New frontiers in exoticized ethnicity romance

[rachelmanija]

Christmas, Texas Style: Four Texas Babies / A Texan Under the Mistletoe / Merry Texmas

Apparently Texan, along with Sheikh, is an ethnicity. Who knew!

I found this gem, along with The Australian's Housekeeper Bride, The Billionaire's Scandalous Marriage, The Blackmail Bargain, The Royal Baby Bargain, Sale or Return Bride, The Sultan's Virgin Bride, The Greek's Bridal Bargain, Bought: The Greek's Bride, The Italian's Blackmailed Mistress, The Italian Prince's Pregnant Bride, The Italian Boss's Secret Child, The Boss's Christmas Baby, One Night Baby, and Pregnancy of Revenge, on someone bookmooch inventory. In case you were wondering. No, I did not mooch.

Perhaps the ultimate romance would be The Billionaire Biracial Boss's Blackmailed Bargain Bride's Brazos Baby: Born on Boxing Day.

Comments

[sophia-helix.livejournal.com]

Somehow, I'm totally curious about The Italian's Blackmailed Mistress. I think I am envisioning her as an interesting character, which we know can't be true.

Also on my to-do list: have a revenge pregnancy. Right after a pedicure.

[nestra.livejournal.com]

Texans have long been a theme in category romances, at least the ones I see. There's a whole mythology.

[veejane.livejournal.com]

Well, of course! If you can't wear a kilt, the next best thing is to be rootin' and tootin'(*), right? I would say "and to walk up to a water trough and cool down, there being no A/C", but I think that enough Texan-featuring romances are historical that that might actually happen.

(*) You know that movie Innerspace, where through the magic of SCIENCE Dennis Quaid possesses Martin Short's body? And they do battle against the evil technology trafficker, who is caught at one point singing into his hair dryer while wearing nothing but underpants, cowboy boots, and a cowboy hat? And who is played by none other than The Doctor from Star Trek: We Got Lost? In my head, that is the character featured in all of the Texan romances.

[badnoodles.livejournal.com]

Promptly Netflixed, because I have a Robert Picardo fetish so very hard. And I'm a Texan!

[oracne.livejournal.com]

Texans, like Scotsmen and Indians, and I think Werewolves too these days, have bigger...well, it's a big state, see?

[oursin.livejournal.com]

Not just any Scotsmen, I think - has to be a Highland laddie in a kilt (like the Dear Queen's beloved John Brown). Also, I suppose Border reivers would qualify as figures of ro-mance. The Gorbals (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gorbals) is not yet (is it?) a place of exotic romance (actually I suppose it might be, given the level of historical and cultural cloo evoked by these sorts of titles).

[rachelmanija.livejournal.com]

Everything is bigger in Texas!

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

Having been dodging elbows and staring at chest that were at eye level for me since High School, I can attest to this.

[elynross.livejournal.com]

Then there's the popular "Texas: a whole 'nother planet," which used to turn up on bumper stickers around here in reaction to the official slogan, "Texas, a whole country..."

[fresne.livejournal.com]

Heh, I recently saw " Billionaire's Blackmailed Mistress". Although, I was disappointed to see that mistress=dating, and blackmailed = he got her publisher to assign her to his book tour.

[oyceter]

The Baron Billionaire?

I always stop by the Harlequin display when I'm in bookstores, solely to see what new Harlequin Presents titles have come out of the title generator (I swear, they must use a title generator).

[sartorias.livejournal.com]

That one I'd read.

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

What? I'm ethnic? Who knew? And I'll bet you anything all the heroes were white. Why? Because EVERY ROMANCE NOVEL I'VE READ that's set in Texas has had a white male lead. Also? The dialogue in them makes me want to hurl things.

[minnow1212.livejournal.com]

I think you're missing virgin from your title. It should slot nicely between 'bargain" and "bride." *g*

[kate_nepveu]

Pregnancy of Revenge

. . . I can't imagine what revenge I would want badly enough.

[veejane.livejournal.com]

I think MPREG might be suitable revenge. I can think of a couple men I would wish it on.

...What?

[kate_nepveu]

Not in a Harlequin, alas!

