Tuesday, July 7, 2009
“Happily Ever After” and Other Concepts that (no longer) Elude Me
So, I’ve got a confession to make. Well, it’s not actually a confession. I mean, I’ve never hidden the fact, I just haven’t been particularly forthcoming with it.
Okay. I’m just going to say it and get it out there.
I am not a romance reader.
Or, to be more specific - I haven’t been a romance reader until now.
And, now I’m learning more about romance novels than I can find room for in my marketing-centric head.
Point is, I am desperately trying to get myself up to speed on romance reading.
So, I have been schooling myself via the library, several bookstores (both online and brick and mortar), and of course – my friends and workmates.
Who you gonna call?
…WHY, KASSIA KROZSER! (of course)
But, poor Kassia. Bless her heart, she has the patience of an angel. But I do think I’m trying that patience.
Below is a typical email exchange.
FYI: I share this in hopes that you will understand just how lovely and knowledgeable Ms. Krozser is. And just how involved, detailed, and wholly enveloping something as seemingly simple as romance can be — especially when you’re talking about romance as a literary genre.
ME TO KASSIA:
am trying to understand HEA as it relates to the undead, or dead.
would, for example, “The Ghost and Mrs. Muir?” qualify for stricter definition of romance? She lives out her life and when she dies, the ghost comes to get her and they go off into eternity together.
so, if a ghost and mortal are in love, and end up together, does it matter if the mortal dies so they can be together? or is that no longer HEA b/c one of them died?
KASSIA TO ME:
You are leaping directly into advanced HEA. Technically, The Ghost and Mrs Muir doesn’t qualify as an HEA because, on one level, the happiness has to happen on the human plane. Also because she lived a long life alone-ish. On the other hand, they are together forever. The sticking point is she is miserable.
It is a well-known fact that dead heroes are a problem. One of the worst (or best or both) examples of this is Jude Deveraux’s “A Knight in Shining Armor.” In KISA (or AKISA), the hero is dead. The heroine conjures the hero to current time (from, I think, the mid-sixteenth century). Very cute fish-out-of-water stuff ensues. She then time-travels back to his original time, he doesn’t know her, but they fall in love all over again, all that. Then she’s transported back to her time where she learn that he lived out his life in his own time and died. So she’s alone, until the very, very end, when she meets his, well, reincarnated self on a plane.
People either make peace with this ending or hate, hate, hate it as it’s not really the hero.
The HEA is really important to the romance reader, though. RWA calls this an emotionally satisfying ending. This just means the reader feels good about where the two leads are at the end of the book.
ME TO KASSIA
okay. just to clarify – even if one is ghost and other is mortal – as long as they are happy together it’s still HEA? My issue with stupid Mrs. Muir’s captain is he thought she’d be better off w/o him, and left her ’til she kicked it of old age. he sucks for that alone.
but, if he’d stuck around, would they have qualified for HEA?
and now i must get KISA so i can talk intelligently in acronym at RWA.
~ Kat
KASSIA TO ME
The leaving her alone is what disqualifies the HEA. The stupidity of sending her off to be happy with someone else doesn’t count (that’s a plot device!) as much as the looong lifetime of loneliness. Bad ghost.
One can be dead, sure. Vampires are dead, right? Though, as you can imagine, there’s a reason nobody gets excited about zombies. Smelly and dirty.
Very tricky stuff. Okay, not really unless one part of a couple is dead. Really hard to work around. Some authors are very clever, many are not.
You have finished Welcome to Temptation, right? Because that’s really important reading.
ME TO KASSIA
no. did i even get the reading list?
okay, so Welcome to Temptation and Knight in Shining Armor. These r hopefully available as ebooks…
~ K
KASSIA TO ME
Oh dear, do we have a lot of fun for you. The reading list:
Romance Reading List: (for those who actually want to get a sense of the genre; not required)
- Lord of Scoundrels, Loretta Chase;
- The Spymaster’s Lady, Joanna Bourne (really bad cover warning here, does the book serious injustice);
- Mr. Perfect and/or Open Season, Linda Howard (technically suspense, but, well, ignore that part);
- Contemp: Bet Me. J Crusie.
- Hist: Lord of Scoundrels, Loretta Chase.
