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

[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.