Sunday, July 09, 2006

Three Kids and a Cowboy by Natalie Patrick

Picked this up at an acquaintance's house. First Harlequin I'd read in a while.

Harlequin-style romance is a pretty limiting form. But still, it is possible to write a good one within the form, and even possible to stretch the form and do something interesting with it. I haven't read that many, but still, some are pleasant enough,and a couple I've read have been more than that. There was one I remember featuring a woman author, and the man who'd fallen in love with her through her novels. The flashbacks telling the story she'd recorded in her novel seemed to be doing something nice, and interesting. And I could actually like that hero. (Anyone have a clue what book this is?)

But in this one, I found myself hoping that the heroine would dump the hero - just give up, get away and be glad to have a bad situation over with. He just didn't seem to be worth the effort. Manipulative, controlling - I guess in formulaic romance terms he was "masterful," or something.

It irritates me that these sorts of romances are still being written - the ones with manipulative, control freak, misogynist heros, and the women who for some reason idolize these very traits. But someone must like them.

Obviously this book was written for people different from me.

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