Big happy beds
12 May 2006 08:19 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
larryhammerAs you may have noticed, I've a thing for non-heteronormative mainstream romances. Another for the list: The Compass Rose by Gail Dayton, a romantic fantasy from Luna. It's hetero* but not normative: a polyamorous romance, one that doesn't even cheat and have Our Heroine chose in her heart of hearts one husband over the others. Her romantic complications aren't picking one, but picking any. When she sleeps with two of her husbands on her wedding night, the narrative doesn't chastise her for teh slutty but rather all but says, "And it's about time."
I should probably mention her society's basic social unit is a group marriage of from four to twelve men and women. Each marriage works out who sleeps with whom how often, anything from pairwise monogamy to one big happy bed. Not ye ordinary Harlequin romance, this.
As a book, however, it has flaws, the biggest being several disconnects between what we're told about characters (especially their background) and what we're shown. Also, while Our Heroine isn't TSTL,** she's definitely a twit. Fortunately, her twittishness isn't brushed aside but Dealt With. There a couple scenes passed over in a sentence where how things happened is important to the story. And the Looming Threat is not so much sketchy as shadowy, even in open battle. That sort of thing.
Still, worth checking out if it plays to your squids. And I'll be looking for the sequel.
* The only acknowledgment of homoeroticism is someone noting in passing that Our Heroine is only interested in men, a statement that confuses her.
** Too Stupid To Live, a Romance term that's almost as useful as UST (Unresolved Sexual Tension). Though watch out for that HEA.
---L.
I should probably mention her society's basic social unit is a group marriage of from four to twelve men and women. Each marriage works out who sleeps with whom how often, anything from pairwise monogamy to one big happy bed. Not ye ordinary Harlequin romance, this.
As a book, however, it has flaws, the biggest being several disconnects between what we're told about characters (especially their background) and what we're shown. Also, while Our Heroine isn't TSTL,** she's definitely a twit. Fortunately, her twittishness isn't brushed aside but Dealt With. There a couple scenes passed over in a sentence where how things happened is important to the story. And the Looming Threat is not so much sketchy as shadowy, even in open battle. That sort of thing.
Still, worth checking out if it plays to your squids. And I'll be looking for the sequel.
* The only acknowledgment of homoeroticism is someone noting in passing that Our Heroine is only interested in men, a statement that confuses her.
** Too Stupid To Live, a Romance term that's almost as useful as UST (Unresolved Sexual Tension). Though watch out for that HEA.
---L.
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Date: 12 May 2006 08:12 pm (UTC)Plus a dash of nutmeg on top
Date: 12 May 2006 08:53 pm (UTC)---L.