(no subject)

[skygiants]

So I'm home! Like, in my apartment home, not on-my-mom's-couch home. THIS IS VERY EXCITING. (For those who missed it: abdominal surgery and exciting goings-on this week but everything's pretty much okay now!) I'm hoping this means I can begin approximating a functioning human being pretty soon, but in the meantime I have been reading ... a bunch of romance novels ... so thank you to everyone from that post a year or two back who recced me a bunch of romance novels! THERE IS NO BETTER TIME.

Today I am going to talk about Loretta Chase. I have now read three and a half Loretta Chase books:

1. Lord of Scoundrels is the one about the terrible, horrible, no-good, very-bad troublemaker with a tortured past and nonexistent self-esteem who just wants to be LOVED and the beautiful antique dealer who's sort of like, fine, ok, I can deal with that, I've taken care of SO MANY cranky children and you at least come with benefits. Everyone is correct about this one being great, it's very charming, mostly because both Jessica and the book are 100% committed to deflating Lord Dain's melodramatic self-image.

LORD DAIN: I AM ... LORD LUCIFER!
JESSICA: Oh dear here we go again.
LORD DAIN: WE CAN'T HAVE SEX IT WON'T DO YOU MUSTN'T THROW YOURSELF AWAY ON ME BECAUSE I'M A HORRIBLE MONSTEEEER
JESSICA: Look, you've gotten over-excited. Would you like me to read you a story?
LORD DAIN: ...
JESSICA: Darling, you're so high-strung. Like an overbred puppy.
LORD DAIN: LIKE AN OVERBRED PUPPY?
JESSICA: I mean, am I wrong?
LORD DAIN: ...I'M NOT ...dignifying that ... with a response.

As the designated competent one in the relationship, Jessica is also required over the course of the relationship to shoot Lord Dain, seduce Lord Dain, and sort out Lord Dain's various family problems, in between organizing the wedding and her younger brother's financial situation. One gets the general impression that Jessica is the sort of person who enjoys managing everyone around her though, and seems to be very happy with the relationship.

2. The Last Hellion is a sort-of sequel to Lord of Scoundrels but not as cute, which is a shame, because the heroine is a NEWSPAPER MUCKRACKER AND TRASHY NOVEL-WRITER and all the bits that had to do with her actual job were pretty good. But the hero is very much a rake and I don't care about rakes (the hero of Lord of Scoundrels is I guess technically a rake but he is so busy having enormously bad self-esteem and assuming NO ONE WILL EVER LOVE HIM UNLESS HE PAAAAYS THEEEEEM that it really doesn't count.) Also there was a big pointless reveal about how the heroine was secretly nobility and related to everyone from Lord of Scoundrels, and, again, I didn't care.

3. Miss Wonderful, however: ALSO SUPER CUTE. This one bills itself as being about a rake but actually the hero is just one of those awfully hilarious serial monogamists who falls head-over-heels for lady after lady, which is great because it makes it thoroughly plausible to me that he would proceed to fall head-over-heels for the heroine (as opposed to in most romance novels where the instant attraction just does not work for me at all.) His love interest is a sensible spinster a few years older than him who has moved home to manage her absent-minded biologist father's estate, and they have a very pleasant mutual flirtation and attraction in which the main conflict is really just that his friend wants to build a canal on her property and she would prefer not to have a canal. (Well, their other main conflict is that he is a dandy and she is a terrible dresser.)

Anyway all this is FANTASTIC, because it allows the book largely to consist of friendly competition over stakes that have consequences but never actually seem like something that would ruin a relationship. Otherwise, their lives, families and personalities are perfectly compatible! Their relationship allows them both to grow as people in a friendly and supportive fashion! I fully believe in the success of this marriage! That NEVER happens in romance novels, so well done, Loretta Chase.

3.5. The Mad Earl's Bride, meanwhile, is a hilarious little novella about a brooding angsty rich dude who has a TRAGIC HEREDITARY ILLNESS and is DOOMED to become DELUSIONAL and DIE, and the lady doctor-in-training who's like "okay, so ... I marry you, study your tragic illness for a few months, get some nursing practice, and then inherit all your money to found a hospital with? SIGN ME UP."


