reading Wednesday

[ironymaiden]

i read Snowspelled yesterday (it's a novella). it has fun worldbuilding (fake regency england with elves, trolls, men doing magic and women doing government) with a smart and cranky heroine. it was light and charming and i enjoyed it.

but i couldn't love it.

i was sure the plot was going to resolve in a certain way, and i was there for the ride to said resolution. i was right about the mystery aspect, but not about the destiny of our heroine. the choice she made at the end felt out of character to me (even though on reflection i could see how it was supposed to have been set up in earlier scenes).

what happened?

i thought that i was reading a fantasy with romance elements, but actually i was reading a romance in a fantasy setting.* i expected the story to be about fulfilling the heroine's thirst for knowledge and adventure, but actually it was about fulfilling her need for belonging.

i've been trying to allow myself to read more romances; i like longing and love (and sex) in stories. but oh, the tropes and the formulas still aren't for me.




*when a book that's mentioned somewhere online piques my interest, i put it on hold at the library. due to my local libraries being well-loved, enough time has passed when i get the book that i often have no idea where the recommendation came from or why i thought it was something i should read.

Comments

[sholio]

I had more or less the same reaction to Snowspelled, and I do read and enjoy romance, but I have to know it's a (genre) romance going into it. My expectations and reactions are totally different; there are things I'm completely on board with if I'm applying "romance rules" that don't really work at all if I'm reading with the expectation that more real-world-ish rules apply.

I guess it points towards the need for accurate labeling, and Snowspelled really isn't packaged and marketed as a romance at all; it looks like fantasy.

So it's nice to know it's not just me, basically. :D

vaguely spoilery - i know, right?

[ironymaiden]

the ambassadorship just seemed like Chekhov's gun. i mean, surely even within the romance framework it could have been a HFN where the fiancee says "it's everything you wanted! we'll have a long engagement after all! see you at Samhain!"

[sophus]

Thirded-- I've had this happen with a different book, and while I'm fine with the genre itself, the bait-and-switch was extremely annoying.

I was told it was time travel with a romance subplot, not romance that happened to have time travel as the establishing premise! I expected ISOT-style shenanigans and history nerding, and instead I got bulging muscles and dubcon.

[flexagon]

You could consider trying How Not To Fall and How Not To Let Go... they're very smart and nobody gives up on the thirst for knowledge.