Hm. Probably Faking It, although I really loved Fast Women for the conscious turning of romance novel tropes on their head. I have read A LOT of romance novels (probably in the thousands?), and there are a lot of more or less unspoken tropes that most authors follow. The heroine only has sex with the hero. The sex happens first roughly halfway through the book. If there are relationship issues to get through, it's usually because the hero has some terrible emotional baggage that can only be conquered through love and pop psychology. Regardless of society's and the heroine's own feelings about her looks, the hero finds her gorgeous and irresistible. The heroine is almost invariably under 35, usually in her early 20s.
In Fast Women, sex happens really soon, and not with the hero. And it's not portrayed as something wrong or uncomfortable, just fun. The heroine is middle aged. The hero has emotional baggage, but so does the heroine, and they figure it out together, not though the Power of Twue Wuv, but by being grown-ups and communicating. The hero doesn't always find the heroine super-mega-foxy-awesome-hot, but he does always like and respect her. So I love that about it. That said, Faking It is hilarious and will make you want to be friends with all the people in the book and I probably like Tilda and her family better than Nell and hers.
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timeasmymeasure
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Date: 2012-04-02 02:36 am (UTC)In Fast Women, sex happens really soon, and not with the hero. And it's not portrayed as something wrong or uncomfortable, just fun. The heroine is middle aged. The hero has emotional baggage, but so does the heroine, and they figure it out together, not though the Power of Twue Wuv, but by being grown-ups and communicating. The hero doesn't always find the heroine super-mega-foxy-awesome-hot, but he does always like and respect her. So I love that about it. That said, Faking It is hilarious and will make you want to be friends with all the people in the book and I probably like Tilda and her family better than Nell and hers.