When Romance Overwhelms Plot
Mar. 13th, 2006 11:04 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
lydamorehouseI just finished reading Rachel Caine’s latest in the Weather Warden series, WINDFALL.
I’ve been a fan of this series from the beginning. The main character Joanne Baldwin is fun, sassy, and makes me laugh. Plus, there’s good sex with a very hot djinn named David.
I had some problems with this book, however. I had a helluva time getting into it, and I finally think I figured out why. One of the things you hear often in writing classes is that you need to make sure your protagonist has a lot at stake, a lot to lose. I’ve even heard repeated the idea that writing is sadistic, your job is to “take good characters and hurt them by making bad things happen to them.” I think, however, WINDFALL suffers from a bit too much of that. The stakes were almost too high for me to relate to.
I don’t quite know how that happened, because I think Rachel Caine tries to make sure there are on-the-ground, up-close-and-personal problems for Joanne, too.
But... David is in a world of hurt, and he’s impregnated her with a djinn potential. Plus, her sister gets a messy divorce and ends up on her doorstep. Oh, and the djinn are at war with each other and killing off wardens.
I think my problem is this: David is most sexy when he’s strong and beautiful and AVAILABLE. He’s been hurting for the last couple of books, steadily getting worse and worse. This is no fun for the romance. Now, on top of that, by the end of the novel he seems to have stepped completely out of the realm of date-able.
I’m such a fan of the romance that this bums me out to the point of not really giving much of a shit about what happens to the fate of the world. I really just want Joanne and David to be together. So, when Louis is in trouble, and Kevin is in trouble, the baby is in trouble, her sister is in trouble, the wardens and the whole universe is in trouble… I find myself skipping over the words as fast as I can to find out if David is okay. The plot has become secondary to the romance.
That makes me a very bad reader, I know. (Bad reader, no biscut.) But, there it is.
I’ve been a fan of this series from the beginning. The main character Joanne Baldwin is fun, sassy, and makes me laugh. Plus, there’s good sex with a very hot djinn named David.
I had some problems with this book, however. I had a helluva time getting into it, and I finally think I figured out why. One of the things you hear often in writing classes is that you need to make sure your protagonist has a lot at stake, a lot to lose. I’ve even heard repeated the idea that writing is sadistic, your job is to “take good characters and hurt them by making bad things happen to them.” I think, however, WINDFALL suffers from a bit too much of that. The stakes were almost too high for me to relate to.
I don’t quite know how that happened, because I think Rachel Caine tries to make sure there are on-the-ground, up-close-and-personal problems for Joanne, too.
But... David is in a world of hurt, and he’s impregnated her with a djinn potential. Plus, her sister gets a messy divorce and ends up on her doorstep. Oh, and the djinn are at war with each other and killing off wardens.
I think my problem is this: David is most sexy when he’s strong and beautiful and AVAILABLE. He’s been hurting for the last couple of books, steadily getting worse and worse. This is no fun for the romance. Now, on top of that, by the end of the novel he seems to have stepped completely out of the realm of date-able.
I’m such a fan of the romance that this bums me out to the point of not really giving much of a shit about what happens to the fate of the world. I really just want Joanne and David to be together. So, when Louis is in trouble, and Kevin is in trouble, the baby is in trouble, her sister is in trouble, the wardens and the whole universe is in trouble… I find myself skipping over the words as fast as I can to find out if David is okay. The plot has become secondary to the romance.
That makes me a very bad reader, I know. (Bad reader, no biscut.) But, there it is.