Hungry For More

Hungry for More by Diana Holquist is an interesting and, in parts, good little book, but I take issue with the main characters having the sex in the kitchen of restaurant.  I don’t care that it was the best sex scene in the book I just don’t like the idea of the hero taking a break from making his soup to play a little hide the salami.

Hygiene issues aside, I did enjoy this book.  Holquist managed to take two lead characters who could have been wholly unlikable and turned them into enjoyable and interesting people.  I like that kind of thing a lot, when it works.  I like it when you aren’t sure if you should be rooting for the main characters, because that makes them more true.  And Holquist is much more successful at this than our friend Pamela Britton was with Dangerous Curves.  If your going to write about assholes, you have to make them 3 dimensional and believable.  Otherwise it doesn’t matter how physically hot you tell me they are, they’re still assholes.  But if you provided reasons and believable back story, then they may move up to the realm of attractive and redeemable asshole.  Not that this works in the real dating world (trust me, I tried) but in the land of the romance novel, it’s alright.

Also, it’s nice to read a book with gypsy/Rom characters in a contemporary setting so they aren’t slotted into the noble savage stereotype that they so often land in when featured in historicals. 

So, yeah this was a fun one.  Both funny and sexy to read, with pleasantly conflicted leads.  I liked the imaginary conversations with Oprah that Amy has while she tries to figure out her emotions and even her motivation, it was a nice way to deal with what would typically be straightforward internal monologues.

I would have liked a little more character development with James, a little less tell and a little more show, and a little more buildup to his big plot twist at the end.  There was almost enough, but it still felt tacked on to me.

So aside from the relatively minor issues of hygiene and one suspect plot twist, this was a pretty solid book. 

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Coming up, I’ve got a book about miners!  And another with an empress!  Named Jordan!  They both have lamentable covers that feature some old school clinches though, so unless I find some good book sleeves they will not be allowed on the bus.

Either way thank the baby Jesus for Bookmooch which allows me to locate books about miners and empresses and cowboys and all other manner of characters without having to embarrass myself by bringing clinchtastic covers up to the till at the book store.

 

 

Dangerous Curves

Dangerous dialogue, more like.  Oh man, this book was not good.  Sure I read Dangerous Curves by Pamela Britton in a day, but that’s not because I liked it.

First of all, there was no mention of information management and I would venture to say that even a race car syndicate needs good records management policies.  We all need a good records management policy.

Second, neither of the main characters were especially likable.  Cece, our heroine, is a really bad FBI agent and grumpyannoying person, she knew our hero, Blain (and I would now like to point out something we all should have learned from Ducky in Pretty in Pink, Blain? That’s not a name, that’s an appliance!) the owner of a racing team, back in high school when she had a crush on him and he was generally miserable to her (even though he secretly respected her pluck and determination).  Blain is kind of a dick.  He never really apologizes for being a jerk way back when, he just knows he’s warm for her form now.

And beyond all that, the dialogue is just rubbish.  The word Jeesh is used way, way too much.  seriously, almost every page.  Same goes for darn.  I accept the word darn in a Jayne Ann Krentz novel because her characters are often prudes.  I do not accept darn from a race car owner and a tough as nails FBI agent.  Also, the repeated reminders that Cece is tough as nails were a little annoying.  Also also, the unnecessary and incorrectly used quotation marks were “annoying” if you get what I’m “saying.”

And on top of all this there was a ridiculous bomb plot, goof ball FBI action (Would the FBI really allow someone to demand the agent he wanted to work on his case just because they went to high school together?), and a grandmother with a rocket launcher.  Actually, I kind of liked the grandmother with the rocket launcher, she knew how to work out some solid revenge.  Plus she made me think of my own gram toting a rocket launcher and that was  awesome mental image. 

I’m willing to suspend my disbelief if the writing is engaging and the story is told with verve.  In fact I am happy to suspend my disbelief.  Please see my love of Anne Stuart’s Ice series which is full of evil geniuses (one of whom wants to blow shit up on MY BIRTHDAY because it is a day marked by other evil geniuses) and unrealistic occurrences but is also full of engaging characters, good dialogue and hot sex.  See you need all those things working together in order to turn off my grasp on reality, it’s really not so hard to do.  A rocket launcher toting granny is just one step, and while it is a good step, it won’t get you up the staircase.

And the sex was not good.  The one main sex scene was confusing and unsexy.  And that, in a romance novel, is an unpardonable sin. 

Over all, not a fan.  I’m not even going to go into the last few chapters when (SPOILER ALERT) Cece ends up in a wheelchair because they were dull and annoying and felt totally tacked on.

