What’s this? What’s this? A romance novel that Hannah not only didn’t hate, but actually enjoyed? It’s true! It exists! And you should all consider reading Wait For You by J. Lynn (pen name of Jennifer Armentrout). Seriously, you should give it a shot, even if you don’t normally like romance novels. Because after several attempts at getting in to the genre, this is the first romance novel I’ve read that had me anxious to pick it back up and continue reading, rather than trying to calculate how much longer I had to stick it out. Not that I’m slamming the romance genre – I’ve just had trouble finding the books that appeal to me.
I got Wait For You (to be released September 3, 2013) at the American Library Association conference. I saw the name of the author, Jennifer Armentrout, immediately connected her with a totally different romance author I’d heard of (Jennifer Armintrout - you can see where the confusion arose), and decided it was about time to give this whole romance thing another whirl. Lucky me, I grabbed the book before I realized I was thinking of a totally different Jennifer Arm(i/e)ntrout. But Armentrout turned out to be a great find.
Wait For You is a new adult romance novel featuring Avery, who has left her childhood home in Texas to go to college halfway across the country in West Virginia. She is recovering from some serious trauma, but tentatively taking steps to heal herself by leaving the town that has shunned her. She meets the handsome, ripped, kind, funny, Cam on her first day of class (in a well-executed “meet cute,” no less!) and finds herself attracted in spite of herself. Because seriously, who wouldn’t be? If I have any complaint about Wait For You it’s that Cam is too perfect, so much so that he veers into the unbelievable. But somehow, Armentrout makes it work (mostly by making Cam so dynamic and lovable you can forgive his lack of faults) so that it never bugged me too much.
Character is definitely the biggest strength of Wait For You. Avery has DEPTH y’all. She has experienced trauma, yes, which is important to the plot and her character. But she is not defined by it. She also likes history, is sarcastic, appreciates zombies, likes to dance, etc. etc. She is not defined by being “feisty” or “fragile” or anything like that, she is a fully fleshed out person. Her struggles are not only trauma-based, but also based on her family dynamics (a problem pre-dating any one major event) and her own personality and flaws. Cam, despite his over-perfection, is also a well-rounded character. He bakes, loves his family, parties, watches UFC, owns a tortoise, yadda yadda yadda. I think the reason these characters work is that whatever traits they have, and however cheesy and “quirky” Cam’s baking habit or Avery’s bad movie tendencies could be, these character traits all seem really organic to Avery and Cam. I don’t get the sense that Armentrout sat down trying to write delightfully unique and endearing characters. Rather, I get the feeling she sat down to write characters who rang true to her, and this is what happened. Even Avery’s friends, Jacob and Brittany (distinctly “best friend” side characters) have unique personalities and turns-of-phrase, and made me want to hear more about them.
Another thing that really made me love Wait For You was the treatment of sex and, yes, sexual assault. The sexual assault in Avery’s past is not fully defined at the beginning of the story, though it’s easy enough for readers to figure out the basics. But since the book is from Avery’s point-of-view, and Avery doesn’t like to think or talk about what happened, it takes a while for all the details to come out. But the gist of what happened – she was sexually assaulted in some way, but at a party and in a situation where she was vulnerable, somehow her whole town and social circle determined she lied and shunned her for it – is familiar. I liked that Armentrout portrayed a situation that was not a stranger-in-a-dark-alley assault, but rather a more common scenario involving partying teenagers, flirting, and alcohol. But she never shies away from the realities of what happened or that the fault lies, always, with the assaulter, not the assaulted. I’m probably not describing this well, and I don’t want to give everything away, but what I’m trying to get at is that the traumatizing event is, to me at least, sensitively and appropriately handled in every way.
And lastly, this book was so freaking sex-positive, and it did an incredible job of making consent hot. Don’t get me wrong, there are some romance tropes. For instance, Cam pursues Avery doggedly, despite her avowed disinterest in him romantically – but never to the point where he makes her uncomfortable, and with her permission to be her friend and spend time with her. And when she really tells him to go away, he does. When their relationship begins to be sexual, Cam checks in frequently with Avery about what he’s doing, and if it’s okay. He asks her before he takes off her bra for the first time. And it’s sexy. And the first time Cam and Avery go beyond making out, the agency is all Avery’s. She makes the moves, she tells Cam what she wants, and it is awesome. So the next time someone tries to argue that creepy/stalkery/rapey romance is the only way to make it hot, you can rub this in their face and assure them that they are wrong.
So there you have it. Probably the first romance novel I have ever recommended to anyone. So you should check out Wait For You by Jennifer Armentrout.
