Review: All Smiles

I'm debating whether or not to review this book, because I did not finish it. I fully intended to plow through to the very end, despite the fact I wasn't enjoying it, for the sake of a full and and fair review. However, on page 285, I realized I had at least another 150 pages to go, and I gave up.

I don't think it's a bad book, exactly. I think it just might not be my type. I hate the way it's written, and I especially hate the dialogue. It is not believable (cumbersome and overly complex, with what some people may call the "Dawson's Creek Effect": as in, nobody really talks like that). Information the reader needs in order to understand the narrative is included in ways I consider amateur and cringe-worthy. The relationship is too open, too soon -- there is little angst in the first 2/3 of the book, and while I expect there may be some in the last third, I generally prefer the opposite (angst first, happy resolution at the very end). Overall, I didn't find the book dark enough or powerful enough to really capture my emotions. Then there is the matter of a ghost named Spivey that narrates some mini-chapters, which quickly became unbearable and warranted skipping, and the fact that All Smiles is a terrible pun on the surname of the heroine (Meg Smiles). I read this book in April and I'm still cringing at the memory of it as I write this. No more Stella Cameron for me, until I have reason to believe that she explores darker themes in her other novels. Also, I'm also a little disappointed in Amanda Quick a.k.a. Jayne Ann Krentz for writing such a glowing review of such a lackluster book. But perhaps that is only more proof that for the right person, this could be good.

Let's Talk Romance: Falina's Current Top Five Angsty Love Songs

I'd hate for anyone to think that I confine my love of romance purely to literature. I'm hoping to eventually review films here, and right now I'm going to list my current favourite love songs, with my favourite quotes from them. So, in no particular order...

1. Hinder - Lips of an Angel

My girl's in the next room,
Sometimes I wish she was you

That line is pretty much the only reason I like this song. I used to really be bothered by the concept of infidelity, in films and lyrics and otherwise, but I'm beginning to consider it a useful plot tool.

2. John Mayer - I Don't Trust Myself

No I'm not the man I used to be lately
See, you met me at an interesting time
And if my past is any sign of your future
You should be warned before I let you inside

Hold onto whatever you find baby
Hold onto whatever will get you through
Hold onto whatever you find baby
I don't trust myself with loving you

Oh, John Mayer and I have had a torrid relationship. I loved his early live stuff, hated the CD versions, hated him, his image, and his last couple of albums, and now I'm loving some of his newer stuff, like this (I'm assuming it's new) and "Slow Dancing in a Burning Room." He just got a sexy new haircut that makes him look vaguely like a cross between James Dean and Johnny Depp, too. I have the live version of this song, and I love his sexy, smoky voice.

3. Tegan and Sara - My Number

He grabs me by the hand, drags me to the shore
And says 'Maybe you don't love me, or you'll grow to love me even more'
And I, I'm not surprised

I'm currently trying to find some older and less tinny songs by Tegan and Sara. I don't enjoy their "Walking With a Ghost" style. I prefer their more earthy tunes, like this one, "Hype," and "Divided."

4. Chris Isaak - Wicked Games

And I don't want to fall in love
No I don't want to fall in love, with you

This song is a classic, and so angsty. I read Isaak's interpretation of this song described as "bewildered", and I like that. Bewildered and tortured. Mmm.

5. Ani Difranco - Your Untouchable Face

To tell you the truth I prefer the worst of you
Too bad you had to have a better half
She's not really my type, but I think you two are forever
And I hate to say it, but you're perfect together

So fuck you, and your untouchable face
And fuck you, for existing in the first place
And who am I, that I should be vying for your touch
'Said who am I, I bet you can't even tell me that much

I fell in love with Ani Difranco just a few hours ago...I hadn't really heard anything by her before tonight. She's brilliant. Her voice is so vibrant and colourful, and her lyrics are some of the best I've ever heard.

