Heart of the Dragon (or, well, something else of the dragon...*wink*)

[gategrrl]

Okey-dokey. I thought I knew a little bit about paranormal romances, but whoa, this takes it to a whole new level.

Gena Showalter has loads of her paperbacks in Target, and I picked this one up, mostly because the cover featured this guy sort of clawing the air, and his picture was overlaid with that printing shellac that shows up when light is reflected on it. And the blurb on the back had keywords like,

"Dragon: Atlantis: Shapechanger: Vampires: and Portals"....okay, I've loved the concept of Atlantis since I was little girl. Loved dragons, too. So, I skimmed. Interesting premise, didn't seem to overloaded with politics and worldbuilding (though I wouldn't know, since it was only a skim) and my first reaction was, holy cow, there really IS an outlandish paranormal romance for everyone. How unlikely is THIS combination of location and mythical beings? Eh?

No, I didn't buy it, since I've spent too much $$ on other books lately (not to mention Xmas presents) so...it'll have to wait. We'll see.

Right now I'm reading Wuthering Heights, and whoa. Talk about complex on every level.

Comments

[nialla]

I used to read a lot of paranormals (and futuristics, which were a sci fi/romance blend) when they were first popular in the 90s. They went out of fashion for a while, then came back with a vengeance.

I've found a few good authors, but it's not like it was in the 90s, when I'd read just about anything in the paranormal or futuristic romance genres. It was a mixing my favorite genres, and relatively rare. It was wonderful to see something a bit different that was breaking down the genre walls.

Nowadays there's just too much out there. Like with anything else, Sturgeon's Law applies, so 99% of it is crap. Or more like just not my cuppa because I'm burned out on it, especially vampires.

I don't mind vampire-like characters per se, but the traditional styles are just done to, well, undeath. I do like one series that has characters with traits similar to what we consider vampires, werewolves and other critters, but they do not fit the traditional style at all.

Writers are really reaching trying to do something "different" in the PNR genre these days. Some are total crackfic, but the author gets a paycheck, and in some cases, it's actually enjoyable crackfic.

I think the problem now is it's the "in" thing, so agents and editors are telling writers to write in the genre to sell more books, even if they don't have any understanding of the basic concepts involved.

[gategrrl.livejournal.com]

This particular author has done edgy SF/paranormal? romances for a while (since the late 90s, I think)-at least, that's what Amazon tells me.

She's since moved to the underwater theme (Atlantis), male sex driven nymphs, a redo of the Pygmalion story with an alien as the statue...she really seems to like the SF aspect, and uses aliens as the main male protagonists.

The LA system seems to carry only some of the books that I've seen on Amazon. But that's the way it usually is.

Yeah, there were Vampires of some sort in this Atlantis based romance, but I could NOT for the life of me understand what the one had to do with the other, other than her agent or publisher suggested using them because "Vampires--they HUGE right now!" (as the bad guys).

Honest. Makes me think even *I* could write these things (but I know it's probably a lot harder than it looks to write a good book in this genre)

[nialla]

There's been a lot of authors who've tried to "reinvent" the vampire over the years in the romance genre. Some are successful, some... not so much.

Sometimes they have a good start, but then decide to write an ongoing series and milk the idea dry long before the series is over.

A good book in any genre is hard to find. The book club I'm in reads mostly romance, but a wide variety of subgenres. We've read young adult, paranormal, Christian romance, erotica, historicals and just about anything else you can name.

Oddly, most of the "big names" are ones we avoid like the plague. What is "comfort food" for some is just too bland for us. I often suspect they're bland on purpose, so as to not offend a wider potential audience.

We've sought out a lot of new authors trying to find something good, but we've had awful luck lately. I don't think we've had a book by a mainstream publisher everyone's liked in over a year. There was one from a small press everyone liked a few months back.

[gategrrl.livejournal.com]

What was the one that everyone liked? What subgenre was it in? I'm not averse to good, sincere romance, as long as it's written interestingly and competently with decent, well-motivated characters and a minimum or stupid-tropes (or tropes used stupidly, if you know what I mean).

[nialla]

The Cornstalk by Heather Garside.

I didn't get to read that one at the time, as it was during my last bought of not having a co-worker then training a new one, and our meetings are the same night of the week the library stays open.

I've got it in the library collection though (the library buys books for the club at a discount, the club donates a copy back), so I'll get to it eventually.

[gategrrl.livejournal.com]

And it's driving me NUTS! WHO is that kid in your icon???

[nialla]

That would be the adorkable Colin Morgan, star of the new "Merlin" tv series.