araminty, that sounds like a great recommendation! I’ll definitely have to try some of Trapido’s work.
Thanks for the recommendation. I’ll definitely take a look. If I demanded any work meet every one of my criteria, I’d have to write it myself. Eek!
I think A Cup of Light is a worthwhile read with a lot to recommend it. The female protaganist is a top expert in an obscure field, confident but willing to express doubt, and lives with a disability but is not defined by it. The events primarily take place in both historical and modern China, and one leaves the book feeling like one has visited there - a real place, not a mythical Western fantasy version. I’m not in a position to judge whether her portrayal is authentic, only that it feels authentic. The people she meets also seem like believable people, not exotic set dressing. The romance occurs fairly late in the book, but I like its slow-burn quality - and, despite coming along late, the guy (an American doctor researching lead toxicity in Chinese children) doesn’t feel like a trophy awarded to the heroine at the end of her journey. Normally I demand witty banter but in this case, I’ll give it a pass because I have no trouble believing these two would wind up together.
It’s not a perfect book by any stretch, including an underwhelming “big reveal” near the end, but I think its strengths far outweigh its weaknesses.
Pulling that off would require the author to be extraordinarily intelligent, witty and educated.
Please don’t hold the Harlequin stable to unreasonable standards.
Actually, that’s a fairly common romance-novel setup. (Even more common, however, is the plot where one lover is conventional and straitlaced and the other, more of a free spirit, teaches him/her to loosen up.)
OK, that’s gonna be a major sticking point. A romance novel is always the story of two and only two people – all the other characters are mere supporting cast – and who the lovers are is always clear from the first chapter. The romance might build slowly and gradually, but the mutual attraction (nowadays, usually in the form of basic lust) always has to be there from first sight.
Actually, that too is fairly common. (But it’s always lagniappe on top of the basic attraction the lovers feel from the start.)
That too. In romance novels, the lovers never find love when they’re looking for it. They did not meet in a singles bar or through an online match service, they were not set up by a mutual friend. Either they are childhood friends, or they are coworkers, or chance circumstances have thrown them together.
I thought you wanted something realistic!
Seconded!
That kind of story seems to be out of fashion anyway (at least in contemporary-setting romances).
Except for the “rescues,” I’ve never encountered any of that in a romance novel.
And that’s gonna be the biggest sticking point of all. I repeat, a romance novel always ends with the lovers agreeing to marry – to end it any other way would be as unthinkable as ending a mystery novel without revealing whodunit. (The wedding is not always portrayed; the accepted proposal is resolution enough.) And the “will he or won’t he” speculation is indispensable – because there is no other way to weave any suspense at all into what the reader knows very well is a story with a foregone conclusion.
My two cents: while I do appreciate a man’s having sexual experience, having sex with dozens or hundreds of women doesn’t appeal to me at all. From a practical perspective, think how many times he’s probably been exposed to some sort of disease. Also, as mentioned earlier, how likely is he to be faithful. And I don’t think it’s a good idea to ever make a lifelong commitment to someone you think needs to change. Men aren’t clay, after all. You can’t mold anyone into something they don’t want to be, and why would you want to be stuck with someone who’ll roll over and let you do something like that?
That said, I do enjoy a good romance novel on a regular basis. I rarely have time to just sit down and veg out, and reading such a book is definitely a good way to stop thinking without wasting quite as many brain cells as one would watching TV.
I have a cousin that read them as a teenager and still does. I read a few just to see what the fascination was all about. The formula barely changes from book to book, the worst I read was about a sheik who kidnaps the blonde English maidem and well, rapes her, but she likes it, so it’s not really rape… and then she falls in love with him. :dubious:
In real life those women tend to end up killed or abused by their spouses. Nothing romantic about it.
Which is why it’s so disturbing to me, and I stopped reading them. I recall the last one I did read was about the time I had my son. It was about a woman who had had this insanely rich Greek guy’s kid and he only just found out about it… threatened to take the kid away from her forever etc… that’s when it really hit home how disturbing they were.
I got into them because my Mom reads them all the time, and she still does… whereas I mostly stick to the paranormal romance stuff (ghosts/vampires/werewolves and falling in love despite obstacles like he’s a ghost and she’s the only one who sees him… or vampire/human or vampire/werewolf or werewolf/human or vampire/demon as some I’ve found interesting are lately…).
It’s still formulaic, but at least the guys aren’t generally abusive (no promises that they don’t kidnap the woman sometimes or even vice versa but kicking ass is generally relegated to the bad guys or verbal sparring between them) and some authors make an interesting world for their characters to play in… like Sherrilyn Kenyon, who IMO has an interesting take on the vampire mythos and combines it with a healthy dose of Greek mythology and her own made up mythology for Atlantis. She even throws curves in at times that though characters end up together, it’s not always how you think they do. Honestly, I’d read books set in her version of earth even if they weren’t romance. I think most of her fans read just as much for finding out more about her ideas about Atlantis and (one common thread character) Acheron as they do about the Dark Hunters and the sex.
(Seriously. Discworld is about as not-a-romance-series as exists, but Sybil Ramkin and Sam Vimes have the most totally awesome dynamic of any pair I’ve ever seen. Carrot and Angua leave me cold, frankly)
Which Discworld book or books would one need to read to read about this couple? I’m not really a Discworld fan, but I’d be willing to try a book or two, if you’ll tell me which one it should be.
I’m the only one who keeps reading this as Discoworld, right?
I’m imagining a cadre of lithe women clad in peach rayon with pumps and feathered hair, doing sci-fi/romance things while Donna Summer pounds in the background.
BTW, the only Discworld character to date who is the kind of lothario mentioned in the OP is the dwarf Casanunda. His only romantic liaison specifically recounted is with Nanny Ogg in Lords and Ladies – an association which reforms neither of them.
I thought you wanted something realistic! 
