Well, lots of (most?) Westerners hear geisha and think "HoTt Asian SEXX!!!" so I'm not surprised that Hollywood is juicing that part for all it's worth.

Although if they focus on sex to the exclusion of the arts and manners and such, THAT'S bullshit, because that isn't what the book focused on at all.

Which is what you're saying.

Duh. I"m really dim tonight. Mea culpa.

One of the books I got at the library book sale was "Wizard's First Rule" by Terry Goodkind. I've heard decent things about Goodkind, and I figured I'd give it a shot. Nice thick book, first of a series, something to get my teeth into, well-reviewed on the cover by people I've heard of.

Oh, gods. It certainly reads like a first novel. It reads like something aimed at a young adult audience. The writing is weirdly juvenile, which may just be the effect of it being a first novel, but he gives credit to an editor, and I'm wondering what the editor did.

This is why I so rarely try new authors. There are fanfic writers I follow whose stories have more grace and dexterity of narrative than this book.

Fortunately, I also got Umberto Eco's "Foucault's Pendulum." I trust Eco.

Going back a bit (I just got caught up on the past few weeks worth of posts), I think it's great that Harlequin is looking to expand the usual romance timeframes. I'd love to see a romance set in, say, Jazz Age NYC or Chicago, or Civil-War England (British Civil War, I mean).

I just noticed over at Amazon that one of my alltime favorite romance authors Loretta Chase has a new book out! Considering she's written a grand total of about four books (outside of the traditional Regencies, which are no longer in print) in 15 years, this is good news for me.

If you're a historical romance fan and you've not read Lord of Scoundrels yet, you simply must! One of the best romances I've ever read (and I've read a hell of a lot).

I just put Lord of Scoundrels on hold myself, because I keep hearing so many people rave about it. For someone who writes this stuff, I was very narrowly read until recently. I had a few favorite authors, and I read their books.

Other Regency-era romances that I'd recommend are the four written by Julie Garwood (starting with Lyon's Lady--too Americanized for believability, but written with that Garwood snap that I love when she's on her game), all of Loretta Chase's books (she's too quotable to miss), Mary Jo Putney's Shattered Rainbows (starting out in the Peninsular War, Susan!) and One Perfect Rose (a great look at terminal illness--sounds like a downer, but it's really well written), and especially Tom and Sharon Curtis' (aka Laura London) Windflower (actually, this one might be Revolutionary War-era, not 1812-era; I can't remember which!).

Another one set during the Revolutionary War Caribbean that I liked a lot was Passion's Ransom, by Betina Krahn (probably the only one of her books I'd recommend strongly)--very pirate-like. A funny time-travel pirate romance set in Mediterranean waters is Nancy Block's Once Upon a Pirate (which might be the only book she's ever published).

Huh. The product description on that book would have me running away very fast (please tell me that's not the actual jacket description) but I'll put it on my list on your recommendations.

It's a much better book than that blurb implies, brenda! Read a few of the reviews--they're more accurate. It definitely is not your standard romance, especially in the characterization of the two leads. He's a hardhearted cad who has major issues resulting from his childhood that obscure his feelings for her, and she has no clue why he's being so stupid in his treatment of her. There are no Big Misunderstandings like you normally see in these books, which is a welcome relief.

Also, the female lead's brother, Bertie, is a wonderfully drawn character, bumbling and dim-witted but very sweethearted. He gets his own romance in the b-plotline of the sequel, The Last Hellion.

Shattered Rainbows and One Perfect Rose are among my favorites, since MJP is one of the authors I've been reading for years (along with Jo Beverley, Carla Kelly, Mary Balogh, Patricia Gaffney (historicals only) and a few others).

I tried one of Julie Garwood's medievals and concluded she's one of those popular authors who just isn't for me. It was too modern in tone, and her style of humor didn't work for me. And while I enjoyed PotC, I don't generally go for pirate heroes. Privateers, sure, navy men, oh yeah! But pirates, NSM.

Windflower is great for you--the hero is not a pirate himself, but his bastard halfbrother is, and is willing to tote around the hero on his duties for the Crown. Also, Rand (the bastard halfbrother) has a strange resemblance to Locke on Lost in that he's always looking to improve everyone's lives for them, even if it screws them up in the short term. So, he kidnaps the heroine and puts her into the hero's bed (letting him think that she's his worst enemy's mistress in the process) and doesn't tell his brother that the woman he's falling in love with is merely covering up for her rebel brother and father.

Also, one of my favorite secondary characters is in this book--Cat, Rand's righthand man (and it's assumed by the crewmembers, his lover as well), the product of a Caribbean brothel and former child prostitute who takes the heroine under his wing and helps to protect her (this was written in the 1980s, so the woman is less headstrong than she would have been written today).

Hmm. Maybe. Still sounds a little piratey for my tastes.