A romance by Lee Wilkinson (At The Millionaire's Bidding) was one of the earliest I've read. I was delighted, coming across another novel from her in a library sale, going for three books for a pound. It resonated with me, that story. The conflicted and innocent heroine, the peeling away at layers of truth from both our heroine and hero, his protection of her and forgiving her sins. Her conflicted sexual discovery of strong attraction and love, as opposed to settling for the first man -- her current fiance -- who'd offer her a mere dream of a future that proved so deceptively false. Her childlike exploration of a grand stately home that she felt connected to with the guidance of our hero, making it feel like destiny. This image of her covered in the light from a multi-coloured, mullioned window remarking how it felt like standing in the very heart of a rainbow. There was a plotted and planned reason for her feeling that way. The mix of woman and man, fairytale and realism, yin and yang. It came together perfectly in that book, which I still remember very well, years later.

There's this concept I've heard is recognised in literary theory. A book is as much shaped by the author as the person reading it. I realised reading A Vengeful Deception would have a different flavour for me. The author's voice doesn't seem to have changed. She seemed to be using the same formula for many things, while the characters were still unique and alive on their own. She kept up with the times, the book was more sexual than her writing before and more aware of the changes in women today: more sexualised and less easy to trust.

I was reading it in a much more clinical way, thinking about what the author was doing and comparing to my previous novel. Noting which behaviours were likely and which were not in the personalities of the protagonists. Noting the dynamics between our hero and our heroine, his suspicion of her, his regret, his joy at discovering someone like her, her helpless attraction to him and me understanding the reasons for it better. But strangely, I was also more likely to believe in the coup de foudre our protagonists were struck with. While on one hand it wasn't the same mysterious magic for me, on the other hand it became quite believable. Yes, it is me who has changed.

What a paradox: believing in love and its true nature more caused a slight loss in its sparkle in fiction for me.

Other things changed too. Previously, my imagination would be captured in the sense of daydreams and wistfulness. Each hero would be a template from which to add or build a fantasy, perhaps not as myself but transplated into the mind of the heroine. Now I am separate from them. Their struggles and emotions activates remembrance of my own experiences: bittersweet, real and three dimensional in a way that cannot be captured in the space of the written word. I see how the hero compares to the template of real life men. This man's in charge of his world, cautiously distrustful, intelligent with perhaps emotions not completely controlled by his judgement. Ah, yes, that sounds familiar.

I knew intuitively, when young, never to try and impose fiction on the real world. In fact the very nature of fiction as a separation from real life experience was the foundations of its appeal to me. Escape and inspiring creativity, giving me a colourful world in contrast to the real world which I found strangely tasteless and unappealing.

Daydreams.

What I never dreamt of was that shades of reality can and do surpass fiction. In a positive way.

Realism is not being a pessimist. It is seeing the world for what it is: rich in pain, rich in possibility. With both giving value and meaning to the other, as evidenced in this story in some ways.

• Amazon here (UK) and here (US).
• Better World Books(US): they ship free in the US, eliminate their carbon footprint, raise funds for literacy and are part of the B corporation.
• The Book Despository who offer free shipping worldwide from their base in the UK.

This novel seems to be the third in a series. However, a lot of detail -- tiresomely and more than necessary -- is given about the previous novels. Warning: Spoilers ahead.

It is a trend within historical romance novels to give their heroines an independence and a way of thinking that is so at odds with the spirit of their times as to be often anachronistic.

This is so prevalent within historical romance novels that 'trend' seems to be a misnomer. It is more a trope, a cliche, a given, even.

Our heroine establishes herself quickly as one of these heroines. This is evident in many ways later in the novel but the immediate symbol is in her attire when we are first introduced to Her Feistiness: boy's clothing. Cross-dressing as a boy is another device that often appears within historical romances. We find that our heroine is on the run: escaping the oppressions of her abusive patriarchal household of course. In order to do this, she must cross-dress: reject her feminine self and play at being a man ineffectively. It is a ruse that is easily seen through. As much as she would want to, a woman cannot masquerade as a man.

