I discovered recently that Janet Chapman, who has published at least 15 stand alone romance titles since 2004, lives very near me, and that she is having a book signing for Dragon Warrior, Book 2 of her Midnight Bay Series, tomorrow at my local Borders. Thrilled by the idea of meeting a New York Times bestselling author in my favorite genre, I decided to purchase a Kindle edition of the book and read it in preparation for attending the book signing.
Dragon Warrior blends two subgenres that have never much appealed me — time travel and Highlander romance –but I figured I would give it a try. Dragon Warrior is set in central Maine, and tells the story of Maddy Kimble, a single mom who works as a nurse in a nursing home, and William Killkenny, a 1,200-year-old former dragon whose humanity was restored in the first book in this series, Moonlight Warrior. Maddy’s immature ex husband is useless, and, since her father died, she has raised her younger brother, who is now 20. She also takes care of her mom, putting her own needs on the back burner.
William is bold, brash, demanding, protective, hardheaded, etc. — all the usual things you expect when a hero is referred to frequently as a “warrior.” He has to learn the ways of the modern woman in order to break through Maddy’s defenses.
Unfortunately, I could only make it halfway through Dragon Warrior before I had to put it down for good. I’ll try to explain why:
1. William is pretty much perfect, on a certain definition of what makes a hero perfect. I find heroes like that less interesting, because they seem less real.
2. I had a hard time reconciling the “Mayberry” feel of the book with the occasional vulgarity. So, for example, you have a conversation between Maddy and her best friend Eve like this:
“Omigod,” Eve said, covering her mouth again. “So you are going to wear your short shorts tonight!”
“No, I’m going to dress like a schoolteacher,” she said, poking fun at her friend.
Maddy says things like, “It’s all a bunch of malarkey”, and Eve thinks things like “What good was knowing about magic if she couldn’t share it with her very best friend?”
But then, you have Maddy saying things — in the middle of a casual public conversation – like this: “I swear I could come just watching those powerful hands roam all over me.”
The book had such an old fashioned feel, I actually thought it was set in the 1930s at first (a senior citizen says, “What in tarnation are kayakers?”), but then it has Maddy thinking and saying things that are very modern. It just didn’t gel well for me.
3. Like a similar book I didn’t like, Knight in Shining Armor by Jude Deveraux, there is very little worldbuilding. To be fair, part of this is due to the book being #2 in a series. William being a 9th century Irish nobleman* is almost an afterthought, and you wouldn’t know he wasn’t American if he didn’t say “ye” instead of “you” and “lass” instead of “woman”. But it bugged me that he was able to purchase and program a cell phone for Maddy without batting an eye. The only time William had trouble fitting in was when the plot required it, as when they are trying to escape predators and he can’t manage to drive a truck.
Reminders of William’s foreignness came at odd times. For example, at one point, William thinks:
Why in hell did everything have to be so bloody difficult in this century? For chrissakes, all he wanted to do was bury himself in Madeline’s softness.
*I don’t know what that means, either. Tribal chief?
4. The main reason I put the book down was the strong emphasis on William as protector and Maddy as needing protection. Maddy is always referred to by William as “maddening miss Maddy” or “lass”. She’s the classic feisty heroine, the kind where the line between brave and stupid is vanishingly small, as when she decides to drink 5 Long Island Iced Teas and impale herself on the hero’s ahem… sword … without first removing her underwear, or carries a loaded gun around, despite having a young child in the house (Maine laws require the ammo and guns be kept separate, by the way, but a parent shouldn’t need a law to tell her that). Attempting to control Maddy is compared by William to “herding chickens” (herding chickens?), “handling a prickly little hedgehog”, or cornering “a smart little hedgehog” … all manner of dumb frightened animals.
The final straw is when Maddy asks William point blank to tell her the truth about his origins, and he tells her to wait “until she was ready.” — something it is clearly up it him to decide. He then proceeds, in the next scene, to tell Maddy’s cousin Trace (the hero of the next book) — whom he barely knows — the whole story.
I know so many romance readers just love this dynamic, the “too independent” woman who is in fact screwing it all up and just needs a strong man who can protect her and carry her burden, but it is just not for me. From my perspective, Maddy is living a pretty normal life for today’s American woman — stressful, uncertain, yes, but she’s not in the middle of a war or on the verge of starvation. If anyone needs to be helped and taught and protected, wouldn’t you think it’s the 9th century guy who just showed up naked and clueless in 21st century central Maine after having been a dragon for a gazillion years, who needs to fit in without revealing his true identity?
