(no subject)

[skygiants]

Since my absentee ballot never arrived, today I took an early-morning bus down to Philadelphia to vote! Now I am sitting in 30th Street Station, tired but aglow with virtuous citizenship.

Anyway. That being done, I think it is time to stick my head in the sand for the rest of the day and post about the fluffiest thing I have read recently, Julia Quinn's A Night Like This, which I picked up in desperation from the cheap airport bookstore when I realized I was out of reading material on the flight home from DragonCon.

This is a Regency romance novel with a plot that goes something like this:

HERO: I've been away from home because of my Dark Past, WHO IS THIS STRANGE AND SEXY LADY?
HEROINE: I am your cousins' governess! I also have a Dark Secret.
HERO: If you wanted you could also be . . . my GIRLFRIEND. In defiance of social mores and all that but this is a fluffy Regency so who cares about those!
HEROINE: I care about those, because yes, on the one hand, you're very hot, on the other hand, I could lose my job, so please go away.
HERO: I can't go away. I love my cute little cousins. I have to spend EVERY DAY around my cute little cousins. For REASONS.
COUSINS: . . . you never loved us that much before we got a hot governess. We're just saying.
HEROINE: >.<
(THE PLOT: I'm here! I involve, like, a villain and a murder plot and REVENGE and kidnapping and all kinds of dramatic stuff, but you'd never know it from the first three-quarters of the book.
REGENCY MORES: We are also here! But you'd never know it from the last quarter of the book when everyone's like "sure, follow your heart I guess!" and nobody actually cares.)

So predictably, I did not care about the plot, but I was fully entertained by all the fluffy wacky family hijinks to do with governessing and the cousins, including The One Who Wants To Be A Great Playwright and The One Who Wants To Be A Unicorn.

Equally predictably I had very little patience for the hero, because a dude who sticks around when a lady has made it very clear that it would negatively impact her life for him to stick around is not a dude who gets a lot of respect from me.

This sort of seems to be a pattern when I read historical romance novels that are not written by Georgette Heyer, but on the other hand my sample size is I think about two? So I'm still keeping my mind open!

(Okay, that are not written by Georgette Heyer or by qian.)

Comments

[oyceter]

Ahahaha, I love Kinsale, but Kinsale is kind of like the romance novel equivalent of Yuki Kaori. One grows to expect white ninjas or desert island shipwrecks everywhere.

Carla Kelly is much less funny and fluffy but much more realistically Regency, if that's to your taste.

My new fav is Courtney Milan, who writes mid-Victorian and tends to have fairly unstandard romance plots and heroes. The politics are a bit modern, but given that it's often about class instead of Pasted-On Feminism, that's okay by me.

But yeah, romance tropes are kind of their own thing all together...

[skygiants]

Haha, yeah, that is why I am still sort of planning on reading more Kinsale someday, because even though I didn't like the romance if you promise me enough crack to sink a ship with I am probably going to be sold!

I've heard good things about Courtney Milan though; I was actually looking for her in the airport bookstore when I picked this one up, but sadly it did not provide.

[oyceter]

Yeah, most of my fav romance authors don't show up in airport bookstores =(. I think especially now that Milan's going self pub, it's even less likely boooooo.

What else is on your romance reading list? What are you looking for? (I am very self-serving and always looking for more people to talk romance with.)

[ceitfianna]

I recommend Courtney Milan for good historical romances that are of Heyer's DNA but steamier and with tougher plots. I love her stuff and her heroines know and get what they want.

[skygiants]

Excellent! Yeah, I've heard good things about Courtney Milan, that is probably where I will go for my next Experiment In Romance.

[ceitfianna]

A lot of her books are for sale fairly cheap, so she's not too much of an investment. I'm cautiously dipping my toes into reading romance but Courtney Milan convinced me that there's great stuff out there.

I am FULL of unsolicited advice this week

[coffeeandink]

I second the rec for Carla Kelly (just don't read Beau Crusoe. My favorite is probably The Lady's Companion.) I also like:

• Tracy Grant
  
• Megan Chance
  
• Meredith Duran (um, maybe avoid At Your Pleasure)
  
• Loretta Chase
  
• Jo Beverley (I have gotten way behind on her, but BPL has My Lady Notorious, which I remember liking a lot)
  
• Judith Ivory (I think you would appreciate Beast)
  
• Dedication by Janet Mullany
  
• Earlier Teresa Medeiros
  
• some Sherry Thomas (Not Quite A Husband will not meet your consent specifications, avoid)
  
• Connie Brockway
  
• Lydia Joyce
  

For historical romances about POC: Beverly Jenkins and Jeannie Lin.

Of course, Kinsale is my very favorite, so you may not want to trust me on this.

Re: I am FULL of unsolicited advice this week

[oyceter]

HEE I was just about to point her to you!

Re: I am FULL of unsolicited advice this week

[coffeeandink]

So, on the one hand, I have been terrible about reviewing for years now, but on the other hand, a lot of the romances I used to rec are available again as ebooks.

(Skygiants, I think you would probably dislike Anne Stuart -- she has SO MANY CONSENT ISSUES. So many. I wrote a mental tirade about all the consent issues in the House of Rohan books which I never got around to posting.)

