Anne Gracie and Loretta Chase are two of my favourites. What have you read by them? A Perfect Rake was one of the books that started me as a romance reader early last year. :)
Galen Foley has written two books I've for the most part enjoyed, but her other stuff I haven't been able to finish. Celeste Bradley and Amanda Quick are kind of meh - not terrible but not great either. I did like Seduction by Amanda Quick, the next two books of hers I read had identical heroes to the Seduction guy so it all got a bit boring. As for Celeste Bradley, Duke Most Wanted is probably the worst of that trilogy, but if you couldn't stand it you shouldn't bother with the others. I'd be interested to know what you think of the Anna Campbell. The one she's really notorious for is Claiming the Courtesan (Smart Bitches review here)where there is enough non con to make people pretty damn uncomfortable. I believe Tempt the Devil is set in the same world and is about another courtesan. I'm highly curious about it but I don't think I'll like it enough to make it worth buying. I don't think Claiming the Courtesan will ever be on my reread list.
Oh yay! Yep, A Perfect Rake was my first Anne Gracie, such a delight, had me chuckling away in court in front of a whole room full of lawyers. I didn't really like A Perfect Waltz so much, got a bit too dark for my liking and the hero was far too serious, all the sentiment a bit too heavyhanded. But I've got A Perfect Kiss sitting on my bookshelf and I'm making myself wait for A Perfect Stranger to arrive from Canberra before succumbing to that temptation. I can't wait to read Grace's story. God, I LOVE Anne Gracie so much!
Loretta Chase I've read Miss Wonderful --- LOVED it! --- Not Quite A Lady --- my first and surprisingly sad but sooooooo hot! --- and Lord Perfect -- which got me giggling far more than I expected --- and I'm waiting on Mr Impossible and Your Scandalous Ways and omg omg Lord Of Scoundrels which I've seen hyped so much I can't wait to read it! Completely besotted with Loretta Chase ... she totally is as close to Heyer as we can get, don't you reckon? Heyer with sex, I mean. :p
Ohhhhhh yesssss I've been reading about Anna Campbell today, scouring Smart Bitches and moving on from there, and about the whole non-con issue. Which squicked me enough to stay very far away from CTC but I thought I'd give Tempt The Devil a go and yeah, so didn't work for me.
It just ... I didn't believe a single word of it, neither of the characters worked for me, and actually I haven't finished it. I found myself exclaiming at the book the way I usually scream at Supernatural. *lol*
You actually READ CTC?! Wow, brave woman. Was it really as violent as it sounds?
Frankly I didn't think Tempt The Devil was very well written. But then maybe I'm just not familiar with Regency noir, only just discovered it's apparently a genre. The dialogue was so flat and far too modern for my liking. And the sex proceeded along far too conveniently for me, the evolution of her response to him. I wanted a far greater degree of emotional messiness and realism but then I suppose that's such a subjective thing I prolly have no right to even raise it as a quibble. No, I wouldn't recommend it.
What d'you think of Julie Garwood? Worth a go? And oh, tell me which Gaelan Foley to try?
A Perfect Stranger is my favourite after Rake - I hope you like it. I just wish she'd written more. I don't like the most recent series as much as the Perfect ones, unfortunately.
LC is rather Heyer-like, as is Julia Quinn. They both have the sly humour and the sexual tension. Lord of Scoundrels is lovely, but I think my expectations were a little too high. The others I've read are Mr Impossible - awesome - and Your Scandalous Ways - very good, but didn't push my buttons. The ones set in highly romantic, exotic locations are less likely to appeal to me (Mr I was a huge exception).
Yes, CTC is violent, but it's also dark because you are so conflicted about the supposed hero. As Smart Bitches says, Campbell didn't convincingly redeem him, but she did enough that you come to see him as quite a damaged, pitiable man. I wanted him to be redeemed because I like happy endings, but those rape scenes are so creepy (despite all the orgasms) that it doesn't quite work. Essentially, I finished the book feeling unhappy and conflicted, unable either to hate or forgive Kylemore.
I haven't read any Garwood, so I have no advice to offer. As for Foley, The Duke is ok. Nothing really special but I did enjoy it. I can lend it to you, if you want. I'm not sure how high your standards are. A lot of the things I read are borderline - parts of them make me cringe but I do get something from the anyway. I even found a Stephanie Laurens book I kind of liked, even though the hero did have to keep control of his 'inner beast' whenever he was around the heroine. She only writes dominant men and always uses the same rather painful metaphors. Shades of Half Blood Prince. I think I liked it because it involved masquerade and disguise on the part of the heroine, and for me, any book that gives the woman even so slender an advantage over the man is worth forgiving some bad prose. Er... I'm not recommending her, btw. She's generally pretty shocking. I'm just rambling because it's almost 4am.
