Tag: Heroine Hating

The Smell of Desperation.

Posted October 12, 2011 by Holly in Discussions | 12 Comments

I recently read a contemporary romance novel where the heroine was 30 and desperate to get married. When I say desperate, I mean desperate enough to pay a matchmaker $1500 to set her up with her one true love. Only the matchmaker died, so her grandson had taken over the business. And naturally the grandson had an ulterior motive and no experience (and of course they fell in love in the end, because this was a romance novel), and was basically just bilking her out of the money. In other contemporary romance novels I’ve read, heroines have been so desperate that they’re willing to trap an man with pregnancy so he’ll marry her, or rape a man to get at baby.

My question is: Who are these women and do they really exist?

I’m skeptical, I admit. It’s not that I don’t think there are women out there who desperately want to get married or have a family. But with technology today, there are so many avenues to explore. I don’t understand why a woman would have to tie a man up and rape him to get pregnant. She could go to a local sperm bank and get the same results with a lot less hassle. If a woman wants to get married enough, tricking a man into having sex so she’ll get pregnant is silly. Especially with online dating sites and etc. If you’re going to marry a man, why not marry one who actually wants to marry you?

I think my biggest problem with these tropes is how it makes us, as women, look on the whole. A woman who is so naive she’ll shell out $1500 just for a chance at love? At 30 years old? Or one who will trap a man into marriage by getting pregnant on purpose, or worse, tying him up and raping him so she can get pregnant to have the baby she so desperately needs? These women make the rest of us look bad. Very bad.

Maybe I’m just being judgmental, but I’d like to see more strong, independent women in romance novels. Ones who don’t need a man to have a baby, or a baby to get a man. Where are the 30-somethings who have careers and are comfortable with themselves? Maybe they want a man in their life, but they aren’t so desperate they’ll resort to drastic measures to get one.


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Author Spotlight: Unforgivable Heroines

Posted September 10, 2009 by Holly in Features | 17 Comments

**SPOILER ALERT** This post is filled with spoilers about This Heart of Mine and Nobody’s Baby But Mine by Susan Elizabeth Phillips. If you haven’t read the book and don’t want be spoiled, please skip this post. **SPOILER ALERT**

SEP has never shied away from writing characters that skirt the line. We’ve talked about her heroes before – and probably will again. But what about her heroines? Specifically Molly Somerville from This Heart of Mine and Dr. Jane Darling from Nobody’s Baby But Mine.

In NBBM, Jane hates that she’s a genius. She’s felt cursed her entire life, and though she wants a child, is afraid she’d be cursing him/her the same way she was cursed. So she purposely gets pregnant by Cal Bonner, a man she assumes is an imbecile, by pretending to be a “lady of the night” his friends hired for his birthday. Afterward she disappeared, never planning to tell Cal that she was pregnant with his child.

I was never quite able to forgive her for that. Partly because for a smart woman she acted TSTL half the time, but mostly because her reasons were completely ridiculous. She didn’t want her child to be smart? Really? Because it’s every mother’s dream that her child be stupid, right? Plus, she was never remorseful, never once showed signs of regret for what she’d done.

Coupled with the fact that I didn’t care much for Cal – who was obnoxious and chauvinistic – and NBBM lands near the bottom of my list for her books. I didn’t hate it it, but it isn’t one I cared for enough to re-read (although it does have one of my all time favorite scenes in it – the cereal killer scene. Priceless!)

On the other hand, I adored This Heart of Mine, and many would argue that what Molly did was way worse than what Jane did.

Molly did something we’ve been castigating men over for centuries. She snuck into bed with Kevin when he was sleeping and took advantage of him. For no discernible reason (or not one I recall anyway). In essence she raped him.

Normally that would have been completely unforgivable for me. But in the end, I did forgive Molly. I even came to love her. And Kevin.

Why? I guess I’m not entirely sure. But I think it’s mostly because Molly then suffered – greatly – for what she’d done. She got pregnant after her night with Kevin, and ended up having a miscarriage. It really hit her hard. She spends most of the book working through her grief over it.

By rights, I should have hated Molly for what she did. But it was hard to hold on to my anger when she was obviously suffering so much.

What do you think? Were the actions of these heroines unforgivable? Were you able to get past what they did and come to love them, or were they beyond redemption?


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Thursday Thirteen: 13 Heroines That Need To Die

Posted May 22, 2008 by Holly in Features | 8 Comments

Today’s Thursday Thirteen comes to you courtesy of Casee and Holly and their frustration with TSTL romance novel heroines.

