Romance novel bonanza!!!!
Jun. 29th, 2021 01:52 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
chocochipbiscuitWork has been exhausting, I’ve had very little brain for writing or gaming lately, so obviously that means it’s time to read a bunch of romance novels!
Love Bleeds Deep by Rien Gray - Very hot romantic suspense!!! Also the sequel to Love Kills Twice, which I immensely enjoyed. It picks up immediately where the first book left off, and ramps up the stakes while being even hotter.
Nutshell synopsis: Nonbinary assassin takes a contract to murder the horrific ex-boyfriend stalking a French diplomat, and brings along their new romantic partner (from the first book) who they got together with after taking a contract to murder the woman’s abusive husband. THRILLS. CHILLS. Wonderful kink and exquisite sex scenes. Everything escalates in such a fun way, and it feels like a natural progression because where the first book had to establish more of the character dynamics and the getting together, in this book, the two main characters already have that established relationship and it’s just. Mwah. So much fun.
To give an idea of how much fun I had, I meant to only read a few chapters before going to bed, as a nice treat after a long day at work. Instead, I stayed up past midnight to finish reading.
The Pingkang Li Mysteries by Jeannie Lin - Tang Dynasty historical romance mysteries set around the pleasure district, the home of courtesans and entertainers. I actually bought this as a box set because it was on sale, and the books include Capturing the Silken Thief (a novella), The Lotus Palace, and The Jade Temptress. I really enjoyed these books, and will blab about them a bit individually before talking about them as a collection! I don’t think they need to be read in order to enjoy them, but I do think that The Jade Temptress benefits from having read The Lotus Palace first, as it features many of the same characters.
Capturing the Silken Thief was fun, albeit abrupt; I’ve come to the realization that while I enjoy romances in general, romance novellas tend to be too short to really give me the ‘oomf’ feeling I crave. A female musician tries to steal a valuable book from a young scholar, believing that the book will allow her to buy her own freedom. Her attempt fails, but unexpectedly, the young man offers to help her. Short, sweet, and a lot of fun.
The Lotus Palace features Yue-ying, the maidservant to one of the most famed courtesans of the Lotus Palace. She’s savvy, pragmatic, and more than happy to fade into the shadows next to the famous beauties. Aristocratic playboy Bai Huang’s flirtations are more irritation than anything else, especially because he is ostensibly courting Yue-ying’s mistress, but they’re thrown together to solve a murder mystery! Drama! Twists! Class barriers and forbidden romance!
The Jade Temptress follows on the adventures of Mingyu, Yue-ying’s mistress (and sister!) from the previous book. Mingyu is charming, seductive, and fully aware of the difference between freedom and security, especially as she (and all the other courtesans) are indentured servants to the house-mother of the Lotus Palace, no matter how widely they’re celebrated. Constable Wu Kaifeng (who actually arrested her in the previous book!) is the only man who seems impervious to her charms, and sees her as more than the fantasy that she presents. So when Mingyu’s patron, a powerful and wealthy general, is murdered, they must solve the case together.
I really enjoyed these books, so much that I want to leave this review on a high note: which means I’ll start with the thing I hate most.
The author uses ‘member’ and ‘organ’ during sex scenes!!!! As in ‘his hard member entered her’ or ‘she could feel his organ hardening beneath her hand’ and oh my god as much as I love everything else about these books, that was a personal hard whiplash! So consider yourselves warned!
But...my god, these books are great. The Silken Thief is truly a stand-alone and doesn’t intersect with the others, so I’ll spend most of my energy talking about The Lotus Palace and The Jade Temptress, but all of these books dig into the issues of class, power, and sexism that limit these women’s control over their lives. These aren’t fluffy books (though they do have the prerequisite happy endings of romance novels), which makes the way the women seize control of their own narratives even more satisfying.
Because it centers around the women who work in the pleasure district, it makes it very clear that this is work for them. Being charming, lovely, and appealing is work. They are entertainers and sex workers, and are literally owned by the proprietors of their establishments, whether they were sold as indentured servants or kidnapped from their families. So even though the books never show it on the page or make the reader complicit in reading about their abuse, there is definitely a history of sexual coercion for all the women involved.
