Who among us doesn't have Avon books on our keeper shelves? In my home library, there are Avon authors with their own keeper shelves! Eloisa James. Sarah MacLean. Elizabeth Boyle. Julia Quinn. Tessa Dare. Loretta Chase. Julie Anne Long. Cathy Maxwell. Susan Elizabeth Phillips. Lisa Kleypas. Toni Blake. These are but a few of the Avon authors who have brought me hundreds - okay, probably thousands - of hours of reading pleasure over the years.
Then there are the newer authors on Avon's team such as Jennifer McQuiston, Eva Leigh, Lenora Bell (who makes her Avon debut April 26th with How The Duke Was Won. I've read it and it's fabulous!) and Jennifer Ryan (love her Montana men!). Time to make room for more keeper shelves. And we must not forget the old school Avon authors such as Kathleen E. Woodiwiss. I'm sure we all know someone who was introduced to romance fiction through a Woodiwiss book.
Avon Books has been bringing us the classics of romance reading for the past seventy-five years and shows no signs of slowing down. They recently announced plans for their year-long 75th Anniversary "Diamond" Celebration, including many sparkling events for readers. There will be more "KissCon" reader parties as well as gala signings at the RT Booklovers convention in Las Vegas in April and the Romance Writers of America National Conference in San Diego in July. Can't make it to those events? Not to worry! There will also be many online events, including re-reads and author/reader discussions of the "diamonds" of Avon's published books as well as previously published Avon titles at special prices. As part of their celebration, Avon will also be releasing a special diamond anniversary edition of Woodiwiss's Shanna with a special foreword by Lisa Kleypas.
For more information on Avon’s 75th anniversary, visit www.avonromance.com for a complete list of activities, authors, special editions, and reader engagements.
Who are your favorite Avon authors? Which author was your introduction to romance? Which new Avon books are you looking forward to reading this year? Will you be attending any of the Avon Diamond Anniversary events? One randomly chosen person leaving a comment will receive a print copy of Cold Hearted Rake by Lisa Kleypas and a signed, print copy of Glitter Baby by Susan Elizabeth Phillips.
(U.S. addresses only)
Deadline for comments to be included in giveaway: 11:00 p.m. (EST) January 21, 2016.
It's always a pleasure to welcome Nancy Northcott back to the Romance Dish. Nancy's Light Mage Wars series is a contemporary fantasy romance series set in modern-day Georgia. Her latest installment in the series is a holiday novella titled Magic & Mistletoe. You can learn more about Nancy and her books at her website and connect with her online at Facebook and Twitter.
Please join me in giving Nancy a warm welcome.
The Blank Page
by Nancy Northcott
Every December, I tear the
shrink wrap off of the calendar for the coming year and flip through the pages.They’re full of beautiful
photographs and blank spaces. I already
know some of the things that’ll be in those blanks--birthdays, holidays, and
various appointments--but most of the boxes have nothing yet destined for
them. Filling in some every month will
chart the journey of our year.
I’ve never been one to look
at every day as the first day of the rest of my life. That’s just too relentlessly upbeat for
me. But after a day or a week or a month
that hasn’t gone well, turning to a new, blank page is a way to draw a line
under what came before and start fresh.
A perfect example, and one
many of us think about at this time of year, is weight loss. When I worked as a weight loss counselor, I
used to tell people not to get upset if they slipped up one day and totally
blew their eating plans. Getting back on
track the next day, on the next blank page or box of the calendar, can help
salvage the rest of the week. It’s
damage control, and I think it’s easier when there’s a new, clean page to be
written on.
Some people make their new
starts by listing resolutions. I’m prone
to overreach when I do that, so I’ve started making general plans instead. There’s something about resolutions that feel
rigid to me, as though a single slip-up voids progress. Plans seem much more flexible.
This year, my plans are to
lose weight, work out more often, declutter my house (surely a Herculean task),
and weed my bookshelves (again, and more ruthlessly). When I flip the calendar page to each new
month, I’ll consider how I did with these the one before and what I need to do
in the one ahead.