13 Heroines That Need To Die

Holly: 1. Jenny from Judith McNaught’s A Kingdom of Dreams.

Casee: 2. Gabriella Harrison from A Long Road Home by Danielle Steel

Holly: 3. Anna Rosewood from Scandal of the Black Rose by Debra Mullins

Casee: 4. Jessica Stanton from All That Glitters by Linda Howard

Holly: Good call on that one *headesk*

5. Mary (what’s her last name) from Lover Eternal by J.R. Ward

Casee: No way. But thanks for reminding me.

6. Marissa from Lover Revealed by JRW

Hate that bitch.

7. Catherine Enderly from Stormfire by Christine Monson

8. Joan DaCosta from Into the Night by Suz Brockmann

She was so annoying.

Holly: Oh, that reminds me:

9. Pretty much every heroine in Suz Brockmann’s Team 16 series.

Casee: Dude, you can’t do that. What about Teri? And Gina? They were good heroines.

Holly: They were? I wouldn’t know, cause I didn’t read their books. LOL But I did say “pretty much”.

Casee: Thanks for clarifying that.

10. Catherine Aldley from Island Flame by Karen Robards

I didn’t hate the book though.

Holly: 11. Bella from the Twilight Series by Stephanie Meyers.

Casee: 12. Paxton Andrews from Message From Nam by Danielle Steel.

Holly: 13. Hope Malory from Raintree: Haunted by Linda Winstead-Jones

Can you believe Casee came up with more heroines to hate than I did? Crazy, isn’t it? I’m going to give an honorable mention to Julie from Perfect by Judith McNaught, but don’t tell Casee and Rowena, ok? Shhh, it’ll be our little secret.

So, do you have a favorite heroine you love to hate? Leave us a comment and let us know.

Want to join in on the fun? Check out the Thursday Thirteen website for details.


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Guest Blog: Historical Vs. Contemporary Heroines

Posted October 17, 2007 by Book Binge Guest Blogger in Discussions, Promotions | 5 Comments

First of all, a big thanks to the Book Bingers for asking me to write a guest post. I feel so special. 😛

So basically all I’ve got are some ramblings on characters: historical and contemporary heroines and characters in series.

Historical vs. Contemporary Heroines – what gives?

A hero is a hero – no matter what time period he belongs in. I expect the same characteristics from a man no matter when or where: a good looking guy, not too arrogant, but confident in himself and sexy to boot. This transcends space and time. It doesn’t hurt if he has an affinity for animals and he really gets the heroine. LOL But the heroine? That’s a different story. A virgin from the 1800s is going to be different from a virgin in 2007. The rules of society for our historical heroine are strict and she is to be innocent (but not naïve) and in need of a husband to cherish and protect her. (Hogwash, but you get the picture, right?) Any heroine who is a thinker and practical and kind of chafes at these rules is always a winner in my book. But a contemporary heroine has to go a little bit further to impress me. Why? Because I compare her actions to my own. And I know that I’m real and these are fictional people and they have a different background and blah blah blah – but if I were to put myself in that situation, that’s the criteria I use. Some situations, this would be hard to do. Like say Cormia from Lover Unbound. LOL That’s a bit out there, but I know what I like, and I don’t like her. Someone like Xhex, for example, impresses me. She’s a security guard – and that’s a heroine that floats my boat. So maybe I’m not necessarily comparing a contemporary heroine to myself, but more like an Angelina Jolie character. Ha ha (But I’ve got a girl crush on her, so of course I’m biased) But I’m sick of girly girls and I want a heroine that I can see kicking ass. So I judge a contemporary heroine more harshly than I do historical chicks, what about you? (As an aside, who know which heroine has got it going on? Victoria Grantworth from Colleen Gleason’s Gardella Vampire series. She kicks ass in a historical time. A winning combo!)

Characters in Series – my thoughts

Two things with this one. First – although I feel there are way too many series out there, I kind of prefer them. Especially with slightly longer series, where we really get to know the characters. I’m not a psycho rabid fan-girl who obsesses over the characters, but I admit I like to read about some of my favourites. Like Max and Gina from Suzanne Brockmann’s Troubleshooter series. And hello, Robin! There’s one character whose story I was eagerly awaiting for ever. And I’m the same way now about John from the Black Dagger Brotherhood and Ash from the Dark Hunters. Sometimes though, this knowledge of a character hinders my ability to enjoy a stand alone novel. I mean, who are these characters? Why do I care about them? In reality, it’s the author’s job to make me care and get to know, and that’s fun too. But there’s no real emotional attachment. A prime example of a novel that throws my thoughts about this subject out the window is Loretta Chase’s Lord of Scoundrels. That novel worked because Jessica kicked ass, and then we got to know Dain really well. I really cared then! But sometimes, I don’t want to pick up a stand alone because I’m just lazy to get to know new people. I guess you gotta be in the mood for some strangers. But I find series comforting in a way.

