![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Brief Book Reviews
Feb. 8th, 2016 09:27 pmFor a research project of my own, I wanted to read a lot of recent Historical Romance novellas, to see what is popular in the genre at the moment: tropes, plot structures, characterizations, settings, etc. Here are some short reviews of what I ended up reading. These books were all ARCs I acquired from NetGalley; I chose things with an eye to what was selling well, but I was surprised by how much I ended up liking all of them.
Merry Christmas, Mrs Robinson by Delilah Marvelle. Set in Victorian England. Jane and Martin were childhood friends, both the children of nobility, but then Jane ran away from home to become an opera singer. Martin was in love with her, but afraid she would reject him because he was younger than her, so he wrote her anonymous love letters. Jane fell in love with the letter writer, but when another man claimed to be the mysterious author, she didn't realize it was a lie and married him. Heartbroken, Martin went off to tour Europe.
The book opens years later, once Martin has returned and become a Duke and when Jane is a poor widow. Most of the book is just about them resolving their past misunderstanding and then finally hooking up. Of all the books I read for this project, this was the one I liked the least. There's practically no plot, very little use of the setting, and very cliche characterizations: Martin is the big alpha man, and Jane is a timid, passive woman.
Harlot by Victoria Dahl. Set in the Wild West. Caleb and Jessica were childhood sweethearts, then Caleb left for years to go work in California, hoping to raise enough money to buy his own ranch. When he returns home, he's shocked to discover that Jessica has become the town whore – at least according to rumor. Angry and betrayed, he offers her a lot of money to have sex with him – and only him – for a week. Unsurprisingly, things are more complicated than they first appeared, and they slowly open up to one another again.
I was surprised by how much I liked this book. It had a surprisingly respectful depiction of sex work, an interesting minor plot about interracial relationships, and the character arc for Caleb was all about him learning that he doesn't need to "forgive" Jessica, because she did nothing wrong. I'll definitely be checking out other books by Dahl.
Cadha's Rogue – R.L. Syme. A Highland romance – specifically Scotland in the early 1300s. Cadha is the daughter of a Dutch privateer; when her adopted brother/secret fiance doesn't come home after a trip with her father, she vows to chase him down to Scotland and find out what happened. She hires Valc to be her bodyguard and transportation to Scotland, but on the way realizes that though she likes her betrothed, she has never felt the passion for him that she feels for Valc.
This book's plot was crazy. There were pirates, secret ass-kicking monks, sex slave auctions, sea battles, people tossed in the ocean and forced to swim hours to land, characters thinking the other one is dead (repeatedly!), angsty backstories, etc. The characterizations were a bit cliche (Cadha is spunky! Valc is stoic!), but I have to stay that it totally kept me turning the pages.
What Happens Under the Mistletoe. This was actually an anthology of four Christmas stories by different authors, so I'll cover each one separately.
The Heiress and the Hothead by Sabrina Jeffries. Set in 1830s England. Amanda is an American heiress, the owner of a cotton mill. Stephen is a journalist and crusader for workers' rights. They start out thinking the worst of each other, but quickly come to realize that they have more in common than they expected. I really enjoyed the way the politics were integrated into the romance, but I do have to say that the sex scene was kind of ridiculous (who has sex in a burning building?!). Still, this was probably my favorite story of all of them.
Twelve Kisses to Midnight, by Karen Hawkins. Set in Regency Scotland. Once upon a time, Kenna and Marcus were engaged. They broke up after a fight, and haven't seen each other in years. Luckily, a snowstorm traps them in a cabin, so they have plenty of time to talk things out. The characterizations in this one were very cliched, and the writing never got very interesting. Also, almost all of Marcus's dialogue was a phonetic Scottish accent, which drove me crazy. Here's an example:
"That is nae love.”
He waited, but she had no answer.
His expression softened. “We canna repeat auld mistakes. ’Twould be madness.”
ARGH. Does anyone like that sort of thing?
By Any Other Name, by Candace Camp. Also set in Regency Scotland. Rylla dresses as a man to go to gambling dens and bars looking for her missing brother. Gregory helps her out when she gets robbed and realizes that she's a woman. However, fearing a scandal, she won't tell him her real name, and he is forced to track her down. Eventually they team up to look for her brother together, and it all leads to a merry Christmas.
This was a very light, fluffy story, but it was quite charming and I really enjoyed it, especially the secondary romance between Rylla's stuffy, pious friend and Gregory's shallow womanizer cousin.
Sweetest Regret by Meredith Duran. Set in late Victorian England. Georgie is the Very Proper daughter of an important diplomat, Lucas is a charming nobody who's worked his way up the ranks. Another second chance romance, they were in love a few years ago, but Georgie's father manipulated them into each thinking the other didn't want them, because he thought Lucas wasn't good enough for his daughter. They figure out the truth and get back together.
