Comments on: REVIEW: Something Wicked by Kalen Hughes

By: Jia

Jia — Fri, 15 Aug 2008 22:45:44 +0000

Another observation for new/wannabe authors: If you carry yourself with humor and grace on the internet, you just might get me interested in your work.

After Hughes’s hilarious comments in the recent merfolk & selkie reviews, I went to her website and downloaded this short story. Because I enjoyed it, I intend to look for her books now. I really liked Eleanor and Wroxton. They just had a different feel as characters that I loved, and I hope the characters from her full-length novels have a similar quality too.

By: Jayne

Jayne — Wed, 06 Aug 2008 13:52:03 +0000

So there you go new/wannabe authors. Put up some freebie shorts/novellas on your websites and see if you can get some interest sparking. I know when people contact us at DA, offering their books for us to review, one of the first things a lot of us do is head to their websites to see if we can read any excerpts to gve us an idea of whether or not that author’s writing style will work for us.

By: Aoife

Aoife — Wed, 06 Aug 2008 13:35:14 +0000

spoilers for

These Old Shades

the adopted lower class son was denigrated and sneered at because he grew up to be a boorish oaf interested in farming, - quelle horreur! - but then what can one expect when a peasant is raised up beyond his station in life? The combo of this plus Leonie bridling like a Thoroughbred on speed went overboard for me.

Jayne, I certainly don’t disagree with you. It’s not an attitude you see much of in more recently written books, is it? Or perhaps the attitude is expressed a little more carefully, I’m not sure.

Estara, I can’t say that the age difference ever bothered me much, probably because, like you, I knew quite a few couples who had very successful marriages in spite of (or because of?)similar age gaps.

And, I very much enjoyed Something Wicked.

By: Vanessa

Vanessa — Wed, 06 Aug 2008 02:50:00 +0000

Crawling out of lurkdom to say that I just downloaded and read this, and it’s pretty freaking excellent. I agree with thinking that the end was a shade abrupt, but that is the only bad thing I can think of. And that’s only bad because I wanted to read so much more about the couple. Count me in with people who have been convinced to buy a book because of a free short, I’m definitely going to look for Lord Sin and Lord Scandal when I hit Borders tomorrow.

By: Jayne

Jayne — Tue, 05 Aug 2008 22:16:58 +0000

Aoife, I agree that TOS isn’t the only book with the ‘innate gentility’ thing going but I also recall how much –

ooops

spoilers for

These Old Shades

the adopted lower class son was denigrated and sneered at because he grew up to be a boorish oaf interested in farming, - quelle horreur! - but then what can one expect when a peasant is raised up beyond his station in life? The combo of this plus Leonie bridling like a Thoroughbred on speed went overboard for me.

By: Estara

Estara — Tue, 05 Aug 2008 18:13:59 +0000

@ Jayne and Aoife: you’re both right, I never considered that though because I felt it was part of the mindset of the time - I also never had a problem with Leonie being so much younger than the Duke, because that was also not untypical at the time - my Syrian grandmother was married at 13 years of age, my Dad tells me, and she must have had about 15 children, of which around 12 lived to adulthood.
My dad visited a brother in Kairo once when he must have been around… 55 and the brother was in his 80ies, I believe.

So that’s not so outlandish even these days ( I never asked whether she was happy with that, she WAS the unquestioned matriarch of the family though - her second husband having been dead since the 50ies).

@ Kalen: I believe in giving praise where praise is due ^^, your work is quite able to speak for itself

By: Aoife

Aoife — Tue, 05 Aug 2008 15:55:28 +0000

the idea that somehow Leonie has some innate sort of gentility. She has long tapered fingers, flies into tantrums and otherwise acts high strung so she therefore must be of the upper classes. It’s not the way she’s been raised - I could understand it if that was the reasoning behind it - but something in the blood. It pissed me off when I first read it and still does on any reread.

I think of this as The Princess and the Pea myth of the aristocracy, and TOS is far from the only place it pops up in Romance–in fact, I would say it’s an integral part of the genre. It’s annoying, and silly, but I rank it up there with Virgin Widows, Chicks in Britches, and Skanky Villain Sex in my personal list of Things that Require Major Suspension of Disbelief.

Thanks for the review of Something Wicked, I think I’ll give it a try.

By: Kalen Hughes

Kalen Hughes — Tue, 05 Aug 2008 15:54:58 +0000

Ok, I’m going to have a moment of total spazzy *SQUEE* here (you all know I’m a lurker here anyway). I’m so glad to see you enjoyed SW (I agree that it’s too short, but I wrote it as an Amazon Short, only to discover they canceled the program!). Maybe someday I’ll expand it into a full novel . . . I’ve had quite a few emails requesting just that, LOL!

And any comparisons ever made to Heyer are A) probably accurate and B) make me a happy girl. I’ve read her books over and over, and her Georgian books simply ARE 18th century England in my head. I don’t lift directly (except that my characters do have “capacious pockets” and I love the word “puce”), but the influence is undeniable.

By: Lynne

Lynne — Mon, 04 Aug 2008 22:30:49 +0000

Jayne, that’s one of my biggest problems with TOS. They’re wayyy too hung up on Leonie being noble. Bleh.

By: SonomaLass

SonomaLass — Mon, 04 Aug 2008 21:21:34 +0000

I read Something Wicked as a free download, which I found when I was checking out the author’s web site because one of her books was in the DABWAHA tournament. I enjoyed the novella enough to put her other books on my TBR list.

Anyone from the industry tracking these things should see what’s up here. Reader/reviewer web sites generate interest and spread the word about authors, and free downloads lead directly to sales. Seems like a no-brainer to me.