I love romance novels. They're fun, easy to read, and almost always have a happy for now/ever after ending. And because I read for pleasure, a happy ending is often what I'm searching for. Especially if I'm reading books to get away from reading the news. Or academic papers that tend to require a great deal of brain power to absorb. Romance novels are a get-away for me. And they're also a relatively healthy and safe way to explore my own sexuality. Suffice it to say, I read a lot of romance novels, and while I have my favorite sub-genres I'm excited to read most of them regardless. So when I heard about The Bromance Book Club I was very intrigued. As with every genre, romance has tropes and cliches that can be hard to avoid. Dedicated readers of a genre are likely to overlook some of these since it is very difficult to avoid them, but that means that when a book comes along that seems to defy traditional happenings those readers snap to attention. And I was no different. I hadn't even read a synopsis of the book before I knew that it had the potential to turn things on their heads. The title says it all. Bromance. Now, I've read both homosexual and heterosexual romances. They both have great and not-so-great authors and books. They've both been around for hundreds and hundreds of years. Probably thousands of thousands of years. That isn't the -- dare I say it -- revolutionary bit of this title. The revolutionary bit of this title is that it implies heterosexual males are in a book club that reads romance novels. Mind = blown. Not because men shouldn't be reading romances, but because they so rarely are depicted doing so. Traditionally, romance novels are books written by women for women. This is the greatest strength, and to some extent greatest weakness, of the romance novel genre. Romance novels are considered the pornography of the literary universe by many people. They're "trashy." They aren't intellectual enough. They give women unrealistic expectations of sex, romance, and life in general. If anyone reading this blog post agrees with any of that, I suggest Dangerous Books for Girls: The Bad Reputation of Romance Novels Explained by Maya Rodale. It's an important read that addresses all those things in greater detail and with more references than I will here. But moving on, romance novels also allow women to have expectations of the men in their lives. They let women dream of things that are better than the world we live in, and they do so without being written from the perspective of male authors. Admittedly, the romance genre has a lot of issues with diversity. It's incredibly white-washed and skinny-washed. That is something that hopefully will continue to change. But this book, The Bromance Book Club, normalizes the idea that anyone can, and perhaps should, read romance novels. That is where its power lies. The Bromance Book Club is about a marriage on the rocks. She isn't happy. Hasn't been for a while. He took her for granted but doesn't want to lose her. He is also a man who has been mired in toxic masculinity his entire life. Whose ego is so damaged by the way she's been unhappy, that he can't see a way to fix it. So what are his friends to do? Initiate him into the bromance book club. Of course, he's reluctant. Romance novels aren't supposed to be read by men. It's just porn, right? Wrong, his friends say. It's a road map. Now follow our multi-step program and get your wife, and your happy life, back. So he does. Lyssa Kay Adams tackles really important ideas in this book, and I have high hopes that she will continue to tackle them in the future. First, she acknowledges the reputation that romance novels have but while she does that she makes a case for them. And she does so without throwing it in your face. It's done through the story. She also acknowledges that romance novels can give people unrealistic expectations of the world...just like everything else. The question is whether you also believe that people are going to be smart enough to take fictional stories with the appropriate grains of salt. She normalizes the idea that any person can read any book, even if that isn't what society tells us. Romance isn't just for women. Science fiction space operas aren't just for boys. And finally? She shows us that relationships don't stop at the wedding. That's when the journey is just beginning. And while dreams can help us get through the years, communication and work is what makes a relationship strong. Often romance novels can feel contrived, but The Bromance Book Club feels very real. Usually I don't suggest romance novels for everyone. I'm well aware that they aren't everyone's cup of tea and I'm not going to force my tea preferences on others. However, I do think everyone should read this book. Not for the sexy bits. Not for the happily for now/ever after. But for the statements it makes about keeping a relationship strong and how it is possible to be masculine while being vulnerable. They aren't mutually exclusive. Happy Reading!
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L'Shanah Tova everyone! Happy New Year! May the coming year be sweet and prosperous. Also, may it be full of books. ;) I'm getting back in the reviewing game with this week's blog post, and it may involve a lot of fangirling on my part, because I was introduced to Penny Reid as an author this year and I LOVE her books. So, first off, she is a romance author, if you've read some of my other posts you know I read a lot of those, but as an author she also tackles some heavy things like mental illness, racism, corruption, etc., in her stories. She also writes hilarious books/characters, so even though she can write about intense subjects, there's enough lightness that a reader has a hard time turning away just because they don't want to deal with real questions. Which means that even if a reader doesn't want to deal with the implications of hard things in our world, they'll get some form of reflection on these topics done because they are important to the story. Anyway, on to the review.