Unless…the author freakin’ gives the character a lobotomy between books! That’s the second issue – when a character differs from book to book. Prime example? Lillian from Lisa Kleypas’ Wallflower series. Ugh. I really liked Lillian in It Happened One Autumn. She was kind of kick ass. But when we get to Daisy’s book? Who the hell is this whiny baby? I don’t care that she’s pregnant and worried about her sister moving away from her – she was horrible!! Another character who isn’t the same? ANITA BLAKE. But don’t get me started on her. LOL Just give me some good characters. That’s all I’m asking.

Am I off the wall or just hard to please? LOL Who do you think writes good heroines?

Thanks again ladies!!

Ames
Thrifty Reader


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Joint Review: A Year of You by Adra Steia

Posted September 28, 2007 by Casee in Discussions, Reviews | 13 Comments

Joint Review: A Year of You by Adra SteiaReviewer: Casee and Holly
A Year of You by Adra Steia
Publisher: Self-Published
Publication Date: September 15th 2007
Add It: Goodreads
Amazon | Barnes & Noble | The Ripped Bodice | Google Play Books
one-star

The con was supposed to be simple: Get in, get the money, and get out.

When dark family secrets come to light, Mattie must be silenced. Someone will do anything to keep her mouth shut—even commit murder.

Asking for help will cost her as much as keeping silent. When the ones she loves are threatened, Mattie will have to become what she hates most to save them. Will she have the strength?

Casee: After my last review of a book by this author, I was hesitant to read this book, let alone review it as my 2nd review here at Book Binge. Alas, I couldn’t help myself when the other girls asked me to give it a try.

Holly: I want to start out by saying I loved Muse. It was well written and had a great creepy factor to it that kept me glued to the story and anxious to turn the pages. Unfortunately, I can’t say the same for A Year of You.

I have one word for this book. Painful. This was like the worst train wreck in the history of train wrecks. As I was reading it, I forged on thinking that the book could not possibly get any worse. I couldn’t have been more wrong.

 Casee: Painful is a great way to describe this book. That and confusing.

Let me tell you the plot, then I’ll get to the many issues I had with this book. It might seem a tad confusing…b/c, well, it is confusing.

Mattie Delacourt goes to Florida at the request of her estranged (and very wealthy) biological grandmother, Ruth Ellen McKendrick. Though she had no intention of going, she was blackmailed and threatened into it by her stepbrother. Though she is one of the long-lost McKendrick daughters, she’s posing as the other daughter, Elaine, who disappeared when she was 6. The daughter that she is not. Her grandmother wants Mattie to pretend to be Elaine while trying to find Elaine’s dead body. Mattie will do anything to prevent her stepbrother from harming her daughter, even if it means breaking the law. Desperate to get her hands on enough money to make him ago away, Mattie travels to Florida prepared to lie, cheat, and steal.

Total chaos and confusion ensues.

Holly: That’s an understatement of massive proportions.

The family dynamics here are completely dysfunctional. The reader is warned about this by the author in the beginning of the book. That wasn’t really my problem. My problem started on page 8. While Mattie’s stepbrother (whom she calls “K”), sends her off, we get a little family background. The woman who raised Mattie (whom at that point I thought was her mother), married K’s (I hate this nickname, btw) father 12 years earlier. Then we learn that K raped Mattie for the first time when she was 8 years old. That would make her around 20 years old, assuming that she was 8 when they got married. Not. It’s later revealed that she’s 28. Twenty eight. That’s not the only mathematical error here. You know the daughter? The one Mattie is trying to protect? She’s a product of one of K’s rapes. Still on page 8, we learn that Mattie’s daughter, Molly, is 14 years old. Fourteen. How can she be 14 if she didn’t even meet K until 12 years before? At the end of the book when we actually meet Molly, she’s described as a 13 year old teenager. WTF?

