I just finished reading a book that caught my eye-- women's fic called The Way Life Should Be and I swear, it was so damned predictable. The writing was maybe nicer than most and not as snarky as some of the more comedic chick lit, but I read the first two chapters where the single, NY career woman tries internet dating and falls for a guy who's a sailing instructor in Maine (she has a fascination with Maine, which is why she fixated on him) and my first thought was, "He's so not the guy that she winds up with-- he's too slick, he's going to wind up being a rat and she's going to meet someone nicer and while she won't get together with him during the course of the book, we'll be left with the promise of them getting together, especially after she realizes what she's really been looking for."
Yeah. Pretty much just like that. And it was so frustrating because this is the kind of book that you know the editor and the author would just as soon cut off their left boobs before admitting it was a chick lit/romance novel, but you know, it sort of quacked and waddled along and lo, but for the lack of the obvious HEA with the One (but you just KNEW it was going to happen) it was a fine, feathery example of a chick lit/romance novel.
It's enough to make me want to pull a Sylvia except my oven's electric.
Christina Baker Kline, who has, among her other credentials, Writer-in-Residence at Fordham Uni on her bio
Oh my.
Romance is everywhere. I mean, Patricia Gaffney went to "women's fiction," and they're still romances. They just don't "say" so. (Okay, The Saving Graces wasn't as much, but Flight Lessons? Totally a romance.)
Okay, I need something somewhat mindless -- but not *dumb* -- to read. Trashy and fun, but well-written.
Recommendations?
I wouldn't call them trashy, but you might like Holly Black's faerie books, Steph.
I always go for whatever Nora Roberts trilogy is out when I'm in that mood.
Any Georgette Heyer, but you might especially like These Old Shades or The Talsiman Ring.
I've been reading Sherrilyn Kenyon's "Dark Hunter" series lately for my mindless fun. They're mostly set in New Orleans, she has women of larger size getting busy with hot men who think said women are the most gorgeous creatures ever, and her vampire/werewolf history is a bit different than the usual. I've only read 4 or 5 of the books, and I suspect that the 12-20 that she wrote sort of fade into a sameness. But it's a pro-women's sexuality sameness, by and large, so I'm giving it a Trashy Books Yay thumbs up.
They are a tad overly-heterocentric, though. I've been going online to read SGA slash fic as a palate cleanser.
Anna McPartlin- Pack Up the Moon. It wasn't trashy and it actually starts out with a fair amount of pathos, but it wound up being a very fun read.
Oh, and if you want a historical, Victoria Dahl's A Rake's Guide to Pleasure
For "chick lit," I like Marian Keyes a lot, but many of her books have a pretty dark center to them, so maybe not "trashy and fun" enough.