For example, in The Lotus Palace, Bai Huang’s first attempt to kiss Yue-ying is completely as a whim on his side, and he is oblivious to the fact that from her side, it’s seen as a threat. He is a wealthy noble who cannot possibly marry her, and who has not even bothered with the traditional courting gifts he would give to a courtesan, and he’s followed a young woman into the cellar and blocked her way out? She slaps him hard enough to leave a mark, and it’s not until afterwards that he realizes that he completely deserved that. Later in the book, when they’re first in bed together, Yue-ying realizes that she can’t enjoy herself and just wants to get it over with quickly because she can’t stop remembering all the other times she was forced to service customers when she was working at a brothel.
In The Jade Temptress, even Mingyu’s beauty and higher status doesn’t protect her either; she clearly remembers the trauma of the first time she went to her patron’s bed, and the way he kept one hand on her throat the entire time as a way to establish his power over her. She is a commodity. Her bond fee to the house-mother of the Lotus Palace means that even if a wealthy client decided to purchase her freedom, it would mean a transfer of ownership rather than true freedom.
At the same time...the soft power of the women, while it has its limits, isn’t seen as ‘weak’ either. In The Lotus Palace, when Bai Huang asks his father to break his marriage contract so he can marry Yue-ying, his father refuses him. However, his sister reveals (with a giggle!) that Bai Huang should have come to the women first, because they are able to arrange for Bai Huang’s younger brother to ‘accidentally’ meet Bai Huang’s fiancee at a park, let the young people fall in love, and then have the mothers neatly renegotiate the marriage contract to keep the family alliances in place without a loss of face for anyone...and also leaving Bai Huang free to marry Yue-ying. One of the most satisfying showdowns in The Jade Temptress is when Mingyu theatrically arranges the denouncement of one of the book’s villains, a man intent on owning her, by delivering a book of critical, slanderous poetry that’s been penned by the man’s peers.
But oh my GOD I have come to realize how much I love romance novels!!!!
I have some other books to read first (like...books I’ve already purchased, mumble mumble, so I should read those before buying new books), but I already have the next Pingkang Li mystery, The Duke Who Didn’t by Courtney Milan, and How to Find a Princess by Alyssa Cole on my ‘want to read’ list!
Anyone else have any good reads or recs? I’m mostly interested in romances featuring POC.
Love Bleeds Deep by Rien Gray - Very hot romantic suspense!!! Also the sequel to Love Kills Twice, which I immensely enjoyed. It picks up immediately where the first book left off, and ramps up the stakes while being even hotter.
Nutshell synopsis: Nonbinary assassin takes a contract to murder the horrific ex-boyfriend stalking a French diplomat, and brings along their new romantic partner (from the first book) who they got together with after taking a contract to murder the woman’s abusive husband. THRILLS. CHILLS. Wonderful kink and exquisite sex scenes. Everything escalates in such a fun way, and it feels like a natural progression because where the first book had to establish more of the character dynamics and the getting together, in this book, the two main characters already have that established relationship and it’s just. Mwah. So much fun.
To give an idea of how much fun I had, I meant to only read a few chapters before going to bed, as a nice treat after a long day at work. Instead, I stayed up past midnight to finish reading.
The Pingkang Li Mysteries by Jeannie Lin - Tang Dynasty historical romance mysteries set around the pleasure district, the home of courtesans and entertainers. I actually bought this as a box set because it was on sale, and the books include Capturing the Silken Thief (a novella), The Lotus Palace, and The Jade Temptress. I really enjoyed these books, and will blab about them a bit individually before talking about them as a collection! I don’t think they need to be read in order to enjoy them, but I do think that The Jade Temptress benefits from having read The Lotus Palace first, as it features many of the same characters.
Capturing the Silken Thief was fun, albeit abrupt; I’ve come to the realization that while I enjoy romances in general, romance novellas tend to be too short to really give me the ‘oomf’ feeling I crave. A female musician tries to steal a valuable book from a young scholar, believing that the book will allow her to buy her own freedom. Her attempt fails, but unexpectedly, the young man offers to help her. Short, sweet, and a lot of fun.