Re: I am FULL of unsolicited advice this week

[kate_nepveu]

Don't read _The Admiral's Penniless Bride_ either. http://www.steelypips.org/weblog/2012/01/kelly_admiral.php

Re: I am FULL of unsolicited advice this week

[coffeeandink]

Oh, good, that wasn't just me. I thought I might have just been in a bad mood on that one. I have stopped keeping up with her post-Beau Crusoe because ugh.

Re: I am FULL of unsolicited advice this week

[skygiants]

EXCELLENT. Man, I kind of wish I had done this post last week, this would have been the best way to spend the hurricane. (HURRICANE OF LOVE!)

I feel like I should make it clear that I really deeply enjoyed the wacky-plot-twist levels of Midsummer Moon! It was only the romance itself I didn't like and I tend to be a hard sell on that anyway, so I am TOTALLY WILLING to give her another go.

Re: I am FULL of unsolicited advice this week

[coffeeandink]

Seize the Fire has penguins. I am just saying.

Well, also PTSD, so the general level of wacky hijinks is relatively low. For Kinsale.

I would probably recommend starting with Flowers from the Storm. This is the one with the stern Quaker woman and the mathematician duke who develops aphasia after a stroke. (Oh, Laura Kinsale. So my favorite.)

Re: I am FULL of unsolicited advice this week

[oyceter]

Also if you can find Judith Ivory's books as Judy Cuevas (Bliss and Dance, both really OOP last I looked but that was years ago), they're v. good.

[jothra]

I am impressed by your citizenship!

[skygiants]

The blessing and the curse of this is that my mindset about the rest of the day is like, "I traveled three hours to vote! I HAVE ACHIEVED MY ACHIEVEMENT FOR THE DAY, I'M AWESOME. Let's kick back and relax!"

And then homework is like, "but . . . I'm still due tomorrow . . ."

;___;

[aamalie]

Julia Quinn! Did we ever manage to suck you down into the nerd-wide Bridgertons series pit? Because (if not) while its 7 books range in quality, it is HIGH on the amazing family hijinks + ridiculous romance.

[skygiants]

That is why it was a Julia Quinn I grabbed at the airport after I could not find Courtney Milan! But okay, see, my problem is, I know I've read a Bridgertons book like five years ago, when I was staying at someone's house and bored late at night, and I CAN'T REMEMBER WHICH.

[dorothean]

I used to like Julia Quinn until I read Everything and the Moon, which also has the hero-pestering-the-governess plot, and the pestering results in her actually being fired, at which point she finds a different job and he keeps pestering sexually harassing her and then he abducts her and then ... she falls in love? Yeah, good bye.

I see you are asking for recommendations for historical romance! My favorites are:

+ Loretta Chase (the ones set in places that are not England are awkward, but otherwise you get strong heroines, the interesting results of the author's historical research, and extreme hijinks)

+ Sherry Thomas (ditto strong heroines, research, hijinks, plus she's kind of amazing at words. I've been annoyed by two of her three most recent books, but not enough to put me off her future work)

+ Mary Balogh (I have to mention her because she's my oldest favorite, but wouldn't recommend her to you due to total absence of hijinks)

+ Susanna Fraser (new author whose books are only sold as ebooks, which has absolutely nothing to do with their quality. You might like The Sergeant's Lady, which is an ACTUAL cross-class romance [let me guess -- part of Quinn's governess's secret is that she's actually a member of the same social class as the hero?]. Fraser also has a new book that came out yesterday, which I expect to be very good)

+ Rose Lerner (new author, pal of Fraser. You can't actually buy her books at the moment because she was published by Dorchester -- possibly you heard about its collapse via Smart Bitches -- but she's getting the rights back. These are what she has published so far; I would describe them as Loretta Chase times realism minus "everyone is incredibly sexy" plus class consciousness)

Advice specific to skygiants & other NYC residents

[coffeeandink]

You can short of shadily still check out the Rose Lerner from NYPL and BPL Overdrives if you search by the titles, although they don't show up if you search by author. (Discovered because I got interested in her two weeks ago.)

[skygiants]

Sexual harassment in the workplace is not charming, regency dudes! I want to start an anti-governess-badgering campaign in historical romances. PAYCHECKS > PENISES.

Thank you for the recs, this is excellent! :D I haven't actually had time to follow Smart Bitches lately now that I'm not at a day job where I do no work so I am way behind on all romance novel news.

[rushthatspeaks]

I ♥ Lydia Joyce, who is both a different period (Edwardian gaslight!) and an entirely different mood (the... less plot-filled more atmosphere side of Gothic I guess?). The only problem I have is that I can't tell any of her books apart because they are all titled blah blah NIGHT blah something. So I can't actually tell you where to start or which one I liked best, and I mean these titles are really similar because you are talking to someone who can correctly name and distinguish every significant character and family in Saiunkoku Monogatari. But! I have not read one I did not like, and I do not recall significant failiness in racism or sexism, and I do not recall love triangles, and I do recall things like EDWARDIAN VENICE. So that.

[skygiants]

These do sound like exactly the kinds of things I would like, though! TO THE WIKIPEDIA-MOBILE.

[qian]

Mmm, tasty recommendations in these here comments!

I am actually writing a Regency romance right this very minute. (Well, not right THIS very minute, because I'm writing a comment right this very minute. But it's the thing I'm working on now.) It's going horribly /o\ But I am grateful for your vote of confidence!

[skygiants]

THAT IS THE MOST EXCITING NEWS and when it's done I will buy three copies! Jade Yeo is still my favorite romance I've ever read. :D