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Classification: The Bad Boy and the Abuser
Per last week’s lengthy post on domestic violence and romance, author Foz Meadows has a truly excellent post up on the Book Smugglers site that deals with the fine line between heroes who are Bad Boys...
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A Small Post About Bitches and Mothers in Romance
It’s thanks to Liz at Something More that I read Vicki Essex’s Back to the Good Fortune Diner for her blog-book-party-thing-of-awesome. This was a tough read for me: the bits I loved I really, really...
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Today’s Post on Submission and Consent in Erotic Romance
{Trigger warnings for brief mentions of rape, domestic abuse, and questionable consent.} True story: when you write an erotic romance with an explicitly feminist heroine, I’m going to want to talk...
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‘As if money was a substitute for fair play’: feminist subtext in The...
After the Vicki Essex review and the feminist heroine fiasco, I’ve been feeling like many of my latest posts have come down on the negative side of the critical spectrum. To balance things out, I kept...
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How Many Does It Take?
{Trigger warnings for discussions of sexual assault and consent issues, both of which are below the jump. Be aware that this story is also very long, though not very graphic.} To tell this story...
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Blogging From April A to Z: Intersectional Feminism in Romance Series!
Lately it seems like we’re all talking about feminism, diversity, and representation in fiction (and games, and movies, and so on) a lot more than we used to. This is marvelous! Even when we’re...
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A is for Ash
{Welcome to the first post of my April A-Z challenge! For the full alphabet of intersectional feminism in romance, click here.} This is my second time reading Ash, Malinda Lo’s lyrical lesbian...
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B is for Beverly Jenkins
{Click here for the full alphabet of intersectional feminism in romance.} Ask anyone who knows: they’ll tell you Beverly Jenkins is the queen of African-American historical romance. I’ve had Destiny’s...
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C is for Zen Cho
{For the full alphabet of intersectional feminism in romance, click here.} Let me not even pretend I can write with perfect objectivity about author Zen Cho’s The Perilous Life of Jade Yeo. It has been...
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D is for Tessa Dare
{For the complete alphabet of diversity in romance, click here. <– origin page link} There’s a lot to like about Lily, Tessa Dare’s deaf heroine in Three Nights with a Scoundrel. Lily combines a...
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E is for Vicki Essex
{Content note: the text below describes a character dealing with being triggered and recovering from a past sexual assault, though nothing is graphically depicted in this post. There is also some...
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F is for Fuck’s Sake, Frankly, My Dear
{Content note: this post discusses slavery and pernicious anti-black racism all the way down. Click here for the complete A-Z of intersectional feminism in romance.} Let’s imagine you are a slave on a...
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G is for Gold Mountain
{Click here for the complete A-Z of intersectional feminism in romance.} So yesterday was really something, wasn’t it? Today will be much more relaxed, I promise. Less righteous vitriol; fewer italics;...
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H is for Harmony
{For the full alphabet of intersectional feminism in romance, click here.} Sienna Mynx’s 1920s-set interracial romance Harmony was a mixed bag for me. The book was self-published and it shows,...
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I is for American Indians, Native Americans, First Nations, Indigenous...
{Note: for the purposes of this article, I will be using “Native American” as a general term, and tribal designations or individual preferences for identification when appropriate and/or available....
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J is for Eloisa James
{For the full alphabet of intersectional feminism in romance, click here!} I knew when I started reading that Eloisa James’ The Duke is Mine takes its inspiration from the Princess and the Pea, but...
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K is for Jacqueline Koyanagi
{Click here for the complete alphabet of intersectional feminism in romance. And be warned that there are enormous spoilers in the post below!} It’s easy to say that Jacqueline Koyanagi’s luscious...
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L is for Jeannie Lin
{Content note: the following post very briefly quotes fictional acts of torture during a police interrogation — and, in case anyone else cringes at such things like I do, I should mention the torture...
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M is for Pamela Morsi
{Click here for the full alphabet of intersectional feminism and romance.} One of the great delights as I continue this post series is how intertwined the various books are starting to become. Themes...
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N is for Zora Neale Hurston
{Click here for the complete alphabet of intersectional feminism in romance.} With great difficulty, let us put aside (IF WE CAN) the verifiable fact that Their Eyes Were Watching God is a masterpiece....
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