Romance Roundup - 2024 June
Jun. 22nd, 2024 04:35 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
jajalala:D I think romance is my ideal genre to read. I'm a sucker for the tropes and the structure! It's just the right balance of exciting and safe that I almost always have a good time. So here's three I've read recently:
Bride, by Ali Hazelwood
The previous book I read by Ali Hazelwood was Love, Theoretically, which I found fun and well executed, but I found the writing style and CONSTANT reference to current pop culture somewhat grating.
HOWEVER, this story has a supernatural angle, and so all of Hazelwood's quippy narrative energy goes to making comments about various worldbuilding details on vampires/werewolves, which I enjoyed a lot more than blandly referencing whatever the top ten mainstream shows are on TV. It felt more accessible and timeless, and I genuinely enjoyed her worldbuilding which incorporated some classic traits but also had some fun unique ones that gave it its own charms. There was still an "I'm so adorkable!" vibe to the main character which is not my ideal, but without the constant reference to pop culture I found it much more tolerable.
So yeah I had a lot of fun reading this! It was classic romance fare with supernatural aspects that heightened it and added to the drama and excitement. Back when I used to watch tiktoks, I remember people being like "Omg it's published omegaverse ahaha" and like... it's really NOT, it's werewolf-romance, but it DOES involve scenting/marking and knotting, so I do think it appeals to omegaverse fans. Personally I love sex that includes supernatural elements, so I enjoyed the sex scenes. There's an especially sexy "marking" scene that was well built up, and some biting as well (though at some point I was like "How many times has she bitten him this week...? Isn't he out of blood by now...?")
The story wasn't perfect, like I said there was "adorkable" energy at times that threw me off, and the third act complication in the romance was truly unwarranted, but I had fun! Overall this is a great read if you enjoy going on AO3 and searching "Wereolves and Vampires" regardless of fandom, if you like arranged marriages, and if you enjoy supernatural elements but also don't need a story to take itself TOO seriously.
Satisfaction Guaranteed by Karelia Stetz-Waters
A serious accountant-type woman and a free-spirited artist inherit a sex store they have to work together to try and save. KILLER PREMISE RIGHT? The love interests are opposites attract, but they end up meshing in a great way. Also F/F, which I crave.
I liked that this story felt fairly grounded, and there was a lot of emphasis on how sexy it is when people sit down and actually take care of "the boring stuff" (like calculating revenue/costs and organizing tax documents etc). It made me want to be an accountant or open up a sex shop or both. And while staying grounded, the story worked through the classic romance formula very well. Despite the premise, I will say the sex scenes aren't particularly notable, they're nice but this isn't a story about getting wildly kinky just because they inherited a sex store (which tbh I maybe hoped for a little, but even though I'm disappointed I still love the story I got instead)
It just was fun and made me feel more whimsy about daily life! Made me feel just how I like a romance to make me feel <3. If you're interested in romance that takes into account the reality of adulthood at least a little bit, or if you like opposites attract, this is a fabulous read.
Iris Kelly Doesn't Date by Ashley Herring Blake
I may have been biased against this because I don't love the cover and have been avoiding the books in this series for awhile because I've IMAGINED that they would be too fluffy for me, but this was available on my library app and I thought I ought to take the plunge instead of judging before even reading.
Overall the story is good! It hits the romance beats well, I liked the main characters, the premise was funny, but there was a particular narrative quirk that kept pulling me out and making me go like "????"
Everyone, literally EVERYONE, the moment they were seen or mentioned in the narration, was described IMMEDIATELY with their race and then their gender or sexuality, regardless if that made sense? Perhaps it's good for diversity to be specifying that stuff, but as a reader it just made me go like "Wow these characters sure are obsessed with race!" and again: MAYBE makes sense for people they're meeting the first time to notice big features like that, but somehow even when they even just THINK about people who they know well they ALWAYS find it somehow important to mention those characteristics while thinking about them.
There's a play in the plot, and one character is like "Oh [X] can't play Beatrice, she's on maternity leave" and then the POV character says in the narration basically: "[X] is a black lesbian who [details on her journey to become a mother yay for her]" which?? okay??? clearly the POV character is close enough to her to know all these intimate details about her journey to become pregnant, but also the moment she thinks about her the first thing she thinks about is her race and sexuality. It just felt so unnatural and strange.
Then at another scene, the POV narrator is meeting several new people, and as she's describing one of the people she's meeting FOR THE VERY FIRST TIME, she describes her as Japanese American. Yay diversity I guess, BUT HOW DO YOU TELL THAT AT A GLANCE? Did she look Japanese but was holding her American passport? Looks Japanese but holding her American passport? Or mixed race but looks so distinctly both that there's no ambiguity and the narrator can confidently state she's Japanese American? It was just absurd that the narrator supposedly could clock that.
