IN WHICH MERIAM APPROPRIATES A FAMILIAR FORMAT
Dear Jo Goodman,
Please stop writing regencies.
Let me be clear. I love your work. In the last eight years I’ve read all but three of your books and I wouldn’t rate any of them below a B. In a genre brimming with stock characters and recurring plots, you have consistently created characters and stories that shine with originality, plotting that shows careful thought and intricate implementation. You have mysteries that genuinely mystify, twists I don’t see coming and characters I can’t easily decipher.
I’m a fan. My Reckless Heart (which I must blog about) is one of my top 3 romances of all time.
In the twenty plus years you’ve been writing romances, your heroines have ranged from reporters, engineers, actresses, photographers, doctors and artists. There was even a nun thrown in, for variety. You’ve set your stories in Colorado, New York, Australia, San Francisco during the Gold Rush, the South during Reconstruction, the revolutionary period - and that’s just off the top of my head. More recently, your last seven novels have been set in Regency England. I believe your next novel is also a regency. Sadly, the hackneyed plot description does nothing to ease my mind.XOXO
Meriam
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If His Kiss is Wicked is the story of Emmalyn Hathaway and Restell Gardner (first seen in
One Forbidden Evening) and it begins with a familiar Goodman premise: Emma is a woman mired in mystery, her life is quite possibly in danger and her closest family and acquaintances cannot wholly be trusted. She goes to Restell - the younger son of an aristocratic family - because she has heard he solves problems. And Emma has plenty of problems. You don’t really want to be Emma, even though she has blue-green eyes and a perfectly pared nose (all Goodman heroines do). I don’t want to spoil anything by being too specific for those of you who haven’t yet read it, because Goodman is the master of unexpected twists and there’s a pretty good one right at the beginning.
So, Emma hires Restell to protect her. Of course, Restell is fascinated by Emma. And credit to Goodman, all her heroines are more than worthy of their heroes, and vice versa. Forgetting their beauty for a moment (honestly, I don’t think Goodman needs to have beautiful heroines; they don’t need to be), a Goodman heroine is always
• Incredibly smart
• Gifted
• Selfless to the point of martyrdom
• Emotionally closed up (she always has the power in the relationship because the hero is constantly unsure of her whilst being utterly besotted himself)
• Carrying enough baggage to sink a barge
• Her family is almost always evil and consequently, she needs to hero even if she won't accept it at first (glaring exception: the Dennheys).
So, of course, this combination is fatal and heroes are snared all too easily. Restell is no exception. And, truly, you’d be into Emma too. By the time her really annoying traits are revealed, it’s far too late in the book for Restell to turn back: he’s well and truly hooked.
Restell is also a typical Goodman hero in that he is:
• A thoroughly good guy
• Not macho, but his masculinity is never compromised
• Smart enough to keep up with Emma
• Respects and admires her from the start
• Has a decidedly sane and healthy background which allows him to provide an emotional sanctuary for Emma.
Emma lives with her Uncle - a famed artist - and her cousin Marisol, who is everything that Emma is not: outgoing, vivacious, utterly self-absorbed and consequently a bit of a selfish monster, but charming enough to get away with it. Someone’s life is in danger but, because Marisol and Emma are very similar in appearance, it is up to Restell to discover whose.
Emma’s worst trait is her willingness to think the best of everyone, in spite of glaring evidence to the contrary, and a lack of care for her own well-being.
A deviation: I’ve been catching up on my shameful reading past, that is to say, I’ve discovered a
wonderfully snarky blog about the
Wakefield Twins and because the two things happened at the same time, I can’t help but compare Jessica and Elizabeth to Marisol and Emma. Because... they look alike and have blue-green eyes. Below, I've listed some further characteristics to illustrate these similarities.
Casey (over at the
Diari Burger) diagnoses Jessica with a
Histrionic Personality Disorder, which, hilariously, fits Marisol rather aptly - here’s a checklist
• Constant seeking of reassurance or approval.
• Excessive dramatics with exaggerated displays of emotions.
• Excessive sensitivity to criticism or disapproval.
• Inappropriately seductive appearance or behavior.
• Excessive concern with physical appearance.
• A need to be the center of attention (self-centeredness).
• Low tolerance for frustration or delayed gratification.
• Rapidly shifting emotional states that may appear shallow to others.
• Opinions are easily influenced by other people, but difficult to back up with details.
• Tendency to believe that relationships are more intimate than they actually are.
• Make rash decisions
• Threaten or attempt suicide to get attention
But I digress. My point is that Emma takes a little too much of Marisol’s crap and suffers for it by looking like a bit of a idiotic do-gooder/ enabler. In fact, like Liz, you could say that Emma is a typical
co-dependent.
Criticisms aside, there are many reasons you should pick up a Goodman if you haven’t already. For one thing, she writes very well, and evocatively. Here’s a scene from the story:
Oak leaves turned their silver-green undersides upward as a rush of wind swept through the park. Slim birches shivered. Two young women walking side by side had to make an instant decision whether to save their bonnets or their collective modesty. They simultaneously put both their hands on their heads and let their skirts snap and flutter so that silken ankles , calves and even knees were revealed. Giggling, they spun about. ...
Can’t you just see it? Goodman’s dialogue has been praised, too, for its authenticity and whilst I agree that it is very good, I see her more as a late Victorian (truly, her tone is more a sly Wildean than breezy Austen. You can just picture Restell’s mother as a
Lady Bracknell type). This is partly why I wish she would leave the Regency period behind. Her tone is really too dark for it. Plus, her characters deserve to be set in a period when their horizons are wider - all those smart and capable heroines would do so much better in a time when they could actually utilise their talents to become reporters, actresses, doctors, businesswomen.
Lastly, seven Regencies on the trot? Goodman is too good (heh) an author to go stale. The best - like Gaffney or Kinsale - experiment. They try new times and places. I don’t want to be a lone voice of dissent when Goodman is finally getting the recognition she deserves, but I’ve felt her last couple of novels have bled into each other to the point where I can’t even begin to tell the characters apart.
A
B for
If His Kiss is Wicked. Were it not for the
deja vu my grade would be higher.