I don't mind lending you romance while you have other books. I'm afraid I haven't read yours yet, the exception being Nanny McPhee who I'm afraid seemed like an inferior combination of Mrs Bedonebyasyoudo and Mary Poppins. I will read them, but like you I've been sucked into the world of romance and I'm mostly reading popcorn fiction. It doesn't help that I've cut my reading down by about half because it wreaks such painful havoc on my back/arms. I have watched more television episodes this six months than I have in any other year.
So I've now finished the Perfect series ... The Perfect Stranger was all right, I was a little too impatient with Faith even though I did appreciate the evolution of her to independence. Intellectually, I appreciated that aspect. Emotionally, it did nothing for me. And man, then I felt so awful for being annoyed at the happy ending. *lol* One part of my brain was going "Of course it has to be a happy ending, that's why you're reading it, cos you're guaranteed that!" but the other part of my brain, prolly the writer bit, was whining "Nooooooo, come on, don't save him, let it play it out as it should, don't give him the miraculous happy ending, come onnnnnnn, keep the integrity of the storyline!" *sigh* I know, that's very silly of me, I just couldn't get away from that dissatisfaction.
But omigod I ADORED The Perfect Kiss! It was so fabulously gothic but then marvellously cheekily balanced out with the ordinariness of our hero getting to know all his tenants despite trying not to get involved. That was too adorable and funny and clever. And Grace was marvellous, hit exactly the right notes I was hoping for. It made me realise that really my favourite type of hero is the cheeky rake with a bit of childhood trauma and unexpected moments of morality. *lol* Possibly the only thing that bugged me about that narrative was the recurring "hard punishing kiss". Urgh. Honestly, if a guy tried to give me a hard kiss, I'd smack him around the ear. It was just too painful to read, my mouth actually began to hurt! *lol*
But yeah, I'm holding off on the new series for a while cos it seems a little too much skewed towards trauma when I'm trying for happy stuff. Also, it doesn't help that I can't seem to find the first one. Heh.
And having now read Mr Impossible, Your Scandalous Ways and Lord Of Scoundrels, I totally agree with you about the exotic locations! Gimme wet ole England or dirty ole London any day! Also, what I realised over those is I am so bored by spy stuff or mysteries in my Regency romances. It just seems so unnecessary when all I want to be is immersed in the complications of the romance.
Holy fuck, how AWESOME IS LORD OF SCOUNDRELS?! Omg, talk about every bit of hype proved absolutely right. Aside from a few horrible turns of phrase, it was my most perfect Regency romance ever. Wow. Now it's making me want to review all my popcorn fiction the way I review the other stuff. *lol* When I finished it, I pretty much wanted to turn to the front page and start again.
Urgh, thanks for telling me about CTC. I am definitely staying far away from her. And ha, I thought Garwood wrote Regency but turns out not. I totally agree with you about Stephanie Laurens. I noticed the same thing about her dominant men and it really shit me, a bit too olskool for my tastes.
Noooooooooo worries about not reading the stuff yet. But owww, that's horrible about having to cut down your reading, especially for voracious readers for you and me. Although yeah, I totally get you about watching lots of telly episodes. Funny how these things go in phases.
I'm so glad I can discuss Regency romances with you!
Galen Foley has written two books I've for the most part enjoyed, but her other stuff I haven't been able to finish. Celeste Bradley and Amanda Quick are kind of meh - not terrible but not great either. I did like Seduction by Amanda Quick, the next two books of hers I read had identical heroes to the Seduction guy so it all got a bit boring. As for Celeste Bradley, Duke Most Wanted is probably the worst of that trilogy, but if you couldn't stand it you shouldn't bother with the others. I'd be interested to know what you think of the Anna Campbell. The one she's really notorious for is Claiming the Courtesan (Smart Bitches review here)where there is enough non con to make people pretty damn uncomfortable. I believe Tempt the Devil is set in the same world and is about another courtesan. I'm highly curious about it but I don't think I'll like it enough to make it worth buying. I don't think Claiming the Courtesan will ever be on my reread list.
Diana Wynne Jones is awesome.
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Loretta Chase I've read Miss Wonderful --- LOVED it! --- Not Quite A Lady --- my first and surprisingly sad but sooooooo hot! --- and Lord Perfect -- which got me giggling far more than I expected --- and I'm waiting on Mr Impossible and Your Scandalous Ways and omg omg Lord Of Scoundrels which I've seen hyped so much I can't wait to read it! Completely besotted with Loretta Chase ... she totally is as close to Heyer as we can get, don't you reckon? Heyer with sex, I mean. :p
Ohhhhhh yesssss I've been reading about Anna Campbell today, scouring Smart Bitches and moving on from there, and about the whole non-con issue. Which squicked me enough to stay very far away from CTC but I thought I'd give Tempt The Devil a go and yeah, so didn't work for me.