Let's Talk Romance: The Romantic Hero and Universalism

I'm feeling my way through this topic without any formal academic understanding of Postmodernism itself, but I think it's an important point, at least one that's caused a couple of heated discussions between me and my "Po-mo is the Mo-fo" boyfriend.

When I talk about the Romantic/Byronic hero, I tend to make references to mythological/literary male characters that existed before the Romantic Period - Cain and Milton's Satan are two of my favourites. Jon's argument is that one can't look back with modern perceptions and label something that would not have been labeled at the time. The analogy that he uses, and one that makes sense to me, is to look at, say, ancient Greece and call the men homosexuals. Homosexuality as a term did not exist until thousands of years after this period; homosexuality itself did not exist until we defined it. So to look at, say, Cain, and define him as a Romantic hero does not really work, because Romantic heroes didn't exist until the Romantic Period.

I have trouble wrapping my head around this in some ways, because I know a Romantic hero when I see one. I recognize the combination of characteristics, the "character type" and I don't care whether the character was created thousands of years before Byron started writing or not. At the same time, this argument has made me realize something important -- the Romantic hero is not a thing. The Romantic hero is a perception. That's why I can look at Cain and see a Romantic hero and others in different time periods, including the one in which the Bible was written, can see him as a monster. He's the same character, with the same characteristics, but he can be perceived in different ways. Therefore, what I am interested in is the perception of characters -- Cain, Satan, Lestat, and so many others -- in a certain way, not in whether or not they written deliberately as such or whether there is something inherently "Romantic" in their makeup. It's modern perception that I'm interested in, and possibly Nineteenth-Century perception as well (since that is when the Romantic hero became a noticed a popular thing, and people began to actively create them). Maybe I'm interested in perception starting in the Nineteenth-Century and moving up to Contemporary. I'm really not sure of anything yet, but it's all so damned exciting!

Review: Full Moon Rising

I'm not sure how to feel about this novel. I'm considering reading the next one in the series, but I don't know whether it's because I like the plot and care about the characters or simply because it ends with a blatant "To Be Continued..." I feel angry at such a cheap trick -- the next three novels in the series were scheduled to come out once a month, which indicates that they were all written in advance and designed to sell as a series. The next book in the series probably has an ending similar to this one, and so on until you've bought all the books in the series. Basically, the end of Full Moon Rising is an attempted guarantee that the next book in the series will be read, because it isn't a complete novel in itself. It's an effective lure, but it annoys and offends me. I much prefer J.R. Ward's method -- she effectively ends each character's story, she makes each novel complete in itself, but leaves the reader fascinated by peripheral characters so that they'll want to read the next books when they are published.

Besides the sneaky non-ending, I'm also not sure I believe in or like any of the characters in Full Moon Rising, including the male romantic interest. For a novel to have an unlikeable male hero is, to me, absolutely unforgivable. Also, because sex is so open, some (most...all?) of the angst is removed from the sexual encounters.

So why, despite all this, am I considering reading the next novel? Well, the series might improve, right? The writing itself isn't terrible, and there is a possibility that the next novel might be more to my liking. I'd hate to think that I'm aware of the "To Be Continued..." but still unable to resist its lure. Also, I understand that writing a series is the most effective way for a romance writer to make sure his or her books stay on the shelf -- the most recent book is on the shelf, and because it's part of a series, all the other books are up there, too. There is such a rapid turnover rate for romance novels that this is really the only way to make sure your books are represented at bookstores for more than a month or two.

Writing: Breaking the Ice

It occurred to me that although this blog is ostensibly at least partially devoted to the craft of writing romance, Relena and I have not made any posts about our own writing. I thought I'd break the ice, though of the two of us Rel is the more dedicated, prolific, and talented writer.

