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jajalalaI finished reading An Island Princess Starts A Scandal by Adriana Herrera, and FUCK YEAH. A delightful lesbian scandal of a novel indeed!
I had FUN reading this. It was the ideal vibe of historical romance for me, where as I read I was often gasping and tittering at the scandal and excitement. It was a solid narrative with real stakes and tension that kept me excited to read it.
Manuela, a Dominican artist, is set to marry a rich man to save her parents from their debt, but has negotiated a summer in Paris prior to her marriage to cut loose (and live the lesbian scandal of her dreams) before she has to settle as this rich man's wife. She encounters a hot woman at a lesbian club, but ends up having to leave before they can do much more than kiss. The next day she gets called upon by a Duchess about selling a piece of land in Venezuela she inherited from her grandmother... and when they finally meet face-to-face, *gasp* it's the hot lesbian she made out with the night before!
That woman is Cora, the Duchess of Sundridge, who is a Serious Businesswoman who walks and negotiates and maneuvers shitty male investors. She is involved in a business venture to build a railroad that connects the Atlantic and Pacific ocean over South America, and since the Panama Canal is experiencing some big issues, this railroad is poised to be a gamechanger until that canal gets sorted out. All she needs is a certain tract of land in Venezuela which Manuela happens to own.
This ultimately culminates in Manuela negotiating the sale of her land, but not just for money. She requires Cora also show her the lesbian scene in Paris. And even though Cora thinks Manuela is hot, she loathes to mix business and pleasure which might lead to a scandal, which would jeopardize the future of her stepson who she cares deeply for.
Overall it creates just a delicious push and pull in the relationship, while also being pretty historically-focused. There were research notes at the end that indicated some places and events were based on true things in history, especially in Paris, and I felt that with how grounded most things felt. There was also a lot of friendship and organizations involved--you really felt immersed in the lesbian scene of Paris and like both characters had good friends supporting them, and had larger dreams beyond just their hot sexy relationship.
I look back at my complaining of Mortal Follies and the fears I had (even to the point of being like "am I overly picky about F/F and or is it just Not That Good????) and now I'm like "Okay, no, Mortal Follies just did NOT hit the romance vibes I wanted, there do exist F/F stories that can deliver the kind of experience I want."
One of the things the bugged me about Mortal Follies was that the main characters felt too sanitized, especially the Duchess love interest who is DESCRIBED as being a total rake who fucks women all the time, but is SO perfectly in line with sexual consent culture of the 2020's. Like the narrative goes out of its way to be like "Oh btw she fucked this servant girl's older sister at some point, but the woman was perfectly happy to have it casual and now lives happily elsewhere" like GOD FORBID the rakish Duchess leave a single broken heart behind or make a single mistake??? Plus at some point the main character almost gets raped by an antagonist, but after the Duchess rescues her she WANTS to fuck the duchess, and when the Duchess tells her not to she is SO on the nose about why--being like "oh you were almost raped we are absolutely not fucking tonight, I don't think this is consent in your right mind." I DON'T READ ROMANCE TO SEE PEOPLE MAKE DECISIONS IN THEIR RIGHT MIND!!!!! I WANNA SEE THEM SO PASSIONATE THEY RIP EACH OTHER'S CLOTHES OFF!!!!!!! And I think there was a good possible way to push the "I'm not gonna fuck you right now like this" angle, but I think something about the language used and the way it was like a lecture made tension fizzle instead of grow.
Additionally, the sex scene(s) in Mortal Follies mostly consisted of one (admittedly pretty fun) bondage scene involving ribbons, and then most the rest were alluded to. It kind of felt like the writer was not certain how to write lesbian sex, and so kind of just handwaved it like "and they totally had SEXY and SIZZLING lesbian sex... ahaha you know the type right...? I can't go into detail about it."
Meanwhile An Island Princess leaned into uneven power dynamics and actually detailed the Duchess's dark past which actually explained why she was so brusque and perhaps dangerous (and hehehe a little pathetic). I legitimately believed her personality, and understood why she was trying to hold back from getting romantically/physically entangled with the main character. I read some goodreads/storygraph reviews afterwards and found a few that rated it low specifically listed the "uneven power dynamic" as being uncomfortable... but hello? That was the SEXY part... not to mention it was not some sort of total helpless power dynamic; the Duchess had more power/experience/money, but the main character owns the land the Duchess desperately wanted, and the main character happily uses this and lords it over her head, so I found the power dynamic actually SUPER fun in that they both had advantages and disadvantages with each other that they could push and pull depending on the scene, and ultimately the two didn't have to stay entangled if either didn't want to.
PLUS the SEX SCENES were deliciously detailed. At around the half-way point they start coming and they don't stop coming XD. I'm not sure what the author's sexual preferences are or if she's ever written other F/F stories before, but I thought the way she wrote the gay sex scenes felt like they were given the same gravitas, detail, and excitement as I've seen M/F and M/M scenes written, which may sound kind of weird but I feel like I'm used to F/F scenes having some punches pulled. So basically I was happy with the sex scenes :D.
So lol don't worry, there's hot and sexy F/F historical romance out there that makes me squeal in delight. I'm glad I picked this up! Apparently it's #2 in a series with some M/F for #1 and #3, so I might check those out at some point, but since they're M/F I'm not in a rush.
