Victoria’s Corner – Heroines

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Happy Thursday, everyone!

This week (and every other one) just keeps flying by and here we are back on Thursday for some of my favorite time in the week (okay, yes, my life is pretty pathetic, but I like writing this blog post a lot even though I feel like I’m talking to a mostly empty room these days. HINT – I LIKE COMMENTS).

A couple weeks back we talked about heroes. So it’s only fair we give the ladies a chance to be talked about. After all, what would there be in romance without the heroine (or if there’s a different term in male/male romances, whatever that term would be).

I’m torn on what my favorite heroines are these days. I certainly like kick-butt heroines (Rachel Morgan from Kim Harrison’s The Hallows series leaps to mind even if that’s Urban Fantasy rather than romance). I also like the sweet librarian type, shy and unassuming until a man swoops in.

For the most part, I don’t like whiny, annoying heroines (and in this aspect, sorry guys, but I am specifically referencing a certain very popular YA vampire series which had a series of blockbuster movies associated with it that I despised and couldn’t get past the first book of and only watched the first movie long enough to see the “hero” vampire sparkle). However, if they demonstrate genuine growth over the book, assuming I can get through the book, it’s quite possible I’ll grow to like them. (that did not happen in the aforementioned sparkling vampire book)

For the most part, I’m easy-going. I’m much more likely to pitch a book because I find the writing horrible.

I have trouble identifying with uber-fashion-conscious heroines, or who must spend hours putting on their make-up to get ready for a date. That’s just me though and it’s a life-long thing. I know this because I have a very clear memory of reading a Harlequin Presents (late 80′s/early 90′s) where a girl gets ready for a date, make-up and all. Man picks her up and takes her to a restaurant. She immediately goes from the car to the bathroom to “repair the ravages of the car ride to her make-up”. I kid you not. 30 minutes in a car, no petting/smooching, and she had to repair her make-up. I remember flipping back several pages to make sure I hadn’t missed something because I didn’t (and still don’t) get what could have happened to her make-up in 30 minutes when no one had touched her. If anyone has some ideas, please let me know. :)

So, here we go. What do you like to see in your heroines, and/or alternatively, what DON’T you like in a heroine?

Please please please comment. I like conversations!

ARC Review: The Seduction Hypothesis

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The Seduction Hypothesis

Author: Delphine Dryden
Publisher: Carina Press
Publication Date: May 6, 2013
Description:

Seduction(1 Curious Sub + 1 Dom in Denial) – Inhibitions = 4 Naughty Nights
Wildlife biologist Lindsey thought attending a fan convention with her new boyfriend Ben was a great idea—until their relationship imploded. Lindsey still lusts after her ex—but if he wants her, he’s going to have to prove he can give her what she needs.

Ben will do anything to win Lindsey back, and when he sees her in her skimpy black vinyl convention getup, he realizes what she’s been craving all along. And he’s inspired to finally give in to his own dark desire to take complete sexual control…

Lindsey is surprised by her reaction to Ben’s kinky new seduction techniques, and suddenly sees the brilliant but boring code guru in a different light. After several erotic encounters in hotel rooms and stairwells, she’s falling for him all over again. And wondering if the intimate connection will last once they head home…

My Thoughts:

I fell in love with Delphine Dryden with the first book in her Science of Temptation series with Callie and Ian. I mean, c’mon, what’s not to love in that book? I’m a HUGE Big Bang Theory fan and Ian clearly resembled Sheldon (well, if Sheldon was a closet Dom…and trust me, I’ve never looked at Sheldon in quite the same way since reading that book, esp. after a particular November 2012 episode of the show when Sheldon spanks Amy).

The Seduction Hypothesis is a very different, yet just as fabulous book from Ms. Dryden. Not only does she switch from first person POV (as in Theory of Attraction) to third, but the set-up was different. Lindsey and Ben had been a couple, but broke up not long ago. There’s some angst there, both with regrets about the demise of the relationship, and Ben not understanding quite why Lindsey broke it off with him.

