Thursday, June 22

Odds and Ends

It's going to be a strange day, we've already had a huge thunderstorm, usually these pop up at night not in the morning. It's supposed to be hazy, hot and humid, so long as it's not raining we'll be in the pool. The front of the house was skunked last night and I have to call the Cornell Co-operative to find out how to get rid of them. We think they're living under the front porch. We've got a helicopter flying up and down the river, anyone who lives on a river knows this isn't good. Someone is probably lost on the river, very scary.

I've decided to work on my contest reading, so I probably wont be blogging about any of it in detail. This morning I'll be finishing up the manuscript pages for the PASIC contest, I can't float and read those, too messy, sheets of paper floating everywhere--not good.

Read the erotic romance (Entertaining Mr. Stone) last night, I was not overly impressed by the book. The hero is actually interesting and different, a middle-aged Director of Finance, but because the story is told in the first person from the heroines POV we only know what he's thinking when he speaks. The much younger heroine is all over the place, and we know this because we spend the entire book inside her head. She's hired because he's hot for her, and later in the book even that turns a little creepy. It's a twist on the old Harlequin typing pool/boss story, and I'm probably showing my age because how many people under 30 have heard of a typing pool? As far as I could tell, there is no storyline besides sex, so I guess that's it, sex is the storyline--not my thing.

I'm starting to think most erotic romances aren't my thing. I know sites like Dear Author have reviewed some good ones and I need to make an effort to find them. I commented over there that most of the erotic romance ebooks I've read are throw backs to Harlequins with hot sex, which is fine and I've enjoyed some of them, but to be honest, I'd much rather have more substance to the story. And, to be even more honest, most of the ones I didn't like, I wish read more like Hot Harlequin Presents, instead of the garbage that filled the pages between sex scenes, that didn't amount to anything remotely story like. Yet, if Entertaining Mr. Stone is anything to go by, I'd probably not like stories where sex is the story either. So, is a really substanative story possible when sex such an important part of the story?

Ack--none of this is making sense, so I'd better go.

Have a great day and happy reading.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

I have to agree with you about the erotic romances being like hot HPs. I've definitely read some that I liked outside of teh sex but a lot of them, imo, are really only worth it for the sex. Half the time it makes me cringe to read the actual story. Is it possible I'm reading all the bad ones - definitely. But I think more than that, the type of story that's being written is one that I'm not a fan of. Especially since I'm not interested in the paranormal/wolfie side of things. At the risk of repeating myself, the ones that feature regular people read like HPs. With hot sex. There, now I've definitely repeated myself :)

Tara Marie said...

Hey Jay, I think that's part of my problem, I'm not interested in the paranormals either so that kind of leaves these HP style books. There not horrible, but they have a definite style that's different from what I'd like to be reading.

I realize that for some it's about the sexual fantasy, but I'd like a stronger story too.

vanessa jaye said...

You made perfect snese to me, and for the most part I agree. I also read/skimmed Loving Mr. Stone then took it back to the store for a refund.

Anonymous said...

I've got a review going up for Anya Bast's A Change of Seasons. It is a slight paranormal (not very detailed though) and it was a) smoking hot and b) a pretty good love story. I gave it a B+.

Tara Marie said...

Jaye, I'm always relieved when someone has the same reaction to a book especially the ones that aren't particularly good.

Jane, I saw your review of Anya Bast's book and I'm putting it on my "To Look For" list. Thanks.

Anonymous said...

Hi everyone

Portia Da Costa here... aka Wendy Wootton

I'm sorry none of you cared for Entertaining Mr Stone... I didn't expect it to be everyone's cup of tea. A lot of the books other folk rave about aren't my thing either. It's each to her own, isn't it? :)

EMS isn't meant to be a romance, even though the publishers have labeled it as such, and it's certainly not meant to be anything like a Harlequin... It *is* all about the sex. As you so rightly put it, the sex *is* the story and there's not a lot else to it,really. That's the way I love to write. I don't think I'm a good enough plotter to write any other way... ;)

Oh Jaye, so sorry you were forced to take EMS back and get a refund. Hope you found something else much more to your taste. Over here in the UK we can't take books we don't like back to the shop. When I get one I can't finish, which happens from time to time, I give it to a charity to resell instead.

Anyway, no hard feelings that you don't like my book v. much. Maybe something I write in the future will hit the spot for you all? I do hope so!

Take care...

Love

Wendy aka Portia