August 21st, 2009 — About, Love Triangle
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They are always two men and one woman.
I have never come across a Love Triangle in romance involving two women loving one guy where it’s a matter of serious deliberation for the hero. If there are two women, the non-heroine woman is easily distinguished by being a nasty piece of work. She’s possessive, catty, whiny, and more. As the scorned woman she almost always tries to get the heroine back for stealing the hero from her.
The question I ask and attempt to answer today is why is that the case?
The most obvious answer of course is that it is women who predominantly write romance and the two men/one woman plot is a common (enough) fantasy. The Love Triangle when set up this way is one of those type of plots that appeals to a number of our gender.
What (heterosexual/bisexual) female hasn’t at some point wished to be intensely desired by not one but by two gentlemen? You might be uncomfortable with the situation in real life, but the idea fuels your imagination in private. Their possessiveness, jealousy, and male posturing are a big turn on and the angst of having to choose the right one, of hurting the other is one, of messing everything up is secretly thrilling.
The other answer on why we prefer our Love Triangles to have the ratio they do is because we'd rather have two heroes over two heroines. For you see, the hardest part about reading a Love Triangle is that we didn’t write it ourselves. We don't know who the main lead will end up with and it drives us batty.
In the two men/one woman triangle set up the biggest challenge as the reader is choosing the hero the heroine will pick. We hold different opinions on what makes a good partner or the perfect hero. It’s quite possible as readers we’ll be split down the middle. Half will pick one hero and half the other.
If you pick the one the heroine doesn’t go for in the end you’re literally tearing your hair out and cursing the author as you turn the pages. If you pick the right hero and the heroine deliberates too long and too much you’ll be cursing the heroine for being a blind ninny and want to throttle her to get her to stop whining about having to choose being two great catches.
If the triangle was reversed with two women/one man we would struggle in a much different sense. As a reader I tend to identify with the heroine (other times I identify with the hero, read Bosoms to find out why). With two potential heroines to pick from, I would most likely choose the heroine that was closest to my own personality. Now suppose the author picked the other heroine for the hero... we get upset when we think the wrong hero is chosen, what would be our feelings if it was our chosen heroine who got thrown over? Yikes! Run and ducks for cover!
That’s why I think it takes a strong and gutsy writer to create and establish a feasible Love Triangle. It is easily the plot that causes the most wallbanging, head thumping, and under your breath muttering. Not to mention the death threats in the mail... 
What are your favorite romances involving a love triangle?
Photo Credits: Steve Wampler
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May 9th, 2009 — 4 Stars, Another Planet/Dimension, Book Review, Fantasy, Historical Romance, Kings, Princes, Sheiks, Chiefs, M-O, Memory Loss, Queen or Princess, Runaway, Supernatural, Survival, Time Travel, Virgin Hero, Virgin Heroine, Young Adult
Of Two Minds is a very deep book for kids. As an adult how it ends leads to quite an interesting train of thought I’m not sure young children will catch. This is my second time reading it. I remembered enjoying it thoroughly when I read it back in middle school. I can’t honestly say one way or another if I caught the concept revealed at the end of the book back then. I enjoyed it just as much this time around as an adult.
Lenora is a young teenage princess from a people who all have the power to create whatever they want. To imagine it is to make it be. She doesn’t understand why it’s law not to create worlds and change things to suit your will. Why were people afraid to change the color of their hair or imagine bright pink puppies?
After one incident too many her parents decide to marry her off to Prince Coren. They feel it will ground her, get her head out of her fantasies and make her a sensible woman. To that end they even plan to set a full brigade (4K-11K men) to think her solidly on the island she and Coren will make their future home, thus making escape impossible.
Angry, frightened, and confused Lenora escapes into somebody else’s world when making one of her own is impossible. Unfortunately, she also dragged the object of her distress with her. Coren, gangly redheaded and freckled, can’t even stand up without tripping over his feet. Could he be any more useless? It turns out he can – where’s his sense of adventure?
Rating: 4 Stars
Makes me want to check out the sequel More Minds
!
Buy: Of Two Minds
Spoilers:
Pg193
“I’m not dreaming?” Lenora said. “How do I know that for sure?”
“Well,” Lufa smiled, “I suppose none of us really knows that. Perhaps this is all a dream, a fantasy we will wake out of.”
…
“And if all her imaginings could be real, then who was to say that her reality wasn’t somebody else’s dream?”
…
Surely something this real couldn’t be just somebody’s imagination. Could it?
Ah, but couldn’t it? Especially in light of her adventure with Coren. Is her story her own or the very imaginings of others?
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March 27th, 2009 — Links and Challenges, News
We made it! The final 10 blogs! This concludes the series of posts for the Top 50 Romance Novel Blogs to Watch in 2009.
Now we're not all done... oh no... there's one more post. This post will share with you all the reader recommended blogs that weren't included in the Top 50. Feel free to rec yourself (nobody needs to know you can email me at reviewromancenovel at yahoo dot com !)
- Smart Bitches Trashy Novels- Who here doesn't know their byline? Refresher for those who don't: All of the romance, none of the bullshit! Don't miss their book coming out in April.