I am however, willing to try another NASCAR themed book down the road, they can’t all be jeesh spouting and unsexy, can they?

A romance involving filing

So while I prepare to read a NASCAR romance, I would like to pass on some knowledge about the Jayne Ann Krentz book Flash which features two characters I found really heartwarming.  Disorganized Katherine Hepburn-esque Olivia, who never files anything.  And sort of nerdy Jasper (I once had a cat named Jasper) who understands the importance of a well-maintained filing system.  In fact, he talks about it often.

You may not know this but when I started my current job my official title was Filing Team Leader. I have since become known as the Legal Records Supervisor, moving on up, yo.  But the point I am trying to make is that I, too, understand the importance of a well-maintained filing system.  And I will fight with Vice Presidents of a multinational corporation about it on a regular basis.  Trust.

Information management is a big deal, people, and finally a romance novel hero agrees with me.  Aside from a respect for information this book has a general sweetness about it that I really enjoyed.  Both the main characters are serious but a little goofy, and as I mentioned above, a little nerdy.  They have jobs.  Olivia is an event planner whose events are often a little bit tacky and Jasper is a venture capitalist turned head of a lighting company.  Sometimes it’s nice reading the books about wealthy characters who have no real responsibilities but sometimes it’s even nicer to read about people with jobs, who care about their jobs.

They are both trying to figure out who’s blackmailing them (And I’m sad to say that the blackmailing is down to another character whose filing system has been corrupted after his death! Oh the shame when good files go bad.) and they’re trying to figure out their feelings for each other.  Plus political intrigue, annoying family members and kooky secondary characters obsessed with privacy and the right to bear arms.

The book was written in the mid-90s and parts are a little dated.  The reliance on hard copy documentation alone . . . oh wait, that’s not interesting is it?  Talk of being reliant on a fax machine seems a bit funny now, but whatever.  This is a sweet book.  There’s a bit of suspense and a bit of romance (only one sex scene though despite the fact that others are alluded to, kind of a let down) and it all melds together nicely.  Other books I’ve read by the same author have followed a similar mold.  Sort of nerdy hot heros and heroines (sometimes prudish and or mentally damaged as well) and a mix of good humour and suspense.

Sometimes her heros are vegetarians too.  In the world of romance novels alpha males are almost never vegetarians (and they are never concerned with filing) I like that she’s bucked this trend.  Not that her heros are all namby pamby but neither are they chest beating testosterone factories.  They are nice guys, but not like creepy ponytail sensitive nice guys, actual nice guys who also happen to be hot and interested in good information management. 

So Flash meets with my approval.  It’s not top of the scale on the Hottttness meter but it’s a fun and sweet book.

See I don’t hate everything.

Sub genres

Did you know that there’s a whole romance sub-genre devoted to NASCAR racing?  Me either!  Don’t worry, though, I’m on it.

A New Rule

If a book features rape as a romantic device (!!!) I am allowed to stop reading it and call it out as rubbish.  Because, and I find it frustrating that I feel the need to say this, rape is not romantic.  Neither is  it a logical or healthy step in a courtship and I refuse to believe otherwise.

Rough sex is one thing, BDSM, whatever, so long as it is consensual.  Rape, by definition, is not consensual.  And therefore it is not sexy.  Not even at all. 

I remember, as a young adult in the early 90s that a lot of the books I picked up from the library seemed to have a rape or near-rape scene in them and that is a large part of why I stopped reading romance novels at the time.  Now, more current books seem to have left the rape scene behind.  I wonder what it was that caused this shift?  Did consumer tastes shift?  Did readers just become more vocal?  Did publishers just get grossed out?  Did writers get tired of trying to pass off an act of violence as something to be desired?

I think some research may be in order.  More on this later.

 

I Can’t

Seriously, I can’t subject myself to this book anymore.  I struggled through the first 200 pages and after young Lady Catherine escaped to the sewage covered beaches of Spain only to run directly to a seedy bar where the owner and patrons began a dice game to see who would be the FIRST to rape her that evening only to be ‘rescued’ by Jon the pirate who was then beaten almost to death before being rescued by Cathy and his men whereupon she nursed him back to health and fell in love with him before he began to get jealous of her because his first mate developed an unhealthy affection for her. 

All the while, continuing to insist that he never raped her in the first place!

I can’t, I just can’t.  No one is paying me, nor is this for a class that I myself am paying for.  I refuse to accept this character as a romantic lead and I refuse to continue subjecting myself to a world of fiction where rape is a legitimate courtship device. 

