A Rant About Romance

Can  I just rant for a sec?


HOW MANY FREAKING BOOKS ARE GOING TO BE CENTERED IN WASHINGTON STATE AND/OR HAVE BILLIONAIRE PLAYBOYS?!?!?!?



Seriously, I've read so many books this summer I can't count them. I tend to choose one genre and read it until I'm sick of it, and this summer it's all about NA/Adult romance.

It started when someone challenged me to read 50 Shades and I actually liked the storyline (although I really thought the writing was mediocre and I could've done without the butt play, but that's just me), what I did love was Christian's complex character and his struggles psychologically. And I loved that Anna could reach past his issues and help heal the little boy inside. Cheesey, I know, but true. I loved it.

That set my summer reading stage for a series of  cheep ebooks and Freebies that I downloaded to the good ole Kindle. Some of them were great reads, others left me  shaking my head wondering why people think that sounding like a bad 70s porn is romantic, but that post is for another day.

What's really driving me nuts is that the majority of smexy reads either center around Washington State or have control freak billionaires that constantly need their egos stroked.

Really, people.

Writers, hear me. Edward and Christian were not adored by fans because they were past the point of beautiful  and had more money than I have dirt. No, they were loved by millions because they wanted to protect and take care of their woman, being with the love of their life made them want to be a better man (or vampire, as the case may be), and, most importantly, these guys went out of their way to put her needs first.

It wouldn't have mattered if they were from the freaking mountains, liked to shave bunnies for fun, and didn't have two nickles to rub together. Maybe if they smelled like bad B.O. instead of some heady mix of manly scents and nature. Still, I think some readers may even have been able to look past that.

Can we please understand the premise here?

What drew millions of readers to these books were the actions of the men. Now I'm not speaking for the entire female population, Lord knows there are the cynics and extremists of the world already pissed at me for even attempting to find a commonality in a romance's success. It seems to me though that women who love these books want to feel adored. They want to feel as though they are the only one that can meet their man's needs. They want to be valued, respected, and cherished with a good dash of I-think-you're-the-sexiest-thing-alive-and-I-have-to-have-you-now added in.

See, in real life, woman are the ones that make sure everyone's needs are met. They usually are the last to eat, the last to bed, the one who buys generic for themselves but top of the line for the rest of the fam. They usually make do with what's in the closet while the hubby and kids get new clothes. These readers in real life go without in so many ways, and so they are attracted to a story where the protagonist's needs are important to the leading man. In short, these readers really just want someone to give a  flying rats ass if their emotional and physical needs are being met at all.

So, dear writers, here's my challenge to you. Write me a steamy story about a guy who isn't orgasmically good looking, doesn't live in Seattle, and actually works for a living. He can have hang ups and issues (although can we please tone down the I-can't-be-touched-and-I-need-to-control-your-every-breath thing). Let him fall for a girl who is beautiful to him. Maybe her hips are too round, or, I don't know, she has uneven boobs ... something. Write their story and let him overcome his hardships and want to be a better man for her. Let him love her, cherish her, but still throw her down and show her who's  boss every now and again. Let him find his way past her emotional barriers and truly adore her spirit, and allow her to do the same for him.

Now that's a story readers will flock to!

*End of Rant*
Whew! I feel better.

I think I'm going to start reading either sci-fi or YA for a little while.

Love Ya!
Brittany

Review: Sea Change by

Sixteen-year-old Miranda Merchant is great at science. . .and not so great with boys. After major drama with her boyfriend and (now ex) best friend, she's happy to spend the summer on small, mysterious Selkie Island, helping her mother sort out her late grandmother's estate.

There, Miranda finds new friends and an island with a mysterious, mystical history, presenting her with facts her logical, scientific mind can't make sense of. She also meets Leo, who challenges everything she thought she knew about boys, friendship. . .and reality.

Is Leo hiding something? Or is he something that she never could have imagined?

Sea Change. Where to begin? Gorgeous cover, right? Honestly, I'd never even heard of the book when I picked it up, but the cover caught my eye, followed by the intriguing jacket flap description.

The Good: Friedman has a way with words! Wow! She paints a beautiful world, drawing your imagination in. You can see things so clearly, like you're physically on Selkie Island. I adored the fact that Miranda is not only smart, but quasi-geeky in her own way. She's always spouting scientific facts at the most embarrassing times possible, but it's absolutely endearing and relatable. How many times do you catch yourself saying something goofy that you immediately wish you could retract?

I love that Friedman writes for a YA audience but uses more advanced verbiage. It felt great to read something that had more than "so totally" in every other sentence, but only from Miranda's POV. The secondary characters, while a bit cliche, fit their roles (and their verbiage) well.

The Mediocre: Sadly, more disappointed me about this book than I was actually pleased with. There was little to no mystery surrounding the story. You go into it expecting to know "what" certain people are. Aside from the let-down of an ending, there were no surprises. I'd hoped Friedman would explain some things, but SO much went unanswered or even unaddressed. For instance: If Miranda felt a "more than human" connection with Leo, why wasn't she more than human? Having webbed toes meant nothing. What's that about? And if Leo is not quite normal, why isn't it ever spelled out? I feel like a certain character was meant to be a red-herring, but it ended up being epically disappointing. And what about her mom and her "old flame" that she didn't love yet now fawns all over? Make him/her someone worth knowing if you're going to mention it at all!

The secondary characters were irritating and more of a distraction. I hate that such a beautiful story had such shallow plots. Miranda, while smart and capable of standing on her own two feet, oftentimes slipped out of character and fell prey to WTH? moments. I felt a majority of her time with the secondary characters, she found herself waffling over what to do, think, or feel. Too many times, she fell out of character. For instance, one particular argument she had with Leo...that was SO over the top and not at all believable. It was like she had all these suspicions then decided to get mad about it all. Nonsense.

Leo, our main guy: he was cute and sweet, but it pretty much ended there, which is such a bummer considering he could've been phenomenal! That's honestly all I have to say about him.

Now to the ending. I despise books that keep you hanging on till the end, only to be monumentally disappointing. Little is worse than investing 5 hours of your life only to think, "That's it?!" Friedman sparingly builds up to a climax that never happens! Miranda never solves the mystery behind her weird feet, her grandmother's oddness, that moment in the library where the book flies off the shelf, why her mom gets all anal and changes after complaining about how much she dislikes the people on the island, if there are actually sea monsters, mermaids, or selkies...or WHAT, definitively, Leo is! Really?! The whole point of the story, and you aren't even going to mention it? What's the thinking there?

Lastly, the writing. As I've already said, Friedman has a beautiful way with words. I would've loved it if her way with words would've actually been showing versus telling. If we're inside Miranda's head, it needs to feel that way! Don't tell me the air looked hazy. Let me see it through Miranda's eyes. How does it feel, taste, smell? This is the one thing that bugs me about 1st person writing. It has to be sensory driven. Fortunately for Friedman, her gorgeous verbiage made up the gap between frustration and finishing.

In Conclusion: I really did enjoy the actual writing in this book, but the rest was mediocre at best. It's hard to peg a recommend/not recommend on this one, just know that most of your expectations on who/what/how things go, will be left unsatisfied.