Review: Too Close to Home

Title: Too Close to Home
Author: Maureen Tan
Publisher/Series: Silhouette Bombshell
Original Date of Publication: 2006
Genre/Subgenre: Contemporary Romance
Part of a Series? No

This is surprisingly gritty for a Silhouette -- I guess "Bombshell" is supposed to be a darker series. Too Close to Home features child abuse, murder, and a morally problematic ending, even for me, who likes heroes based on literary representations of Satan, and who openly has a crush on Hannibal Lecter. In a way, the very last line of the novel makes it seem as if conservative family values are offered to cancel out the problematic part -- hey, we're having a baby, so it's okay that _____ (I won't give it away).

At least the book has me thinking, instead of shrugging and moving on to the next one. Silhouettes and Harlequins (which are now apparently one and the same, and it seems I was the last to know) generally don't satisfy me-- they're not dark enough, not meaty enough. Too regulated. This one had that feel in a way, but also surprised me by being darker than I knew was possible under this publisher.

Review: Thief of Hearts

Title: Thief of Hearts
Author: Katherine Stone
Publisher/Series: Warner Books (A Time Warner company!)
Genre/Subgenre: Contemporary/Medical Romance
Part of a Series? No

If I had to sum up this novel in one sentence, this is how I would do it:

There are too many italicized words and too few sex scenes.

Here's the long version -- I love what this book tried to do, but I feel like in a lot of ways, it fell short of its goal. The good twin is dying and the "evil" twin is living in seclusion, writing erotic novels (that's his profession). The heroine, who is close to the good twin in a little sister kind of way, must visit the evil twin and ask for his help, since he's the only matching donor. Doesn't it sound hot? It is in some ways and it is not at all hot in others. It's too gentle and family-oriented. The characters, despite their family-angst-ridden pasts, are surprisingly flat. Perhaps the only thing I liked was Jesse, the evil twin-- I thought the explanation for his hostility and seclusion was well done, anyway, though I don't need to watch ER to know that going through a bone marrow harvest without anesthesia and then getting up and walking away is frankly ridiculous.

Note: In a twist of fate, this novel, which I criticized for its lack of sex, shares its title with at least one porn film, which I discovered while Googling for a cover image.

Review: Wicked

Title: Wicked
Author: Shannon Drake a.k.a. Heather Graham
Publisher/Series: Harlequin
Genre/Subgenre: Historical Romance
Part of a Series? No

Wicked was entertaining, but not nearly as angsty as I would have preferred. The intelligent, analytic hero and heroine, so like the characters in Amanda Quick novels, give the book a lightheartedness it might not have otherwise had, since the subject matter is pretty dark. The novel centers on a man whose parents had been murdered and who, when hearing of their deaths, went berserk on the battlefield and apparently disfigured himself so much that he's worn a mask ever since. It was the mask that sold me on the book in the first place. Something about a man in a mask...mmm. After all, all romance heroes are wearing masks, aren't they? There are a lot of Beauty and the Beast moments in this novel, which I enjoyed, and the Ancient Egypt angle is always fun. If it had only been a bit more dark, a bit more tortured, this could definitely have become one of my favourites.

Review: Genuine Lies

Title: Genuine Lies
Author: Nora Roberts
Publisher: Bantam Books
Genre/Subgenre: Bildungsroman/Contemporary Romance
Part of a Series? No

My first Nora Roberts novel...truly a milestone.

In "Who's Afraid of Happy Endings?" there's a clip of Nora Roberts describing an encounter with a woman who, upon learning Roberts' identity, said "Oh, you write that smut." Nora's response? "No, I do not write smut. What the hell is wrong with you?"

My instant response was to think Lady, lighten up -- how can you write romance and still be that easily offended? My response now, after reading one of her novels, is...yeah, she's still too easily offended, but she really doesn't write smut. After reading Genuine Lies I'm not convinced she even writes romance, at least not in the sense that I attribute to the term. Sure, there is a love story in the novel, but it seemed peripheral to the description of the life of an arrogant, beautiful, ambitious, high-profile woman in a glitzy, high-profile world. In this way, it reminded me of books I've read by Judith Krantz. In my opinion, Genuine Lies is really more of a bildungroman than an actual romance, since it focuses more on the development of the woman than on the relationship itself. Maybe it could be considered a kind of feminist, empowered romance, in that it is truly all about the woman.

