Only With Your (Rapey, Creepy, Adulterous) Love

[dangermousie]

Oh, Lisa Kleypas, why?I am fast coming to the conclusion that I don't care for any of Kleypas' stuff outside of her Hathaways and Wallflowers series. How one woman can write two series so good and the rest so not, is a mystery

Comments

[cleobulle]

I remember having the same reaction re-Vintage Kleypas books. It doesn't feel like they were written by the same author. After reading about 1/3 of one I immediately got rid of the whole bunch I had on my Kindle.

IIRC, the only author whose "vintage books" don't make me want to gouge my eyes out is Connie Brockway.

[dangermousie]

I don't read many romance authors who wrote prior to 2000s (well, unless you are talking really old-school like Heyer) so I rarely come across that dychotomy - the few older authors I enjoy, like Virginia Henley, I know what I get when I go in, so it's no shock. But I had Kleypas as one thing in my mind only to discover another and that was jarring. Also, leaving aside morality out of it, that book was BOOOOOOORING! A cardinal sin.

[cleobulle]

Yeah, 2000s Kleypas doesn't prepare you for Vintage Kleypas. At all.

Quite a few of my all-tilme faves were published in the 90s and don't have that bodice-riping thing though. It was a time before everything was about series and sequel baits and before almost everything felt formulaic and "Avonized".

Don't be afraid to dip more into the 90s. The 80s stuff is truly attrocious for the most part but the 90s were a golden age for many romance authors.

Re-boring. I hear you! I can finish a book that makes my blood boil (it's the watching a trainwreck to the bitter end effect) but a boring book gets put aside pretty quickly. I have way too many books to read on my TBR pile to waste my time with soporific tales. And I do remember that Kleypas book well-enough to confirm it was boring.

[dangermousie]

I tried some 90s romances - I was in college in late 90s and my best friend was a big romance reader - and none of them clicked. I happen to prefer series anyway :P I think the one 90s author I am fond of a lot is Tina St John.

I am kinda fond of some of 70s/80s alpha-alpha-alpha stuff (Virginia Henley, Katherine Woodwiss) in a rather bemused way. I happen to prefer medievals to anything else and at least there was a ton of them back then. Nowhere near as many now.

I love trainwrecks actually - how do you think I made it through Duke's Captive or Lothaire or or or - I can deal with horrid, I just can't stand boring.

[cleobulle]

I was all about Virginia Henley at one time. I remember some of her stories fondly. I think I need to try and re-read a few to see if I still like them!

I was fond of Judith McNaught at one point and I can't stomach her books anymore. It's not only the story but also the writing style. I couldn't bring myself to get rid of the books but I put them away in a box. I wonder if the V. Henly books will suffer the same fate.

I miss good medievals. They're a favorite of mine as well. Hardly any are published these days. I feel like many authors prefer to do things the easy way by writing Regency-Lite books to be able to get away with not doing any research. Such a shame. The medieval period is fascinating!