- The Book Binge- Written by three everyday average women who love to read romance. In their own words they're fun, fearless, and tell it like it is.
- The Book Smugglers- Smuggling and reviewing romance since 2007.
- The Galaxy Express- Adventures in Science Fiction Romance with Heather.
- The Goddess Blogs- 10 authors, 200+ books, kicking butt and taking names all the while making you laugh out loud like a loony.
- The Scarlet Corset- Three Opinionated Booksluts, dishing out straightforward Romance, Sci-Fi/Fantasy, & Historical Fiction reviews; reader culture observations, book industry news, and snark.
- Twilight Lexicon- Had to do it. I love Twilight and this blog is a wonderful site devoted to sharing up to the minute news from the movies and actors to the author and books.
- We Write Romance- Writers and reviewers blogging about romance books, authors, publishers, news, and more.
- Wickedly Romantic- Sourcebooks paranormal group author blog.
- Word Wenches- Seven authors, plotting in the present, writing about the past... and improvising the rest.
So what do you think? There are some pretty great blogs out there!
Top 50 Continued:
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March 26th, 2009 — 0.5 Stars, Guest Reviews, J-L, Paranormal, Pilot, Survival
By: Cara Lynn, guest reviewer
I wasn't going to review this book, but figured, what the hey!
First, I didn't like the book.
Island Heat by Susan Kearney had a lot of possibilities. I figured it would have some military tones as the guy on the cover looks like he could be military.
He is, but he's from another planet.
OK, that could be seriously interesting. Sort of like time travel with a twist. After all, they are more advanced than us and had to travel a long time to get here.
But while the author maintains the fantasy with words she has made up, like 'quait' for the ability to mentally influence the actions of another, or like 'underfirst' to delineate all those who aren't Firstborn, the story is unpalatable in parts.
Cade Archer literally falls into the sea in front of Shara Weston's remote island retreat. His ship is destroyed, but he falls without a parachute and recovers faster than you'd expect. That is because he isn't strictly human. He is able to use this power to save himself and those that are with him as he is avoiding being murdered.
It's all tied into the story of the underfirsts needing salt to gain their strength. (She develops this nicely.) On his planet, only the Firstborn are given salt. This also gives them their quait which they use in horrific ways, basically enslaving the underfirsts. (You never see life on this planet, only as told by Cade as the story unfolds or as you see actions of his Firstborn brother, Jamal.)
Cade is shot down by Jamal who is dead set on killing him however he has to do it. Cade had thought his mission was secret, but somehow Jamal knew.
Throw in a psychic who has real powers to foresee the future, some of which can be changed by one's actions, and a reporter, and a volcano expert, and a security officer, and you have a story that could have been quite interesting.
But Jamal has a malicious streak a mile wide as is shown off page when he kills a Polynesian woman he has taken and 'trained' -- but not trained so well that she doesn't try to exhibit her individuality. The more troubling scenes are the sadistic ones involving mental (and physical) rape, torture and blood that he is capable of. And that he takes pleasure in it even though he already has the information he was seeking.
Of course Cade and Shara fall in love. Jamal is killed (I expected him to recover and the scene to go on). Cade finds he gains quait powers, even as Jamal's powers diminish slightly, but Cade is disturbed by his powers knowing how it corrupts the user, and asks that Shara kill him after his mission, if necessary. And the earth is saved.
There were huge sections of this book that I glossed over or went back to see what happened without taking it in.
I give it a 1/2 star. But for originality, it could be a 2. But I'd even take some of that away because of the troubling scenes. They make you think how you would be able to break a mind hold, or if you would be able to. Like hypnotism, is it not something that you could decide NOT to go under? Evidently not. Ugh.
Good, bad, indifferent, or life altering, LRP wants your reviews! Help us out by submitting a review to a novel you've read. It only takes a few minutes and your contribution would be a welcomed addition to this site.
Originally posted 2008-11-26 09:52:04. Republished by Blog Post Promoter
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January 18th, 2009 — Contests
Who is Dara England?
Dara England is the author of the paranormal romance novel Brought to Life, scheduled for release in March of 2009 from Lyrical Press. This will be Dara’s first published novel, although you may have seen some of her short fiction around if you’re a frequent reader of fantasy zines like Allegory and Art&Prose.
Whether visiting medieval style fantasy worlds in her short fiction or journeying through her upcoming novel with a mysterious time traveling duke, Dara is fascinated by magical places and situations. Bringing old fashioned magic into the contemporary urban setting that is the backdrop of Brought to Life was one of the greatest challenges of the novel.
On any given day Dara can be found hunched in front of a battered old computer, typing away at her next manuscript. She is an Internet addict and can frequently be found on line at any of the following locations:
The Giveaway:
The prize is 1 medium-to-large screen print tote, capable of holding your necessities and that includes a book; 3 book marks in fun patterns, 2 fairly large magnets to decorate your refrigerator and hold up notes and pictures with, and 3 tins of vanilla flavored lipbalm keychains to keep your lips kissable soft.
How to Enter: Leave a comment with valid email address!
Winner Will Be Announced: January 25th, 2009 through the help of a random integer generator.
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