Category Romance Themes in m/m - Part 3: The Rest

After the last two days of posts, I've come to a bit of a standstill with my ideas for discussing the conventions found in Mills and Boon category romances and how they are applied to m/m books.  Why? You may ask.  Well. simply because there aren't that many more to choose from.

Take another of my favourite storylines from my teen reading: The boss/secretary romance.  I can only think of one m/m book which has used that theme.  Lord and Master (and its sequel, Lord and Master 2: Taking Work Home) by Jules Jones focuses on research scientist and administrative assistant, Mark who falls into an office romance with his boss Stephen, leading to lots of delicious smexin on the office desk.

Mills and Boon also have a whole line of books which contain 'Medical Romances' - ie. nurse and doctor romance.  Ooh, Matron.  Whilst there are quite a number of great m/m books about two doctors who fall in love, I can only think of one doctor/nurse m/m romance, the delightful Heart Doctor by Drew Zachary.  It tells of newbie doctor, Brady, who on his first day in his new job meets nurse Drey.  There's an instant attraction between them and the book follows the development of that attraction to love.  Great stuff.

What saddens me most though, is that many, many of the M&B conventions just haven't been taken up by m/m authors.  After all, where are the rich tycoons and their virgin mistresses?  The billionaire Greeks? The Sheikhs and their harems? The secret babies?

So I'm sending out a call to all m/m authors to take up the challenge of writing an m/m category romance using one of these sadly neglected conventions.  I mean, come on, it can't that hard to write an m/m secret baby story, can it?!

Category Romance Themes in m/m - Part 2: Westerns

Boy do I love myself a good cowboy.

Ahem, I mean a cowboy story.

Funnily enough Mills and Boon don't have a separate westerns line, like Harlequin do, they are all just lumped in with the other lines, but it was always a treat for me if my teenage eyes spied a cowboy romance on the shelves along with the other categories, despite not living remotely anywhere near Texas or Montana.  In fact the closest I ever came to a cowboy in real life was probably the farmer who kept the herd of Friesian cows for milking in the field behind my house.

This love of cowboy romance has transferred to my m/m books but it's the themes that cropped up in those long ago read western romances that I love to see in my m/m books.

One theme I love in particular is that of the 'prodigal son'.  The young man who leaves home to seek his fortune in the city and then for whatever reason has to return home and face his past - usually a past which involves revisiting the crush he had on the sexy ranch-hand.  This is a theme that has appeared in two recent cowboy romances.  In His Convenient Husband by JL Langley, Tucker is living the high city life in Dallas when he is called home and has to face, Micah, the broken hearted young man he left behind.  Also in Seeing You by Dakota Flint, Dylan left home after the death of his brother but is called back to the ranch when he discovers that it's being left to go to ruin by his brother's grieving lover, Wade, a man Dylan has loved for a long time.

Another storyline I used to love was the lady ranch owner who falls in love with the ranch hand.  In another story by JL Langley (she really is the queen of m/m westerns), Tin Star, the youngest son of a ranch owner, Jamie, is kicked out when his father discovers he's gay.  He's taken in by his brother's best friend, Ethan, another ranch owner who gives him a job as a ranch hand.  It's not long before the two are making that journey on the road to love.


One theme I used to absolutely adore in westerns was that of the woman whose husband or father had died and left her in charge of the ranch.  Unfortunately for her, the guy who owns the ranch next door is looking to expand and asks to buy her out cos obviously as a woman she can't possibly run a business like a ranch.  There's lots of arguments, stamping feet, spitting feathers and exchange of passion before the two set aside their differences and join the two pieces of land by getting married.  *sigh*  I loved those stories.  Unfortunately, there isn't a m/m book with that storyline that I've found so far.  Any takers?

Do you read category westerns?  If so have you found any similar themes in m/m cowboy books too?  Do tell.

Category Romance Themes in m/m - Part 1: Historicals

When I was a young teen I discovered Mills and Boon category romances.  To say that I fell in love with the romance genre at that point is a slight understatement.  I would go to the library every week and take out 12 M&B books (the maximum number of books you could get out at one time) and read them during the week when I should really have been doing pesky things like homework, or being sociable with my family.  This lasted for some time, until I discovered a new genre - horror - and I abandoned my beloved M&B for the likes of Stephen King and James Herbert.

