My review of regency romance Her Wicked Marquess by Stacy Reid

 

 

Major spoilers in this review for The Count of Monte Cristo and minor spoilers for Her Wicked Marquess.  

 

Regency romance Her Wicked Marquess by Stacy Reid is like The Count of Monte Cristo from the point of view of Haydee.  This is both its strength and its weakness.  The Count of Monte Cristo is, in my opinion, one of the best adventure stories ever written.  It follows the  titular count as he secretly wreaks revenge on the people who wronged him when he was a youth.  At least in the abridged version I read (in this link), which I am told by people who know such things is both the best English translation and the best abridgment  -- Haydee is a fairly minor character who becomes very important on the last page.  

Her Wicked Marquess follows the adventures of Nicolas St. Ives as he wreaks revenge on people who wronged a close friend years earlier.  He meets Maryann Fitzwilliam as he is at the point of ruining the lives of the last of his victims.  Like the Count of Monte Cristo, he relies on many talents, from cat burglary to an intricate knowledge of finances, to carry out his quest.  Although the book gets a bit bogged down in the abundant sexual positions he explores with Maryann in the last third or so, it is great fun to read about his complex machinations.

At the end of the day, though, Nicolas is a vigilante serial killer.  Oh, not all his victims die -- some are merely turned into shells of their former selves.  But he acts as the police detective, district attorney, judge, jury, and executioner.  The book explains over and over again that his victims are so powerful that they will never be prosecuted by the state for their crimes, so it's okay that Nicolas takes it upon himself.  

That all makes for a good story, but I have to question Maryann's judgment, and her long-term safety.  She is completely fine with Nicolas's actions -- until they threaten someone close to her, and even then she's not really that upset.  Nicolas is a sociopath, and it seems not entirely unlikely that someday Maryann will look at him cross-eyed and then he'll set his sights on her.  Another chapter and this book could be a thriller rather than a romance.  

 

 

Note from Jasmine Gold: As the name of this blog indicates, I write erotica. Check out my dark, dystopian novel about naked sex slaves, Mindgames. Your darkest fantasies, with a phenomenal plot and characters you will come to think of as beloved friends. Available on Kindle and Kindle Unlimited  and in paperback.  Or read my book of short stories about hot, consensual sex, The Mature Woman's Guide to Desire, available on Kindle and Kindle Unlimited.

My review of romance book The Dating Plan by Sara Desai

 

The Dating Plan by Sara Desai is a charming romance set in a full world.  Both love interests, Daisy and Liam, have more than one friend and more than one relative, a rarity in contemporary romance.  Although some of the side characters are a bit stock (like an aunt whose only characteristic is that she makes wacky, terrible food), many of them are almost as developed as Daisy and Liam.

The plot fits into the standard trope of fake fiancees to hot sex to true love.  Not much to say about that.  

Because I'm me, I'm going to nitpick.

Daisy reminded me of Stella from Helen Hoang's The Kiss Quotient.   They are both brilliant, introverted computer engineers with underdeveloped personal lives.  Stella is on the autism spectrum, and although Desai never says so expressly Daisy seems to be as well. It doesn't really matter, of course.  

What does matter is:  Why does Daisy's boss take her, a back office programmer, to pitch meetings to get funding for the company?   What is this thing about Daisy teaching a dance class, which is mentioned sometimes but never goes anywhere?  Why is Daisy's mother so awful? 

As for Liam -- his story is that he comes from a dysfunctional family with whom he has little contact.  We know this because he says this over and over again -- to members of the family with whom he claims he has little contact.  Like his cousin he sees constantly and is good friends with because the cousin owns the bar Liam goes to all the time.  Or his brother, the father of the nephew Liam adores and whose life he is a big part of. 

Liam's father was abusive.  This is just something that hangs in the story.  Liam was very close to his grandfather before he died, and it comes up a few times that the grandfather preferred Liam over Liam's father.  But the abuse piece is never explained.  Adults generally don't just become fully formed wife and child abusers.  They learned it somewhere, typically in their own families when they were growing up.  Did Liam's grandfather abuse Liam's father?  There's no hint of that anywhere, or of abuse anywhere else in Liam's extended family.

My (completely uninformed) sense is that a realistically estranged, dysfunctional family is so outside of Desai's experience that she simply cannot imagine what it's like.  That leaves some holes in the plot of The Dating Plan, but it's still a good read. 

Note from Jasmine Gold: As the name of this blog indicates, I write erotica. Check out my dark, dystopian novel about naked sex slaves, Mindgames. Your darkest fantasies, with a phenomenal plot and characters you will come to think of as beloved friends. Available on Kindle and Kindle Unlimited  and in paperback.  Or read my book of short stories about hot, consensual sex, The Mature Woman's Guide to Desire, available on Kindle and Kindle Unlimited.