The Lotus Palace features Yue-ying, the maidservant to one of the most famed courtesans of the Lotus Palace. She’s savvy, pragmatic, and more than happy to fade into the shadows next to the famous beauties. Aristocratic playboy Bai Huang’s flirtations are more irritation than anything else, especially because he is ostensibly courting Yue-ying’s mistress, but they’re thrown together to solve a murder mystery! Drama! Twists! Class barriers and forbidden romance!
The Jade Temptress follows on the adventures of Mingyu, Yue-ying’s mistress (and sister!) from the previous book. Mingyu is charming, seductive, and fully aware of the difference between freedom and security, especially as she (and all the other courtesans) are indentured servants to the house-mother of the Lotus Palace, no matter how widely they’re celebrated. Constable Wu Kaifeng (who actually arrested her in the previous book!) is the only man who seems impervious to her charms, and sees her as more than the fantasy that she presents. So when Mingyu’s patron, a powerful and wealthy general, is murdered, they must solve the case together.
I really enjoyed these books, so much that I want to leave this review on a high note: which means I’ll start with the thing I hate most.
The author uses ‘member’ and ‘organ’ during sex scenes!!!! As in ‘his hard member entered her’ or ‘she could feel his organ hardening beneath her hand’ and oh my god as much as I love everything else about these books, that was a personal hard whiplash! So consider yourselves warned!
But...my god, these books are great. The Silken Thief is truly a stand-alone and doesn’t intersect with the others, so I’ll spend most of my energy talking about The Lotus Palace and The Jade Temptress, but all of these books dig into the issues of class, power, and sexism that limit these women’s control over their lives. These aren’t fluffy books (though they do have the prerequisite happy endings of romance novels), which makes the way the women seize control of their own narratives even more satisfying.
Because it centers around the women who work in the pleasure district, it makes it very clear that this is work for them. Being charming, lovely, and appealing is work. They are entertainers and sex workers, and are literally owned by the proprietors of their establishments, whether they were sold as indentured servants or kidnapped from their families. So even though the books never show it on the page or make the reader complicit in reading about their abuse, there is definitely a history of sexual coercion for all the women involved.
For example, in The Lotus Palace, Bai Huang’s first attempt to kiss Yue-ying is completely as a whim on his side, and he is oblivious to the fact that from her side, it’s seen as a threat. He is a wealthy noble who cannot possibly marry her, and who has not even bothered with the traditional courting gifts he would give to a courtesan, and he’s followed a young woman into the cellar and blocked her way out? She slaps him hard enough to leave a mark, and it’s not until afterwards that he realizes that he completely deserved that. Later in the book, when they’re first in bed together, Yue-ying realizes that she can’t enjoy herself and just wants to get it over with quickly because she can’t stop remembering all the other times she was forced to service customers when she was working at a brothel.
In The Jade Temptress, even Mingyu’s beauty and higher status doesn’t protect her either; she clearly remembers the trauma of the first time she went to her patron’s bed, and the way he kept one hand on her throat the entire time as a way to establish his power over her. She is a commodity. Her bond fee to the house-mother of the Lotus Palace means that even if a wealthy client decided to purchase her freedom, it would mean a transfer of ownership rather than true freedom.
At the same time...the soft power of the women, while it has its limits, isn’t seen as ‘weak’ either. In The Lotus Palace, when Bai Huang asks his father to break his marriage contract so he can marry Yue-ying, his father refuses him. However, his sister reveals (with a giggle!) that Bai Huang should have come to the women first, because they are able to arrange for Bai Huang’s younger brother to ‘accidentally’ meet Bai Huang’s fiancee at a park, let the young people fall in love, and then have the mothers neatly renegotiate the marriage contract to keep the family alliances in place without a loss of face for anyone...and also leaving Bai Huang free to marry Yue-ying. One of the most satisfying showdowns in The Jade Temptress is when Mingyu theatrically arranges the denouncement of one of the book’s villains, a man intent on owning her, by delivering a book of critical, slanderous poetry that’s been penned by the man’s peers.
But oh my GOD I have come to realize how much I love romance novels!!!!
I have some other books to read first (like...books I’ve already purchased, mumble mumble, so I should read those before buying new books), but I already have the next Pingkang Li mystery, The Duke Who Didn’t by Courtney Milan, and How to Find a Princess by Alyssa Cole on my ‘want to read’ list!
Anyone else have any good reads or recs? I’m mostly interested in romances featuring POC.