I've written for a good part of my life, but I didn't start getting into writing romance until after I started reading it in high school. I met Relena around the same time, and while I when through sporadic bursts of creative energy, Relena's writing really took off around this point, possibly because I gave her the audience she had lacked (and all the positive reinforcement she could want -- I love her writing). I have yet to complete any fictional novel or short story I have begun, which is a pretty poor track record, but I'm working on it. I have had more success with poetry and life writing, which has gotten pretty good feedback from my small circle of reviewers.

I'm working on a romance novel at the moment, and I'm about 25,000 words in, with another 5,000 - 10,000 words of add-ins that I plan to work in during the editing process. It's not really much yet, but it's the most I've done so far, and I'm really excited about it. It would be so wonderful to publish a novel, though I don't think I'd want to be a full-time romance writer -- after watching "Who's Afraid of Happy Endings?" I was more than a little intimidated by the competitiveness within the genre.

I'm thinking about posting my life writing and poetry and linking it to this site, but I need to figure out where I want to put it, and I need to go through the life writing and change names, so it might be a while. I'm much more focused on what I'm writing now than on going back over what I have written.

Review: Stolen

I know now why this series is not classified as romance. This book was definitely not a romance -- there was a loving relationship in it, but it was not a love story. I'm a little disappointed, but really, it was to be expected: Bitten ended with the romance more or less settled, the angst resolved. I would call Stolen an action novel (is there such a literary genre?), and while several characters were introduced that may have a romance dynamic (Paige and Alex, for example), I'm not interested enough to follow up by reading more.

Well, Alex is pretty sexy, as a half-demon that can incinerate things. If I could be certain that there would be a romantic dynamic to the next novel, I would read it, though I'd take it out of the library instead of buying it.

Review: Lover Revealed

This is the fourth book in the Black Dagger Brotherhood series, and it was the one I was looking forward to the least, which is probably why I was able to put off reading it until my exams were over. Though I liked Butch, the human who was within the Brotherhood circle but not a part of it, he was hardly as bad or as sexy as the vampires. Marissa, his love interest, was portrayed as very weak and dull in Dark Lover, and I had a hard time shaking that first impression to see her as a good heroine in Lover Revealed. However, in the end this book won me over just as much as the others, mostly because of the homoerotic tension between two of the main male characters. The eroticism in these novels is really fantastic.

The next novel features Vishous as the main male character, and it won't be out until October, which is maddening. One thing that Ward seems to do so well is suck you into the lives of the peripheral characters in every novel, so that even as you are reading and enjoying the current novel, you're anticipating the next one. As I read Dark Lover, I wanted to read the novel featuring Zsadist as a main character; while I was reading Lover Revealed, I anticipated the novels that would feature Vishous and Rhevenge as main characters. I'm even warming up to the horrible names.

The one criticism I have of Ward (besides the names) is that she flirts around the edges of convention but ultimately keeps things at status quo. The Black Dagger Brotherhood is a bunch of hulking vampires that talk like rappers, listen to hip hop, and just generally appropriate a lot of African American cultural stereotypes -- and yet every character in the novels so far is white. There is homoerotic tension between some main male characters (especially in Lover Revealed), but so far, no characters are actually homosexual or even overtly bisexual. Ward goes only so far, but in the end her characters remain the classic romantic male stereotype -- white, virile, heterosexual beefcakes.

There are probably very good reasons for this -- it is likely that Ward feels pressure both from her audience and her publisher to keep things conventional. After all, for all my open-minded talk, I've never attempted to find and read a romance novel featuring characters of non-white ethnicities, though I am aware of the small (but apparently growing) subgenre of romance novels marketed towards African Americans and other ethnic groups. Even as I avoid these books (though avoid may be too strong a word -- they're hard to find, and therefore very easy to avoid) I find the system almost offensively segregated. African Americans and other ethnic groups have not been represented in romance novels, so instead of incorporating more people of other ethnicities into romance novels, there was a subgenre of "African American" novels created. White people can still have their "white" novels, and African Americans can have their own novels. Fortunately, as least as far as I know, these novels have not been given separate groupings in the romance section of bookstores. Yet.