Kerstan, Lynn - Lord Dragoner's Wife

Of late, I seem to be incapable of reading anything but romances. I have even abandoned manga, the horror! And not just any romances, but all-White, all-British historicals, frequently with their class and gender issues. Yeah, I don't know what my brain is doing either.

Anyway, I bought this book used years ago, probably based off someone's rec on DW/LJ, and it has sat unread on my shelf until now, when I have strangely been in the mood for category Regencies.

Six years ago, Charles Everett, Lord Dragoner, married Delilah Bening, then promptly fled the next day to France. He has finally returned to England with a reputation in tatters to divorce his unwanted wife, but Delilah would still like to salvage her wreck of a marriage.

I am particularly fond of marriage of convenience/falling in love with your spouse plots, unrequited love from afar plots, and lots of yearning while trying to hide your feelings. This book has all three, frequently with emotionally wrought and painful conversations between Delilah and Dragoner. I loved Delilah's practicality about everything save her husband and how she manages to, well, manage everyone and everything except the one thing she really wants. Dragoner is one of those angsty rake spies from so many Regencies, but the overall impression is of a man painfully embarrassed and unhappy by what he must do, and I thought Kerstan was able to give him angst without dedicating the entire book to his angst.

Alas, the plot takes some unnecessary turns into the action-adventure genre, rather than stay with the conversations between Delilah and Dragoner. The plot itself seems a bit tacked on, and you know it's never good when other characters in the book even comment on how Dragoner basically manufactured the plot out of thin air. Rather than having Delilah and Dragoner in life-and-death situations, which made the emotional resolution at the end seem rushed, I wish Kerstan had stuck with the two slowly learning about each other.

Still, I enjoyed this a great deal for the quiet angst on both parties' side.

How are Kerstan's other books?

Female friendships and/or romances in manga

Joy Kim recently posted on female friendships in shoujo, and I found myself doing a lot of "It's not shoujo, but..." Ergo, another list!

What are good manga series that respect and celebrate female friendships? And because it's so rare to find in manga, good manga series that respect and celebrate female romances as well?

Since Joy's list has the shoujo series, anything but shoujo here!

Here are some of mine:

Azumanga Daioh, by Azuma Kiyohiko - Not only is there a LOT of female friendship in this, there are only two or three male characters I can think of. And out of those, only one is human!

Claymore, by Yagi Norihiro - Like AzuDai, the ratio of female to male characters is heavily weighted toward the women. I love that the series takes all my favorite shounen tropes—being willing to literally give your comrades your arm, "I will get stronger to protect my precious people!," "I must defeat you one-on-one to prove my strength!," and camaraderie in the face of near-impossible odds—and gives almost all the major roles to the women, leaving the few men to be damsels in distress, comic sidekicks, or villains. There is so much depth to all the relationships among women in this series.

Emma, by Mori Kaoru - Although the driving plot is het romance, I love the many secondary female characters, from Mrs. Stowner to Aurelia and Mrs. Meredith's friendship to Emma's friendship with the maids to Eleanor and her sisters to Eleanor and Grace to Grace and Vivian. I particularly appreciate the many age ranges of the female characters.

Gunslinger Girls, by Aida Yu - Possibly controversial, as Aida also did the character designs for a hentai game that I think eroticizes underaged girls. But I very much love the bonding among all the little cyborg girl assassins and how they are each others' only family, makeshift though it may be.

Yotsuba&!, by Azuma Kiyohiko - There's the Ayase sisters and Mom, Ena's friend Miura, and Asagi's friend Torako. And, of course, Yotsuba! I like very much that the friendships are between sisters, mother and daughters, and across quite a few ages as well.

Sadly, I have read next to no yuri. Erica Sakurazawa is a bit hit-or-miss for me, and the Utena manga is nowhere near as awesome as the anime. There was a super-cute (and very NSFW) all-color yuri romance that I think octopedingenue recced to me, and I know I've seen several mentions of Kashimashi Girl Meets Girl and Maria-sama ga Miteru on my reading list. And, of course, Rose of Versailles, which I also haven't read.

Although I think both Naruto and Bleach have some great female friendships, what I've read of the series constantly underprivileges the female relationships for het romances or for the male friendships and rivalries, which is why I'm leaving them off this list. And though I love Urasawa, he tends to do the "single girl/woman." His female characters are frequently awesome, but they're also almost always the lone woman in a world of men.