I'm not going to be like "I don't see race!" but PERSONALLY I genuinely often CANNOT identify a person's specific race/ethnicity the moment I meet them (especially not in a crowded dimly lit nightclub lol), and when I get to know someone well I think I'd identify them by a lot of other qualities BEFORE their race. Maybe other people think differently, but it felt SO STRANGE to read from both POV characters.
I'm harping on the race aspect because it's probably the most egregious, but the characters were also constantly identifying every side characters gender/sexuality. Like we couldn't possibly bear to have a scene where someone shows up for one minute and we don't have the SPECIFIC exact identity of the person. Presumably they had a conversation at some point with the narrator when they specified, and now the narrator thinks about it every single time they think about them. We can't learn this ORGANICALLY from conversation, no, it's just going to be labeled like a laundry list for the reader.
(I was relieved when I went to goodreads and found several other people who were frustrated by this quirk as well, and who shared their personal most hated examples XD)
The author seemed really intent in general on putting people in boxes, and on those boxes being clearly defined from each other. Part of the premise involved a separation of "sex" and "romance", while not necessarily wrong, I also didn't quite feel convinced that "romance" just consists of doing whatever activities have been labeled "romantic" by mainstream movies. There were also various quips that emphasized and pinned things in boxes, including a character being like "YOU, [character] are a top!" when she just took control one time in the bedroom? Which maybe sexy, and maybe growth? but it wasn't like, built up that she had previously been a bottom in her previous relationship but secretly yearned to be a top, so it didn't feel like some reaffirming discovery moment, it just felt like one character was like "Hey, let me slap a label on you in the middle of this sex scene!"
Lol maybe I'm a problematic bisexual being like "I hate labels!" but when they reach the levels that this book did, I DO. It felt like the author heard on twitter that she didn't incorporate enough diversity in her books, and so decided to just label every side character as non-white and more "obscure" genders/sexualities, while her central/main characters remain fully white and lesbian/bi.
Overall though I did legit have fun, it fulfilled the romance formula, I cried at the end at the sweet and tender twists, but like... that narrative quirk truly frustrated me. I think my preconception that it would be too fluffy was wrong, it maintained pretty decent tension, but I think the adherence to mainstream culture (even when it tried to be #QueerCulture by doing things like having characters go to a Queer-owned icecream bar to get a Pansexual Pistachio Sundae) and unwillingness to embrace any queerness that is not precisely labeled for consumption may perhaps have been clued by the very mainstream cover.
Reading all these romances while my girlfriend is traveling and Unavailable is perhaps evil to do to myself... but ahaha I'm still having fun even when I'm like "I WISH I COULD DO THIS WITH MY GF RIGHT NOW"
Bride, by Ali Hazelwood
The previous book I read by Ali Hazelwood was Love, Theoretically, which I found fun and well executed, but I found the writing style and CONSTANT reference to current pop culture somewhat grating.
HOWEVER, this story has a supernatural angle, and so all of Hazelwood's quippy narrative energy goes to making comments about various worldbuilding details on vampires/werewolves, which I enjoyed a lot more than blandly referencing whatever the top ten mainstream shows are on TV. It felt more accessible and timeless, and I genuinely enjoyed her worldbuilding which incorporated some classic traits but also had some fun unique ones that gave it its own charms. There was still an "I'm so adorkable!" vibe to the main character which is not my ideal, but without the constant reference to pop culture I found it much more tolerable.
So yeah I had a lot of fun reading this! It was classic romance fare with supernatural aspects that heightened it and added to the drama and excitement. Back when I used to watch tiktoks, I remember people being like "Omg it's published omegaverse ahaha" and like... it's really NOT, it's werewolf-romance, but it DOES involve scenting/marking and knotting, so I do think it appeals to omegaverse fans. Personally I love sex that includes supernatural elements, so I enjoyed the sex scenes. There's an especially sexy "marking" scene that was well built up, and some biting as well (though at some point I was like "How many times has she bitten him this week...? Isn't he out of blood by now...?")
The story wasn't perfect, like I said there was "adorkable" energy at times that threw me off, and the third act complication in the romance was truly unwarranted, but I had fun! Overall this is a great read if you enjoy going on AO3 and searching "Wereolves and Vampires" regardless of fandom, if you like arranged marriages, and if you enjoy supernatural elements but also don't need a story to take itself TOO seriously.
Satisfaction Guaranteed by Karelia Stetz-Waters
A serious accountant-type woman and a free-spirited artist inherit a sex store they have to work together to try and save. KILLER PREMISE RIGHT? The love interests are opposites attract, but they end up meshing in a great way. Also F/F, which I crave.
