[ SECRET POST #3249 ]

[case]

⌈ Secret Post #3249 ⌋

Warning: Some secrets are NOT worksafe and may contain SPOILERS.

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Notes:

Secrets Left to Post: 01 pages, 018 secrets from Secret Submission Post #464.
Secrets Not Posted: [ 0 - broken links ], [ 0 - not!secrets ], [ 0 - not!fandom ], [ 0 - too big ], [ 0 - repeat ].
Current Secret Submissions Post: here.
Suggestions, comments, and concerns should go here.

Comments

[shahrizai]

*every* paranormal romance has a strong female character. This character is always a woman with a tragic past who becomes physically strong out of the need to avoid feeling helpless like they did in their past, and they always hunt down the evil members of the paranormal race. I'm so sick of that trope and would love to see more paranormal romances that subvert it. The best I've found is Jessamy in Nalini Singh's Guild Hunter series. Speaking of, Elena is the most extreme example of the trope and I can't fucking stand her. I love the supernatural aspects of paranormal romance, I just can't stand the modern day settings and heroines!

[(Anonymous)]

Elena is my least favorite of all of Kelley Armstrong's characters. I hate that all her new Otherworld novellas are just super special Elena and her super special children. That she made them both transform at nine, and that Kate is super special and beautiful but doesn't dress up her like mother, so all the other girls are jealous of her is really boring.

Her newest protag is a little better, but her waffling on the half-hobgoblin guy or the dark forest fae guy and the obvious misunderstandings between them is driving me crazy. I just hope she doesn't end it with an open/polyamorous solution, because that would have made five books of waffling unbearably pointless.

[(Anonymous)]

I have no idea what series you two are talking about (help a guy out?) but holy shit that sounds awful. Precocious children in books are one of my hugest pet peeves.

The waffling shit is why I gave up Janet Evanovich's "One For The Money" (etc) series. By the 8th novel of seeing Stephanie go back and forth between two equally irritating male characters and I was like "that's it". I'd been rooting for Ranger at first but after awhile both he and Joe just irritated me every time they were on the page, and Stephanie started out refreshing as hell and ended up a horrible stereotype.

[(Anonymous)]

Elena is basically the main protagonist to Kelley Armstrong's The Otherworld series. She's not always the PoV character, but she's gotten the most books, is the one the series started with, and is who all the new short stories are about.

She's really hard to read because, well, she's the ~only female werewolf~. She got turned by her super hawt werewolf boyfriend because he was scared he was going to lose her, and she has a tragic backstory (raped in fostercare) so she finally "accepted" being a badass superspecial one of a kind woman who ages slowly and can't ever get fat is who she was meant to be. She's now the alpha of the NA pack, and has two of the only 'full blooded werewolf' children ever. (Werwolves are only males, women never survive the change-Elena was just superspecial) And don't get me wrong, I love the Otherwold series, but Elena's werewolves are the least enjoyable part of it for me.

The second book is her newer paranormal series, Cainsville. Basically there's a destined love triangle between the special Fae who can make whoever's land she lives on amazingly powerful, so the two fae courts are fighting over her banging a hot guy from each of their camps. The hobgoblin broody damaged 'treats you like crap but secretly cares about you' Gabriel, and the no flaws really boring but will bang you anywhere he wants dark Fae motorcycle gang prince Ricky.

[(Anonymous)]

My annoyance with Elena is only trumped by my loathing for Clayton.

[(Anonymous)]

Yeah, that his almost killing Elena by biting her and the whole rapey scene annoys me.

[(Anonymous)]

....That isn't what Maxine Kiss is all about though. She's literally just following in her mother's footsteps. She doesn't angst about her fucked up past and tries to live as normal a life as one can while being harangued by the zombie queen and dealing with being the one thing standing between a species that will create a war that will destroy the earth.

She's bad-ass without trying to justify it, and she's also got enough weaknesses that she's realistic.

The paranormal races in Liu's books also aren't black and white. Even the "zombies" have been shown to have something approaching redemption. The other species even moreso despite their fearsome appearances and their bloodlust that seems inexcusable from a human perspective, Liu gives life to it all.

I'm curious if you've actually read these books because this complaint seems so far from what Liu is about.

Also, the genre of romance ("shifter romance") that Liu's Dirk and Steele series is under actually has the opposite problem with regards to heroines. The women are all damsels in distress with no real personality just waiting for their big strong bear/wolf/whatever shifter to come save them. I'm sorry but Liu really won me over with the women in her books. Rikki comes to mind, a torture survivor with permanent, ugly scars on her body that aren't magically healed or excused, nor are they aesthetic scars that make her look like a lady pirate, she's got words like "WHORE" etched into her skin. I don't know too many romance novel writers who would tackle a character like that.

[(Anonymous)]

They were talking about the books like The Otherworld Series, Anita Blake, Sookie Stackhouse, etc.