We’ve now each read a category romance from the 80s featuring a cover model with a truly, epically, luxurious mustache.
(Here are our reviews: Holly on The Temptress Touch, Erin on Calling the Shots, and Ingrid on Walking on Air.)
Now it’s time to answer the big questions. The biggest one, of course is: are mustaches sexy?
Continue reading “Mustache Week: Recap”
Heat Factor: It’s not just a bunch of hot air, this one gets steamy.
Character Chemistry: I mean, it’s basically Tom Selleck and Linda Hamilton in a book involving blimps, how could there not be chemistry?
Plot: Lexy has carved out a space for herself in the very male-dominated airship ground crew industry. But then womanizer Cameron Ramsay joins the crew and throws everything off, with his furry chest and bristly mustache and dimples. How will she manage to withstand the misogyny and his heated glances??
Overall: This was actually fascinating. Cameron starts out just genuinely gross—he lies to her about who he is, asks her out, and then punishes her for rejecting him. But then…
Heat Factor: The whiskers get a bit frisky, but it fades to purple
Character Chemistry: Eh
Plot: Elaine is living her routine hockey life until Roland gets sent down from Edmonton and shakes things up
Overall: This was significantly less infuriating than I expected.
Heat Factor: Nipple play and multiple orgasms
Character Chemistry: They seem to think the good (the sex) outweighs the bad (the mistrust)
Plot: Marla seduces Jack
Overall: If the premise works for you, then it’s well-executed, but the premise super mega did not work for me
Doing this blog together may have exacerbated our smut-collecting tendencies. Case in point: last year Erin bought a whole box of 80s category romances. Obviously, we had to read (and discuss) these treasures together.
One of our goals for 2023 is therefore to do a couple of focused weeks on 80s categories romance, each loosely organized around a theme. And what better place to start than mustaches?
Holly: I’m reading The Temptress Touch by Lori Herter. The hero is a painter, and he paints the heroine’s portrait (as evidenced by the portrait of the heroine creepily watching them kiss on the cover of the book). The heroine had rejected the hero’s advances, but then decided she liked him after all, so she’s going to use the opportunity to seduce him.
I admit that I opened the book randomly to the middle and read a bit, and it seems like the big conflict is going to be because the heroine seduced the hero, the hero now thinks she’s a big ole slut, and she does not appreciate the mistrust and shaming. I’ll be interested to see how this dynamic is handled.
Erin: I’m reading Calling the Shots by Kathy Alerding because it’s a hockey romance. The blurb is puntastic with hockey references. Apparently the heroine is a trainer for Omaha, and the hero sweeps in as…a player and a talent scout and a skating coach? I don’t even know how that would work, but I guess I’ll find out! Naturally, she will be irritated by both his usurpation of her position and her unwanted lustful feelings, but he will prove irresistible in the end. Of course, he is the sort of man who can’t be tied down, and that will make my head absolutely explode until he is somehow forced to confront his feelings and (presumably retire and) tie himself down.
Ingrid: I’m reading Walking on Air by Michele Robbe. Basically, we have Alexandra as the only woman on the ground crew for an airship (a freaking BLIMP, GUYS) who has carved out a place for herself with all the men, until womanizer Cameron comes along. He’s a womanizer and she’s desperately trying to hold on to her career and stay away from him…because obviously she’d have to choose between the two?
Continue reading “80s Category Romances: Mustache Week”
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