Help a writer out

 

Here's an easy way to support a writer:  If you're buying something on Amazon (does not need to be my book), enter Amazon through my link.  If three people do this then I'm an "Amazon associate" and get a small percentage of sales.  Not enough for a cup of coffee or anything -- but I don't drink coffee so that's okay.

Here's the link to my book Mindgames.  

Romance Novel Happy Endings by Thien-Kim Lam has a not-so-happy ending

 

Spoilers in this review.  

Happy Endings by Thien-Kim Lam is a lovely romance novel in which heroine Trixie Nguyen gets over her horrible ex-boyfriend, narcissistic man-child Andre Walker, by going to therapy to work out issues she carries from her emotionally abusive family, and moves on to a fulfilling relationship with a man worthy of her.

Just kidding.  Happy Endings is a psychological thriller in which Trixie is tortured by Andre throughout the book until she finally has to murder him to escape his clutches.

Just kidding again.  Trixie gets back together with Andre and we're apparently supposed to be happy for her.

Prior to the action in the book, Trixie and Andre had dated for two years.  We don't learn much about this past relationship except that they lived together and had amazing sex until Andre dumped Trixie via post-it note and disappeared, leaving Trixie heartbroken.  

They meet again by chance.  Rather than kicking Andre in the balls and screaming "fuck you!" at him, for some unexplained reason Trixie suggests a friends-with-benefits relationship.  Andre pretends to go along with that, all the while secretly plotting to worm his way back in to Trixie's life.  He treats her horribly.  He tells her that she has to choose between him and her burgeoning sex toy business.  He tries to sabotage a fantastic opportunity she finds to rent a storefront.  He makes it seem like a huge concession when he allows her to take any sexual initiative.  He drops the bombshell on her that in their prior relationship he had gone to her disapproving father behind her back, which was what led to her family essentially disowning her.  He drunkenly interrupts an important sales meeting.  He age-shames her customers (but then so do all the other characters. Pro-tip:  Don't call a 70 year old woman an "old lady" to her face.)  He stalks her at the hospital where her father is dying and refuses to leave. In short, this guy is BAD NEWS. 

Andre has a knack for failing up.  He, along with his sister -- who he treats as badly as he treats Trixie -- inherit a restaurant from their mother.  (Another pro-tip:  If you own a restaurant, incorporate it.  That way, if you die with a lot of unpaid medical bills, those bills will be paid from the assets of your estate.  If the estate does not have enough assets to cover the bills, they do not need to be paid from future profits of the restaurant and bankrupt it.  Although I'm not sure that an estate's bill are ever paid from future profits -- maybe consult a lawyer.)  Andre refuses any innovations to the restaurant.  He refuses to allow his sister, who is taking business classes, in on the actual business of the restaurant.  He refuses to inform his sister (again, the co-owner of the restaurant) that the landlord has sold  the building where it is located.  He makes faltering and utterly unsuccessful efforts to buy the building.  He may or may not be responsible for the restaurant burning down.  He is rescued by a knight in shining armor, a childhood friend who has struck it rich in Silicon Valley, who buys the building and essentially gifts it to Andre.

In a better romance book, Trixie would date the childhood friend.  As it is, she seems destined for a life of misery with Andre the monster.   

 

Note from Jasmine Gold: As the name of this blog indicates, I write erotica. Check out my dark, dystopian novel about naked sex slaves, Mindgames. Your darkest fantasies, with a phenomenal plot and characters you will come to think of as beloved friends. Available on Kindle and Kindle Unlimited  and in paperback.  Or read my book of short stories about hot, consensual sex, The Mature Woman's Guide to Desire, available on Kindle and Kindle Unlimited.

Review of Netflix's The Cook of Castamar/La Cocinera de Castamar

 

I started watching The Cook of Castamar/La Cocinera de Castamar on Netflix because I wanted to improve my Spanish.   It sucked me in pretty quickly with its Upstairs/Downstairs romance, murderous plotting, and literally orgasmic food.  As a costume drama romance the comparisons to Bridgerton are fairly obvious, if Bridgerton had been set a century earlier and in Spain.

This ten-episode show is really engaging, in part because of all the different characters and the threads that tie them together whether they know it or not.  But its sprawling story is also its weakness.  For the first several episodes I did not realize that a certain main character was actually two separate people who happen to look alike, kinda sorta.  (The truth is, all brunette white men look alike to me -- one reason why I often prefer books to movies.)  And when the hero started wearing a wig for no reason important to the story for a few scenes and then took it off for the next several episodes, I was completely lost.  