When I came back to romance, I didn't really read M&B books, focusing, instead on the longer historical romances and then onto m/m.  One thing I particularly liked about m/m romance was when the author would give a bit of a sly nod to the conventions and themes found in the category romances I had loved so much as a teen.  So over the next three days, I'm going to highlight some of my favourite m/m books which have taken those themes and added a fresh new look to them by placing them in an m/m context.  Starting today with historicals.

One of my favourite theme for a historical is the young virginal miss who through the magic of her hoo ha is able to convert the most jaded rogue to abandon his rakish ways and settle down to blissful monogamy.  This theme has been taken up by the m/m historical authors too.  In Standish by Erastes, fragile and virginal Ambrose steals the heart of Rafe the rake, although their road to love is full of potholes and wrong turnings.

Also in The Price of Temptation by MJ Pearson, a mix up and a family death leads poor and innocent Jamie into the house and arms of experienced Stephen, the Earl of St Joseph, who teaches him all the way of love between men before finally losing his heart to the naive young man.

Sometimes this theme can be subverted, for example in Seducing Stephen by Bonnie Dee and Summer Devon, Stephen accidentally ends up in bed with man-whore and aristocrat Peter.  However, before Peter can excuse himself and leave Stephen to his virginal state, Stephen makes it clear that Peter's advances would be welcome, making the virgin the one to seduce the rogue.

Another theme I love in category historicals was that of the 'tart with a heart' who is picked up by the aristocrat for a night of passion and ends up stealing his heart instead.  This is used also in m/m historicals.  For example in another book by MJ Pearson, Discreet Young Gentleman, the hero Dean, is tricked into being caught with male prostitute, Rob.  During a breathless dash to Bath to clear his name, Dean discovers that there's more to Rob than his profession and the two fall in love.  Similarly in The Gentleman and the Rogue by Bonnie Dee and Summer Devon, the tart, Jem, is instrumental to the hero, Alan's, recovery from depression and suicidal feelings, leading to them falling in love with each other.

So what about you, dear DIK readership?  Are there some historical romantic conventions that you have discovered in m/m books?  Are yours the same as mine? Do you wish sometimes that other of your well loved m/f historical themes appeared in m/m books too?

Meanwhile, I'll be back tomorrow with another category romance genre which has transferred quite delightfully to m/m books - the western or cowboy romance.

Unlikely Heroes - The Short(er) Hero

To ask the question - Why aren't there more short heroes? - seems kind of redundant. The answer seems obvious, there aren't more short heroes because there's a perception that readers don't want to read them. But is that just a 'trap' that publishers and authors have fallen into? If there are no books which feature short heroes how can we read about them anyway? Hopefully I'll convince you to take the plunge with at least one short hero.

Okay, if we're talking short heroes there's one that you can't get away without mentioning - Miles Vorkosigan. Actually, if you've never read the Vorkosigan series by Lois McMaster Bujold it's one that I recommend highly, (whether or not you like short heroes or science fiction) I don't think it's a coincidence that two of the 188 books chosen for the island are from the series.

As Ekaterine Vorsoisson says of Miles:-

“He’s not so short,” said Ekaterin defensively. “He’s just… concentrated.”

Which is an excellent way to describe him. Before Sam Adama (Caprica) lectured William on the virtues of sticking with a decision once made, Miles had already learnt the method of forward momentum - once you start in a direction you keep going. Everything may be going to hell around you but you keep going. Of course this method is far from foolproof as disastrous consequences were to show in Memory.

Before I get too carried away I better first explain why Miles is short - for those who don't know. Whilst Miles's mother was pregnant she was the victim of a poison gas attack, Miles is born with brittle bones and his growth is stunted. However, what he lacks in stature he makes up for with a personality so huge and a charisma so magnetic that he is (usually) able to get himself out of whatever catastrophe he's landed himself in.

One of the things I love about him is that his mouth is often five minutes ahead of his brain, and perhaps gets him into as much trouble as it gets him out of. I think if he hadn't had his personal obstacles to overcome he would have been a different character - either content to rest on his laurels because he wouldn't have felt the need to push himself so hard, or hated by everyone because he was so good at everything.

