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Jun. 14th, 2014 06:28 pmSo 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."
( Spoilers are not entirely unexpected but still hilarious )
And that's all the Loretta Chases I have read to date!
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."
( Spoilers are not entirely unexpected but still hilarious )
And that's all the Loretta Chases I have read to date!