I also want to get back to
the Okefenokee and to Brunswick and Savannah so I can do research for the Light
Mage Wars. I love seeing these places
through the characters’ eyes and figuring out how my imaginary people will
interact with these surroundings.
There are other blank pages
than the ones on calendars, of course. Artists
start with blank canvases. So do
needlepointers and embroiderers, though they use different kinds of
canvases. For a cook who loves inventing
dishes, the blank recipe card waits to be filled.
Writers confront blank pages
all the time, ones we need to fill with words.
Those pages are both invitation and challenge, and the words come more
easily some days than others.
For me, 2016 will involve launching
two new series, one historical fantasy and one romantic suspense, as well as
following up on the Arachnid Files novella I released last year in the Capitol Danger anthology, and continuing
the Light Mages series. It’s looking to
be a busy year, one I hope will be not only challenging but fun.
Do you make plans or
resolutions? Do they ever involve blank
pages or canvases? What are you looking toward for this year?
E-Book Release Date: 2015 (excluding My Favorite Bride)
I’ve been reading Christina Dodd’s books for almost twenty
years. I started with A Well-Pleasure
Lady back in 1997, and I have followed her to romantic suspense and
paranormals even though I rarely read in those subgenres. But her historicals
are my favorites, and her Governess Brides books are my favorites among her
historicals. I was delighted this fall when Avon began reissuing digital copies
of the series with delicious new covers. So far only the first four in the
series have been reissued, but I am hoping others will follow. The seventh
book, My Favorite Bride, although
available in digital format, is in desperate need of an updated cover. When I
considered the Governess Brides for an On Second Thought column, I could not
choose just one; but neither could I do justice to eleven books in a single
column. My solution was to focus on my three favorites in the series.
That Scandalous
Eveningopens the series. Jane Higgenbothem is twenty-eight and firmly on
the shelf when she returns to London eleven years after her first, disastrous
season. She is returning as a maiden aunt to chaperone Adorna, her beloved and
beautiful niece, as the young lady makes her debut. Jane has little hope that
London will have forgotten the scandal that sent her back to become dependent
on her parsimonious brother-in-law. Jane is a gifted artist, and at 17, she had
an enormous crush on Ransom Quincy, Marquess of Blackburn. She sculpted a
faithful likeness of him but encountered a problem because she had never seen a
naked man. It should not have mattered because the statue was never intended to
be seen by others, but an act of malice reveals it publicly, leaving both Jane,
who has violated multiple taboos, and Ransom, whom society now believes is
underendowed, humiliated. (Even eleven years later, Jane doesn’t understand his
humiliation.)
Jane’s plan when she returns to London is to stay strictly
in the background, but Ransom is bent on revenge. He is also a spy who thinks
Jane is involved in nefarious activities. He hasn’t really matured much in
eleven years and behaves just as reprehensibly this time as he did regarding
that scandalous evening. Nobody creates heroes readers love to hate better than
Christina Dodd, and she is at the top of her game with Ransom. I love Jane, and
the book has some stellar secondary characters. BUT what makes this novel one
of my favorites is that it has what may well be the best grovel scene in
historical romance. There is no mere posturing here but a real change in the
power structure of the relationship. Good for Jane! More than the heroine’s
name may bring Jane Eyre to mind when
reading this book.
Rules of Attraction
is the fourth book in the series, and it offers Dodd’s take on the traditional
Gothic. Heroine in a desolate, foreboding setting, check; dark ominous hero who
is suspected of murdering his wife, check; secrets, sinister secondary
characters, danger, check, check, and check. All these Gothic elements are in
place. However, Hannah Setterington is no Gothic heroine ensorcelled and
controlled by the hero, and she knows the hero is no murderer because she is the
Earl of Raeburn’s missing wife.
Hannah and Dougald are considerably more complex than the
typical leads in Gothic romance. It is not the plot of an endangered beauty
that drives this story; rather, the story is driven by these two layered
characters who have a complicated past. Hannah
ran away, taking a great risk, but she founded the Distinguished Academy of
Governesses and made it a success. It is quite a shock when she discovers Lord
Raeburn is Douglas Pippard, her husband, but she deals with it. The danger is
real. The two previous earls have been murdered, and Dougald is next in line.
