Harbaugh, Karen - Night Fires

This is the first book in the de la Fer series. I found Harbaugh when coffeeandink re-posted her old romance recs list; I hadn't realized prior to that that Harbaugh was POC. I'd read one of her Regencies back in high school (The Vampire Viscount) and remember thinking that there was not enough angst and brooding and alpha male posturing.

Oh younger self. It's too bad you didn't find Twilight.

Night Fires is set during the French Revolution and is very much influenced by The Scarlet Pimpernel; since my younger self read Baroness Orczy back in eighth grade and desperately loved it, I do not find this to be a problem. However, as with many French Revolution portrayals, this book is highly sympathetic toward the aristocrats.

Simone de la Fer is an outcast from her family, having been turned into a vampire in a rather scandalous manner. She returns to find them all dead and kills all the killers. As a way to repent, she vows to go after evil-doers and to take no more lives, and does so as a hunchback wrapped in rags calling herself "La Flamme." As one does!

Michael Corday is a British spy. They meet and distrust each other and then decide to work together. I think there is something involved about uncovering a mole in the British spy ring and/or rescuing some people from a Parisian prison. Quite honestly, I have no idea.

The prose is not particularly wonderful; there were definitely too many random French phrases for me. I also dislike the notion that both Michael and Simone think she is strong, but that most women are not. I am not sure if we are supposed to agree with them or not. Given that the same sentiment is in Harbaugh's other de la Fer book, I have no idea.

What I did enjoy about this book was the reversal of the usual paranormal vampire tropes. Simone is afraid to sleep with Michael, yes, but mostly because she is afraid she will succumb and bite him. She's also not a timid virgin, and moreover, she has had sex without love and the book does not really condemn her for it.

There's also a strong religious presence throughout, which I found realistic and actually rather interesting, given that many historical romances don't imbue their protagonists' lives with religion. Here, it's something that is fairly central to Simone's character, despite her vampire-ness.

Still, I have to agree with younger self a bit... I wanted more angst and UST-full neck gazing and licking, though I was pleased to have less alpha-male-ness. I'm afraid Vampire Knight may have spoiled me a bit for all following vampire things.

Taylor, Drew Hayden - Me Sexy: An Exploration of Native Sex and Sexuality

This is a collection of essays by First Nations writers on Native sex and sexuality, as noted in the subtitle. Unfortunately, I read this book over the span of a month or so and procrastinated on writing it up, so my memory is really fuzzy.

In terms of representation, I think there was a 60/40 male/female split, a handful of essays by two-spirit or LGBT people, and one or two by older people. I don't particularly recall essays that focused on disability or class, although I could also be remembering wrong.

The essays I remember most are the one on boarding school abuse and its affect on the author's sexuality, one on a Native woman choosing to striptease to earn money, and one on older Native sexuality. I also very vaguely remember one citing a myth on incest and hide-and-seek.

Wow, my memory is teh suck!

Oh wait! There was an absolutely hilarious one on the stereotype of Native sexuality in romance novels, and even though the collection is from Canada, I think many of the romances are either the same or extremely similar. That one I did have context for and therefore found it extremely amusing and insightful; I'm guessing many of the rest would have been as well had I known enough. Except possibly the stripteasing one, which I don't think fully encompasses the potential for abuse in the industry, even as women (usually of a higher class) can choose to participate for empowerment. I don't dismiss the potential for empowerment, but I also don't think that's all there is to the story.

Overall, I don't think I got as much as I could have out of the book, largely because I lack the right background knowledge and context to appreciate much of it. Still, that's on me and not on the book, and at least it has given me some places to start with, and many more questions than I have answers.