Darkness, Light, and a Few Love Bites

Pot Bunnies*

Who decided that “coming” would be the go-to euphemistic English verb for having an orgasm? Why “coming”? Where are we coming from? Are we going somewhere? Why not “I’m arriving”? Does it not roll as easily off the sex-addled tongue?

I was thinking about an old acquaintance, Phil Burke**, who has the opposite of Jessica Biel Face. He can’t be in anything modern. He looks like he just hitched his horse to a post in front of the general store or just rolled out of Studio 64.

*Logged high, shared later.

**You may have seen him as Mickey in Hell on Wheels.

Teal Deer (TL; DR)

Darkness and Light With a Lot of Bite

A ruthless assassin kidnaps a teenage virgin so he can take control of his family legacy. He lies to everyone that they’re married and summarily deflowers her. That first time is mostly nonconsensual but she bites him and she’s totally into it—and so is he. He’s an alpha in the streets and a submissive masochist in the sheets. Our young budding sadist learns to scratch him and leave teeth marks and even denies him orgasm.

Okay, Suleikha. What dark romance is this? Spill. Who wrote it? Skye Warren? Harley Laroux? Cate C. Wells? (All of whom I’ve enjoyed.) One of those authors with skulls on their covers? Someone who dominates Kindle Unlimited?

Nope. It’s Laura Kinsale, in her 2004 medieval romance, Shadowheart. Yes, that’s right, a historical romance. It’s the sequel to 1993’s much-loved For My Lady’s Heart. Don’t think that the difference in publication dates means the second book is somehow edgier than her earlier work. Anyone in current times claiming that their books are “not your mother’s romance novels” has clearly never read your mother’s romance novels. There is nothing new under the sun. Just new labels and new packaging.

The Publishers Weekly review of Shadowheart notes “Those who have waited 11 years for Kinsale's return will lap up this romance, but others will be turned off by its length and its controlling, sometimes cruel, alpha male hero.” 1. If you can’t handle the length, you probably shouldn’t be reading romance. (Yes, I meant that like you think I meant it.) 2. Did their reviewer read beyond the first, fraught, sexual encounter? Because while Allegreto may be cruel and controlling at times, it's established that he’s deeply warped from being trained from childhood to kill and knows no other way to be. And Elayne, née Elena, tempers his darker nature with her own, owning him intimately and becoming his conscience. He’s not truly in control of her. “Sweet Mary, take up my blade and I’ll let you kill me,” he even says at one point.

Will he try? Truly? He has a concrete goal of destroying the rival family who imprisoned him and took his birthright, thus regaining the kingdom that Elena is heir to. He doesn’t care what he has to do in order to accomplish that. He’s not apologetic about it. He doesn’t blame his tormented manpain (though it’s obvious he has some). He’s just like “Sometimes you gotta kill people.” He does, at least, assure Elayne that he won’t train children to kill. Progress!

Kinsale’s books don’t hold back on the conflict and angst. I made the rookie error of reading Seize the Fire when I was in a very dark place, and the male main character in that has intense suicidal ideation. But I should’ve been cognizant that something might rip my heart out. Because that’s the thing about a lot of older historicals, especially Kinsale’s—they’re dark as well as light. The women may be young per the time period (a 20-something heroine wouldn’t work in a medieval, unless it’s a wallpaper romance where the era is just window dressing), but they’re not helpless ingenues, redeeming the bad guys with their unsullied vaginas. Everybody’s messy and flawed. Terrible shit happens. And there’s still an HEA. Kinsale is one of those authors who puts you through it—and going through it is part of the book’s purpose. The comfort is in coming out the other side.

I haven’t actually come out on the other side of Shadowheart yet, which means my loins must stay girded as I read. I have not yet released the breath I didn’t know I was holding. And, who knows, the rest of the book could turn out to be a disappointment. They can’t all be winners, as I like to say. But what won’t change is the screwed-up, morally challenged, male character and a kinky female lead who discovers her own power. Writers have always been exploring these themes. The delineation between dark and light isn’t as clear as modern marketing buzzwords and brooding mafiosos on book covers want to make it.

Untrue, Allegreto. There is always hope. A lot of romance novels and their happily-ever-afters live and thrive in the shadows.