The series follows his whole life from birth to marriage. And my favourite sequence in the series is - Brothers in Arms, Mirror Dance, Memory, Komarr, A Civil Campaign - which I think of as Miles's life going to hell and coming out again the other side. What's interesting about Brothers in Arms is that we meet Mark - another short hero who I always envisage as being played by Oliver Platt in any screen version. I'm sure there are other Vorkosigan fans out there.

Is Miles the only short hero I can come up with? No, though he is the most memorable. I'd also recommend Valentin Jaus the Darkyn hero of Twilight Fall by Lynn Viehl - though he is introduced in an earlier book - Private Demon. In Private Demon he didn't get the girl and we had to wait another four books before he'd have a story of his own.

And I'll just mention that unlike the film version the Wolverine in the X-Men comic books is 5 foot 3, three inches shorter than Jean Grey.

I feel like I'm missing someone, so are there any other short(er) heroes out there that are worth reading? Or do you prefer your heroes to be over six foot. Does it matter? I think it's easy to say - no it doesn't but when faced with the choice in the bookshop which story do you buy?

Unlikely Heroes - The Antihero

Today and tomorrow I'm going to try and persuade you to break away from Tall, Dark and Handsome - just once, give it a go. Now I only have time to cover two types of hero, so I'm plumping for the antihero and the short(er) hero. Today is the turn of the antihero.

So before I get lots of comments about - 'I love bad boys' - :), I'm going to clarify. I love bad boys myself, my favourite probably being the reformed rake (lol) but here I'm talking about a true antihero. A character who at the end of the book hasn't had a miraculous change of heart and become nice to small children and fluffy kittens. These are heroes who (usually) because of the environment in which they were raised or because of the society in which they live, have had to develop a streak of ruthlessness that goes bone deep.

Whilst I was thinking about this post I was reminded of a comment I read once in a review for Susan R. Matthews Prisoner of Conscience. I'm paraphrasing here because it was a while ago, but the comment just stuck in my head. Of the male protagonist, the reviewer wrote - "You can tell he's the hero because he doesn't sodomize his valet." The anti-hero is sometimes the best of the worst, and that comment kind of sums it up.

I think anti-heroes are difficult characters to pull off because the author has to make us believe in their complexity. We have to believe that while they love their hero/heroine, they are also capable of acts of great cruelty. We (as readers) need to be able to understand their reasons for behaving as they do, we have to be able to empathise with them on some level. They are not the villain - there's usually something greater: a bigger evil, a dystopian society, an ingrained way of coping with an uncopable situation - but they are far from being the fair prince riding in on his white charger to save the day. Equally important we have to be able to believe that their hero/heroine loves them and we need to be able to understand how that is possible.

So, some examples. :)

Daemon Sadi of the Black Jewel books by Anne Bishop. Probably the most heroic of my anti-hero picks. But there's a reason why his nickname is 'The Sadist'. He's lived in a dystopian society for thousands of years, waiting for the Queen who will save them all. You never doubt that he loves Jaenelle but he never loses his ruthless edge. He's perhaps the easiest anti-hero to like, because you never doubt that the people he punishes probably deserved it.

Unlike the next hero.

Stefanos of the Sundered Quadrology by Michelle Sagara West. The First of the Dark Sundered, Stefanos is not human. And is perhaps the only 'hero' I know of who tortured the heroine to find out how she 'works'. He does some reprehensible things but we understand why he does them. To try and comprehend him as if he were a human being, would be wrong, it would be like trying to understand the motivations of a scorpion. However, Michelle Sagara West writes him so well that we understand why he does the things he does, that even as he tries to cage the only happiness he's known, that in fact he's destroying it. (It's a little cheat to include Stefanos here, because he is 'redeemed' at the very end, but for four books he is, I think, the darkest antihero I've read).

And finally, I don't think my posting on DIK would be complete if I didn't mention Toreth of the Administration Series by Manna Francis. You can't expect me to go three days and not mention it. Sociopath, interrogator, torturer for the State, yet one of the most interesting and complex characters I've ever read. Incapable of saying 'I love you'. However, as you read through the books, personally I don't doubt that he cares more for Keir Warrick than he has for any other person. And that if anybody hurt Warrick, Toreth would have absolutely no hesitation in ripping their limbs off.

So any anti-heroes to recommend? Or are you anti anti-hero?