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Title: Unraveled
Author: Courtney Milan
Genre: Regency romance
Thingummies: 4.5
Synopsis: An impoverished actress in thrall to a criminal mastermind tries to pull one over a stern judge. It...does not end the way they expect it to.
Thoughts: Reading other romances always makes me relieved when I come back to Milan. Because she doesn't take the easy, obvious routes, and because her protagonists act like sensible, intelligent human beings who are trying to be decent people.
For example--a couple has a fight over a misunderstanding. Another novelist would spin this out for the rest of the book, where she feels hurt and betrayed and he's too concerned with being a manly man to actually give her the one sentence explanation that would make her understand what's going on. Instead...he comes back and they talk. And it isn't easy and it doesn't resolve everything, but they can then move forward to confront the bigger issues in their relationship instead of spinning their wheels on a stupid misunderstanding one sentence can clear up. Her characters have actual obstacles to overcome besides being complete nincompoops.
Is it perfectly realistic? No. This is a sensationalistic romance novel. But it's more complicated, and the plot does not require the characters to betray themselves or lose half their brain cells to work.
Oh, and the sex is pretty hot, too.
Author: Courtney Milan
Genre: Regency romance
Thingummies: 4.5
Synopsis: An impoverished actress in thrall to a criminal mastermind tries to pull one over a stern judge. It...does not end the way they expect it to.
Thoughts: Reading other romances always makes me relieved when I come back to Milan. Because she doesn't take the easy, obvious routes, and because her protagonists act like sensible, intelligent human beings who are trying to be decent people.
For example--a couple has a fight over a misunderstanding. Another novelist would spin this out for the rest of the book, where she feels hurt and betrayed and he's too concerned with being a manly man to actually give her the one sentence explanation that would make her understand what's going on. Instead...he comes back and they talk. And it isn't easy and it doesn't resolve everything, but they can then move forward to confront the bigger issues in their relationship instead of spinning their wheels on a stupid misunderstanding one sentence can clear up. Her characters have actual obstacles to overcome besides being complete nincompoops.
Is it perfectly realistic? No. This is a sensationalistic romance novel. But it's more complicated, and the plot does not require the characters to betray themselves or lose half their brain cells to work.
Oh, and the sex is pretty hot, too.
