Tag: Paternalistic Hero

Trope – includes protective / caregiving behaviors, daddy/stern daddy

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Back to Old School, Dueling Review, Rant, Recommended Read

Back to Old School: Devils Week

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Devil’s Bride by Stephanie Laurens (1998)

Heat Factor: Devil is going to make the molten heat inside Honoria explode. In a cataclysmic starburst. For 25 pages.

Character Chemistry: You’re my perfect match because our bloodlines make us strong enough to tame each other. But Devil never says “I love you.”

Plot: Murder most foul.

Overall: Erin was tickled. Ingrid powered through. Holly hated it.

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Devil in Winter by Lisa Kleypas (2006)

Heat Factor: Billiards and blow jobs

Character Chemistry: Sebastian is such an asshole, but he’s also so soft for Evie.

Plot: Marriage of convenience, gambling hell edition.

Overall: Erin loved it. Holly tolerated it. Ingrid can’t remember the plot.

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Back to Old School, Dueling Review, Rant, Recommended Read

Back to Old School: Hottie McScottie Week

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The Black Lyon by Jude Deveraux (1980)

Heat Factor: It slipped in. Consent optional. Do you need consent if you’re married?

Character Chemistry: He is large, grumpy and swarthy, and she is fair, smol and pure. How can they not fall in love?

Plot: One damn thing after the next, caused by miscommunication and stupidity.

Overall: They’re mad at each other, but they don’t know why they’re mad at each other, and they won’t stop doing dumb things to each other.

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The Bride by Julie Garwood (1989)

Heat Factor: It’s the sexiest one we’ve read so far in the Old School read-a-thon

Character Chemistry: It’s The Taming of the Shrew, but who’s taming who?

Plot: Jamie’s like, “You told me to handle it! So I handled it.”

Overall: This book is absolutely delightful.

Content Note: These books contain rape, ablism, and racism and we discuss this content in our review. Also, sorry, Ranulf of The Black Lyon is not actually a Hottie McScottie, but he’s got highlander energy.

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Review

Review: Blue Skies by Catherine Anderson (2004)

Holly

Coulter Family, Book #4

Heat Factor: He basically rapes her in Chapter 1, and then they very gently make love once or twice toward the end.

Character Chemistry: Some Old Skool Dynamics, for sure.

Plot: When Carly gets pregnant, she and Hank get Insurance Married.

Overall: I read this book fully expecting it to be cringe and ended up getting swept away. But now that I’m actually thinking about it, there was indeed a lot of cringe.

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Back to Old School, Dueling Review

Back to Old School: The Flame and the Flower by Kathleen Woodiwiss (1972)

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Birmingham, Book #1

Heat Factor: “His warmth and passion” is “led on to his nest.”

Character Chemistry: Is it abuse or is it love? Hard to tell.

Plot: Brandon rapes Heather. They are forced to get married. And then Brandon takes Heather to South Carolina, where shenanigans occur and also they somehow decide they’re in love.

Overall: It’s all totally yikes or totally infuriating and sometimes both!

Please note: This book includes rape, abuse, chattel slavery, and ableism (among other things), which we discuss in this review.

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Rant, Review

Review: Figure of Speech by Kasha Thompson (2022)

Erin

Heat Factor: The whole middle of the book is pretty much sex.

Character Chemistry: feelings are annoying

Plot: The new White House Press Secretary worked with the president once many years ago. This time he’s not about to let her get away.

Overall: I was put off by the way the president was initially represented (it’s single POV from Clover), and that kind of snowballed with other things as I continued to read

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