The darkness of the threat does not prevent the reader’s enjoyment of the witty
sparring between the H/H. I had a tough time choosing between this one and Rules of Surrender, which I also love,
but I read Gothics by the shopping bagful in my day and thus loved the Gothic
twist, so ROA had an edge.
My Favorite Bride
is the seventh Governess Brides book and a tie for my favorite Dodd book.* I love that Dodd unabashedly admits that the book is her
tribute to The Sound of Music from
which she borrowed the plot. I have a weakness for the spirited heroine paired
with a stuffy hero and for the taming of the kids thread, so this book works
for me on many levels.
Samantha Penderegast was once the most famous—or
infamous--pickpocket in London until six years ago when Adorna, Lady Bucknell
(who appears in That Scandalous Evening
& Rules of Surrender) rescued her
from a life of crime and prepared her to become a governess. The problem is
Samantha may have learned how to speak and how to dress, but she did not learn
how to control her temper when she perceives injustice being done. She lost her
most recent job when she ended her employer’s browbeating his young son by
informing his wealthy wife of his mistress (which prompted the wife to take her
son and return to her father’s home) and by persuading the mistress to dump
him. Her irate former employer is doing his best to destroy her reputation in
London, so Adorna sends her far from London to Cumbria where Colonel William
Gregory needs a governess for his six daughters, daughters who have managed to
dispose of no fewer than eleven governesses.
Colonel Gregory is a martinet who treats his daughters as if
they were young recruits. He does understand that they need a mother, but he is
convinced that they need the “proper” mother, so even when Samantha wins over
all the young hellions and the chemistry between Sam and the colonel is so
heated it is practically melting the mansion’s walls, he plows ahead with his
plan. He proves himself even more of an idiot when he verbally annihilates
Samantha. But trust La Dodd, he gets his comeuppance.
There are many endearing scenes with the children, and the
“other woman” here is a major improvement on the original. Lady Teresa Marchant
truly is a character, not merely a stock image. William confronts his error in
a convincing manner, the bad guys are defeated, and HEAs proliferate. Every time
I reread this book, I finish it with a smile.
I highly recommend all three books. I plan to reread the
full series, and I’m keeping my fingers crossed that My Favorite Bride gets one of those sigh-worthy covers soon.
~Janga
* The Greatest Lover
in All England, a rare Elizabethan romance with a chick-in-pants heroine,
the titular hero, Hamlet, Shakespeare, and a royal blessing on the HEA, is my
other favorite.
New York Times bestselling author Kat Martin is a graduate of the University of California at Santa Barbara where she majored in Anthropology and also studied History. She is married to L.J. Martin, author of western, non-fiction, and suspense novels. Kat has written more than sixty-five novels. Sixteen million copies of her books are in print and she has been published in twenty foreign countries, including Japan, France, Germany, Argentina, Greece, China, Russia, and Spain. Born in Bakersfield, California, Kat currently resides in Missoula, Montana, on a small ranch in the beautiful Sapphire mountains. Her last 10 books have hit the prestigious New York Times bestseller list. AGAINST THE WILD, AGAINST THE SKY, and AGAINST THE TIDE her latest release, took top ten spots.
Since Academy Awards Night is one of my favorite evenings, I
thought it might be fun to talk movies.
Old favorites, new favorites, worst picks of all time.
Who doesn’t love ET?
Star Wars? Gone with the
Wind? Wizard of Oz? They’re classics, never to be forgotten.
As I look back, I realize some of the novels I’ve written
were probably inspired by films I’ve seen and loved. Old movies like The African Queen with
Humphrey Bogart and Kathryn Hepburn; new ones like Taken, with Liam Neeson;
Ocean’s Thirteen; Mission Impossible; the Heist.
