Movies: The Young Victoria

Last night I was in the mood for seeing a movie on the big screen. My first choice would have been Avatar, but since no one else wanted to see that with me, I went with my second choice: The Young Victoria.

I've been interested in seeing it for two reasons. First, I absolutely love Emily Blunt. I think she is incredibly talented and can't wait to see what she does in the future. The second reason was that Sarah Ferguson was one of the producers. The New York Times had an article a few weeks back about Fergie and her role in making this film.

I was not disappointed in the film at all. Emily Blunt's performance was wonderful. She just seems to absorb her characters, completely becoming them. Her portrayal of Queen Victoria wasn't what I expected. While Victoria can be considered the "heroine" here, especially since the film heavily focuses on her romance with Albert, Blunt captures the nuancies of her character. She portrayed both her strength as well as her insecurities and childishness. Rupert Friend (Prince Albert) was equally memorable. He was a man torn between giddy young love and lost without a role in his wife's court. I fell in love with his character. The rest of the cast was equally memorable, including Miranda Richardson as Victoria's weak-minded but power hungry mother, and Paul Bettany as the slightly sinister Lord Melbourne.

Unfortunatley The Young Victoria finds itself torn between being a dramaticized documentary and a romantic drama. There is no one story line to follow. Half the film seems devoted to chronicling Victoria's seccession to the throne and its perils and the other half to portraying her romance with Albert. For this reason the film lacks a conclusive ending. Victoria is still young and fairly niave, and we never see her master her role as Queen, make decisions based on her own beliefs, or find satisfying independence, which was her goal. Despite their love Albert and Victoria still have many trials ahead of them, mainly balancing Victoria's role as queen with the dinamics of their husband/wife relationship.

The stylistic filming was distracting at points. While I liked the use of shadows, the camera frequently went out of focus and I was unsure why that technique was used. It didn't seem to enhance any moments or convey a particular feeling.

I would recommend this movie to anyone who loves period dramas or romances. The costumes and settings were gorgeous, the love story was captivating, and the acting was superb. I would give it four out of five stars.

That Time of Year Again

I hope everyone has a great New Year's Eve watching the ball drop, drinking champagne, or whatever your traditions are. I always go to my best friends house where we watch the best of the Buffy/Spike episodes and drink Martinellis.

Since people have been sharing their resolutions lot lately I thought I'd throw my hat in, so here they are:

1) Start posting regularly. I've always been a sporadic poster, whether it comes to Blogger, Livejournal, or even Facebook. I'd really like to work on sticking to things. Unfortunately this will probably be the first to go since I have a full semester coming up.

2) Participate in the DIK Reading Challenge. I joined up because hopefully this will help me with resolution number one. It's my first reading challenge, and I have always wanted to try one out.

3)Lose weight. I feel like this is on 90% of people's lists and has almost become the obligatory resolution. However, I've lost 20 pounds in the past year, am in Weight Watchers, and see no reason why I can't keep it up. :)

4) Try out new genres. I read (and love) historical and contemporary romance, but want to branch out and try more paranormal and urban fantasy. So far I've only tried JR Ward's BDB, but since I like those books I'm sure there is a whole lot more out there that I'm missing.

5) Learn basic HTML. As you can see, my blog screams "under construction". I'm good with technology in general, but when it comes to HTML I'm left there scratching my head. As a student, I don't have the cash to hire someone to design a blog for me, but I see no reason I can't learn some elements and tidy it up a bit.

I'm sure more will come to me before midnight, but these are my five major resolutions I hope to keep. Good luck with yours and have a great time tonight!

The Loss of a Treasure

Anyone who lives in Delaware or the DC metro area has (hopefully) heard of Lambda Rising. To sum up: for 35 years Lambda Rising has been Washington's premier LGBT bookstore, with one of the largest collections of fiction, erotica, memoirs, nonfiction/history, and tons of other odds and ends. They have some of the most wonderful and knowledgeable staff and has created a real sense of community.