Our heroine is also familiar with swordplay and she loves horses. She rides horses better than any man (with the exception of our alpha hero.). In keeping with female empowerment, this and her other qualities of which an example is "courage", win the admiration of our hero and -- later, in a memorable symbolic scene -- his people. She is also crappy at housework. This is meaningfully remedied later, at the same time she comes to terms with her desire for our hero and herself as a woman.

The hero himself is ridiculously perfect. He rides horses better than her, for one. His riding horses better than her is not enough to sufficiently elevate his status above our heroine. He impressively is the best at riding horses while hating doing it. He hates riding horses because he is afraid of heights. Of course, this "fear" does not stop our alpha hero from scaling a cliff to rescue our heroine. Why let a little thing like fear of heights stop him doing that?

Now why did our not-so-empowered-after-all heroine end up at the bottom of a cliff? (A fall she somehow survived with a bruise or two that took her all of a day or so to recover from.)

Get this: She was so focused, so intent, on escaping the evil patriarchy that she ran herself off the cliff.

Ladies and gentlemen, she ran off a cliff. She didn't notice it there.

Now it gets more ridiculous:
Who was she running from?
Our alpha hero.
Why was he chasing her?
In his words: "There's nothing for you to be afraid of. Noone's going to hurt you. I'll see you safely to wherever you're going and -- " Despite this, he still gets kicked in the nuts. She also knew he was telling the truth, because she has a magic power.This magic power makes her able to tell when people tell the truth. She's empowered, she literally has a magic power, okay? Isn't that what 'empowered woman' means?

So she knew there was little chance of harm occuring and she ran off a cliff anyway. Why did she do this? This is the best explanation she has to offer: "Surrender is for the craven and the meek."

That a blatant, irrational mistrust and fear of Men/The Patriarchy/the Y chromosome leads a woman to literally run herself off a cliff is a beautiful analogy for the mess a radical feminist might purposelessly make of her own psyche.

The conflict between our heroine's desire for complete freedom and her desire for our hero dominate the emotional drive behind the novel. Of course, this is a romance novel and she must resolve it, understanding that complete freedom is in surrendering to what she actually wants: the hero.

Of her own free will, the heroine loses her virginity to the hero (who -- for the record -- resisted mightily and really wanted her to stay a virgin. But what can you do if a determined naked woman assaults you in your sleep, literally impaling herself upon you when inevitably aroused? Cry rape, maybe?). Ironically, no less than the threat of death persuaded her to actually marry the same man upon discovery of the fact that he's foreign [Norse to her prissy Saxon] and, in fact, the actual betrothed she was supposed to wed. Silly truthteller! He's perfect, you stupid bint! As the hero himself points out on at least one occasion, she has very little common sense.

Beautiful symbolism in this, again. What she is running away from proved to be what she actually wants.

That brings us back to just how boringly perfect our hero is:
Greatest living warrior in all the land? Check.
Perfect figure? Check. (This is in fact the reason our heroine raped him; she espied his perfect figure and was unable to contain her misandrist sexual objectifying lust).
Takes charge and takes no bull, recognising bull without the advantage of truthtelling powers, while our heroine has trouble even with them)? Check.
Indescribably wealthy? Check.
Loves women and reasonably gentle to them? Check.
Endless experience with aforementioned women? Check.
Never Felt This Way Before with our heroine, despite these women? Check.
Universally (almost) loved by his people? Check.
Manages to be perfect despite, as a child, being a helpless orphan with a lone brother to protect him? Check.

Aside from the troubles suspending disbelief, he's boring in some ways. He could have used some depth and room for development. His one unique quality is being 'skald-souled' [a reference to skaldic poetry], fascinated with stories and legends. This novel does have some fun historical and mythical references. It's not clear what time period this was set -- no dates -- except that what could be called Anglo-Saxon territory was raided by Danes and there's a King Alfred forming an alliance with the Norse. There's also a place called Mercia in existence which according to wikipedia sets the time period at somewhere between 527 to 919 AD.

