Julia Ross/Jean Ross Ewing, various

[oyceter]

I don't think I remember half the plot points of these -- I finished them a while ago, but figured I'd wait and read all her books before posting. Well, a month or so later, I am still reading... Thus goes the story of my life.

The Seduction: Obviously, the old seduction plot. Unsurprisingly, Alden Granville-Strachan loses a bet, and in order to not lose all his money and thus bankrupt everyone who lives on his estate, he agrees to a bet to seduce the notoriously cold widow Juliet Seton. Luckily, no matter how dumb, I tend to like this plot.

Also, I couldn't help liking it because Alden is such an affable rake. I am in general not very fond of alpha rakes. Plus, the seduction was enjoyable (and sexy) to read about because it was mental -- Alden seduces Juliet into playing chess games with him at midnight, into watching him strip his shirt off to harvest her fields, to enjoy herself. And I like Juliet, because she is one of those cold, mean heroines that everyone else hates ;). Plus, Georgian era! Visions of The Scarlet Pimpernel danace in my head...

I found the latter part of the plot a little to labyrinthian and melodramatic for me in that sort of Kinsalian fashion, but the journey there was quite fun.

Illusion: I swear, I was willing to give this one benefit of the doubt, despite the entire heroine-trained-in-Indian-harem thing. And it was going along all right, and then everything sort of went haywire. I give kudos for having non-orgasmic sex and for psychologically interesting sex. I don't know. I didn't much like Frances (said heroine) because she felt so passive to me, and that the passivity was supposedly a cultural part of her learned from India (blah blah meditation blah blah, sorry). I think it was the whole "let me show you inner peace via these mystical Eastern methods" thing. Also, I figured out the villain very early on in the game, and I still don't quite see how the plot holds together, given the disrepency between the beginning and the end.

To be honest, most of my issues in the book stem from the heroine and the Eastern thing, or the combination thereof. It probably would have been a very good book without that...

Flowers Under Ice: I liked this better that Illusion. Dominic's a bit more of a raffish rake than Nigel from Illusion, although not by much. Angsty heroes, both of them. It's also got the seduction thing going for it, plus the hero falling in love with cold and angsty heroine. Mostly I liked this better than Illusion because I liked Catriona better than Frances. Like the other two, the plot of this one is entirely on crack, especially after the plot twist. Hrm. I just don't remember that much of this one...

Comments

[coffeeandink.livejournal.com]

I'd feel guilty about recommending these if you didn't like the first one. ;) I have to admit I have entirely forgotten practically all the plots, so I can't offer a defense of Illusion, which was far and away my favorite of the three. The Seduction annoyed the hell out of me for reasons I could never quite articulate; possibly it was that overbearing heros always make me want to smack them, or possibly it was that I was just in a bad mood.

I have her latest, but haven't read it or My Dark Prince yet.

[oyceter]

Hey, all recs are always welcome ^_^. I think a lot of my dislike of Illusion are personal issues. I really need to read a good critique or cultural history of the Kama Sutra someday, just because all these romances keep using it, and it drives me crazy not knowing the historical context.

I liked The Seduction, but I am quite prone to like that trope. Plus, I was tantalized by visuals in my head of lace and wigs and ballgowns, heh.

I swear, Julia Ross/Jean Ross Ewing belongs firmly to the Laura Kinsale school of plotting ;).

I'm still working my way through Wicked Lover and My Dark Prince (by that I mean, I have been 50 pages or 100 pages into them for about two or three months now!).

[rachelmanija.livejournal.com]

Have you read the Kama Sutra? It's a fascinating text on, as far as I can tell without having studied that era at all, how to be a lady or gentleman. Sort of an Emily Post for ancient India. Only about one-fifth of it is about sex per se, though much more is peripherally concerned with sex in the sense that it's about how to obtain and behave in a relationship.

[oyceter]

I haven't read the entire thing, but I think I might have read snippets here and there.

It felt less overtly pornographic/sexualized than, say, the Japanese shunga or something.

It frustrates me that I don't know anything about that culture at all!

[rachelmanija.livejournal.com]

One thing that's very noticeable if you read the whole thing (or actually go to Indian carved caves, rather than just looking at pictures of the orgy statues) is that sex is just one piece of an entire existence-- a fun and important piece, but still just a piece.

I think the equivalent of shunga are the Rajput miniature paintings on ivory of people having sex-- I'm not sure if there's a special name for the sex ones, but if you thumb through a bunch of elegantly dressed courtiers and kings walking in the garden, hunting, holding court, dancing, swinging (not that sort of swinging) eventually you'll find a couple sex pictures. Which maybe makes the same point. Anyway, the most notable thing about them to me is that the organs are only slightly larger than life, really just enough so you can see the mechanics clearly, and apparently if you're sufficiently wealthy, servants will be present to assist no matter what you're doing.

I highly recommend William Dalrymple's CITY OF DJINNS if you want to get a sense of Indian history (and the present.) It alternates a memoir about how he moved to Delhi with a history of the city, and is very atmospheric, funny, and, as far as I can tell, accurate.

[oyceter]

Totally off topic, but now I remember flipping through books on shunga (obviously illustrated) while writing my JP and thesis and having my friends walking in: "You're looking at PORN for your thesis?!"

Thanks for the rec!

[jonquil.livejournal.com]

But it isn't about how to be a lady at all. It's about how to be a courtesan. There are long passages about how to extract more money from the gentleman by lying.

[coffeeandink.livejournal.com]

I think a lot of my dislike of Illusion are personal issues.

I don't think disliking Orientalism is personal, and I feel embarrassed I missed the problems with that.

[oracne.livejournal.com]

I liked MY DARK PRINCE, my first Ewing, but didn't finish either THE SEDUCTION or FLOWERS UNDER ICE. Not sure why. Might have been my mood at the time. I still have them, so I can give them another try later on.

[jonquil.livejournal.com]

I think all Kinsale plots are on crack. Especially the one whose heroine invents the glider 80 years early.

[oyceter]

*giggles* I don't think I've read that one! Much as I love it, I still have no idea what's going on in Lord of Midnight, and I never quite figured out the politics behind FMLH.