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SBD: I have seen the light!
Monday again. But the work day is nearly over, yay! So, it's Smart Bitches Day!
I have at last seen the light. Well, I wouldn't go that far. But I have finally found a Barbara Samuels book that I really enjoyed. I've blogged before about how perplexing I find this author-worship, especially for her In the Midnight Rain, which some readers believe has the ultimate hero, Blue Reynard. Meh. And her contemporaries? Meh again, I say.
Except I've now read one of her historicals, The Black Angel. Wow. Let me say it again: WOW! I'm sure someone will tell me that this isn't her best historical effort, but color me impressed. The premise: Georgian (1781 is Georgian, right?) debutante is ruined and she enthusiastically participates in the ruination. After the affair ends, her brother kills her lover in a duel, then flees for his life. After spending five years living in obscurity, Adriana must marry -- the marriage was arranged by her father on his deathbed. And her suitor doesn't mind that she was ruined. He's Irish, and is looking to capitalize on her family's reputation to gain a seat in Parliament. But he's hiding things, and she's holding back because of his rakish reputation. :queue soap opera-ish music: Will they ever trust each other? Tune in next time, folks.
Well, since this book was written before Samuels' segue into womens fiction, there is an HEA. [Caveat: given what little I know of Anglo-Irish history, I have to wonder how happy it really was, but that's another matter entirely.] I like the hero, although readers receive his POV/perspective less often than the heroine's. I like the heroine, too, although I do think she was stupid (or maybe naive?) to be so abandoned. That's Samuels' point, that there are a fortunate lucky few who live privileged lives and have more rights than others, and women were not among those privileged. That was the reality, one could either edge one's way around reality to get what one wanted, or disregard it totally and stomp through boggy ground toward what one wanted, but there was a price to be paid either way. The heroine did eventually realize that, which I appreciated. But I felt like Samuels missed a huge opportunity and that the lesson was oddly late learned, given that the heroine had a mulatto brother and sister whose rights were limited which she recognized. It was as if the heroine was unable to recognize that in her own way, she was nearly as constrained as they were.
I thought the conflict between the hero and heroine -- her resistance of any affectionate relationship and resistance to sex -- was overdone. We are told he was a rake in his younger years, but precious little evidence of it, other than his nickname, The Black Angel, was mentioned or shown. And Adriana likes sex...she just doesn't want to enjoy it with her rakish husband. Samuels did a great job with the sexual tension between the two, though.
I don't know, as I type all of this, it seems that there are large pieces of the story that I have a problem with. But I really enjoyed the book, despite them. Enough to dig Bed of Spices out of my TBR pile, and to hope that Lucien's Fall arrives soon.
Anyway, all of this is my preface for today's SBD question: are there authors that you never got, but then all of the sudden, they clicked for you? If so, who? And what was it that clicked?
I have at last seen the light. Well, I wouldn't go that far. But I have finally found a Barbara Samuels book that I really enjoyed. I've blogged before about how perplexing I find this author-worship, especially for her In the Midnight Rain, which some readers believe has the ultimate hero, Blue Reynard. Meh. And her contemporaries? Meh again, I say.
Except I've now read one of her historicals, The Black Angel. Wow. Let me say it again: WOW! I'm sure someone will tell me that this isn't her best historical effort, but color me impressed. The premise: Georgian (1781 is Georgian, right?) debutante is ruined and she enthusiastically participates in the ruination. After the affair ends, her brother kills her lover in a duel, then flees for his life. After spending five years living in obscurity, Adriana must marry -- the marriage was arranged by her father on his deathbed. And her suitor doesn't mind that she was ruined. He's Irish, and is looking to capitalize on her family's reputation to gain a seat in Parliament. But he's hiding things, and she's holding back because of his rakish reputation. :queue soap opera-ish music: Will they ever trust each other? Tune in next time, folks.
Well, since this book was written before Samuels' segue into womens fiction, there is an HEA. [Caveat: given what little I know of Anglo-Irish history, I have to wonder how happy it really was, but that's another matter entirely.] I like the hero, although readers receive his POV/perspective less often than the heroine's. I like the heroine, too, although I do think she was stupid (or maybe naive?) to be so abandoned. That's Samuels' point, that there are a fortunate lucky few who live privileged lives and have more rights than others, and women were not among those privileged. That was the reality, one could either edge one's way around reality to get what one wanted, or disregard it totally and stomp through boggy ground toward what one wanted, but there was a price to be paid either way. The heroine did eventually realize that, which I appreciated. But I felt like Samuels missed a huge opportunity and that the lesson was oddly late learned, given that the heroine had a mulatto brother and sister whose rights were limited which she recognized. It was as if the heroine was unable to recognize that in her own way, she was nearly as constrained as they were.
I thought the conflict between the hero and heroine -- her resistance of any affectionate relationship and resistance to sex -- was overdone. We are told he was a rake in his younger years, but precious little evidence of it, other than his nickname, The Black Angel, was mentioned or shown. And Adriana likes sex...she just doesn't want to enjoy it with her rakish husband. Samuels did a great job with the sexual tension between the two, though.
I don't know, as I type all of this, it seems that there are large pieces of the story that I have a problem with. But I really enjoyed the book, despite them. Enough to dig Bed of Spices out of my TBR pile, and to hope that Lucien's Fall arrives soon.
Anyway, all of this is my preface for today's SBD question: are there authors that you never got, but then all of the sudden, they clicked for you? If so, who? And what was it that clicked?