It’s Friday, the Friday before Mother’s Day, which means I can look forward to a weekend where I don’t have to do quite as much as usual.
Happy Mother’s Day to all you moms out there. Sleep late for me.
And, unlike in many of the weeks prior to this one, I actually wrote. So yay!
[SPOILER ALERT–I tried to work the font so you wouldn’t be spoiled, but it’s so not working, so be warned]
Now onto some reading commentary; I started reading Eileen Dreyer’s Never A Gentleman because of a review HeroesandHeartbreakers.com (the site I work for) posted. And, OMG, she breaks one of the most cardinal rules in romance novels:
Her hero has sex with another woman after marrying the heroine.
And Dreyer makes it work. I am loving this book, and it breaks some other rules, too; the heroine is nearly six feet tall, plain, with a limp. Of course, being a romance novel, you think she’s going to get transformed into some statuesque beauty with the clever application of clothing, cosmetics, make a haircut; yes, she is made more attractive by some better clothing, but she is still plain–which the hero acknowledges after falling in love with her. And he is still very much attracted to her because of her mind, her wit, her honor.
I personally love it when authors stand conventions on their head. I know the spoiler above is a total deal-breaker for most readers, but in this context, for me, it worked.
What are other deal-breakers? Who’s the author who breaks convention the most?
I have no deal breakers anymore. Any time I think I identify one, some author proves me wrong.
Take that back, I just remembered one: a story in which the heroine sees what she thinks is the hero’s corpse on a battlefield and is turned on. I guess necrophilia is my deal breaker!
Elena:
Yuk! I finished this book on the subway; it ended not as great as the first part, but still satisfying.
I think necrophilia might be a deal breaker for me, too. And I suppose an abusive hero or heroine is a deal breaker for me, too. Cruelty to animals and children…Perversion….
The cousin thing kinda killed Mansfield Park for me. But it may not have been a total dealbreaker if Edmund wasn’t such a stick and Fanny such a dishcloth.
Why oh why do heroines have to veer toward the grotesque? What’s wrong with a heroine who can acknowledge that she’s no great beauty but she’s not going to break the mirror??? And can clean up ok?
Heavy sigh.
LOL. I would also like to see attractive-enough heroines…
And that would not necessarily be a deal-breaker for me–it would depend on WHY he had sex with someone else. Necrophilia, though–ewwww
A cruel and abusive hero or heroine would definitely be a deal breaker. Yes it could set the stage for redemption, but abusive individuals don’t often change their behavior.
I was going to say rape, but I remember one of the very first romances had the heroine being forced to rape the hero. It was quite a plot twist and done well. You would have to read it. I hope I have it stashed some where, it need to reread it and see what I think.
Necrophilia, no thanks.