Disclaimer: I have read very little romance. Also I’m not particularly into
the dominance/submission dynamic.
Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice is the
O.G. of romance novels.
It’s funny and engaging and has well-drawn characters. No dominance stuff
though.
Margaret Mitchell’s Gone with the Wind is a good read (with obvious cultural
baggage) that has a bit of this dynamic between Rhett and Scarlett.
Ayn Rand’s The Fountainhead is not a romance per se, but the romantic subplot
is full of power games.
Rand is a love-or-hate author. If you read the first chapter and you don’t
like it you probably won’t like the rest. If you decide not to read the whole
book, though, then before putting it down you might as well skip ahead to the
(in)famous scene in Chapter II of Part 2. Trigger warning for sex that a fly
on the wall would find indistinguishable from rape.
Sharon Shinn writes speculative fiction, and most of it’s pretty heavy on the romance, all heterosexual so far as I can remember. I don’t know if it’ll push your BDSM buttons—there’s nothing explicitly like that I can think of, although she does tend to throw characters into weird not-necessarily-sexual power dynamics, does that count? Start with Archangel.
How strange! I had the exact opposite experience. By mistake I read Scion first. I then went in order, got to the end, and looped around to Dart. I thought Scion stood on its own extremely well and have been recommending friends start with it; I was almost unable to finish Dart and dismissed it as “Guess she hadn’t learned how to write yet”.
(My friend who started with Scion on my advice also ended up enjoying them all except Dart, and I suggested to Alicorn that she not start with Dart, she refused my suggestion, and then she disliked Dart and didn’t read the others which was my prediction all along.)
Kushiel’s Avatar continues to be my favorite of all of them, and the new Naamah series isn’t bad either.
I have not enjoyed these books at all. Kushiel’s Dart’s virtues, while not nonexistent, probably don’t include something best described as “fun”—it is not light or humorous or particularly merry.
Good catch! I’m just trying to ease into the romance literature as I’ve never read one before. But I thought I might enjoy one because of how often I fantasize about being married.
Could someone recommend a fun romance novel? Preferably heterosexual with some dominance/submission.
Disclaimer: I have read very little romance. Also I’m not particularly into the dominance/submission dynamic.
Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice is the O.G. of romance novels. It’s funny and engaging and has well-drawn characters. No dominance stuff though.
Margaret Mitchell’s Gone with the Wind is a good read (with obvious cultural baggage) that has a bit of this dynamic between Rhett and Scarlett.
Ayn Rand’s The Fountainhead is not a romance per se, but the romantic subplot is full of power games.
Rand is a love-or-hate author. If you read the first chapter and you don’t like it you probably won’t like the rest. If you decide not to read the whole book, though, then before putting it down you might as well skip ahead to the (in)famous scene in Chapter II of Part 2. Trigger warning for sex that a fly on the wall would find indistinguishable from rape.
Hmm, maybe I’ll read P&P since it comes free on the Kindle.
Sharon Shinn writes speculative fiction, and most of it’s pretty heavy on the romance, all heterosexual so far as I can remember. I don’t know if it’ll push your BDSM buttons—there’s nothing explicitly like that I can think of, although she does tend to throw characters into weird not-necessarily-sexual power dynamics, does that count? Start with Archangel.
Thanks! I’ll check it out.
Kushiel’s Dart (but not the sequels). The worldbuilding is delightful.
How strange! I had the exact opposite experience. By mistake I read Scion first. I then went in order, got to the end, and looped around to Dart. I thought Scion stood on its own extremely well and have been recommending friends start with it; I was almost unable to finish Dart and dismissed it as “Guess she hadn’t learned how to write yet”.
(My friend who started with Scion on my advice also ended up enjoying them all except Dart, and I suggested to Alicorn that she not start with Dart, she refused my suggestion, and then she disliked Dart and didn’t read the others which was my prediction all along.)
Kushiel’s Avatar continues to be my favorite of all of them, and the new Naamah series isn’t bad either.
I started the next one, but haven’t finished it yet, may yet plod through to get to the later ones if I am bored on an airplane in the future.
I have not enjoyed these books at all. Kushiel’s Dart’s virtues, while not nonexistent, probably don’t include something best described as “fun”—it is not light or humorous or particularly merry.
I liked all the descriptions of how the different parts of society work logistically.
Good catch! I’m just trying to ease into the romance literature as I’ve never read one before. But I thought I might enjoy one because of how often I fantasize about being married.
If you’re interested in romance->marriage, you may actually like Amish romance novels.
Will check it out, thank you!
Of course not many romance novels are about married characters! :-)
Really?? Shows how little I know :(