This was probably the best written of all the stories, and I really liked the pining and hurt emotions between the main couple. It also had a really great b-plot of Georgie introducing a group of foreign diplomats to English Christmas traditions, to their complete confusion and dismay.
Anyway, that was my results! Do you have any novella-length Historical Romances that you've really enjoyed?
Merry Christmas, Mrs Robinson by Delilah Marvelle. Set in Victorian England. Jane and Martin were childhood friends, both the children of nobility, but then Jane ran away from home to become an opera singer. Martin was in love with her, but afraid she would reject him because he was younger than her, so he wrote her anonymous love letters. Jane fell in love with the letter writer, but when another man claimed to be the mysterious author, she didn't realize it was a lie and married him. Heartbroken, Martin went off to tour Europe.
The book opens years later, once Martin has returned and become a Duke and when Jane is a poor widow. Most of the book is just about them resolving their past misunderstanding and then finally hooking up. Of all the books I read for this project, this was the one I liked the least. There's practically no plot, very little use of the setting, and very cliche characterizations: Martin is the big alpha man, and Jane is a timid, passive woman.
Harlot by Victoria Dahl. Set in the Wild West. Caleb and Jessica were childhood sweethearts, then Caleb left for years to go work in California, hoping to raise enough money to buy his own ranch. When he returns home, he's shocked to discover that Jessica has become the town whore – at least according to rumor. Angry and betrayed, he offers her a lot of money to have sex with him – and only him – for a week. Unsurprisingly, things are more complicated than they first appeared, and they slowly open up to one another again.
I was surprised by how much I liked this book. It had a surprisingly respectful depiction of sex work, an interesting minor plot about interracial relationships, and the character arc for Caleb was all about him learning that he doesn't need to "forgive" Jessica, because she did nothing wrong. I'll definitely be checking out other books by Dahl.
Cadha's Rogue – R.L. Syme. A Highland romance – specifically Scotland in the early 1300s. Cadha is the daughter of a Dutch privateer; when her adopted brother/secret fiance doesn't come home after a trip with her father, she vows to chase him down to Scotland and find out what happened. She hires Valc to be her bodyguard and transportation to Scotland, but on the way realizes that though she likes her betrothed, she has never felt the passion for him that she feels for Valc.
This book's plot was crazy. There were pirates, secret ass-kicking monks, sex slave auctions, sea battles, people tossed in the ocean and forced to swim hours to land, characters thinking the other one is dead (repeatedly!), angsty backstories, etc. The characterizations were a bit cliche (Cadha is spunky! Valc is stoic!), but I have to stay that it totally kept me turning the pages.
What Happens Under the Mistletoe. This was actually an anthology of four Christmas stories by different authors, so I'll cover each one separately.
The Heiress and the Hothead by Sabrina Jeffries. Set in 1830s England. Amanda is an American heiress, the owner of a cotton mill. Stephen is a journalist and crusader for workers' rights. They start out thinking the worst of each other, but quickly come to realize that they have more in common than they expected. I really enjoyed the way the politics were integrated into the romance, but I do have to say that the sex scene was kind of ridiculous (who has sex in a burning building?!). Still, this was probably my favorite story of all of them.
Twelve Kisses to Midnight, by Karen Hawkins. Set in Regency Scotland. Once upon a time, Kenna and Marcus were engaged. They broke up after a fight, and haven't seen each other in years. Luckily, a snowstorm traps them in a cabin, so they have plenty of time to talk things out. The characterizations in this one were very cliched, and the writing never got very interesting. Also, almost all of Marcus's dialogue was a phonetic Scottish accent, which drove me crazy. Here's an example:
"That is nae love.”
He waited, but she had no answer.
His expression softened. “We canna repeat auld mistakes. ’Twould be madness.”
ARGH. Does anyone like that sort of thing?
By Any Other Name, by Candace Camp. Also set in Regency Scotland. Rylla dresses as a man to go to gambling dens and bars looking for her missing brother. Gregory helps her out when she gets robbed and realizes that she's a woman. However, fearing a scandal, she won't tell him her real name, and he is forced to track her down. Eventually they team up to look for her brother together, and it all leads to a merry Christmas.
This was a very light, fluffy story, but it was quite charming and I really enjoyed it, especially the secondary romance between Rylla's stuffy, pious friend and Gregory's shallow womanizer cousin.
Sweetest Regret by Meredith Duran. Set in late Victorian England. Georgie is the Very Proper daughter of an important diplomat, Lucas is a charming nobody who's worked his way up the ranks. Another second chance romance, they were in love a few years ago, but Georgie's father manipulated them into each thinking the other didn't want them, because he thought Lucas wasn't good enough for his daughter. They figure out the truth and get back together.
This was probably the best written of all the stories, and I really liked the pining and hurt emotions between the main couple. It also had a really great b-plot of Georgie introducing a group of foreign diplomats to English Christmas traditions, to their complete confusion and dismay.
Anyway, that was my results! Do you have any novella-length Historical Romances that you've really enjoyed?
