Dare, Tessa - Stud Club trilogy, vols. 01, 03

[oyceter]

Tessa Dare has been getting a fair amount of press from romance blogs (afaict?), probably helped by the fact that she is releasing a trilogy a year.

I mildly liked her debut, Goddess of the Hunt, which has some funny bits, and I was going to say I read some of the first book of the Stud Club trilogy but was too bored to finish, except my handy book database says I actually did finish.

... uh. Yeah. That right there tells you how I enjoyed the book.

I like the idea of the trilogy: Dare thought a club called "The Stud Club" would be funny, decided the members should be based on random chance as opposed to the many family connections of other romance novel series, and then went with horses for the "stud." As such, although the protagonists of previous books show up in the next few, it's much less annoying because they are very decidedly not bosom buddies. Leo, the founder of the Stud Club and owner of prize horse Osiris, has been killed, and his friend Julian wants to find out why.

One Dance with the Duke - Spencer DuMarque, Duke of Morland, only dances at midnight with one lady, and then disappears. Amelia d'Orsay ends up being this lady one night, except instead of disappearing, the two end up getting married. I like that Amelia is not conventionally attractive and that Spencer is basically a jerk to the other two Stud Club members, but other than that, I remember next to nothing about the romance, save that Amelia is a homebody and likes embroidering, which made me like her. There is a sweet scene in which Spencer values her for who she is, but since I have read many other "gruff people with hearts of marshmallows ostensibly yelling at loved ones" scenes from manga, it did not impress me quite as much as, say, Sanzo.

Three Nights with a Scoundrel - Julian Bellamy was Leo's best friend, and now that Leo's dead, he wants to avenge what he thinks was murder. At the same time, he wants to protect Leo's deaf twin sister Lily by marrying her off. Only Lily doesn't so much want to be protected, she's rather annoyed at Julian's "I am a bastard and therefore not worthy" attitude, and really, she doesn't see why she can't just be happy with Julian. This has the two people in love from afar button for me, which automatically gives it a leg up. I also like how Dare deals with Lily's deafness—it's very much a part of her life, but she's not inspirational or noble, and a lot of the book is about how Julian keeps wanting to protect her from a world she's not actually very afraid of. I especially like how she tells Julian that yes, deafness makes certain situations difficult, but if he'd listen to her and help instead of insisting he knew best, those situations would be much easier for her. Also, bonus points for looking at Deaf communities during the time. I don't know how historically accurate it is, because I don't know much about the subject, so YMMV, but I liked the acknowledgement of Deafness vs. deafness.

I wish I could talk more about how the book handles class, except I don't remember it very well, save that it didn't make me want to throw things. I don't think it was exceptionally awesome, but on the other hand, romances that deal with class and don't make me want to throw things = yay!

Julian's manpain is one of the drawbacks of the book, but on the other hand, I very much like that Dare is dealing with it as manpain, and that Lily has extremely little patience for it. (skip spoiler)

I especially like how Dare deals with the non-plot of Leo's murder. I think it works here because the actual tension is between Julian and Lily, as opposed to other romances I've read where the plot turns out to be a non-plot and there's nothing else to take the plot's place. Instead, the plot becomes a symbol of Julian's inability to let go and accept things, and a commentary on how he has to take his manpain and make it larger than it actually is as a way of coping.

I also vaguely remember bits about Leo being gay, but I mostly remember being "Huh" instead of being very happy with the storyline. I do think his lover isn't evil, which, yay! On the other hand, the more I read, the more annoyed I get with gay romances being sidelined or used as plot points in romances.

In conclusion: first book is very skippable, and the third isn't the best romance ever, but it has enough interesting elements in it for me to keep it around for a reread.

Comments

[daedala]

I find Dare interesting; I think she is not quite up to the things she is trying to do, which is a much better place to be than "not trying to do anything," IMO. She's actually attempting to deal with class and race, and not wholly annoying me at it. (Even the stuff with the West Indies turned out...well, much less horrible than I expected. I am not sure if you would find it readable, though I have the impression that you got further with Hoyt's quartet than I did so maybe.)

[oyceter]

Yeah, I do think she tries interesting things but doesn't always succeed (the first Stud Club book mostly just annoyed me because I wanted to whap the hero). Also, had avoided the West Indies stuff since it seemed the romance set ups didn't hit any of my buttons (revenge, so not sexy!), but may check it out when I am in the mood for romance again.

[oracne]

I've been enjoying Dare a lot. Given that I am reading many fewer romances at the moment, I guess that's saying something. I think I still have one Stud Club book left?

[oyceter]

Yay, I am glad you are enjoying her!

[oracne]

I'm enjoying them, but part of the enjoyment is that I'm studying what she did with tropes and how.