I realized that when it comes to romance novels, I am a complete sucker for period romance. I have no idea why the egalitarian times of English aristocracy (and hypocrisy) at its height is the setting in which I'll find myself being swept away on clouds full of fanciful (and idiotic) notions.
Judith McNaught is the best, the only one I truly enjoy reading (again and again and again). I mean many "ye olde England" novels can get a tad corny (and tawdry if I'm completely honest) but my good friend Judith does it in the most classiest of ways. Which just means that I don't find myself rolling my eyes or laughing out loud in sheer disbelief more than once while I'm reading.
I love everything about JM's period stories. The description of the clothes, the funny (weird funny, not haha funny) social practices, the whole lord-duke-earl-marquess business are just some of the things that I find makes me smile so foolishly while I'm reading these books.
Recently I tried reading Meg Cabot's offerings in this genre and while it does not hold a candle up to Judith McNaught, it's passable on the whole corniness-eyerolling ratio. I did prefer the ones she wrote for the young adult genre ("Victoria And The Rogue" and "Nicola And The Viscount") rather than the books for adults ("Educating Caroline" and "Lady Skye"). One reason is I found her writing the more "adult" scenes in the book to be rather weirdly executed. In the YA versions, they are of course nonexistent since the target audience are too young for such explicit content. Plus, I also thought that her heroines, especially in "Lady Skye", were far too easily shaken free of their morals for women of that day and age. Am I being a prude? I mean, I can think of only one time that Judith McNaught wrote her heroine to have had sex out of wedlock. Weren't these unmarried women and their virtue supposed to be guarded like the crown jewels of England back in the day?
Anyway, I recently concluded Cayla Kluver's first outing "Legacy" and although set in a fictional time, in a fictional world, it is essentially a period piece at heart. One of those times where the men are the "lord-of-the-manor-I-am-master-of-all-I-can-see" types and the women seem to be mere accessories (she implicitly writes that it is the norm for husbands to beat their wives should they see fit - i.e: wilfull women who don't kowtow to their significant other as they should). This is a 16 year old girl who created a whole other vividly portrayed world and managed to spin a 464 page tale. I admit, the whole 16 yerar old award winning author gimmick had me (I am after all a sucker for awards).
And it was a leap of faith for me to spend money buying her book without firmly knowing if it was going to suck or otherwise but I'm glad to say that the book was great to read. I'd say I liked it better than "Twilight" however blasphemous that may seem. The plotline and ideas that is. The writing was flawed a bit by her age. There were times when I was reading and thinking, "What a typical teen!". And though the protagonist is about 17/18 years old, I shouldn't be thinking that her actions/thoughts are typical to that of a modern day teenager. It's a period piece where women in that day and age don't particularly behave as how she sometimes portrayed Alera. Otherwise, I will definitely like to read the next book in her planned trilogy.
Judith McNaught is the best, the only one I truly enjoy reading (again and again and again). I mean many "ye olde England" novels can get a tad corny (and tawdry if I'm completely honest) but my good friend Judith does it in the most classiest of ways. Which just means that I don't find myself rolling my eyes or laughing out loud in sheer disbelief more than once while I'm reading.
I love everything about JM's period stories. The description of the clothes, the funny (weird funny, not haha funny) social practices, the whole lord-duke-earl-marquess business are just some of the things that I find makes me smile so foolishly while I'm reading these books.
Recently I tried reading Meg Cabot's offerings in this genre and while it does not hold a candle up to Judith McNaught, it's passable on the whole corniness-eyerolling ratio. I did prefer the ones she wrote for the young adult genre ("Victoria And The Rogue" and "Nicola And The Viscount") rather than the books for adults ("Educating Caroline" and "Lady Skye"). One reason is I found her writing the more "adult" scenes in the book to be rather weirdly executed. In the YA versions, they are of course nonexistent since the target audience are too young for such explicit content. Plus, I also thought that her heroines, especially in "Lady Skye", were far too easily shaken free of their morals for women of that day and age. Am I being a prude? I mean, I can think of only one time that Judith McNaught wrote her heroine to have had sex out of wedlock. Weren't these unmarried women and their virtue supposed to be guarded like the crown jewels of England back in the day?
Anyway, I recently concluded Cayla Kluver's first outing "Legacy" and although set in a fictional time, in a fictional world, it is essentially a period piece at heart. One of those times where the men are the "lord-of-the-manor-I-am-master-of-all-I-can-see" types and the women seem to be mere accessories (she implicitly writes that it is the norm for husbands to beat their wives should they see fit - i.e: wilfull women who don't kowtow to their significant other as they should). This is a 16 year old girl who created a whole other vividly portrayed world and managed to spin a 464 page tale. I admit, the whole 16 yerar old award winning author gimmick had me (I am after all a sucker for awards).
And it was a leap of faith for me to spend money buying her book without firmly knowing if it was going to suck or otherwise but I'm glad to say that the book was great to read. I'd say I liked it better than "Twilight" however blasphemous that may seem. The plotline and ideas that is. The writing was flawed a bit by her age. There were times when I was reading and thinking, "What a typical teen!". And though the protagonist is about 17/18 years old, I shouldn't be thinking that her actions/thoughts are typical to that of a modern day teenager. It's a period piece where women in that day and age don't particularly behave as how she sometimes portrayed Alera. Otherwise, I will definitely like to read the next book in her planned trilogy.