That said, if you love romance I highly recommend this show.  

Note from Jasmine Gold: As the name of this blog indicates, I write erotica. Check out my dark, dystopian novel about naked sex slaves, Mindgames. Your darkest fantasies, with a phenomenal plot and characters you will come to think of as beloved friends. Available on Kindle and Kindle Unlimited  and in paperback.  Or read my book of short stories about hot, consensual sex, The Mature Woman's Guide to Desire, available on Kindle and Kindle Unlimited.

Regency romance review: Once a Scoundrel by Candice Hern

 

Once a  Scoundrel by Candice Hern is the only Regency romance book I can remember that made my eyes well with tears.  Unfortunately, it was the tragic romance in the flashback that broke Edwina's heart and made her swear never to love again that did so, not her romance with the book's hero, Anthony.

Once a Scoundrel flirts with being an ambitious book.  It has a meta story.  Edwina is the editor of a magazine that attempts to subtly nudge the the women who read it in the direction of a proto-feminism where they exercise agency over their own lives, do useful work, and do not believe that pre-marital sex must lead to tragic ends.  At the same time, the book attempts to separate itself from some romance novels where the heroine's entire story revolves around the hero.  (This book, another thrift shop find, was published in 2003.  Since then, Regency romance novel heroines have had increasing independence -- they are much less prone to being kidnapped and much more likely to engage in, if not a career, then at least significant volunteer work.)  Edwina is a competent and engaged editor of a magazine and could probably continue that work quite happily even if Anthony never crossed her doorstep. 

The book also flirts with telling a really great story about the French Revolution and its devolution into chaos.  Unfortunately, that is the story that is told in flashbacks and snippets.  Edwina went to France to participate in the revolution, was jailed there during the Reign of Terror, and barely escaped with her life.  It's a fascinating story, and makes her romance with Anthony seem banal by comparison.  

The author seems constrained by the Regency romance genre.  I would like to see her outside of it, telling the bigger and better stories that she is clearly capable of. 

 

Note from Jasmine Gold: As the name of this blog indicates, I write erotica. Check out my dark, dystopian novel about naked sex slaves, Mindgames. Your darkest fantasies, with a phenomenal plot and characters you will come to think of as beloved friends. Available on Kindle and Kindle Unlimited  and in paperback.  Or read my book of short stories about hot, consensual sex, The Mature Woman's Guide to Desire, available on Kindle and Kindle Unlimited.

Romance review: How to Tame a Modern Rogue by Diana Holquist

 

 

When I came across How to Tame a Modern Rogue by Diana Holquist in a thrift store, I had some concern because it was published in 2009, and a lot of romance novels don't age well.  Its blurb caught my eye as a crossover between a modern and historical romance, with the contemporary characters pretending to live in a Regency romance novel, or some such.

I got lucky, because this book was utterly charming.  From the dotty grandmother who may or may not be pretending to have had a stroke that makes her think she is a character in a novel, to a man masquerading as a Central Park carriage driver when he is actually -- well, that, but much more, to a run-in with a punk band, this book had great energy.  

And the love interests rocked.  Ally is a mousy schoolteacher who keeps herself under tight control at all times to avoid being like her irresponsible parents who abandoned her.  Sam is -- need I say it? -- impossibly rich, impossibly handsome, irascible, blah blah blah romance hero blah blah blah.  

But what I loved about this book is that Ally and Sam seem like grownups.  The sex isn't the hottest, but it is very fun and very consensual.  They have actual conversations about things that really matter.  The conflict in the book isn't that they don't communicate with each other.  To the contrary, they show up for each other.  That's romance.

The book has some issues.  Ally blames her mother for running off with her father, but never really blames her father for running off.  And then she sort of forgives her mother because true love is somehow more important than not abandoning your child.  Naw.  Along the same lines, there is one scene that really needed a good editing in which no one is concerned about a toddler wandering around Central Park with no caretaker in sight.  

Those are minor complaints, though.  May all your thrift shop finds be as good as How to Tame a Modern Rogue. 

Note from Jasmine Gold: As the name of this blog indicates, I write erotica. Check out my dark, dystopian novel about naked sex slaves, Mindgames. Your darkest fantasies, with a phenomenal plot and characters you will come to think of as beloved friends. Available on Kindle and Kindle Unlimited  and in paperback.  Or read my book of short stories about hot, consensual sex, The Mature Woman's Guide to Desire, available on Kindle and Kindle Unlimited.