Bookish Thoughts

I adore Sarah MacLean, but this one took a while to grab me. Maybe it's just because I could see what was coming. Which is silly. I read romance for the predictability, and Sarah MacLean especially because I love what she does with the tropes. I guess I was just eager to get to the meat of it, and it started a bit slow. Mostly, though, I'm excited for what's coming next. MacLean has been laying the groundwork for her next series: Hell's Belles. I can hardly wait.

It only took a couple of chapters for me to remember how much I absolutely love Sarah MacLean's books. Actually it didn't really take that long, but that's when I came up for air because I needed to sleep. Hattie is a force of nature in this book, and I fell in love with her from the first moment I met her. So it's no wonder that Beast did, too. The banter between these two was perfect, the sex scenes were amazing, and the plot was thrilling. In my head, Beast was played by Tom Hardy, thanks to all his grunting. Being able to visualize the hero like that made this book all the more enjoyable. Also, half the fun of these books, now that I've read literally everything MacLean has written, is seeing the cameos of characters from earlier books. I'm sure they were there in the other books I've read. But since I worked through her books out of order, I missed a lot of them. Here I was able to recognize all sorts of minor characters and it really makes her worl...

One of the things I'm discovering as I dip my toe into the Romance waters is that this is a very personal genre. It's formulaic, sure. Two people meet, are attracted, face a variety of obstacles, and ultimately admit that they love each other. There's a kiss or a proposal or a marriage or something to cement that happily ever after. But for the broad strokes, you know what's going to happen. And so, moreso than in other genres, the appreciation of romance comes down to the details. Are these characters you enjoy rooting for? Is this someone you would be attracted to? Do you find the obstacles believable? And then it gets to be more explicitly about preferences. Historical vs contemporary. Steamy sex scenes vs chaste kissing. Friends to lovers or enemies to lovers or love at first sight. The point I'm trying to make here is that, in evaluating whether or not you liked a particular romance, you end up revealing a lot about yourself. I think that may be part of why ...