Trigger Warning: Sexual assault, abuse, The Laws of Physics is actually a serial of three books about the same characters. It could be considered a second-chance romance but it has a slightly different feel from many books in that category because you don't realize until the second installment that that is what's going to happen. But moving on, this particular series of Penny Reid's deals with complicated family dynamics, consent, and sexual assault, all while exploring the sweet love story of a genius physicist and a musician. And when I say genius physicist, I mean she was working on her undergraduate degree when she was fifteen and she was getting ready to start her doctorate at eighteen. The scene opens with Mona DaVinci taking a call from her twin sister Lisa DaVinci where she is convinced to pull a Parent Trap and take her sister's place at home for about a week. Now, Mona won't be replacing Lisa for her parents (who are famous musicians, by the way), but rather for a man she doesn't know but who is a friend of their older brother, Leo, and is meant to keep an eye on Lisa until their parents get home. Lisa need's Mona's help because, well, she's been arrested. So, long story short, Mona agrees, gets to Chicago, and spends an intense week with a man who is hot, intense, funny, and kind. A guy most women would have a hard time not falling for. A guy who also supposedly hates liars. And queue the entire love story. Now, that's just the first book, and you really should read the book because it's way funnier and nuanced than my spur of the moment summary. Penny Reid does something that I need when I read a book, she creates characters I care about. Characters I want to know more about. While no one is a reader geared towards only one aspect of the book, characters often make or break a book for me. I have a really hard time engaging with and liking books where I cannot connect with or be intrigued by the characters. Books that are good books, that are written well, that have beautiful language, setting, and tone, but don't have characters I'm interested in? I'll usually finish them, but I'll also probably give them a 2-star rating on GoodReads (though I will, of course, explain such a rating and make sure others know they may still like the book). Anyway, Penny Reid does a wonderful job with her characters. I laugh, I cry, I often yell when they're being idiots...In short, she makes them feel real, and so I end up loving them. If you're into contemporary romance novels, give Penny Reid a try. She doesn't disappoint. And if you like romance novels that break into deep topics, definitely give her a read. And if you really just want to read a funny, sexy, light, novel, you'll be okay with her too. So go forth and read Penny Reid! And if you do, let me know what you think. You might not become a fan, but even if you don't, I'd love to talk with you about your thoughts on her books. Happy Reading! I'm not necessarily going to be discussing a single book in this book review post, but I am going to be addressing a topic that I think is interesting based on a book I recently read and reviewed on GoodReads. Since I'm in Colorado now, I have access to a series of books that weren't at the Arlington/DC libraries. Now, over the past five years I had read this series two times, and I'm starting my third time through. It's a paranormal-ish romance series, and like I said, I'm reading it for the third time. The concept is one that I enjoy despite how horribly it portrays human nature (or perhaps because it helps portray the racism, bigotry, and idiocy of current society in a way that is "safe" and might potentially get through to those of us who somehow can't quite connect the dots between things our current political landscape is allowing and things that happen in genocides), where humans have been kept as scientific subjects by a corporation working on "super soldiers"/medical improvements and been genetically enhanced in some way but the public found out, the people are rescued, and now the government is trying to figure out how to cover their butts since they were a major funder of the research. So now the former test-subjects have been given some/full autonomy while remaining US citizens and have their own places to live, but of course hate groups happen and say that these people don't have a right to exist. You can imagine what happens next, especially since these are romance. ;)
Stories/series like this have always been compelling to me. I started with Lora Leigh's Breeds series and then catapulted off into similar but slightly different series'. And many of them were well-written. Lora Leigh's writing is great (though it has grown a lot since the first book of the Breeds), and Cynthia Eden is no slough either. However, this series that I'm re-reading now, is a little different. Laurann Dohner's New Species series is one I used as a template for the explanation above. I enjoy the concept. And like I've mentioned a few times, this isn't my first rodeo through her books. But her writing technique...leaves something to be desired. I think I noticed that in the first and second read-throughs, but it is more apparent now than I remember it being. Of course, writing and the response to writing is highly subjective (which is why many of the math people I know state they like math more), but there are still some objective ways to tell if a story is well written. For example, using passive voice isn't the greatest strategy for a novel. It sort of creates a disconnect between the character and what they are feeling/doing. Stating that "this occurrence made me feel terrified" is vastly different than stating "this occurrence terrified me." One is choppy and one is not. One "tells" the reader and one "shows" the reader. Do you remember which one your fifth grade composition teacher liked more? Because I do. Another example is dialogue and the use of contractions. Dialogue is super important for novels that have a lot of talking, and most romance novels have a lot of talking. But in modern times, contractions (i.e., isn't instead of is not, couldn't instead of could not, it's instead of it is, etc.,) are used