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Continuing our discussion from yesterday, here is the list of the books brought up in the Comments area:
1) Sweet Savage Love--Rosemary Rogers
Classic, classic Alpha Jerkosaurus (thanks to Vanessa Jaye's cleverness!) hero. Steve Morgan did all the taboo stuff, including rape our poor heroine over and over. So why do I remember what he looks like in my head (fashioned after Clint Eastwood), the seduction scenes, and the ending? The part I always skipped are the part when Ginny was gang-raped. It was totally a nasty, adult world to my 12 year-old mind, reading about this man who kept rejecting this woman, and yet couldn't resist her whenever she showed up in his life.
2) Sweet Fire--Johanna Lindsey
Arggh, so wrong. Kidnapped and raped, then bullied and whipped by hero's mom, if I remember correctly. Yet, it is on my Keeper Shelf, wtf? And I know I reread it at least six or seven times in the last decade ;-). What is wrong with me?!
3) Paradise--Judith McNaught
Wonderful tycoon single title. All the fiddles playing in the world. Revenge plot.
4) Any historical by Catherine Coulter, who no longer writes romance
I think I remember that particular Viking title now--was it Seasons of The Sun? Slave girl?
5) Presents line Alpha. Remember, for me, it's not the story, it's the emotional charge I get from the scenes. And learned the craft from. This is for Vanessa Jaye:
Very old Presents, so hard to find:
The Ultimate Betrayal--Michelle Reid
Tiger, Tiger--Robyn Donald
The Price of A Bride--Michelle Reid
A Secret Sorrow--Karen Van Der Zee (she also wrote one set in Malaysia that was very, very good. I love VdZ. I need to look for those books for a reread)
6) Cutting Edge--Linda Howard
Very Alpha Knuckle-Dragger! And what he did to the heroine-bah!
7) Sarah's Child--Linda Howard
Actually the prelude to Cutting Edge. Another silent suffering type heroine. What the hero did set new-school romance readers' teeth on edge. And it makes me feel guilty to admit that I shed tears when I first read this book. And I still reread it for the emotional impact.
8) At The End Of The World--Elizabeth Lowell
Will make you consider murder of Alpha Jerkersaurus. Honestly. So, so, so many things wrong with his manners. But why do I sob along like it's some B Grade heartbreaker movie?
Okay, your turn. Write down a very politically incorrect rec that make other readers sneer but you still reread!
Wednesday, October 03, 2007
If They Were So Bad, Why Do We Keep Them?
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11 comments:
OMG! "At the End of the World" I don't recognize that title and if I haven't read a novel by Lowell I will just absolutely freak out. What is it about?
One of my favorites is "Chain Lightning" by Lowell. It never fails to make me tear up.
-sarah
Older Susan Johnson books, the Russian ones! Sinful and Pure Sin...
Johanna Lindsey - Paradise and a couple of others. S Busbee Lady Vixen and the Spanish Rose. The Flame and the Flower, Kathleen W. My very 1st ever These golden pleasures, 1977/Nov Valerie Sherwood and of course Rosemary Rogers with Sweet Savage Love and Dark Fires.
I also wikied Rosemary and Valerie and it was fascinating!
Sarah's Child?!?! As in ROMAN-You-Suck-You-Freakin-Jerk-Even-As-I-Cry-And-Feel-Your-Pain? ;-)
Good call. lol.
::furiously scribbling down the rest::
I vaguely remember Anne Mathers, Violet Windspear and Penny Jordan writing some teeth-on-edge Alpha's in their day.
Well, Paradise is by Judith McNaught :) and I liked that one very much. My fav book by her. Most of her Regency era books had rough heros, and I loved 'em all. But seriously, I adored Matt Farrell in Paradise.
Rosemary Rogers I've read 3 of her books including Sweet Savage Love. At the time, I was fascinated, but now, I shudder. What on earth was I thinking.
Funny story. I read gothic romances before I got into real romance, so lots of mystery and intrigue but not much sex, if any. One of my total fav authors was Victoria Holt. Her book Demon Lover included a drugged rape. I was in high school when I read it so you can imagine the stir it caused in a Catholic HS with me wandering around with that book. LOL
A lot of Linda Howard's early books follow Rome's pattern. But even though this one doesn't totally fir the pattern my all time fav by her is Against the Rules. OMG! I *love* Rule Jackson. Hehe
Meagan McKinney's Lions and Lace is still one of my favs too. Totally tortured hero. The sequel (her sister's story) Fair is the Rose is good too.
Last Bridge Home, the opening book in the Sedikan series is really good too - it is a paranormal.
Oh, and I want to say this is a Penny Jordan but I honestly don't remember anything other than that the heroine's name is Serena and that she's engaged to marry some divorced guy who is still in love with his ex-wife, who loves him back. The hero is some singer and he has a nasty mouth on him!