I had FUN reading this. It was the ideal vibe of historical romance for me, where as I read I was often gasping and tittering at the scandal and excitement. It was a solid narrative with real stakes and tension that kept me excited to read it.
Manuela, a Dominican artist, is set to marry a rich man to save her parents from their debt, but has negotiated a summer in Paris prior to her marriage to cut loose (and live the lesbian scandal of her dreams) before she has to settle as this rich man's wife. She encounters a hot woman at a lesbian club, but ends up having to leave before they can do much more than kiss. The next day she gets called upon by a Duchess about selling a piece of land in Venezuela she inherited from her grandmother... and when they finally meet face-to-face, *gasp* it's the hot lesbian she made out with the night before!
That woman is Cora, the Duchess of Sundridge, who is a Serious Businesswoman who walks and negotiates and maneuvers shitty male investors. She is involved in a business venture to build a railroad that connects the Atlantic and Pacific ocean over South America, and since the Panama Canal is experiencing some big issues, this railroad is poised to be a gamechanger until that canal gets sorted out. All she needs is a certain tract of land in Venezuela which Manuela happens to own.
This ultimately culminates in Manuela negotiating the sale of her land, but not just for money. She requires Cora also show her the lesbian scene in Paris. And even though Cora thinks Manuela is hot, she loathes to mix business and pleasure which might lead to a scandal, which would jeopardize the future of her stepson who she cares deeply for.
Overall it creates just a delicious push and pull in the relationship, while also being pretty historically-focused. There were research notes at the end that indicated some places and events were based on true things in history, especially in Paris, and I felt that with how grounded most things felt. There was also a lot of friendship and organizations involved--you really felt immersed in the lesbian scene of Paris and like both characters had good friends supporting them, and had larger dreams beyond just their hot sexy relationship.
I look back at my complaining of Mortal Follies and the fears I had (even to the point of being like "am I overly picky about F/F and or is it just Not That Good????) and now I'm like "Okay, no, Mortal Follies just did NOT hit the romance vibes I wanted, there do exist F/F stories that can deliver the kind of experience I want."
One of the things the bugged me about Mortal Follies was that the main characters felt too sanitized, especially the Duchess love interest who is DESCRIBED as being a total rake who fucks women all the time, but is SO perfectly in line with sexual consent culture of the 2020's. Like the narrative goes out of its way to be like "Oh btw she fucked this servant girl's older sister at some point, but the woman was perfectly happy to have it casual and now lives happily elsewhere" like GOD FORBID the rakish Duchess leave a single broken heart behind or make a single mistake??? Plus at some point the main character almost gets raped by an antagonist, but after the Duchess rescues her she WANTS to fuck the duchess, and when the Duchess tells her not to she is SO on the nose about why--being like "oh you were almost raped we are absolutely not fucking tonight, I don't think this is consent in your right mind." I DON'T READ ROMANCE TO SEE PEOPLE MAKE DECISIONS IN THEIR RIGHT MIND!!!!! I WANNA SEE THEM SO PASSIONATE THEY RIP EACH OTHER'S CLOTHES OFF!!!!!!! And I think there was a good possible way to push the "I'm not gonna fuck you right now like this" angle, but I think something about the language used and the way it was like a lecture made tension fizzle instead of grow.
Additionally, the sex scene(s) in Mortal Follies mostly consisted of one (admittedly pretty fun) bondage scene involving ribbons, and then most the rest were alluded to. It kind of felt like the writer was not certain how to write lesbian sex, and so kind of just handwaved it like "and they totally had SEXY and SIZZLING lesbian sex... ahaha you know the type right...? I can't go into detail about it."
Meanwhile An Island Princess leaned into uneven power dynamics and actually detailed the Duchess's dark past which actually explained why she was so brusque and perhaps dangerous (and hehehe a little pathetic). I legitimately believed her personality, and understood why she was trying to hold back from getting romantically/physically entangled with the main character. I read some goodreads/storygraph reviews afterwards and found a few that rated it low specifically listed the "uneven power dynamic" as being uncomfortable... but hello? That was the SEXY part... not to mention it was not some sort of total helpless power dynamic; the Duchess had more power/experience/money, but the main character owns the land the Duchess desperately wanted, and the main character happily uses this and lords it over her head, so I found the power dynamic actually SUPER fun in that they both had advantages and disadvantages with each other that they could push and pull depending on the scene, and ultimately the two didn't have to stay entangled if either didn't want to.
PLUS the SEX SCENES were deliciously detailed. At around the half-way point they start coming and they don't stop coming XD. I'm not sure what the author's sexual preferences are or if she's ever written other F/F stories before, but I thought the way she wrote the gay sex scenes felt like they were given the same gravitas, detail, and excitement as I've seen M/F and M/M scenes written, which may sound kind of weird but I feel like I'm used to F/F scenes having some punches pulled. So basically I was happy with the sex scenes :D.
So lol don't worry, there's hot and sexy F/F historical romance out there that makes me squeal in delight. I'm glad I picked this up! Apparently it's #2 in a series with some M/F for #1 and #3, so I might check those out at some point, but since they're M/F I'm not in a rush.
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Date: 2024-06-12 06:37 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2024-06-15 02:37 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2024-06-12 09:19 pm (UTC)Ha, absolutely right!
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Date: 2024-06-15 02:38 pm (UTC)