ext_12794 ([identity profile] cicer.livejournal.com) wrote in [personal profile] rachelmanija 2008-04-01 01:59 am (UTC)

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.

Post a comment in response:

This account has disabled anonymous posting.
(will be screened if not validated)
If you don't have an account you can create one now.
HTML doesn't work in the subject.
More info about formatting

If you are unable to use this captcha for any reason, please contact us by email at support@dreamwidth.org