The Bollywood Bride
Sonali Dev
ISBN: 9781617730153
"Ice Princess" Bollywood actress returns home to the USA for her cousin's wedding, reconnecting with her childhood, and with her oldest friend and former lover, who she spurned dramatically at the start of her acting career.
Really enjoyed this. It was an interesting look at the usual tropes of romances from the perspective of an unfamiliar culture, and I really enjoyed the juxtaposition.
Ria is the straightest-laced of Bollywood actresses, consistently working hard and staying poised and cool on-camera and off. But she hides deep guilt and an even darker secret with all of her work and her cool unruffled facade. Once she goes back to her childhood home in Chicago, all of her efforts to be untouchable and untouched will be undone, as she finally is forced to confront the trauma from her childhood.
Dev writes clearly and passionately, and the story is logical and enjoyable, with not too much time spent on emotional or mental distress before a break to recount happy and lighthearted family and friendly interactions. There are plenty of descriptions of clothing and outfits (male and female) and the descriptions are clear and gushing. Characters have actual character, and the vast majority of the cast are kind and beautiful people. There are only two people who are "villainous" in the story, and one of them even shows a surprising spark of humanity at an unexpected moment!
I hope she writes more - it's lovely to see more cultures and more diversity represented in the romance books that are available to people, especially when they are written as well and as movingly as this one.
Showing posts with label rape culture. Show all posts
Showing posts with label rape culture. Show all posts
Monday, June 13, 2016
Wednesday, September 24, 2014
Random Romance Read: Sins of a Wicked Duke, Sophie Jordan
Sins of a Wicked Duke
Sophie Jordan
ISBN: 9780061579172
Read Sept 22, 2014
Short version: Erk. Non-consensual crap all over the place here.
Snarky Summary: An obvious prologue sets up at least a trio of novels about three dissimilar young girls who meet in a brutal boarding school as children. This story focuses on Fallon. She's Irish, she's an orphan (her father died on a trip overseas to collect garden plants for a noble), she's tall and strong and has wild red-gold hair. Due to her height, beauty, and her hair, she keeps getting molested by the sons and husbands of her employers when she's trying to work as a maid, and in rejecting their advances, gets sacked. After meeting a notorious noble rake, she hatches a plot to work as a manservant instead, chops off her hair, and goes for it.
Dominic (obviously the "Demon Duke" has to be named Dominic) and I'm confused about his ducal nature as his grandfather is a pastor in a small country town? Anyway - actual peerage aside, he's spent his life working hard to be unfeeling and careless and wicked because his grandfather (the aforementioned pastor) was too hard on him when he was a young child.
Fallon ends up as Dom's valet, much non-consensual intimacy happens - and this is really irritating, because the whole POINT of her working in disguise as a man was that she was trying to avoid this crap, and the hero spends the whole time pawing at her because he can't help himself, and besides, she likes it, so it's all ok and he's not doing anything wrong because he's just passionate. God in heaven. Give me a freaking break.
Anyway. Plot contrivances related to her father's untimely death lead Fallon to a lonely life in a cottage in the small town where the grandfather is the pastor. She becomes a sort of nursemaid to him (despite the fact that everyone in Society has to know that she was Dom's valet while dressed as a boy, because all the servants knew), the wayward Duke returns when the grandfather is on his deathbed (and don't even get me started on how the whole death and funeral bits were just ignored) and yay now they are married (erm, what?) and have a daughter!
I like the idea of heroines in male drag, I like "rags to riches" stories, and I would have liked this if there had been any attention given to the process of passing, to the actual historic situation of servantry and the Ton, and if the hero hadn't been totally rapey.
Sophie Jordan
ISBN: 9780061579172
Read Sept 22, 2014
Short version: Erk. Non-consensual crap all over the place here.
Snarky Summary: An obvious prologue sets up at least a trio of novels about three dissimilar young girls who meet in a brutal boarding school as children. This story focuses on Fallon. She's Irish, she's an orphan (her father died on a trip overseas to collect garden plants for a noble), she's tall and strong and has wild red-gold hair. Due to her height, beauty, and her hair, she keeps getting molested by the sons and husbands of her employers when she's trying to work as a maid, and in rejecting their advances, gets sacked. After meeting a notorious noble rake, she hatches a plot to work as a manservant instead, chops off her hair, and goes for it.
Dominic (obviously the "Demon Duke" has to be named Dominic) and I'm confused about his ducal nature as his grandfather is a pastor in a small country town? Anyway - actual peerage aside, he's spent his life working hard to be unfeeling and careless and wicked because his grandfather (the aforementioned pastor) was too hard on him when he was a young child.
Fallon ends up as Dom's valet, much non-consensual intimacy happens - and this is really irritating, because the whole POINT of her working in disguise as a man was that she was trying to avoid this crap, and the hero spends the whole time pawing at her because he can't help himself, and besides, she likes it, so it's all ok and he's not doing anything wrong because he's just passionate. God in heaven. Give me a freaking break.
