Romances and Romcoms

 My last book of 2020 and my first two reads of 2021 all qualify as romances or romcoms, so we'll bundle them together!

First was Beach Read by Emily Henry, which had some funny moments but was more emotionally complex than you might expect. The main characters are both writers, and they decide to trade genres for a summer; she will write litfic and he will write romance.  She is also dealing with the source of her writer's block: after the death of her seemingly perfect father, she discovers that he had a secret lover on the side and questions everything she once believed about romance. There are real emotional stakes here along with the romance.

Secondly, I'm not putting it on my official list, but one of the RHC categories for 2021 is "a fanfic" so I did read a Villaineve fic called for hire. It had a fun plot and captured the characters well! There is also a whole lot of sex, which should shock nobody.

And speaking of a whole lot of sex, the final read was Spoiler Alert by Olivia Dade, about two fanfic writers.  One is a proudly fat woman and the other is secretly the star of the show he writes fanfic about. It's very inside baseball about the fanfic world, and very wish fulfillment fantasy too. (Not one but two male leads on the show write fanfic about it? Mmm okay.) (The running jokes about pegging were hilarious though.) (Yeah this book is definitely very explicit.) 

I abandoned a book recently because of a very similar premise; in this case the fanfic setting and the plus-sized heroine kept me reading, but I did get similarly frustrated by the fact that one character just needs to tell the other character the truth and then the situation is resolved. [Spoiler] The fact that he didn't tell her before they had sex meant it was unforgivable to me. I loved the character of Marcus but it was such a betrayal of trust. [End spoiler]  I also do not think the fatness was handled as realistically as it could have been but maybe I'm just not as self-actualized as these characters. 

I am also trying to read some litfic for the Tournament of Books but I keep stalling out on Deacon King Kong. Obama liked it and so did all the peeps on Goodreads, so I will keep trying!

The Other Bennet Sister (by Janice Hadlow)

I was going to start on the ToB shortlist, I swear, but then this popped up in my library holds and I couldn't resist! It's a retelling and continuation of Pride & Prejudice focusing on Mary Bennet.

This is absolutely fanfiction, though of course this version of Mary is easy to root for and her London adventures and romantic plot are delightful. I liked Hadlow's take one some characters (Mr. Collins, the Gardiners) and less so others (Charlotte, Elizabeth, Caroline Bingley) but almost all of them felt out of character. Hadlow borrows plot elements and references from other Austen novels, which makes it feel even less organic.  

But that being said I enjoy fanfiction, especially in a case like this, where Hadlow really nails the narrative voice and the milieu. I would love to see her take on Sanditon (it needs a decent ending). I should probably have saved this for 2021 and counted it as "fanfic" for the Read Harder Challenge, but I've got a Villaneve fic ready to go.

If you're an Austen fan and don't mind fanficcy interpretations of all your characters, you could do worse!