- Paranormal: Kresley Cole or Bitten, Kelley Armstrong
There are more, many
more. We’re just getting this party started!
(Note: Sarah of the Smart Bitches recommended Bet Me as a Crusie romance, but I have a serious thing for Welcome to Temptation, which is not, formally, a romance even though it is a romance. If that makes sense. Of course I’m right on this one!).
END OF EMAIL THREAD
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Yup. This is a typical discussion for me lately.
So – I’m rather busy now. Reading.
BUT — not too busy to take suggestions for other fundamentals of Romance 101.
Please offer any suggestions. And, please offer any words of encouragement.
I really am excited about my first RWA – and meeting everyone. But, my goodness – this certainly is a whole new world! (exciting and new)…
Some books that crop up in long-time romance readers’ conversations quite a lot:
KISA – Jude Deveraux
Whitney, My Love – Judith McNaught (it polarises readers. I’m in the Loathe camp)
The Windflower – Laura London (aka Sharon and Tom Curtis) (mostly because of Cat)
Lady Gallant – Suzanne Robinson
the Velvet series – Jude Deveraux (this series tends to prompt extreme reactions)
As You Desire – Connie Brockway
After the Night – Linda Howard
(when you don’t know what to say when among readers at the RWA, just mention LH’s name as this will get the others talking non-stop. A mention of Nora Roberts, Julie Garwood, Julia Quinn, Jennifer Crusie or Suzanne Brockmann can work well, too.)
A sample of my personal favourites:
Sandra Canfield
Ruth Wind (In the Midnight Rain)
Theresa Weir
Pamela Morsi (Americana)(‘Courting Miss Hattie’, for example)
‘The Nekkid Truth’ – Nicole Camden (it’s a silly title, but the novella is fantastic. Read it when you can. It’s her only published work so far, which is a shame.)
I love Welcome to Temptation. Bet Me not so much. I think I couldn’t get over how often the hero was shoving food down the heroine’s mouth. That wasn’t sexy or loving to me. I love a good krispy kreme from time to time but I worried Min was going to have arterial blocking at the age of 40.
Count me in the loathing category for “Whitney, My Love”. And now I see I’m going to have to pull out my precious copy of “The Windflower” for Kat to read. If ever books should be digitized, it’s the Curtis novels. Seriously.
Not sure I would recommend Kresley Cole for paranormal. Great chance to show the various folklore that paranormal encompasses, but they are not typical of the genre.
Open Season by Howard is a personal favorite.
For those heading to RWA, I think Single White Vampire by Lynsay Sands should be required reading. She parodies romance conventions outrageously in that book.
One of my shameful secrets—I’ve tried four times to read WELCOME TO TEMPTATION and just…can’t. I do, however, love her older (reissued category?) books and FAST WOMEN and MANHUNTING are two of my favorite romances.
My absolute favorite HEA keeper romances to reread would include:
Nora Roberts—CHESAPEAKE BAY series: Sea Swept (1998), Rising Tides (1998), Inner Harbor, (1999), Chesapeake Blue (2003)
Susan Elizabeth Phillips—the CHICAGO STARS series is awesome, though KISS AN ANGEL is one of my favorites of hers (which says a lot considering how much I hate authors playing fast & loose with Russian history).
Karen Templeton—every one of her Silhouette Special Editions (and Silhouette Intimate Moments before they moved her to SSE)
Jude Devereaux—the Velvet series Maili mentioned is one of my all-time favorite series.
And any Linda Lael Miller except the Mojo series and her romantic suspense. Her ’90’s stuff still makes me swoon.
I haven’t read “Welcome to Temptation”. With all due respect to Jane, I loved the way the hero was always feeding Min in “Bet Me”–most everyone else in her life was trying to get her to go on a diet.
“Whitney, My Love” *spoiler alert* Read this when I was 19. I cried at the rape scene and that killed the book for me. Cemented the hero as a controlling creep & I couldn’t get past it.
You might try some 90s Julie Garwood. The Gift is funny, but the heroine is borderline TSTL. She’s just so … naive, in a “this metal thing on this wooden ship must a fireplace because I’m cold, so I’ll just burn my parasol because there’s no firewood” kind of way.