Casee: Really? I thought she was 13 when she got raped for the first time. I guess I didn’t pay close enough attention. Of course, it was kind of hard to pick up on all that kind of stuff when there was so much going on. Moving along…

After Mattie arrives in Florida, she quickly falls for Brant West, her half-sister Emeline’s boyfriend. West and Emeline have been a couple for three years. He is blind to her faults. Completely and totally blind. Unbelieveably blind. While the three of them plus a few of Emeline’s friends are at a nightclub, Mattie sees her getting it on with two guys. West refuses to believe his own eyes, even when Mattie points out that she’s wearing the same lime green that Emeline was wearing. Mattie ends up dragging West out of the club and into the car where (presumeably) they’re going to wait for Emeline. West is in denial. Then Mattie and West start going at it in the car. When Mattie starts performing oral on him, West is thinking “I hope you see this, Em. I hope you see your sister blowing me“.

This is about the time I started getting pissed off at the book. I mean, he catches the love of his life in an extremely compromising position with two guys and he still wants her? And the fact that Mattie went down on him while he was thinking about her sister just set the tone of the book for me….and it wasn’t pretty.

Holly: Seriously, could it get any worse? The answer is yes.

headesk

The book description describes West as a “moody musician” when he’s actually a business owner. He owns a nursery and landscaping company. While he does have passion for music, he puts everything he has into his business. So after Em’s father tells West that he’s calling in his loan (which will bankrupt him), he goes and proposes to Emeline. Who flat out refuses him. Says she can’t marry a landscaper that lives in a trailer. That she never intended to marry him. Just basically emasculates him. And he goes back for more. This guy has some serious issues. So he goes to find Mattie and spills out all his feelings. Mattie then offers to marry him. Sprinkled between all the dysfunction that’s going on, Mattie has learned that she has a trust fund of 3 million dollars. If she’s married, she can access the money after three months, thus saving West’s business. She offers West marriage as a business proposition. She also hopes it will help keep the money away from K. After West accepts, they go to tell the family and Emeline (who just refused his proposal 20 minutes before) tells him that he can’t marry Mattie, he is supposed to marry her. West starts changing his mind about marrying Mattie until Em’s father tells him that he will never let his daughter marry a man like West. So West goes charging off after Mattie again.

I can’t believe how hot and cold West ran. He wanted Mattie, he wanted Em. He was hot for Mattie, he was thinking about Em while they were making out. He needed Mattie for her money, but he wanted Em. ARGH!

Casee: During the wedding ceremony at the Courthouse, West stared at Emeline the whole time he was being married to Mattie. The wedding night? Mattie once again performed oral on him and when he didn’t return the favor, she pulled out a vibrator right in front of him. The rest of the book was so wishy-washy, I could barely keep up. One day West would decide that he couldn’t give Mattie up. Then Emeline would call him or he’d run into her and he’d forget all about Mattie. Another day, West and Mattie would be screaming “Bite me!” to each other, some name-calling thrown in between. West called Mattie a bitch at least once a page. Mattie said “Fuck you” just as often. I swear, I felt like I was watching fights between two teenagers. The phrase “Bite me” was used way too much. Way, way, too much.

Holly: I didn’t notice the “Bite Me” thing, but I couldn’t stomach the way West kept going back to Em. Talk about being in denial. Even after he realizes her true nature, he still pretends like she’s the best thing since a blowjob from Mattie. Funny how that worked out, huh?
Casee:Added to all this chaos was K calling Mattie wanting to know where his money is. K sent someone to “remind” Mattie that he was waiting. This guy, posing as a delivery driver, poisoned six of West’s dogs (killing them) and almost killed Mattie. When West got home and found his dogs dead, he immediately started screaming at Mattie, thinking she killed his dogs b/c she was scared of them. Obviously the fact that she had bruises around her throat where someone tried to strangle her didn’t register. Ooookay then

Holly: .Meh, I skimmed this part. Ok, well, I pretty much skimmed everything after this part, too. I just couldn’t deal with West. Or Mattie. Or the rest of the fam damily.

Casee: A few days after that, Mattie was abducted from her grandmother’s nursing home, while waiting for West (who was with Emeline) to pick her up. Beaten up and left by the side of the road, West vows that he won’t leave Mattie alone to be hurt again. Yeah, that lasted about a day. When Mattie is driving home from the drug store after buying a pregnancy test, someone runs her off the road. She crashes through some brush and into a tree. When West arrives, all he can think about is that Mattie purposely wrecked the truck that was all he had left of his dad. Seriously. That night while they’re having sex (after West accuses Mattie of all sorts of wonderful things), West calls her “Em”. Lovely. Just lovely. The next day, West goes back to tow the truck back to his property and finds a disposable cell phone that K gave Mattie. He calls, wanting to know who it is and K tells him that Mattie is his, blahblahblah. Then he goes to Mattie and tells her that he wants answers. She tells him a little bit of what she went through as a child. West was properly horrified.

