Comments on: REVIEW: Georgeous as Sin by Susan Johnson

By: EC Sheedy

EC Sheedy — Wed, 04 Mar 2009 14:47:38 +0000

Samantha, now there you go . . . You find the “big C” word “gritty and intense” while I find it dirty and bleak. It seems somehow to reduce a woman to one of her parts. Now pussy, I can live with.

By: Samantha

Samantha — Wed, 04 Mar 2009 10:41:09 +0000

I actually like the “big C” as long as it isn’t used pejoratively. Sexually, it sounds gritty and intense, unlike pussy which makes me want to giggle, or vagina which sounds so clinical.
I know it’s hard for some women to see it that way, though.

By: EC Sheedy

EC Sheedy — Wed, 04 Mar 2009 05:03:18 +0000

@Georgina I think I gave up any hope after the cunt reference which happens about a third of the way in and after several couplings.

Why can’t I get past my absolute hatred of the word cunt? If a hero uses it, I detest him instantly. If a heroine uses it, I think she’s an idiot. There’s no hope for me, I guess. I just wish that word would go away . . .

By: Lorraine

Lorraine — Wed, 04 Mar 2009 04:24:59 +0000

Fitz thinks to himself that he needs to check with his barrister to see if any dirt has been dug up on Rosalind. â€œHopefully, something he could use to destroy the irritating cunt who stood in the way of his development project.â€

Is Rosalind the “irritating cunt” he’s referring to????? And it’s a romance?????

I don’t know what bothers me more, that he refers to her as a cunt or that he thinks she irritating. Either one makes him an unreadable hero for me.

By: Samantha

Samantha — Wed, 04 Mar 2009 03:04:10 +0000

Well, since I never understood her appeal in the first place, I feel no loss.
I tried to gnash through two of her favored works. Couldn’t get past the stilted prose. To me the characters themselves had as much personality as those lauded footnotes.

ETA…nice cover though

By: Jane

Jane — Wed, 04 Mar 2009 02:02:43 +0000

@Mischa No footnotes. There was a shout out to Robin Schone's Men and Women's Club.

By: Mischa

Mischa — Wed, 04 Mar 2009 01:22:48 +0000

What I want to know is has she gone back to having extensive footnotes? Reading the footnotes was half the fun in her older books.

By: Jane

Jane — Wed, 04 Mar 2009 00:54:13 +0000

@vanessa jaye Please let us know how you enjoy it.

By: Jane

Jane — Wed, 04 Mar 2009 00:53:53 +0000

@HelenKay Dimon Pretty much what MCHalliday says. Nothing about this book was romantic, sexy or interesting.

By: Jane

Jane — Wed, 04 Mar 2009 00:53:15 +0000

@Georgina I think I gave up any hope after the cunt reference which happens about a third of the way in and after several couplings.

By: Georgina

Georgina — Wed, 04 Mar 2009 00:25:29 +0000

Even if the rest of the book sounded amazing, I don’t think I could get past the hero throwing the heroine’s husband’s suicide in her face like that. God, that’s awful.

By: Susan

Susan — Tue, 03 Mar 2009 23:39:49 +0000

I just finished it and totally agree with the review. I have enjoyed her past historicals but this one was a disappointment. I never got the sense that the hero was really in “love” with the heroine. His constant going back and forth between the heroine and his exes was over the top! It was annoying that he had to jump in the sack to prove that sex with Rosalind was DIFFERENT and not the run of the mill sex act therefore there was something “special” between them!! It lacked the “romance” factor for me. Both leads weren’t that likable. Book is heading to the USB.

By: joanne

joanne — Tue, 03 Mar 2009 23:28:24 +0000

I’ve been so in the mood for Historical Romances — now I’ll head back to my TBR pile — and giving this one a shake of the head for sounding like more fodder for every snide romance book joke ever told.

He’s not a hero I could care about and she’s not a heroine I could spend time with without shaking her — hard. A few of the relatively recent contemporary novels I read by Johnson made me wonder if she even likes women. Or men. Or writing romance books.

By: RStewie

RStewie — Tue, 03 Mar 2009 22:12:16 +0000

Is that last quote about the cunt from the book?!! I can’t believe that!

By: Radish

Radish — Tue, 03 Mar 2009 21:58:06 +0000

Ick. Abuse of the heroine by the ‘hero’, whether physical or verbal, is an instant turn-off for me. By that first excerpt, it’s easy to see this jerk is guilty of both.

I need a hero I can admire, not some vermin I’d want to shoot on sight.

By: vanessa jaye

vanessa jaye — Tue, 03 Mar 2009 20:50:12 +0000

btw, forgot to add, this landed on my to buy list previously, in part because of the B it received on AAR a week or so ago. The reviewer there thought it was a return to classic Susan Johnson romance and found both the H/h likable. It’ll be interesting to see which review comes close my own eventual experience.

By: MCHalliday

MCHalliday — Tue, 03 Mar 2009 20:27:57 +0000

It was tiresome, soulless, and sad.

Crikey! Although from the review comments, your assessment comes as no surprise and I’d likely feel the same way, I have to wonder why the editor of GaS wouldn’t be left with the same feeling. I suppose best selling authors are able to present any ms based on your mention, “Even though the last few contemporaries were weak on plot and characterization, I eagerly anticipated this title because it was a historical.”

HelenKay, it seems to me, Jane summed up her issue here:

…the entire book herein Fitz acts hateful and Rosalind is impotent.

By: HelenKay Dimon

HelenKay Dimon — Tue, 03 Mar 2009 19:25:43 +0000

Wow. I’m thinking soulless is a pretty strong statement for a romance. Is it that there’s no redemption for Fitz’s assholeness (yeah, I made up a word but it seems to fit from the description) or a bigger issue in that the book left you feeling empty?

By: vanessa jaye

vanessa jaye — Tue, 03 Mar 2009 19:03:36 +0000

1. I laughed most of the way through this review.
2. I just remembered that ‘flashing’ is to Ms. Johnson as ellipses is to Ms. Cartland.
3. This book sounds deliciously over the top of Mt. Alpha with a swift decent into the verdant, moist, heaving valley of Boink.
4. I’ll be buying it after work. tra-la-la-la ::skips away::