The Stanislaski series

[jmc_bks]

Thanks to Rosario, who fed my addiction by sending me the Stanislaski books, along with the MacKade and O’Hurley! series, I’ve spent the day reading older Nora Roberts categories. I haven’t read the entire Stanislaski series, just Luring a Lady (the second book of the series, published originally in 1991) and Considering Kate (the last of the series proper, with a second generation Stanislaski heroine, published in 2001). There is quite a gap between the publication of the first book of the series and the last, but I wouldn’t have guessed that after reading these two books. The style was as smooth in the early book as it was in the later one. And although the first book is 15 years old, I didn’t notice that it was dated, particularly. Maybe people today would be listening to their iPods rather than a radio. And everyone would have a cellphone. But nothing that was glaringly out of date.

I’m trying to figure out how NR does kids and parents so well. I’m not a fan of kids in romance for a couple of reasons. First, because being a single parent is hard, hard work, and not very romantic to me; that’s not to say single parents don’t deserve romance, but it is hard for romance to balance the h/h relationship and add kids to the mix. I think part of the success is that NR manages to have the the non-parental hero/heroine establish an independent relationship with the kid(s) that isn’t sickly sweet or dependent on the parent. My second reason for preferring kidless romance: because most romance authors tend to make the kids too cute and well-behaved and wise beyond their years. But that tends not to be the case with Roberts’ fictional kids. They have tantrums and whine and act their ages. And Handsome Jack in Considering Kate did all of those things, and was charming just the same.

Next I’ll be reading about the MacKade brothers, then back to non-fiction for a bit with The Women of the House.