I like Ms Litton's voice which has sparkling description and charged, believable dialogue bringing her characters to a life they shouldn't have had. She does cross into modern lingo a bit much, maybe e.g. why is a Norse dude going 'what the hell' in his mind? He doesn't believe in hell per se, does he?

I really loved how our hero treated our heroine overall and the way they develop. I see potential in the voice: I believe this is probably not the author's best and she could do better with different material.

• Amazon here (UK) and here (US).
• Better World Books(US): they ship free in the US, eliminate their carbon footprint, raise funds for literacy and are part of the B corporation.
• The Book Despository who offer free shipping worldwide from their base in the UK.

Pride and Prejudice
Jane Austen

It’s like a silly fairy-tale, unreal, and containing characters without natural emotions. At least that seems to be how most people who are not Jane Austen geeks usually describe "Pride and Prejudice". Fair enough; we’re surrounded by the English countryside by the turn of the 18th century, soaked in polite conversations and tea-drinking. And at a distance, the plot is not all that exciting: A Mrs. Bennet wants all of her five daughters married to (preferably) wealthy and good-natured men. At a ball the family encounters a few specimens, one of which is Fitzwilliam Darcy, whose pride repels them all despite even his wealth and fine heritage. Darcy, in turn, is disgusted by the low status of the Bennets. They get off on the wrong foot, to say the least – and things get worse. Soon, however, Elizabeth Bennet, the smartest of the daughters, catches glimpses of the true nature of Darcy ...

Well, that sounds predictable enough, as the worn point of this novel – even from its title – is for us too look beyond what we see first-hand. From here Austen’s satire of social classes makes most critics revel in a rather tiresome anti-hierarchical interpretation – and pretty much stop at that. But this story is so much deeper and can easily be seen from a different point of view: It’s not opposing shallow prejudice in the "because-we-are-all-equal-inside" kind of way – Austen is brainier than that. Intelligent people, like Elizabeth and Darcy, may get dismayed by how most people are scheming actors of foul character or simply incompetent rabble, and so they become more suspicious of their fellow men. But Austen declares we shouldn’t give up: we may find the most excellent rare gems underneath that pile of drivel – if you’re brilliant enough yourself, that is.

It’s also very easy for us to hate successful people these days, when all we see is superficial morons on top. This is where Austen gives us some hope to hang on to: In order to overcome the mistake of despising anything that might make us jealous, Austen uses her sly sense of humour, imaginative dialogue and beautiful use of words in a way that makes us love these qualities in any person and shows that while it’s not "OK" to suck, truly great people can be victorious without any hard feelings. All you need is appreciation of beauty – and beautiful is what this love story is, quite contradicting the on-going revenge of the ugly and the dumb of today.

So fairy-tale or not, humanity needs this book. Not only because it’s what I would call first-class sophisticated entertainment. After turning the last page we are left with an immense heart-warming feeling. For once, this is not because the underdogs won. Austen teaches us to have loving hearts yet critical, discriminating eyes. With her help we can – without feeling cruel – easily justify our happiness when the unselfish and strong characters that deserve it the most win each other.

Dear readers of corrupt.org, if you've had a look at my bio*, then you'll know that I love romance novels:

"Two basic elements comprise every romance novel: a central love story and an emotionally-satisfying and optimistic ending."

You may not be intimately familiar with the genre (hopefully not also unfortunately still using the term "bodice-rippers". It's not only scientists that need to keep their terminology current but I've even seen students and teachers of English Literature have their total knowledge of the genre amount to this archaic term). One question you might be asking is, well, why? Why do I love them and, moreover, why am I revealing this to you?

Romance novels are unabashedly written by (mostly) women for (mostly) women. They are incredibly diverse. In fact, for every current section of genre fiction, there's a romance subgenre or two reflecting it. The sources of tension and conflicts within the novels pushing the narrative can be external, internal or both. The protagonists' worries can range from saving the universe to meeting the in-laws. There's romantic suspense, historical, contemporary, steampunk, sci-fi, paranormal, fantasy and urban fantasy to name but a few. The level of sexual content can range from outright erotic romance (which sells very well in the ebook business, by publishers such as Samhain or Ellora's Cave) to effectively absent (in inspirational romance, which is religiously themed, or in sweet romance, which is the term for a romance low on the heat level). Due to the sheer volume of romance novels published, the writing can range from brilliant to atrocious.

