Tuesday, December 27, 2011

Romantic Fiction for the Holidays

The Devil Who Tamed Her by Johanna Lindsey is the story of a man who wagers that he can tame a very badly-behaved young lady after she breaks off her engagement to his friend.

The title sounded promising, rather Taming of the Shrew-ish, so I quickly flipped through in search of threats of spanking and perhaps a little OTK action. There were the usual eye-catchers -- strapping young men, whipping hair, striking beauty -- but then I came across this little passage:

He tsked at her. "Your temper is showing, Phelia. This would be an excellent time to work on controlling it, don't you think?"

...She shot off the couch and began pacing, which completely distracted him from their conversation. Watching the swish of her skirt and how it moved on her backside...

"Who was that?" she asked, stopping to stare at the portrait above the mantel..

He reluctantly drew his eyes off her derrière to follow her gaze. "My grandmother Agatha."

At least we know he's a man who likes bottoms. Moving along to the next chapter, I found a bit of physical contact. I've omitted a good deal of non-essential description and kept the parts suggestive of spanking.

"She gasped and glared at him. "You really are two-faced, aren't you? You deceive and lull with your amusing jocularity only so you can sneak up from behind and go straight for the jugular. I can't believe I was lulled into forgetting that about you."

"No longer quite so tranquil?"

"No, damn you!"

"Good," he said, and dragged her across his lap...

Her anger reappeared with shocking speed. It was as if she'd been shielded by a curtain made thick by her own delusions that was abruptly opened, and there in the audience were all her bitter emotions applauding that she could no longer hide from them...

He leaned back on the sofa and without much ado positioned her so she was lying on top of him... The position gave him full access to her body...his hands were free to wander over her back and lower... He'd slowly been raising her skirt. When he suddenly changed their position, there was no cloth to hold him back... He fumbled with the clothes still between them. She heard a tear--her drawers... No sooner did it feel wonderfully pleasant than it started to hurt. She pressed back away from the pain, but it followed her, increased to where she started to cry out.

Almost like a spanking if you squint your eyes and use your imagination, right? I'm afraid there's not much else, besides some derrière clasping here and there in subsequent chapters.

Wait. There's more. This conversation between the two men who made the bet seems to clarify his non-spanking stance.

"Once you take the time to get to know her, she's quite wonderful."

Duncan started to laugh. "Now I know you're pulling my leg. What did you do, abduct her and beat her to meekness?"

"Something like that," Raphael said cryptically with an abashed grin. "But you'll be able to see for yourself that I'm not joking about this. Talk with her tonight, you'll be amazed. She might even apologize to you..."

"Very well, this I have to see. And I'd like to know how you managed this miracle without beating the shrewishness out of her."

"Well, there's beating, and there's browbeating, and there's simply opening her eyes for her to see how others perceive her actions."

So the man is no Petruccio. Perhaps I'll have better luck next time.


From Hermione's Heart

12 comments:

Spanky said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Spanky said...

Trying again (stupid typos)

I think books like this should have an index.

Look! Spanking on page 38,42-44, 68, etc.

Then we could jump right to the naughty bits and find the proclivities we're looking for without messing around.

Hermione said...

Spanky - Exactly! That would be so useful. Then I wouldn't have to actually read the drivel in between.

Hugs,
Hermione

Aimless Rambling said...

Reading the drivel is not worth the tease you get in today's stories. Give me the old "he put her over his knee and walloped her butt" anyday. And way can't it be modern day instead of all the historical lords, ladies, et, etc.
Sorry for the rant.

Make it a great day
Sunny Girl

smarty said...

I just ordered a couple of books(printed, not pdf) from Blushing Books. Are they any good? We have always had a little light butt slapping play, now we just started DD, I'd like to encourage her to turn the corner from the immediate feeling of resentment for being well spanked to an immediate need for full submission/ being filled by me. I thought that perhaps some hot stories may help.

Autumn said...

I don't know Hermione, you've intrigued me enough to want to read this book.

Maybe I should have you edit all my novels for me?? ;)

~Autumn

Erica said...

Johanna Lindsey is such a tease, isn't she? So many books, so many hints, but so few real spanking scenes! Arrrgh.

Hermione said...

Sunny Girl - I don't mind historical, as long as it's accurate. Too many anachronisms and I abandon it. However, there is more likely to be spanking in a novel set way back then.

Smarty - I haven't read any from that source, so you'll have to let me know what you think. Will you read the stories together?

Autumn - That would be fun.

Erica - Yes, she is. Apparently her older novels contained more spanking.

Hugs,
Hermione

ronnie said...

Yes with a title like that you would think there would have been some real spanking action.

Have you shared any of her older novels with us Hermione?

Love,
Ronnie
xx

joanne said...

Hermione: Love your blog but a few more " spanking stories " would be great.
Johanna Linsey has spanking in a lot of her novels. I had all her books until a house fire messed up my library. Insurance only gives a couple dollars per book so one has to be choosy about what to replace. A few good ones, if you can find them, are "Spitfire", any of 'The Mallory series' and there are a lot starting with Lady Mallory , Shanna, I think, and continuing through her children, grandchildren, etc. Almost all of them contain at least one spanking.
Thanks again for your blog.

Joanne

Anonymous said...

Those historical novels will drive you crazy with the teasing and the resulting let downs. The problem is, the Romantic Spanking novels on Blushingbooks.com, allromance.com, Lulu and Amazon are very much hit and miss. I have yet to find a reliable writer who can mix sex/spanking with a decent plot and characters. Either the spanking incidents are totally unrealistic and make no sense or the plot is totally threadbare. I would say though that Katrina Devlin has a couple that are not bad. If I may toot my own horn, I've written a few that are not bad either.

Hermione said...

Ronnie - No, I haven't shared any older ones, but I have a few titles that I want to find.

Joanne - Thanks for the tips. I will keep an eye out for them.

Rollin - Thank you for your assessment of the various publishers. I'll have to agree with you; you are an excellent writer of spanking fiction.

Hugs,
Hermione