Smart Bitches Trashy Books | All of the romance, none of the bullshit.

Here at the Smart Bitchery, I’m suffering a wee bit of guilt. I’m a pretty fast reader, and faster now that I have a bus ride each morning and evening to use for my reading time. But alas, my free time? It has taken a huge nosedive, caused by major cuteness. Wanna see the cuteness?

Check it:

Yeah, that was totally an excuse to put a picture of Freebird up for much ooh-ing and aah-ing.

But since the birth of this here Bitchery, we’ve been sent many a review copy of many a book, some from publishers and some from the stash of free copies belonging to the fine authors themselves.

And I want to make clear that Candy and I, we are not the kind of assmonkey buttmunches who get all giddy over free books and then never deliver on the review part. We both think that the books we review are worthy of a dedicated critique, and it’s not like we want to dash off eBay-feedback reviews (e.g. Marrying the Tycoon’s Monkey Daughter’s Secret Baby was an A+++ BOOK - great! I laughed! I cried! I’m gonna read it again and again until I can recite it from memory at the next Carnival Cruise line passenger talent show!) You worked hard on writing the book, we work hard on reading it and giving it a thorough evaluation.

So! If you sent me a book and you’re wondering, “What the hell, woman?” feel free to email me. I’m going to update the sidebar to “Books to be Reviewed Really Freaking Soon” because updating “What I’m Reading Now” could turn into an every-other-day event since I am back on the bus now.

But, the reviews? The reading? It continues. 

In a recent Luna release (to be reviewed on this here weblog, yessirree!) I encountered a heroine who had multiple partners in various ways, some of them through actual coitus and some through physically pleasurable exchanges of magic. But either way: one lady, and quite a few dudes.

And yet there was a romance in each of the relationships, with a primary romance as a centerpiece to the story - and it worked for me, as the reader, once I accepted the “monogamy rule” had been broken in a well-written manner.

I also had an interesting conversation with a Bitchery member about the romance novel expectation that once the hero meets and realizes his attraction to the heroine, neither party gets to boink anyone else. I’ve seen that standard undone most obviously in romantic erotica/romantica, and often in fantasy/futuristic and some paranormals as well.

I wondered in the email exchange if perhaps fantasy and erotica are going to be the branches of the genre that break the highest number of rules and expectations of romance fiction, and not just expectations of monogamy. From the exploration of multiple partners to the strong heroine who has more important things to deal with besides winning herself that handsome hunk of man titty, are readers more willing to explore new scenarios for romance, even if those scenes break rules to which we are accustomed?.More importantly, am I wrong that fantasy and erotica are the rule-breakers of late? What other standards of romance do you see being busted down?

I don’t know if y’all heard a pigsqueal emanating from SE Portland at about 5:10 p.m. today, but that’s about the time I got my mitts on an autographed ARC of Don’t Look Down.

Also in the package? An autographed copy of the re-release of Anyone But You.

Is it terribly dirty and/or wrong and/or creepy for me to want to dance around and rub these books all over myself?

Ahem. ‘Scuse me. I have, uh, dishes to do. Yes. Indeed. Dishes.

I was reading Derik’s Bane by MaryJanice Davidson on the bus this morning, and, despite not being caffeinated, my brain started a major rumination. One of the characters has the gift of premonition, and as an illustration of the range of that gift, MJD writes that she predicted a tax audit, and September 11th, 2001.

I imagine people have a range of feelings regarding locating contemporary storylines, be they fantasy or not, in the present-day reality using real news events to establish time and location. Personally, I find that there’s a certain limit to how much reality I’m able to swallow in my fiction, but where specifically that limit is, I have a hard time defining.

Bitchery reader Anon asks, “Please don’t let the Good Shit section languish in obscurity!  It’s been wonderfully helpful.  Could I entreat the Bitchery to solicit Sage Advice on the subject of fantasy and sci-fi with interesting relationships between hero and heroine? 

Here’s my shelf to get things started:

Lois McMaster Bujold, starting with Cordelia’s Honor and all the way
through the Miles Naismith series, also the Chalion series

Doris Egan, Ivory trilogy

R.A. MacAvoy, The Grey Horse and Book of the Kells

Sharon Miller and Steve Lee, Liaden books

Sharon Shinn, Archangel series

Megan Whalen Turner, Queen of Attolia

Caroline Stevermer, A College of Magics

Martha Wells, Wheel of the Infinite

The only problem with all of these books is that I’ve read them so very
many times, and I’d love new suggestions!”

So, you request, we respond! I’m going to open this up to SciFi & Fantasy romance - bring on your recommendations, and if that’s too broad a category, we can narrow it down when we post the final tally.