I liked that this story felt fairly grounded, and there was a lot of emphasis on how sexy it is when people sit down and actually take care of "the boring stuff" (like calculating revenue/costs and organizing tax documents etc). It made me want to be an accountant or open up a sex shop or both. And while staying grounded, the story worked through the classic romance formula very well. Despite the premise, I will say the sex scenes aren't particularly notable, they're nice but this isn't a story about getting wildly kinky just because they inherited a sex store (which tbh I maybe hoped for a little, but even though I'm disappointed I still love the story I got instead)
It just was fun and made me feel more whimsy about daily life! Made me feel just how I like a romance to make me feel <3. If you're interested in romance that takes into account the reality of adulthood at least a little bit, or if you like opposites attract, this is a fabulous read.
Iris Kelly Doesn't Date by Ashley Herring Blake
I may have been biased against this because I don't love the cover and have been avoiding the books in this series for awhile because I've IMAGINED that they would be too fluffy for me, but this was available on my library app and I thought I ought to take the plunge instead of judging before even reading.
Overall the story is good! It hits the romance beats well, I liked the main characters, the premise was funny, but there was a particular narrative quirk that kept pulling me out and making me go like "????"
Everyone, literally EVERYONE, the moment they were seen or mentioned in the narration, was described IMMEDIATELY with their race and then their gender or sexuality, regardless if that made sense? Perhaps it's good for diversity to be specifying that stuff, but as a reader it just made me go like "Wow these characters sure are obsessed with race!" and again: MAYBE makes sense for people they're meeting the first time to notice big features like that, but somehow even when they even just THINK about people who they know well they ALWAYS find it somehow important to mention those characteristics while thinking about them.
There's a play in the plot, and one character is like "Oh [X] can't play Beatrice, she's on maternity leave" and then the POV character says in the narration basically: "[X] is a black lesbian who [details on her journey to become a mother yay for her]" which?? okay??? clearly the POV character is close enough to her to know all these intimate details about her journey to become pregnant, but also the moment she thinks about her the first thing she thinks about is her race and sexuality. It just felt so unnatural and strange.
Then at another scene, the POV narrator is meeting several new people, and as she's describing one of the people she's meeting FOR THE VERY FIRST TIME, she describes her as Japanese American. Yay diversity I guess, BUT HOW DO YOU TELL THAT AT A GLANCE? Did she look Japanese but was holding her American passport? Looks Japanese but holding her American passport? Or mixed race but looks so distinctly both that there's no ambiguity and the narrator can confidently state she's Japanese American? It was just absurd that the narrator supposedly could clock that.
I'm not going to be like "I don't see race!" but PERSONALLY I genuinely often CANNOT identify a person's specific race/ethnicity the moment I meet them (especially not in a crowded dimly lit nightclub lol), and when I get to know someone well I think I'd identify them by a lot of other qualities BEFORE their race. Maybe other people think differently, but it felt SO STRANGE to read from both POV characters.
I'm harping on the race aspect because it's probably the most egregious, but the characters were also constantly identifying every side characters gender/sexuality. Like we couldn't possibly bear to have a scene where someone shows up for one minute and we don't have the SPECIFIC exact identity of the person. Presumably they had a conversation at some point with the narrator when they specified, and now the narrator thinks about it every single time they think about them. We can't learn this ORGANICALLY from conversation, no, it's just going to be labeled like a laundry list for the reader.
(I was relieved when I went to goodreads and found several other people who were frustrated by this quirk as well, and who shared their personal most hated examples XD)
The author seemed really intent in general on putting people in boxes, and on those boxes being clearly defined from each other. Part of the premise involved a separation of "sex" and "romance", while not necessarily wrong, I also didn't quite feel convinced that "romance" just consists of doing whatever activities have been labeled "romantic" by mainstream movies. There were also various quips that emphasized and pinned things in boxes, including a character being like "YOU, [character] are a top!" when she just took control one time in the bedroom? Which maybe sexy, and maybe growth? but it wasn't like, built up that she had previously been a bottom in her previous relationship but secretly yearned to be a top, so it didn't feel like some reaffirming discovery moment, it just felt like one character was like "Hey, let me slap a label on you in the middle of this sex scene!"
Lol maybe I'm a problematic bisexual being like "I hate labels!" but when they reach the levels that this book did, I DO. It felt like the author heard on twitter that she didn't incorporate enough diversity in her books, and so decided to just label every side character as non-white and more "obscure" genders/sexualities, while her central/main characters remain fully white and lesbian/bi.
Overall though I did legit have fun, it fulfilled the romance formula, I cried at the end at the sweet and tender twists, but like... that narrative quirk truly frustrated me. I think my preconception that it would be too fluffy was wrong, it maintained pretty decent tension, but I think the adherence to mainstream culture (even when it tried to be #QueerCulture by doing things like having characters go to a Queer-owned icecream bar to get a Pansexual Pistachio Sundae) and unwillingness to embrace any queerness that is not precisely labeled for consumption may perhaps have been clued by the very mainstream cover.
Reading all these romances while my girlfriend is traveling and Unavailable is perhaps evil to do to myself... but ahaha I'm still having fun even when I'm like "I WISH I COULD DO THIS WITH MY GF RIGHT NOW"
