MAJOR SPOILS FOR MASS EFFECT 3

( seriously SPOILERS LIVE HERE )

Originally posted at http://peripeteia.dreamwidth.org/3124.html with comments.

At this point, I have read through nearly the entirety of Julia Quinn's bibliography somehow, so I figured while I've talked about the Bridgertons excessively, I would run through what the rest of her books are like.

She has SIX other series of romance novels besides the Bridgertons and at this point I've read at least part of five of them!

In Chronological Order:

( The Splendid Series )

( The Lyndon Sisters )

( Agents of the Crown )

( The Bevelstoke Series )

( The Smythe-Smith Quartet )


Interestingly, I've gotten the impression that the later two Bevelstoke books are perhaps considered by some of Quinn's fanbase not to be up to par with the quality of her earlier work (I've seen them referred to as "duds") and I can't help but connect that to the fact that in her most recent books she's taken a noticeable step away from domineering male leads. Not that the Bridgerton novels (or at least the majority of them) suffered from that failing, but, in her earlier work prior to the Bevelstokes, even her milder heroes had moments of being overbearing. And on top of that, though some of Quinn novels (usually my favorites) were mainly concerned with the hero and heroine actually getting to know each other, these later books are dedicated in the majority to those pre-ALL-CONSUMING LUST interactions where the hero and heroine are just talking and socializing like normal humans, which has led to claims of "no chemistry." I quite enjoy her turn to romances about people who like each other and treat each other well and heroes who aren't domineering assholes full of manpain, but I have come to understand that maybe segments of romance fandom and I… have different priorities.

Originally posted at http://peripeteia.dreamwidth.org/3056.html with comments.

But also basically everything else, so that either makes it better or worse???

AT ANY RATE, what I have been doing:

- Writing 8000 words of erotic fanfiction, at random, for a romance novel. Oh. Okay.

- Watching City Hunter on DramaFever. OMG. OMG. OMGGGGGG. I am in the middle of episode eight (sometimes I take breaks for feels) and man excellent faces everywhere. Every time I think about how fandom pretty certainly hated Da Hye though, I get really sad. SHE IS SO ADORABLE HOW COULD ANYONE HATE HER?!?!?!

- Playing Star Wars: The Old Republic ugh so fun. I was so so so so so tired of the literal YEARS of hype, but dang if Bioware didn't do some good shit here. My highest level character is only level 17 so I've basically barely begun, so it's like I've only JUST arrived at the true ~experience~ and I am already flailing over how well put together this all is. But then it fucking took them long enough to release it. At any rate, it is so great to have an MMO that is so story-centric AND built for altoholics like me. Now constantly having different characters makes sense because every class has a different story. Oh Bioware, sometimes I hate you, but then you remind me why I love you. SERIOUSLY THOUGH I GET TO BE A JEDI.

- In other Bioware news, I have been playing the shit out of ME3 multiplayer in the demo. I was never one who gave a shit either way about the multiplayer and I thought that the outcry over it was always ridonk, but again Bioware comes through because it is. so. fun. I really enjoy the mechanics EXCEPT for how hard it currently is to get a ful party if you make your own match. OR IS THAT JUST ME? It's a nice distraction also, from the single-player demo which I was trying to hold off on so that everything would be fresh for release. Though, I gave in and played through the intro stage SO SUE ME. Didn't bother with the later level though. FOR SOME THINGS, I CAN WAIT. (Tho won't lie and say that it doesn't help that said level is the same one that I played part of in the demo at SDCC last year.)

- I am about to launch into my rereads of Kate Elliott's Spiritwalker Trilogy and I will be LIVEBLOGGING IT on Tumblr as per this post. Fun times.

- I've invested in some new organizational and productivity tools to help me along with... being productive. And let me tell you, I would gladly marry anyone who manages to smoosh together Scrivener and OmmWriter into one program to rule them all. OmmWriter sends my word count THROUGH THE ROOF and I love love love love it, BUT I also require the many many great and amazing organizational tools of Scrivener. At this point I'm just exporting RTFs from OmmWriter and importing them into the appropriate Scrivener files, BUT OH IF BY SOME MAGICAL MEANS THIS EXTRA STEP COULD BE REMOVED *_____*

Okay, I think this post is done.

Originally posted at http://peripeteia.dreamwidth.org/2622.html with comments.

JANUARY IS OVER!

I watched THREE FILMS and read THIRTEEN BOOKS.

Which... seems backwards but whatever I do what I want!

The films were Attack the Block (perfect amazing beloved), Men in Black (holds up so well!!), and Red Tails (mediocre!! but man do I ever ship the leads too bad no one in fandom will ever, ever, ever care).

I've already gone through the Bridgerton segment of my reading, but in addition I read Their Eyes Were Watching God, Cold Magic and Cold Fire by Kate Elliott, The Forest of Hands and Teeth by Carrie Ryan, and Butterfly Swords by Jeannie Lin.

Butterfly Swords was actually my first romance novel and I thought it was pretty fun. Though it was much improved by memlu's pointing out that the male lead would be perfectly cast as Chris Hemsworth. I felt it maybe took them a bit too long to FRIGGING GET ON WITH THE KISSING, but otherwise, cool. Though I am super disappointed still that the sequel is about this dude from the first who you were set up to hate. I MEAN HONESTLY.

I reviewed The Forest of Hands and Teeth over on GoodReads but let me RECREATE THAT FOR YOU NOW: ( Read more... )

Seriously SO BORING and SLOW and PLODDING and UGGGGHHHHH. I think I need to read that other zombie thing that everyone loves at some point just to cleanse my frigging palate.

