Sorry, I just have to get this out

[hummingwolf]

Now, I realize that as someone who hadn't read any novels from the romance section of the library in quite a few years, I am not in a position to judge whether a book is a good example of its genre. Still, I feel compelled to babble a bit about the book I finished yesterday. Spoilers for Lori Handeland's Hunter's Moon behind the cut. This will make more sense to the Buffy fans among you.

Okay, so this petite blonde former cheerleader comes to a new town and starts to kill vampires werewolves, under the direction of an older Watcher Jäger-Sucher. Having decided that it's a bad idea for a Slayer werewolf hunter to form attachments--anyone who gets close to her will be killed--she finds herself becoming friends with two outcasts other Jäger-Suchers she just met anyway. Yay. In the meantime, a mysterious stranger catches her eye and even seems to be helping her out in some small ways. Eventually she learns to her dismay that this man she's been falling in love with is really a soulless vampire werewolf. Oh noes! But wait--is he really soulless? How can he be? Well, as it turns out, he used to be like all the other soulless vampires werewolves, offering an ugly death to everyone he met, and he did it with a song in his heart. But then one day a Gypsy an Ozark magic woman cursed him by returning to him his soul, dooming him to an angsty and guilt-ridden and frequently bare-chested existence. Fortunately, Angel Damien doesn't lose his soul when he has sex. This is a romance novel, after all.

Also in the book we have the charismatic villain, the Master alpha werewolf who is consuming the energy of as many beings as he can before The Harvest the Hunter's Moon so he can rise up and lead his army to take over the world. He is, of course, defeated, but he does take a big bite out of our heroine first. She dies starts to turn into a werewolf, but thanks to the help of her friends, she gets better.

If the Western I'm starting today starts to sound too much like Firefly, I'm gonna go back to reading about quantum physics.


(The fact that Launch played a Christophe Beck track as I posted is just too perfect.)

Comments

[unwilly.livejournal.com]

Joss should sue.

Geeze, Lori, if you are gonna steal, try to at least do something not so blatant.

[hummingwolf.livejournal.com]

In fairness, the heroine's personality isn't much like Buffy's. She's a lot more like... well, Wishverse Buffy.

[unwilly.livejournal.com]

Or Cheerleader Faith?

[hummingwolf.livejournal.com]

Nah, Faith has too much fun. Leigh is terribly serious, feeling guilty herself about the death of her family and fiance at the paws of the werewolf she made the mistake of sleeping with. Definitely more like Wishverse Buffy.

[lyssabard.livejournal.com]

Oh lord.
Yes. Joss should sue.

[hummingwolf.livejournal.com]

Well, in the book's defense, there are differences from Buffy. For one, the lead characters are twenty-somethings as the book starts, not teenagers (the heroine is a former cheerleader, not a current one). For another... um... oh, there isn't one Slayer per generation or anything like that. These werewolf hunters are a group of people without superpowers, a secret part of the U.S. government who have been researching scientific means of dealing with demons since about World War II. Okay, they're the Initiative without the military discipline. This book isn't easy to defend.

[sp23.livejournal.com]

Um, yeah. Joss should sue. :)

[hummingwolf.livejournal.com]

Heh. I hope Joss has better things to do with his time these days. Then again, one would hope he would be able to find a good lawyer to do this stuff for him by now.

[unwilly.livejournal.com]

Really?

All I ever got from WishBuff was a dark nihilism, no guilt.

[iresprite.livejournal.com]

1.) What's Wishverse Buffy? Is that Buffy in fanfic?
2.) Cheerleader faith?

3.) Sweet mother lovebone, Joss shouldn't sue so much as lead a barbarian horde to the author's doorstep.

[unwilly.livejournal.com]

In the episode the Wish, Cordelia wishes Buffy never came to Sunnydale.

Thus the Hellmouth opens up, lots of people become vampires, and eventually a cracked mirror version of Buffy does show up, but she is darker, and more tormented than the standard version.

I thought in the novel that HW was discussing which had a cheerleader, but with darkness/guilt, that it was more like a version of Faith. But HW is right and that is an inexact match up.

Horde, yah. I bet those Capital One vikings could use the work.

[iresprite.livejournal.com]

Oh, THAT Wishverse. Right. Not the one with no shrimp. I understand now.

Man, what a mess. And good call on the Capital One vikings.

[unwilly.livejournal.com]

Darn world with no shrimp!

[hummingwolf.livejournal.com]

There are distinct differences from the Buffyverse. But it's a little hard to keep those in mind when the major plot points were so familiar!

[hummingwolf.livejournal.com]

Yeah, but we never learned anything about her Wishverse history. We just knew that she was a killing machine, hardened, suspicious, and without a hope for the future. That's pretty much how this character Leigh starts out in the book.

BTW, the novel's characters are mostly 20-somethings, so she's a former cheerleader, not a current one. And she's got no superpowers, so there are differences from the Buffyverse. The love interest Damien screamed "Angel!" from his very first appearance, though. The Ozark magic woman's curse had me rolling my eyes pretty painfully.

[unwilly.livejournal.com]

What, there was a gypsy curse?

Joss might want to check and see if she's stolen his car, too.

[hummingwolf.livejournal.com]

No, no, not a gypsy! Really. It's an Ozark magic woman who cursed him with his soul. Totally different! And the Jäger-Suchers aren't the Initiative. And the bar where all the demons hung out wasn't the Bronze or Willy's. Really. Totally different.

[unwilly.livejournal.com]

Heheheee.

How did you keep from laughing as you read all this?

[hummingwolf.livejournal.com]

Who says I did?

[nalidoll.livejournal.com]

Heh. That (along with just turning my brain off for a bit) is what I thought the purpose of reading romance novels really was.

[strigine.livejournal.com]

Here from liviapenn

Argh! Damn it all, writers-of-crap-paranormal-romances, leave the werewolves alone. You've already made vampires unreadable, don't drag the fuzzies down with 'em!

Although the synopsis did make me laugh. XD

[hummingwolf.livejournal.com]

I'm glad you enjoyed the synopsis! It is a good thing when a book can provide entertainment for so many people without their having to go to the effort of reading it themselves.

[ladyclio16.livejournal.com]

Dude, sounds like Joss Whedon has a law suit on his hands.

[hummingwolf.livejournal.com]

Maybe, though the book did have some distinct differences from the Buffyverse. Those details just didn't happen to be the things I was focusing on as I was reading. :-)