Research assistance

[brainofck]

Despite what I read and write in cyberspace...

I know next to nothing about Harlequin type novels or the heavier-hitting romance writers like Danielle Steele (?) and people like that.

So. Where would you read a story with rape-fantasy in it - you know, non-consensual sex that turns out to be OK because it was unexpectedly, fantastically pleasurable or non-consensual sex that turns out to be OK because the person really secretly wanted it. The really hot, sexy guy who wouldn't take no for an answer, yay.

You know. The dreck I write. *rolls eyes at self*

Who would write that? Is that a Harlequin?

EDIT: Just to be clear, I was asking this question because one of my characters will be reading something, and I wanted to realistically express what that character would be reading. :)

Comments

[seleneheart]

I've read buckets of Harlequins, and unless they've changed radically since I last read one, that wouldn't feature as a plot device. I think what you want is Rosemary Rogers and her ilk, like Sweet Savage Love.

[brainofck.livejournal.com]

I thought it might not be a Harlequin type plot. Harlequins are all pink hearts and fluffy bunnies, right? :)

Thanks!

[charmedstrange1.livejournal.com]

Yes, this sounds like what I would call the Bodice-Rippers- usually period romances where the times/expectations would have been (have an excuse to be) different, and a lot of the "first time meetings" would have been based on some kind of misunderstanding- she was a peasant girl down on her luck, he mistook her for a whore at the inn, etc.

Sorry I don't have a particular author to point to, but Sweet Savage Love sounds along that line. So, my suggestion is check for the fat, thick period romance novels. More likely than the thinner fluffy harlequins, altho the older ones (70's?) may have flirted with a little more aggression/danger in their men?

{I remember staying up ALL NIGHT LONG to finish one called "Logan's Island" when I was all of about 15. They were alone on an island and they had a long, drawn-out argument/fight/wrestling-match/love scene in which he *tackled her to the ground OMG*. It was a page-turner.}

Way more than you asked for? *g*

[brainofck.livejournal.com]

It was a page-turner

*snickers*

Thanks! Ah. The reading material of 15-year-olds. :D

[ramlatch.livejournal.com]

You should if you haven't, read some Georgette Heyer novels, like These Old Shades and the one after that The Lion's Cub. Both involve some kind of kidnapping of the heroine and it's all quite fun, but it's all very proper there's no ravishing scene, however you can gain a lot of help with plot and characterization and relationships with her novels and they are all romance novels. Most of them are very good.

[brainofck.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the rec! Maybe I'll pick one up the next time I'm at the library.

[angiepen.livejournal.com]

Oh, man. That kind of rape in a story -- where it's the "hero" doing it and he's just so wonderful at sex that the heroine, who's a terrified teenage virgin and has no clue who this guy is, just erupts into this supernova-like orgasm and falls immediately in love, even if she doesn't fully realize it until later -- was very popular in the seventies. And yeah, that was Rosemary Rogers's era, although even then I didn't really like her stuff. (She's really into the hissing-spitting-fighting kinds of pairings where the couple is acting out World War III until the last four paragraphs of the book, when suddenly they realize they love each other passionately, The End. Then you pick up the sequel and two pages in some stupid misunderstanding has occurred and they're back to WWIII until the last four paragraphs, repeat for however many sequels. [eyeroll] You might try some of her books but ignore any sequel.)

Anyway. [cough] For the classic 70s historical romances, Kathleen Woodiwiss (try The Flame and the Flower, or Ashes in the Wind) and Laurie McBain (Devil's Desire or Chance the Winds of Fortune) were a couple of my favorites from back then.

There are still certainly historical romances being written, but the mainstream (that is, the big New York publishers) stopped releasing this sort of book a long time ago. Even in the late eighties, when I was involved in an online bulletin board with a lot of romance readers and writers, there was an extremely negative attitude toward these old books, the ones where the "hero" raped the heroine, and some people were adamantly against books with any sort of rape scenes at all, even if it was the villain committing the crime. (Personally, I like rape stories where the villain does it -- it's great to see the rapist get his ass kicked. :D )

For more modern books of this kind, you'd need to go to the niche presses. The first one that comes to mind is Ellora's Cave (http://www.example.com/). They started out as an e-publisher but now they release a lot of paper books and you can find them at chain bookstores. EC focuses on what they call "romantica," heavily erotic romance. Check out their Capture/Bondage genre -- there are books there where the guy swoops down and kidnaps the girl and drags her off, whether it's to sexual slavery or a forced marriage or whatever. I've read some of them and they can be fun, although a lot of them read like fanfic, which is sort of weird in a professionally published book. [wry smile]

Re: Harlequin -- no, they're not all pink hearts and fluffy bunnies! [laugh/poke] Harlequins (and Silhouette books too -- a very similar publisher) are characterized as category romances. The publisher releases books in categories or lines, each with its own flavor and characteristics. So there might be a line called "Undercover" where all the books are about characters who are secret agents or undercover cops or whatever, and the plot revolves around someone pretending to be something they're not for some purpose and the romance is entwined with that external plotline. Or there might be a line called "Sizzling Sun" where a lot of the story takes place outdoors and every book in that line has a lot of explicit sex (which might or might not actually take place outdoors). ;) And there might be another line called "Hearthfire" where the story revolves around home and family and there's less sex and more sweet devotion. There can be a lot of different kinds of stories which are all "Harlequin" or "Silhouette," but they'll just be sorted out into groups. (They don't get as racy or kinky as, say, an Ellora's Cave book, but then none of the traditional romance publishers do.) It's like people who go to a fanfic archive and search for an "NC-17 angsty H/C Viggo/Bean" -- they want a certain kind of story. Category readers like reading certain types of stories and the different lines are designed to give that kind of reader what they want.

Angie

[angiepen.livejournal.com]

Dammit! [mutters about the link]

Ellora's Cave (http://www.ellorascave.com/)

There. :P

Angie

[brainofck.livejournal.com]

Ahahahaha! You definitely WIN! They're EBOOKS! Ohohoh! *rubs hands evilly* That is soooo perfect.

[angiepen.livejournal.com]

Like I said, they're in bookstores too, but yeah, they're also an e-publisher. Glad it helps. :)

Angie

[brainofck.livejournal.com]

Very, very interesting. Thanks for the explanation of the Harlequin/Silhouette set-up. Ellora's Cave, hmmmm. That has serious potential for the reader I have in mind. Excellent!