The plot for my new book, INTO THE FURY, may have developed
from the fast action and suspense in those kinds of movies. When
Valentine Hart, one of La Belle lingerie’s most beautiful models, receives a
death threat, it’s bodyguard Ethan Brodie’s job to protect her. Throw in murder, mayhem, and copycat killers
and you have INTO THE FURY, a fast-paced, action-packed, hot-blooded romantic
suspense I’m hoping readers will enjoy.
Gone with the Wind, a time of elegant hoop skirts and Georgia
mansions, led to CAPTAIN’S BRIDE, CREOLE FIRES, AND NATCHEZ FLAME. My husband and I actually stayed in a
gorgeous old plantation house in Natchez
built in the 1840’s.
I’m a Star Trek fan--a total Trekie. Probably how I ended up writing my UFO book, SEASON
OF STRANGERS. I did a ton of research
for that and was amazed to find myself convinced there’s a very good
possibility UFOs are real.
I love Western movies.
Quigley Down Under with Tom Selleck is a personal all-time favorite (if
you haven’t seen Tom in a pair of chaps you are really missing out!) THE SECRET, a romantic suspense about a
modern day Montana
rancher, was probably inspired by Quigley.
So those are some of the movies that have inspired me over
the years. I hope new ones will continue
to do the same. In the meantime, I hope
you’ll watch for INTO THE FURY and that you enjoy it.
All best wishes and happy reading, Kat Okay, readers, tell us about your favorite movies. Which ones make you laugh? Which ones make you cry? Which ones do you watch over and over? Do you watch the Academy Awards show? Do you have any favorites this year?
One randomly chosen person who leaves a comment will receive a copy of AGAINST THE TIDE. (U.S. only)
A bodyguard, a bounty hunter, a P.I.—the men of Brodie
Operations Security Service, In. are down for the job…
Sinners, whores, and sluts beware—your time is at hand: a
faceless menace is threatening lingerie models on a cross country tour, and
Ethan Brodie is there to defend and protect.
Ethan’s learned the hard way that beauty is no substitute
for character. So even though Valentine Hart is one of the most breathtaking
women he’s ever seen, he’s keeping his hands off and his eyes open. Or that’s
what he tells himself.
Then one of the models is murdered, and the closer Ethan
gets to the answers, the closer he finds himself to Valentine—and the hotter
the pressure feels. There’s more to Val—more to the other girls—than he could have
guessed. But one is keeping a secret that could kill them all.
CHAPTER ONE
Seattle, Washington
SINNERS, SLUTS, and WHORES--BEWARE. Your TIME
is at HAND.
Standing next to the long mahogany table in the conference
room, Ethan Brodie re-read the note he’d just been handed. Printed on a plain sheet of white paper, the
words were typed in different fonts and sizes, all of them in big bold letters.
Fairly old-school for
the twenty-first century, Ethan thought.
But then, email was a helluva lot easier to trace.
The client, Matthew Carlyle, was Head of Operations for La
Belle Lingerie, a retail fashion chain, kind of a knock-off of Victoria’s Secret with
slightly less expensive garments. In his
mid forties, five-ten, lean and fit, Carlyle had silver-threaded dark brown
hair, hazel eyes, and a thin scar that ran close to his ear along his jaw.
The other man in the room was Ethan’s boss, his cousin Ian,
owner of Brodie Operations Security Services, Inc.
“I imagine in the lingerie business you get notes like this
all the time,” Ethan said to Carlyle.
“We get kooks, all right.
Plenty of them.” Carlyle accepted
the note Ethan returned. “But a letter
like this was mailed to each of our ten top models, sent to them at our
flagship store here in Seattle,
and the company isn’t happy about it.”
“You talk to the police?”
“Not yet. We’d prefer
to handle the problem discreetly, avoid any bad press. That’s why I came to BOSS, Inc. Ian and I have worked together before. I trust him to do the job.”
Ethan turned to his cousin, conservatively dressed in tan
slacks and a yellow button-down shirt.
While Ian was blond, Ethan was dark-haired, like most of the Brodie men.
Both were tall, Ethan taller at
six-foot-three. “You have the notes
checked for prints?” he asked.
“I did,” Ian said.