I've already mentioned how much I ADORE Kate Elliott's Spiritwalker Trilogy and indeed I think I may be needed to do a reread around now. My next book was supposed to be Cotillion by Georgette Heyer, but then Mem informed me that it is a deconstruction/satire of her usual work so I had to read some other books first. I decided on Bath Tangle for no good reason, really, but I haven't started it yet.

I also keep eyeing The City and the City by China Miéville, so WHO KNOWS.

Aren't you glad you read this highly exciting post.

My goal for February is to actually do as much constructive writing as I do reading!

Originally posted at http://peripeteia.dreamwidth.org/2357.html with comments.

So, like everyone else in the known universe with a GoodReads account, I went ahead and set myself a reading challenge for 2012 AND!!! as previously mentioned, I am tracking both my films watched and books read over on Tumblr.

We can see which of those media I'm more dedicated to!

In short: I've been reading a lot! I've always been what one might call a voracious reader, but the reason that I specifically set myself some goals and accountability this year is because I developed a bad habit of reading a lot more shitty fanfic than I did real live books. This is obviously not to imply that I have any inherent problem with fanfic (shitty or otherwise) as I do not, EXCEPT at the point when shitty fanfic is really just irritating me rather than entertaining me, there are probably more constructive ways to spend my time. So, this year I'm trying to read mostly fanfic that I actually think might be palatable (not ENTIRELY though bcs a lady's gotta hateread sometimes, lbr) and also to read lots of books.

And I have been! Along these lines, and entirely due to the horrific manipulations of aamalie, I spent the last six days reading Julia Quinn's Bridgerton novels in full. SO I AM GOING TO REVIEW THOSE BOOKS FOR YOU NOW.

Said novels are a series of Regency romances centering around a single wealthy, well-situated, viscount...al (???) family, yes, that's right: the Bridgertons!

The Bridgertons consist of the widow Lady Violet Bridgerton and her EIGHT children who, at the time of the first novel in the series, range from ages 10 to 28. Said children are (from oldest to youngest): Anthony, Benedict, Colin, Daphne, Eloise, Francesca, Gregory, and Hyacinth. And the eight books in the series (along with a series of attendant short stories for each book called "second epilogues") are about each of the respective Bridgerton children's adventures in love.

Yeah.

Reviews of the books, in order, behind the cuts. Mild spoilers are present, but really only if you consider the fact that the male and female leads in a Regency romance novel do a lot of being overwhelmed by love and fiery passion for each other and also get married to be a spoiler.

( Book One: The Duke and I )

( Book Two: The Viscount Who Loved Me )

( Book Three: An Offer from a Gentleman )

( Book Four: Romancing Mister Bridgerton )

( Book Five: To Sir Phillip, with Love )

( Book Six: When He Was Wicked )

( Book Seven: It's in His Kiss )

( Book Eight: On the Way to the Wedding )

So there you go. A week's enjoyable diversion it was!!!

And if you're wondering SHOULD I.... READ THESE?!?!?! I will say this: yes! If you... want to read some Regency romance novels! Being fully cognizant of all that entails! Because let me be 100% clear: I would by no means class these as anything resembling some sort of potential ~crossover hits~ that would appeal to people who haven't decided that they want to read some romance novels! I would class them as... fairly typical romance novels (though with above average avoidance of grossness) that I find superior to reading bad OTP fic when I'm in a shippy mood.

Which is to say if you are prepared to deal with:

- heteronormativity out of the yin yang (though there is a SINGLE queer character who shows up and is not treated grossly, so there's that)
- gender essentialism (oh that mysterious creature called woman/man!!)
- dudes being paternalistic and this often being played as their swoon-worthy romantic concern (though it is also sometimes called out!)
- innocent, scandalized virgin ladies and experienced, rakish men w/ all the "taking" and "making his" etc. that goes along with it
- sometimes dudes just cold being jerks (though they generally apologize later)

In order to enjoy:

- manners and balls and fancy gossip pages and other Regency junk
- extremely repressed dudes and ladies making out and banging in inappropriate places and discovering the joys of both sexytimes and female sexual agency
- cute banter
- awesome ladyfrands everywhere (also non-rival sisters *___*)
- Penelope Featherington: Queen of My Heart
- delightful familial relationships and interactions
- highly indulgent shippy instant gratification

Then, GO FOR IT.

If not, don't.

While there are no specific spoilers in the reviews, as mentioned, there will very probably be spoilers in the comments so BEWARE.

Originally posted at http://peripeteia.dreamwidth.org/2283.html with comments.

Oh nooooo. I'm behind on my once a week posting schedule.

Ah well!

My birthday came and went and was fine. On Thursday, my family and I went out to the restaurant of my choice which was delicious, then my brother got me some Cold Stone ice cream noooom. I also have to decide what to do with birthday money.

I've set up books in 2012 and film in 2012 pages over at glamaphonic and it is already clear, I feel, which of books and film I am more inclined to bother with. I might write up some review-ish things later, specifically for Kate Elliott's Spiritwalker Trilogy about which I have many, many, MANY feels, some complicated, others less so.

Though I staunchly maintain my position wrt Jessica Sula and Aldis Hodge being two of the three leads. (I haven't QUITE cast Bee yet in my mind, though I am pretty partial to memlu's casting of Keke Palmer.)

I've also gone ahead and made myself an original writing journal at Dreamwidth, but I always feel super weird about how... inviting people to follow that sort of thing... should work? Probably because I'm so neurotic about my original writing. Bah! I guess... ask... if you want in? There's not anything there yet but a list of stuff I'm working on, but pretty soon it will very likely contain notes and prose and junk, also spoilers for the webcomic queenofthecute and I are working on so. BEWARE?

I THINK THIS POST IS DONE NOW.

Originally posted at http://peripeteia.dreamwidth.org/1563.html with comments.