Lindsey is really into a particularly kinky manga series and planned on dressing like one of the characters for one of the events at the convention the friends all travel to. As it turns out, she’s a dead-ringer for the character and is asked by the crew to stand-in as their regular player had to cancel out on showing up at the convention (yeah, a little suspension of disbelief here, but it worked for me). Ben sees her all duded up and suddenly comes to realize there might be something to the kink thing that, in part, was what had led to their break-up.

He turns to Ian and Callie for some advice (with a quite amusing Cyrano DeBergerac-like scene) and then leaps into some pretty heavy-duty research into the lifestyle, discovering he can get into the whole kink thing. I love that neither one of the pair, but ESPECIALLY the dom, had very little experience with the lifestyle, so they both got to learn together. The new-dom thing isn’t explored very often (at least in my limited BDSM reading). It’s usually the sub being drawn into the lifestyle by an experienced, sexy Dom. Add in the fact that Ben really wanted to get back with Lindsey and ends up discovering a whole new side to himself, and I was absolutely in love with this book.

And, of course…the sex was awesome. Completely, wonderfully, awesome.

Can’t wait for another book in this series!

Book provided by NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

–Review by Victoria

Heat Rating 5

ARC Review: Ten Reasons To Stay

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Ten Reasons to Stay

Author: Sabrina Jeffries
Publisher: Gallery, Threshold, Pocket Books
Publication Date: May 6, 2013
Description:

TenReasonsIn “Ten Reasons to Stay,” previously published in the anthologyThe School for Heiresses, lessons go far beyond etiquette and needlepoint. Eliza Crenshawe’s lesson is to look before she leaps. But when she discovers that her new guardian plans to marry her off without so much as a Season, she forgets all that. She flees—on a horse she unwittingly steals (oops!)—from Colin Hunt, a newly minted earl who wants nothing more than for her to go home…or stay forever.

My Thoughts:

I’m a decent fan of Sabrina Jeffries, all things being equal. I think she has an amusing way of writing and some of her scenarios are quite hilarious. I quite liked this book, though of course it was tragically too short for me.

Eliza’s guardian is odious (not literally) and up to no good (what a shocker, right? Can’t these guardians ever be just decent folk, not either villains or secretly aching for the one in their protection?). Desperate to avoid the marriage he has arranged for her for his on nefarious reasons, she’s fled, intent on making it to London where she has someone who might take her in for a while until she can access her inheritance. Unfortunately, when she goes to borrow (read here steal, as Collin interprets it) a horse, Collin catches her.

Being a gentleman, even though a newly titled one, Collin is understandably unwilling to let the headstrong miss go with on her merry way, considering she has no protection from the cruel world (yes, I’m slightly mocking this morning over the Regency requirements of story-telling). He’s torn between believing she’s crazy (her story about her guardian IS a bit crazy, but it’s actually true as he comes to discover later on). And of course she DID try to steal one of his horses, something he’s not very happy about. He locks her into a room in his house and goes hunting for her guardian (who is also apparently the town magistrate – oops).

Over the course of the short book, these two develop some pretty genuine feelings and I liked both of them. This isn’t quite as good as the first couple of books in the School for Heiresses series, but then again the bar got set quite high for me after those books, at least when it comes to Ms. Jeffries.

My main complaint was how clearly the villain was, well, a villain. His motivation was obvious, even if Eliza didn’t initially figure it out (but Collin, once he believed her tale, did). And the trope is overdone in my opinion.

Still, this is a nice, short little piece keeping in Ms. Jeffries’ lovely voice and I will eagerly await another book from her. Totally deserving of 4/5 books from me.

