Your Scandalous Ways by Loretta Chase

[meganbmoore]

Note:  Despite the length, all plot details are either on the back, or in the first few chapters, so I don't consider this spoilery beyond the one hidden bit.  Which is also in the first few chapters.

James Cordier is a spy for England in 1820, using his looks to seduce women suspected of being enemies of the crown. He knows that he’s expendable and

Comments

[dangermousie]

Confident and functional people might not be boring, but they are generally angstless. A lot of angst(or tragedy) willresult in you not keeping your well-adjustedness/functionality, you know? If you cope with every tragedy in super-well-adjusted fashion, that's actually pretty praiseworthy but also creepy. Horrible things are supposed to break you down, you know. Or your fighting against them will still show your strength but 'confident and functional' would not be the way I'd describe the person. ngsty, yes :)

Also, it's a moral issue. In most circumstances I find people who sell themselves for sex (men or women) and seem to find no shame in it, and treat it as another profession (whether they are a courtesan, a spy, or whatever) unappealing. I don't think they should be burned at the stake, and there are plenty of situations where this might have been their only option to survive, but there is a difference between doing it because you have to, and doing it because you have to and because you think it's a great job. I am not one of those feminists who finds prostitution ennobling.

Now, does this mean I would never want to read a novel about a courtesan? No, not true. If the novel did not revolve around the issue of love, I might have loved to try it, despite that. One of my favorite novels is Thais of Athens, about a legendary Greek hetaera who was definitely not ashamed of her profession (and did not end up with some savior otp either). But not only is there a mental difference between a courtesan in 19th century and a hataera, Ivan Efremov was an author I knew and trusted and it was not a romance novel, which is by definition supposed to be about fuzzy romantic feelings.

Anyway, this is turning into a rant :) Sorry!

[meganbmoore]

Ah, but it's a survival issue where she refuses to feel shame for surviving, and decides to find ways to still enjoy living despite being forced into a life her upbringing says she should despise. The profession is never portrayed as ennobling, just her refusal to hang her head in shame or die in a gutter.

I find the angst of characters who deal with it and keep going with life much more compelling than the ones who make it their lives. Angst wallowing and characters who let angst rule their lives is, more often than not, en extreme turn off to me, at least partly because healf the time, if they'd just shut up and deal, they'd be a lot happier.

[calixa]

I like the ones who go on living normally and don't let on that they're angsty but secretly inside they are dying of it. It's the stoicness that gets me.

[meganbmoore]

Yup. And really "not letting on," not that "I talk like I'm good with it but I make sure everyone around me can tell" garbage.

Clamp and Saiyuki characters are an exception. They just have too much angst for that to work no matter how nobly they try. Especially Fai.

Otherwise, I demand text that treats it as screwing them up, not making them hot. Or that it be played up for cheese and crack, or the the character be an uber-dork, like Zuko or Kougaiji.