Halfway into Patricia Gaffney's Crooked Hearts...

[oyceter]

Book is set in turn of the century San Francisco, so of course the villains are part of some Chinese gang. Fine. I am not liking this so much, but dealing.

Then of course the godfather of the Chinese gang lures our poor, hapless white heroine into his house, drugs her, and gets her naked to be his bride. Uh huh. And now, it turns out she was drugged with an aphrodisiac and must have sex with the hero right now!

Contemplating throwing the book against a wall.

Comments

[angeyja.livejournal.com]

:grin: great minds. I was contemplating you doing that also.

[scrollgirl.livejournal.com]

Ah yes, the helpless virginal white woman in danger from the big bad Other. She needs rescuing and then lots of Sex from her Big White Hero. *gags* I pretty much have a love-hate relationship with romance novels. Nora Roberts sometimes really draws me in with the big family sagas, and a few other authors (don't ask me who, I rarely pay attention except maybe Elizabeth Lowell) get me reading romance.

But other times... Gag me with a spoon. It's one thing to use cliches because they're archetypal. It's another thing to be so close to bigoted that we'll throw these books against a wall.

I'd rather read fanfic any day.

[oyceter]

Hee hee! Seriously!

I think I shall be selling this one back and not finishing it....

[oyceter]

God, I know! And the thing that was reeeally disappointing was that I've read two other books by this author, and they were good! Like, breaking romance genre conventions and stuff. And now this.

I was really rolling my eyes at the captured white girl in evil Chinese den of doom bit, but when I found out she was drugged and had to have sex, ugh. Such a fanfic cliche! Next they're going to be stuck in a hotel room with only one bed ala old X-Files fic! ;)

Sigh. I've been really picky about who I read lately, so the "bad" stuff has mostly been clunky writing and Nora Roberts books that don't really draw me in. I keep forgetting there's that ninety percent of the genre that I don't read, which really is bad!

Will always suggest Judith Ivory and Jennifer Crusie and most of Connie Brockway (and Laura Kinsale... and prior to this, Patricia Gaffney, but now I suspect she is a bit hit or miss). But ugh, must avoid Johanna Lindsey and all those alpha males.

Re:

[coffeeandink.livejournal.com]

I had completely blocked this out of my memory. But then I remember very little of Crooked Hearts.

For a more sympathetic (if still external) view of Chinese-white relations on the California coast in the 19th century, may I recommend Susan Fletcher's Walk across the Sea (YA) and Karen Joy Fowler's Sister Noon and Sarah Canary (arguably mainstream)?

Re:

[oyceter]

Ah well...

Thanks again for the recs! Are the Fowler books romance?

Re:

[coffeeandink.livejournal.com]

Nope. Fowler began publishing short fiction in SF venues, but all her book publications have been as literary mainstream. I've read very good arguments that Sarah Canary is SF, but it's, well, arguable.