Book provided by NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

–Review by Victoria

heat Rating 4

ARC Review: Nicholas

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Nicholas

Author: Grace Burrowes
Publisher: Sourcebooks Casablanca
Date Published: May 1, 2013
Description:

NicholasHeir to the Bellefonte earldom, Viscount Nicholas Haddonfield has made a promise to his dying father that he’ll marry before the Season’s over. When Nick meets Lady Leah Lindsey, he realizes he’s found not only a damsel lady in need of rescuing, but also a perfect countess of convenience. Then he spoils everything by falling in love with his wife…the one woman he can never, ever have.

My Thoughts

Oh, Ms. Burrowes, how I love thee. As you may recall, I was not particularly enthralled or enthused with the first book in the Lonely Lords series (Darius as reviewed HERE). However, I found myself returning to loving Ms. Burrowes’ flowing style with Nicholas (though Ethan, review coming late this month/early next, is definitely my favorite thus far).

Nicholas flows over much of the same time period as Darius and features Darius’ sister Leah along with Darius’ friend, er, Nicholas. They have a chance meeting at a ball and Nicholas is intrigued with Leah. Enough so that when she turns out to be in trouble (her (to my mind) evil/jackass of a father figure betroths her to a fellow jackass) he rides to the rescue.

Only problem is, he doesn’t intend to consummate the marriage because he’s terrified he’ll kill her if she should ever become pregnant. Understand that Nicholas is a BIG (tall) man and he has believed his whole life that he killed his mother from his sheer size. And there seems to be some legitimacy to that concern when Nicholas’s secrets are further delved into.

Leah is a strong character with a tragic past. I kept expecting (because I’m jaded that way when it comes to romance) that one of her past issues would come back and be a “oh, by the way, we lied to you” moment, but of course Ms. Burrowes is far too excellent an author to fall on such worn out tripe and trope.

These two truly deserved their happy ending, though at times I began to worry that they’d ever find their way there.

Yet another wonderful book from Ms. Burrowes and I just have to keep devouring these books as quickly as they come out. Highly recommend this book (though there was enough of “little” issues that kept me from rating it more than 4 out of 5. I remind people that this is, of course, my opinion and others might have a different one).

Book provided by NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

–Review by Victoria

heat Rating 4

Victoria’s Corner – Sports in Books

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Happy Thursday and welcome to May everyone!

This week I want to talk about books that have sports in them in some way (I don’t mean “Football for Dummies” –if there is such a book–, I mean characters involved in professional sports). What do you think about them?

Personally, it depends on 1) how well the author does with them, and 2) how familiar I am with the sport.

For example, in the Sherrilyn Kenyon/Dianne Love Belador series, it takes place in Atlanta. It doesn’t involve baseball at all, but of course Atlanta is the home of the (dur) Atlanta Braves and I am, or was, a HUGE Braves fan. In the very first book, they reference the Braves’ baseball stadium as being Fulton County Stadium. That threw me entirely out of the book (for a very brief time, mind) because I knew the Braves moved in to Turner Field at the start of the 1997 season and the stadium itself was demolished in 1997. So it was jarring a little for me. Not sure how they could have made such a basic error, unless that one little detail was something they changed in the universe they created.

Obviously the above isn’t a sports-heavy book example. However, Bianca Sommerland has a series about the Dartmouth Cobras (an ice-hockey team with a very … interesting shared interest). I know nothing about ice hockey other than hockey players use a different kind of blade than figure skaters (thank you The Cutting Edge). The sport is a big part of the books, because some of the main characters are owners of the team, the heroes are always MEMBERS of the team, and frequently parts of the plot circle around whatever’s going on in the hockey world. Knowing nothing about the sport, I can’t speak as to how accurate Ms. Sommerland is about the sport, but I can say it enhances the whole “real” feeling to the book, having such devoted sports players.

I bring this up because of a book I just read (Skin in the Game, review coming toward the end of the month) where football was an important facet of the story.

So, what do YOU think about stories (romances specifically) where a given sport plays an important role in the story somehow?

Until next week, have a great time and keep on readin’!