That being said, I was upset to learn that both Lambda Rising stores are closing. Lambda Rising has always held a special place in my heart. It was where I bought Sweet Lips by Mel Smith and first discovered homo erotica five years ago. Since then I've developed a soft spot for the genre, though the bulk of my reading is still mainstream romance. I felt slightly better when I found out that it is closing because the owner is retiring, not because they are going out of business. Still, it won't be there anymore.

The second thought that crossed my mind: OMG yay a sale!

It was so awesome to walk in there and find all books 40% off! Despite having a $20 cash limit, I was able to walk away with some goodies.



It took me quite a bit of time to settle on one piece of erotic I wanted to buy. I ended up sitting in the middle of one of the aisles with my friend, flipping through a stack of books trying to pick one. I narrowed it down to three and with my friend's advice picked this one. The plot sounded fairly interesting, I liked that it's a historical, but mostly did you see that cover! Best. Erection. Ever.

Speaking of erections, this book was irresistible as well. I've been flipping through it and never realized until now just how much thought goes into a blow job. There is also this awesome chapter for guys about etiquette and considerations for your partner. Fellatio has never been so equal! The other reason I just had to get this is because my friend bought The Ultimate Guide to Anal Sex for Women. Maybe we'll switch when we're done reading our own.

I had the funniest cashier when checking out. The ridiculous cover of The Price of Temptation lead to some witty banter about the absurdity of many Harlequin covers and Nathan Kamp's abs. His exact comment was "I don't like a guy to be too ripped. I don't want to get rug burn just from going down on him". FTW!

Merry X-mas Everyone!

I hope everyone is having a great holiday season! For me it has been a quieter Christmas than usual. Family, friends and I agreed to cut back this year, so gifts were really only sent to the little kids. Almost all the gifts I gave were baked goods. Everyone loved the kits I put together, though my waistband is really starting to feel it.

While I loved everything I got this year (despite the recession I had a fairly good haul) I was thankful to see that someone did think to send be a Borders gift card! There was a 25% off sale today at Borders.com, and that $25 card was gone by noon.

Here's what will be arriving in the mail soon:


A classic. It's one of those books I didn't want to read until I owned a copy of it. Now that I had some spare cash I decided it was time to go and get myself a copy.










I own both Bound By Your Touch and Written on Your Skin, but couldn't find The Duke of Shadows the last two times I went to the book store. The buzz around Meridith Duran's books doesn't seem to end, but I can be really obsessive sometimes and didn't want to read the other two until I'd read the first, even if they're not a series.








I have a signed copy of Knight of Pleasure that I got at the RWA convention this past summer. I wasn't blown away, but I did enjoy it a lot. Stephan is the hero of this one, and his character was my favorite part of Knight of Pleasure so I still want to give this one a try.










I have a soft-spot for M/M romance. I didn't use to read it that much but it's grown on me. I think I find that many of them have more of an emotional thrill than hetero romances. False Colors got rave reviews on Dear Author and sounded irresistible from their reviews, so I figured it was time to by myself a copy.






Best holiday wishes to everyone!

Where do books come from?

I am (almost) finish with the semester. It is wonderful to have exam week out of the way. To say the least I've had no time to read romance over the past month, but that hasn't deterred me from expanding my TBR pile. Between the public library and various thrift stores my collection has continued to grow. I think a part of me got through exams because of the fact that I had the huge pile of books waiting by my bedside. I could see them, and I was dying to read them. My desire to read romances always increases with stress. But I knew I couldn't touch them until I had gotten through the semester.

Now that everything is coming to an end I can finally resume where I left off. I'm planning to do a review of the Black Dagger Brotherhood. I finished the whole series just before things heated up. I'm probably going to do a combined review of all the books rather than each one individually. I can't say how excited I am for Lover Mine to come out next spring. John Matthew had long been one of my favorite characters. I'm taking ASL next semester, something I've been interested in for years. JR Ward has written both a blind and a mute hero, and for that I think she deserves major points for combining disabilities to romance in a respectful and kick-ass way.