“Papers were all clean. The
letters were mailed out of different post office locations in the area so that
led nowhere. Since the models are about
to go on tour, Matt’s decided to temporarily beef-up La Belle security, just to
be on the safe side.”
“Probably a good idea.”
Though Ethan wished someone else was taking the job. The thought of traveling for weeks with a
group of air-headed fashion divas was the last thing he wanted. Still, he worked for a living and this was
exactly the kind of job he was good at.
Silently communicating his dislike of the assignment, he
flicked a hard glance at his cousin, whose blue eyes lit with amusement.
“Ethan’s the best man for the job,” Ian said, not the least
repentant. “He’s an ex-cop, worked
personal security for some of the top execs in the dot-com business. You can be sure he knows what he’s doing.”
Carlyle nodded. “I
read his resume. Looks like he can
handle the job.” He returned his
attention to Ethan. “Aside from working
protection, you’re a private investigator, correct?”
“That’s right. Before
I went to work in Seattle, I was a homicide
detective on the Dallas
police force.”
“Good. I’d really
like to find the guy who sent those notes.
I’ve got a feeling about this, and I’m not liking it. I’m hoping with your background, you’ll be
able to sniff around, talk to the models and the hands backstage. If the guy’s part of the crew, we want him
out.”
“I can do that.”
“You’ll need to be discreet.
I don’t want people shook-up before we go on tour.”
“Understood.” And
he’d rather be busy than standing around waiting for trouble that probably
wouldn’t come. With any luck, the most
he’d have to worry about was crowd control and a few overzealous fans.
“How many more men do you think you’ll need?” Ian asked Carlyle. Though they’d gone into the conference room,
they hadn’t bothered to sit down. The
meeting wasn’t going to take that long.
“We’ve hired a couple of guys, but we could use at least one
more man with a background in personal protection.”
“That would be Dirk Reynolds,” Ian said. “I’ll talk to him, see if he can take the
job.”
Dirk worked freelance for the company, same as Ethan and his
brother, Luke, as well as his cousin, Nick.
Nick was married. With his little
wife pregnant, he preferred to stay close to home.
Luke was on a case.
Even if he weren’t, his specialty was bail enforcement, not personal
protection. Dirk Reynolds was one of
Ethan’s best friends, former Ranger, and a damned good man.
Ethan figured his friend would take the job. The money was extremely good, and since Dirk
had just wound up an assignment and was currently looking for something to do,
the tour might provide an interesting escape from Seattle.
Ethan thought of the weeks ahead and inwardly groaned. For him, babysitting a bunch of hot-bodied
women in scanty underwear would be a twenty-four-hour-a-day headache. He’d had more than his share of trouble with
the female sex, still did, and he didn’t want more.
“One thing I need to make clear,” Carlyle said as Ian walked
out of the room to call Dirk. “These are
some of the most beautiful, sexiest women in the world. They’re every man’s fantasy. That’s the reason La Bellehas a strict no-fraternization
policy. There’s no way you can do your
job if you’re thinking about getting laid.
We expect you to be pleasant, but steer clear of anything more than
that. You with me so far?”
“Oh, I’m with you.”
“I realize you’re only human, but I need to know you
understand and accept our policy. Any
breach is grounds for automatic dismissal.”
“All right. One thing
you need to know. I wouldn’t accept the
job if I thought my dick would get in the way.
I admire a beautiful woman, same as any other man. But I’m being paid to do a job and that’s
exactly what I’ll do.”
Carlyle seemed relieved.
“I hope you’re speaking for your friend, Reynolds, as well.”
“Dirk’s a professional.
Beyond that, he’ll have to speak for himself.”
“Okay. Sounds like we
understand each other. We’ll be doing
dress rehearsals for the rest of the week.
Our first show is here in Seattle
on Saturday night. Tomorrow morning at
the theater, I’ll introduce you and Reynolds to the rest of your team and our
ten top models. Just keep in mind what I
said.”
Ethan made no reply.
If Carlyle knew how much he wasn’t looking forward to meeting a gaggle
of vein, self-absorbed females, he would probably do handstands. But actions spoke louder than words. It shouldn’t take the man long to figure out
Ethan was off women indefinitely.