All of this said, it’s clear to me, despite the book not working for me, that Janet Chapman has a lot of fans. Here is what PW says about Dragon Warrior:
Chapman infuses her story with great humor, and subplots involving Maddy’s relatives and a dying patient provide necessary depth.
If you look at her books on Goodreads, you can see each one has between 250-400 ratings, all quite high (3.5 stars and higher). And yet, it is hard for me to find any recent reviews of her books in the online community. This has been a bit of a reminder how much of a disconnect there can be between the online scene and the millions of romance readers who actually turn a book into a bestseller.
Now I am wondering if I will attend that signing after all…
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This is an excellent post, one that I don’t have an answer to. I probably would want to attend a close book signing and maybe pick up another book to see if I liked that one. But like you I don’t like too perfect out of the gate heroes. I like my guys with flaws and my heroines too.
(a senior citizen says, “What in tarnation are kayakers?”) ROTFLMAO! I’m sorry to laugh, but your so very interesting review struck me as hilarious. I can’t quite put my finger on why, but it is just too funny!
I probably wouldn’t go to the book signing, and I would say if you plan to sell the book, don’t go – but perhaps you want her autograph on the book? Give it as a gift…maybe…to someone who enjoys reading this kind of stuff?
Oh…guess you’ve sailed past the doldrums!
Okay, maybe reading one of her straight contemporaries (sans time travel) wouldn’t have been any better; likely she still has that protector dynamic going on. I don’t care for it myself, but obviously a lot of readers do. I’m fascinated by how the time travel device somehow allows the hero to be a sexist and the heroine finds that she enjoys it. Urgh, not for me. I’d probably skip the signing, too.
Is she only signing, or will she be speaking, too? Several times I’ve gone, even when I didn’t like the book that much, and enjoyed learning more about the author, the books, and the back and forth between the author and readers. It’s probably kinda weird, but I just like listening and sharing with other people who enjoy reading as much as I do (even if it’s about a book/genre that’s not necessarily my cup of tea).
BTW, missed you while you were gone…
Me? I have too much to do to waste time on a book signing wherein I didn’t like the featured author’s book.
Reminds me of my reaction to Flirting With Disaster (link is to my GoodReads review)
I’ve tried quite a lot of Chapman because some of my internet buddies like her, but usually find her bland at best, unreadable at worst. *I* wouldn’t go… but not for any ethical or philosophical reasons; I see no reason you shouldn’t go if you feel like it. (I’m assuming your point in going would not be to mention, “gee, I really didn’t like your book.”
)
Wait, you got a Kindle book? So I’m guessing the signing part wasn’t the real draw for you anyway. I might be curious to go to see the interaction between author and fans, especially if more than just signing is going on–but I’ve never been to any kind of romance conference, so I’ve never seen that, and you have, right?
I really enjoyed this review–I’ve never read Chapman, but I’ve read other books with the issues you point out (re. time travel and hero/heroine behaviour) and they drive me nuts. (Like the one Moning Highlander book I tried listening to).
Is the signing thing not about the book but about connecting to a real life community of romance readers? If so and the author is going to give a talk and the audience ask questions and you have the time, why not go.
Your review reminds me of why I don’t read these sort of books and delightfully links to the comments about feminism in the blogging doldrums post.
I was thinking about this:
That is the book I would want to read; not Maddy being a UF kick ass alpha but being the protector and carer that he needs. This would also value what Maddy is and how she lives her life. I sometimes think that in an effort to take women readers away from the stresses of everyday life, that life ends up denigrated in romance novels along with the courage and strengths that come from living it. I was thinking as I read this post about Lorelie James’ erotic cowboy novels set in modern Wyoming. Her heroes and heroines can live in trailers and raise Llamas and struggle to pay for the feed or get the chores done and this reality is part of the story because it shapes who the characters are just as family and choices made in the past do. Her heroes are all alphas but this lived reality grounds their characters.
I understand your conundrum, because when I lived in MI booksignings featuring romance writers were as rare as hen’s teeth. I felt the need to “support” the “concept,” even if I wasn’t an over-the-moon fan of the author.
Of course now that I’ve been to several BIG booksignings at various conferences and I now live in an area that sports a large number of local romance authors…..I’m choosey. I don’t attend a booksigning just to attend one. So if I were in your shoes, I probably wouldn’t go. Especially if it was only that one author signing and I discovered her book(s) “just didn’t work for me.”
@Kwana: Yeah, maybe I will try a contemp.
@Julia Rachel Barrett: Well, you and I both spend a lot of time with senior citizens, so maybe you’ll agree with me when I say: they don’t say things like that!!! There was one line about how senior citizens “like dogs and kids” can just “see” a person’s character.
