Willy W. reviewed on + 503 more book reviews
Boring. I found the reviews here more memorable than the book itself.
Rape scene - not really. I do think there are rape scenes in certain romance novels that just make you angry, where it feels like the hero has crossed the line into real villainy. I think scenes like the one in this book are more about sexual dominance, which I interpreted as a turn-on for the heroine. It is, in fact, a pretty common theme in historical romance. I would even argue that part of the reason many women read historical romance is the very different attitudes and treatment of women. We don't want to be treated like property in real life, but there is something a little sexy reading about it. Many, many historical (and paranormal) books have the hero referring to the woman as "mine" and talking about ownership, always in the bedroom. Outside the bedroom they are always equals, in sex, there is a certain mastery that the hero inevitably has over the heroine. However, specific to this book, the love scenes were more eye-rolling than anything else. Dodd wrote such sexy scenes in her paranormal books, what happened here? I get that this is fantasy and the unreality of these love scenes is part of the fun, but the woman having so many orgasms she loses count just seems silly. And frankly some of the things she described sounded uncomfortable and painful, not sexy. Not a turn not, but not anger-inducing, just disappointing.
Having read Christina Dodd's contemporary paranormal series, I had much higher expectations for her historical romance. Sadly, she is just not the same writer in the historical genre as with paranormal. This is my second attempt at a Dodd historical and probably my last. The story was plodding and over-long. The hero and heroine were rather interesting characters but there just wasn't enough happening, in either the plot or the romance, to keep the book interesting. Too many things were obvious to the reader and it's difficult to tell if Dodd just thinks readers are all monumentally stupid or if she thinks that we all like to read 400 pages of knowing exactly what is going to happen. And worst of all was her having the character of the psychic who told Emma's future (once again letting us know exactly what will happen in advance) but never actually having that foreseeing be part of the story. What was the point? Just to make sure there wasn't a single surprise in store for us???
Rape scene - not really. I do think there are rape scenes in certain romance novels that just make you angry, where it feels like the hero has crossed the line into real villainy. I think scenes like the one in this book are more about sexual dominance, which I interpreted as a turn-on for the heroine. It is, in fact, a pretty common theme in historical romance. I would even argue that part of the reason many women read historical romance is the very different attitudes and treatment of women. We don't want to be treated like property in real life, but there is something a little sexy reading about it. Many, many historical (and paranormal) books have the hero referring to the woman as "mine" and talking about ownership, always in the bedroom. Outside the bedroom they are always equals, in sex, there is a certain mastery that the hero inevitably has over the heroine. However, specific to this book, the love scenes were more eye-rolling than anything else. Dodd wrote such sexy scenes in her paranormal books, what happened here? I get that this is fantasy and the unreality of these love scenes is part of the fun, but the woman having so many orgasms she loses count just seems silly. And frankly some of the things she described sounded uncomfortable and painful, not sexy. Not a turn not, but not anger-inducing, just disappointing.
Having read Christina Dodd's contemporary paranormal series, I had much higher expectations for her historical romance. Sadly, she is just not the same writer in the historical genre as with paranormal. This is my second attempt at a Dodd historical and probably my last. The story was plodding and over-long. The hero and heroine were rather interesting characters but there just wasn't enough happening, in either the plot or the romance, to keep the book interesting. Too many things were obvious to the reader and it's difficult to tell if Dodd just thinks readers are all monumentally stupid or if she thinks that we all like to read 400 pages of knowing exactly what is going to happen. And worst of all was her having the character of the psychic who told Emma's future (once again letting us know exactly what will happen in advance) but never actually having that foreseeing be part of the story. What was the point? Just to make sure there wasn't a single surprise in store for us???
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