Janssen, Victoria - The Duchess, Her Maid, The Groom, and Their Lover

[oyceter]

Disclaimer: Victoria is a friend of mine, though I haven't read much of her writing before this.

The Duchess Camille married her husband in hopes that he would take care of her (Ruritanian) duchy. Alas for her, he turns out to be unfit on many levels and abuses her to boot. Finally, when she realizes she's going to be killed to make way for a younger wife, she decides to flee to find her first love and seek his help, taking her maid Sylvie, her groom Henri, and her eunuch servants.

This is an erotic romance novel (explanation), so there's too much sex for me—I found myself getting bored in several of the first few chapters. On the other hand, I very much like what Janssen does with several romance tropes, and I suspect she would not have had the space to play with those tropes in a more traditional romance. Camille is nearly twenty years older than Henri and much older and wiser when it comes to power. I love that Henri is the ingenue whose youthful, naive, and emotional ways earn him a place in Camille's rather icy heart, and although Camille doesn't quite fit my icy powerful woman kink, I like that she is very cognizant of the effects of power, and her reining in of her own emotions rang true to me. As such, I found the last sex scene between Camille and Henri the most powerful, even though it's the most "standard" in terms of raunchiness.

Also, Sylvie is made of awesome.

What I didn't like was how the duke was portrayed as evil because he beat his wife and had much debauched sex; it felt like a narrative shortcut, and as such, I didn't believe in the threat to Camille's life and health as much as I could have. That said, the debauched sex stereotype was poked at in ways because of all the different types of sexuality in the book (which I highly approve of).

In conclusion: still not a fan of erotic romance in general, although I like Janssen's characters and what she does with romance tropes a great deal. It would be interesting to read a straight romance from her if the publishers would let her keep the more risky elements of her writing intact, particularly her takes on power and on how power influences relationship dynamics.

Links:
- rachelmanija's review

Comments

[svilleficrecs.livejournal.com]

FWIW, IIRC, it's being sold/marketed as an erotic novel, not as an erotic romance, which is a difference genre altogether.

[rachelmanija.livejournal.com]

What's the difference in terms of content?

[svilleficrecs.livejournal.com]

An erotic romance is expected follow all the requirements of Genre Romance, specifically to have a HEA for the hero and heroine, and have, as one of the main story's focuses, the progression of their love relationship. Essentially, a genre romance is a story of how these two people came together. Erotic romance is romance in which a significant, onscreen portion of that love story takes place during sexual situations.

An erotic novel, on the other hand, may have romantic elements or storylines, but it's not required to focus on that main romance or resolve it at the end with a happily ever after. You're going to tend to have more sex with partners other than the main pairing (or, rarely, threesome), whereas having your H/H fuck people other than each other onscreen is really pushing the boundaries of romance (again, we're talking the specific publishing genre of romance - understanding the difference between romance-the-word-in-general and Romance-the-specific-publishing-genre is important).

An erotic novel is a novel where significant plot and character moments occur in sexual situations, but the storyline that plot and those characters inhabit isn't necessarily one that would fall under the category of romance. It's generally a storyline that would - if you took the explicit sex out of the equation for a moment - probably fall under the category of Women's Fiction, SF or Fantasy (if those elements are present) or literary/mainstream fiction.

A good example, also published by Harlequin Spice, are the novels of Megan Hart. They straddle the line between erotic novels and erotic romance, but the storylines break several of the "rules" of genre romance.

-- not sure how familiar you are w/ the publishing genre of romance, but it's important to point out that "is romantic" or "has a romance" or "has a love story in it" are not in and of themselves enough to qualify, in publishing terms. Harlequin Spice's foray into publishing erotic novels and erotic romance has been interesting because on the one hand, for much of the public, "Harlequin" is synonymous with genre romance. OTOH, they made a point of stating from the start that Spice's titles aren't necessarily romances, and many haven't been.

Why should you care? You - and other non genre romance fans might not - but when a book is labeled romance (or erotic romance) we come to it with a couple of specific expectations (not unlike the way a mystery fan comes to a mystery expecting a) a crime, likely murder b) an investigator of said crime and c) an ending where the killer is revealed, and if said book is missing those things, might likely check the spine and get pissed off. A book can have a mystery w/out being "a Mystery".

