Faith and Romance redux
Apparently I only talk about two things on lj these days :)
I've read two romance novels since I last checked in: His at Night by Sherry Thomas and The Runaway Duke by Julie Anne Long. And I think I had unfair expectations for both, because I was hit twice by the disappointment stick.
Mild spoilers ahead:
If I were to chose, I'd say the Thomas books was stronger, if infinitely more frustrating. In His at Night, the hero pretends to be a simpleton in order to hide his true identity as a spy for the crown. Our heroine is in need of a husband to escape her abusive uncle. She traps him into a marriage and he remains bitter about it for the next 90% of the novel, even though he knows the awful situation was in. Though, I have to say that one big complaint I had was that the evil uncle never seemed that evil. He just came across as kind of a dick, but I never felt true fear or hate when it came to his character. Mostly, I just wanted to shake some sense into the hero, because he was a fool, and not because he was pretending to be.
When it comes to The Runaway Duke, I'm going to give Long a pass, because it was her first novel. And I'd rather an author improve from a less than impressive first outing, than fade immediately (I'm looking at you, Sarah Maclean). Our heroine is caught in a compromising situation with a fortune-hunting dandy, and rather than marry him she flees with the help of the family groom, who is secretly England's wealthiest duke (obviously). The character never really came to life for me. Rebecca, with her blunt honestly and drive to be a doctor, was better written than Connor, but not by much. The main issue is that even though there were high stakes, it never really felt it. It was painfully obvious that Connor would reclaim his title and everything would end happy. Of course, this is a given with any romance novel. But if you're going to have road trip story, it needs to be exciting (Lord Perfect is an excellent example of this, with multiple storylines that were great fun).
Over in kdrama land, my interest in Faith started fading over the last couple of episodes. There is only so much political intrigue and poorly choreographed fight scenes I can take. But episode 12 drew me back in. We got some great interaction between our leads (and how wonderful is Eun-soo? I love her) and some interesting story developments.
I'm toying with the idea of watching Arang and the Magistrate, since I've only heard wonderful things. I just.. can't seem to get over my aversion to Lee Jun-ki at the moment. :/
OH! And I've started to watch Farscape! I'm only partway through the second season but I'm really, really enjoying it.
I've read two romance novels since I last checked in: His at Night by Sherry Thomas and The Runaway Duke by Julie Anne Long. And I think I had unfair expectations for both, because I was hit twice by the disappointment stick.
Mild spoilers ahead:
If I were to chose, I'd say the Thomas books was stronger, if infinitely more frustrating. In His at Night, the hero pretends to be a simpleton in order to hide his true identity as a spy for the crown. Our heroine is in need of a husband to escape her abusive uncle. She traps him into a marriage and he remains bitter about it for the next 90% of the novel, even though he knows the awful situation was in. Though, I have to say that one big complaint I had was that the evil uncle never seemed that evil. He just came across as kind of a dick, but I never felt true fear or hate when it came to his character. Mostly, I just wanted to shake some sense into the hero, because he was a fool, and not because he was pretending to be.
When it comes to The Runaway Duke, I'm going to give Long a pass, because it was her first novel. And I'd rather an author improve from a less than impressive first outing, than fade immediately (I'm looking at you, Sarah Maclean). Our heroine is caught in a compromising situation with a fortune-hunting dandy, and rather than marry him she flees with the help of the family groom, who is secretly England's wealthiest duke (obviously). The character never really came to life for me. Rebecca, with her blunt honestly and drive to be a doctor, was better written than Connor, but not by much. The main issue is that even though there were high stakes, it never really felt it. It was painfully obvious that Connor would reclaim his title and everything would end happy. Of course, this is a given with any romance novel. But if you're going to have road trip story, it needs to be exciting (Lord Perfect is an excellent example of this, with multiple storylines that were great fun).
Over in kdrama land, my interest in Faith started fading over the last couple of episodes. There is only so much political intrigue and poorly choreographed fight scenes I can take. But episode 12 drew me back in. We got some great interaction between our leads (and how wonderful is Eun-soo? I love her) and some interesting story developments.
I'm toying with the idea of watching Arang and the Magistrate, since I've only heard wonderful things. I just.. can't seem to get over my aversion to Lee Jun-ki at the moment. :/
OH! And I've started to watch Farscape! I'm only partway through the second season but I'm really, really enjoying it.