frequently in speech. As such, dialogue in books that has sparse contractions doesn't read as smoothly. It doesn't mimic speech as we hear it in our every day lives and so it doesn't "sound" as good when we read it (even when we're not reading aloud). Contractions are so important that not including them can sometimes even change the intonation of characters for me, which can change the meaning of what they say. And if that changed meaning doesn't jive with what's happening in the story? Well, that means I have to stop, go back, re-read, and as a reader that's frustrating. But somehow, despite the examples above being prevalent in the New Species series, I'm reading it for the third time in 5 years! And you know what? Even though I'm really noticing these writing issues, I'm not going to stop. I want to keep reading. I'm almost compelled to keep reading. Now, my personal opinion is that Laurann Dohner has crafted a world and characters well and because those are more important to me in terms of whether I like a book, I'll keep reading because of them. Which is great. But here's my conundrum. I like to leave reviews and ratings that are helpful to other people. I usually rate/write reviews on Goodreads. But how do I quantify books that aren't technically well-written but I keep coming back to? Many people don't read the actual reviews, so even if I go through and explain that a higher rating is because I've re-read the book so many times people may not know that's why I'm giving it four out of five stars. And if they trust my judgement and go only off my rating but see all the issues with the writing and stop, does that mean I've "failed" them with my review? My personal opinion is that I'm going to give it a high rating because something about that book/series is good enough that I came back for more, but I'm not the only reviewer out there. What's your opinion on this? Would you give a high rating to a book you've re-read multiple times even if the writing technique is bad? Or do you base your ratings mostly on technique and don't care if you've read it multiple times if the writings bad? What do you wish other reviewers would do? Let me know in the comments! Happy Reading! So for those of you who don't know yet, because I don't believe I've done much with them on this blog so far, I am an avid romance reader. As in, you'll see my Goodreads feed full of them, with a sprinkling of Fantasy and Science Fiction and YA and maybe a very small dash of non-fiction in the form of memoirs. I LOVE romance novels. That being said, my baseline rating on Goodreads is three stars. Which means I liked the book, but it wasn't necessarily phenomenal enough that I would get super animated when telling you about it unless it pertained to a conversation we were already having; that's reserved for four star books. And five star books are those that I suggest everyone read even if I know it's not their usual cup of tea. But I digress. Today, you all get to experience my love of romance novels because I'm going to review one for you: The Unhoneymooners by Christina Lauren.
Now, Christina Lauren is actually two separate authors writing as one. They've written a lot of romances, and most of them that I've read I've enjoyed. And the book is written seamlessly enough that, as far as I personally can tell, you don't notice that there is more than one author. Christina Lauren's books are usually fun, snarky, and a nice break from the world, and The Unhoneymooners does not disappoint on that score. Like some of the other books I've read, this is an "enemies to lovers" contemporary romance, but there's also a little twist: turns out, the heroine's twin sister just married the hero's older brother. In a non-romance novel, this wouldn't necessarily be a big deal. It may cause a little extra strife during holidays, but as long as no one actively tried to kill someone life would go on. But this is a romance novel. Which means that things do go wrong, and it results in the heroine and hero going on the honeymoon meant for their siblings. Our heroine has to pretend to be her sister, since the honeymoon is paid for by contest winnings and anyone other than the winner going is considered fraud. The hero is, of course, off the hook, since he has the same last name as his brother and the "designated guest" of the winner was only listed by last name. So these two new in-laws who hate each other now have to pretend to be married or the whole thing goes up in flame and she has to also pretend to be her sister. To up the stakes, as though they weren't high enough already, her new boss is there and his ex-girlfriend who broke his heart is there, both thinking that our heroine and hero are themselves and married, all while the resort staff think they're other people and married. In short, it's a mess. But this is romance! So it all works out in the end. ;) I enjoyed this book a lot. I don't normally go for "enemies to lovers," because sometimes it feels icky depending on how the author presents it. This particular arc was based on a misunderstanding and some duplicity on the part of the recently married husband (SPOILER: he's a jerk, and much stronger words too). While that's still a little problematic, it's not as worrying as some of the stories I've read that include power differentials between the characters that make it more like blackmail and/or harassment. If you're looking for a fun, snarky, and romantic read for the summer, I definitely suggest this book. Do be aware that there are explicit sexual scenes though. What's a summer read you suggest? Let me know in the comments. And if you end up reading this book, let me know so we can talk about it. Happy reading! |
AuthorThe author is a librarian who reads "too much" (is there such a thing?) and talks just as much. As an aspiring author she gets bogged down by grammar rules when she just wants to forget them to make a sentence flow, but never seems to be able to. She appreciates thoughtful comments and constructive criticism, but internet trolls beware, she's read enough fantasy novels to know how to defeat the monsters. Archives
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