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A review by erin_boyington
Why I Held Your Hand by Augusta Reilly
2.0
Well, the title and cartoony cover art are somewhat misleading. There is a LOT more than hand-holding going on in North Powell.
In fact, the really looong and explicit sex scenes (head-scratchingly complex at times, with zero mention of any use of protection) alternating with the saccharine gooeyness of the love story gave me whiplash. Love stories, technically, since this is a love triangle where the heroine is actually in a relationship with one of the guys while entertaining sexual attraction to the other one.
I appreciate some of the bold narrative choices there. It reminded me that romance novels are pretty conservative and have some deeply entrenched, unspoken expectations about the moral uprightness of its heroines (but not necessarily of the heroes, as we all know). Heroines may be sex-positive these days, but outright cheating and having multiple partners is a definite no-no.
The real strength of the story is the banter between the leads, which is a lot of fun. The prose could use some fine-tuning: though I'm no prude I find sex scenes that are all about the sex rather than expressing the relationship to quickly veer into pornographic territory. It's a reminder of how hard those things are to write. Er, excuse me--difficult.
I received a copy from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
In fact, the really looong and explicit sex scenes (head-scratchingly complex at times, with zero mention of any use of protection) alternating with the saccharine gooeyness of the love story gave me whiplash. Love stories, technically, since this is a love triangle where the heroine is actually in a relationship with one of the guys while entertaining sexual attraction to the other one.
I appreciate some of the bold narrative choices there. It reminded me that romance novels are pretty conservative and have some deeply entrenched, unspoken expectations about the moral uprightness of its heroines (but not necessarily of the heroes, as we all know). Heroines may be sex-positive these days, but outright cheating and having multiple partners is a definite no-no.
The real strength of the story is the banter between the leads, which is a lot of fun. The prose could use some fine-tuning: though I'm no prude I find sex scenes that are all about the sex rather than expressing the relationship to quickly veer into pornographic territory. It's a reminder of how hard those things are to write. Er, excuse me--difficult.
I received a copy from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.