Then she's very confused to find that while he DOES have dizzy, painful fits where he sees auras, he perks right up if she gives him some caffeine.

HEROINE: ...so, um, I did some research and ...
HERO: Yes?
HEROINE: You know how you inherited your mysterious go-crazy-and-die illness from your mom?
HERO: Yes?
HEROINE: She totally did not die from that. She died from something completely unrelated.
HERO: So that means...
HEROINE: You have no hereditary tragic doomed illness. You have migraines.
HERO: ...
HEROINE: And, like, I understand that sucks! It's very painful! But it totally ain't gonna kill you.
HERO: ... so you mean I've spent the last THREE YEARS poncing tragically around like a doomed Gothic idiot and all I have is MIGRAINES?!?
HEROINE: That is about the size of it, yet.

Fortunately by this point she has of course fallen of him and is therefore not too disappointed about losing the opportunity to become a rich widow, but I laughed SO HARD. SO HARD!

And that's all the Loretta Chases I have read to date!

Comments

[inkstone]

Oh goodness, I have not read Miss Wonderful & The Mad Earl's Bride and I must remedy that quickly. (I love Lord of Scoundrels!!!!!!)

[skygiants]

Both of them are enormously charming! I devoured them each in, like, two hours tops. Excellent life decisions.

[fahye]

I think I need to read the "IT'S ACTUALLY MIGRAINES" one RIGHT NOW.

[jinian]

My precise reaction!

[jinian]

But that's the one my library does not haaaaaaave.

。：゜(；´∩｀；)゜：。

[skygiants]

IT'S. HILARIOUS. What a great premise for a Gothic novel. (I mean, it's not a Gothic, it's a romance, but the hero is doing his best to pretend it is.)

[bookblather]

The Mad Earl's Bride made me laugh until I cried, and I don't think I was supposed to, but I don't care because the ENTIRE TIME I was screaming that he had migraines. I have migraines, my mom has migraines, I know the signs of migraines and I was like, "YOU HAVE MIGRAINES YOU GREAT OVERDRAMATIC GIT" and then at the end, lo and behold, HE HAD MIGRAINES and I laughed until the tears came.

[skygiants]

IT'S SO GREAT THOUGH. I mean, obviously he wasn't going to die, but the fact that it was LITERALLY JUST migraines was just -- it was perfect. It was so perfect. A shining gem in the annals of tragic heroes.

[bookblather]

Especially because he was SO ANNOYED. Like, "ugh I am glad not to be dying but DID IT HAVE TO BE SOMETHING SO STUPIDLY SIMPLE."

[kate_nepveu]

I love "The Mad Earl's Bride" ridiculously, I mean, it's ridiculous but so is my fondness for it. _The Last Hellion_ is indeed not as good as _Lord of Scoundrels_ but it does somehow manage to make Bertie Trent kind of awesome, which I would never have guessed.

I am told that _Mr Impossible_ has been haunted by the Orientalism fairy since I read it, which seems sadly likely. _Lord Perfect_ is kind of boring; _Not Quite a Lady_ is decent. (The most interesting characters in _Lord Perfect_ have their own book but I stalled out partway through it and never went back.)

Skip _Don't Tempt Me_, the world does not need another virgin-leaves-harem story, if it ever needed one (Dorothy Dunnett, ahem . . . ).

Her current series is about a family in *gasp* trade, which is memorable pretty much for that fact.

Ugh, I should move my Courtney Milan backlog up on the booklog queue.

[rushthatspeaks]

I love Lord Perfect, actually, because the hero is JUST TRYING TO DONATE TO A MUSEUM HERE WHY IS THAT SO HARD, a state of mind with which I entirely sympathize. And then everyone is trying to become archaeologists, with which I also entirely sympathize.

But man, you are so right about Don't Tempt Me. Gah. I think that's the one I once called 'overwrought Orientalist fiddle-faddle', and it put me off Loretta Chase for some time.

[kate_nepveu]

I didn't even finish it, after I realized what it was doing I said, uh, no.

(I also didn't finish whatever the spy one was, because it wasn't any FUN.)

[jinian]

Oh gosh yes. Everyone should read Courtney Milan at all times, I will never get over the wonder and glory that is The Countess Conspiracy.