As for this book, it was given a pretty seriously ... non-appreciative liveblogging in a major romance review blog and part of the reason they tore it apart - it seemed from the outside - is they went into it expecting an erotic romance and judged it on succeeding or failing in those terms when (from what I understand) it was never going for that. When you label something that isn't a romance w/ romance or erotic romance, you're (consciously or not) setting up expectations for those fans that the book is quite likely destined to fail to meet.

Which, again, doesn't matter much to outsiders or those who don't read much genre romance, but it's a sticky subject for that do. And many genre romance fans are quite happy to read plenty outside of genre romance (many of us do, and enjoy non-romance just as heartily as any other reader). But when books that straddle that line end up mislabeled (whether through mistake, ignorance of the genre, or publishers looking to cash in on the huge portion of the reading audience that is fans-of-romance-genre), those books are done a disservice. Because that mislabeling sets romance fans up for disappointment they might not have otherwise had, were the book labeled more accurately.

ETA: case in point (http://oyceter.livejournal.com/804689.html?thread=8726353#t8726353)

EATA: I realize that I made the assumption above that you're not a fan of genre romance, and you might be. So... yeah.

[rachelmanija.livejournal.com]

Thanks, that's interesting. I do read genre romance, and I've probably read some erotic novels too under the mainstream banner, but I don't think I've ever picked up anything marketed as an erotic nove.

[svilleficrecs.livejournal.com]

I just double checked and this one has "erotic novel" labeled on the cover, above the title, so at least they're being clear about it. ;) FWIW, erotic novels are often labeled as erotica, or as the other-genre they're enhabiting, or just as fiction (like James Lear's "The Back Passage"). There's a ton of explicit sex (happens to be gay) in an "Agatha Christie style whodunit" (from back cover copy) but it's labeled Fiction/Gay & Lesbian. The fact that Cleis publishes it clues you in.

In a way, a lot of these labels are a bit arbitrary, and depend on the publisher/how they think they can market it, but the term romance is a particularly sticky one, particularly when it's given to a book that isn't.

[oyceter]

Gotcha, thanks for the FYI! I am pretty bad at paying attention to marketing categories.

[oracne.livejournal.com]

You read it, yay!!!

I confess, the duke is a bit cartoonish because I didn't want to deal with him too much--it's hard for me to write villains without sympathizing with them, and also I just wanted him out of the way as soon as possible. And didn't want to actually portray too many of his abuses, because then the reader would have to suffer through them, too. I am pondering this same issue with the second Spice book, how much to show of the villain, that is.

*hearts Sylvie* She was SO FUN to write. SO FUN.

[oyceter]

That does make sense!

Oh! I forgot to note how much I loved not-Chinese!pirate! She was awesome.

Also, Sylvie is still awesome, but I am sure you know that ;). And I love Henri and Camille a great deal as well (especially Henri, who sort of makes me want to rub his hair in an affectionate manner).

[oracne.livejournal.com]

Henri is such a sweetie. I bet he is awesome with babies.

If I am lucky, I will get to write more about not-Chinese pirate. *crosses fingers very hard* I got this cool Osprey book called PIRATES OF THE FAR EAST, which has all kinds of nifty historical stuff I can steal use for research.

[oyceter]

Not-Chinese!pirate story!!!! I cross my fingers for you as well!

[sartorias.livejournal.com]

You had the same reaction I did. I thought the writing was excellent, and the world intriguing, but I actually wanted more romance, and Camille just isn't a romantic heroine. Sylvie is, but it wasn't really "about" her.

But this is not meant to be a romance in the usual sense, so I shouldn't be expecting what it never claimed to be.

[oyceter]

Oh, that's interesting! I actually liked Camille a lot as a romantic heroine, but I may also not be using the term in the way you and/or the genre uses it?

[sartorias.livejournal.com]

Camille was a romantic heroine in her position in the story (abused wife, trying to achieve happiness) but her emotions were so detached, or distant, she didn't strike me as the conventional romance heroine, whose emotions are more accessible. I also don't think Oracle intended her to fall into the conventional pattern, either. She was doing different things with this novel.

[keilexandra]

Look forward to a review of this from me in a few weeks--I got it from Amazon already but am saving it as a reward for finishing TASP essays and midterms.

[oyceter]

Looking forward to seeing what you think!