Which is a long winded way of complementing Sherry Thomas. I've read the first two in her new series, which are Beguiling the Beauty and Ravishing the Heiress, and first, let me state, they are really wonderful.
But I hate the titles. The titles sound over the top and her books are anything but, they are subtle and remarkably written and they read so differently from anything else in the genre right now. They are the books I would hand to someone to convince them to respect romance.
I am a total fangirl. Her characters are adults. They don't always behave perfectly, but they come across to me as fully formed people who behave like adults and I love how she subverts the genre in subtle ways.
The first book takes the classic beauty and makes her beauty both a blessing, but also a terrible curse, where normally heroines are beautiful, but unaware of it, this heroine is keenly aware of it and uses it when necessary. Her beauty was an impediment to her and the hero falling in love.
The second book is about a forced marriage, where the one doing the forcing is (sort of) the heroine and what happens afterwards, and how friendship and compromise bring about love.
I loved both books, maybe the second one more, but more I love how she can bring about fresh takes on the genre so subtly and they are written so wonderfully.
Yep, total fangirl here, but so far in this series, she has absolutely lived up to my expectations. And now I'm eagerly awaiting the third, because I absolutely trust her to take that character somewhere special.
Anyone else read them? (I know Molly has) Anyone else loved them the way I did?
6 comments:
I read them Sinead and loved them too. LOVED the second book in particular.
She's just such an incredible talent. I'm a total fangirl as well.
I haven't read them yet, but want to. I've been a little in awe of Sherry Thomas since I read her first book.
My TBR pile is crazy right now...
I'm going to give those a try. I have come across the title challenged "no, it's really better than it sounds" romance before. I often wonder how many I've passed on because the titles completely blended in with everything else or simply made me cringe.
I'm looking forward to the third one. I'm reading a historical right now that's just killing me. One hand beautifully written, fascinating female character, one of my favorite tropes - revenge! But there's something about this hero - he's not an adult, really. He's sort of being pushed and pulled to fit the plot requirements of the revenge and so...he's just not quite human. If that makes sense.
SmittenKitten - you've given me an blog post idea about romance titles and covers. The rut we're in is INSANE!!!
I've never even heard of her but I am always on the look out for good well written novels! Thanks!
While I have yet to immerse myself in Sherry Thomas’s works, I absolutely agree with the title of this post. When I think of adult heroines, experience is the first thing I remember. Experience gives your character a lot of substance and makes them more relatable to the readers in return. :)
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