Archive for: April, 2009

Racy Romance Questionnaire: Carolyn Jean of the Thrillionth Page

Apr 30 2009 Published by under RRR Questionnaire Extraordinaire

I don’t recall how I discovered Carolyn Jean’s blog, The Thrillionth Page, but with its distinctive retro look, it quickly became a daily stop. She is incredibly funny (check out her alter ego, Miss Doreen’s, interview with author LB Gregg) and insightful (I have read a dozen reviews of Blue Diablo, but it was CJ’s recent discussion of the dual nature of one character’s gift that sent me to the bookstore to buy it), and she is one of those writer-bloggers whose voice really comes through on her blog. I have no idea what her forthcoming book (Bantam 2010) is about, but I know I will be buying it.

Without further ado, here are CJ’s answers to the Racy Romance Questionnaire:

1. What motivated you to start your blog?

I guess my blog started as a way for me to reach out to find community. Here in Minneapolis in real life, I know lots of writers and readers, but mostly they are into super literary stuff. When I discovered romance and paranormals several years back, it renewed my love of reading and writing. Frankly, it improved my whole life!  But I lost common ground with my RL friends around books; honestly, it’s been hard for my longtime bookish buds to relate to what I’m reading and writing now.  I missed talking about books like that. The blog was a way to reach out, both as a reader and a writer, and connect with other people around books.

2. Are those still the reasons you blog?

Yes, but I’ve added reasons. I discovered I learn a lot about writing when I do reviews the way I do, by focusing on an aspect of a book I think really worked. Sometimes just by typing out a passage I enjoyed, it shows me things.  Also, some posts make me sort of snigger to myself. I guess you could say I get a certain kind of fun out of putting up certain posts.  And obviously now that I have a book coming out, I can let people know about it, though I mostly have my website for that. And there’s the people of course now, that’s huge. Connecting with the friends I’ve made.

3. How has your blog changed since you started it?

I think it’s become clearer, because it was pretty oblique when I started. Like, I looked back the other day on this Linnea Sinclair post I did way back, and she was gracious enough to visit and comment, but I sort of wonder if she could tell if I even liked the book.

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13 responses so far

Excruciating Moments in Romance

Apr 29 2009 Published by under Genre musings

Part 1: Tumperkin explores their significance and structure, focusing on Gaffney, Carlyle and Balogh.

Part 2: Jessica, never one to lose an opportunity to Create a List, does so, and throws in some contemp and paranormal.

As usual with us, you will need a 3 day supply of food, a sleeping bag, and a flashlight to get through this post. Edited to add: now with a Darcylicious reward at the end.

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Part 1: by Tumperkin

One of my favourite elements of romance is the Excruciating Moment.  This is a common device but it’s not easy to do well.  It’s a moment of high emotion and deep conflict and is often one in which one of the protagonists – the hero usually – has not behaved well.

Probably my favourite Excruciating Moment is to be found in To Have and To Hold by Patricia Gaffney.  No, I’m not revisiting the forced seduction again.  I’m talking about the scene in which Sebastian lets his horrible friends interrogate Rachel about her period of imprisonment.  They are cruel and intrusive, amused and titillated by her suffering.  And through it all, Sebastian is on their side.  He knows he’s being appalling but he just lets this happen; lets his inaction act as their permission.  The discussion turns to the crime Rachel was accused of and why it happened.  It culminates in a question of shocking prurience that makes Rachel finally run from the room and leads one of her questioners to believe Sebastian won’t even care if he forces himself on Rachel.  The resultant events are climatic and change the course of the whole story.

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27 responses so far

Review: A Kiss of Shadows, Laurell K. Hamilton

Apr 28 2009 Published by under Reviews

My Take In Brief: Not a romance, but not porn either. Just ok, this is the last in the series for this listener.


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Word on the Web:

AAR, B+

Fantasy Book Reviews, 3 out of 10

SF Site, mixed

Trashotron.com, mixed

Where’s My Plan, mixed (review of audio version)

Audible.com, 3.65 stars after 113 reviews

(Audible readers do not like audible sex!)

Narrator, Laural Merlington is terrific. She also narrates Sharon Shinn books. Scroll down on her page and click on the sample of her performing To See You Again to get a good sense of how Merry Gentry sounds in audio.

Fun factoid: This is the first book I have reviewed with its own Wikipedia entry. It was published in 2001.

Racy Romance Review:

1. Is it porn? This seems to be the question that obsesses nonromance readers. I have very little experience with porn, my most recent being the hotel TV in Sweden a few years ago where my husband and I went to pick up our car. Porn was the only channel that seemed to work, and the narrative went something like this: Girl naked in middle of pool, looks at camera, rubs her nipples, and says ‘I hate the desert. It’s not wet [breathy and pregnant with meaning] in the desert.’ Man appears from stage left and begins having sex with her. The end. In contrast, KOS is a novel about a mixed blood faery princess who has been living undercover as a P.I. in Los Angeles. She returns to court and has to survive various attempts on her life until the next installment (there are now 6).  KOS has setting, plot, characters, etc. It is no where near porn, although it is pretty explicit at points. Clearly I have been reading too much edgy romance, because I actually didn’t think there was that much sex in this book.

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11 responses so far

Review: Dare To Love, by Jaci Burton

Apr 27 2009 Published by under Reviews

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Setting: This contemporary is set in a city in the US. It doesn’t matter where.

Heroine: Lucy Fairchild, Esq., heiress, 30 years old. Lives at home with her domineering father.

Hero: Jake Dalton, former abused boy, self-made contractor

Plot: Not much of one to speak of. Lucy needs to get out from under the thumb of her controlling father.

