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A review by jenibus
Born in Fire by Nora Roberts
4.0
AND THUS BEGINS MY FORAY INTO THE MUCH MALIGNED GENRE OF ROMANCE NOVELS
[dramatic thunderclap and clashing organ chords]
I spend most of my workday listening to podcasts, frequently of the book review variety. And lately the episodes across about four different book related podcasts keep stressing the same points: you should not be ashamed of what you read and should not write off an entire genre of writing without giving it a fair shot. The romance novel as a genre is most likely the most looked down upon genre of books published. When I previously worked at my local library as a page, one of my pastimes would be organizing the paperback romance section and finding amusement in the wholly absurd covers. But I myself had never actually READ anything that could be classified in the romance genre. So about a month ago I went to the largest expert in romance novels that I knew of, my mother, with a list of concerns I had over the genre and things I would like to avoid. Born in Fire was determined to be my starting off point in the genre, and I cautiously began wading into the murky waters of romance (which now that I type that sounds wholly inappropriate... sort of like some romance novels)
Born in Fire is the first book in the Concannon Sisters trilogy. Our heroine is Maggie Concannon, a glass blowing artist in the tourist town of Clare Ireland. A stubborn, short tempered and passionate woman, Maggie throws everything she has into her art and struggles to provide for her family, which is full to the brim with conflict and tempers of its own. Maggie is pretty much the quintessential STRONG INDEPENDENT WOMAAANNNNNN™ with a large dose of INDEPENDENT ARTIST thrown in for good measure.
Our hero is Rogan Sweeney, a suave and uptight gallery owner who is hell bent on signing Maggie on as a featured artist and showcasing her artwork around Europe. Rogan is cocksure to the point of fault, fully expecting to always get his way no matter what. He is always well put together, comes from a wealthy family and ALWAYS is punctual.
One of my many trepedations going into the romance genre was how I would balance the stereotypical portrayal of male/female relationships with my fairly left leaning feminist viewpoints on consent and a woman's importance as an individual. And in this case "fairly" is the definition equivalent of "a felled tree after a storm that is completely flat upon the ground pointing in the left direction." So Rogan's constant assertiveness as to what he wanted when he wanted how he wanted who he wanted immediately was a concern for me. So easily could I see this being nothing but a novel documenting Rogan getting what he wanted, and what he wanted was Maggie, a person he saw less as a fully formed person with her own desires and opinions and more of an imaginary dream muse meant to satisfy his every whim. Thankfully, this is NOT happen. Rogan most definitely is assertive. He is fairly immediately intrigued by Maggie's fiery passion for her art, and as a reader you can almost hear the gears begin turning in his head as he formulates a plan of his choosing as to how and when he shall bed this fascinating artist. At one point he literally corrects his own thoughts of taking her to bed saying "not IF he would... but WHEN." Whether or not Maggie wanted this never seemed to cross his brain. Of COURSE she'd want it! Who wouldn't??
But thankfully, as I was hoping, the plot did not devolve into such unpleasantries. At first I thought that Rogan would dramatically change over the course of the book, as character development would be vita plot pointsl to romance novels, but in fact I had completely underestimated Maggie in this whole ordeal. Maggie came into this relationship knowing exactly what she wanted and would be having none of this "carefully planned seduction" business. No, what Maggie wanted was a good old fashioned passionate romp in the sheets, as it were. She was incredibly attracted to Rogan, despite his uptight nature and immediate personality differences, and had absolutely ZERO interest in him controlling anything and made that perfectly clear from the moment a romance began blossoming.
The rest of the book follows the tumultuous relationship between Maggie and Rogan, her fear of being tied down, the drama happening within her own family and her conflict with what she wants as an artist and what she needs in love. And overall I can definitely say that I enjoyed the book. The characters, despite my somewhat unfair description of them, are not as one dimensional as I feared. Both Maggie and Rogan are fairly complex in what they want and how they react throughout this relationship. Maggie much moreso than Rogan, but that is to be expected given the target demographic for romance novels. I would have liked to see further exploration into Maggie's feelings on marriage considering the current cultural climate shuns women not interested in marriage like they have a deformity, but what the book gave me was certainly not negative in that regard. I GREATLY appreciated how quickly we veered away from Love Triangle Island as it came looming on the horizon. I truly due hate when books of any genre pit two women against each other because the man is just SO INCREDIBLY BRILLIANT OH MY GOODNESS HE'S DREAMY AND MINE WHAT ARE YOU DOING TALKING TO HIM YOU HARLOT??? but the potential love triangle in this book was resolved smoothly and with no cat fighting.
So. How'd I like this book? Overall, it was pretty enjoyable. I will definitely be checking out the other two books in the trilogy later (speaking of... it's a trilogy following the sisters but there's only two sisters? What, is the last book gonna follow the mom? That sounds..... rather painful.) I declare this adventure into the romance genre a success! Onwards! To more kissing books in the future!!