Holly: Describe “properly horrified” for me, will you? Because I must have missed the memo. Especially after what happens next…

Casee: Though his wife has almost been killed at least three times, all West can worry about is Emeline. When it comes to light that Mattie is a McKendrick and Emeline is, in fact, not a McKendrick, West tells Mattie that her coming to Florida ruined Emeline’s life. This guy really has his priorities straight. He’s also crying while he’s telling her this. Though he just found out that a sociopath is after Mattie and she’s pregnant with his child, he’s worrying about Emeline.

Again with the Emeline. I mean, the woman was a straight up psycho bitch. She was selfish and immature and often threw temper tantrums. She wanted to party – and party hard – and wasn’t concerned at all about West, or anyone else. As long as it made her happy, that’s what counted. I think the worst part of it for me is….West admits to himself more than once that Em isn’t who he makes her out to be in his mind. He admits she’s selfish and immature. He admits she cares only about herself and the only reason he’s so obsessed with her is because he did nothing to save Elaine (if you remember from above, Elaine disappeared when she was 6 and Mattie is pretending to be her while she searches for her body). He feels responsible for what happened to Elaine because they were close and West thought he saw something strange the night she disappeared, but didn’t tell anyone. So it isn’t Em herself he loves, but instead he’s obsessed with protecting her, as he didn’t protect Elaine.

Then the shit really hits the fan. K arrives with his goons and abducts Mattie and West. They soon learn that Emeline has also been abducted. K insists that Mattie pretend that she’s kidnapped Emeline for money. While West and Emeline are tied up, Mattie is gang raped in front of them. West is more concerned about Emeline than the fact that his wife was violently attacked. When Mattie convinces K that there is money to be dug up on West’s property, she goes to say goodbye to West, knowing she’ll never see him again. What does he say to her? You guessed it…”Fuck you”. Are you freaking kidding me?!?!?! He just saw the woman he apparently loves, his PREGNANT wife get raped by at least 2 men and he says “Fuck you”? OMFG.

Holly: This is where I completely lost it and said “fuck this, I’m not reading anymore”. Not because Mattie got gang raped. I mean, that sucks big donkey balls, but I wasn’t horrified at the violence. I was horrified at West. Emeline was FINE. There was nothing wrong with her. But Mattie, the woman he married and the woman who is pregnant with his child is brutally raped in front of him and his only concern was for someone he described as selfish and hurtful?

But even worse, IMO, was Mattie. Because through everything, the con, her abuse from K, her constant lying and manipulating, she continued to believe she was being strong, that she would move on with her life and that she was doing the best thing she could. But she never once stood up for herself. She never once said, “fuck you” and meant it. She never once considered walking away or leaving West or telling him to back the fuck off. Not one time. A woman who does that, no matter what she tried to tell herself, it isn’t a strong woman that just puts up with that kind of abuse – and the way West treated her was abuse, even if he didn’t harm her physically – isn’t strong or brave, she’s just stupid. And after she was gang raped, and West was more concerned for Em that he was for her, she just went on her merry way, still accepting him and wanting to be with him. Who does that?

Holly: If you’ve stuck with me this far, kudos to you. I haven’t even gotten into all the subplots or the subplots of the subplots. The inconsistencies in the book were amazing. In one scene, Mattie dressed in jeans and a tank top. In that same scene, while West and Mattie were walking around the property, they started going at it against a tree and West put his hands down her loose gym shorts. I had to actually go back, thinking I’d missed something.

That’s just the tip of the ice berg. There were so many inconsistencies and plot holes I was tempted to bang my head against the wall.

Casee: I would give this book a DNF, but I finished it. Unlike Holly, once I start a book, I’m in it until the bitter end. I actually liked Steia’s book, Muse, better than this one. Though I gave Muse a 1 out of 5, the writing wasn’t bad at all. This seems to be written by a different author entirely. She also needs to get a new editor b/c some of the grammar in this book is atrocious.

Holly: I am giving it a DNF. I just couldn’t finish. I think I ended up skimming to…I don’t know. I know I couldn’t get to the end, though.

I would strongly advise all of you to steer clear of this book. I’m honestly surprised this is written by the same person who wrote Muse. The writing itself seemed choppier, the dialogue lagged and the spelling and grammar were the stuff of nightmares. Not to mention the characters. *shudder*

Casee: 1 out of 5

Holly: DNF

one-star


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