That being said, it was a good book. It was very well-written. The plot was tight and intricate. The characters were okay. Well, they might have been a little flat. In fact, the weird thing about Genuine Lies is that it is so good, and yet so flat. Something about it seems ready-made, mass produced, and this is a criticism of Roberts' books that I've heard before. I just finished it, and the major emotion I'm feeling is indifference.

Review: A Cottage by the Sea

Title: A Cottage by the Sea
Author: Ciji Ware
Publisher/Category: Fawcett Gold Medal
Genre/Subgenre: Contemporary Romance
Part of a Series? No
This book isn't really my type, but it was well-written, the characters were interesting and believable, and though it wasn't dark, there was a lot of angst to it. It's also got multiple narratives (one thread in the past, one in the present). I normally don't like that because there's inevitably one narrative thread I like more than the other, and I spend half the novel impatiently skimming. However, the two threads intersect enough in A Cottage by the Sea so that my interest didn't wane too much. It's also very family/baby-oriented, but again, that didn't cause the distaste it usually does for me. The descriptions were wonderful -- I always love reading things set in rural England. Overall, it was a very enjoyable read.

Review: Tempt the Devil

Title: Tempt the Devil
Author: Connie Mason
Publisher/category: Leisure Books
Genre/Subgenre: Historical Romance
Part of a Series? No

When it comes to Tempt the Devil, what I'm really tempted to do is blame the editor -- grammatical errors are my biggest problem with this novel. Comma splices abound, as do periods where there should be question marks. There are also way too many adverbs, and they make the dialogue feel wooden and amateur. Over and above these glaring problems, the whole book is just a little cheesy, as well.

These easily fixable problems are particularly disappointing because there are a lot of aspects of the book that are really cool -- Mason, cheesiness aside, does a good job creating angel/devil, heaven/hell binaries that I really enjoyed. The hero's called Diablo, but he has a hideaway on an island called Paradise. The heroine is, of course, angelic. There are lots of wonderful lines like "Take me to heaven" (I'm sure you can figure out what kind of scene that came from). I think those good/evil, light/dark-type binaries are in a lot of romance novels, but not so obviously as in Tempt the Devil. There is also a great scene near the beginning of the book where Diablo is about to be hanged and he throws his head back and laughs -- it is very, well, diabolical, and also very sexy. The heroine thought so too!

Let's Talk Romance: Female vs. Male Perspective in Love Songs

A couple of weeks ago I got an idea for a series of short stories based on angsty song lyrics, and I just finished my first story and sent it off to my editor (a.k.a. Relena). The project has made me realize something that I find interesting -- most of the tortured, angsty love songs that I love so much and was so excited about using for my project are written and sung from the male perspective.

Why am I drawn to love songs from the male perspective? I have a couple of theories, and I'll use some quotes from one of my favourite articles, Modleski's "The Disappearing Act: A Study of Harlequin Romances" to add some oomph to my explanation.

The first theory is that love songs written from a male perspective give the same specific sense of dramatic irony that I find in romance novels. As the reader/listener/audience, I know something the heroine and often the hero do not. One of the most exciting and intriguing things about reading a romance novel is being privy to the knowledge that the hero, no matter how cold and unfeeling he may seem, is desperately in love with the heroine: "A great deal of our satisfaction in reading these novels comes...from our conviction that the woman is bringing the man to his knees and that all the while he is being so hateful, he is internally groveling, groveling, groveling" (441). Angsty songs written and sung from the male perspective often have the same effect of making me feel that I know something that the woman and sometimes even the man does not realize.

My other theory is ripped directly out of that article as well, and it is that women are conditioned to seek pleasure through the appraisal and approval of men: "'Men look at women. Women watch themselves being looked at'" [Modleski quoting Berger](445). I'm uncomfortable with this theory, because it would mean that I enjoy romantic songs from the male perspective because I've been conditioned to see myself from the male perspective, and this is how I receive my romantic (and presumably sexual) pleasure.

I tend not to agree with the second theory, at least not entirely, because I don't think I necessarily place myself in the role of the female in the song/book. Either way, I'm somewhat uncomfortable writing romance from the man's perspective, which I feel I pretty much have to do if I'm basing my stories on songs written from male perspective. I realize it is possible for a woman to do this realistically, but I'm not yet comfortable enough as a writer to feel confident about performing this task adequately. However, I'll see what the feedback is on my first story, which is Slow Dancing in a Burning Room.