His ex-girlfriend, Allison Winfield, had done everything in
her power to make sure of that.
***
“Oh, my God. Would
you look at the eye-candy that just walked backstage.”
There was awe in her best friend Megan O’Brien’s voice. As Val bent over to fasten the buckle on her
strappy high-heel, she tried for a glimpse, but couldn’t actually see who’d
just arrived.
Megan kept staring and just kept talking. “You see the one on the left? The guy with the sexy mustache? He looks like he walked out of a biker
fantasy. He can knock on my door any
time, day or night.” She rolled her
eyes. “Especially at night. And the big one on the right turns the words
tall, dark, and handsome into an understatement. I think I’m in love.”
Val finally looked up.
Two men stood next to Matt Carlyle.
One was about six-two, good-looking, with medium brown hair, and a
horseshoe mustache that framed his mouth, curved down to his jaw, and made him
look like a real badass. A real sexy
badass.
But it was the bigger man who snared her attention, at least
six-three, with dark brown hair, dark eyes, and a face any red-blooded female
would be hard-pressed not to admire. His
hair was trimmed cop-short and fit his hard-jawed, handsome face
perfectly. The way he filled out his
black T-shirt said he was two hundred plus pounds of solid male muscle.
When those dark eyes moved in her direction, skimmed lightly
over her frame, an unexpected zing of electricity shot through her body.
“Who are they?” The
little jolt of awareness was new to her.
Val was too busy for men. Being a
La Belle model was difficult and demanding.
At the same time, she was taking on-line college courses, getting ready
to start a part-time job at the end of the tour and go back to school in the
fall to finish her degree in veterinary medicine.
“They’re extra security,” Megan said. “After we got those threatening notes, Matt
hired a few more men. The big guy’s
heading up an additional team.” Megan
sighed. “Those two look yummy enough to
eat.”
“You know the rules.
No fraternizing with the staff.”
“I know. I don’t
usually care, but in this case...”
Val grinned. “Down,
girl. Best not to get your thong in a
twist. Far as we’re concerned, they’re
untouchable.”
“Yeah, more’s the pity.”
Val laughed. She
glanced back at the men, saw the bigger man looking the other way and enjoyed a
long, unabashedly thorough appraisal.
Sometimes pure masculine beauty deserved to be appreciated.
Hearing the voice of Daniel Clemens, the show’s
choreographer, along with the light rustle of feminine laughter, reminded her
where she was. Pushing the men into a
far corner of her mind, Val went back to work on her shoe so she could take her
place in the line-up with the rest of the models.
Today, we welcome Rose Lerner back to The Romance Dish. Rose's new book, Listen to the Moon is the third installment in her Lively St. Lemeston historical romance series. Janga and I both highly recommend her books. (Read Janga's review of Listen to the Moon) If you haven't read her books yet, the first two in the Lively St. Lemeston series are currently on sale in e-book format. Download Sweet Disorder at $0.99 and True Pretenses at $1.99. Sign up for Rose Lerner's mailing list at http://bit.ly/roselist. Connect with her at Twitter and Facebook.
Hi everyone! So excited to be back at the Dish.
Today I’m
talking about makeovers!
There’s a scene in my new valet/maid
Regency romance, Listen to the Moon,
where my heroine Sukey decides to splurge on dressing up for the New Year’s servants’ ball in Lively St. Lemeston. She
wants to impress her new husband John:
She’d never much minded wearing her
only gown before. When you dressed for coal-stains and dust every day, it was
exciting enough to be clean and curl your hair and leave off your cap and
neckerchief. She’d always felt pretty. But she hadn’t been married then. She’d had nobody to
impress.
John had laughed up his sleeve at her when she’d bragged of Lively St. Lemeston servants’
balls. God only
knew what the servants he’d been used to living among got up
to at the New
Year. They drank
champagne, most likely. They owned evening gloves and dancing slippers.
She was tired of feeling small and young and country
mouse, and as if John had done her a favor by
condescending to marry her. She wanted him to pay her court, and feel smug about his luck.
