A few weeks ago
Ciara and I kicked off the Windflower World Tour – where a copy of this classic, out of print, Romance novel is being passed around from blogger to blogger around the world. The idea is to enable new romance readers to get acquainted with what many consider a classic of the genre and start a discussion on the merits (or not) of old school romance. Ciara started with a
post about the idea. I then posted my thoughts on the book
here.
My reaction to the book was a very negative one – without taking into consideration the writing itself or the plot, what I disliked immensely was the balance (or rather, the lack of) of power between the hero and the heroine. I tend do avoid like the plague romance novels that have that kind of Alpha hero – A.K.A The Jerk and the that king of heroine – A.K.A Too Good To Be True Whilst Being A Doormat. And to me, The Windflower is a perfect example of that – and of old school romance.
My review (or my rant , whatever you call it) ignited an interesting discussion in the comments section that lasted quite a few rounds – on the old school romance including Judith McNaught’s books, on Jerk Heroes and Innocent Heroines. One of the most strong opinions was MaryKate’s , who considers The Windflower her all time favourite book. She has posted an excellent article about Old School Romance a few days ago: Ponderings on Old School . It is so very interesting to read different opinions on the subject and to be able to discuss, analyse and exchange ideas with so many intelligent , articulate people – The Windflower World Tour has at the very least started a fun yet serious, dialogue about the genre – which is very good considering that many of the people taking part are newbies to the genre (myself included).
Anyways, after leaving me (and Cambridge), The Windflower went to Jenb for a pit stop before making its way to Carolyn Jean from
The Thrillionth Page. We can not wait to hear what she thinks about the book – I particularly want to know if my Thumbs Down review will be a solitary one……..
While CJ reads the book , we have enlisted other people who have already read it to voice their opinions. First one up is KristieJ from Ramblings on Romance – she will be posting her thoughts on The Windflower on Thursday this week – so be sure to check it out.
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Ana Grilo is a Brazilian who moved to the UK because of the weather. No, seriously. She works with translations in RL and hopes one day The Book Smugglers will be her day job. When she’s not here at The Book Smugglers, she is hogging our Twitter feed.
4 Comments
Carolyn Jean
October 4, 2008 at 11:44 amOh, you don’t know how hard this is. (I’m only just on the pirate ship with her now) I’m going to post on this tomorrow but
#1: I sort of don’t want to read other reviews to spoil this, but maybe I will. I read most of yours, anyway. And I’m glad I did.
But most of all #2:I don’t know how to treat it on a variety of levels. I don’t think it’s fair to comapre it to, say, Sugar Daddy, as its a forebearer, in a way, yet I see your point about, you know, the Wuthering Heights era heroine. Hmmm.
Oh, hey, shoudl I ask Ciara but the map? I can’t seem to update it.
Rowena
October 4, 2008 at 7:48 pmThis is such a cool thing to be apart of, I can’t wait for my turn to have it!
Can’t wait to see what your thoughts are as well CJ! =)
Aymless
October 5, 2008 at 5:02 amCan’t wait to read it, but in the same boat as CJ. Ahh… the question of to read or not to read…
Not looking forward to having to take a picture of myself *cringe* with book in my town… Hmm… gonna have to find someone’s camera to borrow.
MK/Kati
October 5, 2008 at 7:36 amThanks again for organizing the Windflower world tour! What a wonderful thing it is to have lots of people exposed to the book. Whether you love the book or not, like you said, Ana, it’s good to have lots of viewpoints on the book! Thanks for mentioning my blog, I appreciate the pimpage!
I’m looking forward to CJ’s review!