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Author Review - Christina Dodd
Apr. 27th, 2005 08:07 amThe problem with reading several books by a single author back to back is that what was a minor flaw in the first one has become a huge annoying problem by the third. And so it was with Christina Dodd, who fell from my good graces with a resounding and permanent splat last night.
The first book of hers I read was Rules of Engagement, an engaging and amusing book. My standards for romances are even higher than my standards for mysteries, so when I say I really enjoyed it, I'm praising it to the skies. This encouraged me to go out and buy several other books by her, which made it to the top of my TBR rotation this week.
Runaway Princess was really quite interesting... up till the last chapter. I liked the tension between the main characters, I felt the heat from the pages in the love scenes, all was well. Until after having spent 350 pages firmly denying magic in this world (to the point of the heroine explaining the chemistry behind an old folk custom) suddenly there's a 1000-year-old saint, a flash-boom of magic, and a whole succession of miracles.
Huh? Look, either the book's magical or it isn't. I felt more than a little betrayed that a story which until then had been based on relentless logic solved the plot with fairydust ex machina. It was unnecessary and distracting.
But... it wasn't bad, just not what I wanted. I tossed the book into the TW donations basket... and tried not to think about the one line that really creeped me - "I want you dependent on me for everything. For the air you breathe." For a butch hero, he was pretty damn insecure.
Next up was a book which turned me off so quickly I can't even remember the name. Billed as the sequel to Runaway Princess, it barely dealt with the original characters. This was the one that was supposed to rehabilitate the villain of the previous story. Except that he made such a convincing villain that I couldn't stomach more than 4 pages of him billing and cooing. I flipped through and found out that he wasn't rehabilitated at the beginning at all - he'd been hired to seduce and ruin this princess, but along the way he Fell In Wuv. Not, however, before leading a rebellion, bankrupting her nation, and stealing her virginity. And, in a plot twist that appalled me, she forgives him all because it's Twu Wuv, which will conquer all. Apparently love not only means not having to say "I'm sorry," it means not having to say "I shouldn't have ruined your reputation and destabilized your country. My bad."
Why do people fob that damnable crap on us? It wasn't cute in "What Women Want," it wasn't cute in "Legal Entanglements" (or whatever that Brosnan vehicle was), and it isn't cute any of the other 8 million times it's been presented to us. It's a simple lesson, people, and it's horrific how few people learn it:
If a man loves a woman, he won't fuck her over.
He won't steal her ideas, he won't get her fired, he won't force her into sex because "he just can't help himself and she secretly wants it" he won't ruin her reputation, he won't manipulate her, he won't ignore her stated wishes, he won't isolate her, and he won't look her in the eye and lie to her. None of that bullshit is love. It's abuse, it's bullying, it's rape, it's patronizing, it's everything except adoration or protection.
Don't tell me 4" = 8" and don't tell me that taking over my life is in my best interests. I'm not stupid, I'm not desperate, and I'm not falling for that shit.
But do I take the hint? Alas, no, there was still My Favorite Bride to go. How could it go wrong? Part of the same series as Rules of Engagement and an obvious Sound of Music knockoff, how could there possibly be anything in there to torque me to the point of throwing out everything she ever wrote and coming on LJ to rant about it to boot?
Well, once again, she was fine up to the last couple of chapters. Once again, the supernatural stepped in to tidily resolve the plot so that the hero and heroine could blithely go on screwing. And screwing is the only appropriate word for what he did to her.
He bangs her without benefit of marriage because - sing with me! - "he can't help it and she secretly wants it." Then the next morning he decides he could overlook anything, Anything At All about her... except what she tells him next, which makes him resolve to throw her out like last night's chicken bones.
Except wait! He still loves her truely, madly, deeply! So he goes to where he's got her under house arrest and forces her to have sex with him so that she'll realize that They Really Belong together. Nevermind that he's still mad at her revelation and she's spittingly furious at how he's treated her - if they just have enough sex, they'll get over anything!
Until, huzzah, she has the fortitude to head for the hills. So he has to go after her, lie to the coachman and get his children to lie to the coachman to encourage said coachman to toss her off said coach, and then make sure she HAS to marry him by keeping her out overnight in the woods. Despite her fear of the woods. And despite (as he chuckles to himself) how mad she's going to be when she finds out that the next town was only 2 miles walk away.
Bwahahaha, all ends happily despite her stubbornness, yay.
There isn't enough "ew" in the world to express my feelings. With a last flicker of hope I thought, "well, this has been in my stack for a while, maybe it's an old book. Times have changed, and so have romances."
The copyright was 2002.
Ms. Dodd ought to thank whatever she believes in that she wasn't there to share the fate of her book.
There is no excuse for this shit. THERE IS NO EXCUSE WHATSOEVER to present rape, ruination, and lying as love. All that we needed was for him to hit her and we'd have the classic trilogy of abuse - "Baby, you make me so crazy, I just can't help myself," "Baby, why you question me?" and "Baby, why you make me hit you?"
This isn't love. This isn't even in the same zip code as love. Not even the same freakin' time zone.
