Imatge de l'autor
6 obres 79 Membres 10 Ressenyes

Sobre l'autor

Catherine M. Roach is Associate Professor of New College, and Affiliated Faculty in Religious Studies and Women's Studies, at the University of Alabama.

Inclou el nom: Catherine LaRoche

Obres de Catherine M. Roach

Etiquetat

Coneixement comú

Altres noms
LaRoche, Catherine
Data de naixement
1965-10-19
Gènere
female
Educació
Harvard University (MA|1991|PhD|1998|Religion in the Modern West)
University of Ottawa (BA|1987|MA|Religious Studies|1989)
Professions
Professor of Gender and Culture Studies
Organitzacions
University of Alabama
Biografia breu
Professor of Gender and Culture Studies in New College at the University of Alabama and spent 2013-14 in residence at the University of Leeds as Fulbright Distinguished Chair.  

She is author of Stripping, Sex, and Popular Culture. Her most recent book is Happily Ever After: The Romance Story in Popular Culture, which won a Silver Medal in the Independent Publisher Book Awards. She publishes romance fiction as Catherine LaRoche.

Membres

Ressenyes

DNF'es at 15%

I wouldn't have even bothered with this except it's been languishing on my digital TBR forever and I wanted to get it out of NetGalley queue.

We open to our heroine being flogged. It's 1848. She's been left to the tender mercies of her fiance. She flees, gets captured by revolutionary reprobates, finds a half German British Earl, who says he has to marry her, she refuses and then we learn she is SOUL MATE, his DELICATE FUCKING FLOWER OF A PRINCESS OF HIS HEART.

His cousin, upon hearing Wolf wax poetic about how fucking delicate and doll like she is, judges him for for bedlam because ANYONE WITH EYES CAN SEE SHE IS THE OPPOSITE.

FFS if instead of Wolf, who is spouting True Love like he's a fucking Charming from Once Upon a Time, his cousin Becker had been the hero I would probably keep reading. BECKER has a solid head on his shoulders who sees the lunacy in everything Wolf is saying.

Doonnneee.
… (més)
 
Marcat
lexilewords | Dec 28, 2023 |
This book...oh this book. Let me put this out there first and foremost--LaRoche has her heroine, the very prim and proper Miss Callista Higginbotham, come up with not only the Dewey Decimal System (because it makes more sense then alphabetizing alone!) but also the card catalog system. Which I admit to missing quite a bit (but that's a discussion for another day). Its 1846. The Dewey Decimal System is created by Melvil Dewey in 1876. I'm going to assume from here on out that Melvil saw the system at the Rexton residence and stole the idea--it seems that happens a lot to this family!

This book went on much longer than it should have. While I admit that I am fond of books where the hero is the one pushing for the heroine to 'make an honest man out of him', the entire situation was so contrived that it annoyed me moreso than anything else. Worse, once that was taken care of there's yet ANOTHER obstacle--that comes out of the middle of nowhere I might add--just to drive it home to the heroine that she must love him.

LaRoche turns the whole 'dumb blonde' thing upside down by making Rexton too pretty to have a thought in his head, but I couldn't help but think that every time he said that being a viscount meant having the power to do whatever he wanted he was being disingenuous. If that was true then why didn't he just come out as brilliant clever boy that he was and damn the consequences 'cause he's a viscount? Why make such a big deal about no one taking him seriously when no less then half a dozen people close to him do?

Meanwhile Callista clearly did not use the brains she was given either. She vacillates between understanding the rules that society plays at and shock when those same rules are thrust in her face. Society will--and has!--overlooked many a thing when a girl is rich, beautiful and has a handsome dowry, but Callista only had one of those things (beauty) and attempted to obscure that even. Everybody knows that being in the home of an unwed (or even wed for that matter) gentleman you're not related to unchaperoned is risking censure. Why did she think that being in TRADE on top of that would save her from ruin?

The redeeming feature for this book was basically the banter between the two leads. Nothing like a couple of intelligent folks trading barbs with each other. I also found Rexton's epiphany that he could marry Callista if he wanted (because he's a viscount so it has to count for something!) and his adorably exuberant proposal (he smacks her bottom so she would wake up and then commences to describe the wedding they needed to plan right away).

LaRoche writes in an engaging voice and many of the secondary characters (such as Great-Aunt Mildred) are delightful. Its just the common sense quota was so far below understandable I found myself constantly being taken out of the story (who goes alone to a creeper's apartments for a business deal? Callista does!) and wondering how any of these characters managed to survive.
… (més)
 
Marcat
lexilewords | Hi ha 5 ressenyes més | Dec 28, 2023 |
Charming, but the style was a little anachronistic for my taste, even though I quite approved of the modern lady protagonist. I liked that the sexually adventurous woman was not portrayed as an evil, scheming bitch since so many romances use virginity or lack of experience as a stand-in for moral goodness. Also, female friendships that aren't catty or competitive FTW. The introduction of the second suspenseful bit stretched credulity more than a bit, focusing on one of the other would have been more effective. As a whole, it was competently written and well paced and while it didn't blow my mind, I'll look out for the next book.… (més)
 
Marcat
wonderlande | Hi ha 5 ressenyes més | Jan 1, 2023 |
took forever to get going / I would say the first 60% book was extremely boring. I finally got interested at the end, but still a slow read
 
Marcat
ckelship | Hi ha 5 ressenyes més | Oct 10, 2021 |

Llistes

Premis

Estadístiques

Obres
6
Membres
79
Popularitat
#226,897
Valoració
½ 3.4
Ressenyes
10
ISBN
12

Gràfics i taules