Currently a lot of my TBR pile is coming from the public library. Until recently I never used the public library for reading romance novels. I try to support the economy and as often as I can I buy new. But with the recession I've been finding my means for obtaining romance novels has changed to almost exclusively to thrift and borrowing. This Christmas I'm trying to buy family new books as more of an effort to support the publishing industry, and I'm hoping to get some gift cards so I can get myself new books as well. Has anyone else found there method of getting romance novels has changed? Is anyone else making it a priority this holiday season to try to by new books for themselves or loved ones?

Review Dump

I know I haven't posted anything in a while, so I'm just doing a review dump for all the books I've reviewed in the past month.


5 stars

My high rating of Unlawful Contact is seriously boosted by the sex scenes between Marc and Sophie. This book gets seriously spicy.

The opening to the novel is when Marc (then known as Hunt) and Sophie first speak at a graduation party. He’s two years older, attractive and very popular. Sophie has just lost her parents, is alone and teased. Of course, Hunt sees past that all. The scene where she loses her virginity to him is one of the most romantic love scenes I’ve ever read. I think this is what really sold me on the book. It’s every girl’s fantasy. Almost every woman can remember wanting that “perfect” guy to notice you. There is something cathartic about having Sophie getting to live that fantasy.

The suspense aspect of the novel plays out well. There are more twists and turns in Marc’s past and the conspiracy against him and his sister than I can count. It was also great that Sophie didn’t immediately fall for him again when they see each other. She’s pissed and she should be. It made her character seem more real and made it more interesting to watch them fall for each other a second time. While the first chapter was hot, the sex scenes in the book become more erotic.

Some moments in the plot did seem to drag, especially when it came to progress in their investigation or Sophie’s job as a reporter. Nothing was ever slow or dull enough for me to want to put it down though. The only thing which did get under my skin a little was the complete care bear ending. Every character got everything they wanted. Within months all the good guys got of scot free while the bad guys got put away for life (not that it isn’t a good thing, just not very realistic based on how trials go). It just got a bit to warm and fuzzy for me.

I’d recommend this for anyone who likes romantic suspense and is looking for something that sizzles.




5 stars

During the first few chapters, I came very close to setting this book down and never picking it up again. Lady Irene Wyngate is determined not to marry, and insists on making this clear to everyone. It’s great that she’s an independent heroine, but I just couldn’t envision some woman talking to the ton at a ball and spouting out why she would never marry. While I liked that she was a modern, independent thinker, her talking openly about it didn’t jive with her deire to be considered proper.

Other than that, I really enjoyed the book. Her not wanting to marry (and the reasons she doesn’t want to marry) set up for good tension between her and Gideon. I loved their sparring. It brought both characters to life. And there were several wonderful, sensual love scenes.

At first I didn’t know what to make of the plot since it focuses on the fact Gideon was kidnapped as a child and grew up in the slums of London. It’s a somewhat odd plot, but it provided enough twists and surprises to keep everything moving.

While this is not one of my favorite romances overall, I came to really like both the hero and heroine.




4 stars

Overall I enjoyed Knight of Desire. It definitely passed the put-down pick-up test. Most of the story is told from William, our hero’s point of view. I enjoyed watching his feelings and understanding of Katherine evolve. While there is a lot of action, William and Katherine’s relationship changes very slowly. The main conflict in their relationship is their lack of trust, so the book is rife with misunderstandings. They weren’t the wall-banger, TSTL types of misunderstandings but I did start to find them tiresome. William spent most of the book either confused or oblivious, but is never an overbearing ass-hat hero. I found Kate’s character more off-putting. She is clearly a strong woman able to endure a lot of hardship, but she didn’t seem active in making her and William’s relationship work until way into the book.