I’m a squee-ing fan-girl of Nalini Singh. If you haven’t read her Psy-Changling books, RUN–DON’T WALK–RUN to the nearest bookstore (or iPhone download URL). I will buy absolutely any book in which a Nalini Singh story appears. No questions asked. Don’t even need find out what it is. Will just buy it and know I’ll enjoy it. (For the record, I’m not usually this easy…)
Welcome to Temptation is brilliant. Crazy For You by Cruisie is another must read (has all the best romance elements in it including lesbian mothers, psychotic exes and cute dogs).
SEP’s Chicago Stars series is wonderful!! Kristan Higgins books are brilliant and Victoria Dahl’s Talk Me Down made me swoon with delight (I love me my contemporaries!!)
Maybe we should start a Books For Kat club…
oh my. Thank you so much everyone. I DO have my work (technically, I guessit counts as work no matter how much fun it might be!) cut out for me. I’m looking into speed reading courses.
And, considering giving up sleep for a little while
~ Kat
You have to start with a few basics, Georgette Heyer is a must read if you are just getting into the genre. I love anything by Julia Quinn but my absolute favorite is Lyn Kurland. She covers the whole ghost/human issue and time travel with a HEA for all.
Thanks for the Heyer recommendation. I will, after Kat commits to the genius that is Georgette, tell our new romance reader about the time I nearly broke my neck while reading “The Black Sheep”. How was I to know that convulsive laughter and treadmills didn’t mix? Happily, there are many Heyer reprints on the market.
For historicals, it’s all about “Flowers From the Storm” by Laura Kinsale. That’s pretty much the end-all, be-all of historical romance for me.
Kassia recommends the book Knight & Shining Armor by Jude Deveraux and though this is a good one you should check out Remembrance by her. I’ve converted many a non-romance-reader with this one. I think you’ll especially appreciate that it is from the perspective from a romance author.
Some other suggestions for Kat from a veteran romance reader:
-Louisanna Legacy by Alexandra Ripley
-Outlander by Diana Gabaldon
-Beneath A Blood Red Moon by Shannon Drake (before there was Twilight)
-Dark Angel by VC Andrews (though technically no a romance it has one of the best falling in love stories ever. I’m pretty sure I’m still in love with Troy)
- The Beloved Scoundrel by Iris Johansen (Any of her historical romances are great because she’s works her story into real historical events and happenings)
Happy reading!
Novel Reaction beat me to the rec of Lynn Kurland. I love her books. Adore. Stardust of Yesterday and This is All I Ask are two of my absolute favorites. Nora, Garwood, SEP, Quinn, Cole, Kenyon/Macgregor, Howard, Heyer, my life would be incomplete without them.
I adore “Blue Waltz” by Linda Francis Lee is great. Unfortunately, it’s out of print.
And Anne Gracie is a fantastic author as well.
I could go on for days.
To balance all the worthy classics and grande dames above: newer authors who I think are excellent (and also easily available in print and digital forms, I think) are Carolyn Jewel, Sherry Thomas, Elizabeth Hoyt and Meredith Duran — all historical. As mentioned up-thread, Victoria Dahl’s contemporaries are quite good, as are Kristin Higgins. Maya Banks is another excellent newer author. For romantic fantasy/sci-fi, Shana Abe and Ann Aguirre.
If you want to read Fantasy and SF-flavored fiction, have a look at Lois McMaster Bujold and Catherine Asaro. Bujold is my absolutely most favorite author. And I am love Asaro’s books almost as fiercely.Bujold’s most Romancey titles are _Shards of Honor_, Komarr_ and _A Civil Campaign_. (And the proposal scene alone in ACC is worth a score of lesser Romance novels by itself)
My favorites among Asaro’s books, are _The Quantum Rose_ and _Spherical Harmonic_ (though the latter title may not really qualify as Romance)
I could suggest lots and lots of similar books, but then I am a SF and Fantasy nut
And if you need more suggestions about what to read, I am certain that the Bitchery will be delighted to help out with suggestions.
Kat, you’ve gotten some good and interesting recommendations.
. I’d like to add, on the paranormal side, Jayne Ann Krentz writing as Jayne Castle – her Harmony series. And Maggie Shayne’s vampires. Wonderful writers who made it very possible for those like JR Ward, Nalini Singh and the rest to come on board. And I think their HEA’s are great! Good luck and most importantly – Have fun!