sexual predator. Mack is the founder of the BBC and Liv is the sister-in-law from the first book. They have amazing chemistry and are both flawed, hurt people who change for the better through the course of the book. And there is some seriously funny dialogue and situations that pop up. Mack thinks he's got women all figured out because he reads romance novels, but he's totally thrown for a loop when he meets Liv. Liv is brave, reckless, judgmental, trusts no one, and has built up a lot of walls around herself, but she slowly lets Mack in. I loved their relationship in this book.
I also read Happy Trail by Daisy Prescott. It's about a "city girl" who starts hiking the Appalachian Trail with her boyfriend but they break up along the way. She continues on by herself and bad weather forces her to camp for two nights in a remote cabin with a sexy park ranger. There were lots of surprises in this one and I liked where the story went. Towards the end, though, it gets SO mushy that I skipped paragraphs. This was a quick read so I would recommend. I liked how they did not make the heroine a ditzy, helpless woman just because she was a novice hiker. She knew almost nothing going into it, but she learned along the way and became a capable hiker on a challenging trail. The ranger character was ok, but not quite as well developed as she was. We learned some significant things about him, but I still felt like he was kind of a blank space, personality-wise.
Finally, Fix Her Up, by Tessa Bailey. Not the worst, but not the best. This combined the "best friend's sibling" + "fake dating" tropes. I really hated how the hero called the heroine "baby girl" throughout the book. It started creeping me out. This one was also a quick read.
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Post by PearlySweetcake on Aug 31, 2020 18:36:37 GMT -4
Can anyone recommend romance novels that are intelligent and articulate? The last ones I read were Colleen McCullough's Tim and Olive Higgins Prouty's Now, Voyager. I guess I'd throw Marge Piercy's He, She and It in there too, for the hot cyborg sex in a dystopian future. I mean, I like the fun bodice-rippy stuff too, but it's nice to read about strong, fiercely intelligent women finally getting all melty for that one special person.
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Post by chonies on Aug 31, 2020 19:54:12 GMT -4
Can anyone recommend romance novels that are intelligent and articulate? The last ones I read were Colleen McCullough's Tim and Olive Higgins Prouty's Now, Voyager. I guess I'd throw Marge Piercy's He, She and It in there too, for the hot cyborg sex in a dystopian future. I mean, I like the fun bodice-rippy stuff too, but it's nice to read about strong, fiercely intelligent women finally getting all melty for that one special person. Try A Princess in Theory by Alyssa Cole. |
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Post by PearlySweetcake on Sept 1, 2020 0:31:29 GMT -4
Can anyone recommend romance novels that are intelligent and articulate? The last ones I read were Colleen McCullough's Tim and Olive Higgins Prouty's Now, Voyager. I guess I'd throw Marge Piercy's He, She and It in there too, for the hot cyborg sex in a dystopian future. I mean, I like the fun bodice-rippy stuff too, but it's nice to read about strong, fiercely intelligent women finally getting all melty for that one special person. Try A Princess in Theory by Alyssa Cole. Added to the shopping list. Thanks chonies! |
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Post by chonies on Sept 1, 2020 15:22:24 GMT -4
You're welcome! It's often hard to find that sweet spot. Some of Tessa Dare's titles come close, where there's usually a financial incentive for the Strong, Independent Female Lead Who Is Also Blessedly Not A Virgin to enter into a relationship, so the characters are smart and articulate but not independent. Occasionally, I've found it in the wild, but it's pretty rare. I try writing them from time to time but inevitably I hit a spot where the wheels just fall off. "Ok, you're in love now, byeee." One thing I've noticed: medieval romances seem to have vanished. Anyway, Smart Bitches Trashy Books might be a good place to dig, as well as the occasional hashtags on GoodReads. And if you find any, please report back. |
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Post by PearlySweetcake on Sept 2, 2020 3:39:24 GMT -4
You're welcome! It's often hard to find that sweet spot. Some of Tessa Dare's titles come close, where there's usually a financial incentive for the Strong, Independent Female Lead Who Is Also Blessedly Not A Virgin to enter into a relationship, so the characters are smart and articulate but not independent. Occasionally, I've found it in the wild, but it's pretty rare. I try writing them from time to time but inevitably I hit a spot where the wheels just fall off. "Ok, you're in love now, byeee." One thing I've noticed: medieval romances seem to have vanished. Anyway, Smart Bitches Trashy Books might be a good place to dig, as well as the occasional hashtags on GoodReads. And if you find any, please report back. Thanks chonies! You're right - I haven't seen medieval romances in quite some time. I don't know if we should blame George RR Martin or A.N. Roquelaure. Thank you for the link to "Smart Bitches Trashy Books"! Where has this place been all my life? Alyssa Cole's latest is reviewed on the home page. Kit Rocha's Deal With the Devil (mercenary librarians - yes!!) looks promising too. I'll report back on my findings. Thanks again! PS - I hope you get past your writer's block some day! |
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Post by Deleted on Sept 2, 2020 20:39:33 GMT -4
Some of my favorite historical authors for strong heroines and not-your-usual plots are Courtney Milan, Beverly Jenkins, and Rose Lerner.
I read the Bromance Book Club books, and while I liked the first one enough to read the second, Liv was such an unlikeable character and I couldn't find the plot hijinks all that amusing. Jen Reads Romance posted a review on Goodreads that articulated what went wrong for me.
I have the Kit Rocha book, and may read it next, but I'm a library book hoarder so who knows.
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Post by Deleted on Sept 2, 2020 21:46:00 GMT -4
You're welcome! It's often hard to find that sweet spot. Some of Tessa Dare's titles come close, where there's usually a financial incentive for the Strong, Independent Female Lead Who Is Also Blessedly Not A Virgin to enter into a relationship, so the characters are smart and articulate but not independent. Occasionally, I've found it in the wild, but it's pretty rare. I try writing them from time to time but inevitably I hit a spot where the wheels just fall off. "Ok, you're in love now, byeee." One thing I've noticed: medieval romances seem to have vanished. Anyway, Smart Bitches Trashy Books might be a good place to dig, as well as the occasional hashtags on GoodReads. And if you find any, please report back. Thanks chonies! You're right - I haven't seen medieval romances in quite some time. I don't know if we should blame George RR Martin or A.N. Roquelaure. Thank you for the link to "Smart Bitches Trashy Books"! Where has this place been all my life? Alyssa Cole's latest is reviewed on the home page. Kit Rocha's Deal With the Devil (mercenary librarians - yes!!) looks promising too. I'll report back on my findings. Thanks again! PS - I hope you get past your writer's block some day! I've attended a couple of zoom meets this summer with one of my favorite historical romance authors (Lauren Willing) and she said that currently the trend in historical fiction is 20th century. Apparently she pitched some idea/time periods to her editor and was told that older time periods are "out" (her upcoming book is set during WWI). It was interesting to me, because I never realized popular, best selling authors were that constrained. |
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