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

[khek.livejournal.com]

My sister is speeding through tons of paranormal romances...it's so funny. She's been calling me to tell me what to read constantly.

The first time I read Wuthering Heights, I was in 9th grade and it was an English class assignment. I absolutely *detested* it then, mostly because I didn't understand it at all, and didn't have the capability of appreciating all the background and the romance. For some reason, I picked it up during my second year of college, and read it again. (It may have been for a class, but if it was, I don't remember writing anything about it.) I absolutely LOVED it then, and have read it several times since.

I hope you enjoy it!

[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.