She wanted to be better than pretty. She wanted to be beautiful.
There is something about a makeover
scene that is so satisfying! That moment when one protagonist sees the other
dressed up, really dressed up, for
the first time (often at the top or bottom of a staircase), and their jaw drops
to the floor...I love it every time! I love it when:
•someone says, “You do clean up well”
•the buddy cops have to dress up for
a case and see each other in a tux/dress/whatever for the first time (in fact,
I love formalwear episodes of every kind)
•someone takes the shy debutante
under their wing and teaches her to dress to flatter her figure/face
•someone tugs uncomfortably at their
tie/the neckline of their stunning gown/dress uniform because they are a
rough-and-tumble person, really--but damn they look incredible right now
I COULD GO ON.
So, ten of my favorite fictional
makeover/dressing-to-impress scenes and stories!
1. Iron Man, when Tony sees Pepper in that sea-green dress and for a
second he doesn’t recognize her—and then he does and he’s so, so happy!
Tony already thinks Pepper is the
most perfect, beautiful person in existence, but something about her being at a
party (even if it’s an office party) and wearing a
fancy dress gives him permission to shift things in a romantic direction—and it makes Pepper feel brave enough to think about letting him.
Every line of this scene makes me squee.
2. Any Duchess Will Do by Tessa Dare is one of my favorite Pygmalion
romances. I still think about the dowager duchess’s advice for walking in heels every
single time I wear them, which is not often (imagine there’s a thread attached to your navel pulling you forward).
The scene where Halford sees Pauline
in her “duchess” get-up for the first time during a
fencing lesson and is so distracted he falters and gets cut is amazing, even
though the fencer in me is screaming WHY AREN’T YOU WEARING A DAMN HELMET? WHY
AREN’T THERE BUTTONS ON YOUR FOIL?
3. Laurel Lance dressing up for
Tommy’s fundraiser in Arrow
(episode 1x6). He’s throwing the fundraiser for her
law clinic because he lurrrrves her, so she’s dressing up for the law
clinic...but also to say “thank you” to Tommy. Her willingness to abandon her flats for a night is a
signal to him that she’s willing to give their
relationship a chance.
4. A Bollywood Affair by Sonali Dev. Mili can barely pay rent. Her
wardrobe consists of the same cheap t-shirt in ten colors, so when her friend
Ridhi loans her a sexy churidar suit for her wedding...well, I’ll let Samir tell you:
“It had been hard enough when she wore those
boxlike T-shirts on her unboxlike body...[T]he last thing he needed to see, to
know, was that she blushed with her entire body, that the glistening luminosity
of her skin wasn’t
restricted to her face, to her arms. Shit, he was thinking about the skin on
her arms. And he couldn’t
believe how bloody erotic the thought was.”
Yes, yes, and yes. Of course Mili falls down
the staircase into Samir’s arms
instead of gracefully descending it, but hey, that’s still part of the fantasy,
isn’t it? I’m still my normal dorky self under all this
silk.
5. Have His Carcase by Dorothy Sayers, when Harriet wears the
wine-colored frock. I love everything about this scene: that Peter told her he
wanted to see her in a wine-colored frock because it would suit her
honey-colored skin; that she ran back to the car to ask him what kind of wine; that he answered with a vintage and year (“Château Margaux 1893”); that she actually bought the dress because she is totally softening towards him; that when
they dance Harriet is totally caught up in the romantic fantasy of the
makeover/party while Peter (either out of gentlemanliness or obsession)
restricts his conversation entirely to the case; that her feelings are hurt (“Wimsey had never danced with her, never held her in his arms
before. It should have been an epoch-making moment for him”); that he SEES that her feelings are hurt and he is SO FLATTERED;
and that, best of all, he lavishes theatrically-overdone-but-entirely-sincere
compliments on her, including:
“I have waited a thousand years to
see you dance in that frock.”
My darlings. MY HEART.