It just ... I didn't believe a single word of it, neither of the characters worked for me, and actually I haven't finished it. I found myself exclaiming at the book the way I usually scream at Supernatural. *lol*
You actually READ CTC?! Wow, brave woman. Was it really as violent as it sounds?
Frankly I didn't think Tempt The Devil was very well written. But then maybe I'm just not familiar with Regency noir, only just discovered it's apparently a genre. The dialogue was so flat and far too modern for my liking. And the sex proceeded along far too conveniently for me, the evolution of her response to him. I wanted a far greater degree of emotional messiness and realism but then I suppose that's such a subjective thing I prolly have no right to even raise it as a quibble. No, I wouldn't recommend it.
What d'you think of Julie Garwood? Worth a go? And oh, tell me which Gaelan Foley to try?
Reply
LC is rather Heyer-like, as is Julia Quinn. They both have the sly humour and the sexual tension. Lord of Scoundrels is lovely, but I think my expectations were a little too high. The others I've read are Mr Impossible - awesome - and Your Scandalous Ways - very good, but didn't push my buttons. The ones set in highly romantic, exotic locations are less likely to appeal to me (Mr I was a huge exception).
Yes, CTC is violent, but it's also dark because you are so conflicted about the supposed hero. As Smart Bitches says, Campbell didn't convincingly redeem him, but she did enough that you come to see him as quite a damaged, pitiable man. I wanted him to be redeemed because I like happy endings, but those rape scenes are so creepy (despite all the orgasms) that it doesn't quite work. Essentially, I finished the book feeling unhappy and conflicted, unable either to hate or forgive Kylemore.
I haven't read any Garwood, so I have no advice to offer. As for Foley, The Duke is ok. Nothing really special but I did enjoy it. I can lend it to you, if you want. I'm not sure how high your standards are. A lot of the things I read are borderline - parts of them make me cringe but I do get something from the anyway. I even found a Stephanie Laurens book I kind of liked, even though the hero did have to keep control of his 'inner beast' whenever he was around the heroine. She only writes dominant men and always uses the same rather painful metaphors. Shades of Half Blood Prince. I think I liked it because it involved masquerade and disguise on the part of the heroine, and for me, any book that gives the woman even so slender an advantage over the man is worth forgiving some bad prose. Er... I'm not recommending her, btw. She's generally pretty shocking. I'm just rambling because it's almost 4am.
I don't mind lending you romance while you have other books. I'm afraid I haven't read yours yet, the exception being Nanny McPhee who I'm afraid seemed like an inferior combination of Mrs Bedonebyasyoudo and Mary Poppins. I will read them, but like you I've been sucked into the world of romance and I'm mostly reading popcorn fiction. It doesn't help that I've cut my reading down by about half because it wreaks such painful havoc on my back/arms. I have watched more television episodes this six months than I have in any other year.
Must sleep.
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But omigod I ADORED The Perfect Kiss! It was so fabulously gothic but then marvellously cheekily balanced out with the ordinariness of our hero getting to know all his tenants despite trying not to get involved. That was too adorable and funny and clever. And Grace was marvellous, hit exactly the right notes I was hoping for. It made me realise that really my favourite type of hero is the cheeky rake with a bit of childhood trauma and unexpected moments of morality. *lol* Possibly the only thing that bugged me about that narrative was the recurring "hard punishing kiss". Urgh. Honestly, if a guy tried to give me a hard kiss, I'd smack him around the ear. It was just too painful to read, my mouth actually began to hurt! *lol*
But yeah, I'm holding off on the new series for a while cos it seems a little too much skewed towards trauma when I'm trying for happy stuff. Also, it doesn't help that I can't seem to find the first one. Heh.
And having now read Mr Impossible, Your Scandalous Ways and Lord Of Scoundrels, I totally agree with you about the exotic locations! Gimme wet ole England or dirty ole London any day! Also, what I realised over those is I am so bored by spy stuff or mysteries in my Regency romances. It just seems so unnecessary when all I want to be is immersed in the complications of the romance.
Holy fuck, how AWESOME IS LORD OF SCOUNDRELS?! Omg, talk about every bit of hype proved absolutely right. Aside from a few horrible turns of phrase, it was my most perfect Regency romance ever. Wow. Now it's making me want to review all my popcorn fiction the way I review the other stuff. *lol* When I finished it, I pretty much wanted to turn to the front page and start again.
Urgh, thanks for telling me about CTC. I am definitely staying far away from her. And ha, I thought Garwood wrote Regency but turns out not. I totally agree with you about Stephanie Laurens. I noticed the same thing about her dominant men and it really shit me, a bit too olskool for my tastes.
Noooooooooo worries about not reading the stuff yet. But owww, that's horrible about having to cut down your reading, especially for voracious readers for you and me. Although yeah, I totally get you about watching lots of telly episodes. Funny how these things go in phases.
I'm so glad I can discuss Regency romances with you!
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