[skygiants]

I am torn on whether or not to read Mr. Impossible; I suspect I will eventually and that I'll be able to compartmentalize enough to enjoy it for the enjoyable parts if I need another quick Loretta Chase fix, but then the problem is, she said selfishly, I have to write about it afterwards. >.<

I'm intrigued by the idea of the current series; is it entertaining, aside from the premise?

(I've read like all the Courtney Milan! Though I think I'm a book or two behind on writing it up, I'll probably do catchup when her next one comes out.)

[kate_nepveu]

I've read the first two books, logged the first one, and don't remember a single thing about the second, but I don't remember disliking it either, so I would say inoffensive. And it does take the family-in-trade thing seriously.

[sovay]

HERO: ... so you mean I've spent the last THREE YEARS poncing tragically around like a doomed Gothic idiot and all I have is MIGRAINES?!?
HEROINE: That is about the size of it, yet.

HUZZAH.

[skygiants]

GREATEST RESOLUTION TO A "TRAGICALLY DYING" PLOT EVER

[oyceter]

Bwahaha Lord of the Scoundrels! I love Loretta Chase, although she unfortunately falls into Orientalism every couple of books or so (Mr. Impossible, Don't Tempt Me, The Sandalwood Princess...).

[skygiants]

Yeah, that's what I hear. :/ I was pretty much trying to cherry-pick the top of the line for this particular spree, which on the one hand, worked out pretty great, but on the other hand, like ... now everything else will be inferior ...

[ceitfianna]

I loved the Mad Earl's Bride and this reminds me that I want to read more Loretta Chase and now I know which ones to go for.

[skygiants]

:D As always, glad to be helpful!

[alias_sqbr]

Heehee, yes, she is much fun.

Would The Mad Earl's Bride be enjoyable for someone who really does have a family history of mental illness? That was the thing that put me off. Especially since her less than stellar treatment of POC has not given me a lot of faith in her desire not to fall into terrible holes.

I (ironically) have a headache so am not remembering books very well, but I also quite liked Your Scandalous Ways. It wasn't her BEST but I really enjoyed a courtesan heroine after so many rake-falls-for-virgin storylines.

[bookblather]

*butts in* Hi I am mentally ill with a family history of mental illness and it was a lot of fun for me? I mean, I read it a while ago and I am not always sensitive to these things so take it with a grain of salt, but he didn't seem to be talking about mental illness so much as dementia, and he didn't seem to be slamming it so much as not wanting to put someone he loves through that kind of pain. If that helps.

[alias_sqbr]

Thank you! That's really good to know.

[skygiants]

It didn't send up particular warning signs for me at all (and I was ready to be uncomfortable with mental illness stuff after seeing the title), but my family history of mental illness is not nearly as ... immediate a concern ... to my life? So I dunno if I'm qualified to say, and am glad bookblather jumped in to give another perspective. Mostly the focus is on how the hero wants agency to deal with his own illness as he chooses, which I respected.

[alias_sqbr]

Ok, thanks. I might check it out then!

[oracne]

Hee! The thing I love about Mr. Impossible is that the hero is TOTALLY HOT FOR the heroine whenever she gets geeky.

[skygiants]

It's true! I also super loved how there's none of this 'I don't know why I'm attracted to this middle-aged badly-dressed nerd,' just straight up 'HOT DAMN SHE'S FABULOUS.'

[sexybee.livejournal.com]

So this is really late, but... I think you might like The Devil's Delilah. Our hero decides to get over his heartbreak (from some previous book) by going to the countryside and reading ALL THE BOOKS! But he runs into the heroine, who is like if the couple from These Old Shades had a daughter instead. She is TRYING to be respectable so she can marry well and SUPPORT HER FAMILY but really she's had NO experience with Society so she keeps not realizing she shouldn't go out with dudes by herself because she has her pistol, DUH. And there's also our hero's friend, the handsome rake (ugh), and our heroine is like, well, he *is* a hottie-boom-bottie and fun to flirt with, so why do I spend all my time thinking about Hero, THAT ANNOYING JERKFACE. Also there are shenanigans involving the heroine's dad's scandalous memoirs, and an evil publisher.