I read two Advanced Reading Copy’s (ARC’s) recently that I enjoyed, but that raised the same questions in my mind, as different as they seemed.
The first is Forgive Me, Leonard Peacock by Matthew Quick (recently released). This young adult contemporary book follows a day in the life of a depressed and traumatized teenage boy. But not just any day – this book follows the day he packs a gun in his backpack, intending to shoot first his former best friend, then himself, before the day is over. But before he commits these final acts, Leonard Peacock must say goodbye to the four people in his life he still feels connected to, and give them his farewell gifts. Unfortunately, in the process, Leonard becomes disappointed and disenchanted with more than one of them, and the farewells don’t give him the closure he desires. Leonard Peacock was a fascinating read, and a really impressive character portrait of a seriously damaged teen. As the details of what happened between Leonard and his former friend emerge, the details of Leonard’s personality emerge as well. He is not always a likable character (in fact, I found myself wanting to smack him across the face many times) but I think that was part of what made Leonard Peacock such a compelling read. Certainly as the book picked up speed towards the climax, I found I could hardly put it down – love him or hate him, I was desperate to find out what would happen on Leonard’s final day.
The second book I have in mind is Blackmoore, by Julianne Donaldson (September 9, 2013). Blackmoore is a young adult regency romance, heavily influenced by Georgette Heyer (as Donaldson told me herself.) I admit, I went in with pretty subdued expectations. I rarely read romances, and I wasn’t sure how the regency romance setting would translate to young adult. But I remember my mother listening to many Georgette Heyer novels in the car when I was young, and I was intrigued. Blackmoore definitely exceeded my expectations. The main character, Kate, was interesting and flawed. Her relationships with her best friend, Sylvia, and love interest, Henry, were complex and realistic. And the intrigues and drama that unfolded at the Blackmoore estate, thanks especially to the manipulations of Kate’s and Henry’s mothers, were engaging and fun, despite verging dangerously close to melodrama and predictability. And despite my absolute certainty about how the story would end, I found myself excited for the journey.
Obviously these books have little in common on the surface. But what struck me is how closely Leonard Peacock and Blackmoore each resemble some of my favorite books of all time, Catcher in the Rye and Jane Austen’s novels, respectively. To the point where I am certain, in both cases, that the books were heavily influenced by these classics, and understandably so.
Of course, it is nearly impossible to write a book about a disaffected high school age boy without immediate comparisons to Catcher in the Rye, and I suspect every regency romance ever written has been compared to Jane Austen. But in both these cases, the similarities struck me forcibly.
Leonard’s short journey, narrated in the main character’s idiosyncratic voice, reeks of Holden Caulfield. Leonard even uses the word “corny.” Leonard’s struggle to connect with other people, his relationship with an important and supportive teacher who is hiding something but cares deeply about him, his pursuit of a girl who is wrong for him, his kindness and empathy that he hides behind his angry and superior exterior, even his pretentious and un-self-aware dismissal of his peers as more shallow and less intelligent than him, bring Holden forcibly to mind. It is no leap to imagine a modern day Holden skipping school and following miserable businessmen and businesswomen on their commutes as Leonard does, or imagining an isolated future of boats and scuba diving (Leonard’s imaginary idyllic future) instead of the remote ranching Holden considers. To me, the connections between Forgive Me, Leonard Peacock and Catcher in the Rye, between Leonard and Holden, were so strong that I assume Quick intended to emulate and pay homage to Salinger’s masterpiece.
In the case of Blackmoore, I hardly even need to assume the emulation and homage. With a main character nicknamed Kitty, her sister Maria, family friends named “Delafield” (not far off from Sense & Sensibility’s location of “Delaford,”) a love interest named Henry, and supporting characters including a Mr. Brandon and an aunt Charlotte, the names themselves in Blackmoore make it hard to avoid thinking of Austen. Add in a scandal at Brighton involving a sister, a sister who refuses to control her emotions, and a heroine who resolutely declares her intentions never to marry (before, of course, falling in love), and it seems obvious to me as a reader and Austen-lover that Donaldson, also, loves Austen and was inspired by her.
But reading these books so close to each other made me wonder, where is the line between an homage, or a book strongly influenced by another work, and a book that is straight-up derivative? I’m not sure there are any hard and fast rules here, but both books made me ask this question.
