Why, yes—I am still “reading light.” Or lite. As you wish.
This seems to include a lot of romance—though don’t make assumptions when you read that word. Romance is a wide, wide category. And a popular one.
So popular, in fact, that the Washington Post devotes a monthly column to it, helmed by Sarah MacLean, a graduate of Smith College and Harvard University. And, I should add, a writer of best-selling romance novels herself. (None of which I’d read when I first made MacLean’s acquaintance.)
I stumbled on MacLean in an article I read in my print edition of Entertainment Weekly, my interest piqued by the ideas in these sentences: “The romance industry—which rakes in $1 billion a year—is poised to become more politically relevant than ever. … Romance works on an accelerated timetable, which means authors can react more quickly to cultural shifts than what’s typical in publishing.” (The political climate is a part—but certainly not all—of the reason I’m engaged in light reading in the first place, so articles like this are always of interest.)
Then I reviewed the books mentioned in the article, decided MacLean’s book—The Day of the Duchess—most interested me, and I purchased it. And read it. Had a little more “somewhat explicit” sex than I normally read, but it wasn’t offputting. (It’s a fine line. Individual results may vary.) For me, the book got the right blend of romance and sex and emotion, conflict, suspense, twists, and so on. I did enjoy it.
OK, OK—there were maybe a couple more smirks than I would have liked, and “he cut his eyes at her” was used too many times, and there was far too much unwillingness of the two main characters to just speak frankly to each other, for heaven’s sake, but it was funny, and surprising, and satisfying, and I’ll buy another of MacLean’s books with the heroine’s sisters in them (The Rogue Not Taken*) because I really loved the sisters as a supportive feminine group.
So I recommend it to you, in spite of the fact that I don’t really like the marketing copy you’ll see on Amazon (or on the author’s website) because the details are just slightly off** and they make this romance seem a little more pat and average than it really is. That is, having read the book, I just don’t feel the blurb does it justice.*** Read it and let me know what you think.
* Which I have also read and was satisfied by. Note also that a character in Duchess is the protagonist in Wicked and the Wallflower, which releases June 2018.
** That, in and of itself, doesn’t matter—as long as the words fairly represent the story. You could take the other position on this particular book and I’d cheerfully concede. This is just my opinion.
*** Can you tell I also have written a lot of cover copy in my day? HarperCollins needs to hire me to write Sarah MacLean’s copy. Just sayin’. 🙂
Tweet: Why, yes—I am still “reading light.” Or lite. As you wish. It was funny, and surprising, and satisfying, and I’ll buy another of MacLean’s books.
Tweet: The blurb makes this romance seem a little more pat and average than it really is. It doesn’t do it justice.