[cicer.livejournal.com]

Embarrassing confession time: I have read at least three of those titles. Last year, I went on a bit of a Harlequin-romance-novel binge, just for kicks. I'd never read them before, and had mostly scorned the whole romance-novel genre, but I was going on vacation and wanted some light reading, so I picked up fifteen or so novels from the library, and read one a night while I was away. Some were amusing in their stupidity, others were actually fairly entertaining and decently written (if slightly sexist and formulaic), and some infuriated me so badly that if they hadn't been library books, I would have torn them up. Some of them had really bizarre recurring themes of revenge, in which the man and woman hated each other, but for some inexplicable reason ended up sleeping together, getting married, and potentially even having a kid together for some ill-defined sort of 'revenge'. This makes exactly as much sense in context as you'd think.

I specifically remember reading The Greek's Bridal Bargain (had quasi-abusive overtones that creeped me out), The Royal Baby Bargain (dumb, but not all that bad. Author gets points for a relatively creative premise), and The Italian Prince's Pregnant Bride (oh god, if this hadn't been a library book, I would have burned it. horrifyingly sexist with a 'hero' that comes off as more of an abuser and rapist than a romantic partner). I may have read some of the others, but as you might expect, they all tend to run together a bit if you read more than a few of them.

Moral of the story: Avoid the Harlequin Presents titles like the plague. I hear some of Harlequin's other series aren't so bad, but this one is particularly awful.

[rachelmanija.livejournal.com]

Hee! What was the creative premise?

[cicer.livejournal.com]

Somehow, some prince and his wife die, leaving behind their young son. The wife's friend takes the kid in and raises him as her own. They end up moving from place to place, trying to avoid the royal family (I forget why) but eventually the kid's uncle (the prince's brother) finds them. Of course, he wants his nephew, bu the chick is reluctant to give the kid up. I guess the prince really needs a convenient wife or something, so they come up with the genius plan of getting married. This will allow them both to have custody of the kid and allow the prince to have a nice trophy wife. (I think the heroine resists this idea at first, but the prince points out that she pretty much kidnapped the kid in the first place, so if she doesn't agree to the bargain he can have her up on charges of kidnapping the royal heir). Of course, they eventually fall in love, blah blah blah. Not exactly a groundbreaking idea, but after reading ten consecutive novels that all appear to have the same plot (man and woman fall in lust, conceive a baby, get married for convenience, then fall in love) anything that deviates slightly from the norm by introducing somebody else's kid as a plot device sounds pretty darn creative.

[octopedingenue]

Being Texan is enough to get me a romance novel heroine slot?! Dang! Please excuse me while I don my prettiest bluebonnet jumper in anticipation of the chili-hot cowboy lovin'.

A Texan Under the Mistletoe loses authenticity points for not referencing The Tumbleweed Christmas Tree. Christmas Eve in Notrees, Texas; wind blowin' through the cactus...

[elynross.livejournal.com]

Being Texan is enough to get me a romance novel heroine slot?!

Well... It's more like being Texan is enough to get you a romance novel hero slot. I seem to remember a lot of the heroines are city clickers, rather than native Texans. Experiencing life on the wild side, you know!

Although I also remember a subculture of rodeo queens...

[klwilliams.livejournal.com]

Most of my family is from Texas, and many Texans believe (or pretend to) that they are, if not an ethnicity, at least a completely separate culture from the rest of the world.

[oracne.livejournal.com]

Seriously, about "hook words":

http://www.smartbitchestrashybooks.com/index.php/weblog/rntv_companion_entry_sarah_learns_about_category_romance/

"A wise category insider took pity on me and told me the following bits of info, which, as they are from one source, are unverified. Seems the titles that drive me so freaking nuts, oh, how they irritate the shit out of me? They’re all based on “hook words” that are tracked for their sales power. And books that experiment with the formula by using non-hook-word titles? Do not, in this individual’s research, sell as well. So all that sheikh virgin mistress baby boardroom tycoon billionaire title mix & match that drives me so bananas? Sells like crazy. And I have to wonder why the hook words work - my first guess is the reassurance that shopping by keyword guarantees a similar storyline every time. But I could be wrong."

[elynross.livejournal.com]

I do have a friend that pretty much buys every romance that mentions babies/children and Texans. It's a kink, and who knew there were so many romances that fit that very specific kink?

And when I was in my teens, I had a thing for the tycoon/boardroom type romances. What can I say... Um. Really nothing. *kof*

[elynross.livejournal.com]

Apparently Texan, along with Sheikh, is an ethnicity. Who knew!

Cowboys are exotic! With their plain talk and their downhome roots and their shit-kicking boots and cool hats! Look at the fascination with the Texas roots of the SPN boys in RPS! *g*

Okay, I admit to being very fond of real cowboys, myself, but living in the midst of cowboy country, it's usually more painful than anything to read romances about the pseudo-kind....