Anyway. Plot contrivances related to her father's untimely death lead Fallon to a lonely life in a cottage in the small town where the grandfather is the pastor. She becomes a sort of nursemaid to him (despite the fact that everyone in Society has to know that she was Dom's valet while dressed as a boy, because all the servants knew), the wayward Duke returns when the grandfather is on his deathbed (and don't even get me started on how the whole death and funeral bits were just ignored) and yay now they are married (erm, what?) and have a daughter!
I like the idea of heroines in male drag, I like "rags to riches" stories, and I would have liked this if there had been any attention given to the process of passing, to the actual historic situation of servantry and the Ton, and if the hero hadn't been totally rapey.
Monday, May 19, 2014
Random Romance Reads: The Pirate Prince, Connie Mason
The Pirate Prince
Connie Mason
ISBN: 0843952342
Read May 18, 2014
As an aside, I was out shopping at a used bookstore and found a whole slew of romance novels in a bin out front labeled "Free" and I couldn't resist.
The bad: this is one of those really squicky romance novels where the girl says "no," means "no," doesn't consent at any point, and actively tries to resist, and the "hero" rapes her anyway, but it really isn't rape actually because it felt good/he wasn't using his penis/she's still technically a virgin/and really if she hadn't been raised to be frigid and hung-up about morality and sexuality, she would have said yes, and she ended up falling in love with him anyway, and he really loved her after all so it's all ok in the end!
I HATE that. It really raises my hackles. If it were presented as a tactic of the bad guys, that's one thing. But to have it be the accepted "seduction technique" of the character we're supposed to empathize with and lust after? It's disgusting and wrong, and it's a terrible example to set. Any writer ought to be ashamed of themselves for not being able to do better than that.
The story:
The hero is an Ottoman Turk named Dariq who turned pirate when his older brother assumed the throne and began his rule by killing everyone else who might challenge him for it. Dariq's mother (an English lady) saved his life that long-ago night, and he'll do anything to save her, especially after his brother threatens to kill her if Dariq doesn't return to be killed like a good responsible younger brother.
The heroine is named Willow (she's an English lady) and Willow's part in all this is that en-route to see her mother in France, her ship was captured by pirates, and she was sold into slavery and eventually bought to grace Dariq's brother's (you know, the Ottoman Empire's Sultan) harem. Except that Dariq knows that a certain ship is carrying a "treasure" his brother wants, so he steals it. Er, her.
Then comes the squicky rape parts, after which they fall in love, complications arise due to said love, and also to jealous concubines, and also to both of them having more hormones than braincells.
Willow's faith in her parents' rescue is well-placed, and Dariq also finds a formidible ally in his English mother, leading to a slight twist at the end that I didn't expect.
If you value your history, please expect a goodly portion of poetic license - if "Willow" didn't offer enough of a clue.
Connie Mason
ISBN: 0843952342
Read May 18, 2014
As an aside, I was out shopping at a used bookstore and found a whole slew of romance novels in a bin out front labeled "Free" and I couldn't resist.
The bad: this is one of those really squicky romance novels where the girl says "no," means "no," doesn't consent at any point, and actively tries to resist, and the "hero" rapes her anyway, but it really isn't rape actually because it felt good/he wasn't using his penis/she's still technically a virgin/and really if she hadn't been raised to be frigid and hung-up about morality and sexuality, she would have said yes, and she ended up falling in love with him anyway, and he really loved her after all so it's all ok in the end!
I HATE that. It really raises my hackles. If it were presented as a tactic of the bad guys, that's one thing. But to have it be the accepted "seduction technique" of the character we're supposed to empathize with and lust after? It's disgusting and wrong, and it's a terrible example to set. Any writer ought to be ashamed of themselves for not being able to do better than that.
The story:
The hero is an Ottoman Turk named Dariq who turned pirate when his older brother assumed the throne and began his rule by killing everyone else who might challenge him for it. Dariq's mother (an English lady) saved his life that long-ago night, and he'll do anything to save her, especially after his brother threatens to kill her if Dariq doesn't return to be killed like a good responsible younger brother.
The heroine is named Willow (she's an English lady) and Willow's part in all this is that en-route to see her mother in France, her ship was captured by pirates, and she was sold into slavery and eventually bought to grace Dariq's brother's (you know, the Ottoman Empire's Sultan) harem. Except that Dariq knows that a certain ship is carrying a "treasure" his brother wants, so he steals it. Er, her.
Then comes the squicky rape parts, after which they fall in love, complications arise due to said love, and also to jealous concubines, and also to both of them having more hormones than braincells.
Willow's faith in her parents' rescue is well-placed, and Dariq also finds a formidible ally in his English mother, leading to a slight twist at the end that I didn't expect.
If you value your history, please expect a goodly portion of poetic license - if "Willow" didn't offer enough of a clue.
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