James, Eloisa - Your Wicked Ways

[oyceter]

(there may be a whole lot of LJ-spamming as I attempt to catch up on book-blogging)

Helene has endured about ten years of her husband Rees' affairs, possibly culminating in an incident with naked Russian dancers on their dining room table. He won't give her a divorce or children, so she finally decides on getting a makeover to try and snare a lover to impregnate her.

Eep, I'm sorry rachelmanija, I didn't like it =(. This makes me very sad, particularly because it hits a whole lot of my buttons, including an established couple learning to love each other again, people who don't have magnificent sex on the first try, and second chances. Unfortunately, the tone of the piece is so un-Regency that it totally throws me, and I don't even know anything about the Regency. I mean... I'm very glad that a romance really explores sexuality and how people learn to have better sex, but at the same time... sex outdoors? With no one having more than the slightest of qualms?

I think it wouldn't throw me as much if it had been a Kinsale or something involving shipwrecks, secret princesses or penguins, but because it is set in society and because the characters do care about what society thinks, it kept throwing me.

Also, for a book about a couple getting to know each other again, there's surprisingly little time given to the couple. There's a subplot with Rees' vicar brother and his mistress, along with something else involving a child (never a good sign). I wish that there had been more time for Helene and Rees, and I was never quite convinced by how quickly they got back together, given ten years of resentment. Also, the somewhat Freudian reasoning behind Rees' relationship with his brother felt too pat as well.

On another level, I was disturbed by how Helene's dramatic transformation was sparked by her great desire for a child, especially when it was framed by all her friends having children. I assume all her friends are heroines of their own novels, since I got to see some of their (very spectacular) sex lives. I don't think it's that odd for her to want a child, but given the nearly hallowed status of babies in romance, it bugs me.

Comments

[yhlee.livejournal.com]

The ignorant but inquisitive non-romance reader has to ask: what is the nearly hallowed status of babies in romance?

[oyceter]

This is going to drive you sporky....

Ahhh... All women love babies. All happily married couples (and all couples who are in love will end up happily married) want babies. If the book is in a series, all the prior protagonists will show up, happily married, with armfuls of babies.

All babies will be absolutely adorable and will not throw things, pee on things, or put poisonous things in their mouths.

Not being able to have a baby is a tragedy of the first degree, enough so that it will wreak havoc in the woman's romantic life or cause her to feel a great deal of shame. All women will happily put aside whatever they are doing for said babies.

And babies have the miraculous power of uniting people in Twu Wuv.

Obviously, this isn't in all romances, but it's in a huge amount of them.

[yhlee.livejournal.com]

*makes the sign of the spork*

This only confirms that this is Not My Genre. :-] (With a few specific counterexamples.)

[oyceter]

Yeeeaaaahhh... I don't know if you've tried already, but you may like Jennifer Crusie? Her Anyone But You has a distinctly older heroine with a younger man, and amazingly, she doesn't want kids!

[yhlee.livejournal.com]

I read several Crusies. I liked her--I think my introduction to her was Faking It. I'd read more if I came across her. :-)

[oyceter]

Yeah, she's awesome!