6. 12 Monkeys (the Syfy series), pretty much every time Cole and
Cassie have to go to a fancy party as part of their mission--but especially in
the pilot, where they attend their first gala at an art gallery. The makeover
moment is especially amazing because time-traveler Cole is from a violent,
impoverished dystopian future where having really clean clothes, enough to eat,
or even just five minutes to relax is an idle fantasy. He loves his suit, he
loves her dress, he loves looking at art, he loves dancing, he loves dancing with Cassie, and he’d really like to just take a moment to enjoy the party with her.
Cassie is very goal-oriented and doesn’t let him slack for long, but they
do get a lovely dance in...
7. Crazy Thing Called Love by Molly O’Keefe, in which TV morning show
host Maddie has to give her ex-husband Billy, a fighting hockey superstar, a
makeover on camera. My favorite thing about this was how the new clothes and
look gave Billy a new sense of worth and potential. He’s used to thinking about his body as something that’s just for fighting, that isn’t valuable or worth protecting or
paying attention to, and seeing him put on a nice soft sweater and think that
maybe he’s more than that...I’m kind of tearing up writing this
sentence, actually.
8. Brooklyn Nine-Nine. This show is actually pretty giving when it
comes to both formalwear and dress uniforms (as is Arrow), but I think the time in the season 1 finale when Jake and
Amy had to go undercover as competitive ballroom dancers is particularly worthy
of note. Jake blurts out that Amy’s dress made her look like a
mermaid (it did) and then he teaches her to dance!
9. Rebecca. Okay this is not really the trope but it’s such a beautiful subversion of it that I had to include it. The
second Mrs. de Winter is so desperate to impress her husband with how well she
hostesses their big masquerade ball, and she sends away to have the outfit in
one of the family portraits copied (at the suggestion of evil housekeeper Mrs.
Danvers). She descends the stairs, gleefully anticipating Max’s reaction...
only to have him practically throw
up and demand that she change her clothes. Oops! Turns out his dead first wife
Rebecca wore that costume at the last ball! Max also hates it when she orders
new clothes from London. He doesn’t want her to look grown-up and
sophisticated and like a member of his own class; instead, he wants her to stay
a grubby poor child he can control. Because Rebecca
is not a romance! Seriously, I love Gothics so much. The real villain is always
the patriarchy.
10. Jeannie Lin’s My Fair Concubine,
another wonderful Pygmalion story. Like Max de Winter, Fei Long doesn’t like watching Yan Ling’s transformation from tea girl to
noblewoman...but it’s because he misses her bold
outspokenness, now buried under a layer of manners and propriety.
When she and her new maidservant
Dao experiment with makeup, Yan Ling loves how different it makes her feel. She’s crushed when Fei Long reacts with shock and criticism...but he
is only masking how overcome he is by attraction! As she tries to scrub the
makeup off, mortified, he seizes her in his arms and kisses her for the first
time:
“[H]is kiss soothed over lips still
sensitive from the rough scouring she’d given them.”
Mmm. You know how sports fans
watch TV, shouting at the screen? That’s me reading this scene: “MAKE OUT! MAKE OUUUUUUT! Wooooo!”
What’s your favorite makeover moment? Rose is giving away an e-copy of Listen to the Moon to one person who leaves a comment on today's post.
John Toogood dreamed of being valet to a great man...before he was laid off and blacklisted. Now he's stuck in small-town Lively St. Lemeston until London's Season opens and he can begin his embarrassing job hunt. His instant attraction to happy-go-lucky maid Sukey Grimes couldn't come at a worse time. Her manners are provincial, her respect for authority nonexistent, and her outdated cleaning methods--well, the less said about them, the better. Behind John's austere façade, Sukey catches tantalizing glimpses of a lonely man with a gift for laughter. Yet her heart warns her not to fall for a man with one foot out the door, no matter how devastating his kiss. Then he lands a butler job in town--but there's a catch. His employer, the vicar, insists Toogood be respectably married. Against both their better judgments, he and Sukey come to an arrangement. But the knot is barely tied when Sukey realizes she underestimated just how vexing it can be to be married to the boss...
Warning: Contains a butler with a protective streak a mile wide, and a maid who enjoys messing up the bed a whole lot more than making it.
