Reading While Black

Whenever I browse author blogs I see them posting information given to them by agents and editors about what they want. Nowadays, the paranormal market is squeezed, and I’ve seen many a post where an editor or agent advises unpublished authors aspiring to break into that market to work on their world-building. However, nowhere do I see agents or editors advising authors who want to break into the historical market to do this. Mostly I’ve seen them emphasizing cultivating a unique “voice”.Sheesh…and you wonder why historical romances still carry the “bodice ripper” moniker.

What really bothers me is the fact that readers complain that they don’t want “history tomes”, that shortened attention spans and the cost of paper and ink are always cited when it comes to the decreasing value of the history in the historical romance, yet these readers happily gobble up 400 to 400+ pages of urban fantasy and paranormal romance rife with world-building, multiple characters and rich settings. Looking at the most popular series, J.R. Ward’s Brotherhood, the latest, Lover Revealed, is 480 pages, and the next installment, is a whopping 528 pages. Uh uhn you say, Ward is an established author, so she gets the extra pages. Well, Book One, before anyone even knew who she was clocks in at 416 pages.

Someone must be taxing their brains to stretch their attention span for Ward to be hitting the NYT Best-seller lists.

You see, I want a historical romance that well, has history in it–or at least the history plays a part in the story and the characters. If I want a frothy Regency, at least let it be accurate. Less of the h/h pawing at one another in a kitchen pantry or at a ball, and more of them matching wits and engaging in forbidden caresses as they traipse about the ton. And please, I beg of you, no more Almack’s and Lady Jersey–there are so many places for characters to go in London besides the tiny enclave that is the West End. For a Victorian, I want to feel that this is not the Regency era. I’m so sick and tired of reading so-called Victorian-set Historicals only to discover that the author just took some popular Regency plot and slipped in a few mentions of crinolines and Queen Victoria.

For spy historicals, please be based in reality. Whether it be smugglers or spies running about the ton, the villains and the reason for spying is so lame and fantastical I now automatically ignore any historical romance with a mention of spying–even from authors I’ve enjoyed in the past. It’s one thing to say (in a Regency Historical) the French are the enemies, but what about bringing real fears of the English into the story? (Like the fact that for a few years, the English were terrified out of their wits that Napoleon would invade the country. Or people trying to break Napoleon’s code. Or just having spies who are spies and how dishonorable a position it was considered.) What about the Peninsular War? Or the diplomatic games played on the Continent?

When it comes to moving from era to era, I would dearly wish the actions of the characters matched the setting. If I see one more militant suffragist heroine prior to 1905, I think I might cry. Or a hero in the Victorian era who is an out and out rake, and is accepted willingly into the homes of society (rule #1: “thou shalt not be found out”). Please let the clothing be accurate and the movements of the characters match. If you’re writing books set in the 1860s, your heroines are wearing really wide hoop skirts. The Victorian hero is not going to sleep in the nude: he is going to wear a nightshirt, and later, pyjamas. Stop making your servants the best-friends of the aristocratic characters. The relationship between servant and mistress/master was a unique one that had nothing to do with servants being some type of oppressed subordinate.

I’d generally like to see a cast of characters outside of the hero and heroine and the suitable number of sequel baits. I’d like to see heroes who have jobs or positions, who are politicians or business owners–even if they are titled. I’d like to know what different parts of England look, feel, and smell like, not some generic shire only known as “Kent” or “Shropshire”. I want to see the consequences of a characters action because of that setting or social circle. But most of all, I’d like my desire for the inclusion of history into the historical romance to be viewed as “elitist”, and no, I don’t want to read Historical Fiction, and I have read non-fiction a lot more livelier than some of the historical romances lying on bookshelves.

Set in contemporary Atlanta, Getting Even is the story of three friends–Claudia, Annelise, & Lishelle–involved in volatile relationships with men they trust and what happens when that trust is shattered.
Claudia is the perfect Black American Princess (or, BAP for short). Beautiful, poised, wealthy and well-connected, she is engaged to her male counterpart, Adam. Adam and Claudia have a smoking sex life: anywhere and everywhere and anything. Except it is initiated by Adam. Claudia, wanting to please the man she is marrying in two months eagerly participates in the raunchy antics Adam cooks up despite her nagging doubts.

Annelise is a photographer who has finally got her business on the fast track to success. Married to a successful lawyer and blessed with all the luxuries she desires, life is just about perfect–except for one thing: she and her husband, Charles, haven’t had sex in a little over a year. Desperate for his attention, for his appreciation, for anything, Annelise takes the advice of her stripper sister and takes the plunge into the world of sex shops.

Lishelle is one of Atlanta’s well-known anchorwomen. With a great career and great money, everything is on track. Except she can’t find a good man. After one disastrous blind date, she is delighted, nay ecstatic, to discover the man she’d loved and who made her weak in the knees is back and ready to marry her.

Told in alternating first-person POVs, Getting Even is full of raunchy sex and believable dialogue. Perrin skillfully weaves the narrative to its stunning climax, and “a woman scorned” cliches have never been this good. Hell hath no fury indeed as all three friends gradually discover that the men they expected to spend the rest of their lives with are dirty, no-good dogs. As the story progressed, my outrage over their men’s behavior grew and I was left hooting with laughter and . Perrin’s writing style is so smooth, so crisp, and so tight that it crackles, that I read the book in a few hours, so engaged my eyes didn’t leave the page for a second. What follows is a rip-roaring ride of revenge that doesn’t disappoint and leaves me anxious to read the sequel, Getting Some.