Conflict: Lucy’s father thinks Jake is beneath her. Jake has self-esteem issues. And there are some misunderstandings.

Word on the Web:

Dev’s Good Reads, Very Good

Racy Romance Review: I have read one other Burton book, Riding Wild, a year ago. I bought it at a bookstore adjacent to campus while in the middle of the most grueling 3 day interview I have ever experienced, and recall feeling terrified that one of my potential future employers would see me with it (I’ve gotten more mature about this since I started blogging). That enjoyable book got me through one of those long sleepless nights and I made a note to read another one by this author someday.

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10 responses so far

Review: Snowbound, by Janice Kay Johnson

Apr 26 2009 Published by under Reviews

This 2007 Harlequin Superromance was a free Kindle download. I would have paid considerably more to read this sweet, romantic, sometimes sad romance. Read on for why I think contemps are the purest form of romance and my thoughts on the hero with PTSD.

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Setting: Contemporary Oregon. During a snowstorm.

Hero: Former engineer John Fallon, mid thirties, Iraq war vet with a limp, a scar and PTSD, who is trying to cure himself by running an isolated mountain inn.

Heroine: Fiona MacPherson, age 23, sweet but sensible teacher at a private high school.

Plot: Fiona and her vanload of 8 teenaged students get stuck in a snowstorm on the way home from an academic event. They seek shelter at the Thunder Mountain Lodge, and are stuck there with its surly (but very hot) proprietor for several days.

Conflict: I already told you the hero had PTSD! Pay attention!

Interesting feature: Hero is a beta. He even cries!

Fun factoid: Snowbound was the RITA award winner for best contemporary series romance.

Word on the Web:

Book Binge, Casee, 4.25 out of 5

“I’ve read quite a few Superromances. This one is now it my top 3. For a category romance, it packs quite the emotional punch.”

Shannon C., B (a brief review)

AAR, LinnyGayl, A-

[Note: I think there is a DA review, but I couldn't locate it. If anyone wants to give me the link, I'd be grateful!]

Racy Romance Review:

This admission may get me into trouble, but here it is: I think of contemporaries like Snowbound, ones that focus on the relationship, with no suspense or paranormal elements, as the purest form of the genre.  For many people, the historical, perhaps the regency, would serve this role, in part because it’s the original form of the modernish romance (I think?). For me, the only essential elements of a romance are the focus on the relationship and the HEA. Anything else is “extra”, including the historical research required to write a regency or the worldbuilding required of paranormals. I know in my head that (a) the worldbuilding in any good romance is essential to the relationship, and (b) that contemporary writers have to worldbuild, too. But in my heart, as an immersed reader, I “feel” like the historical or fantasy worlds are “extra” (and the more poorly written the romance is, the more nonessential they feel).  But in contemporaries, I read “through” the familiar world, straight to the romance. It just feels pure in some sense that doesn’t reflect what I know in my head. Hard to explain, and totally indefensible, but this is one reason why I just love a satisfying contemporary like Snowbound.

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18 responses so far

The Black Dagger Scholarhood At Alpha Heroes

Apr 24 2009 Published by under Uncategorized

Nicola O. has interviewed the two scholars who presented their analyses of JR Ward’s Black Dagger Brotherhood at the recent Popular Culture Association conference. The first one is up and it’s terrific. Check it out here!!

The two papers (which I blogged summaries of here):

Maria Lindgren Leavenworth, Umea University, Sweden, “Lover Revamped: Sexualities and Romance in the Black Dagger Brotherhood and Fan Fiction”

Jessica Price, University of Cincinnati, Women’s Studies and Gender and Sexuality Department “Heteronormativity and Masculinity: Sexuality and Gender in JR Ward’s Black Dagger Brotherhood”

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Review: Wicked Lovely, by Melissa Marr

Apr 22 2009 Published by under Reviews

They dared me to read YA (shudder). Check out my review at The Book Smugglers!

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Do Author Comments Have a Chilling Effect on Review Discussions?

Apr 20 2009 Published by under Blogs and blogging, Reviews

A number of things happened recently to raise this question for me, none of them on this blog. First, Mrs. Giggles posted a blog entry questioning why there is so much industry talk in Romanceland, and so little actual book discussion. Also, the Book Smugglers reviewed a book, The Painted Man, by Peter V. Brett, and Brett responded to one particular criticism they offered, having to do with a rape in that book. I then read a mixed review of Sandra Schwab’s Castle of the Wolf, by my own partner in crime, Tumperkin, to which the author replied in her own defense. Then author Barbara Hannay responded to Jayne’s review of Her Cattleman Boss, prefacing her comment with  “As this review was addressed to me, I thought it might be OK if I respond. (I hope that’s the case)” on Dear Author, prompting Jayne to answer, “I love hearing from the authors I review and have learned much from their responses.” Then, on Twitter, author Ann Aguirre mentioned some ignorant comments on her recently released Blue Diablo by an Amazon reviewer and wondered briefly whether she should respond (she didn’t, but Katiebabs and Carolyn Jean, among others, set him straight). Finally, yesterday, a commentary by Laura Vivanco on Beyond Heaving Bosoms generated a defensive (but diplomatic) response from Candy Tan on Teach Me Tonight.

You might be wondering why I mentioned Mrs Giggles in this list of author-reviewer interactions? While I disagree with her claim that no good book discussions are happening in Romanceland, I agree that there could be more. A number of commenters, like Meljean Brook, K. Z. Snow, and others offered Mrs. G very plausible explanations. But all of this author commenting in recent days has got me wondering if there is another factor to consider: do author comments on reviews, even when positive, diplomatic or otherwise quite civil, have a chilling effect on the discussion of books?

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111 responses so far

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