Almost all of Diana Palmer's books have have drive me crazy heros who have difficulties with age differences. Hah! The idiots, but I love that plotline for some reason. So I read them over and over. LOL
I think it has a lot to do with the fact that my parents are 20 years apart and I'm 11 years younger than my dh. I've always gone for the older guy. :)
Oh yeah, Rosemary Roger's Sweet Savage Love. Awesome bad Alpha! Today, the forum board chicas will chew that book into small pieces of pulp! LOL. You know what, everything he did to Ginny was so wrong, but I was totally riveted by the whole Western feel of the historical, the way Ginny's family was so nice and "civilized" compared to Steve and his bandido world. I didn't like her being put down into his level, but she was spirited and survived all that the darn author threw at her, LOL. She even learned to wield the knife better than the bitch ho! Yikes, I'm embarrassed I can remember so many details of that book that I haven't read in 30 years! Scary!
My contribution to totally politically incorrect books but still my favorite rereads are Christina Dodd's A Well-Pleasured Lady and A Well-Favored Gentleman. Forced seduction to the max! Horrifying to new school romance readers, I'm sure, but I love those two books. The second story, especially, is unusual, to say the least, because it was a bit paranormal! That was so odd, since the first book that was connected wasn't paranormal at all.
Moonrise and Nightfall, both by Anne Stuart. Twisted, black-hearted alpha bad boys with their own agendas.
Sarah (the first),
okay, I went to my keeper shelf. The title is To the Ends of the Earth. Ha. I effed up again, but I was close ;-). Have you read it?
It's about a photographer who can't get pregnant who did* get pregnant after having an affair with a millionaire. He, of course, thinks she is trying to get him for his money. What ensues is all about the heroine's self-sacrifice. It's very, very melodramatic but it makes me weep every time I reread.
Okay, is chain lightning the one where the heroine dare not go into the water? That*** was a memorable scene, when the hero watched her try to get the courage to go in. Oh, that book is a fabulous read!
Sarah (the second),
Susan Johnson's historicals are my favorite. I don't think the heroes "cross the line" that much, though, but maybe it's me. She was, after all, the first erotic romance author for me, even though that sub-genre didn't exist when she wrote such the Kuzans series. Holy Hotness, the Kuzans! :P
Vanessa,
Yeah, that Roman, LOL. Total jerkosaurus Rex. Personally, the idea of marrying a man under those conditions gave me the willies, but the story, once I accept that that is what the heroine wanted, worked. I've seen stranger marriages worked.
Hope you like the books I mentioned.
Monique,
Wow, you have some great alpha-jerkosaurus examples. I haven't read Meagan McKinley in a while. Is she still writing?
Sorry about the McNaught/Deveraux faux pas. I have no idea why I did that because I Knew who wrote Paradise!
Rule tearing up his jeans trying to walk! Ha, classic scene.
I have a few great Diana Palmer somewhere. Haven't read her in a long while either.
Oh, btw, I didn't enjoy the second or third book of the Ginny and Steve saga so I never reread those. Never bought the last one either, LOL. I know they didn't change much and there were long separations in those books. By then, I wasn't interested in reading epic/sagas in romance.
Bella,
Isn't it funny how we can remember these things but can't remember normal everyday things?! My roofing partner can remember what roof he was on and what color shingles he put on that roof, but can't remember simple everyday stuff.
Those two Dodd books are on my keeper shelf! The hero in The Well-Pleasured Lady was a total Jerkosaurus!
Leilani,
Well, you know me and Anne Stuart. She be the goddess of bad boys ;-).
Sarah, Chain Lightning! That's my favorite Lowell, too!
To add to the list of guilty pleasures, Johanna Lindsey's Prisoner of My Desire! That's one where the girl forces herself on the guy to get pregnant. So un-PC, but still! I can't believe I remember the title and story, considering I haven't read it in 20 years.
Hmmm, can't talk about non PC books without mentioning Bertrice Small LOL. Hellion actually had a 3some in it. Needless to say I kept that one, LOL. I'm pretty much over her books, there are only so many females in one family who end up in a harem but I did have fun reading them at the time.
Janet Daily, Ride the Thunder
Karen Robards, To Love a Man
Kathleen,
I have a copy of Prisoner of My Desire somewhere! Lots of people hated that book but I thought it was sexy and edgy. You know, most of the summaries of these books' plots make them sound so bad, yet there are scenes in them that somehow stay in one's head forever. There must be something about those scenes, right?
Leiha,
I remember Hellion! One of the first with a real threesome, and the only Small I kept on my shelf. I don't feel comfortable reading Small because her heroines all start out underage and sold into sexual slavery. Sure it's authentic for the middle-ages but I can't get into it as a pleasure thing. Ugh. But Hellion was different and had a good twist on the Merlin plot.
Tressa,
OMG, I forgot about Robards oldies but goodies! To Love A Man was good but the one I always remember is Wild Orchids (I hope that's the title). Her Alphas were total Jerkosaurus Rex but so yummy at the same time!
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