BODICE RIPPERS
Romance Novel Reviews by Lorelei
When I was younger, I thought I was strange and unusual for having forceful sexual fantasies. I didn't mention them to anyone else; I was sure my friends or partners would think I was weird if they knew.
In college I took a course from the renowned feminist Marilyn Frye. For one assignment, she had each of us read a different romance novel. I'd never read one before. I borrowed one off my sister's bookshelf and was pleasantly surprised to find several passages describing narrow escapes from sex-hungry men. The scenes were sugar-coated, to be sure, but the conflict was there.
I was happy to realize that there must be many readers who liked this sort of fantasy. Most importantly, I knew most readers of these romance novels were women, which meant I wasn't the only female with force fantasies.
In class we compared the storylines. Though the settings vary widely, the stories of romance novels share common themes, certain conventions. Here are several that have struck me:
* There are usually at least two forceful sexual confrontations in a book: one near the beginning, one near the end.
* Typical clinches are between the hero and heroine, as they fight their lusts and each other OR, between the heroine and a villain (the meddling hero shows up in the nick of time to rescue his fair damsel).
* Almost all attempts at forced sex are thwarted. But there are certain
exceptions:
- It might happen to a woman if she's an unknown character.
- It might happen to bad or evil female characters.
- It might even happen to the heroine if she is
intellectually/indignantly/verbally objecting to the hero's advances
while she's ardently/secretly/viscerally responding.
In the following overview of some typical contemporary romance novels, note that the expression "bodice ripper" (used to describe such tomes) is no exaggeration. Bodice-ripping is featured prominently in many of them!
Each review is linked to shopping sites so that if desired, you can buy and read the book.
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Review: A lot of clichés, but fun clichés at that. The hero/heroine relationship is somewhat stupid, but the villain figures prominently and well in the later stages of the book. Excerpts |
 The
Hostage Brideby Jane Feather Review: Not enough bodice-ripping, as far as I'm concerned. Average kind of book; doesn't live up to the potential of the title. Excerpts |
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Interestingly, there are absolutely no ravishing scenes in "Ravished." Rather poorly titled, don't you think?
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 No
Other Womanby Shannon Drake Review: Totally forgettable book. But at least the writing style is livable. (Many romance novel authors are horrendous writers.) Excerpt
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 Fallen
Angelby Catherine Hart Review: Sitcom-level stupidity. Much of the conflict is driven by the hero not telling the heroine what the heck's going on. Excerpts |
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Review: Really irritating plot. Heroine and hero might as well go their separate ways. The interesting scenes are mostly between secondary characters. Demerits for too much dialect dialogue. Excerpts |
Review: You'd think that a sheik/harem type set-up would provide for many sexy scenes. Not so. The author squanders the opportunities... except for one good page. Excerpt |
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Surrender My Love's back cover blurb: |
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Special thanks to the Pink Kink Pages, for providing other romance-novel synopses that I enjoyed perusing!
Review: Notable for its two-man attempted-sex scene.
Thumbs-up for allowing a hero/heroine nonconsensual clinch
to go all the way. Demerits for casting a killer as the hero.
