Ivory and Kinsale leave such a void with their absence.

I only finished BEAST about a week ago, but I’ve read everything Kinsale’s written and I think re their absence: 1) It takes time and energy to write work that layered and meaningful, and 2) It can burn you out bad.

If half the romance authors wrote such works, would anybody wait for them?

So…BEAST.

Wow. Just wow.

Very rarely do I get so blown away and I was. I LIKED that the heroine was (as I read her described somewhere else) “cold.” I liked that Charles was so vain.

I felt that Louise KNEW the trick Charles had played on her long before she acknowledged it, but wanted to hold onto the lost first love because she had had no closure for it. If her shipboard lover had just said goodbye to her, I think she could’ve made something of a clean break. I don’t think the trick he played was so awful that it couldn’t have been mended if he’d just said something before they debarked.

Like Janine, I had more sympathy for Louise the second half because while she’s expected to deal with this marriage she really doesn’t want to a man she hasn’t met (in the 20th century, yet!) and to live in a foreign country–she’s also in deep grief mode. I think her slow subconscious epiphany of Charles being her shipboard lover only deepens her distress because it interrupts the grief cycle.

Also, the overriding feeling I had was, “Every girl should have a first love like that.” Wonderful, magical, heartbreaking. Emerge from it older, wiser, and with a decent sexual educaiton.

It should have been a watershed achievement in Romance, with lots of books that come after it heavily influenced by it and aspiring to its greatness. Instead, alas, it stands as a singular accomplishment, not imitated nearly often enough or well enough.

Ivory and Kinsale leave such a void with their absence.

For me, there are few pleasures better than sinking deep into a book written by a master stylist, a writer who clearly loves words and can string them together like the jewels they are.

Thank you!

So being a great prose stylist has to do with language, with what words you choose when? But being a great writer includes word choice plus many other things, like plotting, characterization, etc.? Is that accurate?

That’s how I think of it, anyway. And BTW, I quoted Ivory as an example of one of the genre’s best (IMO) stylists, in my opinion piece for Dear Author, “The Element of Style.”

ETA: Oops, my link didn’t work. You can find that opinion piece here:

http://dearauthor.com/wordpress/2007/03/27/the-element-of-style/

I can’t speak for Victoria, but to me saying someone is a great “prose stylist” means they have a great prose style. Language is one (very important) element of writing, but it isn’t all. I agree that Ivory is the best prose stylist in the genre, but not necessarily that she is the best writer in the genre (although she sure is up there in that category too).

So being a great prose stylist has to do with language, with what words you choose when? But being a great writer includes word choice plus many other things, like plotting, characterization, etc.? Is that accurate?

Judith Ivory’s books are different from each other that I don’t think you would find a consensus among her fans as to what her best book is. But probably the one that was the most universally popular with readers, and the least controversial, was The Proposition. The characters in that book aren’t as flawed as those in some of her others. It also won the RITA.

So maybe that would be a good one to try next. It’s usually the one I recommend to people who have not liked her other books.

It might have been Black Silk, but I’m unsure. Something about widows & I vaguely remember something about the stables. I distinctly remember thinking “Wow, she’s got a great rep., but I just don’t see it.” I’ve not tried anything else by her since.

I have to be honest and say that I tend to stand back from authors and books who are wildly popular out of wariness and a stubborn streak a mile wide. So if Judith Ivory lovers could reccommend “the best of the best” so to speak, I’ll go look for it & read it.

Jill. Yeah, there was a scene like that Untie My Heart. I remember that some of my friends found it disturbing, while others didn’t mind at all. One of the things that bothered me in UMH was that there was no comeuppence for the hero, like there was in Beast. The heroine let him get away with all his bad behavior, if I recall correctly.