This massive demand for these novels also allows the unique format of series or category romance wherein cheap and fairly short titles are put out on shelves, usually for a limited amount of time (about a month, I do believe). The most famous of these is Harlequin publishing; you can sample some of their books here for free in pdf and ebook format (note the diversity of their category romances: Blaze (where the spice level is up), historicals, suspense, paranormal and even one of their NASCAR-themed ones. Someone please explain to my England-dwelling self, why the NASCAR? In any case: series romances have formed the impression of the genre to a lot of people, which I have talked about before but it is like forming an impression of chocolate having only M&Ms available to you. You haven't tried anything else, especially the Ferrerro Rochers or the Godiva chocolates.

Seeing as how there is so much ground to cover, how can I even begin to explain to you what draws me to it, and even what draws women to it and what it can say about the female psyche?

What better way to explore the genre then by reviewing 'Beyond Heaving Bosoms: The Smart Bitches' Guide to Romance Novels' as my first official review on corrupt.org. If you can't already tell by the title, those smart gals at smartbitchestrashybooks.com who are bloggers-turned-authors have a unique sense of humour (their love of the Internet, including some memes, really shows in the book). They're also razor sharp academics and have an appreciation of the camp that borders on adolescent. It makes for some hilarious reading in their book. The book is filled with:

• swearing. A lot of creative swearing. Holy guacamole on a toasted tortilla bread, I am not kidding with you. Do not let the kiddies near the book if you don't want them going around yelling 'holy cuntmonkeys'.
• euphemisms that are deliberately overblown for high comedic effect, managing to exceed some used in romance novels themselves. That is no mean feat, let me tell you.
• merciless parody of the genre.
• piercing analysis and exploration of the genre.
• fun little games ranging from Choose Your Own Adventure type stuff (well, Choose Your Own Mantitty) to an in-book boardgame.

What I found really important about their examination (yes, there was examination in between all the hilarity) was their indirect exploration of the female psyche. They explored how romance has changed: diversity and sexual expression in the genre is a relatively recent phenomenon, precipitated by historical events such as the sexual revolution. You can extrapolate from this the good, the bad and the ugly about the recent changes that have set into society, which have by many theories centred around women, their views and their rights. Romance novels are the barometer by which female-centred thinking and issues are measured and mirrored, if you will.

They explore the feminine attitudes to sexuality, love and partnership which influence romance novels or run contrary to them. This is important for both genders to gain a deeper understanding of: both as people affected by this in everyday life but through being on the search for partnership of one sort or another themselves, as well as finding ways to maintain relationships and keep them nurtured. Their researched examination reveals things that cannot be extrapolated from the romance novels themselves, without an understanding of being a woman and the collective contexts of romance writing. A frequent complaint is that romance novels set expectations too high for love, men and women; they attempt to deconstruct this myth and -- I think -- represent the female reader experience very well. They've taken an amazingly light-hearted tone in their book, but this is ultimately (laugh out loud!) window-dressing for some Serious Business.

I can only aspire to the braveness of their unique style: unapologetic humour as well as serious academic points. This book has something for everybody: lovers of the genre, people looking for a bit of fun, literary academics and people who want an introduction. They've done their research, with citations listed at the back. The only thing I wished they had was an index, although the entry for some words (like 'hoo-hoo') would be 'every other page'.

Romance novels are one of the unexplored secrets of women. It's time you learnt a thing or two about them: being female, male or possibly both.

You can buy the Smart Bitches' Guide at:

You can find excerpts and outtakes at their website.

Related: 'Romance Anniversary' at the blowhards.com website. There're some romance novel recommendations others and I have made in the comments for you.

*If you've also had a look at our bios recently, you'll notice some of us are on twitter with Alex tweeting: @corrupt_org. You can also find @SmartBitches on there.