I love some of her books, like some and some I couldn't get into. If your a Game of Thrones fan and can handle rape (yes, H rapes h), The Golden Dynasty . This is one of my favorite books ever! The premise of the book is that there's an alternate earth and the h is from our earth. She wakes up and she's on the alternate earth and things are verrrry different. (Think Game of Thrones with the horse people.) She's confused, wants to wake up from her bad dream and terrified. The H is the leader of the people and he takes one look at the h and has to have her. It's their tradition to hunt women down in a bridal hunt, then "take" (rape) her. That's how they marry. The h becomes his queen and he becomes devoted to her. The whole world that KA created in this series is awesome! It's so good!
Other books in the series that I love are Wildest Dreams , Fantastical . The remaining books in the series were meh to me. Oh and the H's are all j/p alphas.
I did enjoy Jamie Macguire's Beautiful Disaster but I've only read it the one time. The H was the inspiration for the j/p thread. The original poster wanted to find more H's like that one. One thing that bugged me in Beautiful Disaster was how the H groveled so well and the h was so unforgiving. I like that to an extent of course but she was unforgiving for months regardless of what the H did. She broke him.
Last Edit: Jul 11, 2017 6:57:51 GMT -7 by Samantha K
Post by secretromancejunkie on Jul 11, 2017 10:55:41 GMT -7
Sherry said:
I've never tried Lisa Kleypas, Diana Gabaldon, or Stephanie Laurens.
Stephanie Laurens's books vary widely depending on when she wrote them. My two all time favorite HR's are hers. Devil's Bride and Mastered by Love.
But, I also don't like her newest stuff or her Cobra Quartet.
She has a unique writing style in many of her books. She tends to throw a thesaurus at a page and see what falls out.
paraphrased example - He wouldn't let her out of his sight, couldn't let her out of his sight. It simply wasn't in his nature, went against everything that he was. Etc, etc. rinse and repeat.
If that bothers you, you won't enjoy her books. Sometimes it makes my eyes roll, but her books are otherwise so good, that I ignore that aspect.
Samantha K : I've shied away from The Golden Dynasty because of the whole rape thing which is usually a trigger for me. The way you've explained it though puts it in a different context. Does the H do it again and is he brutal towards the h ?
Re Jamie Macguire, I've read that she's a BBA and has in the past attacked anyone who posted a negative review. That put me off her, plus I have so many books in my TBR pile from authors that I like, which I hope I'll get around to reading one say 😊
Sherry: I also enjoyed Devil's Bride, but I stopped reading Stephanie Laurens after she had her H cheating on his wife . I can't trust an author who does that not to do it again, no matter how she tries to sugar coat it !
The book starts out with the h waking up on this alternate earth. She has no idea how she got there and thinks she's having a very vivid dream. It was immediately interesting because her reactions and thinking felt realistic. She's in a cage with other women and scared. She learns she is to be part of a bridal hunt. This is where the women are released and they run away trying to avoid being caught by the men. When the men find the women, they have sex with them. Some women in the cage are excited and eagerly looking forward to the hunt as this is their marriage ritual. The h is not. She catches the eye of the leader and during the hunt he captures her and has sex with her. He doesn't abuse her but he forces himself on her. It's not forced seduction, it is rape. She doesn't enjoy it. After that he adorns her in odd accessories like a headpiece. Unbeknownst to her, he just married her and made her his queen. For the next 3 nights, he forces her to have sex with him again and she doesn't enjoy it. After that she decides to change and try to be receptive to him and get him to do things she likes. (The reason for her change is explained well in the book.) He never apologizes for forcing himself on her as that is part of his people's culture.
If you have seen GOT (Game of Thrones) it feels very similar to Daenerys Targaryen's story with Khal Drogo. He was a Dothraki warlord. The H in Golden Dynasty is a warlord too and his people are similar to the Dothraki. In GOT, Daenerys initially tolerated her husband's advanced but was able to turn it around and make him love her. It's the same in Golden Dynasty. If you were ok with Daenerys' story you should be ok with this one. If that bothered you then you should avoid this.
I can loan Golden Dynasty if you're interested.
Last Edit: Jul 12, 2017 14:25:30 GMT -7 by Samantha K
I stopped reading Stephanie Laurens after she had her H cheating on his wife
What? Which book? I want to make sure I stay away from that one. Hate that!
secretromancejunkie,
The book she's talking about is The Promise in a Kiss. It's the story of Devil's mother, Helena and his father, Sebastian. It's sort of a prequel to the Cynster series.
In The Promise in the Kiss ( Prequel to the Cynster series ) we read about the great love Sebasation had for Helena, but in subsequent books it's revealed that he was unfaithful to her and the stupid reason given ?...That he felt sorry for the other woman ! WTF
The book does sound interesting, but I'd have to be in the right frame of mind to read it, I'll keep it in mind. Thanks for the loan offer, but I don't think it works in Australia.. I know that I'm not able to loan a book so I assume it works the same way in reverse.
tangerine - I don't understand why they (Ammy) won't let you loan nor receive loans and then there's Harlequin e-book availability for you in Australia. It's so weird to me. I mean it's not like you're on another planet! Sheesh! Any idea if they are going to ever fix that for you and your fellow Australians? It's very unfair imo.
Post by secretromancejunkie on Jul 13, 2017 8:16:21 GMT -7
OK, I do know about that one. I read it many years after having read Scandal's story so it wasn't a surprise to me. It still bothered me, and I agree it was a WTF reason. I feel like she painted herself into a corner with that one. She never should have written the story, having already created the need for the H to cheat later.
I've read all her books up to 2013, there is no other instance of cheating.