A Turner Series Novella
Heat Factor: Marshmallow toasting levels
Character Chemistry: Molly is just what Alice needs
Plot: Disgraced vicar’s daughter grows spine, learns art of blackmail
Overall: Good build up, abrupt resolution
Heat Factor: It’s a slow and scorching burn
Character Chemistry: It comes on slow and then BAM
Plot: Megan and Scarlett were BEST friends but had a falling out. When their old friend begs them to attend her wedding in Quebec, they agree to pool resources in order to roadtrip there. And boom goes the dynamite.
Overall: This book had me up until 2 am and I wasn’t even mad about it.
Continue reading “Review: Hairpin Curves by Elia Winters (2020)”Feminine Pursuits, Book 2
Review of Feminine Pursuits, Book 1
Heat Factor: Slow, steady, burn.
Character Chemistry: So much pining! But also, believable BFFs. And they do that thing where they call each other by last name and I swoon every time.
Plot: A year in the life of Flood and Griffin.
Overall: The plot meanders but sometimes a book (even a romance) is more than a tight plot. I recommend reading this one.
Heat Factor: Mostly pining
Character Chemistry: Alana has a major boner for the ship, and a minor boner for the captain
Plot: Alana stows away on a ship whose crew is searching for her sister; many adventures ensue
Overall: This book was really slow and also really trippy
A million years ago, I read Dangerous Men and Adventurous Women: Romance Writers on the Appeal of the Romance, and something Jayne Ann Krentz wrote really stuck with me: that readers of romance identify with the hero and project their emotions onto him as he goes through his journey to love (I paraphrase). And I was like: “Huh. That is not my experience at all. I am not that interested in the interior life of the hero, except perhaps as a projection of exploring the desires of the women who read and write about them.” I have always been more interested in the journey of the heroine.
Imagine my joy, then, when I started reading F/F romance. Here were stories that focused exclusively on female desire, without the distraction of alpha males, opaque males, emotionally constipated males, constipated opaque alpha males, etc etc etc.
Erin wrote a great post last week that talked about her love for M/M romances, and some of that’s true for F/F romances as well: characters tend to not fall into (or focus exclusively breaking out of) traditional gender roles, and some of the tropey behavior that you see in M/F romance falls by the wayside.
Here are some other reasons I love F/F romance:
