Guest Blog: Contemporary Historicals

First of all I would like to say that I am honored to be asked to guest blog. I love your blog and it’s a real treat to get to be here with y’all.

Ok, this may sound odd but I am going to go to old school on y’all. Looking through my bookshelf I see various names and titles; all my favorite books that must be kept. You know Judith McNaught, Susan Elizabeth Phillips, Lavyrle Spencer. The list goes on and on. Well it hits me; some of my favorite books are contemporary or at least not considered a historical. Which is odd considering that when I started out I would only read Regency historical novels. I was missing out on a lot as it turns out.

Well being that I started out with Once and Always by Judith McNaught it is easy to say that I started out with the best. So naturally when I moved to contemporary I started with hers. The first one I read was Double Standards. Of course being the modern woman that I am I initially had a few issues with it.

In the exclusive, glittering world of business superstars, Nick Sinclair was a legend… The ruggedly handsome president of Global Industries handled his business the way he handled his women — with charm, daring and ruthless self-control. A man used to the very best, Nick hired Lauren Danner, and assumed the proud beauty would soon be another easy conquest. But Lauren’s flashing wit and rare spirit dazzled him — and slowly, against his will, he was intrigued, challenged — and in love.

Nick Sinclair is the hero and in typical JM style he is dark haired and handsome, but he is a smoker and he has some very outdated ideas about women, men, and relationships. Now had this book been set in 2004 or hell even 1994, his behavior and his attitude would have so been a deal breaker. Yet when you look back and see that it is set in the early 80’s you realize that JM wrote it true to the times, with very little exaggeration. To me the emotion in this book was real. When Lauren found out about Nick’s family, oh my I ached for the two of them. Lauren had her moments when I wanted to pop her one, but when I step back and try to look at things from a woman’s 1980’s perspective then I can understand why she is the way she is and why she made the choices that she made. All in all it is a fabulous book that gets a bad rap for not being contemporary enough. Yet I am sure had it been read when it was released that it would have been a statement making book.

Now being that in the early 80’s it was still early in my life I have very little to compare it to unless it’s other books wrote in the era. The next book I would like to talk about is Separate Beds by Lavyrle Spencer. This book is also set in the early to mid 80’s and it too gets a bad rap. Number one it is a contemporary marriage of convenience book. I also know that you have to be a fan of that to enjoy the book.

Catherine Anderson and Clay Forrester come from two completely different worlds, but one blind date leaves them forever linked. Clay, a handsome law student, and Catherine, a serious, bookish undergrad, experience an evening they will never forget. Fortified by the beauty of the night, as well as a bottle of wine, they share a night together. A few short months later, Catherine discovers she’s pregnant. They agree to a marriage of convenience, an arrangement that suits them both-until they begin to fall in love.

Catherine is hard to like I will give you that. Her behavior with Clay was annoying but the more you found out about her background the more you could understand the whys and wherefores of it. Her father was a monster, he needed his ass kicked clear from here to the Mississippi River and believe me I could have done that for her. She pushed Clay away a lot but Clay should have forced her to discuss what her problems were. Of course if that had happened the story would have been remarkably different.

I know one of the main issues many have with this book is that Catherine moves into a home for unwed mothers. Yes in 2007 that would be unheard of but in the early 80’s you either did that or went to stay with Aunt Debby and came back a year later with no baby. Oh and if you live in the south people still whisper about what you ran off to do. Beyond that I think the story shows how two people at the same time both make different decisions about the same thing. The both think that they know what is best for the other and yet they have no clue as to what they truly are feeling. Overall I love the book; yet when I read it I remind myself that is did not happen last week, last month, or hell even last decade. This book is very emotional. Catherine and Clay both grow up in so many ways and I think that LS shows that very well.

To me, these books that were wrote in the early 80’s when society was changing so much need to be viewed almost in the same way you would view a historical. Things were different then. Yes, woman had gained a lot since Regency England time but still had a long way to go. Men also had a lot of changes to accept as humanity evolved and both men and woman stepped out of the traditional roles of the past. However, had the things that we read about in these books and disdain, feeling that we as modern woman would never behave they way the woman did in these books; be thankful they did. Had they not, women nor men would be where we are today.

Overall Double Standards and Separate Beds are fabulous books when you read them with an open mind and look at them as if they are in the contemporary historical genre.

Kelli

A Day in the Life of an Unappreciated Princess