[dramatic thunderclap and clashing organ chords]
I spend most of my workday listening to podcasts, frequently of the book review variety. And lately the episodes across about four different book related podcasts keep stressing the same points: you should not be ashamed of what you read and should not write off an entire genre of writing without giving it a fair shot. The romance novel as a genre is most likely the most looked down upon genre of books published. When I previously worked at my local library as a page, one of my pastimes would be organizing the paperback romance section and finding amusement in the wholly absurd covers. But I myself had never actually READ anything that could be classified in the romance genre. So about a month ago I went to the largest expert in romance novels that I knew of, my mother, with a list of concerns I had over the genre and things I would like to avoid. Born in Fire was determined to be my starting off point in the genre, and I cautiously began wading into the murky waters of romance (which now that I type that sounds wholly inappropriate... sort of like some romance novels)
Born in Fire is the first book in the Concannon Sisters trilogy. Our heroine is Maggie Concannon, a glass blowing artist in the tourist town of Clare Ireland. A stubborn, short tempered and passionate woman, Maggie throws everything she has into her art and struggles to provide for her family, which is full to the brim with conflict and tempers of its own. Maggie is pretty much the quintessential STRONG INDEPENDENT WOMAAANNNNNN™ with a large dose of INDEPENDENT ARTIST thrown in for good measure.
Our hero is Rogan Sweeney, a suave and uptight gallery owner who is hell bent on signing Maggie on as a featured artist and showcasing her artwork around Europe. Rogan is cocksure to the point of fault, fully expecting to always get his way no matter what. He is always well put together, comes from a wealthy family and ALWAYS is punctual.
One of my many trepedations going into the romance genre was how I would balance the stereotypical portrayal of male/female relationships with my fairly left leaning feminist viewpoints on consent and a woman's importance as an individual. And in this case "fairly" is the definition equivalent of "a felled tree after a storm that is completely flat upon the ground pointing in the left direction." So Rogan's constant assertiveness as to what he wanted when he wanted how he wanted who he wanted immediately was a concern for me. So easily could I see this being nothing but a novel documenting Rogan getting what he wanted, and what he wanted was Maggie, a person he saw less as a fully formed person with her own desires and opinions and more of an imaginary dream muse meant to satisfy his every whim. Thankfully, this is NOT happen. Rogan most definitely is assertive. He is fairly immediately intrigued by Maggie's fiery passion for her art, and as a reader you can almost hear the gears begin turning in his head as he formulates a plan of his choosing as to how and when he shall bed this fascinating artist. At one point he literally corrects his own thoughts of taking her to bed saying "not IF he would... but WHEN." Whether or not Maggie wanted this never seemed to cross his brain. Of COURSE she'd want it! Who wouldn't??
But thankfully, as I was hoping, the plot did not devolve into such unpleasantries. At first I thought that Rogan would dramatically change over the course of the book, as character development would be vita plot pointsl to romance novels, but in fact I had completely underestimated Maggie in this whole ordeal. Maggie came into this relationship knowing exactly what she wanted and would be having none of this "carefully planned seduction" business. No, what Maggie wanted was a good old fashioned passionate romp in the sheets, as it were. She was incredibly attracted to Rogan, despite his uptight nature and immediate personality differences, and had absolutely ZERO interest in him controlling anything and made that perfectly clear from the moment a romance began blossoming.
The rest of the book follows the tumultuous relationship between Maggie and Rogan, her fear of being tied down, the drama happening within her own family and her conflict with what she wants as an artist and what she needs in love. And overall I can definitely say that I enjoyed the book. The characters, despite my somewhat unfair description of them, are not as one dimensional as I feared. Both Maggie and Rogan are fairly complex in what they want and how they react throughout this relationship. Maggie much moreso than Rogan, but that is to be expected given the target demographic for romance novels. I would have liked to see further exploration into Maggie's feelings on marriage considering the current cultural climate shuns women not interested in marriage like they have a deformity, but what the book gave me was certainly not negative in that regard. I GREATLY appreciated how quickly we veered away from Love Triangle Island as it came looming on the horizon. I truly due hate when books of any genre pit two women against each other because the man is just SO INCREDIBLY BRILLIANT OH MY GOODNESS HE'S DREAMY AND MINE WHAT ARE YOU DOING TALKING TO HIM YOU HARLOT??? but the potential love triangle in this book was resolved smoothly and with no cat fighting.
So. How'd I like this book? Overall, it was pretty enjoyable. I will definitely be checking out the other two books in the trilogy later (speaking of... it's a trilogy following the sisters but there's only two sisters? What, is the last book gonna follow the mom? That sounds..... rather painful.) I declare this adventure into the romance genre a success! Onwards! To more kissing books in the future!!