In Praise Of Anne Stuart And Tielle (Pronounced ‘Teal’) St Clare…
Saturday, October 21, 2006Posted in: Uncategorized
I read Anne Stuart’s Black Ice a while ago, and I actually meant to blog about it at the time. I freaking loved it.
How fabulous was Bastien Toussaint? I love me bad boy anti-heroes. There’s something very sexy about borderline psychotic, sadistic, manipulative heroes, who generally have no heart, and no soul. They’re the ones who often fall the hardest. Bastien kinda reminded me of Diaz from Linda Howard’s Cry No More. Know what I mean?
I even liked the heroine, and in any other author’s hands, she would have been as annoying as a fly that lands on your food, after rolling around in dog shit.
You’ve got to love a romance author who’s able to push the envelope as much as this woman has, and after reading her interview at AAR, I think I actually might love her, even if she does like to use the C*NT word.
There was that hoohah a while ago about her creating a sexually ambiguous hero, but I couldn’t be arsed getting embroiled in the argument, because I actually thought that it was a bit of a non-issue. I think that most people who read erotic romance books, where anything goes, probably felt the same as I.
I’m not adverse to a hero who likes a bit of cock now and then, so I’m really looking forward to reading Cold As Ice. (Yes, I know that the hero, Peter Jensen is only Gay For Pay.)
Moving away from Anne Stuart, I’m currently on a Tielle St Clare glom. Even though she’s an EC veteran, I’d never read any of her stuff, but I read Matching Signs, the other week, and really liked it. So as I generally do when I discover an author I like, I went to EC and picked up all of her other full length books.
What I like about her books, is that if you take away the sex, you’re still left with very readable stories, unlike some that I could mention Fletchina Archer.
My fave book of hers so far is Christmas Elf, which is basically a twisted take on Dickens’, A Christmas Carol. The main difference being that, instead of the ghost of Christmas Past, Future etc, etc, we have a whinging elf, who gets kicked out of Lapland (or wherever the hell she lives) for being too crabby and sarcastic. In order to be allowed back home, she has to teach another crabby soul, the joy of giving and love, etc, etc by Christmas Day. Very funny book, and hot too.
If you don’t like sexually explicit books, or books with lots of sex scenes in them, you probably wont like Tielle (pronounced ‘Teal’) St Clare’s work, but if you don’t mind the odd use of c*nt, p*ssy, and cock ok, these words are used a lot, then you’ll have a good time. I did. nudge, nudge, wink, wink.
Erm, one more thing, if you’re looking for War and Peace, you might want to refrain from purchasing her books, because she does fluffy very well, and her characters tend to be a little one dimensional. Normally, this would be a bad thing, but I found that I was able to happily bypass the flaws, of which there were more than a few.
One thing that did annoy me no end was the fact that she doesn’t have a website. How can you be an e-book author and not have a website? Totally ridiculous if you ask me, or other e-book readers.
Barbara B.
October 21
8:54 pm
I LOVE a hero who likes a bit of cock now and then.
Rosie
October 22
4:11 am
I’ve been bitching, moaning and complaining that I haven’t bought a decent e-book recently. I’ll have to give Tielle (pronounced Teal) a try.
Kristie (J)
October 22
10:08 am
I just found out that Cold as Ice is in the store right near me and you know where I’m headed later today! She does do a dark and twisted hero so wonderfully well and wasn’t that a great interview with her!?
Anonymous
October 22
11:48 am
I love Tielle’s dragons 🙂 Oh, and she does have a website http://www.tiellestclare.com/, it just may not be very well publicized.
Tilly
Sarah McCarty
October 22
12:07 pm
I’ve always enjoyed Tielle’s books. I see someone else posted her website so I will take that off my to do list. *G*
Stacy~
October 22
1:20 pm
Karen I’ve never read anything by Stuart but I did get this book this week and I’ve been waiting for some time to read it. Could you give me some other recs from her?
And I agree about the whole thing with Peter; total non-issue. I have no problem with it at all.
Karen Scott
October 22
4:35 pm
Barbara, me too, me too!
Rosie, I think you’ll like her, as long as you don’t expect too much, her stories are flawed, but still very enjoyable.
Krisite, (g) I loved her interview, she was just so frank, and I think it’s great when authors are able to leave the political bullshit behind, and just say it as it is.
Thanks for the website info Tilly!
Sarah, I wonder why her website isn’t listed at EC? I tried googling it and couldn’t find it, so it’s definitely not well publicised.
Stacy, if you like Black Ice, you’ll probably love Night Fall (another one I meant to blog about)The hero in it is far from typical, and it starts out with him being accused of murdering his wife, and two children.
In normal romances you can usually assume that the hero isn’t guilty, but Stuart leaves the reader guessing and doubting. Excellent book.
I have a few others in my TBR list, including, Devil’s Waltz, which I hear is excellent.
Karen Scott
October 22
4:43 pm
I’ve just been on Tielle’s website, and it must be new, because parts of it (the intersting parts) are still under construction. This must be why it doesn’t show up when you try googling it.
Still, why take so long to get a website? Some of her EC books were published in 2003.
Stacy~
October 23
4:12 pm
Thanx for the rec, Karen. I’m adding it to my TBB list.
Bam
October 23
10:09 pm
I have Black Ice and just ordered Cold as Ice. I have read neither. For Anne Stuart newbies, check out Ritual Sins and Nightfall. Both feature darkety-dark-dark heroes.
Just finished reading Angel in a Red Dress by Judith Ivory, Karen. The hero is a sleazebag who’s been divorced and has five bastard kids. He’s totally hot.
Karen Scott
October 24
10:55 pm
Oooh, I’ve never done Judith Ivory, let me go and see if it’s available at Amazon!