Jul 31 2012
I love the show Girls on HBO. Are you watching this? I’ll spare you the recap, you can read about it here. But the reason I love this show is the very same reason it’s getting criticised. Every character on the show is selfish in turns. Petty and self-absorbed as only twenty-something girls can(…)
Mar 6 2012
I asked Molly O’Keefe and Caitlin Crews if they would share some thoughts on shame and the romance heroine. The two were obvious choices for me because Crews and O’Keefe both write about the topics in their books. In the Disgraced Playboy, the heroine’s entire life is shaped by some modeling photos she had done(…)
Nov 22 2011
Heroines in romance have great latitude. They can be rich and very poor. They can be successful and a failiure. They can be pretty, dumpy, funny, dour. They are not all extracted from the same hard body mold like the hero. The heroine’s own agency can provide a source of conflict for the romance. For(…)
Oct 25 2011
Like many romance fans, I recently read the newest book by Loretta Chase, Silk Is For Seduction. Like many fans, I too loved it. It is a great example of the qualities I look for in a romance: interesting characters, engaging storyline and witty, sometimes startlingly funny, dialogue. It also seemed refreshingly different. Now, I’ve(…)
Aug 30 2011
Back in April, I had an exchange with poster Liza Lester in response to Janine’s review of Petals and Thorns. Liza wrote: But it occurred to me that if the forced seduction were presented as (rather mild, actually) BDSM erotica, if it were explicitly a game, or limited to a scene, I would have no(…)
Jun 28 2011
I tend to read for three things: a visceral response, a delightful and interesting use of language, and character. While genre fiction often relies on plot rather than prose to compel the reader forward, I firmly believe that the best plots are rooted in character. Even if the plot of the novel is a quest(…)
Jan 6 2011
Publisher talks with Borders do not appear to be promising according to the Publishers’ Weekly article. Brian Keene (who broke news about Dorchester) states that several Borders employees reported to him that they have been told to look for other jobs. Sarah Weinman, over at Daily Finance, says that Barnes & Noble will pick up(…)
Oct 13 2009
In reading reviews of Tessa Dare’s book, Goddess of the Hunt, and of Louisa Edwards‘, Can’t Stand the Heat, I noticed there were often comments about the female protagonists, or heroines, of the stories as not being very likeable. I know I struggled with Miranda, the heroine in Can’t Stand the Heat. I thought I(…)
Aug 17 2009
At the Popular Romance Studies: International Conference, organised by the International Association for the Study of Popular Romance (IASPR), there was a brief discussion to explore this question: Are older under-represented in the romance genre? If so, why? Good questions. The average age of heroine in U.S. romance novels is between 24-26 (and possibly younger in historical romance). And(…)
Sep 23 2008
more animals “There’s an infantilising of women in these programmes – they fall off their high heels or are still obsessed with handbags in their thirties,” agrees Geraghty. “And there’s an acceptance of a completely feminine persona, while many women do not see themselves as pink and fluffy. “If you go back to the 1930s(…)
May 27 2008
Over the past couple of months I have read a handful of books in which the heroine resists a relationship with the hero. I’m not talking about the "Oh, I really shouldn’t’ women, or the "no means yes’ girls, the females who are just playing coy so as not to appear desperate, or even the(…)
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