reading wednesday

[sea_changed]

Any Old Diamonds, by K.J. Charles. Delightful, as always, with some gripping plot twists and delicious angst. I do, however, wish there had been more of the angst, or that it had been given longer to mature. While the plot resolution was satisfying the emotional resolution felt too easy: indeed, the plot and emotional resolution became divorced at some point and never managed to cleave back together in any meaningful way, which was unfortunate. Not to put too fine a point on it, but I don't read romance novels for the plot: I want the plot to be solid and logical, but what it needs to be is essentially scaffolding for the emotional arc, not its own thing.

(I feel like this whole complaint explains perfectly why a) I was so excited to experiment with reading romance novels and b) why I've more or less put paid to the experiment. An entire novel genre focused on emotions should be entirely my thing, and yet it turns out that the emotions I want tend to be a lot more complicated and believably angst-ridden than what I've found romance novels will give me.)

Overall, however, it was very fun, and I loved the glancing Society of Gentlemen references and not-so-glancing Sins of the City references: that all Charles's non-paranormals take place in the same universe pleases me extremely. Despite my complaints above, Charles is obviously on my instant-read list, and is likely to remain there.

Blood of Tyrants, by Naomi Novik. All right, I was spoiled for this one, but I liked the tropey ridiculousness: it felt well-done and to a purpose, which is all I demand of my tropes. I do think she could've done more with it, in the end, especially emotionally on Laurence and Temeraire's parts, but in the end this is a series that very much avoids wallowing in its emotions--indeed, perhaps the opposite--so it didn't feel horridly out-of-character. The second section did, however, drag a bit: it seemed like Novik herself wasn't having much fun with it, and so the reader (or at least this reader) didn't much, either. I did like the glimpses of the North American dragons, and I liked that Tharkay was back, for as little as he seemed to show up in the text itself. I'm excited to move on, however, despite my instinct to save the last book for as long as possible.

Comments

[fosfomifira]

Yes to what you said about Any Old Diamonds. I loved it, it was great fun (and super hot), but I wish the emotional resolution hadn’t been so swift. I could see Jerry accepting what Alec did, but I wish it'd taken him longer to come to terms with it. After all, he had strong words about betrayal.

That’s the one criticism I have about KJ Charles' books, in fact. I feel her books should be a little longer to allow for emotions to breathe. Recovering from betrayal, hurt, self-discovery —all of those things take time and we don't see that process in most of her stories. And that’s a process I love to see, I find it as delicious as the happier romantic scenes. I think that’s why A Seditious Affair is so good: you can see and feel Dom and Silas wrestling with themselves before coming to an imperfect agreement. It takes time (and most of the book), but it’s also more rewarding. Think of England comes close in that respect.

[sea_changed]

Yes to everything you said--this is my main problem with Charles's books, as well, and seems particularly pronounced in her last few (this, Band Sinister, Proper English). She writes fraught emotions really well, but I do think often undercuts herself by not allowing those emotions to play out fully and therefore cheapening both those emotions and cheating character and relationship development that could've been really wonderful to watch. A Seditious Affair is obviously the pinnacle of this done right, which I think only highlights how often she falls short of the mark in other books.

I would even argue that Think of England does this, despite how wonderful the first two-thirds or so are. While I love Archie realigning how he looks at his past and having his own little eureka moment, even when those sorts of things happen it's not that simple, and there was so much more that could've been done re: how different the two of them are and their respective baggage to be worked through. I do agree it's one of the better ones, though; A Fashionable Indulgence actually does this nicely, too, I think. Harry and Julius's relationship gets a lot of development, and they both have their own issues that are navigated but not solved. It never feels trite, which is something I can say about few romance novels.

Really, letting the emotions breathe sums it all up, as you say. When Charles is good at this she's so good at this, so I wish we got examples of it more often.