Thursday, September 08, 2005
I just finished Susan Squire's The Companion. Wow. As I said before, I don't really read much paranormal romance because nine times out of ten it is so corny(more on this later), but Squire's really impressed me. Not just with the paranormal aspect, but the romance aspect as well. Sure, it dipped a little into romanceland-ness with the whole "s/he doesn't love me, they couldn't because I'm too unworthy/unattractive/etc, so I'll keep it a secret" nonesense found in alot of romances, but Squires saved it before it got on my nerves too bad. This makes me anticipate her next book The Hunger, and look up her backlist.
Now, on to the so bad, it's still bad read: J.R. Ward's Dark Lover. Okay, I appreciate the time she took to create her own vampire/paranormal lore, but geeze louise is this book corny.First off, the hero(Wrath) and his homeboys' names. Tohrment? Rhage? Zsadist? OMG, those names made me laugh so hard the moment I read them I renamed them instantly: Say hello to Wrede, Terrance, Reggie and Zach. But not even the names can save the specatular cornyness of the Brotherhood. I mean really, "he was rolling with menace", "he was spectacularly handsome but possessed a dark tormenting past he hid behind his womanizing", etc, etc. Not to mention the fact that describing the hero, Wrede, as being 6'6" and massive over and over put me in mind of a gorilla. That's not sexy. The heroine, Beth, is cool and I sort of like the fact that due to her heritage, she's dead sexy but is somewhat desexed. But if I have to read one more male POV extolling how gorgeous she was, I am going to drop-kick someone. Add in the "blackspeak"--the speech patterns really, sounded as though they were coming from black people, so I re-ethnicized them to make it easier on my chortling sensibilities--and the painfully simple prose(think of Keanu Reeves at his worst-acting. Yes. A large chunk of the book reads like that) Dark Lover disappointed me majorly on many levels. I anticipated this novel and series b/c the cover was compelling and PBW gushed over the book a few months ago, but now, I think not. I shall stick with Squires' series as my new pararnormal find du jour.
I also read Emma Holly's Personal Assets(I can't believe that Wal-Mart carries this book). Now, I like Holly. She does deliver on the sweet and hot erotic romance fiction, but wow, PA was a shocker. I was expecting something more, but it read as though Holly wrote the sappiest, most romance-y ending and then went back and threw in a ton of sex(m/f,m/f/f & m/m/f). I mean really, the book ended with everyone at the wedding of Bea and Phillip, smiling and gushing over their good fortune in having found each other--all frickin four of them. I closed the book very confused. What the hell did I just read? Was it erotic romance or was it a plain old sweet Harlequin American Romance? The romance was nonexistent in the fact that the characters hopped into bed with each other(or on the ground, or on a bench,etc) and then rationalized their foibles and reasons for not finding The One in their mind by themselves. Sure getting busy with their hero/ine was a catalyst for some type of change, but everyone got over their issues just fine by themselves afterwards. In fact, I'm a bit muddled on what issues everyone had because one moment their flailing about it to themselves and the next moment they were planning their next tryst. To be honest, I would rather this book had not been a romance because the romance aspect of it felt thrown in and ruined the book for me. The sexual adventures of the characters were interesting enough without the burden of a required HEA(The heroine and her best friend(2nd heroine) had a threesome!! The main hero took it from another man at the same time he was doing the heroine!! What the heck kind of romance HEA can come from those pairings?). So Holly has me on the erotic but not on the romance. She is a great writer and her characters are interesting,but that romance part ruins it. It makes me curious to see what she can do without it as well as find some erotic fiction that's as sweet as a romance novel but without the requirements of a romance novel.
i can be. anything.
8.9.05