And that, readers, is why I yanked Rules of Engagement out of my keeper pile and have resolved that I shall read no more of Ms. Dodd, ever.
The first book of hers I read was Rules of Engagement, an engaging and amusing book. My standards for romances are even higher than my standards for mysteries, so when I say I really enjoyed it, I'm praising it to the skies. This encouraged me to go out and buy several other books by her, which made it to the top of my TBR rotation this week.
Runaway Princess was really quite interesting... up till the last chapter. I liked the tension between the main characters, I felt the heat from the pages in the love scenes, all was well. Until after having spent 350 pages firmly denying magic in this world (to the point of the heroine explaining the chemistry behind an old folk custom) suddenly there's a 1000-year-old saint, a flash-boom of magic, and a whole succession of miracles.
Huh? Look, either the book's magical or it isn't. I felt more than a little betrayed that a story which until then had been based on relentless logic solved the plot with fairydust ex machina. It was unnecessary and distracting.
But... it wasn't bad, just not what I wanted. I tossed the book into the TW donations basket... and tried not to think about the one line that really creeped me - "I want you dependent on me for everything. For the air you breathe." For a butch hero, he was pretty damn insecure.
Next up was a book which turned me off so quickly I can't even remember the name. Billed as the sequel to Runaway Princess, it barely dealt with the original characters. This was the one that was supposed to rehabilitate the villain of the previous story. Except that he made such a convincing villain that I couldn't stomach more than 4 pages of him billing and cooing. I flipped through and found out that he wasn't rehabilitated at the beginning at all - he'd been hired to seduce and ruin this princess, but along the way he Fell In Wuv. Not, however, before leading a rebellion, bankrupting her nation, and stealing her virginity. And, in a plot twist that appalled me, she forgives him all because it's Twu Wuv, which will conquer all. Apparently love not only means not having to say "I'm sorry," it means not having to say "I shouldn't have ruined your reputation and destabilized your country. My bad."
Why do people fob that damnable crap on us? It wasn't cute in "What Women Want," it wasn't cute in "Legal Entanglements" (or whatever that Brosnan vehicle was), and it isn't cute any of the other 8 million times it's been presented to us. It's a simple lesson, people, and it's horrific how few people learn it:
If a man loves a woman, he won't fuck her over.
He won't steal her ideas, he won't get her fired, he won't force her into sex because "he just can't help himself and she secretly wants it" he won't ruin her reputation, he won't manipulate her, he won't ignore her stated wishes, he won't isolate her, and he won't look her in the eye and lie to her. None of that bullshit is love. It's abuse, it's bullying, it's rape, it's patronizing, it's everything except adoration or protection.
Don't tell me 4" = 8" and don't tell me that taking over my life is in my best interests. I'm not stupid, I'm not desperate, and I'm not falling for that shit.
But do I take the hint? Alas, no, there was still My Favorite Bride to go. How could it go wrong? Part of the same series as Rules of Engagement and an obvious Sound of Music knockoff, how could there possibly be anything in there to torque me to the point of throwing out everything she ever wrote and coming on LJ to rant about it to boot?
Well, once again, she was fine up to the last couple of chapters. Once again, the supernatural stepped in to tidily resolve the plot so that the hero and heroine could blithely go on screwing. And screwing is the only appropriate word for what he did to her.
He bangs her without benefit of marriage because - sing with me! - "he can't help it and she secretly wants it." Then the next morning he decides he could overlook anything, Anything At All about her... except what she tells him next, which makes him resolve to throw her out like last night's chicken bones.
Except wait! He still loves her truely, madly, deeply! So he goes to where he's got her under house arrest and forces her to have sex with him so that she'll realize that They Really Belong together. Nevermind that he's still mad at her revelation and she's spittingly furious at how he's treated her - if they just have enough sex, they'll get over anything!
Until, huzzah, she has the fortitude to head for the hills. So he has to go after her, lie to the coachman and get his children to lie to the coachman to encourage said coachman to toss her off said coach, and then make sure she HAS to marry him by keeping her out overnight in the woods. Despite her fear of the woods. And despite (as he chuckles to himself) how mad she's going to be when she finds out that the next town was only 2 miles walk away.
Bwahahaha, all ends happily despite her stubbornness, yay.
There isn't enough "ew" in the world to express my feelings. With a last flicker of hope I thought, "well, this has been in my stack for a while, maybe it's an old book. Times have changed, and so have romances."
The copyright was 2002.
Ms. Dodd ought to thank whatever she believes in that she wasn't there to share the fate of her book.
There is no excuse for this shit. THERE IS NO EXCUSE WHATSOEVER to present rape, ruination, and lying as love. All that we needed was for him to hit her and we'd have the classic trilogy of abuse - "Baby, you make me so crazy, I just can't help myself," "Baby, why you question me?" and "Baby, why you make me hit you?"
This isn't love. This isn't even in the same zip code as love. Not even the same freakin' time zone.
And that, readers, is why I yanked Rules of Engagement out of my keeper pile and have resolved that I shall read no more of Ms. Dodd, ever.
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