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I think I'm in love
Feb. 12th, 2004 04:10 pmJulian Kestrel rocks my world. Thank you, Kate Ross. Thank you, Noire, for putting her books firmly in my hands and insisting I would like them. _Cut to the Quick_ is the first Regency novel I've read more than 10 pages of, if you don't count _Freedom and Necessity_. I loved it, despite my awareness that it positively drips with girl-cooties. Yes, it's a mystery, more than a romance, but I was still uncomfortable being seen reading it as I walked in to work yesterday (not so uncomfortable as to actually stop - I wanted to see what happened next!)
I think I tried reading one of Georgette Heyer's mysteries, on the recommendation of another friend, some 15 years ago. It just irritated me. (As I said, less than 10 pages.) I don't know if it was a matter of wrong book, wrong reader, or wrong time. I wonder if I would have appreciated _Cut to the Quick_ if I didn't have previous experience reading Lois McMaster Bujold, Kate Wilhelm, Joan Aiken. If I hadn't spent the last few months reading LJ booklogs by people whose tastes range from mine to well over into the straight romance genre.
I'm a big fan of Gillian Bradshaw, whose books generally aren't marketed or labelled as romances. (A good thing for my sense of public dignity, I tell you.) Anyhow, Gillian Bradshaw writes a kind of novel structured like a romance, as far as I can tell from outside the genre, but about a man. And with the relationship issues starting in the background. _Island of Ghosts_ and _The Bearkeeper's Daughter_ both do this very well. I think _Render Unto Caeser_ does the same thing, not quite as well. _The Sand-Reckoner_ just makes me gibber in awe, but this is also a romance, right?
I think I tried reading one of Georgette Heyer's mysteries, on the recommendation of another friend, some 15 years ago. It just irritated me. (As I said, less than 10 pages.) I don't know if it was a matter of wrong book, wrong reader, or wrong time. I wonder if I would have appreciated _Cut to the Quick_ if I didn't have previous experience reading Lois McMaster Bujold, Kate Wilhelm, Joan Aiken. If I hadn't spent the last few months reading LJ booklogs by people whose tastes range from mine to well over into the straight romance genre.
I'm a big fan of Gillian Bradshaw, whose books generally aren't marketed or labelled as romances. (A good thing for my sense of public dignity, I tell you.) Anyhow, Gillian Bradshaw writes a kind of novel structured like a romance, as far as I can tell from outside the genre, but about a man. And with the relationship issues starting in the background. _Island of Ghosts_ and _The Bearkeeper's Daughter_ both do this very well. I think _Render Unto Caeser_ does the same thing, not quite as well. _The Sand-Reckoner_ just makes me gibber in awe, but this is also a romance, right?
