Geek and Sundry Romance Books

Although I don't get television (no cable, no antennae), I do watch a few channels on my computer. I stumbled into Felicia Day's Vaginal Fantasy bookclub, which she then rolled into your Geek & Sundry channel (home of Table Top and other fine programming). Each month she and her three friends drink booze and discuss a book or two, with the books involving a female protagonist, usually some romance, and usually a fantasy or other genre classification. There's a goodreads group associated with it, and also local meetups around the world, although I haven't made it to any of those yet.

This month they are reading Daughter of the Forest (main selection) and Deerskin (alt book). Deerskin by Robin McKinley is a powerful and haunting book that I've read several times already, and Daughter of the Forest by Juliet Marillier was my real life book club's selection about a year ago, and I didn't feel like rereading either of those this month. But then they tossed in an alt-alt-selection for people who didn't want to deal with the serious themes of the first two choices, and I was in for A Kiss at Midnight by Eloisa James. (The theme this month was fairy tale retellings.)

I had a lot of fun with this retelling of Cinderella -- I liked the sly humor of the main character, I liked her contempt for but gentle treatment of the annoying lap dogs she gets stuck with, I liked her banter with the Prince character. The plot was silly, but since it was based on the fairy tale there was no real hope for any surprises there. The sex scenes were also fairly silly, although most of the time even the characters themselves were aware of that. (The final one, where they Reveal All, worked amazingly well for its plot advancement.) But for a light read it was just what I wanted, and definitely more fitting to my moods this month that the more emotionally real and powerful but depressing actual books for the club.

Angels In LOOOOVE: Angels' Flight

Nalini Singh gathers four stories from her Guildhunter series together to look at action and sex in Angels' Flight.

The first, "Angels' Pawn", actually skips the sex to leave the couple in a state of high Unresolved Sexual Tension. She's a vampire hunter, he's a vampire whom she often hunts, and together they fight crime help the archangel keep order among his minions. In between solving the case, they admire each other's bodies.

"Angels' Judgement" gives us the backstory on secondary character Sara as she ascends to leadership of the Guild and acquires her ginormous lover Deacon. It's interesting that the woman in both these stories has more power in the relationship and in their professional life. This time the story is long enough for them to have sex, and I like the way that Elena walks away from him because her job is more important. Luckily Deacon quits his job so they can be together again -- HOT.

"Angel's Wolf" has the first male lead, as a traumatized vampire comes to work for a powerful but lonely angel, and they heal each other. How sweet, and rather dull. I had read this one a few weeks ago in a shared anthology, so I didn't bother rereading.

"Angels' Dance," the longest story, has one of the strangest conflicts -- it's nonexistent. Jessamy is a crippled angel whose wings don't work, Galen is a buff guy who doesn't like to wear shirts. They fall instantly in love but then Galen worries that she only feels gratitude because he flies her around. So they don't talk to each other for a year or so, despite living in the same large building. They don't even argue, they just spontaneously start ignoring each other so they can be depressed in alternating story sections. Then for no reason they get back together and live happily ever after, including some spectacular sex-in-flight (that's the title dance). As an anthropology-style slice of angel community, it's interesting, but as a romance it's rather pointless.

Rational Love: Christmas Angel

If two people make a sound and reasonable decision to unite together in a plan of matrimony, secure in the knowledge that they can be good friends and helpmeets without going near that icky thing called love, and those two people are in a romance novel, can anyone predict the ending?  Jo Beverley's Christmas Angel doesn't pretend that the suspense lies in the HEA, or even in the skating rink smooth path to that destination, but rests the story in the slow unfolding of both Judith and Leander's trust in themselves. Luckily they (and we) are easily distracted from the pip-squeak forces pulling them apart -- how embarrassing to be the first one to admit that you've accidentally fallen in love with your spouse despite all promises?

So a lot of this book dashes back and forth from the shadowy menaces of both their families.  Her side is much less talked about but ultimately more sinister, while his side is a giant shadow form cast by a tiny and cute little mammal. This is a cosy story about two adults in an imaginary world who build a new family together despite having precious little experience in how to do that.  It's one of Beverley's Rogue books, about a group of fifteen or so very close friends and the women they marry.  I find that conceit charmingly implausible -- who has fifteen best friends? -- but it gives a nice umbrella to her wish to tie all these books together.

I do think the title is silly; yes, Christmas happens, but it's not that important to the story except as an excuse to make Leander try Judith's homemade wine. "The Poet's Bride" or "The Diplomat's Seduction" or "The Bereaved Angel" would all have at least something to do with the story.

Lucky For Some: Simply Irresistible

Jill Shalvis is a believer in having your cake and eating it too, which justifies her decision to become a romance writer.  Everyone is guaranteed a Happy Ever After, and any door that closes just enables a giant picture window with a wonderful view to open.  At least, that was the case in Simply Irresistible (A Lucky Harbor Novel), the book I read for Take a Chance Challenge #6.  I went to BookSeer.com after finishing a Jennifer Crusie book, and the all-seeing internet site sent me to Shalvis and Lucky Harbor.

I have to agree with the connection.  While Crusie's humor and touch are lighter, Shilvas's characters are  also funny or at least witty even during catastrophe or (worse) humiliation, keeping the tone upbeat even during the downturns in the plot.  The man-interest is smart, sexy, and good with tools, a winning way to any woman's heart.  The sisters are quirky but clearly have deep love buried under their flighty ways, and also will not abandon our heroine because we know that they have to stick around to have books of their own.  There isn't much suspense, but there aren't many distasteful passages of stupidity either.  A decent beach read, although not enough for me to seek out her other books. I'd read them if they were in my beach condo, though. B-

They don't misunderstand each other!

Today's read was Marrying the Captain, by Carla Kelly. I'm on a bit of a Kelly kick lately, after being very impressed with her Daughter of Fortune, a story of Spanish settlers in New Mexico. This was more standard fare, a regency Romance of an inn keeper and a naval captain who fail in love when they meet. I didn't really buy their instant devotion, but if I grant that Cupid stuck them with his little arrows, then the rest of their relationship does make sense. There is also a pleasantly silly action plot with an EEEEEvil Bad Guy at the end, to let us down from the happy-ever-after gently.

However, the best part of this romance is that there is no misunderstanding -- they are both completely in agreement with the first big barrier to their love -- sailor's wives have a rough life. She never wanted to marry a sailor, and he never wanted to get married. Later on there are other problems, but they talk about them, which doesn't instantly resolve things but is a hugely refreshing change to the usual romance theme of running around having huge issues that a single sentence could resolve. So I'll continue to count myself a Carla Kelly fan.

Now I'll send this book back to the library, where I do get most of my books (and where I get the name of my blog -- more BOOK, BOOK, BOOKs for me!).