Stephanie Bartlett

No one has rated or reviewed this! I'm shocked. This fine piece of writing popped my romance novel cherry manymany years ago. At least, that's what I'd thought. Now that I've finally stumbled across a copy at a used paperback bookstore, I see that it's classified as a plain "novel" and not a "romance." Coulda fooled me! And did, when I was a stuttering, shy, nerdy girl who wore glasses with big frames (the glasses have changed). I remember exactly how I first came across it, at the home of my brother's friend. They were playing Nintendo games (boring) and I was looking at the pictures and knick-knacks until, a book!, saved from falling asleep! It looked like a naughty book, with its huge cover photo of the woman with a smaller picture of a couple starting to "do it." I admit, I skipped ahead until I found the, ahem, key passage and then asked my brother's friend's mom if I could borrow it.

Now, with a few more years and books under my belt, I can see that it's pretty standard for fiction to have people "doing it." I used to think it was so racy! And I now see that this is probably superior to most romances, with a female who overcomes loss and dependancy to find a community of women wherever she had to go, collected skills, defended herself, and learned to love again, hah. The clothing and furniture porn is minimal. She desires but doesn't get attacked and doesn't cave until she wants to. Er, except for when she's captive to an enemy; but it feels like part of the story since it is set in Korea, the land of constant domination by other countries. Some nice, brief descriptions of the food, including mentions of kimchi (best food ever). There was some gratuitous violence against teh children. Sadly, the part I remembered most clearly was fecal-related. But you'll see, if you ever read this, it was a very vivid description.

This will be shelved as part of my reading history. Maybe I can lend it out someday, to some young girl who will be too scared to buy one herself and too oblivious to realize she could borrow as much as she wanted at the library.… (mehr)