A Horror-Romance Book Swap Recap
We're baaaack! And after several weeks of getting lost in our hor-romance book-swap challenge, we have returned with results and thoughts on our very different reading experiences!
Christina's Thoughts
What an adventure this book was! I owe thanks to my colleague Lauren for pairing me with a romance novel centering two queer gothic novelists from opposing backgrounds in Regency-era England, writing to provide for their families, retain financial independence, and avoid poverty in a male-centric field. It turns out, Ladies in Hating by Alexandra Vasti was made up of so many ingredients I love despite being a horror reader—a historical setting, a witty and complex sapphic duo, and even a haunted house! Although I’d be lying if I said I didn’t yearn for MORE of the haunted house.
The story follows Lady Georgiana Cleeve, a renowned author from the aristocracy class who suspects another famed gothic writer—the mysterious and elusive “Lady Darling”—of plagiarizing her book plots. But when confrontation occurs, it turns out that the woman she has accused of copying her work is actually someone she knows from long ago, the butler’s daughter, Cat Lacey! When both writers end up in a forced-proximity situation by choosing the same supposedly haunted manor as inspiration for their next gothic novels, things get heated (in more ways than one)!
Hats off to the author (a professor of English Literature, mind you) for drawing inspiration from historical accounts of 18th/19th century queer romance and gothic writers to craft this book! Influenced by her research of real Regency-era lesbian lovers such as Diarist Anne Lister and Ann Walker (1834) or Eleanor Butler and Sarah Ponsonby (1778), Vasti brought our beloved foe-mance protagonists Cat and Georgiana to life!
I definitely enjoyed the enemies-to-lovers trope, though I think rivals-to-lovers is more fitting, seeing as our heroines weren’t exactly proper enemies, just women from different class backgrounds in competition with each other for notoriety. I do wish the rivalry had lasted a bit longer to build more sexual tension (but that might just be a me-thing).
And speaking of which, HOLY MOLY did this get steamy! There are plenty of heaving bosoms and flushing cheeks for romance lovers to enjoy in this book!
So on to the important questions…
Did this make me want to read more romance fiction?
Shockingly, yes! While I wasn’t the targeted audience for Ladies in Hating, I feel encouraged to seek out more cute romances with light, spooky settings–maybe a romance near a cemetery, or perhaps a love tryst with a bit of witchcraft next time!
Did Lauren do a good job picking your book?
Of course! Lauren took my list of likes and dislikes and really ran with them! There were things in this book I’d been really wanting, and other things in this book I hadn’t even realized I would enjoy!
Any takeaways?
Like horror, the Romance genre has its own spectrum ranging from soft and sweet to super spicy, making it difficult to know where I’d begin if I really wanted to dive head first into something new outside my comfort zone. But Lauren helped me narrow my reading needs down, helped me sift through what I wanted and what I could do without. And boom! I came away having enjoyed the book she picked out for me! I’ve discovered I am very likely a cozy supernatural romance reader. I definitely have more patience and tolerance for the ooey-gooey, lovey-dovey stuff than I realized!
Readers looking for sapphic, rivals-to-lovers, Regency-era romance will eat this up! I’m giving it 3 out of 5 bleeding hearts!
Lauren's Thoughts
Well wow. I appreciate that Christina trusted me enough with the horror genre to throw me right in the deep end. Although to be fair to her, I spoke a pretty big game in our last blog. I have read plenty of fantasy where characters are dismembered or mafia romance where they are torturing a brooding hero into admitting his feelings for his bride, but I was not ready for Maeve Fly. I should start by saying that I have never set out to watch or know much about American Psycho—the book & movie that Maeve Fly draws a lot of inspiration from. Of course, due to pop culture, I know the name Patrick Bateman, that he has an axe, and that there’s lots of blood involved, but that’s pretty much where my knowledge ends. So… I was not prepared for how off the rails this book would go and how quickly!
Three-quarters of Maeve Fly were manageable for me. I loved how selfish and unhinged Maeve was, and I appreciated the author’s take on a “not like other girls” character. (Although I’m not sure that I can get behind the “only men can be truly depraved and despicable” belief that Maeve holds. Have you read some OG fairy tales? The main character in The Snow Queen, which Maeve’s winter princess is based on, captures a boy, makes him forget his true love, tortures him with puzzles he cannot solve, all while he slowly freezes to death.) Not a spoiler since this book is about a serial killer – When Maeve dispatches one of her first victims, I thought “oh I can handle this.” But then Maeve’s world starts falling apart, and as she starts to lose her grip on reality, her darker vices come out to play, and I was well and truly freaked out. I hard-stopped, made a friend tell me what happened at the end (I hate not knowing the ending!), set the book down, and will probably never pick it up again.
Did Christina do a good job picking your book?
CHRISTINA! There was cannibalism, and it was creepy! I think I should have remembered that I am truly a scaredy cat. I had to watch Supernatural during daylight hours because the episodes creeped me out. This was in my mid-twenties! Not in my middle school years. I do love an atmospheric book where the danger is high and the creepiness permeates everything. I mean, I love the Fae. Not the sparkly kind. The ones that truly destroy people. But for some reason, translating that horror and torture to the main plot where we follow this pretty unlovable character as she does heinous things was too much for me. Maybe I’m just a simple woman who needs a 19-year-old heroine to kill the bad guy with a sword to sleep at night.
Did this make me want to read more horror fiction?
I'm not writing off horror as a genre. I think Christina probably has some excellent reads that could truly make me enjoy the unsettling feeling that horror excels at. I really did like Chlorine and I’ve enjoyed some horror-adjacent fantasy like Starling House and A Sorceress Comes to Call. Plus, I cannot tell you how many vampire books I’ve read. I love those blood drinkers. It’s just really hard to be human, and I feel like vampires can really relate to that. But I do think I need to start my exploration of the genre by dipping my toes in horror instead of jumping into the deep end. Plus now I know, serial killers and cannibalism, definitely not for me. There’s a HUGE trend in Romance right now of the main character falling in love with a serial killer. I can now steer clear of that trend.
Any takeaways?
Part of what I love about reading, even if it’s a book I’m not enjoying, is that I’m learning something new. Maybe it’s what kind of pacing works for me or that an author’s writing style isn’t to my liking. There is no shame in not finishing a book. I learned a lot about horror and how I relate to the genre. It’s not going to be my go-to any time soon, but it could be for you! I’m always happy to have tried something and not liked it, rather than trying it at all.
—Christina James is a Readers' Services Assistant, and Lauren Taylor is a Senior Children's Librarian at Lawrence Public Library.
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