(no subject)

[oyceter]

Noooooo!! Connie Brockway is going to stop writing historicals (interview here)?? Because people say hers are too dark and berate her for having characters like Lettie in The Bridal Season?! And apparently people are already criticizing My Surrender (I had no idea it was out! Is it? Must get!) for being too dark and depressing. Which means I, the contrary romance reader, am now anticipating it, despite being rather disappointed in the first two books of the trilogy. I am continually irked that my level of tolerance for the not fluffy is considerably higher than that of reviewers or something. *bangs head against wall*

This is why I can't find romances I want to read!

At least she seems interested in the same kinds of themes that I am interested in, and I am glad that the reason she's moving to contemporary women's fiction is because she wants more complex heroines and darker stories.

But still.

Comments

[coffeeandink.livejournal.com]

I saw My Surrender in B&N tonight -- along with Tsubasa 5 five days early, yay! I think this may be my favorite volume so far.

[oyceter]

Joy! I shall break my current non-book-buying spree and get it.

[coffeeandink.livejournal.com]

I feel that as a good friend I should encourage you to stick to your resolutions. But I'm a bad friend because I want someone else to read Tsubasa 5 so I can squeal over it with them. Unless you meant the Brockway, in which case I will revert to good-friend behavior because I'm a book or two behind on her and only mildly interested in whether this is one of the good ones.

[oyceter]

Truly you are an evil friend, just for getting me back into manga in the first place ;). Oh well, I think I may hold off from buying Tsubasa for a bit since I haven't caught up on scanlations. Although the 2-for-3 sale... oh dear! I think I was mostly a little bored through vols. 2-3 of Tsubasa due to multiple fight sequences and kudan and the like, and damnit, I want more Syaoran-Sakura interaction now that she's woken up! I want to hug Syaoran.

Am debating on the Brockway, since I didn't like the first two books of this trilogy (as in horribly bored as opposed to chuck-against-the-wall dislike), but the mention of dark characters and not typically moral heroines is intriguing me..

[coffeeandink.livejournal.com]

I haven't read the first in the trilogy yet. I hate English/Scottish romances.

I too wish Tsubasa had fewer fight scenes and more character interaction. I do look at fight scenes more now that I've done the manga analysis, but "more" isn't very much when I used to skim past them as quickly as possible. Del Rey keeps using fight scenes as their next volume teasers. I guess it appeals to their target audience but it bores me to tears.

V5 is in the scans I sent you, and it has more Syaoran-Sakura interaction and intriguing Syaoran backstory revelations.

[oyceter]

Yeah, I dislike pretty much anything that brings in the Scottish and, to a lesser degree, the Irish. Picked these up just because Brockway wrote them, sigh.

And in case I haven't said it explicitly, thank you so much for all those scans! They are quite wonderful, and I'm eagerly anticipating reading them.

[oracne.livejournal.com]

I was amused she said her fave of her own books was AS YOU DESIRE, which happens to be my favorite, too.

I loved Lettie, too.

Maybe her contemporary will be so fabulous we will fall all over each other to write essays in praise of it.

[oyceter]

I'm hoping her contemporary will be that good ^_^. Though I always get sad when favorite romance authors abandon the field, particularly when it's because they think the field is too restricting.

[oracne.livejournal.com]

particularly when it's because they think the field is too restricting.

Isn't it strange how the best romances all bend the formula? I wonder if that used to be more possible than it is now? Or maybe the more bend-y ones are ending up in "women's fiction."

[oyceter]

I know, it really is! Well, I suppose it depends on how one defines best romance? I personally like the ones that bend the formula and gender roles and so on and so forth, but I'm guessing that some other people don't? I agitate for a Tiptree Award for romance, I do! ;)

[oracne.livejournal.com]

That would be totally cool.