Therefore I will no longer be reading Island Flame by Karen Robards.  And I encourage others to avoid reading it as well.  It goes beyond being so bad it’s funny directly into the realm of so bad it’s just bad.  On the Smart Bitches, Trashy Books site, they refer to books like this as wallbangers because you throw them at the wall.  Technically I dropped it to the floor in disgust.  But I think the term is still pretty accurate.

Oh for Christmas Sake!

First of all, there have been two rapes played up as sexual comedy in the first 100 pages, ugh.

Second of all, this line: He was astonished to realize that rape no longer seemed as satisfying as it once had. Oh, well that is astonishing!

Third of all,  the heroine is finding that the rape gets nicer the more it happens, her front bottom has been feelin all funny and oooh!  and after all she did kind of kiss him back when he abducted her after braining her maid.

And fourth of all, I think I actually read this book when I was a teenager.  I am subjecting myself to this for a second time!  At least this time I can claim to be doing it for the greater good of the internet masses.  It’s not that I expected a pirate ‘hero’ to be all enlightened or anything but this is a little ridiculous.

Sweet!

Island Flame by Karen Robards was waiting for me when I got home yesterday.  Even a postal strike can not keep pirate themed romance novels away from me! 

Hold your breath, dear reader(s), I have a feeling this is going to be awesome.

The Taming of the Duke: Result

Oh, I did not like this book.  Why do I keep choosing books by authors I have liked and then find that this new book, up for discussion is a letdown?  That is bad sentence structure. I apologize.

Anyhow, here’s the thing.  If the hero has the sex with the heroine while he is  pretending to be his brother, it’s not sexy.  It’s gross.  And when she doesn’t even get mad at him when she figures it out?  Well that’s just annoying.

Ugh.  Really annoying.

Especially when some of the other books I’ve read by James have been so good.  Take An Affair Before Christmas, terrible title, very good book.  It deals directly with the fact that women of the era were given very little information about sex, and were often told it was disgusting and horrible and this led to miserable married lives.  In this book, James starts out with a couple who have become estranged due to their miserable sex life and lets them court each other again and allows the hero to gain a better (if completely unrealistic for the times) understanding of why his lady was behaving in such an ice-cold manner.  Also I learned a lot about hair dressing methods in the Georgian Era.  They used wax to hold those feathers in place.

James is generally an engaging and fun writer, but for reals, pretending to be your brother in order to get the girl.  Gross.  Also, kinda rape-y. 

In response to reading this book which I categorically did not like I decided to reread Lisa Kleypas’s contemporaries this weekend, which I do like and find to be genuinely sexified and fun without skimping on plot and characterization.  And they made me happy.  Yes, they are still escapist but they are also fun and allow me to believe that the citizens of Texas are not all George W. Bush clones outside of Austin.

 

Now, when will that pirate book get here?  Or the one with the bounty hunter? 

I hear there’s a whole genre dedicated to NASCAR too.

The Taming of the (recovering alcoholic) Duke

So, I’m currently reading The Taming of the Duke by Eloisa James.  It’s a funny little book in that the hero is a big old drunk.  He’s a big old drunk who just decided one day that he would stop drinking.  And so he did.  Because that’s how you cure alcoholism.  You just decide to quit drinking.  And then, once you quit drinking, you turn totally hot, just like Rafe the alcoholic duke.  Once he was pudgy and unkempt, then he quit drinking and is totes buff as you can see in that cover. 

And let’s talk about that cover.  It’s as bad as a clinch, and not even funny.  So, clearly, I cannot read this on the bus, which is why it is taking me awhile to get through it.  So far I’ve made it through over 100 pages of set up.  Rafe the drunk duke has met his illegitimate brother and niece, sobered up and started falling for his ward Imogen.  Imogen has finished grieving for her dead husband, set her sights on that illegitimate brother (Word is, he’d make an excellent cicisbeo) but is now battling certain lustful feelings for her formerly drunked up guardian Rafe. 

And that’s not even mentioning the presence of her somewhat portly younger sister, and secondary love story developing for the illegitimate brother and the ever so proper Gillian Pythian-Adams.  There’s lots of fancy dress wearing as well, as Rafe dresses up like his brother so Imogen won’t feel rejected, and they all plan a play in order to further the career of the mother of the illegitimate brother’s baby daughter.

There’s a lot going on so I guess it’s not surprising that there hasn’t been any sex yet even though I’m halfway through the book.  Not that I’m annoyed with that or anything.  It is an enjoyable book, it’s just slow going.  Although there was a decent MO (that’s make out) scene in a field, so that helped out a little bit.  But just a bit.

More to come as I venture on through the final third this weekend.