I was a bit hesitant about this book since it’s my first medieval romance, but I’m glad I got it. I think my decision may have been influenced by its gorgeous cover and the rave reviews it received a few months ago. There wasn’t too much detail and realism about the time period, but this worked for me since I find too much realism distracts me from the story. It was a fun read and I’m really excited for the next book in the series, Knight of Pleasure. The hero, Stephan, is introduced in this book and became my favorite character, so I’m thrilled he gets his own story.




3 stars

When I saw this was one of the harelquin freebies, I just had to get it. I mean really, have you taken a good look at that cover? It cracks me up! I don't know if I should start with the two fat, oblivious babies... or the way he's holding them like two wiggling footballs he scooped up off the ground while gazing optimistically into the horizon... or the strange jaw buldge that suggets a jaw tumor. I mean it looks like some oddball in a suit picked up some kids at the supermarket and brought them home to his wife. "Hey honey, I'm home. And look what I brought with me- two pudge identical tots! Now I can go one and fufill my dream of being the best baby collector in America..."

Ok, I'm done, but you still got to admit it's a truly snark worthy cover. As a book it was better than I expected, which isn't saying much since I expected it to be similar to the cover. It read more like a Harelquin Presents than a Silhouette Desire. That's were the most the secret baby and I-must-punish-you-for-lying-to-me plots come out. However, Nick Falco wasn't nearly as much as an asshat than Harlequin usually makes there hero's, so that was a pleasant surprise. Jenna, however, really got on my nerves. She was intent on martyring herself for her children, because her life could never be complete without them! To say the least, no depth.

Despite all it's shortcomings, this book was a freebie, so there's no harm in downloading it, if only to look at the cover some more.

Secret Fantasies and the Asshat Hero

From early romance with Fabio covers to today’s Harlequin Presents, the uber-alpha male is a staple of the romance genre. We’re all familiar with the symptoms: brooding, possessive aggression, a dark past, and controlling the heroine’s life for her own good. For many readers, this is enough to send the book flying across the room. Many feminists are enraged by the use of forced seduction. Many readers are disgusted by the emotionally abusive relationships between virgins and their Greek billionaire tycoons. But one thing is for sure, these books are still selling strong and aren’t going anywhere for quite some time.

I personally fall into the disgusted and enraged category. The last time I read a Harlequin Presents was months ago, and mainly because I was in the mood to write a particularly snarky review. My loathing of these heroes has nothing to do with this post though. What is relevant is my curiosity as to why women love these books, despite all the abuse the heroine is stuck with. After months of thinking and meeting women who love these books, here is my conclusion:

These alpha-males aren’t just assholes and pricks, but a reflection of a secret fantasy. Thinking about yourself and your friends, how many women do you know who have ended up in a relationship with the perpetual bachelor? The controlling prick? The over possessive asshole? The guy who blows hot and cold?

The list of these stereotypes is endless. So is the list of friends of mine who have ended up with one of these men, and still tried to make it work despite those traits. And guess what- they ended up getting hurt.

I’m going to start with the controversial book Twilight. People are all over the place when it comes to Twilight, from screaming fangirls to people who scream if the books get anywhere near them. I ended up going to the midnight release of New Moon with a friend of mine and her guy friend. We leave the theater and she starts to wax poetically about Edward and his love for Bella. In my mind I begin listing all the reasons I can’t stand him. 1) He doesn’t let Bella decide for herself 2) he always insists he’s right 3) he stalks her… I look up to see her with her guy friend, or more specifically the guy she’s sleeping with but 1) won’t date her because he knows she’s still in love with her ex 2) he insists she be more healthy (for her own good) 3) he’s cheating on her…

And it clicks. She loves Edward because the men in her life have the same abusive traits as him. What could be a better fantasy than having a man act that way because he loves you!

I don’t think most women take stories such as Twilight as seriously as she does. I don’t think all the women who read and love Harlequin Presents and The Flame and the Flower are in emotionally abusive relationships. Chances are though that men like this have been in your life at some point. We know these men aren’t going to change, but isn’t it a wonderful fantasy that they act that way because of a strong, compelling and selfless emotion?