@SonomaLass: I know, you put your finger on why the time travel device so often fails for me. It functions as an even more transparent attempt to write retrograde heroes than having the hero be a paranormal creature.
@RobinC: That is a good question. I only saw “signing” but I can call the store this morning and ask.
@Moriah Jovan: I know, I am leaning to that view also.
@willaful: Yeah, it;s very weird to have these women giggling over how daring it is to wear “short short”. When is that last time you heard someone say “short shorts”? For me, it;s the Nair hair removal ads of my 1970s childhood, lol.
@Merrian: Right. I mean, even if you are a “warrior”, wouldn’t speeding cars give you a fright? And think about the noise difference between the 21st and 9th centuries. I have never read James, but will check her out.
@Wendy:
Do I detect a note of sarcasm in your use of this phrase, miss Wendy? LOL. As far as I know this is the first booksigning within 100 miles in the three years I have been reading romance. I might just go and skulk around. After all, I can usually manage to make a trip to Borders worthwhile.
@Merrian That’s a book I’d buy. The idea of love is that a couple takes care of each other. By not letting this heroine play to her strengths it doesn’t just denigrate the lives many modern women live, it also makes her a less interesting character.
@Liz: I meant to add … yes, kind of stupid to buy the digital, huh? LOL. Also had a bad experience with the Moning … which prompted my very first snarky review, and will thus always have a special place in my heart.
Token medievalist checking in, though admittedly not a Celtic/Irish specialist. A 9th century Irish “nobleman” probably would not be what the author – I am assuming – would think it is, particularly if she referred to him as a nobleman, which implies a later social construct. I’m pretty sure Ireland was politically a series of minor kingdoms at the time, much like England before the Norman conquest, and socially a clan-based society. Not sure what that means in terms of a “nobleman.” However I’m absolutely certain that they didn’t speak English of any variety, particularly not with “ye”s and “bloody”s, so that would bother me, as impractical as it would be to have a hero that speaks old Gaelic. Yet somehow I totally want to read this book.
And I wouldn’t go, unless you’d read something else of hers that you’d like. Why waste the time?
Aloha, Jessica!
Interesting question – I advise you to go! Just because you didn’t like her latest book doesn’t mean that you won’t enjoy meeting Janet, the author, or enjoy chatting about the writing process, publishing inudstry, et al.
We have too few book signings here in Hawaii so I would jump at the chance to meet any author at a book signing.
I am curious why you did not care for A Knight in Shining Armor. Granted, it was one of the first romance books I read, but I thought it had the classic elements.
@Kate: That’s along the lines of what I assumed. Thanks for shedding some light.
@Kim in Hawaii: I am sorry I did not take your advice. Kim, but only b/c it has been snowing for 2 hours. Maybe next time.
I’ve read 3 Janet Chapman books. I’ve only liked one of them. The straight contemporaries are a little less…obnoxious. Chapman’s humor is very subjective, and I get the impression that the books are meant to be silly. As in eye-rollingly, tongue-in-cheek silly.
As for the original question, I’d probably end up attending the event if it were held here. Not that there’s any danger of that happening. I live in the middle of nowhere.
Well, I’m lucky enough to have lots of author events to choose from, so no, I wouldn’t bother with an author whose work I didn’t enjoy.
I would have read this story if the clueless hero was the one “needing” help LOL I have no respect for the “don’t worry your pretty little head” types.
I go to a signing if I like at least one book by the author, it doesn’t have to be the one they are advertising. I have done this a number of times and the authors say they appreciate fans who have been around longer than their new release. However, if I do not like an author, I will not attend. It is a waste of both our time.
I should state that I go to signings where I haven’t read an author but am going to. This is how I discovered Nalini Singh and Tracey O’Hara a few years ago. My friend told me to read them, and that there was a signing the next day, so I read the books and got them signed the next morning. With Keri Arthur and Erica Hayes I hadn’t even started reading them! I bought the books at the signing as I trusted my friend’s knowledge of my reading tastes and knew I would be a fan (I also believe in supporting Australian and New Zealand authors, as we get left off the map overseas). I now love and respect all four women, and it makes me wonder how many other amazing authors there are in Oceania (AU/NZ) who I have missed by not going.
And remember, everyone can throw a dud in their career. It is always worth borrowing a different book by the author before you write them off completely. If you like the second book, then you have a reason to go to the signing!
I have met some of my friends (online and real life) at signings, and I find the conversations in the line can be very interesting.
@Kate:
This is why I rarely read historical fiction. I am an archaeologist with a love of history, and I spend too much time picking at the author.