I think my enjoyment of Leonard Peacock and Blackmoore was definitely influenced by how much they reminded me of two of my favorites, and the influence by and large was negative, especially at first. Reading Leonard Peacock, for instance, I spent the first chunk of the book getting distracted from the story by how much it resembled Catcher in the Rye, and comparing it to the classic. And there’s not much I could possibly compare to Salinger’s opus and that would come out on top. I have always adored Catcher in the Rye. Eventually the story took over, and I did find myself invested in Leonard and his story independently of how much I was reminded of Holden and his story. But I never stopped making the comparisons. And while Leonard had his own character and his own story, the stylistic and thematic similarities to Catcher in the Rye did not fade, and overall, damaged my enjoyment of the work. I’m still not sure I would call Leonard Peacock derivative, but I would certainly say the homage/influence aspect missed the mark.
I experienced Blackmoore a little differently. Initially, all my complaints inspired by the similarities to Austen were based on my own, Austen-inspired view of the time and society that the story was set in. Every time Kate did or thought something that didn’t jive with my sense of what was correct in Austen’s world, I would sniff to myself that clearly Donaldson hadn’t done her research. Now, I am in no way an expert on the regency period and early 1800s England, and it’s been years since I read a regency romance, so I’m quite sure that I was probably incorrect about my assumptions of incorrectness, and Donaldson undoubtedly did plenty of research. But because the book reminded me so much of Austen, I couldn’t help comparing it to the exact world portrayed in her novels. But after a few times reminding myself of all the reasons Blackmoore was a different creature from Austen’s novels – Blackmoore is a romance, is explicitly aimed at young adults, is narrated in the first person, etc. – I was able to let go of a lot of the comparisons. I was sucked into an enjoyable story, and trying to spot the frequent Austen references (or what I interpreted as Austen references) became just a fun game for me as I read. Blackmoore, then, I would place squarely into the “homage” category, and I think it was a well-done homage at that.
So what would make a book completely derivative? I think the key with Leonard Peacock and Blackmoore is that they are both good books, independent of their influences. They were enjoyable reads, thought-provoking (in very different ways!) and books I could and would have enjoyed and understood without ever having read Salinger or Austen. And perhaps that’s all it takes to keep a book in the “influenced by” and “homage to” (even if one homage was, in my opinion, off the mark) territory rather than the “derivative” territory – quality. Certainly I think that made the difference in these two books.
This is not how I intended to inaugurate this blog, but on Wednesday, my family lost a beloved pet. Sam was a 9 year old German Shepherd we’d raised from a puppy. He was my younger brother’s dog first and foremost, but we all loved him and cared for him, and he loved all of us. He was older, arthritic, cranky at the new puppy, but still as loyal and affectionate as ever to the end. He communicated with us primarily through a diverse vocabulary of groans, moans, and sighs. He never needed a leash, though he would get excited when he saw one since he knew it meant walk time. He loved to play with rocks – chewing on them, attacking them, or pulling them out of a lake. He wasn’t big on cuddling, but he sure did love to be right by his people (sometimes underfoot) and would often follow us around the house or yard. He was extremely smart, brave, and sweet-natured. I could go on and on about what a fantastic dog he was. Suffice it to say that we are heartbroken, and missing him already.
When I got the news, I cried of course. A lot. I went for a walk. And then I abandoned the Advanced Reader’s Copy of a book that I had been devouring, and turned to my bookshelf. In hard times, I always turn to books, and always books I already know and love. The need is so compelling I feel like I hardly have a choice. I can always find a book to suit my mood and give me the escape I need. Nothing immerses me and takes me away from my sorrow like a book. And there are several wonderful comfort books on my shelves.
These books are not always just “comfort” reading. What makes them comforting is that they are, by and large, my favorite books. I love them already, I have already read them over and over, yet every time I pick them up – for fun or as a salve for hurt – I fall into them just as quickly and easily as the last time. This, for me, is what makes them comforting – the fact that I can always immerse myself, no matter how many times I’ve read them. On Wednesday, I picked up Sunshine, by Robin McKinley. This is a book that definitely makes it onto my list of top five favorite books, one I am always wanting to re-read, and one that successfully distracted me – at least for a little bit – from what I was feeling. I also looked at Tamora Pierce and Jane Austen books, but Sunshine won out this time, and absolutely gave me what I needed. Another reliable favorite is The Picture of Dorian Gray. I remember a night in college when, emotional and sobbing after a fight with a roommate, I picked up Dorian Gray at four in the morning and began to read. And it soothed me. I have read that particular book so often, I can’t remember when it was a treat in times of joy, when it was a balm in times of pain, and when I picked it up just because I couldn’t wait to read it again – I have used it so many times for so many reasons.
There is so much more to these favorites, and the others I have picked up over time to drown my sorrows in, than just being comfort books. But they have always come through for me when I am hurting. And I am so grateful right now to be a reader, and have these wonderful, comforting volumes waiting for me when I need them most.
